It was now my fourth day here in Gensokyo. Already, I had discovered a palace and found two partners to investigate it. Furthermore, I had fully awakened my Wild Card power, and was keen to see how far I could take it.
But first, I had to get through my chores.
"I need you to run to the market really quick and get me some extra vegetables," Masato told me while giving me a list. "You remember where it is?"
"Of course," I said.
Masato patted me on the back. "I'm counting on you, young man."
I threw on my jacket and boots, grabbed a basket, and ventured out into the snowy streets of the village. To get to the market, I headed up the street toward the central square, where on one corner the main market was bustling with people both young and old. Even though it was winter, it was still open-air, with awnings shielding fresh foods - really fresh foods, not the pesticide and chemical laden "fresh" food at the grocery stores in Tokyo. There was even a butcher and a fishmonger. Besides groceries, it was also home to sellers hawking their wares and a few food stands. It was almost like a street fair that never ended.
I made my way to the produce stands. There was surprisingly quite the variety for a medieval village in the dead of winter, though of course sweet potato, ginger and pumpkin dominated, being among the few in-season foods. Masato instructed me to pick up those, as well as some preserves and wintergreens. To check out, I had to count out exact change for the lady manning the register, an old-fashioned, mechanical spring-loaded device that looked like it came from the 1910's and which had some modifications to make it easier to use. They also still used yen here; most of it was obviously minted here or at least very old, although newer coins and bills as recent as the 1960's were mixed in here and there too. I myself had 10,000 in emergency cash, although I feared no one would recognize and accept it.
"Thank you," I bowed, loading up my goods.
"We appreciate your business," the woman said. As I loaded up, she told me, "remember that this food was given to us by those who came before and whose bodies feed the soil, and the animals who gave their lives for us to sustain our own."
"I'll keep that in mind," I smiled. It was clear to me that for these people, food was not just food. Eating was spiritual, and good grace was given to all the things that went into meals. That sort of attitude was rare in Tokyo, and most other places for that matter. Out there, everyone just thoughtlessly fills up shopping carts with assorted processed chemical junk, buys fruits and vegetables out of season, or gorged on greasy slop that came out of a brown paper bag or styrofoam container, all without giving any regard as to where their ingredients came from. As much as we call ourselves advanced, perhaps there's something about everyone being on their phones and not talking to the person next to them, or how we ransacked nature to the point where few got the opportunity to truly appreciate it, that sullied the souls of humans to where we weren't at all like the down-to-Earth people of this village, who seemed to all be living their lives to the fullest, in the way that their ancestors did.
These thoughts bounced around in my head until I caught sight of the white-haired girl from the other day, filling up a large basket on her back with yet more food. The white ghost-like orb behind her bobbed about, but none of the villagers seemed too concerned about it. Again, her expression was a tired one, and I could tell she wasn't feeling so well.
...something inside me urged me to go over and talk to her, even though I didn't know her at all. I had no idea why. Perhaps it was the otherworldly vibe she gave off, with the spirit behind her, her white hair with a large black bow, and the large swords she carried. Or perhaps it was because she had a cute face…
I shook my head. Now was not the time to think such things. I took a breath and went over to speak with her.
"...does Yuyuko-sama really need this much food? At this rate, the Netherworld is going to run out of funds, and I'm never going to be able to keep teaching her techniques if she keeps making me run all these errands…"
"Hello," I said.
The girl spun around to me in surprise. "Oh, uh, hi there!" she stammered. "You spooked me!"
"My apologies. I just noticed you over here, and you seemed stressed out."
The girl blushed lightly, and was quiet for a few seconds, before asking, "I-I'm sorry, but who are you?"
I bowed. "My name is Goro Akechi. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Goro Akechi…" Youmu thought for a moment. "...oh! Didn't I bump into you yesterday in front of the Kirisame shop? I was in there looking for new gardening tools."
"Yes, of course. I'm actually living and working there right now. Masato-san sent me here to pick up groceries."
"Ah, I see… Masato did mention- oh, sorry, where are my manners?" She hastily bowed. "I'm Youmu Konpaku. I'm the gardener of the Netherworld and the retainer of its ruler, Yuyuko Saigyouji."
…? This was her, the servant of the Palace ruler that Reimu and Marisa were talking about?
"I-is something the matter?" she stuttered.
I shook my head. "Oh, it's nothing. I was visiting the shrine yesterday and they told me about you."
