[x] Somewhere else! (Write-in) Introduce her to the Kappa! Maybe they can use their tools and water manipulation to create an underwater pathway to their river so they can hang out! Or build a mobile pool! Or a mech!

“We all ready to go?” I ask the group. They each confirm in their own various gestures.

Since yesterday, we’ve added a couple to our headcount. Kagerou was hesitant of our arrival at first, but came around to our cause after mentioning Wakasagihime’s interest in the trip. Her head might have inflated a bit when we told her she was needed to move Wakasagihime, admittedly.

As for the other…

“What?” Chen challenges my narrowed gaze.

“Nothing, just… What are you doing here, again?” I accept her challenge.

“What, is there some problem if I want to spend time with my friend?” she probes and prods me, stepping next to Cirno and resting an elbow on the fairy’s shoulder. “See? I told you he’d be mean to me.”

“I’d consider it your own fault, you brat,” I tut the kid. I take an instant to reflect on what I just said and turn to Ran to apologize, “Sorry, Ran. I don’t mean to parent her.”

The fox waves off the statement and replies, “Yakumo are responsible for their own antipathy.”

“Lady Ran, why are you letting him insult me?!” Chen pleads to her maternal figure.

Ran doesn’t even say anything in response, only looks at the cat with an obvious annoyance.

A trill from the other corner stirs us from our bickering. Wakasagihime, sat in her wheelchair with a blanket covering her tail, pats Kagerou’s arm and comments, “See what I mean? They’re so fun to listen to.”

Kagerou scratches her cheek, still looking a little stiff at the shoulders. “Y-yeah, I guess they do have some chemistry.” Her eyes shift about, unsure where to rest them around our temperamental bunch.

Cirno grunts and throws her arms up in defiance, tossing Chen from her shoulder in the process. “Aughhh, let’s get moving!” she whinges.

She starts to fly off in the direction of the mountain, but Chen jumps to grab her ankle, forcing her back to the ground.

Cirno turns to her friend and questions, “What was that for?!”

“What do you mean? We’re walking, you idiot!” Chen is quick to correct.

Cirno gives her a confused look and then glances to Wakasagihime in a wheelchair. Her eyes trail down guiltily.

I’m about to step over and comfort the girl but Wakasagihime points Kagerou to roll the wheelchair over before I do. The wooden wheels grind against the hardened dirt as Kagerou pushes her friend up next to Cirno.

Wakasagihime pats the fairy’s head and consoles, “Don’t feel like you need to be so mindful of me. In fact, wouldn’t it be fitting to announce the arrival of royalty in advance?”

Oh, she’s still on that gag. Or, well, it’s more like Cirno is with her crown so brazenly on display. Shouldn’t the arrival of royalty include herself, actually? Surely she’s not going to–

“You’re right,” the fairy perks up, a sort of fire in her eyes as she rears her feet into a sprinting takeoff.

I see Wakasagihime has had time to understand the ways of Cirno; gas her up and she’ll do just about anything.

Chen stares on in bafflement at how easily swayed her friend is, and turns back to us to ask, “Should I go after her? Like, she’s gonna be an issue, isn’t she?”

“I think she’ll have to cause a lot of damage to impress us at this point,” I counter. But thinking on it further, I double back and say, “We really should start walking, though. I don’t want her to impress in ways she shouldn’t.”

I move along the tree obscured path with the two Yakumo on my heels and the crunch of the wheels from the wheelchair at the back. I remember most of the way to the kappa’s hideout, having to pass by it on the way to Hina’s remote residence. Lucky for us, coinciding with a shrine’s route means the area is wheelchair accessible, regardless of how dilapidated it’s become. Not sure how true that stays for where we’re going, though.

In some hour or more of walking I stop, having to let Ran take the lead for me. I ask her how close to the right path we are, hoping that I kept my bearings correct despite the foliage covering even the top of the mountain. She tells me that I was seventeen point three degrees off and South-bearing for the last several kilometers. Not only that, but I was bound to step into the river in another kilometer.

Chen laughs at my misery for a few more kilometers after that. Overall, could have been a better walk. Kagerou as well starts to have some trouble getting Wakasagihime through the thickening foliage and tree roots. By the time we finally find where we’ve been going the wolf almost tosses our princess off a cliff side.

We stand above the Genbu Ravine, one of the few locations I’ve heard about that has a real name rather than something more akin to a nickname. Akyuu, or one of her ancestors, attempted to draw a picture of the area, but it hardly captures how strange the location is. I realize a ravine needs to be a steep drop for a long stretch of ground, but this is a straight cliff more like a small canyon. Furthermore, the rocks making up and immediately surrounding the walls look almost like they’re forming into columnar joints. I thought that was something usually reserved for volcanic areas. Is Youkai Mountain volcanically active?

The group continues up along the path of the ravine as I’m observing the walls, forcing me to put a pin in my thoughts and jog over to them. Some few minutes walking along the edge Ran and Chen stop in unison, looking out perpendicular to our position. Chen crouches at the edge and looks at the same point Ran points to, a small dark hole at the base of the cliff face, easy to miss with shade covering it.

“That is the only above ground entrance to the kappa’s hideout. Or lodge, or cave system, there is no official name given to their gathering space,” Ran explains.

“They don’t employ guards?” I question.

“Not outside of the entry. It would counteract the natural camouflage the cave opening has.”

“Makes sense.”

Kagerou leaves Wakasagihime for a second to look at the sheer drop to the bottom, and wonders, “How are we supposed to get Hime down there?”

“Or me, for that matter,” I addend, leaning over the side.

Chen grabs me from behind and lifts me off the ground, floating down into the ravine. Behind us I see Kagerou bridal carrying Wakasagihime down while Ran takes the wheelchair. I still forget this is usually the first option. Complete free flight isn’t something instilled in a human’s natural understanding.

Chen plants me nearly on my ass as we reach the bottom. I’m only on my feet because I expected her to. I slap her arm, fully aware it barely registers to her nervous system, and await Ran and Kagerou to drop off their cargo. Ran is careful to place the wheelchair down, mindful of the foot rests that Wakasagihime doesn’t make use of.

Kagerou returns Wakasagihime to her chair, lowering to one knee as she does so.

Chen snickers at the display, and comments, “You look like you’re used to sweeping women off their feet.”

A red glow crosses Kagerou’s cheeks as she pops back up, combating Chen’s jeering with, “Don’t put me as some brutish figure, you rodent!”

“Oh look, she responds to every little poke!” Chen laughs. I knock the bottom of my fist into her puffed up hat. I think that one registered.

“Don’t be rude, Chen. She’s under no obligations to be here,” I confute her attitude.

“That doesn’t mean you gotta–!” she starts to bicker, but pauses as Ran walks by into the opening of the cave. We all fall in behind her before she disappears in the darkness.

“Ran, what’s up?” I ask my partner, since she doesn’t take the lead unless something’s happening.

She continues her pace through the dark hall, taking up the entire cross section with her tails, as she reports, “There are normally two kappa standing guard at the sealed door, but they are currently vacant and the door ajar.”

“Oh my!” Wakasagihime exclaims. “Are they in danger?!”

“Surveillance dolls do not carry visual detail, only general information. In person inspection will be required to ascertain their circumstances,” Ran continues, fetching something that emits a dim bluish glow against the stone. “Chen! Move on ahead! A mass of people are in the main hall at the moment.”

“Lady Ran!” Chen returns in confirmation.

She slides low to the ground and shoots through the bottom of Ran’s tails as if they were a curtain, the clicking of her claws against the rock fading into the distance ahead of us.

“How far away is this place?” I ask, curious why we’re still walking through the dark.

“Approximately ten minutes. The kappa put this side entrance onto the opposite side of their system. It works well to dissuade fairies from wandering in due to boredom,” Ran informs me, adding bits to stave off my wandering mind before it acts up.

“Is this really the easiest entrance?” Kagerou complains. “Why would they have a dark cavern entrance in the first place?”

“It’s an emergency exit. The entrance they normally take is at the bottom of the river. Wakasagihime could make use of it, but my opinion is against you using it, Miss Imaizumi.”

I glance back to see Kagerou’s wolf ear twitch as she tosses the idea about. I don’t think any of us want to smell a wet dog, including Kagerou, by the looks of it. Ran’s projecting as well, mind.

We find the end of the path, or more like I run into Ran who finds it. Everything is the same color and texture in this dim light. I don’t know how the kappa would properly keep guard of this door normally. Night vision goggles? Do they have those? Do they need them?

Ran grabs a wheel handle on a metal hatch, something that looks like it was ripped off of a submarine. To my surprise, Chen left it open, and it creaks ajar with a cry for oil. Ran passes through the high door frame and starts down a hallway without so much as a word. Kagerou and I rush to lift Wakasagihime over the door into ship halls.

“Thank you, I know that mustn’t be easy,” Wakasagihime chimes when I go to stretch my back straight.

Soft incandescent lights line the roof in every direction, the cave walls have been replaced with sheet metal, and the floor is corrugated for traction. Thank gods they left out the extra doors and guard rails of a real ship, otherwise this would take a while to get a wheelchair through.

We start jogging up to Ran but are immediately assaulted by the sound of the wheelchair rumbling against the floor. The sound seems to hit us all the same, as Kagerou’s ears fold down and Wakasagihime covers her fins.

Down the many corridors and junctions we go, with occasional peeks into open rooms the kappa use for all manner of machination. It’s hard to tell what purpose a room serves when it looks like a workshop blew up in every one of them. The smell of shaved metal and various lubricants doesn’t help. Gods and whatever that terrible burnt smell is.

It’s stranger yet since the halls seem to be clean, if not spotless. I do wonder how that’s possible, but I’ll have to add that to the list of questions for later. Right now, I can hear a crowd of people gathered ahead, even over the rumbling of the wheelchair.

The hall opens into a grand chamber, the metal walls evoking the hangar of an air carrier. A large zero-two is painted on a bulkhead at the far side, suggesting there are more of these open spaces. There are full sized cargo crates in a corner. Many vehicles of varying completeness sit around with some hung high above by chains. In the center of the room a pile of scrap metal sits with a sheet of ice along the top formed into a throne.

I need not state who’s sitting at the top of said throne.

“Get down from there already!” A familiar voice pipes up from the front of the crowd of kappa surrounding the throne. There’s a lot of them, actually. This is probably all of them from the base, and they’re crowding pretty much the whole area from wall to wall. It’s a wonder Nitori is loud enough to shout over them.

We sidle up to Ran and Chen at the back of the crowd when Ran commands, “Chen, report.”

Chen turns to us and replies, “The ice fairy has made a commotion in the kappa hideout by freezing their water boiler over.”

“Why would she–?!” I stop myself from asking, knowing well enough that a fairy’s logical reasoning can be both meticulous and entirely inane in equal parts.

My outburst attracts the attention of a few nearby kappa. Their uniformly short statures make it obvious that we’re interlopers around here. And more importantly, the giant fox woman with nine tails is probably not here to mess around. They notify the persons next to them of our presence and the message passes as a ripple through the room until they all turn their heads our way. Cirno spots us and waves, though she doesn’t retreat from her throne.

“Uhm… hi?” I awkwardly greet the crowd.

