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Human Village, The Outskirts - 10th of Planting Month 15:17
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“Kasen.” I say after a brief moment of consideration.

“Kasen?” Akyuu asks. “The One-Armed Hermit? What does she have to do with this?”

“When I arrived in Gensokyo, I talked with Reimu who was still at the shrine.” I explain, looking in the direction of the shrine. “According to her, Kasen had been working on this incident for a while already, while Reimu was just getting started.”

“So we’re going to ask the hermit for help?” She continues to ask.

“No. She’s working on the incident. I’m not.” I tell her. “We’ll trade information and hope it helps both of us.”

“I see.” She starts stroking her chin. “How are we gonna find her? She lives on Youkai Mountain, but we can’t reach her house without her guidance.”

“I doubt she’s home right now.” I tell her. “She’s likely somewhere in the city, following a lead we know nothing about.” I turn my gaze north, towards Youkai Mountain. “Our best option for finding her would without a doubt be to just wait for her, but who knows how long that’ll take.”

“I’d not be entirely opposed to that.” She remarks. “If you hadn’t already figured that out.”

“I’m not dense, Akyuu. I just prioritize work.” I explain. “But alternatively, instead of going outside the village to wait for her, we could look around for her.”

“We would be unlikely to find her like that.” Akyuu comments. “We’d have more luck getting Grey out looking.”

“Grey?” I ask.

She looks confused for a second. “Oh right, I never told you his name. Grey is the name of that old man that chased us a while back. He’s sort of a bodyguard for me, even though my life is already being protected by all five Youkai Sages.”

Grey. Obviously an alias, but not like I can judge him on that front.

“He’s going to refuse, though.” She continues. “He’s very reluctant about leaving me alone whenever I leave home.”

“I’ll scrap that as an option, then.” I take another brief moment to consider our options. “Waiting really is the best option.”

“So where should we wait? Out north?” She asks.

“That’ll be where we’re most likely to catch her.” I reply. “And we may not even see her, if she doesn’t go back today.”

She ignores my later remark and starts leading us up to the northern exit.

Since she doesn’t start any conversation, I figure now might be a good time to read up on urban legends. Kuchisake was a special case since she was an old youkai that’d been revived recently. Since I rarely deal with urban legends, I generally don’t bother memorizing them.

I pull out my grimoire from inside my shirt. A motion which seems to catch the chronicler’s attention.

“What do you have there?” She asks, trying to take a peek inside.

“An encyclopedia of sorts.” I flip the book around to let her see. “It’s been imbued with magic though. Which, among other things, prevents anyone but me from reading it.”

“So it’s a grimoire?” She asks.

“Yeah, although a weak one.” I answer. “Any experienced magician would be able to break it easily.”

“Really, then what’s the point?”

“To prevent people like you from reading it.” I tell her bluntly. “This book automatically records everything I learn. Which includes information that’s better kept under wraps.”

“Such as?” She inquires. “If I’m even allowed to know that much.”

“An example would be information regarding the Special Containment procedures. SCP for short.” I tell her. “Gensokyo is a land where youkai, the fears of the heart, live. Even if SCP is fiction, should anyone from Gensokyo learn about it, they’ll undoubtedly become real.”

“Oh. Do I even dare ask what that is, then?” She asks anyway.

“It’s like the scroll of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.” I tell her. “But instead of youkai, it’s western monsters. And instead of a hundred, it four thousand. Last I checked, anyway. And that’s all the detail I can go into without getting risky.”

“That, what are we gonna do if they show up here?” She clenches her hands slightly.

“They aren’t. The SCPs are fictitious through and through.” I declare. “But here in Gensokyo, if people learned about them and started to fear them, then they would appear, and at that point even I would be powerless.”

“So if they aren’t real, why are they so dangerous?” She comes to a halt, only continuing when she sees I’m not stopping for her.

“Do you know what the essence of a youkai?” I ask her. She just shakes her head in response. “That’s surprising, actually. I’d thought that you of all people would know that.”

“It’s a little more complex than this, but a youkai’s essence can be summed up as belief, fear and desire.” I state. “Let’s say you have a bad knee. Not because you hurt yourself, but it just started hurting one day. If I can then convince you that it’s the act of a youkai living inside your knee, then that’ll become truth. If I then extract the youkai, the pain will go away too. Now here’s the thing; that youkai only existed because you believed in it, because you were afraid of the pain it’d cause you, and because you’d desire to shove the blame on something easy and get rid of it.”

She goes silent, opting to look ahead as she processes the information I just gave her. It takes a while before she speaks up again.

“Isn’t that how kami works?” She asks.

“This might sound ludicrous coming from a priest, but kami are youkai too.” I explain. “The term youkai refers to much more than just monsters. Like for example, the Scarlet Mist incident. The mist itself would be categorized as a youkai, since it’s an unexplained phenomenon. Or it was, until we learned it was caused by a youkai, though that doesn’t change its status as a supernatural event, meaning it’s still considered a youkai, despite not being ‘alive’ if you will.”

“That makes kami, a supernatural being, a youkai too.” I continue. “Granted, that’s the top level of the definition, which generalize things so much it’s basically useless. Yet despite that, the difference between them is virtually nonexistent.

“You may believe youkai are born from the fear of the human heart, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But it’s the same for kami. Why would you pray to the god of harvest if you weren’t afraid of starving? Why pray to the god of riches if you weren’t afraid of becoming poor? The difference is simply what kind of fear you have. Youkai feed on your immediate fear for survival; the fear that you might be killed on your way home. While kami feed on the long term fear that ‘something bad might happen’.

“Of course I need to mention that this is my interpretation of the facts as I know them.” I add. “Gods aren’t likely to admit they live off your fear, because they also need your loyalty, while youkai aren’t likely to admit they need your desire because that would lessen your fear.”

“That’s crazy.” Is all she says in response.

Granted, I had a few years to figure that out on my own, slowly, and it still came as an eye opening realization. I can’t imagine what it’d be like after, what, three hundred years or how many she’s actually been alive for.

I don’t say anything after that. Instead I just allow her to process it as we walk in silence. It’s not until we reach the north gate that I decide to break the silence.

“You’re still holding up?” I ask her.

“Yeah. I got over the shock a while ago.” She responds. “Now I’m not going through all my data to reevaluate it.”

“Just remember to consider what information you can release to the public. Youkai feed on fear, and the unknown is the biggest source of fear.” I explain. “If too much about youkai are known and understood, people will stop being afraid, which would starve the youkai here.”

“That much I know.” She reassures me, picking up her posture again. “You’ve read the full version of The Gensokyo Chronicles, so you know just how much information I keep under wraps. That’s the reason no one but me can access the Hieda archive, by the way.” She adds on proudly.

“What an interesting story.” A woman clad in all pink descends from the sky in front of us. “I’d like to hear more about that.”

“Ah. Kasen.” Akyuu greets her. “We were just looking for you.”

God, that stench. The only thing I know that stinks this much would be those thieving tanuki. Despite being so vastly inferior to foxes, they’re still known for their transformations. And yet they try to fool us with this sloppy mess of a transformation.

“I heard you two were looking for me, so I rushed out here.” The fake hermit informs us.

“Really?” I play along. “If you knew, then we could have avoided this long trek, since I’m sure you had to go out of your way.”

“It’s nothing to worry about.” She dismisses my fake concern with a wave of her hand. “I had just finished up on my end too.”

Oh? What’s this? She’s sending a decent killing intent my way. I can almost feel a shiver on my spine.

I just shrug it off. “While I have, Kasen. I’ve been thinking about your offer.” I change the topic. “Circumstances have changed slightly, and I might be able to take you up on it.”

“Sadly, that offer has expired.” She dismisses my comment again.

“But didn’t you say that you’d love to do your part?” I return the favor by releasing my own killing intent, without breaking face.

Might have overdone it slightly, though, as Akyuu seems to have noticed it too.

The fake hermit lets out a deep sigh. “I knew you’d be trouble, fox boy.”

“I’d have been a little friendlier if you didn’t try to trick us, raccoon.” I reply.

“What?” Akyuu injects.

“Ah, right.” The tanuki remembers that Akyuu is here. She dispels her transformation, blowing up a cloud of dust, like all tanuki do. A sure tell sign of bad transformations.

Her new form is that of an older woman, with hazel hair hidden underneath an oversized leaf. The small round glasses gives her an air closer to that of a middle aged woman. Her clothes are of a similar color theme to her hair, though brighter. Futatsuiwa. She match the description. Interestingly enough, her spiritual power resembles a four dimensional sphere, though not perfectly spherical. It’s rare to see people who’ve developed a high dimensional spirit like that.

“Now. You’ve already done a number on my patience.” I inform her. “So be straight.”

The tanuki snickers in response. “Gotcha. Truth to be told, I’d like to be quick too.” She leans back, resting against her tail. “Those orbs of yours. Give me. Like that pink friend of yours, I’m looking into this incident myself.”

“You’re talking about that ball that came out of the Menreiki?” I ask.

“Yeah, that one. And you’re own.” She rocks slightly on her tail.

Mine? I know I have Kokoro’s, because it came to me against my will. Do I have one of my own?

Should I even trust her? Kasen I trust, I’d be happy to help her, but a tanuki, that’s a different story.

[ ] Let the old lady have my balls
[ ] Keep my balls for myself

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Outside the Human Village, North District - 15:34
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“Not interested.” I shake my head.

“That’s too bad really.” She flips her smoking pipe over to drop the sod. “I’d have liked to avoid force.”

“Step back a bit, Akyuu.” I instruct her without taking my eyes off the tanuki. “We’ll need some room to dance.”

“I’ll head back to the village gates, then” She says, turning around. “Just to be on the safe side.”

I doubt any youkai would attack Akyuu, seeing as that would piss off some quite powerful individuals, but better safe than sorry. Especially since I’m not sure if I can even beat this old lady.

Maybe it’d be for the best if I go full turtle mode, though that wouldn’t get my engine going. Plus, I doubt I can pull it off with only one arm.

Having allowed the time for Akyuu to get out of range, the old racoon takes her stance and prepares to fight.

In a swift motion assisted by pivoting, I pull off my shirt and throw it to the side. It lands on the ground with a heavy ‘thunk.’

“Weighted clothes?” She inquires, glancing at the discarded article. “That’s quite a cliché.”

“Because of modern fiction, people have forgotten how to use tools like that.” I reply.

Using weighted clothes wrong could damage the body, but when used right, it can become a temporary passive stimulus to help maintain muscle.

In my case, I use weighted clothes to artificially increase my mass. This allows me to trade agility for power, seeing as most of my attacks utilize my weight as a force multiplier.

Discarding my weighted shirt means my upper body can move at top speed. While keeping my weighted pants will help my feet stay grounded. Exactly as I need.

I lower my center and take on a wide stance, with my soles dug firmly into the ground. I then extend my arm out far in front of me while keeping it bent.

“Ultimate Defense [Absolute Territory]” I declare.

The pinnacle of my defensive martial arts. By focusing all my attention to my domain, that is everything within my immediate reach, I gain complete awareness of everything close to me while lowering my reaction time even further.

“That’s a fancy name. Let’s see if it lives up to it.” She flies straight at me, hovering less than an inch over the ground.

As she gets within range, she swings backhanded at me, using the same hand she holds the pipe with.

As it enters my domain, I twist my hand around to the outside of her wrist where I can direct her attack up and out of my domain.

She follows through the motion and comes back around with high kick, which I again repel out of my domain.

“That’s not a bad little trick you got there, fox boy.” She quickly pulls back a bit. “It would indeed be quite hard to penetrate.”

“I’d like to take the compliment. “I reply, reaffirming my stance. “But unless it comes from another warrior, it’s just a fact.”

She has power, that much I’ll acknowledge. Even just redirecting her attacks hurt, and they don’t even graze me. But she lacks the refined movements of a fighter. Wasting energy, making big moves, shaky precision.

I should be able to deal with her if it stays like this. And though she may be a tanuki, she’s not stupid. She’ll mix up her attacks for sure.

In just a few quick strides, she builds up speed and launch herself at me. At the peak of her jump, she transforms into a stone statue, headed straight for me.

Shit.

I break my stance and throw myself on my back.

As she comes flying at me, I meet her stony body with my feet, directing her over me before giving her a good kick, sending her flying further past me.

With her now gone, I jump back up from the ground to resume my stance.

“Not so fast!” She exclaims from behind me.

She lands on one foot and without a break, she jumps straight up, leaving behind her oversized shoe.

The shoe then transforms into a Shinto gate, with the center having a weird distortion.

A horde of youkai emerge from the distortion. The group includes several types of youkai, such as the eternally starving Gaki, the eel princess Ounagi, small Yamajijii carrying wooden spears, the tsukumogami lantern Chouchin, the net cutting lobster Amikiri, burning WaNyudo wheels, a giant man-eating monkey Hihi and a vengeful Koukotsu skeleton. All of which have the iconic tanuki tail. And all of which are charging right at me.

Well fuck me sideways.

I bite deep into my thumb to draw a lot of blood.

“Blood Sign [Duboundary]”

I jab my finger into the ground, activating my spell.

As the empty feeling of blood being forcefully drained wash over me, the spell encircles me, carving out the barrier parameters and boundaries before a set of flaming red walls cage me in.

Even as the horde of transformed racoons crash into my barrier with all their might, it neither budges nor cracks.

The tanuki not knocked down by the impact continue past me without even looking or caring for their fallen kin.

With the barrier erected, I pull my fingers out of the ground and take a seat inside my safe space.

“Well then.” I call out to my old opponent. “Seems like you’ve lost this one.”

“We’ll see.” The shinto gate disappears, and she floats down to her shoe. “Hemomancy can’t be sustained for long.”

“It’s a modified variant of my own creation.” I brag. “Makes use of my enormous pool of spiritual energy. And something of this size consumes less energy than I recover.”

Technically true. Maintaining them like this is easy. But all damage they sustain must be repaired using my power, so a continuous assault would break it eventually.

“So unless I break it, I’ve lost.” She states. “Leave it to you foxes to be so cowardly.”

“My goal with this fight is simply to not hand over these orbs.” I state. “I don’t care about yours, so I have nothing to win, but something to lose.” I stick my thumb in my mouth, to clean the wounds before they’re closed up by scar tissue.

“You’re really not keen on handing them over?” She leans against her tail again.

“Told you so already. I’m not handing them over to a tanuki. Much less one that tried to trick them from me.” I state again. “If you want them that badly, get Kasen or Reimu to come and get them. I trust both of them a fair bit more than you.”

“Do you even know what they are?” She asks.

“No clue.” I do my one-armed shrug. “Like I also told you. My overall goal is to deal with the urban legends. Whatever else is going on is none of my business.”

“So you don’t even know the rumor?” She asks, though I just gave her an answer to that question. “Since you got an urban legend of your own, I assumed you would be hunting down these orbs as well.” she folds her arms.

My urban legend? As in like the Menreiki or am I just big and scary enough to get my own urban legend. I wouldn’t doubt either.

“Good news is that I’m not looking into the rumor.” I tell her. “Bad news is that I might consider it now. If only to just spite you.”

“Honesty is a virtue, I see.” She taps her finger against her arm. “My last resort would have been to answer some questions, an orb for an answer.” She shrugs. “But it’s pretty clear you wouldn’t agree.”

“Seems like I finally got through.” I lean back against the wall of my barrier. “So how about you just quit attacking already.”

“Yeah.” She gives the barrier a slight tab, causing the surface to ripple. “I wouldn’t be able to break this without breaking the spell card rules.” She takes a whiff of her pipe as she walks past me. “I’d be better off getting some other orbs in the meantime. Should probably be able to take them from the hermit, since she’s not a cowardly fox.”

