Er, um, ah yes! Yahallo, everyone.

It's Hata no Kokoro here.

As you should already knew, I am a Menreiki, a Noh-Mask Tsukumogami you can say.

I was born from the sixty six masks made by Crown Prince Shoutoku and given by him to Hata no Kawakatsu.

I have the ability to control emotion… well I haven't really mastered it, it tended to go berserk from time to time, mostly when I can't control my own emotions.

On an off note, that's where my name comes from. The mask owned by Hata no Kawakatsu that is able to control the heart (Kokoro).

Back to the previous topic, see, I would lose control of my emotions when I lose a mask. From the beginning, I was a youkai made of sixty six masks representing sixty six emotions and roles. Losing one would really damage the balance of my own emotion.

And that was what happened one month ago. I lost my mask of hope… I tried to look for it but I couldn't found it. I tried to manage on my own while keep on searching for the mask but eventually, I lost control of my power. I started mess with the hopes of the villagers thanks to it.

That was what incited the incident known as the Hopeless Masquerade.

The human has lost their hopes. The religions jumped on that chance. Due to the dueling-fad as of late, some sort of tournament was held. I don't really know the details so I might be wrong but what I know is that in the end they would fight against me, the last boss!

But I was beaten up in the end. After that, everyone tried to give some solution to my problem but there were actually more to it than meets the eyes.

Hijiri Byakuren had recruited me into her temple to train to control my emotions. In truth, I was being used in order to gain more followers. After all, I control emotions upon which people's beliefs and religions are decided.

Toyosatomimi no Miko, or Prince Shoutoku who had made me in the first place gave me a new mask of hope. It works perfectly. Too perfectly that I was starting to return back to being ordinary mask.

I also came to Hakurei Reimu's shrine to find my old mask of hope, checking to see if it was mixed among the masks sold in the stalls or something. In truth, it was in the possession of Koumeiji Koishi who found it and held on to it. And she refused to return it too.

I myself tried to find a way not to rely on the old mask or restoring it but it didn't work. That was actually the reason why the incident happened in the first place. At first I tried to endure it, but when I tried to restore the mask, I also drained the hopes of the villagers.

In the end, it was the suggestion of Futatsuiwa from Sado that was correct. She said that I should stop relying on the masks and discover my own true emotions through meeting many other people.

Eventually, I realized that the religious people are using the situation for their own agenda. That's why I fought against them, which is Reimu, Byakuren, and Miko, at the same time and I eventually won even though I have been defeated by everyone before and I was really tired from the previous fights.

After that, I went to the festival in the shrine and played an original Kagura dance based on the recent events as an offering to the Gods.

That wasn't the end of course. As I said, I still haven't really mastered my own emotion, which is why I chose to travel to many places. At first, I visited the human village because Mamizou told me to gather information there first. She said to go to a certain bookstore and find more about youkais and locations that could actually help me in achieving my objectives and not just aimlessly wander around Gensokyo.

So, I went there and read the books written by Hieda no Akyuu and a specific location and youkai attracted my interest which is…


"Which is me, wasn't it?"

She said to me, to which I responded with a nod while donning the young woman masked as I was having fun.

"*sigh*, certainly your choice was not wrong, being an experienced mind reading youkai who somewhat understands others' minds and to a certain degree control them, I am naturally the best choice to take."

Koumeiji Satori said to me. Yes, I chose to visit her first because of her abilities. Although I need to experience the emotions myself, there's nothing wrong in going with asking for advices and suggestions first, right?

"No, it is not wrong, or rather it is the correct one. Instead of going aimlessly to many places, you could save a lot of times by asking me first. You could have just said it to me in a normal way instead of making some summary in your mind as if narrating in a story."

Ehh? But that's no fun! And I like to have fun in whatever I am doing, be it taking a journey or beating people up for the title of the strongest!

"…whatever. Anyway, do you have any plans for now?"

Hm… certainly I do thought of a lot of places that I could visit to gain more experiences.

