The sudden appearance of a shrine on Youkai Mountain has Gensokyo in an uproar, but life in the Human Village stays the same as ever. For antiques shop owner Rinnosuke Morichika, the biggest worry in his life is the weather. An unexpected new face in the shop threatens to change his very way of life in a new exciting fan-made chapter of the ongoing story based on the popular Touhou series!
There's been an unusual amount of rain and strong winds, lately. It's not been so bad to the point that ordinary people would be worried, but as a shopkeeper I keep a close eye on such things. Rain and strong winds make people think twice about going outside, and although the current weather doesn't present any danger, my customers lately have numbered zero.
I don't include Reimu and Marisa in that total. To begin with, they aren't really customers, as that would imply they ever paid for the objects they take from my store, but also I doubt any kind of weather could keep them away for long. I sound like I'm complaining, but there is something reassuring about their reliability. So long as my door is open, they will enter it to pester me.
"Umm..."
It's a voice I don't recognise, belonging to a person I've never seen before. She appears to be a shrine maiden, which is unusual enough, but there is something else otherworldly about her that I can't quite place.
"Hm hm, 'dank old junk shop that smells mouldy and hasn't been cleaned in years'... this must be it!"
She hasn't seen me, else I doubt she'd be so frank. I would complain about such a remark from Reimu or Marisa, but admonishing this girl would only scare her away. In order to keep her as a customer I have to pretend I didn't hear her. More to the point, if she's looking for a 'dank old junk shop', Marisa is probably the one who sent her here.
"Good morning, and welcome to my little store. Can I help you find anything?"
A polite greeting, well-rehearsed, is the best way to begin a new customer relationship. Even if she is dissatisfied with the goods, she can't fault my service.
"Oh, hello! Are you Mister Kourin?"
Marisa is the only one who calls me Kourin, so that confirms my earlier theory.
"Actually, my name is Rinnosuke Morichika. Kourindou is the name of this shop. Are you a friend of Marisa's?"
"I am. Well, sort of. She told me to meet her here for some reason, but I can't find her anywhere."
I'm a little upset at Marisa using my store as a meeting place, and more upset that this shrine maiden isn't here to purchase goods. I have enough non-customers as it is, and if all three of them were here at once there wouldn't be any room for me.
She may not have come here for my wares, but while she waits I can at least advertise my goods to her. I mustn't write her off as a customer just yet.
"I'm afraid I haven't seen Marisa at all today. But feel free to browse the store while you wait- it's not a junk shop. These are treasures from the outside world."
"Yes, I know. I recognise a lot of this stuff, actually."
It was a surprising thing to hear, so I asked how she knew the items in my store. It turns out she was transported to Gensokyo along with her shrine, and is originally from outside the Barrier. Even more intriguingly than this, she told me she is in fact a god herself. I immediately worried I hadn't been showing her proper reverence, but she seemed satisfied. A good shopkeeper treats all of their customers as though they are gods, so she wouldn't have had much to complain about anyway.
As a collector of curiosities from the outside world, having someone in my shop with full knowledge of their use is of great value to me. I don't want to pester her, but nonetheless we spend some time idly discussing the uses of certain items. She seems to be enjoying browsing, so I'm happy to leave her to it while I make us both a drink.
There's suddenly a loud scream, and as my shop is not a place loud screams are usually heard, I rush to the scene. I'm expecting to find some awful tragedy has happened, but all I see is the shrine maiden excitedly pointing at something. I may yet be proven wrong about her being a non-customer.
The object she's pointing at is one of many whose true nature eludes me. With my ability, I know it's called a Roswell, and the people of the outside world 'use it to attract visitors'. I keep it in the front of the store for that reason, but I just can't figure out how it works. It's somewhat humanoid, and has a large head with two black 'eyes'. I had thought a light would shine from these eyes as some sort of beacon for people to follow, but I can't find any way to activate them. It's too small for that purpose anyway, fitting neatly in her hand.
I begin to explain what I know about the item, but she beats me to it. It's strange to have a customer explaining my own stock to me, but I let her finish anyway. By letting her explain the object, she will believe I'm unaware of its true value, so when I name my price she'll think I'm accidentally under-selling it and therefore feel like she got a good deal. It seems underhanded to trick a customer like this, but that is how bartering has always worked. Besides which, my non-customers take so much of my stock, I can't feel guilty about wrangling a good deal for myself if the opportunity arises.
She talks too quickly for me to understand her fully, but apparently Roswell was an alien from beyond the sky that landed on Earth. The object in her hand is only a commemorative item and not Roswell himself, and as such it doesn't do anything. People from around the world like to visit Roswell and take these objects home as souvenirs to remember him by.
I'm a little disappointed. Objects that do nothing are difficult to sell as no one needs something that does nothing. This girl has never met Roswell so doesn't need a souvenir to remember him by.
Then again, she seemed excited to see him despite this. Maybe Roswell is a celebrity in the outside world? I've read a few books from outside that talk about people like this- all with odd names like Elvis, and Beatle, and Jackson- that make people excited even without having met them... I'm sure that's what is happening here, too. I'll have to lower my asking price since this Roswell still doesn't do anything, but maybe it's not a lost cause yet.