I let out a sigh and release my barrier.

I’d hoped to wait here for Kasen to pass by, since we’re between the village and her house. But seems like I’ll have to change my plans yet again. I now have a few questions that need answers.

Behind me!

I quickly shift my weight to my front foot and pivot around.

The only thing I manage to see is the tanuki’s wooden pipe coming straight at me.

=====

As I open my eyes again, I find myself looking at a familiar wall.

Lowering my arms back down, I take a look around. No tanuki around. In fact, I’m not even outside. I appear to be standing in the middle of a single room shrine, if the wall decorations are anything to go by.

Though the strangest thing here is my arm. Mainly the fact I can move it, despite the fact it’s supposed to be paralyzed.

Maybe it’s because of my aching head, but it also looks like there’s a slight trailing effect on it, whenever I move my arm around. There’s nothing on my right arm, though.

“Seems like we’ll be parting ways now.” A sudden voice from outside speaks up. Feminine, adult woman, if I had to guess.

I slide open the only door to the room.

The landscape unfolding before me is that of a familiar scenery. Flat rocky ground that stretches for roughly a hundred meters before the edge. The horizon, if it can even be called that, is a clear blue sky you’d see on a summer midday.

And sure enough, the black and red blurred figure is still here. Though this time there’s a figure next to it, also blurred. Primary color is white, with added strokes of golden brown.

The new white blur speaks up. Though all I hear is noiseless static.

“He can’t hear us yet.” The red one explains. “Should be able to next time you two meet.”

There’s some more static noise from the yellowish blur before it disappears.

“Now then. Let’s get you out of here.” The blurred woman walks up the stairs to me. “You still have some work to do before you fall asleep, right?” She grabs a hold of my left arm. “I’ve finished with this one too, so you should be able to use it again.”

=====

The first thing that comes to me, is the fact I’m lying on my back, on what feels like dirt. The second thing is the feeling of a nail drilled to far into my temple that it comes out the other side.

Though my body doesn’t report any serious damage to my skull, so I doubt that’s what’s happening.

I swing my legs up and kick into the air, jumping back on my feet. My balance is slightly off, but it’s within expectations.

“Already on your feet again?” The tanuki asks. “Then let me just make sure we’re clear. That attack was within the rules, in the subsection about duels.” She states, not taking her eyes of the two orbs in her hands.

“Calling me cowardly, then attacking me from behind.” I fold my arms. “And I even gave you the benefit of the doubt, but of course a simple racoon like yourself would resort to such underhanded methods.”

“I’d apologize, but there’d be no point in lying.” She states. “Besides, my guts tell me this incident is bigger than we think, so I’m not letting an emotional kid handle it.”

“Now you can call me a lot of things, and most would probably be true, but emotional is not one of them.” I argue.

“Yeah, if you say so.” She brushes off the comment entirely. “Though now that I’ve taken these, the least I can do is give you a hint.” She spins around on her tail. “The hermit isn’t likely to return to her house for the rest of the day. She’s busy collecting these things too.”

“Ryuko!” Akyuu calls out from behind.

“Seems like the lovebird is here.” The tanuki lets out a single snicker. “‘Bout time I leave too. Stay healthy, kid.” She closes her hand, causing the orbs to disappear, and takes to the sky.

“Are you alright?” The little chronicler comes running.

“Yeah, though I’m feeling slightly off balance.” I tell her.

Taking a hit to the temple, aside from losing consciousness, tends to affect the legs more than balance.

“Ryuko.” She calls for my attention. “Your arm.”

“My arm?” I hold out my hands to see what’s wrong.

My arms. Both of them. They both move.

I can feel a big grin crawling on my face. Normally, I’d suppress it, but right now I don’t care. I have my arm back. I can finally work at one hundred percent again.

Taking a quick test run, I point it towards the trees, and a small wall extends out from me, reaching more than two dozen meters out.

Now spells will be a breeze again.

But even more. This means Hakurei is done settling in. I can now officially call myself a Hakurei.

Enough celebration. Back to work.

“So I’ve lost that strange orb, as well as my own.” I restore my posture. “We should still inform Kasen and Reimu if we run into them, but now that I don’t have anything to give them, there’s no reason to actively look for them.”

“No?” She grabs her chin. “So after a duel, these orbs go to the winner? You got Hata’s after she lost, and Futatsuiwa got yours after you lost.”

“Seems like a rule for a game.” I comment. “But that at least makes it predictable.”

“So what do we do now?” She asks.

Good question.

The only lead we have is still just the rumors. Though now that I’m outside the village, I’m picking up more traces of urban youkai.

There’s one in the mountains, inside tengu territory. One deep in the bamboos off to the side. Then there’s one in the sky too, but unless I learn to sprout wings, I doubt I’ll be able to reach that one.

Furthermore, there’s a presence inside the woods just next to us. And though I’m certain it’s not an urban legend, I can’t pinpoint any more information without getting closer.

[] Go to Youkai Mountain
[] Go to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost
[] Investigate the presence in the forest

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Outside the Human Village, North District - 15:55
==========

I turn to Akyuu. “I know we’re supposed to hunt urban legends, but there’s something I’d like to look into really quick, if you don’t mind.”

“You’re the expert.” She gestures. “I’m just along to observe some modern youkai.”

“This isn’t really a youkai, per se.” I start walking towards the woods, motioning her to stay behind me. “It’s just something that feels off.”

She shrugs it off and doesn’t say anything else.

The woods are barely a stone's-throw away, with my pace, and it doesn’t take long before whatever it is, comes into earshot.

“-nature like you would be able to put up a more entertaining fight.”

Female voice. Young, more so than Akyuu, though she sounds mature for her age.

A young-looking girl. She wears what looks like an azure hakama, though the legs are a fair bit thinner. Her plain white sleeveless shirt is thick enough to not turn see through despite the sweat that’s built up. Her long blue hair is tied neatly in a ponytail. Despite how she’s obviously moved around, her hair appears to remain silky, suggesting she takes extra care of it.

The thing that catches my attention, or rather what seemed to catch it in the first place, the flaming red blade at her waist. It emits a strange sense of allure, that makes me want to try and hold it, just to see how it feels to wield.

“We’re sorry.”
“We won’t do it again.”
“We promise.”

Right next to her, three small fairies are trembling with their backs against a tree.

A prank gone wrong?

“You think an apology is enough?” Blue girl folds her arms. “Insulting me like this would net you a severe punishment. But since I’m in a good mood, if you grovel, I might just forgive you.”

That goes a little past scolding.

I motion Akyuu to stop and continue making my way up to the apparent celestial.

She seems to catch me from the corner of her eye as she turns to face me. “Whatever it is, I’m busy, so wait a bit-”

I slug her square in the face, sending her flying back.

It takes a second for her to register what just happened, but once she does, she sits right up. “What in the actual hell are you doing?”

“Sorry,” I wrap my other hand around my fist, “you just looked so eager to pick a fight, I thought I’d give you a more challenging opponent.”

“Now you’ve done it.” She stands up. “Do you even know who I am?”

“Hinanawi Tenshi.” I state. “A little celestial brat born with a silver spoon up her ass.”

She clenches her teeth. “How daft would you have to be to attack me, knowing who I am.”

A quick glance back reveals the fairies have disappeared, though their spiritual signature hasn’t moved an inch.

“How spoiled would you have to be to throw around your unearned prestige to try and intimidate someone you know nothing about?” Not a snappy comeback, but I don’t care enough to try harder. “Hakurei Ryuko, faithful servant of Hakurei.”

“Hakurei? So you’re just a simple priest for a weak little god?” She laughs once. “Though it would be more fun to bully you.”

“Go ahead and try.” I fold my arms.

Though I do hate people who abuse their power to pick on those weaker than themselves, it’s rarely any of my business to get mixed up with them. But when it involves children, I draw the line and retaliate. Even if fairies are immortal forces of nature, everything about them are like human children, so I can’t overlook it with a good conscience.

Plus this will prove a nice exercise to get back into the habit of using my other arm again, though that’s just a bonus.

The brat makes a dash for me, circling around slightly from the right.

As she gets close, she grounds her inner foot and lets her outer foot continue into an upward roundhouse kick.

I quickly move my elbow down to meet her angle and direct her kick up above me. And I add an extra little push at the top to throw her off balance.

For a brief moment, her eyes widen as she expects a follow up attack. However, I don’t and let her fall backwards before regaining her footing.

She doesn’t rest, though, and immediately strikes back at me.

Swatting away her fist, I counter by planting my own fist in her stomach.

The sudden shock forces her onto her knees.

I plant my foot in her stomach and shove her back, using only enough force to move her small frame.

She’s stronger than the Menreiki, but this girl hasn’t had any combat training by the looks of it. Rather it seems like she’s instinctively brawling, and she’s not even that good at it. Real brawlers can take martial artists on equal footing.

“Come on. This isn’t fair. At this rate I’ll have to stop using my hands, just to give you a chance.” I taunt her. “With how you were bullying those fairies, I thought you at least could make me sweat.”

“Take that ego and shove it up your ass, would you?” The celestial climbs back on her feet without issue.

“How unladylike.” I put on a snobby accent. “But oh well, that’s only to be expected from lowly humans made celestial because of their connections.”

“You fuck!” She yells out as she launches herself at me, forfeiting all defense.

I respond with a swift spin kick to her liver, knocking her off my path.

“This is ego backed by confidence and skill, by the way.” I inform her, to further rub it in.

She once again pulls herself off the ground and gets on her feet, without much trouble.

And I have to admit, that’s impressive.

The liver is like a water balloon; if you squeeze one place, it will expand somewhere else to compensate. And that tiny flap peeking out from under the cover of the ribs, if that’s hit then the other end will expand, triggering a reaction from the core nerve system.

It won’t just hurt like all hell, but it’ll force your veins to expand, lowering your blood pressure. The heart being unable to adjust to such a sudden change, the body will collapse, to make sure the brain has enough blood, which will effectively ground you until your body has stabilized itself again.

And that’s not factoring in how easy it is to damage the liver. All it takes is a punch of five meters per second to fracture the liver, which is fragile considering the average human can punch at six meters per second.

Celestials, of course, should be more durable than that, but even if the liver isn’t damaged, she should still stay grounded for at least a minute, with the amount of force I put into that kick.

“It’ll take more than that to hurt me.” She brags. “But I guess that’s all there is to be expected from a simple human.”

“So I can get even rougher?” I spread out my arms. “Wonderful. There’s something I’ve always wished to try, but never found anyone who’d survive it.”

“Are you looking down on me?” She quickly closes the distance between us.

This time she tries a front kick to my abdomen.

I shoot my foot forward, so her kick goes behind me.

Before she has a chance to plant her foot, though, I slide my leg back, getting in her way and forcing her off center.

With a soft push, I send her back to the ground.

“What would give you that idea?” I shrug, though do nothing to hide my smirk. “Now get up so I can play a little more.”

She gets back up into a crouching position, to catch her breath before going straight into a run towards me.

I feint a jab, masking another liver-blow.

Taking the hit without defense, she bends over, clutching her stomach.

I follow up with a jumping knee to her head. Twisting around in midair, I swing my other foot around for a sideways dropkick.

Even though the last kick is softened by the fact I have no ground to stand firm on, it’s still a kick to the head, so most people can’t take it. But with how much vitality this girl has, she shouldn’t have too much trouble taking it.

“You know,” I pop my knuckles, “I really should punish you for insulting me like this. But I’m in a good mood right now, so if you just grovel and beg for forgiveness, I might just let you go with a warning.”

The celestial looks up at me. Her glare alone is enough to tell me I pushed the right button.

She spits out some blood. “Fuck off, freak.”

“Well then, since you want it rough.” I shift my stance to face her square, preparing my arms by my sides. “Martial Sign: Tower.”

“Like that’s going to work.” She once again stubbornly runs toward me.

Just before she gets within striking distance, she halts and jumps backwards.

She glances down at her legs before looking back at me.

Trying once more, this time she circles around to approach me from my side.

I drag my foot, making a quick turn so she’s once again right in front of me.

And once again, she leaps away.

“What did you do to me?” She yells out. “What does that spell card do?”

“Tower is just the name of the stance.” I inform her. “Your inability to attack is your own shortcoming.”

Not entirely true. The purpose of this stance is to increase intimidation by appearing tall and immovable. After having beaten her so one-sidedly, her body now refuses to let her close to me.

Psychology can be such a great weapon.

Despite my words, she makes for another dash towards me.

This time however, when she gets close enough, she leaps forward, forcing herself to get close.

She grabs the sword by her waist and pulls it up above her head, preparing for a power strike.

Seeing it come, I step in through her attack zone, getting too close for her to strike.

I’m not able to prepare a proper attack in time, so I instead continue moving, tackling her mid jump, knocking her sword out of her hand and letting it continue its path past me.

Wait. Past me? Akyuu.

I throw the celestial and dash backwards before I’ve even started turning towards Akyuu.

The heavenly blade has already covered more distance than I could hope to.

In a last-ditch effort to dodge the incoming sword, Akyuu falls back, though she’s too late.

The blade doesn’t hit her, though.

A spherical barrier surrounding Akyuu has blocked it, though it managed to pierce the surface.

My protective charm. Oh thank Hakurei, I’d forgotten all about it.

The blade falls to the ground, as the shield disappears. The only sound coming from Akyuu is the choked remains of a scream.

Tenshi, not wanting to pass on this opportunity, jumps me from behind.

Sensing this, I counter with a swift kick, up into her stomach, stopping her midair and dropping her to her knees.

Not playing around with her anymore, I follow up with another kick to her temple, finally knocking her down for the count.

“Akyuu.” I run over to her. “Akyuu, how are you feeling? You aren’t hurt?”

“I, I don’t know.” She stutters. “I need a moment to collect myself again.”

“You even dare turn your back to me.” The celestial speaks up again. “I’ve had it up to hear with you.”

I turn around, just in time to see something fly at my face. I throw myself back to dodge-

It hits my cheek, bouncing up while cutting open all the flesh in its path.

Fucking hell this shit hurt.

Unable to suppress the scream of pain, I embrace it and turn it into a roar, letting out a sound I don’t think I’ll ever be able to replicate.

“Akyuu!” I lower my stance significantly. “Run for the village! Don’t look back!”

“What?”

“Now!” I snap at her.

Without another moment of delay, I run the other way into the woods.

My eye is bust. Even the pain is gone. My spiritual power is unmanaged. That rock hit too hard, and I can’t control my power. My consciousness keeps flickering. No telling how long I’ll be able to hold on.

Fuck. With just one lucky rock, she’s managed to effectively blind me, and seal my spiritual powers.

And she stood up after that beating like it was nothing. There’s no way I can defeat her with martial arts alone.

Escape.

That’s my only option.

I need to make sure this wound is closed, and try to stabilize my spiritual energy. But with her hot on my tail, that’s borderline impossible.

Below me. Shadow. Not mine. Hers?

Without thinking, I kick off the ground, throwing out a blind kick.

In the brief moment I get to look up, I manage to see her clearly. In this single instance, my mind clears up completely. I can see a hint of satisfaction. Finally getting me on the defensive.

The next moment, my kick lands, blocking her jump strike by sending her back into the air.

At this point, I realize I’m upside down with no aerial control, so the kick probably wasn’t such a good idea.

Thankfully this helpful tree makes me stop by being in my way, taking the full force of my weight as I hit it back first.

The collision sends a jolt up my spine, stunning me, though nothing seems to break.

“Done running?” She asks. “Then it’s time to pay the price for insulting me.”

“I wouldn’t move, if I were you.” An unknown voice steps in.

