3/4
I had a busy morning working at the shop, rearranging the merchandise and helping customers find what they needed. By now, I had gotten the motions completely down, and the villagers all thought I was a kind, caring gentleman, particularly with how I always helped out elderly folks and children. They also loved hearing about my adventures Outside, and they thought it was inspiring how an orphan like me was able to work his way up to being a celebrity detective.
Of course, the day's biggest gossip was how I demonstrated I could fly, and used spell cards to repel a curse god the previous day. I feared I might be looked at with suspicion by the villagers, but thankfully that was not the case; most seemed glad that they had a public defender to ward off menacing youkai living right there in the village.
Around lunch, Keine dropped by, and seemed eager to talk, so Masato and I made some tea and skewers for her and we sat around the table to visit.
"So, I heard about your stunt yesterday," Keine said. "About how you outed a curse god at the Hinamatsuri festival at the shrine and scared her away after beating her in a Spell Card duel?"
"I suppose," I said. "Then all the girls crowded around me saying how cool and awesome I was. I… wasn't sure what to think, since they were all young girls. Reimu wasn't too happy, since I took all the attention away from her shrine, on her birthday no less."
Keine chuckled. "Oh, I bet. The other villagers are already singing your praises as some kind of hero who swooped in to defend them from evil youkai. Which is, of course, Reimu's job, and she tends to be looked on with suspicion by the humans of the village, so of course she'd get jealous." She wagged her finger. "Of course, now this means everyone has high expectations of you to help protect the village from harm. You'd better remember that!"
Masato smirked. "Well, perhaps if you're going to get dragged out to deal with incidents from now on and not work at the shop, then perhaps I'll have to start charging rent."
"Ah, there will be no need," I said. "I do quite enjoy being kept busy. You could say I got used to being on my feet all the time when I was a detective, between going to school and solving cases. If anything, I found myself restless with nothing to do after coming here, since nothing interesting ever happens in the village, so I went out to make friends, and go do things with them."
"Except all of those friends are girls," Masato grinned.
"Er, yes, well…"
"And not only that, but it appears that list has grown to include some youkai, in addition to Reimu and Marisa both," Keine added. "And what's more, I spoke with Aya the other day, and she didn't seem… Aya-like, if you get what I mean, and it was only after she had gotten to know you. Just what kind of ability to charm women do you have?"
"Honestly, I wish I knew the answer to that myself," I said. "It just… happens, no matter what I do. I would go anywhere in public, and in only a few seconds there would be a large crowd of fangirls squeeing my name and absolutely losing it."
Keine nodded. "Your friends here aren't like that. They're all strong-willed and won't be swayed by anything, but even then you managed to do the impossible, which was to get them all as friends of yours quickly, and they already are acting differently with you around."
I looked up at her. "Well, what about you? You're always coming in and checking on me like a concerned mother, making sure I have everything I need, asking if I'm doing alright…"
Keine blushed. "Er, I mean, I'm only-"
"He's got a point," came a voice. We all turned and saw Mokou standing in the doorway. "You'd make an excellent mom and wife, so why don'tcha go make it happen already?"
Keine stood up, her face flushing even more. "M-mokou? What are you doing here?!"
"Came to get this guy," Mokou replied, pointing at me. "We made a deal a few days ago."
"Indeed we did," I nodded. "But, we're still having lunch, and I need to finish some things up for Masato before I can go anywhere."
"No prob," Mokou said. "Care if I join?"
"By all means," Masato said, pulling a chair up for her. "It's been a while since I had a full house like this."
We all ended up visiting for a little while, talking about various things such as some recent village happenings, including some alleged petty thieves taking things from food stalls or one case of an elderly lady throwing her son under the bus over family issues (as well as me mentally noting their names for later so I could see if any of them were Ethos targets). It made me realize more just how small and tightly-knit this community was, how small things were everyone's business and how, in Tokyo or any other big city, nobody ever seemed to ever discuss these things, simply because of how many people there were.
As promised, after cleaning up after lunch and working some more (which Mokou offered to assist in), Mokou led me outside the shop so we could discuss where we would go drinking.
"Do you have a preference?" I asked.
Mokou shook her head. "Not really, no. I don't visit town all that much, so I'm down for any good bar here that you know of."