"Oh, I see," she replied. "I guess they told you about the Cherry Blossom incident, too?"
"Cherry Blossoms?" I asked.
Youmu shook her head. "It's nothing. Yuyuko-sama is a good person, but ghosts don't have the best memory of their lives. That's why she was trying to awaken the Saigyou Ayakashi tree, to see whose body was sealing it. It's an evil tree, it devours the souls of anyone who sleeps under it, and that's why it was sealed. She apologized to everyone after that. Well, I guess I did, since I was the one actually stealing the Spring."
I nodded. "It feels strange to me that something as immaterial as the Spring season could just be stolen and fed to a demonic cherry tree. This place is full of surprises."
Youmu tilted her head. "Are you an outsider?"
"Could you not tell before?"
"O-oh, it's not that! I just - I just assumed you were from here, that's all!" Her shoulders slumped. "I don't get to leave the Netherworld that much. Even with that portal, Yuyuko-sama is always making me do work around the place, trimming the hedges, the trees and tending to the food garden. I barely have time to devote to my training anymore, much less teach her swordplay, which is what I'm supposed to be doing in the first place."
"Your training?" I asked her. "I see you have those swords…"
"Hm? Oh, yes, I'm a swordswoman in training." She turned around to show off one of her sheathed blades. "My family has served Yuyuko-sama for a long time. I've only been doing it for a few decades; the last servant, who was also my teacher, disappeared a long time ago."
I cocked an eye. "A few decades?" I cleared my throat. "Ah, pardon me, it's just, you would seem to be younger than me…"
"We age slower than full humans," she explained. The little spirit behind her came down upon her open hand. "We're also half-phantom. This is my other half. It scared the other villagers here at first, but they got used to it after some time." She giggled. "I might look like a young girl, but I'm probably old enough compared to you to be your grandma."
I shrugged. "This place never ceases to surprise me," I smiled. "I wonder what else I'll uncover."
Youmu hefted up her groceries again. "I should probably get going. Yuyuko-sama gets cranky when I'm late getting home."
I looked at the pile of produce, grains and meat towering above her. "That looks very heavy. Would you like some help carrying it all back?"
"Thank you," she smiled, "but I can get it back all on my own."
"Hm. Well, suit yourself." I walked off with my load while she went away with hers. I could hear her sigh heavily, and I swore I could hear her say something under her breath: "...if only I could get out of this…"
After I returned to the shop, I worked for Masato for a few hours, dusting shelves, organizing items and sweeping the floor. Again, more customers came and went, allowing me a further glimpse into daily life in Gensokyo. It really was as though I had been thrust back in time, and into a fairy tale at that. I was curious to see what places outside of this village were like; if Reimu was correct I would be able to face any threats that presented themselves once I fully learned Spell Cards. That I could also fly was difficult to believe; even Reimu expressed disbelief in how good I apparently already was. It felt as though it came… naturally, somehow.
Just after lunch, Reimu stopped by the shop to come get me. She told Masato that she was going to be teaching me more Spell Cards, when in truth this was the day of our Palace investigation. We made our way up the path, toward the entry point.
When we got there, Marisa was already waiting for us, spinning her capture gun around on her finger and grinning. "Looks like we're all here."
"Someone's excited," Reimu said.
"Of course! We're storming and looting a castle, why wouldn't I be excited?! I spent all night makin' preparations for our infiltration, too!" She pointed her capture gun at the ground, shooting out bags labelled "medicine" as well as several thermoses.
"What are those for?" Reimu asked.
"Tea and coffee," Marisa answered. "These'll be vital for our exploration."
"What good are tea breaks going to be during the incident?"
I smiled. "It was my suggestion, actually. In the Metaverse, the notion of 'must have caffeine' is even more true than in the physical world. Thus, consuming something commonly seen as invigorating will, in fact, invigorate you, giving you more energy to channel a Persona's powers."
"Is there a give-and-take?" Marisa asked. "I mean, the reason you can use magic here is because of ambient magical energy, or feeding spells magical components like eye of newt and whatnot, but actually channeling it requires mental and spiritual power, which can tire you out as much as beatin' stuff up all day with your fists. I assume something similar is at work here?"
I chuckled. "Well, obviously I know nothing about magic, or at least the type that you practice. But a Persona is a part of yourself, so naturally anything you have your Persona do will affect your stamina as well. For example, if your Persona uses a physical attack, it would tire you out as though you had used the attack yourself, moreso if it was highly intensive. Similarly, repeated use of spells will drain your mental and spiritual energy, and it's possible to run out of magic entirely. Both of these things can be fully replenished by simply packing up and heading back for the night to rest."