If my spiritual power wasn’t broken, I’d be able to identify this new woman.

“First he stands in my way, now you too?” The celestial complains, the smug playfulness all gone from her voice.

“I came out to investigate that roar, since I don’t like dangerous youkai around my house.” She says calmly. “But I guess I’ll take care of you first.”

“Take care of me?” She sounds insulted. “You don’t even know what’s going on.”

“I feel more inclined to believe a half-dead human than a problem child known to cause incidents, so do excuse me.” She replies. Her mood being difficult to gauge as her voice remains stoic. “Now, will you get out of my forest willingly, or do I have to use force?”

The feeling in my legs is starting to return.

“Celestial!” A male voice yells out. “Cease your unauthorized assault this instant, or I will open fire!”

“Ryuko!” Another new girl yells out.

That voice. Kotohime?

It’d be so much easier if my mind wasn’t so clouded.

“Another one?” Tenshi yells out.

“Let me see your wound.” The police woman states. She’s apparently made her way over here without me noticing. “This is a nasty one. We need to get you to a doctor before this becomes necrotic.”

“I repeat! Stand down, Celestial!” The man, presumably Kotohime’s boss, yells out again.

“Stop ordering me around, you lowly human!” Tenshi yells back.

Kotohime starts wrapping a bandage over my wound. The bleeding as long since stopped, so it must be to keep it from getting infected, or just to hide it.

“Tenshi!” Another new woman joins us, this one sounding older than the two others.

“Iku? What are you doing here?” Tenshi asks.

“Coming to get you, of course.” She snaps. “Have you forgotten why we came down to earth in the first place. We don’t have time for you to run off and start another incident. Not this time.”

“Not you too, Iku.” She complains.

“Tenshi!” She snaps once again. “We’re going home. Now.”

The celestial just clicks her tongue but says nothing more.

With the atmosphere growing lighter, I assume the two celestials have left.

“Kotohime, start moving.” Her boss instructs her. “We need to get him to the village.”

“Got it.” She affirms. “Can you walk?”

“Yeah, I think so.” I answer, getting on my feet. My legs are shaky, but nothing I’m not used to dealing with. Nevertheless, the tiny guards woman opts to act as my support.

“Thank you for stalling her, Miss.” Kotohime’s boss talks to the unknown woman.

“You’re welcome.” She says. “Though I had the situation under control, it’s human nature to protect your own, right?”

“More or less.” He agrees. “It’s about familiarity.”

“I see. Though I have to insist on escorting you out of the forest.” She says. “There appears to be a feral youkai running amok.”

“We’d appreciate that, Miss.” The boss thanks her.

“Witch.” She woman corrects him. “Just call me Witch. That’s what the rest in the human village does.”

“In that case, we’ll depend on you, Witch.” the boss says once more.

“Witch.” I speak up. I think I have an idea who it is, but I can’t say for certain. “My mind’s a mess, so I’m not sure how this will come out, but, thank you.”

There’s a brief moment of silence before she replies. “You’re welcome.”

I feel my legs give in under me, as my mind shuts down.

==========
Outside the Human Village - 11th of Planting Month 01:12
==========

By god, I can be a genius sometimes.

I’m low on blood. My eye has been removed. And my spiritual power is disrupted to the point of complete obsolescence.

Yet I get the absolute genius idea of leaving the village. In the middle of the night no less.

It’s so genius in fact, that I don’t even know why I did it.

Alternatively, I might just be the biggest fucking idiot, which is the much more likely option.

I mean for fucks sake, I didn’t just get defeated by a rock, now I’m also acting like a dying animal. It’s pitiful.

And I have too much pride to turn around now.

Honestly, the only defense I have for walking out of the village, is the fact my guts tell me to move. I have no idea where they’re taking me, but I have yet to be killed because of a gut feeling, which is more than I can say for my genius ideas.

The good thing about this situation, is that it reminds me of how over reliant I’ve become of my spiritual power as a way of observing the world. The whole reason we trained up all my senses was to be able to navigate in case I lost any critical senses, like sight. But instead of sight, I became reliant on spiritual power instead. Just another stroke of my pure genius, I guess.

My train of thought is broken, as I sense someone, or something staring at me.

Out of pure instinct, I spin around, facing the direction I felt the stare. I scan the horizon for a second until I find it.

Atop a hill against the clear night sky, I see a silhouette. The best description I can find, would be a ten petal flower head. The sole thing bringing it to life, though, are the two golden eyes staring at me.

I don’t sense any hostility from it, whatever it is, so I chose to ignore it and continue on, to whatever destination awaits me.

It’s surprisingly hard to tell distance with just one eye. Typically, when you try to see how much difference it makes, you do it in an environment you’re familiar with, like your home, so you naturally know the distance, more so since you just found it before you closed one eye.

But walking around out here with only one eye, it really highlights the lack of depth perception. Luckily this is just temporarily. I still have Doc’s seal, so I can make a full recovery, even from death, just once. And once the seven days have passed, I can go back outside to get it fixed.

Which makes me feel somewhat bad, since Akyuu actually got me an eyepatch. I’m sure she knows it’s a little harder than this to kill me, and even harder to inflict permanent damage on me.

Through the cover of the darkness, my apparent destination comes into view; a forest, brimming with mana to the point where I can feel it tickling my skin. It’s the same forest where I got rocked.

Logically, this is suicide. In my current condition, going into a youkai infested forest without any real reason is just moronic. Especially because this is where I got injured. I doubt I’ll get even a light case PTSD, but I can’t say I’m entirely unaffected either.

Still, my guts tell me to keep going, so against my better judgment, I trudge on.

I glance back before crossing the tree line, to see if that thing is still watching me, but I don’t see anything behind me.

Not too long after, I reach the place where I was defeated. I don’t remember what this exact spot looks like, nor can I see it all that well in this darkness. But I’m sure this is the place.

Yet I still have the urge to move on. This isn’t my destination.

Frankly, I’m not sure how much I’ve walked. It’s hard to see, and everything I can see looks exactly alike. I can only really follow my gut feeling at this point.

One thing that stands out to me, though, is that no youkai has made itself known to me. I’ve caught glimpses of a few from the edge of my vision, but none of them have dared getting close, nor have I sensed any malice from them. If the night sparrows were singing, I could understand, but I don’t hear any.

Still, I’m taking care to keep my footing, just to stay safe. If the loss of my eye has taught me anything, it’s to not lower my guard. Which is a lesson I’m soon going to forget, again, so I might as well use it now.

Regardless of if I’m being stalked or not, I reach a small clearing, no bigger than ten meters in diameter. My guts are telling me this is the place, this is what I’ve been walking to get to.

I turn back around to the road I’ve been walking and give it a formal deep bow. “Thank you for seeing me off.” I doubt I’m really being stalked, but better be safe.

With that done, it’s probably best I get to figuring out why I’m here.

The first thing that stands out is the incredible amount of mana, not to mention the purity of it.

If I had some gold, I’m sure I could charge it in a matter of minutes here. I’d probably even be able to cast some spells, if I could channel this mana properly. Though with the size of my mana pool, I’ve never really had the chance to practice much.

I’d have to convert my magic circuit back to mana too, to make use of it, which isn’t worth it, since I use spiritual energy.

Wait, that’s it. I can use this mana to repair my circuit. I can regain my spiritual powers in just a few hours with this, instead of waiting the weeks it’d take for it to naturally recover.

My body probably picked up on the high mana concentration yesterday, without me noticing. That’s why my guts told me to go back here.

I take seat at the center of the clearing and prepare myself for meditation.

Deep steady breath. Release my grip on my energy and let it run free. Open myself up. And then just relax and let the mana flow through me.

==========
“Now lookie here. He’s back yet again.” The blurred woman greets me.

To my surprise, I can actually understand her.

“What’s this? Have I finally gone through?” She stands up and steps down from the shrine’s porch. “Respond if you can hear me.”

I try to respond, but I find that I make no sound.

“Fantastic.” She throws her arms in the air as she walks back to the sit at the shrine. “It’s taken several months, but I finally adjusted it properly.”

She could hear me? But I didn’t say anything.

“With you here, time moves too fast to allow me to explain everything. Let me start with the two important things.” She spreads out her arms. “This world exists inside your soul. And this,” she points to herself, “is a fragment of the Hakurei goddess, which has taken residence here, in accordance with the initiation ritual.”

She’s Hakurei?

“Wasn’t that clear? I live in a shrine inside your soul. That should have been the giveaway any of the previous times you came here.”

I didn’t know this was my soul. Thought it was just dreams.

“Doesn’t really matter. Now you know.” She shrugs it off. “Anyway, before we run out of time, I’d like to apologize for doing such a poor job with the ritual. I took far too long before I could give you your arm back, and I failed to even give you any of the trademark Hakurei abilities. Admittedly, there were some factors with unexpected consequences.”

Factors?

“Well, for one thing, I had to try and match your spiritual power, and do you have any idea how hard that is. Secondly of is,” she trails off. “Actually, forget that second point. I just remembered I promised your mom to not tell you.”

What?

“Oh look, we’re conveniently out of time.” She fakes looking at a watch. “Remember to tell your mom I said hi next time you meet her.”
==========

What the hell was all that about? I mean, I’m glad I finally got the chance to meet Hakurei, but then she drops bombs like that and just kicks me out before I can even get a chance to ask her about any of it.

I mean, of course I know I have a mom. I didn’t just blink into existence. The fact I’ve never seen her, just made me accept the shrine village as my family instead. They’re all youkai, but at least they have my back.

And this other reason. Like hell I can just forget.

I’m about to stand up, as I feel something in my lap.

A cat. Ashy fur with black tiger stripes. The tail is split just off the base. A nekomata.

Why is a youkai sleeping in my lap?

I run a finger down the spine of it, to which it responds by waking up. The first thing it does is look up at me. Then it stretches and walks off.

I have questions. About Hakurei, myself and that youkai. None of which I’m likely to get answered.

Anyway. It’s the twilight of dawn, so I’ve slept longer than usual.

I give my body a flex to get a feel for the state of my muscles. A little sore from yesterday, but no damage. I should probably skip on my workout today then.

Instead, I follow my ears to a stream of water running nearby.

Afterwards I should probably look for something to eat, if I plan on staying here any longer.

Looking at my reflection, it seems the mana channeling has disrupted the spell masking my eye color, since it’s taken its natural color of bright golden, instead of it’s usual masked azure.

And it’s slit.

What the actual fuck is going on.

I lift the eyepatch to examine the other eye. It’s still missing. Thankfully that’s not more fucked up than I expected.

Don’t tell me that second reason is me turning into a youkai. I mean, few humans even know I exist, and I’m sure I appear like a monster to those that do. I was raised by and live with youkai, so remaining entirely unaffected would be a miracle.

My train of thought is broken by the sound of a small piece of metal bouncing off rock.

I look back to see a small coin. The same one Yukari gave me.

But wasn’t that bound to my urban legend? Why is it still acting up? The incident is still ongoing?

As a priest of Hakurei, it’s part of my job to patrol the border. These urban legends have crossed without permission and should be kicked out.

But something is happening to me. And I think I have the best chance of figuring out what if I stay here.

[] Go back to the village
[] Stay here


Short, but I felt there had to be a break after the last update's end. Also wrote this in between exams and new vidya

==========
Heart of the Forest, Forest of Magic - 06:12
==========

No. Figuring out what the hell is wrong with me takes top priority. These eyes, or eye, it happened last time I came to Gensokyo too. Reimu remarked on it, though it went away again just as quickly.

Well, test one.

Without restraint, I bite down into my arm, making sure to draw blood. I let my teeth sit there for a second until I’ve gathered enough blood to get a good taste of it.

Ignoring the taste of copper, a second, very faint trace of citrus sticks out. Mandarin, if I’m not mistaken.

Definitely mana. My level is usually too low to be detected like this, so the fact I can taste my own mana means I have a surplus supply. With my low capacity, it can only travel through my bloodstream as a temporary storage.

While channeling the mana here, I must have refined some and stored it.

That’s the first thing different about me.

Second is my missing eye, but that seemingly has nothing to do with it. Unless I’m doomed to always have one major malfunction in my body. All year it’s been my arm, now my eye. Coincidence, I’m sure. It’s not too rare to get something vital in this line of business.

Third is that goddess in my head, Hakurei. She was finally able to reconnect my arm yesterday. She’s been there a while, though. And nothing like this was mentioned back at the ritual. Can’t rule her out as a possibility, though.

Fourth is the fact I’m in Gensokyo. Not really a change on my end, but this change to my eyes has only happened in Gensokyo. Normally they just turn yellow for a few minutes before the magic kicks back in.

If I assume Gensokyo has something to do with it, then I have to pinpoint the difference between this pocket dimension and the real world. The obvious thing is the fact this place is filled with Faith, to the point where even I can pick some up for Hakurei. Another difference is the general concentration of mana, which is much higher than in the outside world.

Mana.

Speaking of mana, I’m resistant to mana based spells. Wounds induced by metal heal at a normal human rate. Considering metal has a general mana negating property, it also hooks up to this net.

That’s why my gut dragged me back here. The Forest of Magic has more mana than anywhere else in Gensokyo, and I’m standing at the heart of it; Gensokyo’s epicenter of mana.

But what am I supposed to do? I can’t cast spells because of my low capacity. Should I just infuse and disperse as much mana as I can?

The body can generally run on raw mana for whatever it needs it for at the moment. Infusing it and storing it can up the efficiency, but requires constant attention. But that’s the only real thing I can think of.

I take seat in the grass patch.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done dedicated meditation. Let’s see if I remember which gestures would be appropriate here.

Rin - Pyo - Kai

I fold my hands accordingly.

Visually, I imagine a great gate opening, allowing a wild gust of wind to pass through.

At the same time, I feel my body heating up, as it starts processing mana.

I start focusing only on those two feelings; the sense of my body, and the image of the wind.

==========
12th of Planting Month 05:40
==========

I drop one of the hares on the ground, freeing up a hand to take out the one I’ve had to carry by mouth. I place the two I’m still carrying a little more careful, so as to not get dirt on their wounds.

I did consider just eating these raw, since there’s never been a problem doing that, but I think I’d be better off roasting them, so it’s easier for my body to digest the meat, wasting less energy. Had to move to the river, though, since the green is too thick to safely start a bonfire.

It doesn’t take long to light the fire. I just have to wait for it to really get going, then wait for the embers.

Somewhat surprised that survival training actually paid off. I mean, the village is within walking distance, so it’s not really survival. Aside from being a fun break from the usual training, I never thought I’d actually use it, given how close society always seem to be.

I take off the eye-patch, take a deep breath, then dip my face into the stream and just start drinking.

Lifting my head back out, I take another second for the water to drip out of the empty socket.

I’m not sure if it’s even a good idea to expose the open eye socket to water like this. Though I’m keeping the wound in the back where they cut the connection clear of the water. Actually.

Though the light is dim, I manage to see inside the empty socket in the water’s reflection. And it appears that they surgically cut out the eye. Since it was cut with metal, it’s not going to close up any time soon. For better or worse; I’m not sure which is easier for Doc to heal. Not like my natural healing can regrow limbs or organs, so for the time being, it doesn’t really make a difference.

The other eye is still a slit. No, rather it’s quite open for a slit. Maybe that’s why I can see so well in the dark.

And something else stands out. Over my shoulder, the skin looks different. I can clearly see there’s a difference in shade, but it’s too dark to see the color.

So I reach over with my hand to feel it out, and almost immediately withdraw my hand from pure surprise.

That wasn’t skin.

The surprise over, I once again place my hand over my shoulder, running my fingers across this strange texture.

Hard, somewhat smooth, like treated leather. No, harder. Scales? Too small for that?