“HIM!” Nitori practically screeches over the rest of the kappa. Clattering can be heard from each kappa’s backpack as they adjust to avoid her march. A march that ends with her lunging straight at my collar. She drags me to a knee, eyeing me down worse than any demon or Ran, and growls, “Get. Her. To fix this.”

She tosses me to my feet before I can get out a word and points to Cirno.

“Hi to you, too, Nitori,” I force the pleasantry while adjusting my shirt and rucksack back into place.

Why would she need me to fix this? It’s a frozen water boiler, isn’t it? What’s keeping them from rioting against Cirno?

…

Cirno can dissipate her own ice, right. And I can talk to Cirno, maybe.

But the last thing… “A water boiler, was it?” I ask the fuming gremlin.

“Try our gods damned generator!” she shouts in my ear. “What do you think keeps the lights on?!”

A thought occurs, and though it may be better left as a wandering thought unasked, I can’t help but tease, “I thought Youkai liked the dark?”

A blood vessel visibly bumps on her forehead, barely containing the rest of the irate kappa. It seems to take a lot of willpower for her to not throw a readied punch, and I’d bet that’s only because Ran is standing right next to me. She decides to grab my arm and hurls me into the crowd of kappa.

The few kappa I land on push me back into balance, though their voices suggest they wish they didn’t have to. The rest look at me expectantly as Cirno continues her cackling taunts to those below her. I begin sifting my way through, piecing together just how I’ll talk down Cirno from whatever nonsense she’s doing. We only just got here and Wakasagihime hasn’t even gotten the chance to meet anyone. Not gonna get kicked out just yet, even if pissing off Nitori is a lot of fun.

[x] Reprimand Cirno, her playing around needs to stop when it can cause serious damage.

[x] Meet Cirno with her madness. Getting a kid to do what you want can sometimes be about meeting them in their own little world.

[x] Something else, she’ll never predict it. (Write-in)

---

The votes went all about this time. I counted the mountain the same as kappa but am respecting where we’re really starting the trip. That is to say, that last choice was a bit of a split in multiple ways. Now back to figuring out ways to piss Nitori off.

[X] Meet Cirno with her madness. Getting a kid to do what you want can sometimes be about meeting them in their own little world.

“You’ll know the strength of fairies, you evil kappa!” Cirno calls down at the crowd around her. She certainly enjoys the dramatics, her energy transferring into crossed legs, one bouncing on the other.

The kappa around me grumble all manner of inanities as I approach the pile of metal Cirno’s found herself on. The thing is a maddening mess of gears, cogs, screws, bolts, nuts, nails, and even a misplaced tool here and there. It’s hard to imagine what these kappa actually do with such a mass. For my purposes, though, it’s something dangerous to clamber up.

Cirno takes interest as I start climbing the man-made hill, careful of any sharp metal jutting out. While I can find all manner of dangerous persons on my day to day, I think tetanus would be an embarrassing way to go. Although Yagokoro probably has something for that, too.

I crest the top, Cirno’s ice mixing with the loose metal in a way that actually provides enough traction to easily hike along. The fairy looks up at me, diminutive in stature now that I’m standing on the same plane as her.

“And what is this peon doing here?” she questions. Who’s been teaching her these words? I may need to have a little chat with Chen later.

I kneel before her, cautious of the weight on my knee, and reply, “Your royal advisor, not a peon, oh king of fairies.”

“Ooh,” Cirno sounds in understanding. “What does my advisor want to tell me? Just how great I’m doing at invading these kappa?”

I chuckle, “You’re doing great at that, sire. But if I may ask, what have the kappa done to earn your scorn?”

“S-sco–…” she mouths out to herself, piecing together the definition of the word. “These idiots ignored me when I told them to stop what they were doing and get ready to greet the princess. I thought it would be right to do something that would get them all together, then!”

She grins to herself. As quick to dig into her own confirmation bias as usual, I see. Clearly they blew her off and she just lashed out.

But how to spin this? “Perhaps it would be wise to let the miscreants have another chance at showing my liege and the princess hospitality?” I chance an argument.

“Hospitality? What do you mean, we aren’t sick?” Cirno breaks character in confusion. I adjust my gaze, trying to confirm that she’s serious, and sure enough her eyes avoid me

“Hospitality refers to that which you may do in greeting, such as tea, my liege.”

She rounds back on me, a red tint on her cheeks as she flusters to correct, “R-right! I knew that! Let’s do that, then!”

Looks like I’ll need to have a talk with Cirno, too. She’s far too easily lead by the ear after being caught unawares.

“Well, then, you’ll have to unfreeze their generator, as they seem to need it to do things,” I conclude.

“What sorts of things?” Cirno ponders. Or is this some sort of test?

“Hospitality things.”

“Hmm…” Cirno parses intent from my tone, narrowing her eyes and rubbing her chin. “Alright, sure. I’ll do that, and then they’ll throw a big welcome for Wakasagihime!”

It’s at this point I truly wonder to myself, where is she going with this? Hopefully I’m not being a bad influence by feeding her little fantasy here.

She pops up from her throne, floating above the ice to avoid contacting the metal with her bare feet, and descends the hill. The kappa unanimously stare daggers at the girl, less than thrilled their base’s captor would even so much as dare to speak above them.

Cirno clears her throat, a volume nowhere near matching her personality, and announces, “All of you, send your leader to me! She will take me to the thing I froze! And then! Then we can discuss greeting the great princess Wakasagihime.”

The kappa look to one another, the obvious question on all of their minds. Who is Cirno talking about?

Cirno floats above the crowd, waiting for Nitori to make her way back across the room. Wakasagihime and the rest fall in behind the supposed kappa leader, whose path splits the mob before her.

I go down the hill careful as I can, forced to boulder lest the loose metal scraps give way like dirt. I can hear Nitori in all her usual vigor complaining to Cirno and the latter taking the complaints in stride, but I’m too focused on my movements to really pay attention past that.

By the time I’m on solid floor and checked for cuts and holes I turn to see everyone moving to a door perpendicular to where we came in. I force my way through the sea of kappa right as it starts dispersing.

I break through to one of the many identical halls, catching up to my group just as they round a corner.

Nitori speaks up, leading the conversation with, “So what are you even doing here, Yakumo? I’m still mad about that human of yours doing… things with my sister…”

“Which I thought I told you in no uncertain terms that that was a lie made up by Chen to harass me,” I cut in before anyone else comments.

“Yeah, sure, ‘cause that’s believable. Takane keeps evading the question when I ask her, so I don’t know what to think about that.” She continues her pace several steps ahead of us, quieting down at the admonition.

Am I being toyed with? Chen starting that lie is no issue but for Takane to not put it to rest is an altogether different problem. Is she doing it to mess with her sister?

Ran kills the silence with, “To your first question Kawashiro: Regis has been given the task of studying Wakasagihime, who’s idle curiosity led her to follow Cirno’s request of, in verbatim, an ‘adventure.’”

“So you’re here because you’re bored,” Nitori puts it lightly. “I should string you up for that, you little brat!” she directs at Cirno, now.

“The king does not like the way you’re talking to her,” Cirno retorts with a puffed up face. “You had better make a grand welcoming party for the princess and I.”

Nitori stops next to a doorway not much different from the others. It has a sign with ‘generator’ plastered next to it, but it’s hard to say where the hell we actually are anymore. “Stop whatever nonsense you’re talking about and fix it already!” she commands the fairy, opening the door and pointing into the room.

I watch Cirno waddle into the room and I observe the space before her. It’s no larger than the rest of the minor rooms we’ve come across but there’s a device covering the entire wall. In it’s current state it’s inoperable, ice stuck inside every crevice and potentially moving point. I can’t say I understand how such a device would generate power for the whole base, let alone any power at all. Cirno crouches down at the base of the machine and reaches her hands out, doing something to start removing the ice. It’s slow, but that only means we have a few moments to exchange words before she commandeers the situation.

“This is your generator?” I ask the kappa. “It doesn’t look large enough to power the whole place.”

“It’s more than enough to do that!” Nitori retorts, sounding offended by the statement. She puffs her chest out to continue, “This bad boy is my own make, and he’s capable of powering every invention in this base and then some!”

Ah, it’s hers. No wonder she’s so pissed off.

“Guess I should’ve figured. It’s you, after all,” I admit. “Change of subject, how’s you face feeling?”

“Wait, do you mean you punched this kappa, or something?” Kagerou asks.

Nitori rubs her cheek as she recalls, “My fa–? Oh, right. No, during that whole misfortune incident I was the first person to get injured. One of the wooden supports in a cabin came down on my head. I had trouble speaking for a week even after the bandages were off.”

Damn. It’s strange to hear just how durable Youkai are even compared to my unidentified healing. To her that whole thing was just a minor bother, like a cold sore that wouldn’t go away, and yet the actual injury had her entire face caved in.

“… Tanner, are you alright?” Wakasagihime notices my wincing.

… I should stop conjuring the memory. Even for me it’s a little too disturbing. “Nothing,” I pass off.

The lights all around show a bit more life as we hear the generator start to churn awake. I hear Nitori mumble to herself about a gas backup needing refueling as Cirno claps her hands to a job well done. If we ignore the fact that the job required her because she was the cause of the issue, then yes, it was a job well done.

“Now, a welcoming party!” Cirno dictates to all of us.

“Tanner, translate fairy for me,” Nitori sighs, rolling her eyes up in an already present exhaustion.

“She wanted the kappa to greet her and,” I gesture to the mermaid, “Wakasagihime. She’s on a little power trip, considering herself royalty.”

“That sounds like my royal advisor making fun of me,” Cirno pouts.

Wakasagihime giggles, “No, miss king fairy, that is him translating your words to the kappa dialect.”

Cirno nods in understanding, sounding out an, “Oooh…” Chen shakes her head with a low groan.

Nitori scratches at her head, thinking aloud, “Welcoming, huh? I don’t think you’ll want what we got. No offense, but kappa live pretty lean.” She’s not all too sorrowful of the statement, in fact she seems to take delight in the excuse.

“Shirikodama and cucumbers? I don’t think either are even slightly appetizing,” Kagerou counters.

“Oh, something we agree on. I didn’t think I’d agree with a dog,” Chen jabs at the wolf, much to the other’s chagrin.

“Very funny. We can make other kinds of food, you know. We just choose not to,” Nitori spits back.

“Then you’ll provide great food, I’m sure,” I half goad and half encourage her, not bothering with the slightest attempt of subtlety in the matter. “But what about the party part of this ‘welcome party?’”

“Huh? Sweets aren’t enough?”

“Why, of course not,” Wakasagihime interjects. “There must be tea as well for any high class party.”

My first thought would be wine but then I guess we’re both stereotyping.

“And something fun!” Cirno adds.

Everyone looks at Cirno, a sort of concern mixing into the air.

“I shudder to imagine what she finds fun,” Kagerou states without an ounce of amusement or sarcasm.

Chen snickers, loosely placing a hand over her mouth, “She’s more Youkai than fairy, so it shouldn’t be hard for any of you to imagine.”

“Yeah I think I’ll be the first to take offense to that,” Nitori can’t help but join in the banter.

“Hey! No ganging up on me!” Cirno rages towards the lot of us. “I’ll gang up on you and then you’ll see!”

I press on with the conversation in spite of Cirno’s very direct threats, “So we were talking entertainment, Nitori?”

