[x] A student, learning as they go.

You wake up with a start. It's the last stop, so you quickly make for the exit. It's going to take time to get back to where you need to go, but it doesn't matter in the least. Today, it is Friday and you are a winner.
To recap the last week - after a grueling battle against brutal foes such as Physics, Trig and Language, you have emerged victorious. There are very few things that can take this triumph away from you and none of them are facing you right this second. As such, you calmly wait for a train back and allow yourself to simply relax and empty your head, fade out a little. These moments when you can see world around you move and not have to interact with it are very precious. You love this world, but sometimes standing in the middle of a hurricane is simply not a good idea.

You still blame the Trig. Do not bring the Trig near me. You'd like to say there would be consequences, but the best you can do is draw on your textbook (and you still kind of need it). While on a train back, you explore the subject further. To your great delight, you manage to remember the Wikipedia Scottish Language affair. You don't have THAT kind of power level (or such a lust for revenge), so that still sucks, but it's refreshing to know that in a pinch, fighting back against even inanimate concepts like education is possible, even though you really shouldn't. You file the topic under "continue tangent later" and move on. There's more when that came from, but now's not the time nor place for this. Forgive and forget. You pass the turnstile gate and exit to the streets above.

After taking a breath of fresh air, you admire the scenery. It's late autumn, the moon is in full view and the streets are the same as ever. Big highways, park nearby, beautiful foliage and you walk right past all of this because no interest been here lost of times nothing stops victory march. One mental check for the groceries later and one mental press of the big ol' "skip" button in the imaginary upper right corner of the screen and you finally make the blunder of arriving at your apartment.

You live alone. Reality quickly hands you a check and leaves as fast as it comes. Yes, no parents around to regulate and watch your every move (just like in your japanese a- you quickly suppress the thought before it finishes out of disgust). No, do the chores yourself or face FULL WRATH of things such as full kitchen sink, dirty laundry, not getting to eat anything past instant ramen and energy bars (complete with getting hospitalized once because of stomach problems), overdue payments and last but not least all kinds of landlord problems. Thank god you did most of the work yesterday in anticipation of today. "Most", however, doesn't equal "all".

You face the final boss. What are you?

[-] Ahhh! After five calendar days I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth!
[-] Do your work precisely, diligently and mechanically. Good fundamentals are key to success.
[-] Beating BBD on HHM is fine, but defeating your homework and cleaning your room is far more powerful.

[X] Ahhh! After five calendar days I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth!

For a short period of time, you consider yourself. You tell yourself you're lazy, that it's not a good outlook to keep putting things off until the last moment (you have some experience with this). If you start celebrating today and wake up at Monday morning again, it will only bring you pain. If Friday is a day of celebration, Monday is a day of grief (even if it's not supposed to be this way), and your grief WILL be complete. At the end of the day though, you quietly admit it. After all the stuff you went through this week, this festival has to be today. Your face tightens up in a warrior's expression - you let out a suitable battle cry and get to work.

One meal later, you deposit self (1) on chair (1). One (1) brief consideration about how exactly to accomplish your world conquest, you settle for the usual. 3S opens up and you're immersed in imaginary simulated combat. Only now, with no small amount of bliss, you are at home.

Under ordinary circumstances, computer games can be counted as simple simulations. Some function as substitutes for theater, letting a player take control of an actor's role, play out the script and experience the story that developers make. Some of them are designed as means to puzzle the mind, to obfuscate the solution to a certain problem and present the means to find it. To present a possibility to do a play-research of sorts, make happy memories. To basically do a chess game, but without chess. And some function as battlegrounds, for players to test their skill against either the computer - or, as some realized that the most effective opponent isn't computer at all, another human. Each simulation has rules, which can't readily be broken, which force the players to meet their foe fair and square, but most importantly head-on. And so your tangent finds that in a fighting game in particular, with enough practice and at sufficient skill level, no single part of you is sufficient for beating the tide. ALL parts of you have to be used and utilized properly in order to achieve if not a victory, then at LEAST a good result.