I twist my body, so my back becomes more visible in the reflection.

No, that’s most definitely scales. The tips of my hair have also changed shade. Normally, it’s obsidian black, but the tips have changed to some brighter color. Not white, though a pale color.

Something is definitely happening. If I continue like this, I’m going to have a breakthrough in no time.

I cut my own smile short. Even my teeth have changed. These are carnivore teeth. The front ones are still relatively normal, though their tips have reduced enough to notice.

If not for the scales, I might have been convinced I was possessed by a byakko. But as if my luck would allow me to gain such powers. I’m sure I’d be able to keep it under control, especially with Hakurei’s help.

But alas, it’s something else fucking me up right now. And whether it was infusing mana or just waiting, it seems to have worked.

“I wasn’t expecting guests.” I say out loud. “So you’ll have to excuse me for not preparing more food.”

I dust off and stand to face the newcomer.

“Don’t mind me.” The sage just dismisses my offer. “Ran is preparing plenty of breakfast. Isn’t that right, Ran?”

“It should be ready in about ten minutes, Lady Yukari.” The kitsune walks out from behind the sage. She gives me a polite bow as a greeting.

“Instead, I’m here for you, Ryuko.” She creates a gap right behind her on which she sits on. “I have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing, and I have to cut it short.”

“What?” I exclaim. “But I’m so close to a breakthrough. Just a little more and I’ll finally know what’s up with my body.”

“And that’s exactly why I need you to stop.” She shifts her legs. “It’s still too early for you to know.”

“You know you’re only making me want to know even more badly, right?” I ask rhetorically.

Her lack of response tells me all I need to know. So I just put my eye-patch back on.

“Ran, if you please.” The old sage flies back a bit, creating some distance between us.

Our last match ended in my defeat, and that was just sparring.

I hunch over, taking on the peekaboo stance.

“You really want to go through with it?” Ran asks, still standing casually. “It would be so much easier if you didn’t.”

“Sorry, but I need to know this.” I shift my weight from my heels to my toes. “If there’s even a chance of me winning, it’s worth taking right now.”

“I see.” She pulls her hands out of her sleeves, revealing her exposed claws. “Then please don’t hold a grudge.”

With little warning, she throws her hand out at me, trying to claw at me.

I throw out a quick jab, countering and stopping her move.

My reach is longer than hers, I should use that to keep her at a distance. If she gets past my range though, I’ll be at a disadvantage.

“Aggressive, aren’t you?” She comments.

“Yeah, I can’t start slow against you.” After all, I lost my eye because I start slow.

“Meanwhile I have to hold back. It wouldn’t be good if I accidentally got you killed.” She says with a trained stoic expression.

Yeah, I have to try and better my odds more before I attempt to take her on for real. And I might just have an idea.

I tense up my body, masking a feint behind another feint.

I need to get into the water stream. But Ran is likely to see that coming, so I feign a dash towards her, which I then mask by feigned to go to the water.

She’s clearly noticed something is up, as her eyes dart over me, scanning every muscle she can perceive.

The moment I make my move, however, she jumps me.

I barely manage to roll out of the way.

Not taking any chances, the moment my feet get back on the ground, I leap with what little momentum I have.

Surprisingly, I land in the river stream like planned. And I’m waist deep, hindering my movement, but it should work.

Shikigami and water don’t mix. If the binding mark gets wet, it’ll have to be reapplied before the power bonus takes effect again. Paper shikigami don’t like water, either, for obvious reasons. So I should be safe from Ran, until she figures out how to approach me.

And she flies.

I keep forgetting that’s a thing. Barely anyone in the outside world can fly without augmented wings of some kind, and even fewer actually use it.

I’m in trouble.

Though to my surprise, she doesn’t attack. Instead she takes a firm grasp of my wrist and just throw me back on shore.

“Ran.” Yukari calls out to her familiar.

They exchange looks for a second while I get back on my feet.

“As you wish.” Ran responds by retracting her claws.

The fox locks eyes with me, and in the blink of an eye she’s closed the gap between us, striking my solar plexus with an open palm.

Gritting through the pain, I hammer my hands together, hoping she’s between them.

Sadly, she saw it coming and ducked, following up her attack with and upwards palm strike.

I manage to twist myself enough to avoid getting hit by her follow-up.

Taking advantage of the twist, I throw a short punch and manage to land it in her stomach.

She doesn’t even react.

Instead, she just grab a firm hold of me and headbutts my chest, knocking the wind out of me.

There’s a strange feeling brewing inside of me. It’s slightly distracting.

Again, ignoring the pain of my depleted lungs, I grab her back and knee her with as much power as I can muster.

She still ignores my attack but and just throws me at the ground with her overwhelming strength.

That feeling again. It’s stronger, but I can’t quite tell what it is yet.

I jump back up, managing to put a little distance between us.

“I know you’re a youkai, but seriously.” I complain. “Can’t you at least react when I hit you? Just budging a little would be appreciated.”

She looks surprised by remark, before doing a quick examination of her own body. “Seems like I forgot to add a sense of pain on this one. Oh well.” She strikes her stance again.

“Why would you shut down your sense of pain? It’s essential!” I complain.

Most people think pain is bad. Those few that don’t are either masochists or have actually bothered to think about what pain is. You need pain. It’s the only way for your body to tell you when something is wrong. Shutting it down is ignoring the plight of your body, and if you do that, what’s to stop it from simply ignoring you and just give up?

She doesn’t reply. Instead, she just clenches her hands into fists.

With a quick step, she’s moved into range and hammers home a one-two combo, followed by a straight to my chin.

I manage to stand my ground, but I’m entirely off balance.

It’s that feeling again. I think I know what it is.

[ ] A sense of being grounded, stubbornly standing unmoving
[ ] A sense of formlessness, like a stream twisting through the land
[ ] A sense of force, growing stronger as my emotions burn
[ ] A sense of freedom, untethered from the world I walk
[ ] A sense of a growing void in my mind, complete tranquility


And that's the last hint you'll get as to what you are.

Also, am I the only active author on this board again? My story hasn't been pushed down since I called the votes. I hope that's not the case, since there are still many waifus to woo on this board.

==========
12th of Planting Month 05:58
==========

I dismiss the feeling. I can’t afford to lose focus. Ran beat me without effort in a spar. In a real fight, I wouldn’t even be able to notice that she’d attacked me before it was too late.

With some swift footwork, I quickly back off, creating distance between us.

Obviously not willing to allow me to set the terms of the engagement, the fox follows in pursuit, maintaining a constant distance just outside my range.

With a tree coming up behind me, I dance around it, keeping my back against. As I’ve reached the other side, I kick off and start dashing.

If I can’t create any distance backing off, then I’ll just have to run.

It’s strange. My body feels lighter. Not in the same way as when I drop my weighted clothes and just lose the extra weight. Rather, it feels like there’s no resistance on my body. I’m still grounded by gravity, but I feel nothing dragging me down. I’m moving forward fast, yet I don’t feel the air brush off my body.

I feel like any restraints on my movements have been lifted. Like I can move however I want.

Weaving through the forest is a breeze. And now that I think about it, the fact I must weave even though the trees aren’t that dense probably means I’m moving fast, although it doesn’t feel like it.

“Yukari!” The fox calls out from behind me.

“I can see.” The sage responds. “Pin him down and I’ll take care of it.”

Pin me down? Why can’t they just let me figure this out? I’m so close to a revelation I can practically taste it.

“Chen! Now!” My pursuer calls out.

“Huzzah!” A young girl jumps out in front of me, arms stretched out ahead. A couple of cats follow her movement, including a familiar ashen one.

Without much effort, I manage to dive underneath her and her catpanions, bringing myself so close to the ground I can smell the dirt, yet I somehow don’t lose any speed before getting back up.

“What?” Is all I hear her say behind me.

“Caught you.”
“Caught you.”

I hear Ran yell right before she jumps on my back, crashing me into the ground.

With the force of a youkai, she flips me around and pins me down.

There’s two of her.

I’m sure I didn’t hit my head that hard, but there’s two of her, each holding down one side, making it impossible to move at all.

“I know it can be hard to trust me,” the sage walks into view again, “but that’s all I can really ask of you. I do what I believe is best in the long term.”

One of her gaps open just above my chest, a small one barely the width of my fist.

Yukari then proceeds to jab her parasol into the gap.

Oh god. This feels weird. She’s reached into my mana pool. I’ve had my energy forcefully drained, but this strangely painful intrusion can’t compare to anything I’ve felt before.

As she starts to drag her parasol out, it’s as if she draws my breath out along with it. I start to lose feeling in my feet, then my hands, slowly creeping further up as she continues to drag it out.

Then as the tip comes into sight, it becomes apparent something is attached to it. A small ball of light, with threads reaching back into the gap.

She continues to pull until the threads snap, and the next thing I know I’ve lost all feeling, unable to make my body respond in any capacity.

“Despite the small amount, it’s surprisingly pure.” She comments. “You’d have made a great mage.” She lifts the ball of mana up and lets it disperse into the forest.

“Lady Yukari.” One of the Rans speak up.

“The traits haven’t disappeared.” The other one continues, pulling down my collar to show.

“We were a little too late, then.” Yukari sighs. “At least we managed to reset the advancement.” She opens a large gap behind her. “If you’d be so kind as to take him to his room. It’ll take a while for him to recover the mana.”

One of the Rans lifts me up and sling me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Not a single muscle in my body responds. I’m completely paralyzed.


==========
13th of Planting Month 08:09
==========

“Are you sure you should be moving about already?” After having observed me for a minute, Ran finally speaks up.

“I’m good.” I respond without stopping my exercise. Though calling it exercise might be a slight exaggeration, since it’s just a series of movements designed to stretch my body continuously. My mana has passed the safe threshold again, so I’m in the clear, but I’d like to make sure everything’s okay before I go wild again.

“I see. That’s good.”

She doesn’t say anything beyond that. She just remains sitting on the porch, watching me, shifting around every so often.

Nothing seems wrong with my muscles. Now to check my spiritual power.

I take a wide stance, feet planted firmly in the ground. I stretch one hand up and the other down, moving them in wide circles going opposite direction until they meet in front of my core.

Releasing every valve on my energy, I allow it to flow freely.

Even though I can’t sense my own spiritual power, I can feel all excess power ooze out of me.

I then start to eject some, increasing the rate at which it flows out of my body. While increasing the rate, I keep track of as much power as I can, both of my giant reserve and the expelled energy.

“You aren’t mad, are you?” The fox asks. “About yesterday, I mean.”

Without letting up, I glance over my shoulder before answering. “Last time I got mad, I almost threw a woman off a building.”

“That’s,” She trails off. “I’m not sure how to respond to that.”

“What I'm trying to say is that I don’t really get mad easily, Ran. But when I’m finally pushed to that limit, I get angry.” I explain. “You might also like to know that I don’t get passive aggressive. That kinda shit accomplishes nothing. Instead, I prefer to confront whoever I have a problem with. Get it sorted out as early as possible.”

“I see.” She replies, once again stopping the conversation.

And stop.

I shut all my valves at once, measuring the rate at which my reserve fills back up.

Nothing abnormal here. Aside from my inhuman level of spiritual energy, that is.

“This would be a good example, Ran.” I continue the conversation. “You clearly have something on your mind, yet you refuse to bring it up.”

“It’s just,” She trails off again.

“Be frank. Be direct.” I tell her.

“It just doesn’t feel proper.” She blurts out. “I know it was the best thing to do, but we, I, still assaulted you.”

“And you wanna make it up to me?” I finish her sentence. I’ve seen this pattern before. Not exactly hard to predict.

“Please allow me.” Keeping her hands on her thighs, she bows her head.

“That’s it?” I ask. “That trick you used back in the forest, where you split in two. Teach me.”

“Split in two?” She looks back up. “You mean the paper shikigami.”

Shikigami? That’s right. Ran is a master of shikigami. Somehow that slipped my mind.

“Paper shikigami are easy to create.” The fox continues. “Controlling them will take some time getting used to, though. Next time you’re free, come find me and I’ll get you started.”

“Will do.” I confirm.

“I see you’re up and about.” A gap opens up behind Ran and out steps Gensokyo’s sage.

“No thanks to you.” I reply.

The sage lets out a sigh. “So we’re going to start the day like this?” She leans against her parasol. “I can’t tell you why I had to do it, all I can ask you is to trust me.”

“What? Is it because I’m a dragon? Or partly anyway.” I ask.

Yukari’s eyes widen. She glances down at Ran who looks up at her, equally confused. The fox just shakes her head.

“Ran didn’t tell me.” I explain. “In retrospect, the signs were obvious. The eyes, the scales, my magic resistance. Heck, youkai are notorious for their uncreative names, so that should have been a dead giveaway.”

The sage taps her index finger on her parasol a few times. “So you’ve figured that much out already.” She states. “Yes, you are half dragon. If I hadn’t stopped you yesterday, you would most likely have transformed into one. And we’re not sure if your body can handle it at this point.”

Half dragon. That raises a lot of other questions. Questions for later, that is.

“So if you stopped my transformation, why are my scales still here?” I ask.

“Because your body has started its first transformation.” She explains. “This first one is unique since you have to fully transform before you can resume your human form.”

That sounds like an arbitrary rule. Then again, I have no info on the early life of youkai with innate shape shifting, such as the Royal Werewolves.

“So my progression is fueled by mana?” I ask.

Since she drained my mana to stop it, it would make the most sense. Gensokyo also has a lot more ambient mana compared to the outside, which could explain why my “transformation” never triggered in the outside world.

“Correct.” The sage nods. “To be specific, it’s your mana overflow that fuels it.”

“That would have been my next question.” I inform her. “Since my mana pool is so shallow, what would have happened if it was bigger.”

“Well considering the overflow lies entirely in the magic circuit, the size of your pool wouldn’t make a difference.” She grabs her chin, pondering a bit. “If anything, I would have to say your actual size would speed up the process, since your circuit can hold more, allowing for a bigger overflow.”

The magic circuit. A network of thread-like veins wrapped around the blood vessels. The purpose of which is to transfer magical energy more efficiently than the blood vessels can do on their own. With some effort, these circuits can be converted from the standard mana transfer to working with spiritual energy or qi.

Normally, when a pool fills up, all excess energy is expelled. Occasionally, however, some of that energy is stored in the circuit temporarily. Taking in external energy also requires it to be stored in the circuit before it can be processed. So essentially, storing energy in the circuit is what we refer to as overflow. It’s an entirely natural and well understood phenomenon in the magic community.

Since I initiated a mana overflow back in the forest, I had mana flowing throughout my entire body. That just brings up another question.

“Why does mana trigger the transformation?” I ask. “As far as I know, dragons are immune to magic, but susceptible to metal.”

Yukari holds out her hand and a gap appears above it. A couple of small metallic balls drop into her hands from the gap. One of them is gold, another silver, and the last might be copper.

“Most weapons used to slay dragons contains at least one of these metals.” She says. “Some of them have the metal mixed into the blade itself, while other have been adorned with them.”

“The mana dispersion property of noble metals.” I note.

That would imply that dragons are mana-based beings. It also explains the magic immunity.

“Isn’t my shallow mana pool going to become a hindrance then?” I ask. “With regard to my apparent dragon heritance, I mean.”

She drops the ball into a new gap. “From what I’ve gathered, no.” She states. “And even if that should be the case, we have plenty of gold to compensate.”

Noble metals all have a different dispersion rate. Gold has a dispersion rate at half of its absorption rate, making it a sort of mana storage. Mages use it as an emergency backup, while people like me can use it to cast spells despite our lacking mana.