“Cute diversion. But no, I ain’t got anything in mind for a gang of misfits like you all. The best I could possibly do is sit your butts down and tell you a–“

She freezes mid sentence. Everyone casts a glance her way as she shrinks inward with a pensive thought brewing.

“For them, though?” she inflects aloud, probably without intending.

“I must admit I’m curious, now,” Wakasagihime speaks up. She rolls her wheelchair over, dainty hands hardly concerned by the force required to move, and claps one of Nitori’s hands. “Please, tell us what you’re thinking of, dear kappa. I’d love to hear your thoughts.”

Her supple smile glows in purity, strong enough to banish all thoughts or ideas of ulterior motive. Even Nitori seems blinded.

“Uh… well…” the kappa flusters. “I-I was thinking of a project some of the base and I have been working on.”

I practically feel Ran’s eyebrow raise next to me. There are some obvious things that can pierce her stony face, and the kappa’s antics is very much one of them.

“There are a couple of very smart people here with us and I’m sure they could truly appreciate your efforts,” Wakasagihime mediates. “I know I’d love to see something you worked hard on.”

“Y-you think so..? I mean, I guess they’d do well,” Nitori scratches at her cheek, off kilter more than I’d ever seen her.

I mean, sure I’ve seen her at possibly her most emotionally vulnerable, but this display is like someone’s pulling a rug out from under her. That or pulling her along with that rug. Wakasagihime is more dangerous than I thought.

Nitori calmly leads us through the halls once more, mollified like a babe in its mother’s arms. I can’t even bring myself to perturb her from this state. She’s been enchanted in a way I’m sure sailors of ancient times would be envious of.

A short walk through the many similar metal halls leads us to an unmarked door. Nitori slides it open to show us a library. Not a library of books, but of old cinema records. Kinds far older than me which look as though they could service as car wheels. These are honest to gods film reels.

It’s a dingy room, the light barely functional, maybe by intent or maybe not. The shelves are numerous, and it’s clear this room, same size as all the rest, is filled wall to wall with these things. They’re in all shapes and sizes, and hold titles that I’ve only ever heard about. I wander down a row as Nitori splits the group off, explaining the objects to them in extreme detail.

I think only I and Ran would know what these are off hand, but in my case these are like relics of a bygone time, never seen in person. It’s hard to not be nostalgic of the film reel, of what was once the crowning of American culture above everyone else. If only I were still that young and naive boy that could feel such nationalism. But that is no fault of these reels containing the work of countless people into run times of under an hour.

“Tanner?” I hear Ran whisper next to me.

I feel my face turned down at the corners, getting all moody away from the rest of the group. This room is a sight I couldn’t have imagined, and not in the unimaginable way that Gensokyo commonly invokes.

“No, don’t mind me. Just… feel a little strange seeing this. These. In a place where forgotten things go.”

I’ll choose to believe that Ran’s look is sympathetic.

“So, has anything caught all of your eyes?” Nitori pipes up, finishing her explanation of the technology she so painstakingly wrought into fantasy. “Come on, I don’t think I need to tell you that these were all made with the desire to be watched, and we know what happens to tools that don’t get their desires met.”

“Moving pictures that hunt people to be looked at doesn’t sound too abnormal, if we’re talking Youkai standards,” Chen pricks a hole in Nitori’s bravado.

There was one title that spoke to me as I passed, and I pace back over to it, through the disorderly state the films are stored.

At a random shelf, on an arbitrary side of the room, I pick up a reel with a title etched into its metal. It reads,

[x] Shirley Temple’s Storybook: The Little Mermaid

[x] Silly Symphony - The Big Bad Wolf

[x] We can go deeper than that! (Write-in)

---

Alright folks, time for required watching. Yes this is your homework just as it is mine, and yes I won’t provide links to these. Best of luck in finding good sources!

[x] Shirley Temple’s Storybook: The Little Mermaid

A rather fitting title since Wakasagihime is here. Didn’t actually realize that the story was more than an animated movie, but I guess that’s always the case for movies.

“Nitori,” I flag the girl from around the corner, holding out the tape, “here.”

She inspects it closely, drawing a finger over the etchings.“Ah, yeah, I can see that,” Nitori replies, nodding in understanding. “Although, are you sure you wanna go with this? I thought it was pretty melodramatic.”

I look down at the record, and then over by Ran as I mutter, “Is it? I can’t say I really remember that.”

Never watched Shirley Temple before. It’s always been a novelty on my mother’s shelves, but a younger me thought it was something too girly to venture. Guess I’ll have to find out if it’s the pre-modern chic-flick.

“What’s the title?” Cirno nudges into the conversation, tilting the etched label towards her as I hand off the film. “Oh? I can’t read this…”

“You can’t?”

“Well obviously she can’t, it’s not like there’re that many people that can read English, genius,” Nitori scolds me. She picks up a set of notes from one of the lower shelves and looks it over, checking between them and the film. “Shirley Temple’s Storybook: The Little Mermaid. Actually remembered this one off hand.”

I realize the immediate issue with this, “Wait, if the movie’s title is in English is the movie also in English?”

Nitori glances up from the notes, thinking through the question before answering, “… No? I don’t like questioning those kinds of things. Too much of a headache. It was too bad, too, since one of the kappa is really into translating foreign languages.”

I suppose they’d need that sort of talent with the amount of foreign writings that could come into Gensokyo. Especially engineering related. Though I wonder just how much useless engineering writings have been forgotten over the decades? Does the barrier care for Sturgeon’s Law?

“Kappa,” Ran speaks, “how many of these records are of foreign make that you have found?”

The kappa in question takes a deep breath and blows it out like a bellow, looking around the room as if not knowing the answer off the top of her bald head. Hell, the notes probably have a running tally written on them. She’s probably stalling, weighing if she should answer honestly or not.

“About a few dozen or so?” she gives an estimate. Why does she need to be obtuse? Does she expect Ran to want to take the reels?

“Is something worrying about things from far off places, Miss Yakumo?” Wakasagihime weeds in on my question.

Ran pivots towards Wakasagihime from across the room. “If this is in some concern of your own person or belongings, then there is no such trouble. The Yakumo work to keep a list of all foreign agents that enter Gensokyo, and these pieces have seemed to escaped the current database. Kappa, how long have you had these records for?”

“A few weeks,” Nitori has no qualms answering. The speed at which she did so leads me to think she’s well informed on the project.

No, wait, before that. I gasp, “A few weeks..? You figured out not only what these were but how to view them in just a few weeks?”

“I heard it wasn’t even the hardest part,” Nitori piggyback’s my reaction, looking extra smug and rubbing the key on her chest. “Getting the sound going took the most of that time. Now those scroungers that like wandering Muenzuka are spending their time checking what recordings are intact or not. We watched that one already, but I’ll let you use the theater anyway…”

Staring at the thing, she harrumphs and adds, “Small price to get you all out of here.”

She exits to the hall and waves for us to fall in behind her. We quickly oblige as she heads into the next room over, flicking a light switch to the sight of a large screen and what must be the projector. I can only assume with the way it looks, something between esoteric and eldritch in design. Parts all about that have no discernible function, jutting edges, and the speakers sitting in spots that look like an afterthought.

But all given, it’s still all in one package about the size of a podium.

“Funny looking,” Cirno comments.

“Yeah, and runs off the generator, so be glad you unfroze the power, you twerp,” Nitori persists in her disgruntled state. Cirno sticks her tongue out as Nitori passes by, receiving a swift whack on her head for the slight.

A flick of her fingers shows Nitori there are no loose edges on the screen and that it’s still ready for use. “Alright, move in the seats you want, just make sure you’re out of the way of the viewer to the screen here,” she orders, signaling the angle the projection needs to display.

A few of us work on getting chairs and couches from the wall, specifically procuring a love seat for Wakasagihime. Everyone settles in as Nitori does a flight check on the projector, opening some of the many hatches, holes, and gauges the intrepid thing has. We talk amongst ourselves while waiting.

“Y’all happen to know anything about popcorn?” I wedge into her attention.

She pauses, rolling her eyes as she responds, “Don’t push your luck, foreigner. I might not hate you, but I don’t like you, either.”

“Foreigner..?” Wakasagihime drawls, curious of the word choice. “Not simply outsider?”

I lean on the armrest of my seat as I explain to her, “Yes, I’m American, actually. That’s the reason I know about this film.” That might be sort of a half lie, but at least the parts add up correctly.

“You never mentioned that you weren’t born in Japan,” she expresses a light disappointment. I didn’t realize she felt the need to know.

“Everybody shut up, it’s ready to go,” Nitori bickers. She flicks a switch, producing a light from the projector lens, and then another to roll the tape. After making sure things are working properly, she dashes over to the light switch, dropping the room into a pitch black cleaved by the solitary light on the screen.

“Does it need to be dark for this?” Kagerou asks at the other end of the chairs. Her annoyance may be warranted to the uninitiated.

“Yeah, sadly,” Nitori agrees with the sentiment. “We already ruined one film by using a brighter bulb.”

“Think about how a photo or stuff printed on paper tends to degrade in sunlight. Same thing,” I append.

Old music, expected more of a children’s show, breaks up our conversation. Showing the title and star of the show before cutting to Shirley Temple walking into the camera.

“Oh! My, how did she appear there?” Wakasagihime interjects as the woman explains the basis of the story.

“Hm? Hime, you’ve seen photos before, haven’t you?” Kagerou puzzles.

“Is that what this is? Some sort of magic photo?”

“More like a bunch of photos going very quickly,” Nitori elaborates. “The sound is–“

“Don’t tell them about the sound,” Chen deters, “it’ll just hurt their heads more.”

“Hey, it’s not like we’re dumb!” Kagerou fights the claim.

“Silence,” Ran chides them, “a movie is meant to be watched, not spoken over.”

A few words of apology are murmured across the room as the scene has already transitioned to the first shot of the little mermaid, played by Shirley Temple herself.

The briefest moment of silence as we observe the scene before Wakasagihime comments, “Is something wrong with her tail? Those scales can’t be healthy…”

“What? It’s just the lady from before in a costume,” Cirno points out. Rather… odd that Cirno would be more in tune with theater, but I’ll not bite into that headache for now.

A different question comes to mind. “Do mer-people have multi-colored tails like that, Wakasagihime?”

I can see her silhouette turn towards me and back to the screen before she responds, “No, none that I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

The scene shifts to men on a boat. Their clothes are…

“What’s with their clothes? They look funny,” Cirno finishes my thought, somewhat psychically.

The bright colors look strange on the Greco-Roman attires, maybe designed to better capture on early camera models, or a carry over from theater renditions. Regardless, it straddles the line of faithful and plain silly looking.

“By the helmets of the soldiers, these are Roman based outfits,” Ran outputs.

As the conversation between the men ends a quick shot of the little mermaid swimming upwards is shown. A few voices burst into laughter at the ridiculous looking special effect of the mermaid being dragged up by a few pulleys. Rudimentary as it is, it gets the point across, so I don’t think there’s any faults there. What is kinda silly is how one of the men, the royalty, topples over the boat from before. He just keels off like he wants to break his neck.

A few moments pass where the mermaid saves the man, returning to shore and wishing he’d live before several women approach the scene. When it cuts back the mermaid is gone and it’s just the guy.

“How did she get in the water so fast?” Wakasagihime notes. “That would take me a few moments to struggle on the sand if I were there.”