Your instinct, or body partially handles the reactions, reflexes and split second decisions. It cannot make a meaningful offensive on it's own, but it is required to go fast enough to do well on the axis of time.
Your mind is used to remember your pool of possible actions to take, to regulate the timings, to direct the instinct, to decide which part of the combat to concentrate on and to plan your next move. Your mind is what you have the most control over and as such one of the most important parts of the equation.
Your heart is an engine of prediction. People aren't always rational - no, people are by their circumstances are almost always irrational. Your heart can be used to sympathize with and understand their irrationality - and counter their strike before it is made. Without a heart, games are merely arrays of possibilities. With a heart, they become conversations.

During the fight in most fighting games you've encountered, your body is united in it's struggle. The concentration and clarity of mind it brings fill you with a certain kind of vigor. A sense of long-lost unity. Once upon a time, you hoped to share this joy with others, but after finding your class mates to enjoy their vices more, you did the only thing you could and stepped back. And other people are....
You recall the last time you joined a local tournament. Or rather, you make the mistake of trying to recall it. The stench of sweat coupled with local slang, money matches and various disputes made you quietly retreat. It's fine, you don't blame them, you tell yourself. Just the queue's fine. Nothing to worry about.

So anyway, to sum it all up, you play like a six hundred in a twelve-hundred rated tournament for a while to cool down. It's good practice and you even manage to score a win after tying a match. After a persistent self-reminder not to overdo it (the legends of a nerd whose constant 6+ hour long computer sessions turned him into a vampire who instantly disintegrated the second he stepped foot outside the house still haunt you), you clock out after two hours. After a brief call to your parents and doing everything else there is to do, you finally end the day.

One question floats around your mind as you fade. What are you? You dismiss it and enter temporary oblivion a state of sleep graciously provides.

[-] You are now sleeping...

With a quiet sense of eeriness, you awaken. Under your feet is a patch of grass. You are standing before a Torii gate. Ahead of you is a heathen shrine many so adore. The Hakurei Temple floats on an island inside a purple haze. Your senses are with you, but none of the dreamlike feeling of weirdness is present. When you were Lucid dreaming, spaces seemed relative, malleable. Here, instead of illusion, there is truth. And instead of time, there is eternity.
...That wasn't an experiment you wanted to recall.

Your parents told you to never trust your dreams. They also told you to not sit in front of computer so long. If you listened to your parents more, this probably would not have happened.

"Filial piety is a strong virtue, but it rarely turns aside the tides of fate."

You turn around. Your thoughts are frozen. The only possible escape from a mind reader is to freeze your own mind and allow no thoughts to enter. A form of discipline you supplement with conversation. Glowing eyes appear in purple haze that surround her.

"Who are you? Why am I here?" Your heart calms a bit with each question, a sense of unity returning. You do not feel at home at all, yet under stress it doesn't matter. Because in front of you is a Kitsune wearing a fox mask and carrying a paper fan.

"How rude. A proper guest should introduce themselves first."

...you oblige. There is no point in hiding away your name in this circumstance.

"In turn, my name, is Lafcadio. You see, I am a witch by trade."

You remain silent, urging her to keep going. There isn't anything to fear.

"You are here to satisfy my curiosity, human. You see, I have become quite interested with you. There are many, let's say, dull people that exist in this world. Content with eating, living, procreating, feeling and dying. Like so much biomass, like waste. But occasionally, there are gems that shine through the cracks."

"And like a decent merchant, I make those gems mine. You will be mine before you know it. But, you will show your worth first. And you will be allowed to fight back."

She points a fan towards your direction. Your heart wavers, but is supported by your mind. There is no need for fear. Because...

"For a period of fourteen days, you will face a chain of trials. Every three days you will receive a Boon - and every day will spell Tragedy, unless you manage to predict and avert it. Should you perish before the end, you will be mine, human. And should you last through fourteen days..."

"I will satisfy your wish completely, any one you have."

[-] Write-in: Ask your questions, should you have any.

[X] - Question 1: What is meant by “You’ll be mine?” I mean, it’s flattering that you want me. But you’re honestly not my type.
[X] - Question 2: Do I get to choose what kind of “Boons” I get when the time comes to receive them?
[X] - Question 3: You do realize that I have a final exam in 2 weeks that I have GOT to get an A on, right?
[X] - What do I get for completing all trials? At least let me keep all these "Boons" indefinitely after the trials to keep things fair.
[X] - Even if I wish for you to be mine?
[X] - Can we rollback if we get bad end?