I look up, mentally running through my list of questions. “So you took me here to monitor my transformation, more so than to help me train?” I ask.

She gives Ran a dismissive wave, to which the fox responds by disappearing into a white dust cloud, leaving behind a small slip of paper.

So that was a shikigami?

“No.” She softly answers. “I brought you here for another reason. I don’t believe the time is right to tell you, however, so do bear with me for a while longer, my child.” With that said, she puts on a prideful smile. “But that does not mean I don’t intend to train you. My promise to take you to the top still stands.”

It’s stupid. I know it shouldn’t, but that managed to tickle my fancy.

“I’d like another day to make sure my mana is back before I can resume our training.” I tell her.

“That works out perfectly then.” Her expression is back to the usual charismatic smirk. “Reimu has been having more trouble with this incident than usual. Ibaraki, the mountain hermit, and Futatsuiwa, the tanuki, have come up with a plan to take matters into their own hands.”

“And you would like me to help out?” I assume.

“I would like this incident solved as quickly and peacefully as possible.” She states. “And since they are waiting for a rift in the barrier to open, your help could ease the whole thing.”

Indeed. Managing those rifts is my primary job, after all. But with Reimu there, there’s no pressing reason for me to go.

That also reminds me. I should probably go see Akyuu soon. After all, I just disappeared on her for two days after an injury like that. I would like that to take higher priority than it probably should be. Though, I don’t think she’ll go anywhere, so she should be easy to find when I have the time.

I could also take leave for the outside world again and get Doc to fix my eye. Maybe he can do something about my transformation too. Whether that’s helping it along or reverting it. I mean, he’s skilled enough to revive me without using necromancy, so he should be able to do something.

[ ] Go foil some raccoon plans Go help Reimu
[ ] I owe it to Akyuu to let her know I’m okay
[ ] Getting Doc to double check my health is a priority
[ ] Actually, forget it. My body is ready to resume training


Somehow managed to get it done on time, and without cutting anything.

>>31291
Expected water, actually. Hoping for void. Wind is gonna be fun, though.

Also, I'd like to announce a small retcon, regarding the magic system. Back early on, I made it known that magic flows better without fabric, or the likes, in the way. While I did try to make it fit into these new systems, it just won't work with how I've designed things. None of you probably remember that line, but I'd rather be open about it.

Bet you weren't expecting an update. Because I sure as hell wasn't expect to finish it this early.


==========
13th of Planting Month 08:59
==========

“I’m not really in a state to help out, though.” I tell the sage. “It’s not every day I get a critical amount of mana drained from my body, so I can’t say for sure I’m back in top shape.”

“I made sure to leave you with enough mana, so as to not be a problem.” She replies proudly. “If there was any danger, it would already have happened.”

“Yeah, no.” I dismiss her. “I trust my mentor enough to believe in his trust of you, although draining my mana does put a strain on that.” I tell her honestly. “But you're not the authority when it comes to making the call on my overall health, especially not when you’re the cause of the concern.”

She closes her eyes and looks down. “I see. That’s disappointing but I won’t force anything.” She looks back up at me, all hints of emotion completely washed off her expression. “What do you intend to do instead then? Rest for another day?”

“Actually, I want to return to the outside shrine for a quick visit.” I tell her. “I’d like for Doc to double check my condition.”

“Do you still have the necklace?” She asks me.

I pull the small wooden tablet out from under my shirt. “Still wearing it.”

She walks up in front of me, pressing her hand against the necklace.

I can feel the magic flow from her palm, though only a little goes past the charm.

Without warning, she gives me a slight shove, forcing me to take a couple steps back.

As I look back up at her, I see she’s gone. And so is her house. Instead, I see the familiar scene of the old shrine.

I don’t get the chance to take in the view, though, as my phone starts to vibrate like crazy.

Pulling it out, the screen lights up with notifications that just keep scrolling. All of them are missed calls, from Renko no less.

According to the call history, she first tried yesterday around 23:15. Then again a minute later. And another minute. And another. They started to slow down around 2, taking breaks of up to fifteen minutes.

I don’t get to the top before I get another incoming call.

“I’m here.” I answer.

“Help!” I barely get to finish before she yells out from the other side. “West of Dokura falls.”

Dokura falls? That’s our territory according to the Watchers. It’s a stone’s throw away.

“I’ll be there immediately.” I reply. And hang up.

Without wasting another second, I turn around and dash, jumping down the first flight of stairs into the village.

On my way through the village, I spot Doc sitting under a tree, with a can in hand, trying to ignore Yukiko, the village’s yukionna. For the brief moment he’s within view, we manage to lock eyes.

No time to stop, though. Renko sounded too distressed to wait.


==========
13th of May 09:20
Dokura Falls, Mie Prefecture
==========

This most certainly wasn’t here the last time I checked.

In the short span I’ve been in Gensokyo, someone saw fit to erect an old crumbling western mansion inside a minor illusion barrier.

Questions. Why would someone build a mansion in such a way as to make it appear old and crumbling? Why a western design? Was it moved here? If so, why not build a new one instead?

Questions for later.

The surrounding barrier had no security on it, allowing anyone to pass through, making its only purpose to hide this crumbling mansion from a distance. That said, the wall surrounding the mansion's grounds has another type of barrier. From the quick examination I’ve done, it seems like a one-way trap, allowing things in but not out.

What’s more concerning is the fact something is walking around in there. And whatever it is, it’s not alive. It’s not emitting any spiritual energy.

Renko, from the second floor of the mansion, seems to have spotted me, by the frantic wave.

How should I go about telling her?

Keeping eye contact, I gesture in the direction of whatever that dead thing is, then cross my arms in a big X.

She looks in the same direction, then back at me. Without making any gesture back, she dives out of view from the window.

Well then, time to gather some intel before I spring this trap.

I pick up a sizable stone from the ground and chuck it inside the barrier, hitting the wall on the other side where that thing is.

No reaction. It stays still.

I pick up another stone and infuse it with my spiritual power, before throwing it the same way as the last stone.

It reacted. No big movements, though.

Picking up a third, I throw it across the garden away from both of us.

No reaction.

I then throw another stone, this one also charged with spiritual power.

And again, it reacts. Instead of just looking, though, now it walks to where I threw the stone.

So it reacts to spiritual energy rather than sound.

I try flaring up my own power, but it doesn’t react.

And it doesn’t seem to care about things outside the inner barrier, either. Both of the girls have a small spiritual footprint, so they should be safe given the distance between them and it.

Aside from the barrier, that’s as much information as I can get from out here.

I walk through the barrier, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of stepping through a one-way barrier.

Immediately that thing perks up and looks at me.

It’s a hooded figure, carrying around what’s either a broken shovel or an axe. The robe doesn’t cover its feet. Revealing that it’s both barefoot, and has seams running all around one of its ankles.

The figure grasps the shovel with both hands and runs at me, readying the makeshift weapon over it’s head.

I throw myself to the side, dodging its strike.

The sudden motion caused the hood to fall back, revealing its face. Or to be precise, the lack thereof. This thing has no face. The entire perimeter of where the face should be is outlined by a deep scar.

Nopperabou? No. They have a solid spiritual signature as a youkai. And more importantly, they never kill. They’ll scare the living shit out of you for fun, but they’ll never actually kill you.

This thing doesn’t have any spiritual power at all. Neither mana nor qi.

What in the actual fuck is this? Why does it look so human?

It pulls the spade up from the earth and turns toward me again. It starts rattling its head, causing an unusual grunt.

Even necromantic beings give off some form of energy.

Faceless takes a wide swing at me, forcing me to take another step back to exit its range.

I immediately step back in and hammer my fist into its liver.

The force causes him to move to the side, but no other reactions, no sign of pain.

I skip back a few steps, hurrying out of its range again.

Its humanoid appearance makes me think it has a skeletal structure similar to humans. The way it moves supports this idea. The problem, however, is that my spiritual power can’t penetrate its skin, so I can’t confirm it. That said, having a black void against the spiritually saturated background makes it far easier to track.

It jams the tip of its shovel into the ground.

The earth under my feet starts to crack. A cold blue light shines from the openings.

I jump back another good couple of steps to get out of the range of those cracks.

Then the light itself blows up into the air and disperses.

I didn’t detect any magic. No mana, no spiritual energy. I ask again; what in the actual fuck is this thing?

While its shovel is still in the ground, I charge in jumping, delivering a roundhouse kick to its neck with all the force I can muster.

It staggers backwards, its head at an angle, clearly showing I broke something.

And it cracks its neck back in place like nothing happened.

This thing isn’t going to go down from physical attacks, at least not blunt strikes like mine.

I reach for my talismans.

Which are in my bag. At Yukari’s place. Because I didn’t get the chance to fetch it. The only thing I still have are the silver knives, sheathed in my sarashi. They aren’t suited for cutting, but I should be able to use them for a ritual. The problem is, after I’ve filled them, I have to get them ready before they’ve dispersed too much of the energy. Normally, you’d do that last, but I don’t have that luxury right now.

I have eight knives tugged away. To banish him, I’d need at least three in the ground. Oh wait, shit, that’s right. I still have the Sumimaru’s trademark barrier. This is the exact moment I bought those lessons for. I can’t cast it barehanded like them, so I’ll need five reference points, or knives in this case.

It’s slow and easy to move around, so setting the boundary will be easy. Planting the final knife in its chest on the other hand, will be difficult. I don’t even know if I can pierce the skin with a knife. Though, it did feel fleshy enough to make it worth the gamble.

Seemingly tired of waiting, Faceless swings its shovel back around over its head, hammering it into the ground.

Cracks similar to the last ones appear again, this time shining with a black-green light.

Once again, I jump back.

This time, the magic is different. Rather than just exploding, a cylinder like object breaks through the cracks, immediately twisting towards me.

Before I can land, the thing hits my chest, pushing me to the ground and solidifies, taking on a bony texture like that of an exoskeleton.

This is bad. This is very bad.

I still have Doc’s seal. I could activate my limit breaker, then forcefully activate the seal to negate the side effects. Will it be enough, though? Will it be worth it? Do I have other options?

“Leave him alone, you freak!” Renko comes running out from the building, carrying a piece of rubble.

She chugs it at the beast, hitting it square in the face.

It lets out a hollow “Ungh” sound despite its lack of a mouth.

The bone holding me down softens up.

“Renko! What the hell are you doing?” I hear her foreign friend yell from inside the building.

“He came to help us!” The brunette yells back. “I can’t just watch as he gets killed because of us!”

The monster doesn’t take kindly to getting hit in the face with a rock, which is understandable, and starts chasing the girl, leaving its spade behind.

The bone softens some more.

I start pushing back against the bone with all my strength.

The blonde girl tackles her friend to the ground, saving her from the monster’s first strike.

They quickly get on their feet again and run.

The brunette runs towards the gates, picking up and tossing another rock.

The blonde, on the other hand, runs towards me and quickly gets her hands underneath the bone, trying to help me lift it.

I’m not complaining about the help, but she’s not helping. In which case, I just need to push harder.

And as if on cue, the bone shatters, freeing me.

I immediately start running towards Renko.

The monster has already made it to her.

It grabs her by the throat, lifting her up against the wall.

Kicking wildly and clawing at its wrist, Renko struggles, too preoccupied to see me coming.

As her kicking gets weaker, she reaches out for the monster instead.

Mana?

Before I realize it, there’s a hole going through the head of the monster. There’s also an intense pain spreading from my chest that makes it borderline impossible to breathe.

I fall to my knees, trying to regain my breath.

Was that magic? Did Renko just use magic?

“Renko. Are you okay?” Her friend runs past me.

“Somehow.” She takes a moment to cough. “Didn’t think we’d get through the night.”

“That’s why I told you we shouldn't come here.” Her friend argues.

“Ah. Ryuko.” She staggers on her legs and walks over, while I’m still regaining my breath. “Thank you. Really. I’m even more in your debt.”

She extends her hand to me.

Instead of taking it, I force myself to stand before grabbing her hand.

Like I thought, the magic circuit was clearly just used.

I inject a small bit of my own mana to probe at her reserves.

She stifles a moan.

I glance up at her.

A huge blush has spread from ear to ear. Probably embarrassed she let the moan escape. Not that I actually care.

“Sorry, should probably have warned you.” I say to her. “Injected mana feels warm. It shouldn’t last too long.”

“No, I was just surprised.” She admits. “It just felt strange. A bit pleasant, maybe.”

I redo the probe uninterrupted.

The capacity is clearly above average, but with that one spell alone, she’s dangerously low.

Must have been Magic Missile. A concentration of raw mana launched using even more mana. Whatever it can accomplish, other spells can do better at a lesser cost. It’s just the most instinctive spell to cast since it doesn’t require any special formula. That said, she managed to cast a spell.

“Renko. Whatever you just did, never do it again.” I tell her.

“I did that?” She asks, looking back at the re-dead corpse. “I thought you did it.”

I don’t reply to that, and instead start to inject more of my mana into her circuit. I can spare some of mine, and it should be enough to get her out of the danger zone. She’ll have to process it first, though, but it should still be quicker than recovering it on her own.

Or I was going to, but there’s an all too familiar ripple from the very edge of my senses.

My spiritual power starts to flare up against my will as my body begins producing and refining energy to the limit of its abilities.

Neither of them can see spiritual power like me, but it’s clear they’ve both noticed the pressure it gives off.

“Renko.” I do my best to remain calm. “I want you two to hide.”

There’s only one type of youkai that can trigger this response from me. And of the few that are in Japan right now, only one fits this exact subtype I’m detecting.

“What do you, ah ow ow.”

I tighten my grip to silence her.

“I’m serious, Renko.” I scan the area where I feel this presence coming from. “I’m not going to repeat myself again. Hide. And don’t come out until I give the clear. No. Matter. What.”

As I let go, she and her friend run back towards the building without a word.

“So it seems you’re done with them.” A dark mist hastily collects itself over a rose-bed, taking on a humanoid shape. “I despise needing to use innocent people like that, but you’re surprisingly hard to find despite being a beacon.”

“Maybe it’s because I don’t want to be found, by the likes of you.” I reply.

The shadow vanishes, revealing the figure underneath. A man, around his forties, above average build, pale white skin and the iconic fangs exposed by his professional smile.

A strigoi, a Romanian monster. Major type, undead, minor type, vampire. Normally strigoi are easy to deal with because of their similarity to zombies, but occasionally a guy like this pops up. Mages that died under the conditions to become a strigoi. Casually referred to as High Vampires, they most closely resemble the modern depiction of vampires.

“And after all the effort I put into luring you out.” He lets out an obnoxiously fake sigh. “I can guess you don’t want to reminisce about old times, then.”

“Do you mean like the last time you assaulted the shrine, trying to kill me?” I ask. “Or are you talking about the few times we met while Kaya deceived me?”

“Sarcasm doesn't suit you, kid.” He walks forward. “Submit to me peacefully, and I’ll make sure you die quick and painless. A deal far better than what you deserve, considering what you did to my daughter.”

“Kaya spent two weeks trying to kill me.” I keep faking my bravado. “Only those who are ready to die are allowed to kill. Therefore, I stand by my statement that I was justified in killing her.”

“So you want to do this the hard way.” He readies his cane. From experience, I know there’s a blade hidden in there.

The head of the cane explodes, to the surprise of both of us.

Mana.

“That’s far enough, rot-brain.”

The strigoi clenches both his teeth and the grip on his cane. “You filthy animal.”

To my surprise, Doc stands by the gate, pointing two fingers at the walking corpse.

“You know the pain of losing your child, and that’s driven you to hunt down her killer.” He states. “Now imagine what I would do, should you so much as touch my son.”