The scene goes on uninterestingly, though the guy proclaims his love to some random maiden he mistakes for his savior. He goes so far as to say he’d rather die than be without her. Men really are this stupid, huh?

The next portion under the water the mermaid seems to be talking with her grandmother. Wakasagihime actually seems to find the old woman very beautiful, though the dyed silver hair looks strange to me. A conversation about the little mermaid’s action comes to show how the mermaid fell in love at first sight with the man, a prince. The grandmother warns about this love being unnatural, though.

“People of the land can’t fall in love with those of the sea?” Kagerou paraphrases the argument.

“That old woman has some barnacles built up in her head,” Wakasagihime muses. “There’s nothing so strange about a love like that.”

“Speaking from experience?” Chen conjectures. This quiets our mermaid down real quick.

It doesn’t last, as the next scene comes to the pivotal decision of the young mermaid finding a way to change her tail for legs.

“Oh gods..!” Wakasagihime utters. “That’s horrid, why would you want to change yourself so?!”

“Hime, please, it’s a story. You don’t need to feel threatened,” Kagerou comforts her friend. It works to stop Wakasagihime from ranting and raging, though her numerous grunts and harrumphs put the scene at odds with the lighthearted mood it’s settled on.

This continues into the next scene with the introduction of the strange barrister. I hear a slight sniff from Ran as he describes himself as a fancy lawyer, a word that definitely wasn’t invented at the time of the plot.

The little mermaid’s insistence on her plan seems to endear her less and less to Wakasagihime, whose moans of ‘why’ and ‘for what purpose’ enunciate the point. I hadn’t realized just how prideful of her species she truly was, and here I am suggesting a story of a mermaid that shirks her entire being for a flight of fancy.

On the bright side the next scenes go by pretty quick now that Wakasagihime’s gotten her opinions off her chest. The only real notable thing is Ran getting a hearty snort out of the strange barrister’s joke about the little mermaid suing the witch of the sea. I know it’s Ran because only we would understand the joke, or care considering Chen is also here.

The witch of the sea explains that if the mermaid takes a potion to grow legs, her life as a mermaid is no more. To finish with dramatics, the witch and barrister summon the voices of the mermaid’s loved ones, calling for her to return home.

Wakasagihime joins the voices pleas, “Go back! You have people that love you more than you know!”

Only upon the mermaid’s decision to receive the potion does the witch explain that there is a time limit to this excursion. One hundred tides without marrying the prince and the little mermaid will perish. The mermaid states that she understands what death means for her: turning into a drop of sea foam to dance about the ocean.

“Really?” Kagerou wonders aloud.

“No, not really. Don’t be silly,” Wakasagihime refutes, followed by a groan as the little mermaid apologizes for leaving all of her undersea friends behind.

She then takes the potion… and…

“Hey, where’s that excruciating pain thing? I was promised a show,” Chen mocks.

Cirno hums at the comment, adding, “No, look, her leg’s cramping! That’s pretty painful.”

“Oh you little fairy…” Chen sighs, withholding her disappointment.

It seems the rest of the group chimes in more and more as the film continues on. Wakasagihime, however, seems to largely disconnect from the more standard romantic drama the movie turns into. I’d think she’d have some choice words for the prince’s use of the expression ‘til the seas run dry,’ but she doesn’t bite.

The little mermaid’s plight, never having stood a chance in her goal for romance, is indeed sad, and dying for it is insult to injury. Or, perhaps injury to insult, given the magnitudes of each.

The last real surprise the story has for me is the grandmother striking a deal with the witch for the little mermaid to stab the prince and return to the sea. I think she lies to her granddaughter about the prince being fine and instead turning into a merman after being stabbed, but I can’t say I fault her desperation in any way. Of course, the little mermaid doesn’t have the heart to go through with killing her love, and disposes of the knife with no further note.

On the day that the prince weds another kingdom’s princess, the little mermaid seems to break from the shock. She was so sure she’d be in the man’s eyes at the start and now the rug was pulled from under her.

The final proper scene is the little mermaid accepting her death to Neptune himself. Distraught at her circumstances would be an understatement. Hers is a face of utter defeat, having nothing to show for her sacrifices. Instead of killing her, though, Neptune forgives her, and even allows her to return to her family. It’s quite the whiplash of narrative and I do wonder if this is how the true original story goes, but I suppose it’s a necessity for something more geared to younger audiences.

A collective groan leaves the room as the scene fades back to Shirley Temple the host, describing the aftermath in all of thirty seconds. She also states her own moral of the story, which seems like a pretty cheap takeaway as far as I’m concerned.

“Lame,” Chen boos. “Aren’t old stories supposed to have people dying for their stupidity?”

I hear Nitori get up and walk towards the light switch. Everyone else shifts about in their seats, stretching their unused muscles from sleep.

“It’s important to remember that a god had forgiven the little mermaid’s transgressions,” Ran inserts. “To err is considered by some gods a divine aspect, though it be illogical.”

A click precedes light, blinding us for a second. It’s not like coming out to the sunlight after sitting in a movie theater, but the screen was the only thing properly visible beforehand.

We look about, and the first thing I notice I Wakasagihime crying.

[Please wait warmly as beauty sheds a tear…]

---

That was a fun little journey to take. Don’t worry, we’ll still be quite on topic come next update.

[… Continued]

“Wha-… Hime, what’s wrong?” Kagerou is the first to pipe up.

Wakasagihime seems to get her words out naturally, despite the tears rolling down her cheeks. “It’s a sad story. That girl gave up everything for something that didn’t go in her favor. It was tragic in every moment except for when she was forgiven.”

Her voice, while sad, seems decoupled from her eyes, being so cognizant of her emotional state. That calm nature of hers must be so powerful that it overrides such things as crying. If there were thoughts that she’s not as straightforward as she is I’d have to call these crocodile tears.

“Yeah, all the kappa hate that ending, too,” Nitori adds. “So silly to think that a god would be so nice to anything nonhuman.”

A rather bleak outlook, especially coming from one kappa that also supports a goddess at the top of the mountain.

“Oh I wouldn’t say I hated it. More that it was food for thought,” Wakasagihime denies, wiping a stream from her eye.

I can feel the nervous movements from everyone in the room, including myself, of course. We’re not sure what to respond to that, aside from an agape confusion. The mermaid looks about after drying her other eye, and seems to catch on.

She tosses up her hands, a blush taking to her face as she apologizes, “No, don’t worry about me..! I’m not thinking of anything truly worrying…” Her voice trails, knowing that such choice of words is hardly reassuring.

Kagerou kneels down and takes Wakasagihime’s hand. “You can tell us what’s wrong, Hime,” the wolf states.

“Nothing’s wrong, Kage!” Wakasagihime trills. Such a nervous laugh does little to drown out her troubles.

“… Haah, if you say so.”

“Now let’s not be dreary about that movie thing. Just seeing a moving picture was truly marvelous,” Wakasagihime perks up, or perhaps kicks herself into acting like it… Kicks? Tail slaps? Whatever. She turns to Cirno, and asks, “Do you think that was worthy entertainment for a king, miss fairy?”

Cirno flinches, being put on the spot for a vote of approval. “Uh… Y-yes, I think that was… quite good,” she forces her verbiage to something more proper. Her ice wings jitter as she continues to process her word choice. “It was… something new to exp-… no, uh. It was a new experience. And it was… enjoyable.”

“Glittering reviews from a fairy, didn’t think I’d get something so good today,” Nitori comments, tone dripping in sarcasm that’s as unamused as it is annoyed. Cirno shoots her a peeved eye, but chooses not to challenge the slight.

“I think we’ve had our time here, then,” Wakasagihime declares, turning her chair to the entrance and shuffling the wooden wheels along.

“What, really?” Kagerou questions, commandeering Wakasagihime’s chair to a scratching halt. “Feels like we only just got here, though.”

“Yeah, that’s how it is with movie theaters…” I pitch in to Wakasagihime’s corner. “You get in, watch a movie, use the restrooms and leave. Feels like a time capsule where you skip part of the day and only hazily remember what you were watching.”

“Somebody’s musing,” Chen calls out in a song-like note.

Guess I could’ve been more subtle, yeah. We’re all in our own little spats at this point.

“Either way,” Wakasagihime voices above everyone else, “I think we’ve used enough of the kappa’s hospitality and seen interesting things as well. What do you think, Nitori?”

The kappa raises her eyes at the question, something between suspicion and disbelief taking hold as she returns, “Does my opinion actually matter here, or..?”

“Of course your opinion matters. I thought it would be rude to interrupt Cirno’s adventure so I didn’t say anything until now.”

Those are the words of a politician if ever I did hear them. Didn’t think Wakasagihime had such tricks in her… not pockets.

Nitori brightens up, even showing a smile as she replies, “Then yeah, it would be nice if you all left us in peace.”

“Then we’re all in agreement,” Wakasagihime concludes, tapping Kagerou’s lower arm to start pushing.

The rest of us go along with the mermaid’s antsy desire to leave, following a Nitori who is more than elated to kick us out. There’s a sour air amongst the group even as we exit the tunnels back into the ravine. We all know something is bothering Wakasagihime but none of us dare to properly broach the subject again after she was so defensive on the matter. It would definitely make a scene at this time.

So, the next best thing: we break for the day and all go our separate ways. The rest of the afternoon is a bit of a blur for me as I’m wrapped up trying to change my perspective to match Wakasagihime’s.

A mermaid falls in love at first sight with a land dwelling man and scorns her body to not be able to follow him. She makes the decision to follow after him anyway and yet fails to earn his heart, so by an agreed contract deserves death. The story of the little mermaid is less a tale of unrequited romance and more a cautionary analogue for someone that actually lives underwater. Just don’t interact with those above the water, is the obvious takeaway.

Ran and I arrive at the shoreline of the Misty Lake again, a new day hopefully opening Wakasagihime’s ears to my unintended misstep. We told the mermaid when and where we’d be today, so it’s her decision if she arrives or not.

A splash above the water sprinkles my shoes, telling me her answer.

“Hello, Wakasagihime,” I greet the mermaid rather stiffly. I force myself not to wince at how stunted I sound.

“Tanner…” she addresses me with her naturally serene smile, only her upper torso visible in the water.

A moment of pause passes between us as we’re not sure who wants to speak first.

I kneel at the cuff of the dirt and take the initiative, “So… about that movie yesterday.”

“Movie? Oh, yes, the moving and talking pictures.”

“Right. I, uh, didn’t pick it out with much in mind other than it had a mermaid in it. I didn’t consider any deeper meanings it might have for you. Or, well… I just didn’t mean to offend you, if that makes sense.” My speech is impaired by worry. Worry that I head in the entirely wrong direction of things like I kept doing for Kogasa, like I kept doing for everyone in the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

“Oh, Tanner, you don’t need to be scared of that,” Wakasagihime comforts me, a maternal tone coming naturally from her. “I know you’re not the type of person to want to hurt others.”

“You seemed so troubled after the movie was over, though. I didn’t want to press the issue then and there but you still looked too sad to let it pass.”

Wakasagihime sidles to the edge of the dirt, right under me, and contemplates, “It was a sad story. And it made me think about my life here.” Her deep eyes trail towards Ran for a brief second before returning to me. She beckons me with a finger and states, “… I think I only want you to hear this.”