"Hmm… I see," Marisa mused, tapping her foot.
"I almost never see you this studious," Reimu remarked.
"Ah, sorry," Marisa said. "If it has to do with magic, I can't help but get curious, that's all. I spend a lot of time studyin' and practicin'. It sounds like this 'Metaverse' has magic that operates on different rules than the real world. I wonder if I could perform experiments on it; I might be able to come up with some new theories."
"I thought your experiments mostly consisted of 'mix corrosive agent A with toxic substance B," Reimu snarked.
"Hey, doin' magic's a lot more complex than just wavin' a stick everywhere and having some god do all the work for you."
"Channeling holy powers is no easy feat and requires intense concentration and devotion, I'll have you know."
I sighed. "Shall we get back to the task at hand? I didn't come here solely to watch you two bicker for an afternoon."
"Eh, you'll get used to it," Marisa said. "We're contractually obligated to gripe at each other day in and day out." She cleared her throat. "So, basically, we just gotta tear through that place until we find the Treasure, which should be in the deepest part." She giggled. "Oh, I like this. This is the kinda incident I've always wanted to solve!"
Reimu crossed her arms. "More like, you've always wanted breaking in and stealing something to be the point, rather than just a diversion."
Marisa stuck her tongue out again. "Oh, you're no fun. And besides, you don't have a Persona like we do, so you can't tell me what is and isn't an incident!"
Reimu looked down, and chuckled.
"...huh?"
"Don't underestimate me," Reimu smiled, spinning her key around her finger.
We jumped back. "Wait, when?!" Marisa shouted.
"Last night," Reimu said. "And it looks and feels strong. Surely, I won't have any trouble in that castle like last time."
"Well, I can't wait to see it in action," I said. I turned to Marisa. "Care to do the honors?"
"Eh, sure." She took out a slightly glowing teal key, causing a keyhole to appear. "We doin' this?"
"Absolutely," I affirmed.
"What are you all doing?"
We jolted up to see Youmu rushing down the path toward us. "You… Akechi! You're not all planning on doing something to Yuyuko-sama, are you?" she accosted.
"Er, no, we just-" then I looked over to Marisa, whose key was already in the hole and reacted to it. "You - you have to leave at once!"
"Not until I - GAAH!" At that moment, reality distorted, and we entered the Palace, with Youmu inadvertently in tow.
Once the distortion settled, we looked on at the castle, which still loomed with the cherry tree behind it towering above all. Youmu got back up off the ground, took one good look around, and shouted, "wh-what is this place?! What did you do?! And… those costumes! Especially Reimu's!"
"Hm?" Me and Marisa turned around to Reimu, whose appearance was… eye-catching, to say the least. Her entire shrine maiden dress was replaced by a white, flowing robe (with detached sleeves, of course), with gold-plated armor over the chest and a red tabard bearing black Japanese characters along with magatama symbols, along with a fan-like mask similar to Ame-no-Uzume's. Her most unusual feature, however, was a pair of wings under a red-and-white cape: one angelic right wing, and one demonic left.
"Whoa, dang!" Marisa was clearly impressed. "Are those for real?!"
"Erm… sort of." At that moment, she extended the wings out. "They're… I guess, attached to my body, and I can move them… it feels so weird, to be honest. But, I can't use them to fly or anything. Or, maybe I can, I don't know, I just don't know how."
"But - you. Have. Wings. That's so awesome! And… you look like, well, one of those Judeo-Christian angels, but why's that one a bat wing?"
"Oh?" Reimu looked over at the wing in question. "...I guess that's just the devilish part of me," she smirked.
"YOU'RE NOT ANSWERING MY QUESTION!" Youmu exclaimed. "WHERE ARE WE?!"
I turned to her. "This is the world representing your master's heart," I said. "This distorted world is how she sees your home. A castle which exists solely to indulge her gluttonous desire."
"Grrr… ENOUGH OF THAT!" Youmu shouted angrily. "Yuyuko-sama is a good person! She's a good person! She… she…" She collapsed to the ground. "Wha… what do you mean this place represents her heart?! How did we get here?!"