"I see," I replied. "There is one I've been to a few times, we could go there-"
"Hey!" came a voice.
I turned around, and saw Rika coming down the street towards us.
"Rika?" I said. "What are you doing here in the village?"
"You didn't forget about my request, did you?" she questioned.
"What request?" Mokou asked, cocking a brow.
"Er… it's a secret," I said.
"A 'secret' eh?" She smirked. "You two dating or somethin'?"
"Wha- ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Rika shouted, blushing. "It's… he just owes me something, alright?!"
I sighed. "Well, alright… although you haven't told me what exactly it is I owe you."
Rika put her hands to her side, and said confidently, "well, it was a surprise until now. You owe me… a trip to Makai!"
I stepped back. "...Makai?"
"Yup! We're gonna go have tea there, for no particular reason at all!"
Mokou hunched over. "Like I said, you gonna take 'im to your place and-"
"SHUT UP!" Rika shouted again. "Just… tea and booze, that's all that matters!"
I shrugged. "Well, alright… but as you can see, I already had another arrangement…"
"I can go with if 'ya don't mind," Mokou said. "Like I said, I don't care where we drink, just as long as there's booze. And I've somehow never been to Makai in my long life, so why not check it out?"
I smiled. "Splendid. Then I can knock out two birds with one stone."
"All… alright," Rika stuttered. "Just… just don't embarrass me any more, okay?"
"Can't promise that, kid," Mokou said.
As it turned out, the path to Makai went by the shrine. We walked past, and could see Reimu having the fairies and Maruki put things away. She looked at us, shot me an incredulous look no doubt in response to me being with two girls at once, then shrugged and went back to what she was doing.
We soon arrived at a cave entrance, where we saw two more figures standing out in front. As we got closer, we could see that those figures were Alice and Marisa, respectively.
"Now, we're going to visit Shinki," Alice told Marisa. "You'd best be polite and show her the utmost respect."
"Yeah, yeah, I hear 'ya," Marisa complained. "Basically, just don't piss 'er off, right?"
Alice sighed. "You really are not taking this seriously at all, are you?"
"Y'all going to see Shinki?" Rika spoke up. "That's funny, because I was going to go see her too."
Marisa looked over. "Oh, good to see you Rika-" Then her eyes widened, and she exclaimed, "wait, what the hell?"
"Oh, hi, Marisa," Rika smiled. "Been a little while, hasn't it?"
"I mean, yeah, but, the hell 'ya doin' with him?" Marisa said, shocked.
Rika shrugged. "Oh, I mean, business. He and I have a deal going on, so he's coming with me to Makai today."
Marisa looked over to me and pointed. "You never told me you met her!"
"Do you two know each other?" I asked.
"'Course we do!" Marisa replied. "We've known each other for 'bout fifteen years! Ever since that time I got tangled up with Reimu and 'er mom goin' down to Makai 'cause Shinki tried to set up a tourism business to Gensokyo and-"
"I'd… rather not get into that," Rika sighed. "That was an embarrassing incident."
"Indeed," Alice nodded. "I still wonder what the hell she was drinking to convince her that that was a good idea." She looked over to Mokou. "By the way, why are you here too?"
"You could say Goro owes me a favor, too," Mokou said.
"I had prior commitments to fulfill with both of them, so Mokou will be joining us. And now it looks like we're all going to the same place."
Alice groaned. "Great, just great. I thought it'd be tough just to manage Marisa. Now I have to take care of you three as well."
"Eh, I can handle myself just fine," Mokou said. "Ain't nothin' in Makai that would scare me."
"I know that, it's just… you and Shinki…" Alice paused, then slumped over. "Just… behave yourself, okay?"
"Can't promise 'ya that either," Mokou joked.
The inside of the cave was, predictably, dark, although the air was much warmer, clammier and humid than the cold day outside. Marisa shone a light to help us navigate, revealing moss on the walls as well as arcane inscriptions, which grew more numerous the further into the cave we delved. We eventually arrived at a stone pedestal, which was circular with a pentagram in the center and five torches along its edge.
I looked down at it, hesitating to step on it. "Is this the portal to Makai?"