“Damn animal.” He turns around. “This isn’t over, kid. The moment your guard dog lets his guard down, I’ll strike again.”

With that said, he vanishes into a shadow mist and disperses, taking the entire building with it.

A few moments pass by before my spiritual power calms down, signaling that he is indeed gone.

“Can’t that old fuck just leave you alone already?” The fox asks as he walks up. “It’s been five years already.”

“You really saved me there, Doc.” I let out a sigh of relief.

“Forget it.” He pulls out a smoke, ignites his thumb and uses it to light it. “Odd place for a booty call, though. Not that I’m judging.”

“Even though you came to peep?” I retort. “Saw you with Yukiko earlier.”

“Don’t remind me.” He grunts.

“Renko! Blondie!” I call out.

They both stand up. They tried to hide in the grass, since it is tall, but it doesn’t really work without the house there.

“We’re going to the shrine.” Docs states. “Gotta make sure those gals are alright.”

I motion for them to follow us. Neither says anything on the way back.


==========
Hakurei Shrine - 10:02
==========

Renko has an aptitude for magic.

That’s not exactly rare, since the magic world is filled with humans like that. Though it’s rare for humans to just suddenly develop an ability like that. It’d be safer to assume she comes from a magus family. But then why hasn’t she studied? It’s unheard of for a magus family to not train their kids.

In either case, she’s a blank slate as a mage.

I’m an anti-mage. The opponents I specialize in fighting are mages. This came about because I lack the ability to cast spells myself, so I could study a wider array of theories, leading me to understand more spells as a way to be prepared against them.

I’ve agreed to train Renko to defend her friend against youkai. But if I took her as my apprentice, the possibilities of where I could take her would be endless. With my knowledge, I could lead her down the path of any mage she might want to become. I could specialize her in magic that would benefit the shrine like my barrier crafting.

The problem, however, is that I would have to drag her deep into my world to do it. To drag a common citizen into the world of magic, to expose them to a world where everyone is capable of launching the equivalent of a localized nuke at any time.

I still don’t believe neither she, nor her friend, belongs in the world of magic, and it would be cruel to drag them so deep into it without a gradual progression. I would rather just keep shoving them out of this world.

But still. With the amount of time I have left, she might be the only successor I’ll get to train myself. If I keep waiting for the perfect candidate to show up, I’ll die without leaving anything behind, and the shrine will have to find another successor on their own.

I’m almost certain she’ll say yes. Renko hungers for the power to protect her friend, for the knowledge to walk forward and grasp her goal, whatever that may be. Both are things I can give her.

But is it the right thing? If she accepts, there will be no going back. Not for her, nor for me.

[ ] Extend my apprenticeship to Renko
[ ] Withhold my apprenticeship from Renko


And just to be clear, this is not a route lock

==========
Hakurei Shrine - 10:04
==========

“Didn’t tell me you’d be back.” The old crow comments as he sits down next to me.

“It was an in-the-moment decision.” I admit. “I just needed some distance from Yukari to calm down.”

“Your training not going well?” He opens a canned beer he brought with him. “Or is it related to that eye of yours?”

“No. This eye is my own fuckup.” I lean back against a support beam. “I just hate Yukari’s way of doing things. She never tells me anything, yet expects me to just know.”

“But you’re a smart kid. Maybe she just has high expectations of you?” He takes a sip of his beer.

“Doesn’t change the fact I hate how she does things.”

“So what exactly didn’t she tell you?” He asks.

“Well, apparently I’m half dragon. I’m not so mad she didn’t tell me about that, to be honest. But as I was starting the transformation on my own, unknowingly, she decided to not tell me and instead stop it by force.” I take a deep breath, calming myself down again. “If she’d just explained it, I’d have stopped and gone along with her.”

“So you finally learned about that.” He puts the can down next to him. “And I assume you have some questions you want answered?”

I look him in the eyes for a second.

“No. I can trust you guys enough to know you had a reason for not telling me. Yukari hasn’t earned that trust yet.”

“Oh. Then don’t mind if I do.” He pulls out another can of beer.

“You old drunk.”

He looks me straight in the eyes and pulls out yet another one from who knows where. “As if this watered up stuff could ever make me drunk.” He chuckles at his own joke before taking a swig. “That’s the one thing I miss about living with the Tengu. We even used to be able to get some alcohol from the Oni.”

“If I ever go to Youkai Mountain, I’ll see if I can bring some with me.” I tell him, though I’m not sure I’ll ever have a reason to go there.

“How kind.” He comments. “If you should ever get into trouble with them, for any reason, just invoke my name. It should still hold some power.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask for a long time now, but how come you left the other Tengu?” I ask.

He waves his hand dismissingly. “Long boring story. Short version; I fucked up and had to leave.”

“So even the great Kohane can fuck up?” I feign surprise.

He chuckles. “Yeah, that was my wakeup call. I’m not invincible.” He puts down his second empty can. “My turn. What happened with your eye?”

“I’d just gotten my left arm back. Feeling confident, I decided to test it against a celestial. Turns out they can endure quite the heavy hits, by the way. By the end, a rock they threw hit me right under the eye, cutting up this area.” I measure out the scar with my fingers.

“Hmm.” He closes his eyes and thinks for a few seconds. “Let me guess, you weren’t taking them seriously? Thinking they couldn’t land a hit, you got complacent and bored?”

“More or less.” I admit.

“After all the years I’ve helped you grow as a fighter, you still haven’t managed to overcome that little flaw of yours.” He says. “Since I might not get many more chances to help you grow, want me to just be direct about it?”

“I obviously haven’t been able to figure it out on my own yet, so let’s hear it.”

“You love fighting.” He states. “For a warrior, that’s both a blessing and a curse. When you get fired up, you can draw out your full potential. You can fight with a smile on your face, ignoring any and all damage you might have sustained as you continue to push for victory, because it’s fun.” He says smiling. “But that requires us to get fired up. And not a lot of opponents can do that. They’re either too weak to be worth our effort, or so strong we know we can’t beat them to begin with. The trick is to learn to enjoy every fight. Every battle is an experience you’ll only ever get once, after all.”

It’s true I love fighting. But it’s been so long since I last had a good match that I can’t seem to recall it.

“Kid!” I hear Doc call out. “Your turn.”

“Time to go.” I stand up.

“Before that.” He remains sitting. “Just know that regardless of what happens, this place will always be your home. Come visit once in a while.”

“I’ll try my best, Coach.”

I walk back to the front of the shrine where Doc’s office is situated and catch the girls just as they leave the building. Each of them seem to be carrying a filled glass of some transparent liquid. They both make eye contact with me as we pass each other, but none of us says a word.

Doc doesn’t say anything either, though we’ve gone through this process so many times words really aren’t necessary more. Which I should probably take as a sign to get my ass in gear.

Walking into the back room, I go through the usual procedure as I wait for him; stripping down and taking seat in the chair.

“Just get on the bed, and put your left arm on the support.” He instructs me from the other room. “I’m not gonna bother with the little details today.”

“How were the girls?” I ask, moving as I’m told.

“Brown one has a very slight case of malnutrition, far within the safe parameters. I suspect it’s from her diet. The blonde one swings a little to the opposite side. Her muscle mass is lower than average, though her total weight is perfectly average. They were both exhausted, having been awake all night, so I gave them some watered down energy drinks, which should keep them awake until they get home. Beyond that, I found nothing.”

So that ancient fucker really didn’t do anything to them. That’s a relief. I’d honestly expected him to go after my associates if they were weaker than me. That’s what I would have done if our roles were reversed. I killed his daughter, so it’d make sense for him to go after people close to me to make me feel the same sense of loss. Then again, I never really got to know him. I only met him once while Kaya was alive after all.

Doc walks into the room, carrying a small glass with him. Which holds an eye in it? He places it on the table next to the bed.

Without saying anything, he starts examining my arm, probing into it with his mana.

“Interesting.” He breaks the silence. “After months, you’d expect the muscles to have grown weaker. But from the looks of it, the stimulation has been copied over from your right arm.”

“So that’s why it felt so great from the start.” I comment. “Right when I got it back, it felt as it’d never been paralyzed.”

“I see. Well, there’s nothing wrong with it, so the rest is on you.” He states. “Now then, could you open your eye?”

I do as I’m told, though I dislike the feeling.

Doc grabs around my head and stares into the empty socket. His golden irises start shining as he’s examining me, pulling on my head to turn it from time to time.

“Gensokyo is a couple hundred years behind us, in terms of technology, right?” He asks. “I have to commend whoever removed your eye. It’s a fine job they’ve done. Though it seems they didn’t know about your weakness to metal, going by the fact the internal scar hasn’t healed yet.”

“I may be confident to the point of arrogance, but I won’t go around broadcasting my weakness to the world.” I tell him.

“While your advanced regeneration can push back the limit of what’s considered lethal to you, it can only repair, not rebuild.” He starts. “Left alone, your eye won’t regrow. And since the removal was done using metallic tools, I’ll have to burn more of your life force to fix it.”

“And I’m guessing you’re not going to?” I ask.

“Depends. Do you actually need it?” He asks back. “Against my better judgment, I will fix it if you actually need it, but I would rather wait if I’m to be honest.”

“Considering I use my spiritual power as my primary means of observation, I can easily make do with one eye.” I tell him.

“As I thought.” He picks up the eye glass. “Until we’re ready to properly restore your eye, you’ll have to use this prosthetic.” He gives the fake eye a squeeze. “It’ll prevent your body from filling the socket and help your eyelids function properly. Plus it’ll look a little less intense than the eye-patch.”

“The scar will still stand out, though.” I comment.

“It’s been healing nicely. It’ll be gone in no time.” He assures me. “Now, try to resist the urge to blink while I insert this.”

I nod as much as I can while lying down.

Using magic, he shrinks the eye enough to get it through my socket. As it’s being inserted, I lose track of it. I can’t see inside my own body with spiritual power, after all. The dry, slightly cold feeling assures me it’s been grown to its proper size, filling in nicely.

“This might be uncomfortable.” He says before he starts rotating the fake eye around. “Good. Now try blinking.”

It really feels strange. The dry feeling is mostly gone, and the eye has started to match my body temperature. It’s still going to take some time getting used to this feeling, though.

“Blinking seems fine. Size is good.” He places his thumb at the top of my nose bridge, with two fingers on the side of my head, next to my eye.

I feel a jolt running through my face, as he casts a spell.

“Focus on my finger.” He says raising an index finger above me.

It’s a typical focus test. Moving the finger around, I track it with my eyes, or eye in this case.

“Alright, seems to work fine.” He says. “I connected the glass eye to the muscles with a mana link. It’ll move around like the real one would. Last thing is the color. Can’t have you walk around with a grey eye after all.”

All he does for that is just touching the eye directly. I feel nothing as he does this.

“Good. Now take a look in the mirror, if you would.” He gestures me to go ahead.

Maintaining eye contact with my handsome reflection, I move my head around to get a look at the eye, and it tracks my reflection perfectly. The color he chose is the same deep blue used to mask my natural golden eyes. The only problem is that currently the illusion is gone and I look heterochromatic, like some sort of fanfiction child. It should only be a couple minutes before the illusion restores itself and it looks normal again. The only other thing being the scar, which doesn’t look too bad, though that too will be gone in a couple more days.

“You never cease to amaze me, Doc.” I comment.

“Either that’s a compliment, or a remark on how little you think of my skills.” He takes a sip of his coffee, hiding his smirk.

I sit down on the bed again. “While we’re still on that topic. How much life do I have left?” I ask.

“I can’t say for certain.” He puts the cup down. “I would have to do an in-depth analysis to figure out the exact numbers. I’d wager on ten years at best, though.”

“Ten more years?” I ask. “Think that’ll change if I complete my transformation into a dragon?”

“Yeah, I figured you’d learned about that, with your back and all.” He gestures towards me. “Considering your life force amounted to the average human’s, and the fact most dragons outlive even youkai sages, I’d say there’s a good chance you’d be able to extend your own life.”

“And in your opinion, how likely is it I can complete a transformation into a dragon?” I ask.

“Honestly, I have no clue. You’re the first dragon hybrid I’ve met, after all.” He admits. “You’re in your prime, though, so unless there are other criteria, I’d say you have the best chance for success now.”

“I see.” Something to bring up with Yukari.

“Obviously, I’ll do what I can to help you in that regard.” He comments. “You humans have such short lifespans, it’s over before it even begins. Yours being even shorter.”

With that comment, he leaves the room.

After getting dressed again, I leave the office and make my way to the shrine’s front steps where the girls have situated themselves.

“Renko. We gotta talk.” I state.

She lifts her head to look at me, but lies back down. “Too tired for a lecture.” She complains.

“You have a talent for magic, Renko.” I crouch. “If you become my successor, I’ll pass on everything I know and help you drag out your full potential.”

She doesn’t answer. Instead she just stares into the sky.

“If I become your successor, I’ll have to commit to your world?” She asks.

“Wait. Renko. You can’t!” Her blonde friend voices her opinion. “You shouldn’t trust him.”

“That’s right, Renko.” I ignore her friend. “If you choose to accept, you’ll formally enter the world of magic. There’ll be no turning back, no way to return to being a normal human.”

“And what exactly would you expect me to do, as I study under you?” She asks.

“You can’t be serious, Renko.” Blondie stands up.

“Once you’ve completed the initial training, so we can expect you to handle a youkai in combat, you’ll be tasked with locating and repairing holes in a large barrier.” I tell her.

“A barrier?” She sits up. “For what reason?”

“I can’t tell you.” I answer.

“I decline.” She states, lying back down. “We have our own goal, and I would be forced to give it up, if I joined you.”

“A shame.” I stand up. “But that’s that. Any other questions you have before I kick you out of my home?”

“Is he, that haughty pale guy, going to come after us again?” Renko asks.

“I don’t know.” I answer. “If he thinks I’ll come save you again, he might.”

“I see. Let’s head home, Mary.” The tomboy gets up. “I’m getting tired again already.”

I think the outburst earlier drained Blondie for energy. She hasn’t spoken since, and her movement has gotten sluggish.

“Yeah, let’s.” Blondie lazily pushes herself off the wall. “Just don’t listen to him, alright?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” She looks back at me just before the two of them start descending the stairs. As she does, she pulls out her phone, just enough to make sure I can see it, while still keeping it hidden from her friend.

She’s telling me to expect a call? Should probably have told her I’m going back to Gensokyo later today, if I’ve read Yukari right. Or maybe she’s telling me to call her soon. Assuming she’s sticking to the small muscle training plan I’ve given her, she should soon be ready to begin for real. I’ll call her then, no sooner.

And my phone rings.

To my surprise, it’s not Renko who got very impatient, but a rather ballsy professor.

I answer the call. “Speak.”

Yumemi doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. “I wanna talk. In person.” She states.


==========
Mokuyama, Kyoto - 13:16
==========

As I ascend along the mountain path, I emit a constant stream of spiritual energy, meticulously keeping an eye on everything in my surroundings.

So far I haven’t sensed any other people. I haven’t found any traps, nor do I sense any processed mana.

Seems like she’s kept her word.

She stands up from the tree stump and walks down the path to greet me as I approach.

I stop once there’s approximately ten meters between us. Even uphill, that’s a small distance I can cover in an instant, in case things takes a turn for the worse.

“Ryuko,” she starts.

“Stop.” I cut her off. “First I’d like to say, the only reason I’m here is because I appreciate the balls it’d take to contact me after our last encounter. The situation hasn’t change, so keep that in mind.”

“I know.” She states.” And I’ve come to make a deal. I know that’s something you people do.”

I sigh. “You know, internally we refer to these deals as the Devil’s Contract.” I explain. “We’ll give you what you ask, if you can provide something equal in return. Not negotiable.”