A scuff across the dirt resounds as Ran prepares for the unexpected. I, however, follow the lady’s whim and lean an ear in close to her.

In the second that I expect her voice I instead get a hand that grips the tip of my chin, wrenching my face into Wakasagihime’s. My surprise almost makes me miss the other hand grappling the top of my collar, pulling me towards the water.

Before I realize it, my lips come into contact with something expressly wet, but unmistakably warm. My eyes focus on what’s in front of me, Wakasagihime’s pearly white cheeks, stricken red with a blush that I’m surprised doesn’t burn me. Her eyes are closed but a furrowed brow tells of her determination to go through the motion.

Neither of us ruminate on the feeling for long, though. Once I know what I’ve been locked into my peripheral senses sound an alarm, ear canals rotating along the wrong axis, and vertigo instantly settling in.

Cold water splashes into my face, dissuading the feeling just as quickly.

The last thing I hear before water crashes in my eardrums is Ran stepping towards us. Her feet stutter, unsure whether she needs to rush to my defense or not. I wonder if she attempts to grab my leg as I trip over into the surface of the lake.

I’m left with only the minor curiosity as my whole world goes from gases and solids to liquid. I’m moving fast, dragged along by Wakasagihime, but I can only tell by the streaming forces dragging my skin and clothes taut, my eyes closed reflexively to shield from collision.

I pry them open, trying to assess what’s happening, most importantly how long I need to hold my breath.

Truth be told, I’m not expecting what I see. I can describe it by intuition, but to properly experience it is a whole different story. Every direction but up everything fades into soft blue. It’s uncanny, like a thick fog that even covers the ground from view. I feel like an isolated existence, unable to see where I am, only sure that I’m upright because of the light piercing down to me.

I choke up as I reach my limit of not breathing. We come to an abrupt halt as Wakasagihime swims into my view, putting her hands over my arms clenched up to my face.

“Tanner,” she speaks, somehow perfectly audible. “You can breathe like you normally do, please trust me.”

Against every neuron firing through my lizard brain I attempt a breath. It’s strange, unnatural in a way I’ve yet to experience. Water passes into me, and back out. As naturally as the air above it flows through my lungs, oxygen coming back into me.

I let my arms relax down, and take a guess to say, “That method you mentioned.”

“Mhm,” she hums. “Now you know what it is.”

“Explains a thing or two, for sure. What it doesn’t tell me is why you changed your mind.”

She looks at me, oddified that I’m taking this in stride, but still curtly replies, “Soon. Let me take you somewhere.”

She takes my arm, dragging me to the bottom of this ethereal world. A few observations catch me at this time. One, we’ve been skimming close to a basin wall when I check behind me, so we’re not that far inward of the lake, though it it far deeper than I imagined. Two, there’s a lot of fish around. Schools of them, individuals minding their own business, and several categories of sea creature I would swear belong to the ocean. How this lake holds such an ecosystem could only be described as… I’m not even gonna finish that statement.

Third, Ran isn’t following us. Am I on my own? She wasn’t lying about having no way to venture the water?

This is… abnormal. I also left my bag topside, so I can’t even take notes.

I decide it may be best not to voice this concern for the moment, as large as it really is. Wakasagihime seems to want to talk, maybe even candidly, so I should let her have her way, for lack of better terms.

We approach the bottom, or perhaps only the bottom of wherever we are. The ground materializes on approach, and so too does a structure. It appears like an igloo, but instead of ice it uses rocks, held together by mud and clay at the seams. Unlike an igloo, it’s quite sizable. Something I assume could only be done underwater due to the buoyant forces holding the structure up.

Wakasagihime releases me on my feet, the clay beneath more a soft pillow than ground, and swims inside an alcove to the structure. I do my best to walk in behind her, the actual ergonomics of walking underwater a harder prospect than I’d thought. I nix the attempt and grasp any knowledge of swimming my old bones has, though it feels like a lifetime since I’ve needed it.

I meander inside, a clumsy oaf by all rights but at least not breaking anything. She’s settled down on a bed of algae which takes up most of the room to accommodate her length, and waves me to a nearby flat rock. I take the seat, noting that it seems more meant as a shelf, given the similar rocks carrying an assortment of colorful stones, tailoring tools, and basic cutlery.

“Do you like my home? I don’t have many visitors to tell me how things look,” Wakasagihime amuses herself while I’m still in awe.

“It… looks like you have what you need, I guess?” I articulate with a wandering eye. An open hole for a window, the floor patted down to a solid surface. I jostle my head, trying to remind myself what I’m doing. “Wait, hang on, before anything, how long can I stay underwater?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Wakasagihime nonchalantly answers. “I haven’t done this spell before.” Shouldn’t that be cause for concern?

But it is a spell. As in she had to do something for it to work. Surely she can just do it again.

“Okay, then why bring me down here, again?”

“Right, well…” she pauses, bringing a hand to her chin. She points at me and continues, “That story, The Little Mermaid, was sad, but what do you think I thought it meant?”

“People of different species shouldn’t interact?”

She shakes her head, a little miffed at my assertion. “No, no, that’s ridiculous! I still think that grandmother was a fool! What I thought the story meant was that you can’t find what you want in unknown waters.”

“… I don’t think I follow?” I mouth, gesturing back to the mermaid for elaboration.

“It’s… harder to put into words than I thought,” she admits, her eyes turning down in shame. She looks back up, past me and out the entrance. Swimming around me she requests, “Let’s take a stroll around, maybe they’ll come to me with some more conversation.”

She’s very different today. Antsy, sporadic, unpredictable. I’m still not sure if I need to be concerned about what’s happening, but I’m leaning towards yes. That said… do I go on this stroll she wants?

[x] Accept. There’s little reason to decline and she would know what areas of this underworld are safe or dangerous.

[x] Decline. She shouldn’t have to vouch for my safety, and Ran would probably kill her if anything happens to me.

[x] Suggest an alternative. (Write-in)

---

I can’t say the first part of this update came to me easily. I think it’s easy to pick up on my meandering, but the next part felt very easy to get out. The description of setting definitely took the most of the volume but I did feel out the direction I’m taking this, now.

[x] Accept. There’s little reason to decline and she would know what areas of this underworld are safe or dangerous.

I stand up on the rock and reply, “You know, sure. Take me around a bit.”

Wakasagihime’s smile brightens somewhat, grabbing my arm and beaming, “Oh there’s so many things to show you! I’ve never gotten the chance to before!”

She leads me out, my arm feeling like its gonna be pulled off at this rate. As I’m lifted off the soft clay I wonder, “Have you never actually talked with the kappa before yesterday? Do they really have no interest in the lake?”

“It’s a little different than that,” she answers, looking up in thought. It’s strange to feel like up and down are the only directions I can differentiate underwater. Whatever direction she’s taking me in the water is a mystery. She looks back to me, continuing, “The kappa come by once in a while, but they don’t like talking when they do. Most of the other people of the lake don’t really like talking, either.”

“Other people of the lake?” I latch onto. “How many other people are there? I thought you were the only one here.”

“Hm?” she voices, clearly confused by the statement, as if it were something totally nonsensical. “No, there’s a lot of people?”

“What… are they like?” my curiosity gets the best of me, demanding to be attended like a petulant child.

Wakasagihime inflects on the question, maybe to stop herself from answering from the gut, before sharing, “They’re all… kind of secluded. They don’t like going out to talk to people, but they’re nice when you approach them… Actually,” she pauses, changing our heading, “let’s go visit a few. Maybe they’ll give me some idea of the words I’m looking for.”

We travel through the bottom of the lake. Everything feels larger and longer than it should. The distance we’re traveling and the time it takes, it doesn’t make sense for the size of the lake. The floor of this false ocean shelf is partly the clay from before but also partly sandy, large rocks and seaweed dotting the area en masse. The feeling of impossible vastness is definitely not what I expect of this body of water, that which should be noticeably finite.

And there’s so much sea life everywhere I look, enough to feed three times the village at least. My previous assertion that some belong to the ocean only solidifies when I see oddities like a shark or an octopus.

After a time I spot in the endless blue a shade in the distance, large as a boat yet retaining the shape of a fish. It lurks and lurches through the nothingness above like an iceberg.

I give Wakasagihime a concerned tapping, pointing out the creature. Her reaction is a simple, “Oh, that’s the giant char. He’s not very talkative.” Without any further explanation she continues in the same direction as before, leaving this giant of the lake to fade into the distance.

Soon after we arrive at some form of destination. It’s hard to tell what we’re here for when simply looking around as all that’s here is a formation of rocks, one of which hosting a large patch of algae.

Wakasagihime taps the algae covered rock, stirring it from slumber. It produces a turtle’s head, the creature’s limbs soon to follow out of other openings, stirring a puff of sand in each direction. It looks up at the mermaid with expected delay.

I’m not much for reading a turtle’s face, so whether it’s stern look is its natural state isn’t for me to say.

“Hi, old man Mino!” Wakasagihime greets, her choice of address for the turtle being strangely immature.

The turtle replies in a raspy, wizened voice, “How many times do I gotta tell you to not wake me from a midday nap? Go find somebody young and spry if you want to play around.”

“Oh, don’t be that way, Mino. I brought somebody with me!” she refutes the turtle’s grievances, pulling me into the old man’s view as proof. She changes the subject while Mino is interpreting my presence, “Actually, we came to ask you something.”

“Whatever it is, I ain’t interested,” the aged turtle grumbles, jutting his face away in disgust… at a snail’s pace.

Wakasagihime stays in front of his view, not much effort needed to do so, and continues, “Do you remember how you came to Gensokyo?”

She passes his face as he stops moving, a quiet moment passing as we anticipate his answer. He caves in with a grunt, saying, “If it gets you to stop bugging me, I was looking for a new place to settle down. The spot I had previously was taken by a bunch of urchins. Literal ones. I was going through the normal reefs but at some point it all changed to this place. Only knew because the sands got all this clay mixed in.”

He pats a flipper onto the ground beneath him for emphasis, kicking a tiny clump up.

Wakasagihime watches the flipper for a spell before changing her line of thought, “So do you think there’s a reason that you were brought to Gensokyo and not some other talking turtle?”

Mino harrumphs at the question, asking with a coy cant, “Did you know I’m not the only talking turtle around these parts? Honestly with you young people. Just ‘cause I’m old don’t mean I got answers to questions about your life. Now take that dopey eyed land creature somewhere else, girly. I’m getting back to it.” His limbs retract into his shell with that final word, returning him to the shape of a moss covered rock.

Not giving up, Wakasagihime knocks his shell, whinging, “You shouldn’t treat others so coldly, Mino! People like you when you answer questions, it’s not hard!”

Her words fall on deaf ears as the rock remains inanimate.

“Real charmer, this one,” I comment, having kept to myself lest the grouchy old reptile round on me.

Reptile? Amphibian? I can never remember turtles.

“Sorry, Tanner. I was hoping he was in a good mood… A talkative mood.”

“You know I’ve gotta ask what he’s like in a bad mood,” I bite the bait.

Wakasagihime rubs the back of her neck, replying an awkward, “… Snappy.”

I look to and from the stationary rock, pointing to it and affirming, “His words or his jaw?”

She skews her lips, refusing to answer which as she drags me away from the current stop. We travel again through the underwater world, the serene blue and latent fauna disturbed by occasional oddities.