Your heart does not waver this time. You need information, so you start to ask questions.

"What is meant by “You’ll be mine?” I mean, it’s flattering that you want me. But you’re honestly not my type."

A condescending smirk appears on her face. She doesn't use the fan this time.

"You. My slave. Forever."

Right. Disregard and move on.

"Do I get to choose what kind of “Boons” I get when the time comes to receive them?"

"I will decide the first Boon you get. The rest, let's say that you'll be able to choose. Otherwise, it's not much of a fight."

You file the topic under "things to consider later". There are many things to ask, so you cannot hold the topic for long. By the way...

"You do realize that I have a final exam in 2 weeks that I have GOT to get an A on, right?"

"Oh, worry not. If you don't get an A on my subject, you won't need to worry about that anymore."

She smiles like a predator.

"You won't need to worry about anything."

...

"...What do I get for completing all trials? At least let me keep all these "Boons" indefinitely after the trials to keep things fair."

"As I said, I will satisfy your wish completely should you last through fourteen days. As for averting every Tragedy, there is no prize. For one very simple reason."

This time she doesn't smile like a predator. She's making fun of you.

"You won't be able to."

...

...you shouldn't ask this. You know full well what Kitsune are and what they do. However...

"You'll really satisfy any wish? Even if I wish for you to be mine?"

Her expression turns... sad? For half a second. Then it quickly switches to amused, as if a lever was switched inside of her.

"Yes."

...there are no further questions.

[Dear reader. As mentioned, there will be 14 days inside the main quest. Once every three days, you will receive something to help you win, which is called a Boon. And every day, you will face an obstacle that will bar your way to victory, which is called a Tragedy. If you manage to succeed in lasting throughout all 14 days, you will be victorious - and you will get a happy ending. But should you fail to remain alive all the way to the end, this quest will end prematurely. It will be considered complete and you will not be able to redo, reload your save file or see what could have happened. Do not worry - it will not be overly difficult, but nor will it be totally easy. While I hope that all of you will vote for the sake of completing the quest, sometimes solutions will be difficult to spot. I hope you will be able to find the truth.

This is a challenge, from me to you. Ahead is a gift - an example solution of a Tragedy. You may think of it as a format to consider for your future fights. Please enjoy it. And make use of it.]

"So? Have you come to a decision? I grow... bored."

...you are running out of time. There's only one thing to do in this situation.

Eternity compresses into a single moment, in which you act. No one is able to read your mind in a single blink of an eye and make a good judgment. Lack of time gives an infinity to consider your circumstances. A seemingly unexplainable paradox.

What do you know about this situation that you find yourself in? You comb through the information, unsorted, willing to find the truth.

Lacfaido. Lacfaido Hearn. Life of a real person, famous for his works. Yukari Yakumo. A youkai of boundaries. Sage of Gensokyo, self-proclaimed. Spiriting Away. Kitsune. Evil spirits, who seduce men and lead them into a sin of lust. Yakumo Yukari never relying on such an ability, instead being famed for her intellect. Maribel Hearn. Ability to see boundaries. Sealing Club with Usami Renko. Existence of a fictional woman incompatible with the truth of this world. Creative fiction turned true? Impossible, meaning music CD and print works confer only parts of truth, in other words they lie. Futuristic and imaginary society, in other words lie. Dateless Bar "Old Adam" (Even here). Lies as part of creative process. Ability to see boundaries, self-proclaimed. Gensokyo, translated as Land of Illusions. Populated by various evil spirits. Some professing miracles, which cannot be made by them. "Youkai Expansion Project", 500 years ago. The name of Yukari Yakumo. Lafcadio Hearn lived only about 200 years ago.

...Undocumented, ability to manipulate one's own dreams. Induction of delusion. Essence of Fantasia. Luke 6:35.

An image of a knife. You cannot cut the tumor without pain. You cannot cut the tumor without. Separation.