I spun my key around. "This key grants me the ability to enter places like this. It's a power I've had for a long time. I had it Outside, too. Basically, it allows me to enter a world representing one's distorted desires, based upon a location and how it appears in their distorted view."
"I… I don't understand…"
"I don't expect you to," I replied. "I was confused the first time I entered this world too."
Marisa looked around, then told me, "hey, should we get her outta here? She'll hold us back tryin' to storm this place."
I thought about Marisa's suggestion, especially since Youmu didn't have a Persona and therefore her ability to fight here would be severely compromised. On the other hand, I thought about the things she said to me back at the market. It was clear to me that her master was needlessly burdening her with tasks to satisfy her own desires, at the expense of Youmu's well-being. Normally I wouldn't care much at all about another person's problems, given how dog-eat-dog this world was. And yet...
...somehow, I felt compelled to intervene. Like, it would go against my sense of justice to leave her woes unresolved. At the very least, I wanted her to see the truth about her master, and if possible, help her heal.
"Actually, I think she should come along," I said.
"Wait, what?" Reimu and Marisa said in unison.
"She has already seen this place," I told them, "and she would likely tell Yuyuko-san all about it. Since this place is based upon her cognition, that could create highly undesirable effects that would jeopardize our progress into the investigation. Besides, I do believe that Youmu-san deserves to see her master's distortion with her own eyes."
"Wait… how do you know her already?" Marisa asked.
"I met her at the market in the village this morning. But it is a strange coincidence to bump into her again so soon after…"
Youmu got back up. "Yuyuko-sama wanted me to go 'find a fun artifact' for her for some reason after I got back with the groceries. I… wasn't in any room to say no, since I'm bound to do as she wants…"
"How come?" I asked her.
"Because I'm a member of the Konpaku clan, and-"
"Let me rephrase the question," I said again in a harsher tone. "You just cow to the whims of a bratty princess for fear of angering her. What kind of proud warrior servant such as yourself would allow your master to simply degenerate into a child who demands everything for her own self-fulfillment, instead of doing her goddamn job? Surely, you would want to set her straight, especially if said behavior is wearing you thin and keeping you from carrying out your true duty, or preventing you from having time to yourself?"
"I…" Youmu pounded the ground. "That's…"
"C'mon, we can't just be standin' around here," Marisa said. "Is it possible to take us to that safe room place?"
"Oh, yes." I got back up, and reached out to Youmu. "Here. Take my hand." After some hesitation, she reached out and grasped it, and I helped her up. "You two, follow me."
…
"Alright, we made it."
Marisa looked around. "Seriously though, how we get here is like… like I'm lookin' one way one second, then all of a sudden I turn back and here we are."
"A safe room," Reimu mused. "I'm surprised this place even exists. You're sure no enemies will try and come in here?"
"Very certain," I said. "Of course, it's a different story the moment we step outside…"
"We're used to that," Reimu said, spinning her gohei around. "We'll be flying around and all of a sudden a cloud of fairies comes out of nowhere and they all start blasting."
"Yeah, but out there we got danmaku," Marisa cautioned, "and fairies are super easy to kill. These guys… well, they're harder to kill AND we don't have our normal magic to mow through 'em."
"I don't see that being a huge problem. Ordinance is only half the fight, the other half is strategy, which is my edge over you through years of being an extermination shrine maiden."
Marisa crossed her arms. "You can boast after we see your Persona in action. And I thought the shrine attracted youkai."
Reimu clearly pretended she didn't hear that.
"I'm sorry, but, what are you all talking about?" Youmu asked.
I shook my head. "I could explain, but it would be quicker and easier to demonstrate, I would think." I went to the door and peeked my head out. "I don't see any shadows around here. Let's move out quickly."
Staying close together, we exited the safe room and made our way down one of the halls. Along the way, we investigated an open door, leading to what looked like a small library or office. Marisa perused the shelves, sliding her finger across the spines.
"Food, food, food, bath salts, booze, food… geez, there's a lot here about food and parties." She pulled one off the shelf, entitled "Best Foods for Lavish Banquets." As she flipped through the pages, she mused, "wonder how fat I'd get if I ate this stuff. Hell, I feel like I'm getting fat just reading it. Ain't that right, Rei-"
But when we faced Reimu, she just stood there, looking at the shelf with a blank stare, and I could swear she was drooling.
"Hello?" Marisa waved her hand in front of Reimu's face.
