"Hey Reimu, want to hear a story?"

"What is it, Marisa?"

"Once upon a time, there lived an Ugly Japanese Goblin ghost. She was so ugly that everyone died. The end!"

"..."

"Haha, maybe it was like that, right? Reimu?"

Said the human, to the human.
...It is a redundant classification.
The only creatures that can speak at all are humans.

"Marisa..."
"D-don't..."
"Don't talk to me today."
"I'm working on something."

"Oh..."

So the former shrine maiden claimed.
She had been "working on something" for quite some time.
But, I know that it's not going anywhere.
She's just going over those manuscripts, those records, again and again...

"I guess I'll be off..."
"Hey, I think I might be able to find Sumireko soon!"
"There's these things, trains, and they can take us long distances without flight!"
"I think I remember the sort of place Sumireko lived! If we can just-"

"Marisa."

"Oh, right, sorry. I'll get out of your hair..."

"Before that, could you hand me the spell card rules?"
"I need to review them."

That's ridiculous.

"...\"Duels between youkai threaten to destroy the small world of Gensokyo.\""
"\"However, a lifestyle without duels will cause the youkai to lose their power.\""

"Marisa."

"\"Accordingly, we would like to permit such duels under the following contract.\""

"The text, please."

"\"One: To make it easier for youkai to cause incidents.\""

"..."

"\"Two: To make it easier for-\""

"Stop. Now."

"Yeah, I'll stop. I know you don't need it. I don't need it either. We know them. We lived and breathed them."
"Why the hell do you need it written down?"

"I just... I'm working on a theory."

"Not a chance, red-white."

It was really more like maroon-brown at this point.
I don't think she's changed clothes once since then.

"You're just sitting the fuck around. Wallowing in, I dunno, nostalgia? Fear? You're doing nothing."
"Get a hold of yourself, girl."

"S-s-so what, then? \"Get over it?\""
"Is that what I should do?"
"There's NOTHING."
"NOTHING. No Gensokyo. No youkai. I was a human, I guess, but they were my friends! I liked living there?? It's my entire life!"
"Y-you just... You weren't even born with magic. You don't know what it's like."

"..."

"I mean I'm sorry, I know that's unfair, but it's true, right?"
"You could always go down to the village, and have fun, and still be you, but I'm not me. I'm Gensokyo. I'm the Hakurei shrine maiden."
"So get OUT. Come back later. I'll figure something out."
"Or do you really hate the idea of me so much?"
"You want to be stronger than Reimu. You want to be comfortable while the youkai shrine maiden flails around."

"Reimu, you know it's not-"
"I'm just-"
"This is fucking you up! You're going nowhere!"
"I guess I'm leaving. I'll be back before the sun goes down."

"..."

Fun conversation.
I'm outta here.

I grab my bag and leave this stupid cave.
I used to try and hide the entrance behind some branches, but I don't really feel like it.
Plus, it doesn't seem like humans usually come all the way out here.
Under cover of trees, I make my way to one of the mountain's main hiking trails, and start the long trek to the nearest village.
No, is it "city"?
I don't really know, but it's got nice people.

Eventually I reach a road. Ah, this bitch.
Goes back and forth and back and forth and its' surface is so stupidly hard.
I guess it wasn't meant for me. It's meant for cars.
Big shiny bugs that letcha move around quickly, but only on roads that were made for them.
Sure sounds useful if there are as many roads as it seems.
Not as good as flying, but hey, better than nothing.

Lemme see if I've got everything. I left in a rush since Reimu was being so...
Whatever. What do I have?
Snacks? Yep.
Danmaku? Yep. (I found a bunch of pretty pebbles. Watch out, small animals.)
Mini-hakkero? Yep. Gotta say, didn't think this bad boy would hold out as well as it has. It's not like I have any magic to use it with, but it still makes a nice heater or stove. I think it's started to rust, but, eh, we'll be fine.
And finally: Money. O-ka-ne. That's a big fat nope.
Oops. I must have left it in the donation box for storage.
It's not that big a deal. I don't think we have that much right now, and today is a working day.
The little scraps we brought with us from the shrine's coffers...
Well, I'm kinda surprised I could use it at all. This place's money looks different.
I wonder if I look super rich, using such old currency. Maybe it just looks like I just robbed a museum.

...This really is a walk.



Finally, I'm here.
I've got work at a local store, but they don't mind if I come in late. I think the owner just treats my hours as his break.

"Hey, boss!"

"Oh, Marisa."
"Glad you're here. My legs were getting a bit sore."

"Leave it to me!"
"Today, I can work until the sun goes down!"