At one point I could swear a massive shadow overtakes an entire region of my view, but as soon as I try to focus on it it fades with the background noise of empty waters. Wakasagihime also has no idea what it could have possibly been, stating there’s many things in the lake that don’t make much sense, or otherwise aren’t supposed be sensible.

Another such example comes with a pitch black pit, the likes of which remind me of the drop from the ocean shelf. This spot is no more than a large pit, darkened like the light is beaten away from the space. I point it out, but Wakasagihime quickly guides me away from the spot, clamming up when I ask her why.

Though I want to press the topic more we seem to arrive at out next destination. It’s obvious enough we have with the appearance of a sunken ship. An old wooden one, masts lying like logs at the side and hull split at the bottom. The thing is sizable, yet another example of something the lake shouldn’t fit this readily, but regardless we’re here and Wakasagihime leads me to the underside.

The way the ship splits makes me believe the whole thing was cut with a blade. From port to starboard it’s collapsed on itself like a broken eggshell, and the lack of crack outside of the major point of failure says it must have been a structural weakness in the spine, whether by rotting or by hollowing. Such analysis is of little use to this forgotten relic, now buried in a lake to few’s knowledge.

The interior, though submerged, is quite well furnished with the essentials of a military crew. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wakasagihime tells me this was a pirate ship what with the worn down carpet and wall ornaments decorating the entrance to a captain’s quarters.

She calmly opens the door, swirling inside with a joyful, “Hello, captain!”

At the back of the cabin sits a bare skeleton, lonely in a chair gaudy enough to make the little Miss Scarlet happy to own. His surviving attire suggests an equally extravagant outfit, though now only the vestiges of old nautical epaulets remain attached to strips of bright red cloth.

The skeleton makes no notice of Wakasagihime and I. Nor does it make notice of anything, as it lies stationary like a set piece to the room, equally as faded and torn away by time.

While I’m standing at the entrance befuddled Wakasagihime approaches the skeleton, rustling it at the shoulder and retreating a few feet. I wait for some kind of reaction, expecting the open hanging jaw to snap shut, or any other movement that would suggest the skeleton to be less than inanimate.

“Mmm…” a voice stirs, age and masculinity clear, but a finer bourbon compared to the Everclear of that crotchety turtle. Gods I hope I don’t age into that thing. The voice makes contact with us, disembodied as it is, “Ah, the most beautiful maiden in the seven seas… And an odd man out… Lass, who be this deckhand?”

“A friend, captain,” Wakasagihime placates the skeleton, addressing the voice directly to the still bones. “I’m trying to think through something to tell him, but the words aren’t coming to me. Think you can help?”

“Ooh… practicing to woo a man right in front of him? You’re always such a pure young spirit, lass.”

“Wha– no!” she denies, flustered by the suggestion. “I’m serious, captain, he’s just a friend!”

The mariner guffaws from his nonexistent belly, passing off, “Sure he is, sure. And what say he to the matter?”

I look from the skeleton with a raised eyebrow and then to Wakasagihime. I decide to play along a bit, “She’s definitely the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. I truly couldn’t be luckier to meet her.”

Wakasagihime chokes something out in anger through a flushed face. The spectral voice sounds more than pleased with my teasing, though.

“Good man, you are!” he all but applauds. “This girl needs all the encouragement men like us can give her! She’ll snag herself a lad more strapping than us, yet!”

“Captain!” Wakasagihime flails her forearms, generating a stream of bubbles in their wake. “I’m not a child! Please stop treating me like such!” She looks over to me, stationing her arms to her hips, finishing, “And you shouldn’t goad him, Tanner!”

The skeleton’s laughter dies at the mention of my name, instead murmuring to himself, “An English name? Well there’s something different.”

I decide I owe the man a brief introduction, and though he doesn’t care to give me much of one in return, besides the name Blackbeard, we do hit off some casual conversation about the world above.

Some time passes before the captain asks Wakasagihime in the middle of his laughter, “You said you wanted to get something in your head to flow out, lass?” The mermaid nods in response, signaling the skeleton to continue, “Well I sure don’t know anything about that! I’ve always got an empty head, see?”

Wakasagihime presses on through his bellows, “Captain do you know why you came to Gensokyo?”

I could swear the skeleton twitches when the captain’s voice dies down sharply. “There’s a question, isn’t it? Why am I here?”

“You don’t know, either?” I interpret.

I back up a step as the voice rouses, “Oh, don’t put words in my mouth, landlubber! I’m not like that idiot turtle or the elder! I’m here because somebody wanted the ship here.”

“The ship? Somebody wanted a boat at the bottom of this lake?”

“Not the boat itself, you moron. What was being hauled in the boat! Jewels as beautiful as our girl here,” the captain explains. “I can’t much leave this here chair, but Wakasa’s told me those boxes are all good as gone, now. Can’t say I much care. Jewels don’t pay your way out of hell.”

“Not that you’re there, yet,” I note. The skeleton grumbles at my smarm.

Wakasagihime takes issue to the explanation, now, “Wait, but that would mean you’re only here because the boat is.”

“That’s how it is, lass,” the voice confesses, a little more dour than before. “But now that I am here, I’m happy enough to talk to those like yourself in this little locker. Griping isn’t gonna get me anywhere.”

“You’re… happy?” Wakasagihime repeats, stricken with shock at the proclamation.

She doesn’t refute the idea, though, instead coiling inward, consumed by the thoughts that have been sitting at the back of her head.

“Oh, you get your words jostled, there?” the mariner croons.

“I… hmm…” she groans. She bursts from herself with a finger displaying a finished thought. “Happiness… That’s something to do with what I’m thinking of! You can’t find happiness in known waters… Happiness comes to those who take care of the waters they know… mm…” she stalls out.

“Important life stuff, that sounds like,” the skeleton comments.

“Maybe,” Wakasagihime doesn’t necessarily confirm, looking off to the side with a mixed expression. “I heard a story yesterday and it made me think about my life, but I can’t think of the feeling I had about it like I did yesterday. Oh, it’s so annoying!” She flaps her arms in frustration, tail following as well.

“Hey, it’s alright, I think I get the gist of what you’re going for, Wakasagihime,” I attempt to calm her down.

“You do?” she replies, less than convinced by placative words.

“Sure, everyone’s looking for happiness in life, right? We gotta make do with where we’re at, though. I never really got there with my life outside Gensokyo, but I don’t know if you feel the same.”

“No, I still don’t think that sounds right!” Wakasagihime rejects. Her lips shrivel into a grimace as she thinks of what to do. “What about the elder?” she mouths after a moment.

“Her? She’s gonna give you a riddle, not tell you how to live your life,” the captain bashes the idea.

“What? Who’s the elder?” I ask, now out of the loop.

“A mean and wicked bitch,” the mariner states.

“Like a kindred spirit, like a cousin I never had. Don’t listen to the bones sullying her!” Wakasagihime states to the contrary.

A wicked sea spirit that a dead skeleton hates and is nearly familial with my interview subject. My very professionally acquainted mermaid, who could not be mistaken for more.

Yeah, I’m gonna need to think this one through…

[x] Things should go fine… hopefully. Dangerous creatures are a constant for Gensokyo, so it’s not like I’m not used to it.

[x] It… may not be a good idea. There’s a limit to who I should be interacting with, especially when I don’t have Ran’s mean face to back me up.

[x] Let’s… suggest something else? (Write-in)

---

And so we’re at the new year! I failed to mention in the last post, but this is also the third year for this story’s continuation. It’s been quite a while now, and I’m still having a lot of fun writing this each week. I do feel like I’m starting to approach some of the more vague walls and slopes of writing skills, though, as I attempt to grasp where I can improve as I go. And that’s the crux of why I do this story, to improve my writing skills, because even if it’s a hobby I still want to make good things, just like my friends with their more physical hobbies such as woodworking or computer parts cataloging.

For this week I’d like to meditate on the feeling of posts where I feel ‘I just need to get to the next good part’ when I write versus those that are ‘The good part.’ I often find myself wondering how much it bleeds through my writing style when I’m not into the flow of my writing or otherwise inspired to write a section. For instance, I was quite inspired for this section, but it was toiling to get through the last one so that I can write this one. The impatient part of our minds wishing to skip steps, as it is. That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything fun or important from the last section, but only that I struggled to find those points to include as opposed to summarizing.

But that’s enough of my babbling. There’s a vote to be had and eggnog to down before my midnight!

[x] Things should go fine… hopefully. Dangerous creatures are a constant for Gensokyo, so it’s not like I’m not used to it.

Wakasagihime is once again beaming at me, her jeweled eyes better display a sense of wanting more than any puppy’s. It’s hard to say no to something like that.

I let out a defeated sigh, and assent, “I suppose it should be fine if we go visit this elder.”

She sidles up to me, sounding off something between a squeal and a hum, elated that I’ve sided with her.

“Ahh…” the disembodied voice moans. “Keep your wits about you, good man. That witch is more than any one man can handle.”

“Funny enough, I’ve dealt with some already,” I joke with the spirit. “… Anyway, shall we?” I finish, turning to the mermaid.

She locks her elbow to mine and drags me out the cabin, the old mariner shouting a word of luck my way as we depart. We travel through waters I’m starting to recognize, the foliage and uneven sands the same as before. I only have the inkling of a thought for our destination right before it comes into view.

The dark pit. That impossible hole in the lake that light avoids, or that rejects light. Wakasagihime approaches it without any sense of caution, so I’d assume she wasn’t worried about it earlier so much as she didn’t want me to see it yet.

She stops at the edge of the space, the void below us offering no semblance of vision even though we look directly down with the sunlight.

I gesture to the thing, Wakasagihime also staring down at it wordlessly, and ask, “This is..?”

“The deeps. At least, that’s what everyone calls it,” Wakasagihime replies, leaning further over the pit. She takes a deep breath, projecting her voice down, “Tama! Are you home?!”

A moment passes for a new voice to stir and groan, exiting the pit as if it were the dark mass itself. The tone of it slithers like a snake in my ears, “Wakasa, I had told you to not raise your voice. I hear all that you say from within the lightless realm.”

“I wasn’t sure if you were napping at your loom again, Tama. Would it be fine for me to come down and visit?”

“For you? There is no such thing as an unsuitable time. I will expect your arrival.”

“Oh, and is it fine if I have a friend join me?”

The voice takes pause, thinking through its response, before stating, “It would be rude to decline you the privilege. You so seldomly discuss your close acquaintances. I do ask you to refrain from presenting the boat spirit, assuming you found a way to release him from his coil.”

Wakasagihime giggles, “No, he’s still happy right where he is. I don’t think you’d ever need to worry about him visiting, if that makes you feel better.”

“I remain cautious of the matter.”

I feel my arm pulled forwards, down into the dark, with Wakasagihime leading the way. “Come on, Tanner! It’s a long way to go!” she cheerfully insists while passing into nothingness.

The dark overtakes us instantly. While I can feel the motion, there is nothing to see. There’s no longer a difference between my eyes being opened or closed, it’s a sightless reality. The narrow hole hasn’t opened up any further, though, as I can still feel the eddy currents of water forming as we pass. It curves here and there, but remains largely straight. How Wakasagihime is capable of avoiding the walls, especially with me in tow, is a wonder.