"Oh, sorry." Reimu jolted back into reality. "It's just… this many books about food… it's so…"
Marisa facepalmed. "Still not getting enough to eat? Did you learn nothing from when you literally died from eating old, expired food that one time-"
"We've found the intruders in the library!"
Suddenly, three shadow guards, one with golden armor plating and a much more ornate kabuto, charged into the room, drawing their katanas and pointing them at us.
"Crap, we're surrounded!" Marisa exclaimed.
"Not on my watch." In a flash, Youmu drew one of her swords.
I reached out to her. "No, wait, Youmu-san, you can't-"
"I can't what?" she said pushing my arm away. "Let me show you my years of training to you all!" She took off and dashed at the guard captain, clashing blades with him… and as we could see, seemed to be struggling.
"Wha- I can't… why can't I seem to…" She was clenching her teeth, and clearly struggling against the shadow guard. Soon, the guard managed to overpower her, knocking her sword away and kicking her down to the ground.
"Intruders must be executed," the guard captain proclaimed, holding its sword to her chin.
"Dammit… why do I feel so much weaker…"
"Guess it's time to step in." Reimu jumped, then hit the guard with a powerful flying kick, sending it crashing back into the wall. When she landed, she grasped her mask.
"Time to show you what I'm made of." In a swift motion, she threw it off. "Come, Kikuri!" A white pillar of light erupted behind her, and out of it emerged a female figure dressed in garb which somehow mixed traditional Japanese religious robes and Judeo-Christian ones, with detached sleeves, carrying an oversized brass-plated staff with a paper tassel attached to it and with one red and one white magatama on either side of her hair.
The model figure of all mikos and mediator of Izanagi and Izanami, Kikuri-Hime.
Once the guard captain got back up, it commanded "how dare you… we will crush you right here!" It and its subordinates then turned into their true forms, an Incubus and Succubus for the lesser ones and the captain a Jack Frost.
"You're going down, hee-ho!"
"Who're calling a 'hee-ho?' Taste Agi!" At that command, Kikuri whipped out her brass staff, which opened up heat ports on the side to expel flames to ravage the target, knocking the snowman down on its feet.
Reimu turned to the other two and asked them, "now then, you next?" She dashed toward the Succubus faster than it could act and whipped out her gohei to attack. Right before contact, it glowed, and upon hitting the shadow's body it disintegrated into black ash.
"Whoa, wasn't expecting that," she said in surprise. "Although, then again, this is used to exorcise evil spirits in the real world. Guess that goes for evil spirits here too."
At this point, the Incubus, clearly outmatched, tried to escape, only for it to catch Reimu's glare. "Oh? Running away? I don't think so." Again, she commanded her Persona to attack, this time by opening up the end of the staff to reveal a gun barrel. The gun fired, hitting the Incubus with a projectile that killed it on a single shot.
Once those two were dealt with, we turned our attention to the downed Jack Frost, who had been the guard captain. Compared to other shadows, captains had conferred enough favor from the Palace ruler to be granted special benefits, and so often had unyielding loyalty to them. That meant negotiation was pointless, and the only way to get on with it was to kill them. Once we drew our guns (Reimu revealed hers to be an assault rifle), I spat on the ground and quipped, "any last words before you die, ho?"
"You can't call me a ho, ho!" it complained. "Only Yuyuko-sama can call me a hee-ho!"
Marisa cracked her neck. "So why do you call everyone a 'ho?' Some people don't like being called that."
"Really?" The shadow looked up. "I just thought everyone liked being jolly and singing hee-ho like me… wait, something isn't right, ho." It looked up at me, then pointed its finger. "You! You kidnapped my brother!"
"Brother?" I asked. "And… kidnapped?" I shook my head. "Nonsense. He joined me on his own volition. I freed him from the distortion the palace ruler casts upon all of you."
"You lie! Yuyuko-sama loves everyone!"
"Are you sure? Do you have any memory at all about how you came into her servitude?"
"Well… no, but-"
I cut it off. "Did she journey to the frigid north herself and demand King Frost let one of his Jack Frost servants become her servant instead?"
"I don't know what you're talking about - wait… I've heard that name before…"
Well, this was unexpected. Usually, guard captain shadows were too far gone to be saved, but somehow we had succeeded in freeing this one from Yuyuko's distortion. It got up, and proclaimed "I remember, ho! I came from the Sea of Souls! Somehow I came here and got brainwashed, ho!"
"Splendid," I smiled. "Now then, how about you come along with me?"