“I had a feeling that was the case.”

“Oh really? In that case, what is it you want?” I hold my arms.

“Knowledge.” She states firmly. “I want to know everything there is to know about magic.”

And this is the point where I demand she become my successor in return, or what? It honestly seems too convenient for Renko to reject me only for another opportunity to jump up immediately afterwards. Too bad I don’t trust her enough to impart my responsibilities with her.

“I’m afraid that’s impossible.” I tell her. “I’m only a human after all, not some genie.”

She clenches her fists.

“Magic is not like you think it is.” I continue. “Magic and science are two sides of the same coin. While science is a process of discovery through observation, magic is the process of discovery through action. The goal of discovering the truth about everything is the same for both, though their methods differ.” I explain to her. “That little bit was a freebie.”

“Then, what do you know about? What knowledge can you teach me?” She asks.

“So, you’re asking me to teach you everything I know? To pass on two decades of accumulated experience?” I ask her. “What do you imagine the price for that is?”

“The fact you’re asking, means it’s more than I can pay.” She clicks her tongue. “And I finally thought we’d gotten a lead.”

“To clarify the price. It’d take roughly ten to fifteen years to properly pass on all my knowledge. After that, you’d have to give me twenty years of your life.” I tell her. “You’d be sixty years old by the time you’ve fulfilled your end.”

“Is that a form of marriage proposal?” She raises an eyebrow.

“Slavery.” I correct her. “Enforced by a magical contract no less, meaning if either of us broke our side of the deal, we’d die.”

“Yeah, there’s no way I could agree to that.” With her head hanging, she walks back to her tree stump.

“So tell me, why do you want magic so bad?” I ask her.

“Because science has failed me.” She says. “With the current level of technology, there’s no way I can go back. And I don’t have the equipment to prove the theories necessary to advance science. My only other option is to kickstart the discovery of magic or accept my fate.”

“Yeah, I followed none of that.” Though I have an idea, but it’s too farfetched.

“I need magic if I want to return home.” She states. “But I can’t cast spells. It’s the same for Chiyuri, since she came with me here.”

Yeah, now there’s no way I can make her my successor. She doesn’t just want to make magic public knowledge, she wants to leave. Entrusting her with the Great Hakurei Barrier is out of the question. Which is too bad, because she has potential. She technically already qualifies for the title of Mage.

“My stance hasn’t changed.” I tell her. “I refuse to knowingly disclose magic to the public, even by proxy.”

“I know. And I doubt that will change any time soon.” She says. “That’s why, I had hoped you’d help me. So I wouldn’t need to make magic public, because it’s still too soon.”

“To be honest, I don’t want you to become part of the world of magic. It’s far from pleasant.” I tell her.

“That’s the impression I’ve gotten.” She leans over, resting herself on her knees. “Which means I’m stuck, unless we have a breakthrough.”

My guts are telling me she’s purposefully trying to guilt trip me. But at the same time, there’s nothing about her body language that suggests she’s lying.

Helping her might be hypocritical of me, since I’ve denied Renko time and time again. But at the same time, Yumemi is already firmly aware of magic, considering she’s made her own spells.

“Assuming I were to agree to teach you about magic, what would you be able to offer me in return?” I ask.

She looks up at me. “If it’s about slavery, then I’d rather not.”

“No, that’s the price for buying everything I know about magic as a whole.” I correct her. “If I were to teach you the basics of magic, enough so that you would be able to start learning on your own. What would you give me in return for that?” I kneel in front of her, so we’re on eye level.

“I,” she trails off, “I don’t know what you want.”

“Part of I what want, is an unbreakable promise that you won’t pass on my teachings to the public, either directly or indirectly. Of course, you may share it with your friend, but you’ll be responsible for how she handles the knowledge.” I stand back up. “Second, I want a full copy of all your current research into magic.”

“Is that all?” She asks. “That should be easy enough.”

“No.” I cut her joy short. Out of all the things I know you have, that’s all I want. But it’s not a fair trade. Therefor, what more can you offer me to make this worth my time and effort?”

“Uhh.” She raises her eyebrows, which then turns to a frown. She covers her mouth as she closes her eyes, humming to herself. There’s a sigh and she moves her hand to her forehead. Then she crosses her arms and leans back, before finally sitting back upright. “I have nothing. All my money goes to my research, so I have nothing to spare. I doubt I have a skill you could put to use. If I have anything to offer, it’d have to be my body.”

“I’d rather not take that deal.” I state. “Either way, this was a hypothetical question. I will think about it, though. So until I’ve made up my mind, try to think of something worthwhile for compensation.”

“Wait. What do you mean not worthwhile?” She jumps up. “I’ll have you know I’m a prize.”

“Seems you got your energy back.” I ignore her comment, which warrants a faint blush from her. “Then I’ll take my leave for today. I’ll be unavailable in the days to come, so I’ll contact you whenever I have the time.”


==========
16th of Planting Month, 12:20
Yakumo House, Gensokyo’s Border
==========

She strikes my chin from below, forcing me to stagger backwards.

Taking advantage of the situation, Ran strikes me in the chest, knocking me to the ground, yet again.

“That makes twelve.” The fox clone relaxes her stance.” Are you sure you don’t need a break? I could bring something to drink.”

“I felt like I was on the verge of figuring something out, but I think I lost it.” I kick my legs into the air, jumping back up on my feet. “I felt like I could match your moves a bit. I even managed to land a solid blow.”

“Only once, though.” She stuffs her hands into her sleeves. “But it’s going to take more than that to destroy this shikigami.”

“But of course. You’re in a different league than me entirely.” I admit. “So I appreciate you sparring with me, even though you have other things to attend to.”

It’s amazing, really. Ran apparently has seventeen shikigami running around constantly, each of them doing their own thing. Since she’s directly controlling them, it means she’s barley giving this one five percent, and she still has to hold back to fight me fairly.

Another one of Ran’s shikigami walk out of the door with a tray in hand, closing the door behind her with her tails.

“This should do the trick.” Ran number two holds out the tray.

Going by the scent, it’s citrus flavored water. Going by the taste, it’s lemon. It’s a bland taste, everything considered, but refreshing nonetheless.

“It’s rather amazing I never noticed there was more than one of you.” I put the glass back on the tray. “Given my ability to track spiritual energy and all.”

Both of them emit a sizable about of spiritual energy, completely identical to each other. Nothing like the level Yukari is emitting, but enough to stand out from the sage’s fog of energy.

“Aside from my main body, there’s normally only one shikigami in this house.” Ran number one looks towards the house. “And since my room is physically disconnected from the house, it makes sense you can’t sense it from here.”

I follow her gaze, sending a wave of energy through the house giving it another look. Which turns up empty.

So I haven’t sensed the real Ran yet? Not that that would surprise me, after all. Foxes are the masters of deception and trickery. Something so simple as hiding her main body so people like me can’t find it should be child’s play to her.

“Let me change the topic.” Ran number one motions me back towards the house. “Isn’t it about time you get back to Yukari’s training?”

“That’s right.” Ran number two steps aside, making room for me. “It’s been a few days since you’ve come back, and you haven’t even spoken to her yet.”

“It feels like an uphill battle to study under her.” Taking her up on the offer, I take a seat on the walkway. “It’s like we keep talking past each other.”

“You’ve only ever had one teacher, right?” The first Ran asks. “It might just take a bit of time before you two adjust to each other.”

“Though I admit Yukari can be a handful at times.” Ran the Second adds. “I’ve known her for centuries, and she still keeps me in the dark about a lot of things.”

“So I just have to trust her.” I finish off her point. “I get that much, but she hasn’t exactly proven trustworthy in my opinion.”

Number One cocks her head slightly. “Well, that’s fair. She can definitely be a handful.” Ran number one agrees. “And it’s not like I can ask you to trust her, or me for that matter.”

“She is trying, though.” Number Two raises her index finger. “She has been spending a lot of late nights, going over her old progress. Not that she wants you to know, though.”

“Anyway.”” Number one quickly adds. “All I’ll ask of you, is that you give her a chance.”

“That’s essentially the same as asking me to trust her, though.” I argue. “Of course, if I were to back out now, it’d just prove how weak my resolve to become stronger actually is. It’ll only get rougher from here on anyway.”

Her ears flick, visibly through her hat. “Great. So with that settled, what’s your plan now? Wanting to spar all day again?”

[ ] It’s about time I get started with Yukari again
[ ] I’m long overdo on letting Akyuu know I’m alright
[ ] Sparing doesn’t seem like a bad idea. I might be able to figure that something out.
- [ ] It felt like I knew what she was going to do ahead of time
- [ ] It felt like my movement could keep up with my reaction for a while
[ ] Ran still owes me some lessons on Shikigami

==========
16th of Planting Month, 12:25
Yakumo House, Gensokyo’s Border
==========

“As fun as it sounds to spar for another whole day, I think it’s about time I got back to Yukari.” I tell her. “After all, I came here to train under her.”

The fox closes her eyes and hums to herself a bit. “Lady Yukari should be in her study right about now.”

“Thank you.” I give her a small polite bow. “I’ll be sure to get back to you once I have some more free time. Learning to use shikigami would be incredibly useful.”

“Paper shikigami are tools.” The other Ran adds in. “Use them right and they’ll be helpful. But use them wrong and they’ll only get in the way.”

“For example,” The first Ran holds up a finger. “By deploying multiple shikigami, I have the ability to be in several places at the same time. And while each shikigami is weaker than my main body, they’re more than capable of doing the tasks I need them to do.”

“Figured.” I shrug. “Even a weak copy of yours need to hold back to come down to my level.”

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Ryuko.” She smiles widely. “I’m old enough to soon lose my ninth tail again. No normal human would be able to spar with me, even with my power fragmented like this.”

“Most people aren’t dragons either.” I comment as I walk over to the faucet.

I turn it on and take seat right underneath the water stream, just to get the worst sweat off me.

I can almost hear the heat leaving my body, as I let the cold water soak me completely.

Typically, I have talismans attached to my back which help me regulate my body’s heat. I’ve had to take them off seeing as they were getting unstable after a lot of use. And I don’t make these in bulk like most other talismans.

Having cooled off again, I turn off the faucet and stand back up.

Water - Repel

I focus the enchantment into the palms of my hands, and as it’s completed, I yank my hands down to my sides. For a lack of a better description, the water explodes off me and my clothes, flying out in every direction, leaving me completely dry again.

When Yumemi talks about the benefits of magic, I think it’s small things like this she imagines. Because it’s moments like this I’m glad I’ve learned enchantments.

When people think of enchantments, they typically think of granting a sword an elemental attribute or a piece of clothing some amplifying properties. Both of those do fall under enchanting, since they alter the properties of something, but they lack the imagination to truly use this school of magic.

Of course, the use of enchanting, like any magic, the way you use it depends on the catalyst chosen. In my case, I use words as a catalyst for enchanting. This means there are things I can do which other catalysts can’t, such as masking my enchantments with different languages or even inventing my own language to use. But it also restricts me in several ways, like being unable to create advanced enchantments. I’m restricted to three words, where single words create powerful but often unpredictable effects, while chained words have a more controlled though weaker effect.

The effects of the words depends on the caster’s understanding of the word. Like the word, “Weight” on its own would increase the weight of the targeted object, but with additional words the enchantment can be modified to lighten the weight, both relatively and absolutely.

Of course it’s not that simple, or anyone could master it. Most enchantments depend on the target as well, and how the caster relates the word to the target. This can be a strength of using words as a catalyst, since it allows for some complexity despite the initial lack thereof, but if this aspect is not understood, it can be quite problematic to use single words.

Take “Purge” for example. “To get rid of the undesirable. To clean impurities.” If I were to use that on a glass of water, it would become everyday tap water, by removing anything that would change that, though it can’t add anything to the water. Using Purge on a rock would effectively just clean it, remove moss dirt and bird shit.

Using Purge on living beings is remarkably safe despite how powerful the word is. It removes all foreign substances and objects from inside the body. Which include poisons like alcohol, parasites and implanted objects like screws and stitches, in case you’d had a surgery.

Now, the enchantment I used, “Water, Repel.” Being only two words, it’s a powerful enchantment which temporarily repels water from the surface of my skin. The base word “Repel” is placed as the second word in the chain. This is only allowed because the first word isn’t a property or action of some sort, and this has the effect of weakening the enchantment below the two word chain to a three word chain, while turning the first word into a target modifier. It would have been possible to add a third word, weakening the spell to a four word chain, which has virtually no effect.

And while I’ve been monologuing about things I clearly know and have no real reason to go over again, I’ve made my way to Yukari’s study.

I knock on the door.

“Come in, Ryuko.” She replies almost immediately.

As I slide open the door, she folds in a scroll she’d been reading, from the looks of it.

“I’ve confirmed it with Ran.” I state. “My body has recovered fully, with the exception of my eye.”

Storing the scroll in the cabinet behind her, she stands up. “Then let us get started.” She says, mildly enthusiastically. “Follow me outside.”

“So, where are we going to pick up?” I ask her.

“Little old Junya told me you learn best when you learn on your own.” She answers. “So I tried to just push you in the right direction, but otherwise leave you to yourself.”

“Which really only works if I have more of an idea where I’m going.” I reply. “Without knowing where to even start, I ended up going nowhere.”

The sage looks back up at me. “Wrong.” She states, looking back ahead to where she’s going. “You actually ended up going backwards, from where I wanted you to go. Which is entirely my fault.”

She slides open the door outside, revealing a scenery entirely different than the grounds the house is built on.In fact, stepping outside and looking back at the house reveals nothing but a door by its lonesome self.

The location itself is a flat mountain top. I can see the human village off in the distance, but it’s far, far away.

“This here,” she draws a line in the dirt with her parasol, “is one of Gensokyo’s entrances to heaven. I’m sure you can feel it, right?”

“Yeah, this place is charged with spiritual energy, beyond what even Inari’s shrine can manage.” And she’s one of the more visited shrines too, because of the unique entrance. “You’re not asking me to go to heaven, right?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “Without the Yama’s pass, you’d walk endlessly towards heaven without getting any closer, yet still get further away from earth.” She steps over to my side of the line she drew. “I’m going to have you rediscover the nature of spiritual energy, of this higher dimensional power we can tap into.”

Without warning she grabs my collar and with inhuman force, drags me towards her before letting go.

“What the hell?” I protest. “Warn me before you do stuff like that.”

“Take a look behind you, if you would.” Yukari instructs calmly.

Behind me? There’s nothing behind- is that me? Or my body, rather.

I look at my hands.

Transparent. Jade. Liquid. Embers.

My hands, no my entire current body is made from this, these burning watery embers.

“What’s going on, Yukari?” I turn back around to face her.

“I’ve extracted a large portion of your spiritual energy and linked it directly to your consciousness.” She states, as she walks through me to my physical body. My god, that’s a strange feeling. “The energy you’re attached to right now will slowly disperse, naturally. Once it’s all gone, you’ll wake up back in your own body.”

I take another look at my hands.

So this is what my spiritual power looks like? Burning green water? Normally, you can’t see your own spiritual power, since it’d cause an effect similar to light pollution, making you unable to detect anything but yourself.

“Until you can create a barrier, no matter how small, or until your spiritual power runs out, you’ll be staying on this mountain.” My body disappears into Yukari’s gap. “With your power, that could take a few days. Until then, we’ll be keeping your body safe.”

“Wait. You’re doing it again.” I stop her just before she steps into her gap herself. “Where am I even supposed to start this training?”

“Start by trying to create a barrier.” She states. “Then ponder the results. Consider why I took you here of all places. Then try to get a feel for spiritual energy again.”