"Kinda," Marisa said. "It's a bit more complex than that. They don't just let anyone in or out, otherwise there'd be demons spreadin' all over Gensokyo like shingles."
"Demons?" I asked. "Are they like oni?"
Alice shook her head. "No, more like western demons. Shinki created Makai a long time ago as a home for arcane beings. Its landscape is unstable, with vast expanses of metallic plains under a red sky, mountains floating in midair, forests of crystalline trees, and large areas of complete darkness dotted with objects which look like stars and nebulas. She rules all of Makai from her palace, Pandaemonium, which sits at the center of a large, bustling city, built atop an immense floating diamond, surrounded by several smaller diamonds and floating above the vast, desolate Makai expenses at a confluence of magic which makes it habitable."
"Sounds like a hell of a place," Mokou remarked. "If I didn't know any better, I'd guess it was Hell."
"Lotsa people who see it for the first time think that," Marisa said. "Anyway, as I said before, it ain't easy to get to, from Gensokyo, or anywhere for that matter. Some things can teleport between the two, like the Palanquin Ship, which they've offered to let me use if that makes gettin' into Makai easier, but I don't need it. This cave has been here a long time, and for whatever reason the barrier between Makai and Gensokyo is particularly weak here. We can summon a demon who has the power to fling us into Makai and back from here."
Alice walked over to one of the torches, then produced a silver knife. "Each of these torches requires a blood tithe. Once they're lit, we utter an incantation and the demon will appear." She looked around. "Normally, only myself, and Marisa if she's with me, do this, but since we have five people I think it's only fair if everyone provides their fair share."
"Understood," I nodded. I know it may seem I accepted providing blood without hesitation, but you must recall I was accustomed to spilling countless liters of blood from my foes and shedding some of my own in the process, not to mention I had performed hits in real life as well, so a small prick of blood was hardly daunting to me. Alice came around, cutting a slash in our palms and allowing the blood to drop into the torches, before slapping an ointment onto the wound which healed it instantly without so much as a scar left behind. She would then add a bit of oil to the torches, which Mokou lit as Alice went around. Eventually, Alice let her own blood drop into the final torch, and once all the torches were alight the pentagram began to emanate with an eerie, crimson glow, and a low hum which sounded like the moans of tortured souls.
The hairs on my neck, my arms, really everywhere on my body stood up and I felt a chill radiate across my body. I had faced many monsters in the Metaverse, but the prospect of meeting a real demon was highly intimidating. As Alice and Marisa took part in praying and saying the Latin phrase, which unnaturally reverberated as it echoed off the cave walls, wind blew from the center of the pentagram, and a red mist rose from the ground. At this point, I was certain I would come face-to-face with a towering, dark red-skinned humanoid with wide batlike wings and whose presence contaminated your very soul as it eyed you and plotted to take you to Hell.
The being who actually appeared, however, subverted those expectations.
"Good day, Alice-san," the girl said.
"Good day to you as well, Sara," Alice replied. The girl, Sara, was wearing a red dress with a white scarf and sleeves, and had purple hair and purple eyes. Unnatural, yes, but far from what I expected for a demon. Still, I understood that demons also attempted to trick humans into letting their guards down with disarming guises, so I remained vigilant.
Sara looked around. "I see you brought company this time." She approached me in particular. "And you… you seem like an odd fit for this group."
"Ah, well… I suppose," I said. Keeping calm, I bowed. "My name is Goro Akechi. Pleased to meet you, Sara-san."
Sara smiled. "Well, aren't you a polite fellow?" She looked toward the others. "No doubt he charmed you all into coming here today?"
All the girls, except for Alice who just rolled her eyes, blushed, and each one shouted "OF COURSE NOT!"
Sara chuckled. "Heh… I mean, I'll take your word for it, but…" She shook her head. "Anyway, I see you all paid some of the blood tithe. So I guess I have to let you all in at once." She stepped back to the edge of the pentagram, then held out her arms toward the center and focused, causing the ground to shake. After a moment, an object emerged, which… looked like a stone Warp Pipe with goat skull etchings on the side, and even made the same "warp pipe emerging from the ground" sound as in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. "There 'ya go, straight to Pandaemonium, just for Alice and her friends."