After some time going down I feel the turbulent currents stop abruptly. I assume this means the hole has opened up, maybe to some kind of cavern. Wakasagihime stops, fiddling with something on or in her outfit. I can’t see what she produces, but I hear her mumble something about light under her breath. I won’t question why her spell lets me hear underwater, but that’s also because I would need to tackle with other, more troubling realities if I were to do so.

With the last word of her chant I’m blinded by a bright light. It takes several seconds for my eyes to adjust to this piercing shine which doesn’t seem to fade, but with it I once again can see myself and Wakasagihime. Well, rather, that’s all I see. Immediately outside the range of the light produced from a marble everything remains pitch black.

“Sorry about that,” Wakasagihime apologizes as my eyes continue to squint and shift. She explains while tapping the little ball in her fingers, “This little thing doesn’t last forever and the hole is easy to go through without.”

“Mmm…” I draw out, wondering where I should start. “So, we’re in… what? A cavern? Do you know how big this place is?”

“Of course not,” she answers like it were obvious, “it’s too dark to wander around and the things down here are far more dangerous than above.”

“Come again?”

“Oh, don’t worry. They’re dangerous but don’t really want us because we’re so small, so we’ll be fine if we simply don’t approach them.”

“Come again?!”

“Like I said, don’t worry,” Wakasagihime tries to look reassuring. She’s doing well, but it’s an order of magnitude different from this discussion of grand scale horrors lurking in the dark.

She must see my lifted eyelids as we start moving again. She takes some direction diagonal from the ceiling of the cavern, quickly leaving behind any solid surfaces in the dark.

Through these deep waters I can no longer tell what direction is straight, what is up, or what is down. Unlike the bright waters above, this place is beyond what a spatially aware mind would commonly contend with. Despite the light shining better than any lantern we could bring, it does nothing to the surroundings. A few feet in any direction from the thing leads back to nothing. The end of Wakasagihime’s tail, nothing. My shoes, nothing. Sight was never intended to be of use here.

This is the omnipresent feeling I have as the rare and distant sounds reach us. Like Wakasagihime said, they’re large. The sound of them lurching through the water is more reminiscent of sea vessels than living creatures. And now I realize how glad I should be that they would not care about us at all.

The trip is nerve wracking, not knowing what our destination is or how long until we get there. It’s hard to even keep track of the seconds when my only guiding signals are my breath, filled with water, and the beat of my heart, heightened by nerves.

Wakasagihime’s nonchalance, or maybe confidence of stride, keeps me from shuddering in this impossible space. I do my best to stave off any panic from settling in over the few dozen minutes of travel. I momentarily wonder what the felt water pressure should be this deep, but again remind myself that such questions would only go to have the magic at work spite me.

In the distance something fades into view. Lights, many of them. They pop in much closer than they should have, this unnatural darkness obfuscating them from where we should have seen them. In their brilliance, warring against this fathomless pit, they present the outline of a building.

Unlike myself, very natural things seem to spite this place. Grand as it is, with craftsmanship more austere than even Akyuu’s home, time still taxes it all the same. Tiles are missing from the roofs, the stonework walls present more cracks than smooth surfaces, and columns that were likely decorative now provide even less structural support. The more I look the less sense this scene makes.

This is a veritable palace, left here for no one to find in this dark pit of Gensokyo. This land has few who would bother treading deep waters and fewer still that would dare to trespass here. Truly this building received the worst luck possible by staying here, recessed into the walls of this cavern like a burrowed hermit crab.

“Is this… where your friend Tama is?” I question, hoping to make some sense of all this soon.

“Of course,” Wakasagihime announces, guiding me to the grand doors, one of which sits ajar as its natural position. “Tama is a very wise lady, she’s taught me so much over the years!”

Her giddy behavior is juxtaposed by the dark and battered place. It’s like watching a child enter an abandoned building to play around.

The entryway is lined with more decorative columns, some of which are lucky enough to retain their whole pillar. Past the hall and through the plaguing shadows I see something stranger yet. Two green dots, blazing brighter than all the other lights I’ve seen down here. They’re fixed to one location, unwavering, and seemingly inviting us to close in.

Wakasagihime finds nothing suspect about this and drags me along unabated.

As the distance shrinks I can start to understand what it is I’m looking at. A pair of eyes, betraying a creature’s camouflage.

But… no. No wait. Even when seeing more of the room the eyes are in, chairs and a central raised throne now visible, the rest of the body remains dark. It isn’t camouflage, this person or this creature have an entirely black body. I see it now. Light reflecting on the hard surfaces of scales at the waist below, contrasting the vantablack finish of their skin. The best I can make out is the torso of a human with the lower half of a fish, not that I would be able to identify what kind.

A sort of pressure catches my attention, something nearly unidentifiable but eerily familiar. Were I pressed to answer, I would say it was this thing’s aura, for lack of better terms.

While at first I mistake it for some shadowy form of mermaid, the resemblance is quickly dashed when it greets us with a wide, toothy grin.

“Greetings, Wakasa,” the voice, belonging to one individual named Tama, gives pleasantries through jagged, spiked teeth and lips that stretch across her entire face. She continues her introduction, the feeling of a slithering snake accompanying her voice more and more apt, “Lovely to see you in good health, but I must ask after this… ‘guest’ you have.”

I attempt to speak for myself, but only get as far as opening my mouth before Wakasagihime raises her arm and cheerfully cuts in, “This is Tanner! A human who’s been very kind to me these last few days! I’ve been trying to think through a problem I have but also wanted to show him some of the nice people in the lake.”

It’s subtle, but the stiff word choice clues me in to Wakasagihime’s stilted tone. It’s off, nervous while trying to hide it for everything she can. Does she respect or fear this woman?

“So you would consider that reason enough to bring such a trespasser into this sacred place,” the being retorts, stating in fact rather than accusing.

I animate myself to regain some presence of mind and jump in, “Hang on, sorry, but what is this–?”

“Silence, land dweller,” she raises her voice over me. It’s just short of anger, though easily mistaken by the rate her curled lips dropped. I think it’s obvious where I stand in this conversation and why the mariner dislikes this woman.

“Tama, please, I trust him,” Wakasagihime pleads in my defense.

The negative mermaid scoffs at the notion, forcing, “There will be no further discussion on the matter. Of more importance is your question to me. If you have a problem then there is in turn a question.”

“Ah… y-yes, right,” Wakasagihime allows. She gave up quickly on the subject. Perhaps this friend is a little bullheaded. Though, I’m also not exact on what their relation is.

A nearly inaudible clearing of the throat precedes Wakasagihime’s question, “How do you find happiness in known waters?”

While she does her best to put a lot of energy into asking, including some emphatic animation, it hardly lightens the mood this room gives off.

Tama is… also less than impressed by Wakasagihime’s pontificating, and replies, “That is posed more as a riddle than as a question requiring an answer, child.”

“That… I suppose it is…” Wakasagihime recoils at the assertion. I guess she hasn’t considered her cagey mind makes it hard to help her.

I hear Tama click a nail, or perhaps claw, against the throne. “More than that, why must it be so trite? You have all the means available to being a proper princess of these waters. It pains me to see my teachings being used for these diversions, such as bringing a human into this palace. You should do more for yourself, child. Find a sense of ambition,” she finishes, leaning forward from the seat and gesturing for Wakasagihime to heed those words in particular.

And as it goes, Wakasagihime listens, inflecting once more like with Blackbeard. A few moments of nondescript mumbling, catching Tama and my ears in attention hungry tones, and Wakasagihime concludes, “I should find what makes me happy in known waters by finding what else is out of it.”

My brows are certainly pinched up, and more than would be polite. I have a feeling Tama’s are as well, or whatever constitutes for them.

Neither of us are sure how to comment on the mermaid’s final declaration.

“Hah…” something between a laugh and a gasp emits from Tama, her eyes widened in amusement, “you are always such an odd child. You needn’t leave the waters of this place to find such things. You’d only find more of those who’d do little but platitudes for you. I’ve told you more than enough how humans and Youkai both cannot reciprocate the trust you wish to gift them, have I not?”

My mouth moves before my brain muscles. “Fucking huh–?!”

“–No, I don’t… I still don’t think that’s right, Tama!” Wakasagihime cuts in, pleading with whatever benign senses are left in her friend. “I’ve met plenty of friends on the surface. They’re all kind people!”

“And so you believe that since you’ve met some that were kind, anyone you may meet are also kind? How have your proven to yourself that they’re kind to begin with? How is that human kind?” the inky outline of a person rises from her seat to point an accusatory finger at me.

My brow furrows. While I’m all for defending myself, this isn’t a question I should be provoked by. That only paints me worse in her eyes. Eyes that are both glowering and glowing, but nonetheless.

Wakasagihime purses her lips before quietly admitting, “He’s talked with me and asked me many things I’ve never thought about before. It makes me think of how I felt when I first met you.”

Tama pauses, squinting with intense disapproval. “Did he ask to be brought underwater?” she interrogates.

Wakasagihime is side winded by this, only conjuring up an aghast, “What?”

“Did he, the human, ask to use the spell I taught you to travel underwater for his own convenience?”

“N-not really…” A weak answer.

“It’s a yes or no question, there is no maybe.” A stalwart response. “If he was using your kindness for his own gain is that truly what you consider a friend?”

“N-no! Tama that isn’t what this is like at all!” Wakasagihime gasps that her friend would be so headstrong. She faces me and conscripts, “Why aren’t you saying anything, Tanner?!”

“Because she keeps telling me to shut up,” I reply in monotone. “Is it finally my turn to talk?”

“No, certainly it would be better if you left, wouldn’t it?” Tama acts like she isn’t outright taunting me, now. Or… maybe she isn’t? Is she just naturally like this?

Do I really defend myself here?

[x] I really shouldn’t. I can be the better man…

[x] BUT.

[x] Why not try to be sly? (Write-in)

---

This is a test message. If you are seeing this, Waggysaggy.

[x] I really shouldn’t. I can be the better man…

I look between the two mermaids, considering the correct thing to do. I would love nothing more than to spite this aged bitch for putting both me and Wakasagihime down, but I should reserve my rage for people less petty than this.

That and, well, I don’t exactly have Ran next to me to make sure I’m not sliced into ribbons. Assuming I don’t regrow from that like a plant. Best not to test strange healing magic I don’t know the limits of.

So, with that in mind, how do I make a point? I’m not letting her walk all over me, but I’m also not here to instigate her…

“Is… is he present?” I hear Tama from a corner of my perception.

“He’s just thinking, give him a moment,” Wakasagihime replies.

I could comply with what she says, but that… actually, wait.

“Sure,” I say without any prompting.

“Huh?” the old crone utters, her glowing eyes partially obstructed by squinting. She loses a lot of intimidation factor with her mouth agape, in spite of the row of shark teeth.

A tug at my sleeve pulls my eyes to Wakasagihime asking, “What do you mean ‘sure?’ Sure to what?”

The corners of my mouth creep up even though I try to stuff a wry attitude, answering, “Why, to leaving, of course. Our host here has suggested that we see ourselves out so we should be good guests and do just that.”

“What, but that,” the enigmatic mermaid of the deep drops a modicum of grandeur in her voice as she attempts to word a rebuttal. “You can’t simply leave!”

“Wakasagihime? May you be so kind as to have me simply leave?” I repeat in jest, turning around and holding my elbow up to take.