Reimu can wait. I'm working for both of us.

"That's good to hear."
"Actually, I was wondering if you could do a favor for me..."

"Sure! What is it?"

"Well, my house is being smoked for termites. Nasty little things, they are."
"My family will be staying at a friend's house, but he isn't off work yet, and we don't have a key."
"So, my daughter will be here for the rest of the day."
"Can I trust you to look after the little devil?"

"Can do. I'm great with kids."

Probably.

"Where is she?"

"Over here."

"Oh! Hiya. Scared me, there..."

A young girl emerges from behind the store's counter.
What is she, like 12? 14?

"Well, nice to meetcha. Name's Kirisame Marisa."

"...Claire."

"Kure-ya?"

"Oh, I should mention. My wife is from Britain."
"Our family goes back and forth every few years. Don't worry, Claire's Japanese is perfect."

"...Are you Japanese?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, sorry, I just thought, because of, um your hair..."

"Nope! I'm an ordinary Japanese person!"

What a lame line, but a girl's gotta try, right?
Apparently the hair colors of the outside world aren't nearly as diverse as they were in Gensokyo. Did something happen to the gene pool since the barrier was setup, or what?

"...If you say so."

"Well, I'm off. See you two around, oh, I don't know, seven?"
"Thanks again, Marisa."

"No prob, boss."



Another fun day of standing behind a tiny counter and waiting for someone to bring something I've never heard of up to it.
Although I'm starting to learn the names. Everything here is so colorful compared to the stuff in Gensokyo's shops. I bet that's where all the hair color went. Damn you, Pocky.

...
I haven't spoken to the girl since the owner left.
She's just been sitting near the back, doing homework. Sometimes she wanders the store for a bit before grabbing something and taking it back to her corner, but that's it. Not entirely sure if she's supposed to do that, but hey, kids ought to have a bit of mischief. I'm kids too, by the way.

Oh, wait, she closed all her books. Now she's...
!!
That's a...!
One of those things! You know! Sumireko has one!
You can talk to people from far away with it, or read things on it like a book! At least, in theory. It never worked for her in Gensokyo, but here it ought to, right?

Shit, now I've got to ask about it.
Reimu and I really can't keep up like this. If there's any way to find out what happened to Gensokyo, it's Sumireko.
I mean, maybe everyone didn't die. Maybe we just got ejected.
Reimu really doesn't agree, though. She says that if she's gone, everything's gone. The shrine came with us, too. Structure didn't quite stick the landing, but...
Ah, whatever!
Point is, Sumireko got magic without ever being in Gensokyo, and she broke a hole into it. I think there were some shifty things going on about that last part, but she's the only person who's going to know anything about getting anywhere.
And if Gensokyo really is gone, she can at least teach us how to live out here. I'm trying to sell both angles of that to Reimu, but she's just so passe about it, even though she's depending on me to bring in food. What if I just didn't come back? What would she do?

Okay, doesn't matter.

"Hey, Eclaire."

"It's, uh, Claire. ...An eclaire is a pastry."

"Oh, yeah, sorry."
"How's it going?"

"Pretty good. You?"

"Yuuuuup."

Please bring back danmaku battles. Actual conversation can be unbearable.

"So, whatcha looking at over there on your, uh... that."

"I'm just watching YouTube."

Yu-chu-bu.

"Oh, cool. Is he any good?"

"Do you wanna watch with me?"

"Sure!"

That's progress, baby.
I pull a second chair up to where Claire was working.
She props her something up against a book so we can both see it. Right now, it's displaying some, like, guy, frozen in motion. I guess that's YouTube.
When I'm settled, she taps the device.



E-eleven minutes...
That was eleven minutes...?
I don't even...
I didn't say a word the entire time, just trying to comprehend-

"Sorry, was that okay?"

"Y-yeah, I guess I'm just not used to it."
"What sort of, uh, thing was that?"

"Well, he um, this guy makes big crazy machines for fun and records the results."

"So much colorful text... so many explosions... he talked so fast..."

"Miss? Are you, maybe, a, um..."
"...Hillbilly?"

If that's what makes sense, I'll take it.

"Yeah! Yeah, sorry. I don't know much about this sort of thing, hehe."
"Could you tell me what other kinds of things you can do on that?"

"Well, I mean, I could use social media."
"My parents say I'm not allowed to use Twitter, but I can use Instagram as long as it's just to talk to my friends."

"S-so this is that thing where you can talk to people from a long distance away, right?"

"Um, yeah."

"Say, if I wanted to talk to a particular person, could I do it with that?"