"Ho?" It looked puzzled. It thought for a moment, then said, "...eh, you're kinda weak still, I think."
...I would protest, but it did have a point. Ren did tell me that certain Personas were too strong for him to wield, and he had to gain more experience as a Persona user before he could control them. Perhaps that was the case with this one; I was far too inexperienced and so I wouldn't be able to control it, embarrassing as that seemed.
However, it looked over at Reimu, eyed her gohei, then said, "but I think I know a place where I could hole myself up! You're fighting's pretty impressive, miss! How about I power up that stick you've got there?"
Reimu's eyes widened. "Er… my gohei? Let a fairy possess it?! No way I'm-" But the Jack Frost already turned into light and streamed into the tip of the gohei. Once the light died down, a small band with the Jack Frost's face was affixed to the top, too.
Reimu inspected it for a moment. "What… did it just do?" she asked.
"Ah, yes, I think it fused with your weapon and imbued it with some of its power. Shadows can do that if you befriend them. Marisa had something similar happen the other day. No doubt it's more effective than it was before," I mused."
"Interesting… hope it doesn't affect the gohei's ability to perform exorcisms," she said.
We looked at the corner of the room, where Youmu stood there with her jaw wide open, pointed at us and said, "what the hell was that about just now?! What were those things that came out of you?"
I looked around, keeping an ear out for incoming shadows, and told her, "I'll tell you once we get to a safe place. Now stay close to us." I walked over to the desk, where Marisa was eyeing a piece of paper. I leaned over her shoulder to see what it was: a partial map of the palace.
"I found this while rummaging through the desk," she explained. "Seems this is a map of the castle we're inside of. There's six floors, and we're on the ground floor. Furthermore, it seems like there's parapets which encircle the huge cherry tree in the middle, arranged in a diamond. There's a similar-sized castle on the opposite end of this one, and two smaller towers on the other corners. There's a huge courtyard in front of the cherry tree on the south side - that's where we are - and… that's as far as I can tell. There's like, no details on the north end at all."
"I suspect there's another map elsewhere," I suggested. "It may be good to look out for it. In the meantime, I suggest we investigate the cherry tree. I have a feeling the Treasure is located there."
Youmu came up to us, shouting, "wait, what's this about? Treasure? Cherry tree? What on Earth are you talking about?!"
"The Treasure is the embodiment of Yuyuko's distorted desires," I explained to her. "Once we steal it, Yuyuko's abhorrent nature in real life will disappear."
"She… SHE'S A GOOD PERSON! I WON'T LET YOU… GGGGHHHHEEEHH…"
I shook my head. "We really do need to get moving. Shadows will attack us at any moment if we stay here. Marisa, show us the way."
"Got it!"
We made our way through the halls out to the back exit, taking out a couple more shadows along the way. It was then that the effect of the Jack Frost band on Reimu's gohei was revealed: at one point, it froze a foe in place, allowing it to be easily dispatched. We soon made our way out of the building, and out into a spacious rock-and-pond garden, lined with cherry blossoms and with the gigantic cherry tree perched atop a hill in front of us.
"No doubt that's the Saigyou Ayakashi tree," Reimu said.
"Come again?" I asked her.
"It's the demonic cherry tree I was talking about back in the village," Youmu said. "This… this is what it looks like, and… this garden…"
Suddenly, reality fazed, turning the distorted world into a much smaller shrine, with us in the middle of a similar rock garden and with the giant cherry tree off in the distance, before fazing back to the palace.
"What the?!" Everyone jumped, wondering what had just happened.
"This place is based on Yuyuko's cognition. Everything you see here is based on a real location in the real world. This is how your master sees the place: a grandiose castle whose only purpose is to satiate her childish whims."
"You…" Youmu seethed. "I don't have to listen to this!"
She took off running.
"Youmu! Wait!" Reimu ran after her, with me and Marisa not far behind. It didn't take long to find her: a shriek could be heard from a nearby path, and once we reached the source, all of us were aghast at what we saw.
"WHAT THE HELL IS…!"
"Calm, down, Youmu, it's gonna be - wait, what the hell?!"
In front of us was a donkey, draped in garbs similar to Youmu's, with a crushing amount of food on its back, and dragging a train of carts holding more. The poor thing was struggling to haul all of that weight. Not only that, but it was being whipped by a knight on a red horse - Berith - who was flanked by two Bicorns. It weakly brayed, only for the Berith to whip it again.