The Scarlet Devil Mansion, I heard that the mistress' sister is locked in the basement for hundreds of years and never comes out unless permitted by the big sister. I want to know about that person's emotion because I could not imagine being locked by your own sister for centuries.

The Hakugyokurou has ghosts within it and a half-human half-ghost who serves the master of the place who seems to have some hidden depths from what I read. The emotions of the dead, of servitude, and talking with the master of the place should be a nice experience to add.

The Human Village. I only went there for a while and never really examined the humans in depth. Humans are the best creature to take lessons from, if what I read was right. Especially since they could really grow fast emotionally despite having much shorter lifespan than us youkais.

Muenzuka, or rather the Road of Reconsideration, being the place where many people went to suicide and makes many people become depressed just by going there is a place that I could visit to understand more about depressions. Maybe also visit the Garden of the Sun too along the way there. Maybe I should visit the Road Liminality too?

The shrine near the top of the Youkai Mountain is a place of interest too. While the Youkai Mountain is already interesting by itself due to the nature of the Kappas and Tengus that lives there, the shrine near the top takes the cake due to having some really interesting individuals. Not to mention that they also have connections with my original owner, Hata no Kawakatsu.

Perhaps that was why they didn't interfere with the Hopeless Masquerade incident despite usually jumping on chances to gain more followers? I should investigate about that too.

I think I should also talk with Byakuren and Miko again. The way of the Buddhism and Taoism, in addition to the mentalities of a monk and a ruler are things that I think might be of use to me, despite my anger towards them.

There's nothing to gain from going to the destitute shrine maiden's shrine though so it can be skipped for sure.

Anyway, those are the places of the interests in my journey, what is your opinion on it, Satori?

"Too ineffective. You can save time by not going to places that are either redundant or have no use for you. The SDM is okay, but the Hakugyokurou can be skipped since you have no use for the emotions of the dead and the SDM already having a servant, in addition to the impossibility of learning anything from that gluttonous ghost mistress.

The Human Village is a must as humans have very interesting emotions and minds in addition to being interesting in general. There's no need to go to Muenzuka as depression is simply just lacking hope, which you have seen in the recent incident, not to mention going to the Garden of the Sun is like asking for a total beating. You can get what you can from the Road of Liminality in the Human Village too.

Skip the Youkai Mountain since the Kappas and Tengus' society's characteristics are among the aspects of human society but asking for answers from the Moriyas is fine. You have no need for the mentality of a monk and a ruler since it's just some sort of selfless-ness, and since you want to have a self so you can just save them for later. Agreed on the Hakurei Shrine, however."

So… that leaves the SDM, the Human Village and the Moriya Shrine? That's quite the compression there. I thought that with the monkey mask donned as I was rather troubled by the amount of locations being cut.

"Of course, that doesn't mean that you cannot visit those locations, it is just the best and most important places to visit based on your objectives are those locations. I suggest staying in those places for a while as you could gain some useful knowledge and experience from them."

I see… I used the fox mask as I was seriously contemplating her suggestions.

"Well, in any case, I think you should stay here for a day first. There is going to a big festival in the Former Capital soon. I think you might want to see it or maybe even help to set it up as I am sure that it would be an invaluable experience."

Well… that's…

"I also would like to ask you a certain favor. Consider it the payment for the advices I gave."

It seems that I have no choice.

"Yes, I will stay here and I think I will also help set it up. Festivals are fun after all and I do am in debt to you."

I spoke for the first time since my introduction to her.

"Thank you."

"No, no it's nothing. More importantly, what is it that you're going to ask of me?"

She then had a serious expression as she looked at me.

"It is about Koishi…"


Afterword:

Being a fan of Touhou, it would be wrong for me to not make a fanfic for it. Anyway, this is going to be a short story, at most each chapters will have 5k or so (I think) and according to the plan I have written, there will only be 15 Chapters. There will be an OC later on and though she will play an important part, the story is still mainly about Kokoro and her journey to understand the true meaning and importance emotions.


First Published: July 19, 2013.