"I thank you," Alice bowed, before jumping straight in. Marisa followed closely behind, then Rika, then Mokou. After a moment's pause, I followed them in, jumping and sliding down, before suddenly being thrust back up and out of the pipe, right into a most unnatural landscape.
I slowly stepped forward, taking in the sight before me: a magnificent, glistening city, over which towered an imposing, vast crystal palace, over which spanned what appeared to be a blue sky with clouds immediately above the city but which tapered out into an eerie, stark crimson on all horizons, criss-crossed with wispy streams of what could only be pure mana. I could also tell we were on the edge of the city: behind me was a drop-off leading down into a void which occasionally flashed with hexagonal tiles. Orbiting the city were numerous crystals and floating landmasses, covered in trees and with waterfalls which cascaded off the edges and then dissipated into nothing.
"So this… is Makai," I mused.
"Pretty much," Rika shrugged. "You get used to it after a while."
Mokou looked around. "Gotta say, I've been to a lot of places in my life, but this place is somethin' else entirely."
"Makai is absolutely stuffed to the gills with mana," Marisa explained. "If you can get past the monsters, the unnatural landscape and the miasma, you'll find it's easier to learn to do magic here. In fact, this place has so much magic, that someone on the verge of becomin' a true magician would turn just by entering."
Alice turned toward the palace. "We should get going. I don't want to keep Lady Shinki waiting."
"Damn straight," Rika said. "Don't wanna piss her off…"
We strolled down the avenue leading to Pandaemonium's front door. The road was lined with shops, bars and high-rises, and bustling with all sorts of people. Normal humans, demons, devils, youkai, talking animals, goblins and even things like living spellbooks, all of these co-mingled, and it really seemed like something straight out of a fantasy roleplay campaign. And I will admit, the sight of a winged demon in a sharp business suit drinking coffee and complaining about work to a cat-man was quite an interesting and surreal sight. Mokou stopped briefly to pick up some jerked meat which the butcher claimed came from a sphinx. And it seemed quite a few people knew either Alice, Rika or both, since they would say hi to them and they would say hi and wave back.
"And that's my house right there," Rika said, pointing out a structure which looked more like a warehouse than a home. "That's where I build and keep all my tanks, and sell my crap to the people livin' here."
"What do they do with those, exactly?" I asked, before seeing one such machine flying overhead.
"People use my gadgets for all sorts of stuff," Rika explained. "Vehicles, robot assistants, custom weapons, even coffee makers. I've got automated machines manufacturing them as well as paid workers. Most of the electronic and mechanical stuff in this city, if it wasn't imported from Outside and I don't need to tell you that that's really expensive, came outta my factory. My actual apartment is that penthouse-lookin' thing on top of the main factory. It makes a lotta money, but like I said, Shink isn't the most forgiving landlord."
"How much is the rent?" Alice asked.
"I'll only say millions per month," Rika replied. "Yen, I mean."
"Yeesh," Marisa said. "Sounds like Shinki charges 'ya more for that place per month than I've seen in my lifetime."
Rika shrugged. "Well, I mean, I am the richest non-Shinki resident in the city. Of course she wants a cut of the pie."
We arrived at the front gates of Pandaemonium. Streets crowded with buildings, pavement and people gave way to spacious gardens and hedges, a park for all to enjoy. Then the golden gates at which guards were posted; Alice was able to let us all in. Beyond the gate, the palace's imposing facade rose into the air seemingly forever, and shining steps ascended all the way to the massive oak doors lined with stained glass windows. Truly, this was the home of an almighty demon queen, and I waited with bated breath to finally meet the esteemed master of both the household and Makai itself.
As we reached the doors, they creaked open, revealing a blonde, red-dressed maid. "Ah, Alice-san. You made it."
"Of course," Alice nodded. "And I brought some guests with me today."
"I see that," the maid smiled. She did a curtsey. "My name is Yumeko. I am Shinki-sama's loyal servant. Come. She is awaiting all of you."
We did as she requested and followed her through the palace. I thought the foyer at the Scarlet Devil Mansion was grand, but even that was put to shame by what this place had on display. It was impossibly sprawling, with a massive chandelier seemingly made entirely out of disconnected floating diamonds shining glistening lights in all directions, stained glass designs everywhere, a sprawling floor mural depicting a being with six angel wings and six demon wings, and a basilica dome up above pained with classical designs straight out of Michelangelo. A grand staircase led to all the different floors, which we ascended for three levels before circling around and entering a short hallway leading to the dining room, where a dinner spread was already laid out. At the head of the table was an ornate seat, no doubt the one at which Shinki herself would be seated.