"Yeah, as long as they also had the app. You would also need to know their username, and stuff..."

"That's cool! Cool!"
"I'm, like, looking for a friend of mine, and I don't really know where to find her, but she might have this thing!"

"Do you want to use my phone?"

PHONE! Yes! That's it!

"Could I?"

"Sure. I've got a bit of homework left to do, anyway."

I sure hope no customers come in. It's getting late, so probably not.
When I hold the phone, it seems to be displaying a "search" thing. Search for people?
There's some kana below in rows and columns. I guess this is how you write. After a bit, I find out how to pick the right characters.

[U SA MI SU MI RE KO]

A lot of names were displayed, but they narrowed down as I wrote more letters.
There's a few left, but...
This is it! One of them has a picture of her right next to it! Jackpot!

"Hey, Claire! I found the person I'm looking for!"

"That's good."

"...How do I talk to her?"

"Oh, um, give me the phone for a second."

I hand it back to her, careful not to press the glowing side any more.

"Hm... this is a private account. I'll have to send a follow request."
"...Basically, we need to ask her if it's okay to talk to her. It might take some time before she sees our request."

"That's okay! Can you send it?"

"Sure, but she might not accept, since I'm just a random person."
"I can come here again tomorrow so you can talk to her, if she accepts."

"Thank you!! Woohoo!"

On that, I spend the rest of the day idling hopefully.
We've got a real shot! I didn't think it would be that easy.
On my way out, I'll buy Reimu and I something nice.
She went too far earlier, but it's okay. We've been friends for a long time.

At around seven, the owner comes in, and we close shop. He and his daughter are about to leave, but he stops.

"Ah, Marisa? It's getting dark. Would you like a drive?"

I initially hesitate, but I don't want to keep Reimu waiting too long.
Plus, it's kind of awesome, isn't it?

"Totally! Thanks!"

I feel like there's some sort of procedure that would be involved in this, but I just kinda sit inside and he starts driving.

I point out some directions as he's driving until we're a small bit up the mountain.
If I take him all the way, he'll probably start to think something's suspicious.
He seems concerned about letting me out in a dark place like this, but he accepts it once I say I'm meeting someone else.
As he drives away, I wave bye to Claire, sitting in the back.

And now, the rest of the journey.
If I keep the mini-hakkero on low, I can light up the path without worrying about setting anything on fire.
It's fully night by now, but I've walked the path a fair amount of times.
By now, it must have been two weeks that we've been out here.
...I really hope Sumireko responds.



Eventually, I'm off the road, approaching our cave.
Well, seems like things are going fine. I can see the light from our campfire from outside.
...Isn't it brighter than usual?
Shit.

I start sprinting towards the entrance.
Against the soft dirt and fallen branches, it isn't easy, but I'll be damned if I don't have my balance.
The cave gets closer and closer and the light gets brighter and brighter until-

"REIMU!!"

A fierce flame engulfs the larger part of the inside of the cave.
It's burning the...
All of the Hakurei's scripts, ancient to modern, are being devoured.
Reimu stands in front of it, unmoving. Flames claw at her torn dress, but can't land a grip.
She does not react. Not to the fire, nor to my presence.
I don't think it's that she's not sad. She's just already spent all her tears, and now they're just evaporating in the heat.

"Hey, Marisa."

"..."
"...Reimu, it's..."
"I found-"

"Do you want to have a duel, just like old times?"

"Reimu, I'm sorry, I-"

"Nope, nope. I won't hear you out unless you beat me!"

Ha, ha. She's just reciting lines.
But, maybe...
Maybe I am the crazy one. I...
I don't want to lose it all either!
I worked so hard! I learned how to do magic! I...
Alice...
Rinnosuke...
Even youkai, even Patchouli and Koishi and Nitori and...
Mima, I never-

"Sorry, Reimu. You're right."
"Let's duel."


And thus it was, that two humans who favored the inhuman would brutalize eachother into the night.
They decided on it fairly, and started punching, and striking, and clawing, and kicking, and tackling. Even after the fire went out, they kept fighting, until they wailed out in pain, until blood was strewn across the stone floor, until tears were emptied and dried and emptied again.

But of course, "No combatant may kill a human, even upon victory.".

Their exhaustion grew and grew, until they could no longer fight.
They had exhausted their bodies, they had exhausted their emotions.
It was only when they could no longer hold their weight up that they fell to the ground.

"Once upon a time, there lived an Ugly Japanese Goblin ghost."
"She was so ugly, but she was so much fun. I really miss her."

"Me too."


THIS POST SPONSORED BY JAYKINGAMEZ