"Quiet, you! Queen Yuyuko demands food! It is your duty to fulfill her needs for all of us!"
I could not believe what I was seeing here.
"Why… why is that donkey dressed like me?!"
My head dropped. "Unbelievable. This must be how your master sees you: nothing more than a mule who will endlessly bow to her whims. Don't you see? You are a slave. This is what you're letting your master do to you."
"My god… when did Yuyuko get this far gone?" Marisa said.
The Berith then noticed us, breaking off of the mule to confront us. "You! Intruders! I will not let you infiltrate Queen Yuyuko's domain!"
"Looks like we have a fight on our hands," I said. We got ready to fight, but Youmu dashed out ahead of us to face it personally.
"Let that donkey… let ME go!" she pleaded. She unsheathed her sword, and bellowed, "taste the soul-slicing steel of Roukanken!" She then attempted to swing it, but stumbled into the horse, only lightly scratching it. The Berith then retaliated by knocking her back with its spear, leaving her bruised and bleeding on the ground.
"Pft. Is that all you've got?" it taunted.
Youmu tried to get back up, but was unable to. She struggled to talk, and was gasping for air. "Why… can't I…"
"Ahahahahahahahaha!" A feminine voice cackled from above us. Part of the cherry tree unfurled its branches, and a glass staircase manifested, down which strutted a pink-haired woman in an oversized butterfly robe which seemed to stretch back a hundred meters behind her. The skirt was wide-open in the front, save for a thin pelvic curtain draping down, far enough up her hips that it was apparent she wasn't wearing anything under that thin piece of cloth, and it seemed as though her breasts were ready to burst out of her dress as well. A single, large paper fan obscured her face, before she flung it away to reveal the characteristic sharp, piercing yellow-eyed face of a shadow self.
"The hell's with the getup?" Marisa said cock-eyed.
"I could ask the same of you band of thieves, costumed like you're all superheroes of justice," Shadow Yuyuko replied, with the characteristic dark reverb in her voice which all shadows had. "You all thought you could just crash in through the back entrance and do as you pleased in my beautiful castle. I knew I should have erased that gap years ago; it's not like the spirits in Muenzuka would impede Youmu from bringing me all the food and toys I want!"
"Yuyuko...sama…" Youmu weakly gasped.
Shadow Yuyuko came up to Youmu, spat on her and put her heeled foot on her back. "Pathetic miserable pile of ectoplasm and flesh you've become, haven't you, Youmu-chan? So-called heir to the Konpaku Clan who can't keep her master happy in her non-life in the Netherworld! You just don't get it… I can do as I please here, and you and all the spirits just have to put up with it! Bring me food, flowers and pleasantries as I decree! I don't give a dingo's damn about you and your training. Just bring me more food, forever!"
"This is horrible! We have to stop her!" Reimu started to rush in, only to be stopped by Berith's spear.
"Take another step and I'll kill her right here!" Shadow Yuyuko hissed.
"Gaah… dammit," Reimu grunted.
"We don't have to put up with this." Marisa whipped out her gun and took aim at Shadow Yuyuko's head. Thinking quickly, I punched it out of her hand.
"Hey, what the-"
"You fool!" I shouted. "Killing the Shadow Self will cause the real person to go braindead forever! And she's a ghost too, so there's no telling what would happen to her. Killing a living person's shadow will kill them too, so where would she go? What would become of the Netherworld?"
Marisa reluctantly backed down. "I know, but… she's gonna kill Youmu! I can't allow that!"
"Oh really?" Shadow Yuyuko taunted. "You all are too spineless to help your friend here?"
"...yuyuko...sama…"
"Well, it doesn't matter now. She's my slave now. Always has been, always will be!"
Shit. We had to do something, and fast. With no other ideas coming to mind, I called out to Youmu, hoping to open her eyes to the evil before her.
"Youmu! Are you seriously going to give in to her distorted desires and not fight back?!"
Youmu weakly looked up at me. "But… Yuyuko-sama…"
Her face fell into the ground.
"How long are you going to let the wool hang over your eyes to the truth?"
I got up, and looked up. All of a sudden, everyone was gone. All around me was a pitch-blackness, and… a figure that looked like me, glaring at me with yellow eyes.
"...hu-huh? Who are you?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Have you forgotten me that much, that long ago? I am you. The other you who resides within, the you who resists the injustices and prejudices put upon you by the powers that be, especially that gluttonous whore who calls herself your master. Are you not ashamed to associate with her? Doing so any longer will cause your family's honor to evaporate."