With that said, she disappears, closing the gap behind her.

I swear, if this is how we’re going to keep training, then I’ll be better off going back to the shrine. At least she gave me a hint this time.

Anyway. Since she implied creating a barrier would be tougher in this state, I should do it properly instead to taking all the shortcuts I’ve learned.

I straighten out my stance, standing tall as I start spooling up my spiritual energy.

And to my surprise, I can actually see it moving inside of my immaterial body, bubbling up as it moves around.

I clap my hands together, pressing each finger against its opposite as I spread them out as far as I can before I fold them into each other. With my hands intertwined, I press my thumbs against each other and channel my spiritual energy into the space between my palms.

“Curabitur, bibendum, eu.” I chant.

It’s a foreign chant, obviously. This one is the easiest barrier in my entire arsenal, creating a simple flat surface exactly one meter ahead of me, centered and angled relative to my hips. The simplicity comes at the cost of strength, though. It’ll be enough to stop the average human, but anyone worth their salt can break it.

Yet nothing happens.

I felt the spiritual energy leave me like usual, yet nothing happened.

Just as I pull my hands apart again, a sphere falls out from in between them, dispersing before it hits the ground.

What?

I repeat the spell and the same thing happens again.

This has never happened before.

I do it again, this time pushing the ball up before it has a chance to fall, though it disperses regardless as soon as I’ve completed the spell.


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Mountain top, Gensokyo - 16:18
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Are you fucking serious?

I march to the other end of the small plateau, running both hands through my hair.

How can it be so fucking simple?

“Fuck!” I yell out and start stomping back to the other end again.

I’m missing something. I gotta be. I need to be.

I hold out both my hands, imagining a perfect square filling the space between them. As I start to pour spiritual energy into it, the cube appears.

It worked. Fuck.

I throw the cube on the ground, shattering it.

Thirteen years. It’s taken me thirteen years to master barrier crafting, to understand the underlying formulae, why they’re used and how to mix and match to get the desired result.

And all of that can be ignored just by imagining it.

I kick a rock with all the anger in my nonexistent body, only to pass through the small stone.

Just thinking about all the possibilities I’ll have with this fills me with as much excitement as frustration. And I have no idea how to describe this feeling which only makes it worse.

But why the hell does it work? It’s never been this easy when I had a body. Is it because I’m a spiritual being right now, or a pseudo spiritual being at least. I’m still attached to my body.

Does it have anything to do with this place? Yukari did say it was special. One of the entries to heaven, a place brimming with spiritual energy.

The relation to heaven doesn’t matter, since Yukari can do this too wherever. Is it the spiritual power? If so, why could she do it back at her place even though I couldn’t?


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22:54
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I’m exhausted. Yet I’m not tired.

This body doesn’t feel exhaustion the same way my physical body does. Rather, I can feel I just need a break, a good few hours to just relax. The problem is, there’s nothing else to do up here, so I get bored out of my mind as soon as I try to stop thinking about anything.

Normally, when I need a break from thinking, I just work out, lets me go on auto-pilot. If I could at least start a fire, I’d have something to distract me visually. All I have is the clear night sky. And as beautiful as it is, it never changes so there’s nothing new to spot.

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05:37
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So I’m starting to notice patterns with what I can and can’t do with spiritual power by just imagining it.

Pattern one. There’s literally no shape I can’t create, as long as I have enough spiritual energy to form it. I can even determine the density of objects, which will obviously impact how solid they are.

Pattern two. Animating these objects requires focus. If I focus on an existing object, presumably one I’ve created, I can alter its shape. The problem arises from the fact it takes the shape that dominates my mind. So to animate it, I have to imagine every step of the animation from shape A to shape B. Skipping back and forth in my thoughts causes the shape to skip back and forth too, making it unstable and breaks.

Pattern three. All these objects have a relative anchor point, which seem to default to my primary hand, though it can be changed easily. The shapes aren’t bound to this point by default either, but is another things that can be changed relatively easily. Using this point, I don’t need to actually touch the shape to create or manipulate it.

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12:12
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I might have gotten little carried away when experimenting, but I can create and maintain about twenty of these shapes at once, if I keep them all simple. I need them all within my field of view, otherwise I’ll lose track of it, because each of them require their own image, meaning I have to multitask to do this.

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20:51
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Enchantments works too. Though this requires the dual casting skill I picked up a few years back.

Since I usually have to use a formula to create barriers, weaving enchantments into them usually meant adding a few variables into the mix. But if I do it like this, I have to cast the enchantment on the energy itself, which was a challenge by itself, but oddly interesting.

I haven’t been able to casts enchantments like this either. Those require a catalyst regardless.

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02:42
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Something’s off about the barriers created like this. I tried recreating a tried and true barrier type using this spiritual shaping skill, and something seems very off about it.

Actually, it looks like a brute-forced version of the barrier, which is unlike the weaving required to shape it using the spell.

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03:36
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So that’s it. I still have to weave the barrier to make it work. I just have to do it manually while keeping the barrier as a whole in mind.

Seems unreasonably hard. It’d require an inhuman level on concentration and memory to keep track of this level of detail.

To try and visualize it, imagine a rope. In order to make a rope, you have to wrap a bunch of thin threads together. Then wrap those threads together. And then those, and so on until you have a nice and thick rope. A lengthy piece of work that produces a solid result.

But then we have machines that can do the same exact thing, but quicker, of better, since they can weave the threads in a more entwined manner, allowing them to use each other for more strength while being thinner.

It’s the same difference there’s between using this shaping skill and using standardized spells.

Sure, an inherent flaw of the spells is the need for an underlying structure, dictating it’s pattern and giving it a sense of uniform and reusability. I mean, that’s not a bad thing, but it means you need to generalize a way to calculate all of that on the fly before you can create it as a spell.

Shaping is far less restrictive, since you can shape it anyway you want. The problem arises from the fact that you need certain aspects for the barrier to be stable. Creating that manually takes more time, though it’s something that will get easier with practice, as you can generalize that part of it. Of course, doing that means you restrict yourself on the type of barrier based on the foundation, but more so is that you start moving back to the spell based creation instead of the shaping.

Combining the two is an obvious choice too, which doesn’t seem unreasonable after a bit of practice.

Though that line of thinking has gotten me curious.

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09:02
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Took some trial and error, but I somehow managed to anchor the shape to the earth, making it stationary in the air. I mean, that in itself was easy, since I can just anchor it to something obvious.

No, the hard part came afterwards as I started to play with the restrictions of this.

Anchoring the shape to something means that whatever force is exerted on the shape is transferred to the anchor. Meaning, if I anchor a barrier to myself, I’ll be able to walk around with it, but all force the barrier will experience, such as incoming attacks or thrown objects, will be transferred to me. In theory, of course; I don’t have a body to test it on currently.

But that will mean I can have my body remain unharmed through my barrier, though I won’t be able to stop anything with more force or mass than my own body. The same thing applies to all anchors. If I use a tree, then the barrier’s location will only be locked as firmly as that tree’s resistance to outside force.

The shape itself also has a limited resistance, meaning if the force is too great for the shape but not the anchor, then the shape will break. Factoring this in when creating the shape should allow for a great shield, maybe even a great weapon despite the fact spiritualism is generally reserved for support in terms of combat. That will just make it a surprise attack the first time I use it. After that, the word will have spread and people will be on guard for it.

Can I layer shapes anchored to the same object? If that’s the case, then I might be able to use Newton’s second and third law to my advantage by progressively chipping of velocity with a bunch of weak shapes.

That might not work as well as I hoped, on second thought. Maybe if it’s possible to anchor a shape to multiple objects at once?

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11:55
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Short answer; yes and yes.

It is in fact possible to layer shapes onto the same anchor. How that impacts the overall force resistance is still undetermined.

It is also possible to anchor a single shape to multiple objects. How that impacts the force resistance has yet to be theorized.

I mean, obviously, with multiple anchors, the overall force will be distributed across all anchors, meaning the resistance of each anchor will come into play. But how the distribution happens, as in how much force each anchor has to cancel out and what happens should one break, is still unknown.

It’s going to be a pain to remember all these questions for Yukari, and I’m frankly having too much fun experimenting and playing around with this skill to really remember them since I just move on to the next question I have right at that moment.


==========

The next thing I know, I’m staring into the ceiling of the room Yukari lets me use.

I sit up, only to realize how stiff my body’s become and how much it hurts to move before I ultimately just fall back onto my bed.

It’s a western style bed too. Yukari has a surprising taste in decoration, mixing both new and old designs from both the east and the west. My room has been designed to look like a modern single room apartment, without the toilet and the stove, of course. The door, strangely enough, is an eastern sliding door, as opposed to a western style swing door like modern apartments. And then there’s the back wall, which leads directly outside. It mixes the western style of the adjacent walls into the open Japanese style via finely carved wood patterns that progressively get more open the further back they go.

The furniture is all western, though. A wide makeshift table, which is really just a wooden tabletop placed on two small dressers. It’s all made from the same type of dark wood, so it blends nicely.

The door slides open, drawing me out of my thoughts.

It’s Ran. She’s carrying a big bowl of water. Her sleeves rolled up to her shoulders.

“You’re awake already?” She asks, walking in and placing the bowl on the table. “We first expected you to wake up tomorrow.”

“I might have gone a little overboard.” I admit, trying to sit up again. “What did you do to my body to make it this stiff?”

“You’ve lied there for two days straight.” Ran explains. “Anyone would get stiff after that long of doing nothing.”

Right. I’m not used to being motionless. Especially not under these circumstances. I mean it’s not like I spent the last couple of days doing nothing. I just did it without my body.

“So, did you learn anything?” She wrings up a piece of cloth she took from the water.

“I might have discovered something amazing.” I tell her. “Once I get my body started again, I’ll see try to see if I can replicate it.”

She presses the cloth against my forehead- and my god it’s freezing cold.

I flinch back out of reflex, but Ran follows the motion, keeping the cloth pressed against my face.

“Careful.” She instructs me as she pulls me back up sitting. “You’re burning hot. You’ve been so since yesterday.”

I grab my own nape, and sure enough, it’s hot. More so than it normally should be.

“Ran, in my bag, wherever it is right now, there should be a bundle of spell tags like the ones taped to my back.” I tell her. “If you could bring it here and help me swap out the ones I have with new ones from the bundle, I believe it should fix it.”

“If that’s all, then it should barely take a minute.” She says, removing the cloth to dip it in the water again. “Might I ask what they’re for, these tags?”

“They help regulate my internal body heat.” I explain. “This is likely a sign that the cold ones have expired.”

Though it’s odd I didn’t notice it myself. Maybe because it happened while I had my out-of-body experience? In that case it should have hit me like a brick when I woke up. It’s hard to say how the body actually works sometimes, since it seems to have a life on it’s own.

Another Ran walks into the room, carrying a plate. “I’m afraid I couldn’t prepare anything warm to eat on such a short notice.” She says, putting the plate down next to the bowl. “I imagine you would be hungry, since you haven’t had anything to eat since the other day.” She wipes her hands in her apron. “I’ll prepare a little more for you for tonight. Meanwhile, be sure to drink.”

A third Ran enters the room, twirling the book of spell tags from my back around her finger. “I took the liberty of glancing over the spells you have prepared.” She notes, flipping through the many tags before stopping on one. “These are the ones you mentioned, right? They appear to have something to do with temperature from what I could glance.”

“I will go fetch something to drink.” Apron Ran declares as she leaves the room.

“Yeah, those are the ones, Ran.” I answer her. “You’ll find the other set ten pages ahead. I need you to pull off the ones I have on me currently and replace them with one of the same type, alternating between them.”

“Alright.” The Ran holding the book rips out the tags from the collection. “Turn around, if you would.”

I shuffle around the on the bed, turning my back against the two of them.

Without warning, she just rips one of them off.

“This definitely looks worn out.” One of them comments. They have the exact same voice, so I can’t tell the difference. “How often do you change these?”

“Four to six times a year.” I reply. “Given how much spiritual energy I can pour into them, they last quite long.”

She tapes one to my back, rubbing it to make sure it sticks properly.

“From what I can read, they consume quite a lot of power.” She comments. “A normal human would suffer spiritual depletion within minutes.”

“The amount of energy I produce easily surpasses that of most youkai.” I state. “Yukari is one of the first youkai I’ve met to actually surpass me.”

“Too bad spiritual energy isn’t as viable as mana.” She chuckles to herself. “If you had half as much mana, I’m not even sure I would be able to match you.”

“Yeah. Sadly, I had an unfortunate encounter that meant I either had to expand my spiritual energy pool at an alarming rate, or die.” I tell her. “This sadly prevented any further growth in both my mana pool and ki pool.”

She rips another one off, and plasters a new one right back on. “I’m sad to hear that.”

“Nothing you could have done about it.” I assure her. “Just a dumb little kid being dumb. I’m just glad I survived.”

“Is it okay to ask about this, or?” She trails off, leaving the rest of the question remain implied.

“I’d rather not talk about the event itself, to be honest. Too unpleasant to remember.” I tell her. “I can say it wasn’t the event itself that caused my spirit pool to expand. The event forced my production to go through the roof. Afterwards, it just wouldn’t stop, which then forced my pool to expand. I was bedridden for days as my body tried to adapt and compensate.”

“I sometimes forget how fragile you humans can be.” She replaces another tag. “Most I meet are like you. In the sense that they stand above the rest of humanity as combatants. You know, people who can take a punch or two before going down.”

“So far I’m at two punches.” I brag. “I can take two serious hits from most youkai before I go down. If it were someone like you, on the other hand, I probably wouldn’t die after one punch, but I certainly wouldn’t be able to fight.”

“Then it’s simple. Don’t get hit at all.” She declares in an equally playful tone as mine. “Problem solved.”

“I’d be the world’s best fighter if I could avoid taking a single hit from anyone.” I argue. “And while I’m certainly great, I’m not quite that good.”

She chuckles as she rips another one off. This one with a little more force than the previous ones, almost causing me to flinch. She applies a cold talisman, causing any pain there might have been to fade away quickly.

“I think that was the broken one.” I note. “The new one seems a lot colder than the previous one. In a few minutes I should have cooled off to my normal body temperature again.”

“Sounds fantastic.” She says as she rips off another. “After this there are just three more to go.”

“There’s only eight?” I ask.

“Should there be more?” She stops her motion to ask.

“No. The current amount is the right number.” I assure her. “It’s just that I keep remembering the number I miscounted instead of the number I corrected it to, so I keep confusing myself.”

She replaces another tag. “I see. That’s not something I’m familiar with myself, but I can understand the concept.”

“Considering how many shikigami you work at once, that’s rather impressive.” I tell her.

“Maybe.” She replaces another tag. “Though I’ve worked like this for centuries, so it’s not exactly something new to me.”

With nothing left to say, I let her replace the last one without interruption.

“I brought the water.” Apron Ran comes back. “It took a little time to freeze the ice properly.”

I shuffle back around on my bed, so I face them.

“Where’s the last one of you?” I ask, glancing over the room. There were three Rans just a minute ago, but now there’s only two.

“We merged.” The Ran that’s been here the whole time says. “I took the remaining energy from her to extend the remaining time of this shikigami.”

I take the sizeable cup from Apron Ran and down it. Didn’t realize how thirsty I was. Guess it’s going to take another moment for my body to wake up completely again. Sitting around here is not going to help in that matter.


[ ] Find Yukari
- [ ] I need to get back to that training to test some more things
- [ ] Have her confirm the fruits of my training
[ ] I want to try this skill while in my physical body
[ ] Request a spar with Ran, to get my body moving again

Next update is likely first coming at new years. In case you care, my challenge entry is >>/shrine/41087