A summer day, a warm sunny day in Gensokyo. After a dull and rainy may the sun had chased the closed away. The beginning of the season had been worth the wait, birds journeyed the blue skies, rivers were pure and clear, flowers flaunted their colours and fruit was ripe and delicious. The purgatory of spring was over and the paradise of summer had arrived.

The sun's light was raining down on the open flower fields that separated the Forest of Magic from the human village, the beautiful fields of greenest grass and sweetest perfume. These fields were widely known as a holy land for young love, they had been a romantic meeting place for generations and, as one would expect, today was no different.

But lets leave the lovebirds to each other for now, there is a more interesting sight that demands our attention.

An elegant figure was merrily singing while on her way to the human village. Seiga's feet were jumping over the fields gracefully, lightly landing on the grass before springing upwards towards the sky. Her cool summer dress, light blue like the sky above her head, was waving in the wind, even her hair, free from the usual hairpin, was stretching outwards in a display of freedom and dreamy pixie beauty.

To a mere passerby the sight of a young pretty girl hoping around in the fields might be a happy sight, an image of joyful youth. A few young boys might smile daydreaming of spending the day with the graceful sapphire that had just kidnapped their hearts. The elders would surely frown upon the way Seiga's dress displayed her legs and shoulders, boasting about their past selves' lack of boldness and congratulating each other on their sobriety. But even the most puritan of mortals was in danger of surrendering to Seiga's smile, her cute little mouth arrogantly inviting the viewer to a kiss.

There were, of course, those who knew better, some people understood that Seiga's happiness was not a contagious virus but a hungry parasite, Seiga's happiness always came at someone's expense. Her smile was just like the sun, there more you looked at it the sooner you realised it was not meant to be chased, but rather, avoided. Her lips were poisonous to whomever had the misfortune of meeting them with their own.

Seiichi was a poisoned lad. The son of a pharmacist who had spent his whole life helping his parents and avoiding his peers, aged sixteen he had no more than a pair of friends and was to occupied trying to be a dutiful son to care about summer love or pretty girls. How could he have done anything other than failing?

In his defence, it should be said this pharmacist's son had always tried his best to live up to his name but sadly for him that was not to be. This was not your usual fib about what a young teen does when he is alone, nor is it the small lie he told his mother about a few missing coins, those were acceptable in a sixteen year old. This was a lie that left a mark on one's life.

Seiichi's fall from grace had begun a few weeks ago with the arrival of a cheerful young girl to the pharmacy.

She called herself Seiga and offered her help in the shop. She spent the days labelling the products that arrived from Eientei and teaching Seiichi about different plant species and the proper way one should speak to clients. She charged no fee since, she said, this was an invaluable experience to a young lady trying to start her own apothecary.

Seiichi was doomed from the moment their eyes met. It started with small talk between lessons and soon developed into awkward congratulatory hugs from the teacher and private dreams from the student.

This morning, while Seiichi's parents were visiting some cousins in another part of town, Seiga visited Seiichi. She had allowed her hair to fall smoothly down to her shoulders and was wearing a blue summer dress of the kind that would have gotten her kicked out of the pharmacy by Seiichi's mother. With a shy smile she closed the distance between them and lightly kissed the kid. Seiichi's mind froze unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy for a second, and eternal second, he wondered if he was dreaming, he questioned his sanity and the reality around him, he was no longer a rational being. She quickly pulled away and spoke.

"I love you"

Three well chosen words, three perfectly aimed darts followed by a second more passionate kiss, the type of kiss a tongue takes part in. As soon as Seiga broke the kiss her prey hugged her in search of another one, which she granted. Satisfied, she took his hands and guided them inside her dress. He knew not what to do, he might have fantasised about it but those kind of fantasies were supposed to remain so and never do they prepare one for the truth of the matter.

To say Seiichi was elated should suffice, this kind of things always take a certain intimacy...

Seiichi wished Seiga goodbye while still on the floor, not realising she was already gone. The young man always had a hard time paying attention, had it not been so, he might have spotted Seiga's hand grabbing a few tiny bottles and sending them through a hole on the wall.

On his own, Seiichi smiled like an idiot. A love struck idiot who did not understand he had been conned. It was not going to be easy for the poor boy once his father came asking about the missing bottles. Would he realise what had happened? Would he betray his newfound goddess, like an apostate? Would he take the blame, like a martyr? Would it even matter? the damage was done.

Seiichi does not understand the gravity of his mistake, but that doesn't matter, the story isn't about him, he was just a piece to be used traded and discarded by the real players.

The pharmacist has lost some money, but that doesn't matter, the story isn't about that, these were just the opening salvos of a more interesting concert.

Some of you might be wondering about the content of the tiny bottles, this matters, it matters a lot, but I am not fit to answer that question, This answer ought to come from a silver haired genius living deep inside the bamboo forest. Luckily for you, that is where our story takes us next.

I am not comfortable with my writing,

This is one hell of a thing to say for an author, but it is the truth, and the reader deserves nothing but the truth. English is not my first language so naturally there o¡is always the risk of making a fool of myself.

Am I being too poetic? too blunt? too graphic? not graphic enough? These questions made me change this chapter over and over again. Even now I am not fully satisfied with the result but one can only learn from criticism when the is something to criticise.

I chose Seiichi's name for a reason, I like meaningful names, I love ironic names. Some of you might have figured it out, a few of you might have looked it up and others might have ignored it, never mind. If you intend to keep reading me you will see more wordplay of this kind, I enjoy it and think it betters the stories.

I urge you to express your feeling towards my work. If you enjoy something say it, if you dislike something point it out, if you like the story share it with others, if you find it lacklustre feel free to say why and ignore the story.

I can't stress enough how important reviews are, they are the only way I can improve my content and learn from my mistakes. I intend to update this story at least once a week, perhaps twice. A bold claim for an author so insecure about his craft, but a standard I am willing to uphold.

Best Wishes,

THE AUTHOR