Your heart wavers, but is supported by your mind. There is no need for fear. Because there is no nameless fate, nor luck, nor chance. There is Divine Providence. If you are here, then you are here for a purpose. A reason. And you must only fear two things. She's not one of them.

"Will you ask for boundless riches? Unimaginable intellect? Immortality? Ability to take any woman on earth? A body that does not age? Endless supply of any food you want? Your own mansion, with all the servants you would ever wish, doing your every bidding?"

"Declare your wish!"

Who are you?

[ ] I want to be rich beyond compare.
[ ] My grasp on knowledge will soar beyond the stars.
[ ] I will be immortal.
[ ] All women must desire me.
[ ] Endless supply of very tasty food.
[ ] My own mansion with all the helpers I need.

...

.....

[ ] I want to be rich beyond compare.
[ ] My grasp on knowledge will soar beyond the stars.
[ ] I will be immortal.
[ ] All women must desire me.
[ ] Endless supply of very tasty food.
[ ] My own mansion with all the helpers I need.

[x] I want Maribel Hearn to wake up from her nightmare of Gensokyo.

Human reasoning has a nasty tendency to make mistakes. Silently, you pray the best you can you made the right choice. Please, God. A mistake here is deadly. For both of you.

Stillness fills the air. Her eye pupils shrink. She draws back and all glamour disappears from her person. Animal features such as her tails and ears disappear. You see a woman similar to a depiction of Maribel Hearn from the album covers, but much, much older. Good medicine tastes bad in almost every case.

"She died by train, didn't she?"

The purple haze turns red. She is not moving, frozen. The giant eyes remain.

"Tell me."

The red haze that surrounds the air around you disappears. Events of her life play back in the space where it was, as if on a projector in the air. You see it clearly. Pictures move quickly, much faster than a presentation, much slower than a film. Film reel.

Two student girls. Kyoto Institute. Brown-haired and Blonde-haired. Medium club. Research of various folklore events. Occasional supernatural experiences. Scientific fantasies. Looking forward to another meeting between them. When an understanding between two people is created, a world forms around them. A fictional, made-up world the two of them make for the sake of a time between them. Precursor to computer role-playing games, you note to yourself. Attempt of utopia on earth.

Train station. Meeting near the train approach. Unknown passerby, shoving the blonde into the other girl. An immensely loud horn. Tragedy. Only one girl survives. Eyes of all passerby people on her.

Policemen taking the blonde girl away. Questioning. Not remembered nor recorded. Aside from cold tone and accusing eyes.

Eyes of her relatives. Eyes of her friend's relatives. Rejected and denied by everyone around her, without any single exception. Unworthy of life. Criminal. Guilty.

"I will never forget."

A picture of Maribel Hearn and an empty box of medicine on the floor. Coma. Another image, a clinic. A patient's body connected to a life support mechanism. The image fades, replaced by purple haze. The eyes remain.

Her expression is indescribable.

"I will never forget those eyes, human."

A recreation of a world. A world full of suffering, but also love and hope. Of her and Renko flying in the sky. It's not them anymore. No matter how much she wants it.

"And I will never surrender Gensokyo. I will never destroy this world we both share!"

...it's a delusion. She is still alive, otherwise she would not exist. She must wake up. While she is still alive, she still has hope. Before she dies, she must let go. Forgive herself and be forgiven.

[ ] Write-in. You must convince her. She cannot die like this.

[x] Text.

You have to do this.

"Gensokyo's not the only world you two shared. You may have fantasized and dreamed together in that world, but you lived together in this one. Gensokyo wasn't special to her because it was Gensokyo, it was special to her because she shared it with you. With Maribel Hearn, not Yukari Yakumo."

The purple haze disappears once again. On it, events of various incidents appear on a film reel. The Scarlet Mist incident. Many moving pictures. Maribel's expression is pained, angered.

"And she would hate to see you like this, hiding away in your shared dream. What would she have done, if you were troubled or hurt when you met together? Would she have rushed you into Gensokyo into fantasy, or would she have put Gensokyo on hold, and taken the time to help Maribel, to help her friend?"