The girl in question flits about between me and the aged mermaid, confusion settling in now that she understands I’m being serious. I nudge my elbow over a bit, hoping that I can signal her to make a decision. I’ve only got two things going for me in this situation, one of which is the element of surprise but that doesn’t last forever.

“A-alright…” Wakasagihime reluctantly grasps me, but is sure to bow to her elder when doing so. Giving a curt farewell of, “Thank you for having us, Tama!” as we glide out of the palace.

That other thing that I have going for me? The ability to walk away.

It’s funny how powerful it is to force a conversation to end with minimal effort. It’s a real statement of how little you respect the conversation at hand, or otherwise disagree with its sentiments.

I can hear a roar of frustration from behind us, though I can only guess what Tama is fuming about now. My gall to heed her taunting literally? Cutting Wakasagihime’s visit short? Hard to say. Although…

“How often do you come here to see her?” I ask Wakasagihime as we fly up through the darkness, ship-like sounds surrounding us from all directions.

“Once every…” Wakasagihime pauses before answering, turning her head back towards the direction we came, the lights of the palace already faded from view. “Maybe not enough… I don’t… I feel like… I don’t know.”

I work my free arm forward through dragging forces to pat her shoulder, and try to console, “Hey, you can tell me if something’s on your mind.”

“No, it’s just a random thought. Nothing I should say aloud.”

“Oh, come on, those are my favorite kinds of thoughts,” I encourage, playing myself a fool for her sake.

Her lips purse a little, though she faces away to try and hide the view, one of her hair drills hitting my face from the effort.

“… Was it not good to bring you down here?” she eventually forces out. The way she voices it, even she doesn’t believe the question worth asking.

“You mean in the deep dark we’re in?” I reflect, accentuating with a roll of the hand.

“Under the lake. I mean, Tama’s never been like that before, so I can only guess it’s a big deal for a human to be down–“

“Bah!” I interrupt her thought, flailing an arm up in objection. “Tama isn’t the only person under these waters. What matters is what you think, ain’t it?!”

She raises her voice to challenge mine, “I mean, I try!”

“Then do you regret taking me under?” I question, jamming a finger at her chest for emphasis. Thinking on my phrasing, I double back, “I mean like underwater. Hopefully I’m not dead.”

“I wouldn’t complain about how long the spell lasts if I were you,” she murmurs in frustration.

I shut up for the time being, wanting her to get back to my question. I don’t find the nature of the question itself so important as much as weeding out her internal monologue from today. She’s lead me around on the pretense of finding the right words to tell me about her philosophy on life, but I don’t entirely believe that to be the case.

She’s not as cute and dopey as she likes to appear. She’s lucid, introspective, and very heartfelt. Gods know I’ve met plenty of kids that ain’t got a single one of those things. Some Gensokyans also seem to lack one of ‘em. But she isn’t a kid, nor is she one of those Gensokyans divorced from empathy.

If anything, I could learn a thing or two from her example. Guarding my inner thoughts, but letting them shine through in more subtle, emotional ways. Not that I’m great at being mushy. Case and point I’m interrogating a girl if she was happy to take me around for a stroll, like it was a bad first date.

The trip through the deep and the tunnel leading up goes by fast while we’re consumed with our thoughts. Always feels like there’s a lot less to talk about when going back, especially when expectations aren’t met.

It’s only made more awkward by the pitch black darkness of the tunnel as Wakasagihime turned her light jewel off again, so the only sense I have is her grip on me. Little else exists.

We break the dark, the sun blinding us even this deep underwater. I’m reminded of yesterday again, the end of the movie bringing with it the switching of the lights. We don’t stop to collect our bearings, though. We continue up. And up. And up. Out to the surface of the water, and more importantly to the edge of the lake.

It’s been maybe a couple of hours at most, but it feels so much longer when the sun doesn’t pass overhead the same.

Exiting the water into air is strange. Somehow it feels the same as entering the water where I hit a stationary surface that needs to be convinced to move.

The novel feeling is cut short to address other matters. Namely, my lungs going into shock as they remember what a human is supposed to breath. My body automatically expulses all water for passages that should have air, halting my breathing as I get the nastiest of sensations. Basically, I’m regurgitating water.

While I’m busy with this nasty feeling something grabs my collar, hoisting me the rest of the way from the water like a dead fish. Wakasagihime holds my arm for a moment longer until out of reach, the land cutting her off.

“So these are the after effects of a water breathing spell,” Ran’s voice comments to my face. I can’t visually confirm it’s her with my eyes watering nonstop. Another side effect of being turned into a living fountain decoration.

“Oh gosh is he alright?” Wakasagihime concerns herself, making a brief splash to sit on the shore. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Hold a moment,” Ran instructs. She adjusts her grip to hold me under my arms and then tosses me over her shoulder, pressing my chest into her body.

I feel the liquid eject, now more violently as Ran applies pressure. She keeps going until I feel like my ribs are creaking, the pain forcing me to relent and tap her back. She loosens her grip, springing my chest back to the correct shape, and lowers me to the ground. My lungs aren’t quite done with me yet, though, as I then fall into a coughing fit for several minutes. Barely anything around me registers during this time other than the pain in my knees and palms propping me off the ground.

When my body settles down, having drained all the energy it could and leaving my back to the ground, I can hear Ran comment, “He appears to have recovered.” Her fingers stretch my eye open, checking my level of consciousness. A sigh of relief comes from the woman at the shoreline.

I’d love to swat her hand away, but my entire body feels less than capable of such a simple motion right now. “I’m awake, though I wish I wasn’t,” I attempt to assure Ran that I’m perfectly present. “How’d you know when… no, that’s a stupid question, you were waiting up here. How’d you know where we’d surface?”

“Regis,” she addresses me, her tone hinting at being disappointed. I feel something slide up my back, slipping from around my neck and into her hand. A paper doll, one with some kind of coating. My forearm lifts at the elbow to reach for the thing. Ran is at least kind enough to offer it down, letting me feel the lacquer covering it. “Lady Yukari is capable of observing people in the depths of hell. It’s illogical to assume a body of water would be more efficate at hiding you.”

I choose to not bring up Chen’s crippling weakness to water. Mainly to avoid any enduring arguments we’ve already had over the topic.

“Good work not antagonizing the kojin, Regis,” Ran adds, giving me a few paces of space.

Something turns to static in my brain as I try to the process those exact words from this particular person. “Good work? Did you just tell me good work? I didn’t even realize I did something that praiseworthy.”

“Oh, he’s gotten a second wind,” Wakasagihime notes, looking my way now that I’m sat up. I didn’t notice when I did, I was just following Ran’s face as she stepped back.

“No, hang on, we’re not skipping over that last part. Why was that good work, exactly?”

Ran stares at me, a flinch in her eyes betraying her regret for even mentioning anything. She shuts them and explains, “That particular kojin has studied magics that only those depths provides, making her more powerful than would be expected of an aged Dragon Palace representative exiled from the present halls.”

“I… huh?” I blubber. “That’s a lot to take in, you know. What were you planning on doing if I did piss her off?”

She points at the paper doll still in my hand. I inspect the thing, finding no answers on the paper itself. “Should magic power several magnitudes higher than required for simple movement be poured in spontaneously the doll becomes highly pressurized.”

I realize what she’s getting at, and conclude, “It’s a bomb? And you can just do that?”

“Not ‘just,’” Ran corrects. “It does take time to build up to significant values. When the kojin was in audible range it plateaued at full charge.”

“How many pounds of TNT?”

“Approximately fifty, rounded up to the nearest integer.”

I hand the doll back over, hoping that I’ll never have to think about the possibility of it being strapped to my back again.

“What part of blowing me up would have helped, exactly?”

“Your incapacitated body would have been easier to retrieve than to conventionally fight the kojin,” Ran defends her thought process.

“And Wakasagihime..?”

“Not the primary objective.”

“Is she… maybe mad?” Wakasagihime guesses.

I grunt back, “I would feel better if she was. For either interpretation of that question. Furthermore, it’s hard to believe that even when going down and finding literal sea monsters my partner is still the scariest thing I’ve seen today.”

“Wakasagihime, Regis asked you a question before,” Ran bluntly changes the topic, ignoring my comment.

“I did? Oh, right, I did, huh?” I recall.

Wakasagihime stares blankly for a few seconds, perhaps deciding if she could play off forgetting the question entirely. If she does, I’m keen to her tomfoolery.

She chooses instead to directly answer, “A little.”

“What defines a ‘little?’” Ran prods.

“… I feel like Tama is going to hold it against me for some time… That sort of little,” Wakasagihime elaborates, facing the water.

“And what about you? Did you feel like you learned anything with this outing?” I punctuate the topic at risk of sounding divorced from the trip.

She turns to look at me over her shoulder, not terribly amused by my line of questioning, and retorts, “Everything is about learning and lessons with you, isn’t it?”

“Forgive me for being a soppy teacher. No pun intended,” I muse, picking at a part of my wet shirt stuck to skin.

A repressed sigh mars her face, followed by, “Right, I haven’t asked you much about yourself. What am I doing?” She shakes her head, turning back to the water.

“Showing me a good time, as far as I’m concerned,” I chide her pessimism.

With my legs still feeling lame, I raise a hand for Ran to help me to my feet. Thankfully she’s in a cooperative mood and lifts me without complaint, hauling an arm across her shoulders. I give a word of thanks as she drags me next to the mermaid.

Wakasagihime seems lost in thought, to which I add, “What did you want to get out of today? I’m still not a mind reader. Nor’s Ran, as far as I know.”

“Better kept that way,” Ran plays with my words. I knuckle her shoulder, hoping to clue her in that it’s not our turn to banter. She looks back at me, inscrutable as usual.

Wakasagihime remains silent for some time, whatever thoughts grip her impossible to tell. Then, afterwards, she determines, “I think… I need more time to think.”

“Is that all you’d like to add for now?”I challenge, hoping to press her for anything more. She still hasn’t exactly stated why she decided to do all of this.

“Yes. I knew what I wanted but I don’t know how I want it, if that makes any sense.”

“I think Cirno would like talking with you is the sense that I get,” I change to joking about my favorite student.

She makes a face at me, stricken odd by the thought. “That fairy? Does she also have life problems that are hard to put into words?”

“I’ve tried. Trust me, I’ve tried, but whatever is going through that child’s head takes more words than I have to piece together,” I chuckle at the thought of my performance anxiety from when I was writing the first report. “You know, I’m glad that your issues have been so much more relatable, if you don’t mind my saying.”

I direct Ran to sit me next to Wakasagihime, along the waters edge. The fog of this misty lake has taken over for the early afternoon, but it still feels less encasing than the waters below. The air on my skin is still pretty cold, though. Being wet does that.

“… That makes me sound like a simple girl,” Wakasagihime eventually returns the comment. A small smile cracks on her face, ear-fins spreading out attentively. “I’m not that easy, am I?”

“I’d hardly say simplicity is easy,” I argue. “Only thing bad about simple is that it’s easy to get comfortable with.”

She pushes my shoulder and giggles, “Now you’re really saying bad things about me!”

[Please wait warmly as lecture is being written…]

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Self commentary? Nah, I’ve already gotten meta enough this post. Oh, although I would like to thank the AO3 folks for getting this story to 10k hits, for whatever semblance of significance the funny virtual number actually means.