"Doesn't it evoke wild thoughts of a world outside even the Outside World? Your gods would be excited by the idea of a visitor who had never seen an earth shrine before."
It's more likely they'd be upset at the idea of a creature like Roswell who can gather followers without even having to offer a blessing, but I'm determined to sell this object now.
"Hm hm hm. I've been trying to teach them about aliens and flying saucers. A lot of people in the outside world don't think they're real, but that's true of most things in Gensokyo."
I've never heard of crockery taking flight even in Gensokyo.
"Only... Mister Kourin, how much would you sell an item like this for?"
Her sudden frankness startles me, but a good shopkeeper always has a price ready. I name it, but she's crestfallen.
"That's too much. I don't have anything on me, actually."
Any price is too much if you have nothing to offer. Saying I'm asking too much is a good bartering technique, but I certainly won't let it go for nothing.
"Oy Kourin, have you seen a- oh, guess you have."
It's Marisa. She's late and now I'm in discussions with this shrine maiden myself, so she'll have to wait. Any normal person could see the justice in that, but Marisa is certain to get impatient anyway.
They greet each other, but before Marisa can take my customer away, I interject.
"Hello, Marisa. We were just discussing business, actually."
"Eh? You mean you sell stuff here?"
"I would sell a lot more if you and Reimu would stop taking my stuff. It doesn't matter, anyway, since she can't afford it."
"Oh, you can just take his stuff, y'know."
Marisa is not at all helpful in business matters. If she's going to start telling other people to burgle me, I'll have to insist she pays for every single thing she takes in future, and I'll have to insist this new girl pays for her goods too, or Marisa will complain that I'm being unfair. It's also unfair to take something without paying for it, but Marisa doesn't see the world the way other people do.
"I can't let it go, I'm afraid. My stock is for sale, not for donation. Even to a shrine maiden."
"That's a lie, he lets Reimu take his stuff all the time. Anyway, why don'tcha just offer him a special service as payment instead?"
I'm beginning to wonder just what kind of shrine maiden this girl is.
"Oh, but... performing a miracle for cheap objects isn't responsible, is it?"
She is a human, but she has the ability to perform miracles. I wonder if she has this ability because she is a god, or if having this ability caused her to become revered as a god?
Either way, a miracle would of course be a great payment, but I can't really think of any miracle I would ask for. I also have reservations about asking a god to perform such a grand act to pay for a trinket from my shop. While I think it over, I turn my attention to Marisa.
"By the way, please don't use my shop as a meeting place. It'll become as crowded as the shrine."
"Hey, how can you accuse a long-time customer like me of such a thing? We weren't just meetin' here, I was gonna sell her to ya!"
It would be easy to sell the services of this shrine maiden, but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do. I also wonder what makes Marisa think that's a sale she's allowed to make.
"She's from the outside world like all your junk. I figured she could tell you what all this crap is, maybe help you sell it."
It's rare for Marisa to think so selflessly, but she might be onto something. With my ability, I can identify the name and function of an object, but Roswell proves this isn't always enough. I do sometimes get help from a certain youkai... though I'd rather avoid asking her for help wherever I can do without it. As for helping me in the shop, it's small enough that I can manage it well enough by myself. Thinking beyond the shop though, maybe I can turn this into something beneficial to both of us...
"I do have a lot of objects in my collection whose use I've been unable to figure out. If you can help me catalogue my collection, I'll accept that as payment for that Roswell."
Although I don't profit from such an arrangement- at least in a business sense- solving some of the mysteries in my collection is worth the cost of that Roswell a hundred times over. If we can both see it that way, she'll definitely feel she got a great deal, and so hopefully will spread the word in the human village that my store is great value. A shrine maiden who can perform miracles is sure to be a popular person among humans, so I'll make up the loss from all the business she brings my way. On that subject, I have a small favour to ask of her.
"Also, I'm assuming the recent wind and rain is thanks to your shrine, right? I'd appreciate it if you could keep it away from the store. I've been short on customers lately."
"Oh, if you bake something that smells good, I could arrange for the wind to blow the smell into the village and draw people in that way."
"Nah, you'd only fill the village with the smell of his mouldy old shack."
I send Marisa home without even offering her a drink. It feels good to finally take something from her. ...Not that this girl was hers to sell to me in the first place.
Later in the day, after Sanae and I have discussed our arrangement and settled on a date, she leaves to head back to her shrine. It's heartwarming to watch her cradle Roswell as she goes, smiling unreservedly. Turning a profit or not, if I can make all of my customers that happy, I'll know I'm a good shopkeeper.
It felt like there was a lot of foreshadowing to the events of Mountain Of Faith towards the end of Curiosities (I think it ended just before MoF came out, right?) so I was a little sad Kourin and Sanae never got to meet. It feels like they'd have a lot to teach one another. Just imagine her telling him all about the adventure she had in Makai a couple of years later- sadly, Nue didn't seem to know who Roswell was.