Marisa sniffed the air. "Daaamn, did 'ya cook all this yourself?"
"Of course," Yumeko said. "I am Shinki's chief maid."
"You're just like Sakuya, 'ya know that?" Marisa smiled.
"You say her name a lot," Yumeko said, "but I've never met her. Perhaps one day, when I have time off, I could go visit."
"Even though that's basically never," Marisa shrugged.
"And besides, her mistress works her just as hard, if not even more," Alice added. Then, gradually, I felt an oppressive, dark presence overtake the room, and chills ran down my entire body. A force, no, a miasma of dark, arcane energies infected the room. Candles were snuffed out, the water in the glasses turned to blood, or perhaps wine. Truly, this could only herald the arrival of an elder demon, or-
"ALICE-CHAN!"
Suddenly, a lilac-haired woman in red robes appeared right behind Alice and glomped her.
"Oof!" Alice squirmed and resisted, trying to get the woman off of her. "Don't do that, Lady Shinki, you know I hate that, especially when there's guests around!"
"Oh, sorry sorry…" Shinki backed off, then turned to face us. "Welcome. I trust you are all friends of Alice?"
"Eh, you could say that," Mokou said. "Although, it's better to say we're all friends of this guy." She pointed at me, putting me on the spot.
Shinki tilted her head. "Oh? And who might you be?"
"Er, right," I stuttered, before regaining composure and bowing. "My name is Goro Akechi. I am indeed a friend of Alice, and of Marisa, Rika, and Mokou here."
Shinki stared at me silently, before looking around at the others and asking, "which one of you got a boyfriend?"
Marisa, Mokou and Rika all got together and shouted, "HE'S NOT MAH BOYFRIEND, YA DUMMY!"
"Haah…" Alice sighed. "You know better than to say that, Lady Shinki."
Shinki giggled. "Well, don't you think it a bit odd that a man would be here with four girls otherwise?"
"I sometimes joke that I live in a harem manga," I said. "But, the food is getting cold. We should sit down to eat."
"Of course," Shinki smiled.
"So you are one of the famed 'Hourai Immortals' Alice has spoken to me of."
"Pretty much," Mokou said in between bites. "Me and Kaguya have been goin' back an' forth for the past somethin' odd centuries, the last four especially. Iunno, I've also been all over the world seein' things and doin' odd jobs, fought in some wars, but nothin' compares to goin' head-to-head with Kaguya. It's not even really 'bout family honor anymore, we just do it for the sake of doin' it." She held up a finger, from which a white bolt of electricity crackled and struck her remaining steak. "Recently, I've been dabbling in electromancy in addition to my pyromancy."
"Aren't they different, though?" Rika asked.
"Not really," Marisa said. "Fire and lightning are both forms of energy. If you're proficient in one, the other ain't hard to figure out. I know some really basic electromancy, but it's nowhere near advanced or focused enough to use in combat. And even if it were, I'd never use it against Reimu."
"Why not?" Rika asked again. "I don't know her that well, so…"
Marisa sighed. "Well, you see, Reimu's deathly scared of lightning, ever since her mom died in a thunderstorm. She turns into a nervous wreck on stormy nights during monsoon season. She basically could not face Iku during that one incident, instead me, Alice and Patche had to do it."
Shinki took a sip. "I've always wanted to hear more stories about the incidents you all get involved in."
"Well, we haven't been involved in anything recently worth talking about, but given how Gensokyo is I bet it'll just be a matter of time," Marisa said.
"And I mostly don't involve myself in incidents as much as I used to," Alice said. "I've been focusing more on my quest for knowledge."
"Like that living doll you've always wanted to make?" Shinki asked. "How is that coming along?"
Alice was quiet. She looked down, then back up. "Well… I kind of wanted it to be a surprise, but… I have finally succeeded."
Shinki's eyes widened, then she stood up and clapped. "Bravo, Alice! I knew you could do it! What's her name?"