The background changes to events that occurred at winter. Spring Snow incident. Attempt to make a never-ending winter. A certain shrine maiden's history. A struggled fight. Eternal Night incident. Urban Legend Incident.

"Renko would want you to live. She'd want you to live even if it was your fault, and the very first thing she'd tell you is that it wasn't. The very first thing she would do is hold you, and comfort you until your tears dried. Renko would tell you not to live in the dream, but to make your dream a reality!"

The background changes to various slice-of-life moments. At the shrine, angered Reimu chases Yukari down with a gohei. Tea ceremony. A giant festival. Reimu and Marisa sitting down, bantering. Pranks. Elegant spellcard fights. Silent, bittersweet moments at Kourindou.

"And if I might offer another suggestion, one on what to live for? Share your dream. Paint it as fantasy, whether-"

"Enough."

Maribel looks furious with you. You still have to convince her. Images of various apparitions show in the background in quick succession. They clash, enjoying their fights. The eyes around her grow in number.

"When Maribel dies, Gensokyo dies with you."

"ENOUGH!"

Her face is a mask of wrath. You can't get through to her.

"HUMAN! I've already I told you, but it bears repeating! I am a witch! And your life is in my power, completely! You live and die by my hands! And for this show of disrespect, you'll pay with your life!"

"As for your method of execution, why don't we use that red text you love so much?"

"You will face my trials for fourteen days! You will be challenged every day - and you will have help every three days! And if you die before the end, you will be mine forever!

"And you will die at the end of the fourteenth day, no matter what you do!"

…

"How is that, mortal? You've laughed at me long enough! You've made fun of me - of Gensokyo long enough! Now just give up, despair and die of hopelessness before my test kills you!!!!!"

…..You have to say this. There is no other way.

"I've listened to you. Can I say something now?"

There isn't any other card to play. Maribel makes a mad grin and comes forward, but-

"No matter what you say, you are going to die! Are you going to beg for mercy? Will you bow down and lick my feet like a good dog? Who knows, I might make you into some sort of lowly apparition! Submit, mortal, BE MINE!"

-you slowly walk forward and meet her approach head-on.

"...I will fight and die for you, just as you want it. Once you wake up, come to faith and repent. Christ can help you."

She used Lafcaido's name twice now. Before he fell to heresy and false teachings of self-annihilation, he had a hope to live forever. You don't dare to assume anything about his fate. But if she lives forever after this, it's fine. Even if you cannot count on it.

You cannot do anything but die for her now. That will have to be enough.

"HHHUMAAAAANNNNNN!!!"

She is furious, raging. Anyone would usually refute with anger, disbelief or hatred in this situation. There are tears in her eyes. You allow yourself to smile and lock eyes with her.

"But, you must say the final part in red yourself. No one else can say it for you."

She comes close to you. You are standing face to face. You are still staring in her eyes. She hesitates. She never stopped reading your mind in this place, you realize, except for a single moment.

Necrofantasia. She can't delude herself with this. You recall your lifetime as a video game addict. If this filthy, rotten, wasteful life can save a single girl, your life had purpose. It had meaning. But it can't save her, only wake her up. You'll take the consolation prize.

"I. I...."

For a quarter of a second, her expression can be described as grief. It is replaced by resolve immediately afterwards.

"And if you last through all fourteen days, I will wake up from my dream!"

She hands you a pocket watch. You take it on instinct. The colors blur and the dream vanishes. Only a fragment remains.

[ ] ...

A film reel. Two girls talk together in a café.

"The elixir of immortality?
Of course I'd take it.
You know why immortality is portrayed as a terrible thing to have to bear in stories and such? Those were all meant to serve as cautionary tales against greed and to celebrate rebellion against figures of authority. But on the flip side, the fact that those stories even exist serves as evidence in support of the idea that that the elixir of immortality is a real thing.
Immortality doesn't imply the absence of death. Rather, it just implies a state of existence in which the boundary between life and death disappears, and you exist as neither alive nor dead.
It'd be like a bona fide Necrofantasia—a practical realization of being in a world somewhere in between the world of the living and the Netherworld at the same time."

The small piece of a dream vanishes as you start to wake up. You no longer have any room for error.