"Her name is Mamiko Shinshou," Alice said. "We all helped her pick it. I apologize that she couldn't come today, though. She already had a date to go train at the Myouren Temple. She was born from the spirit of a warrior, you know, so she's constantly training and improving her skills for the next big fight. She is also a Buddhist, so she goes to the Temple to pray and meditate, as well as to train. She also spars with Youmu regularly."
"She's quite the hardass, but also really curious 'bout the world, which is why we're all showin' her around," Marisa added.
"Mmhm," Shinki affirmed. She turned to look at me. "And you. You haven't told me how you managed to befriend these lovely ladies."
I nodded. "Well, you see, I'm from Outside originally. Tokyo, to be exact, and Shibuya to be even more precise. I was a prolific student detective, as well as a celebrity of sorts due to my solving many unsolvable cases. Unfortunately, I was caught in a near-death experience while investigating one such case, which ultimately saw me falling to Gensokyo. Mokou here found me and nursed me back to health, then her friend Keine led me to the village and found me work and a place to sleep. Working for Marisa's father, coincidentally enough."
"Yeah, and he's even got my old room," Marisa said. "Feels weird knowin' there's a dude livin' in my house and sleepin' in my room as an itty bitty baby."
"No doubt getting sweaty and stripping down to get dressed everyday to-" Rika started to say, before Marisa's face reddened and she shot her a death glare.
"Not… at the dinner table, you two, please," Alice insisted. "Remember, I asked for the utmost respect in front of her."
Marisa shrugged. "Eh, it's not like she's that uptight about table manners or anything like that."
Shinki smiled. "Oh, but what if I am?" she said, menacingly, with an echo, while a dark mist formed behind her and six, demonic purple wings spread out.
Marisa and Rika panicked and grabbed each other. "WE'LL BE GOOD! WE'LL BE GOOD!"
Shinki giggled as she withdrew everything. "I'm kidding, of course. I just thought that would be funny."
Mokou paused and gave Alice a cock-eyed glance. "Don't look at me," Alice shrugged. "I call her 'Master' and 'Lady Shinki,' but she's basically also my adoptive mom. And she really likes treating me like her own child."
"I remember how much I used to spoil you," Shinki said. "Don't you remember all those wonderful baked goods and sweets I used to feed you all the time?"
"Uh-huh, and now Marisa here can't get enough of them," Alice said dryly. She glanced over to her. "And yet you keep insisting that you prefer Japanese food."
"I do," Marisa said. "It's just that your sweets are so good, I have to make an exception. No one cooks as good as you, not even Sakuya."
"Oy oy," came Yumeko's voice. "Don't sing that girl's praises too much, miss black-white. I taught her everything she knows." She looked over to Shinki next. "And you do recall I was the one making all those sweets, right? Your cooking is like… well, how do I put it politely?"
"On par with Kaguya's?" Mokou said. "I've tasted her 'cooking,' it's damn near a lethal weapon."
Yumeko nodded. "Sounds about right."
"I myself am still rather mediocre," I said. "I actually didn't learn to start cooking until just after coming to Gensokyo. Prior to that, I was mostly living off of convenience food."
"Bleh," Shinki said. "I sometimes visit Tokyo and other places across Japan, I have no idea how you people can eat that dredge. Didn't your parents ever make you eat something healthy every once in a while?"
I shook my head. "...I lost both of them when I was young. I lived on my own for most of my life."
Shinki was silent, before sinking back down into her seat. "Oh. I… I see…"
"Is something the matter?" I asked.
Shinki shook her head. "No, it's nothing."
After a while, we departed from Shinki's palace. We walked the streets, helping Alice gather Western ingredients from the numerous unusual vendors, including an elf who sold bread, sugar and milk, a goblin fishmonger, and an ogre butcher. Marisa made use of her bag gun, which was just as useful in transporting real-world goods as it was at keeping Metaverse treasure and weapons. After gathering everything Alice had on her shopping list, we prepared to head back, passing through the central square, before the world stopped and shimmered blue. I knew what this meant: looking around, I saw Rika, who uniquely was not also frozen, and Lavenza, standing by a Velvet Room door.
"My master requests to see you once more," Lavenza said.
"Affirmative," I replied.
Inside the Velvet Room, Rika stood aside while I stood and faced Igor, whose grin was as constant as ever.
"I understand you have requested my presence," I said. "No doubt this is in relation to the fortress we recently took down?"
"Indeed," Lavenza bowed. "A location born from the heart of an unloved, self-loathing woman, overcome with envy and who imposed an unjust system upon her people to strike at one person…"
I looked down. "Of course. A caste system, under which innocent people, unconnected to her grudge, were forced to be weighed down for generations. Still, Aya mentioned that, before that, the Tengu were hardly a civilized people, with much infighting and tribalism, and now the system that they've come to know has simply vanished… On one hand, I feel grateful, and yet, I cannot also help but feel uncertain if we did the right thing…"
"This feeling is quite natural," Igor explained, "feeling uncertain if a large change you have enacted was indeed the correct move. Part of taking responsibility for your actions involves seeing such changes through yourself and ensuring that your desired outcome emerges. You have assisted Aya, a woman who seeks truth and justice, in ridding her society of what she and you viewed as a corrupt system. Now, you must work with her and others to ensure that the Tengu do not again fall to distortion." He chuckled. "It has been quite marvelous observing your journey thus far, but your road to redemption has only just begun. You yourself know this, and I have great faith in you that you will stick true to the path that you follow in your heart, and we will be here to assist you in any way we can."
Rika grinned. "Which includes the big surprise I had waitin' until now." She snapped her fingers, causing three tanks to appear. "Two things: first off, I tinkered around with the tanks to ensure that they could handle creatin' more powerful Personas. You're only gonna face stronger and stronger foes goin' forward, so I wanted to make sure you had the best. Your fusions have been really helpful in makin' this reality, and now you can fuse three Personas at once to get even stronger ones. Anything you fuse this way should be born beefier than usual, and they might even come with some goodies. And if my notes are correct, there might be some which are impossible to fuse otherwise, so feel free to come by and test it out anytime."
"I'll make sure to remember that," I said.
"Right then. Second…" She pushed her remote and materialized a floating device with a digital forcefield atop it. "You know all those trash Personas you pick up all the time from your fights? And even if you didn't negotiate with them, they still bleed energy which gets sucked up into your mask, and it's got a metric shitload of residual energy inside it as a result. I experimented with a way to make all that useful, and this machine is the answer. It'll convert all that excess power, all those excess Personas, into energy which you can then feed to the ones you actually use to make them stronger. Just come by once you got time, and I'll help you unload all that."
I smiled and nodded. "That sounds very useful. Keep up the hard work."
"Heh, thanks." She took out her list, flipped through it and pointed at the next item. "Anyway, both of those ought to make my next request easier. I'm looking for a Pegasus with Speed Master. This one will be kinda hard if you don't use all the tools that you have, and you might have to get creative if you don't just wanna blast through a buncha fusions, but I'm sure you can do it."
I put my hand to my chest and bowed. "I'll do my best."
"Great." She looked at the door. "You should prolly get goin'. Alice and the others are waitin' on 'ya for sure."
When I exited the room, Marisa came up to me, asking me, "dude, why did you just space out?" She looked around. "Also, where did Rika go?"
Alice shrugged. "She did say she wanted to go home after this. Perhaps she just slipped out?"
"Sounds like something she'd do alright," Marisa said. "Anyway, let's blow. I have gold flecks at home I need to separate."
3/5
*knock knock*
I stood at the door of the Geyser Center, hoping Utsuho would come and answer. I didn't know if she worked on Sundays, or if she even cared what day of the week it was. Given her role in keeping the Center up and running, though, I wouldn't have been surprised if she worked every day.
The door soon opened, revealing Utsuho in her usual safety vest and helmet. "Welcome back, Akechi-kun. Okuu was expecting you."
I bowed. "I have wrangled the evil spirit for you." I presented the glassy stone. "It turned into this after we defeated it."
Utsuho took the stone and examined it. "Okuu has not seen spirit like this before. Akechi-kun has unique talents. Okuu thanks you." She then took a bite out of the stone like a cookie, and I could hear the glass being crunched up in her mouth. "Spirit kind of stale. Spirit must be weak. Typical."
"O…kay?" I said, somewhat bewildered.
Utsuho finished her "cookie" and smiled. "Okuu is satisfied. Okuu will have kappa engineers install power to Kirisame shop, as promised. If other spirits come and infect equipment, Okuu will call on you to come deal with them." She snapped her fingers twice, and two kappa workers, one with a turtle on her head in place of a helmet, came and stood to attention. "How long will it take to install lines to Kirisame shop?"
One of the kappa looked in the direction of the village, then said, "we could probably get an underground singlephase and transformer up in about a week or so, but we'll need permission to work in the village."
"I can get that from Reimu," I said, "and Masato already knows the lines are coming. He seemed to really support it."
"Excellent, we'd really appreciate it." she said. "We'll get to work straight away." They re-entered the Geyser Center after that.
"As Okuu said, Okuu is proud of Akechi-san for catching spirit. Okuu not easily proud."
"Indeed," I nodded. I thought for a moment. "Although… I've never actually seen how the power is generated. Would you mind if I saw you work?"
Utsuho looked back at the door. "Work is not interesting. But if Akechi-san wants to see Okuu control nuclear fusion, then you shall witness it firsthand."
"My pleasure," I smiled.
We made our way back into the center, with the same miniature sun still floating over the deep pit, and kappa engineers and scientists still criss-crossing the floor.
Utsuho faced the pit. "As Okuu said, reactor is big and powerful place under Former Hell where suns for nuclear fusion are tamed to make power, heating steam and driving massive turbines. Okuu can't take Akechi-san into reactor, reactor is restricted area. Flames of Former Hell are powered by corpses, but-"
"Corpses?" I asked.
Utsuho nodded. "Yes, corpses, powerful fuel for fires and flames, but this creates evil spirits which must be eaten or else they destroy equipment and terrorize surface humans and youkai. We are looking for alternative fuel source to avoid this problem. Down there, Okuu creates suns by massing and collapsing matter until it forms stars. Deuterium is sourced from these stars, and Okuu can also make black holes."
"I see," I said, trying to get past the fact that this birdbrain could make world-ending black holes. "And this sun right here?"
"This sun?" Utsuho looked at it. "Scientists run experiments on it, otherwise is just for display, is not nearly as powerful as suns in main reactor."
"Is that so?" I asked.
"It is so," Utsuho replied.
I shook my head. "Ah, sorry, I wasn't actually looking for an answer, I just think it odd that a miniature sun, which would be considered nothing short of a miracle in the Outside world, here is put on display like it isn't anything special."
"Outside humans simple and stupid," Utsuho dismissed. "Okuu could absorb all radiation in Chernobyl and Fukushima and make them safe in seconds if Okuu were allowed to. Okuu can touch Uranium and decay it into lead. Okuu can synthesize element 118. Stupid Americans didn't know Lithium-7 could react if hit with enough energy until experiment blew up in their face. Nuclear physics is not place for trial-and-error."
I stood up in surprise. "How do you know all that?"
"Okuu is from Russia," Utsuho said. "Okuu lived through Cold War on frozen military base before coming to Gensokyo. Okuu would hear people discuss these things all the time."
"Why were you stationed at a military base?" I asked.
"Was before Okuu had human form," she explained.
I nodded. "Ah, I see."
Utsuho then produced a PDA-like device before handing it to me. "Here. Is device used by workers to send and receive tasks. Should workers report evil spirits in equipment, you will be summoned to deal with it. You get paid per job. Also, Okuu will show you more of complex as you progress so you can access more places to exterminate spirits."
I bowed. "Thank you, Okuu-san."
"No need to be formal," Utsuho said. "Just call me Okuu."
I chuckled. "Oh, alright." I walked toward the door, turned back and said, "I hope you have a good rest of your day."
"Of course," she said. "Satori-sama promised hard-boiled quail eggs for dinner tonight."
"That sounds delicious," I said.
"Okuu loves boiled eggs even though Okuu is bird."
"Are they boiled in reactor water?"
"No, reactor water super-heated, would burn eggs and turn them green."
"Then just serve them with green ham."
"Where is green ham?"
"It was a joke, you wouldn't get it."
"Please, tell Okuu where this green ham can be found."
"Oh, uh, well…"
"Okuu insists."
I sighed. "Well, alright…"