I pounded my fist. "Yuyuko-sama is a good person! She… she…"
...she didn't used to be like this, that much was certain. Something changed. She used to be a good master of the Netherworld, and a mother figure of sorts to me. She understood the importance of my training, and of me teaching her the way of the sword. She only got like this recently. Always demanding food and curiosities. Long ago, I swore to attend to her every need, and to respect her as my master, so I never objected. It was only after I talked to Goro that I began to question that, wish for change, wish for a way back to how they were before..
...something was wrong. Wrong with Yuyuko-sama. If things didn't change, I… the Netherworld would fall apart completely. I had to fix it. It was my duty as a Konpaku. I swore to attend to her every need… but maybe that didn't necessarily mean carrying out her every whim. Maybe it meant correcting her when she went astray. Maybe… it meant standing up to her.
I got up. First on my knees, then onto my feet. I looked my double in the eye.
"No. I've been lying to myself. It is NOT fine." I clenched my fist. "As a member of the Konpaku Clan, I will not stand for injustice!"
Silence, before she crossed her arms and nodded.
"I see. So you've decided to see the truth and act on it, even if it means betraying those you've sworn to protect…" She disappeared in a flash, before my head throbbed in pain. I doubled over, grunting in pain as I tried to repress it, my teeth clenching like a vise.
"Let us form a contract, to pave a path to the future together, unblinded by the lies and hate of the world. I am thou, thou art I. The world is thick with evil and sin. We'll slice through it like a cold, silver sword!"
After a few moments of silence, Youmu looked up, and part of a samurai mask flared onto her face. Mustering up what little power she had, she reached with her arm, and after struggling and repressing a scream, bloodily ripped it off and shrieked at the top of her lungs, creating a huge shockwave and pillar of light which knocked Shadow Yuyuko off of her tumbling back, while we struggled to hold our ground.
Once the light died down, a warrior figure with long, white hair, a bow and two swords on its back, and auspicious robes which flared in all directions manifested. Youmu was now clad in armor reminiscent of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, green and white and with a family seal on her chest armor. She looked up, reached out, and just like that her sword flew back into her hand.
She turned to face Shadow Yuyuko, who was now on the ground. "I see it now… your bottomless, insatiable diet of sin, using me as a mule to feed it. I will not stand for that! I am a Konpaku! I will slice down the darkness of the world!"
Shadow Yuyuko growled. "Insolent brat… you will learn the errors of your crossing me." She directed the shadows to attack. "Kill them. Gore them to your heart's content!"
"Not happening," Youmu shot back. Berith charged at her, spear ready to impale her. In response, Youmu held out her hand. "Allow me to demonstrate Hiroari's chilling winds!" Her Persona, Hiroari, then slashed, sending a cold wave at Berith - Bufu. The force of the attack knocked Berith down, and gave her an opportunity to attack its minions. She slashed the first one with her sword, then whipped out an SMG and pumped it full of lead. For the other, she summoned her Persona to Cleave it, knocking it down as well. With all the enemies down, there was nothing stopping us from letting loose.
Once again, I tapped my inner psycho and encouraged everyone. "Nice work, Youmu. You knocked them all down. Now then, let's obliterate them!"One All-Out Attack later, and nothing was left. Even Shadow Yuyuko had retreated into her flowery sanctum, and no shadows dared approach us.
Youmu stumbled forward, before falling to her knees. "Hah...hah… Yuyuko-sama… I can't believe…"
"You're totally drained right now," Marisa told her. "You couldn't do much, even if you wanted to."
I looked around. "We need to leave and get her out of here. Shadow guards will be here soon, and in high numbers." I quickly caught sight of a door which shimmered slightly, another Safe Room. "Quickly, there. We can return to the real world from there." With Reimu and Marisa's help, I hefted Youmu over my shoulder, and together we carried her out of the Palace.
"This one's extra-strength. I also brewed it with a special kind of mushroom that packs a bunch of protein and electrolytes."
Youmu took a sip of the tea Marisa had brewed, set it down, and took a moment to savor it. She then reached for a sugar cube and dropped it in. "It's a bit of an acquired taste. But I already feel much better."
We were seated around a table at the shrine, enjoying tea and snacks. I spent some time explaining the Metaverse to Youmu, including what Personas were, what shadows were, and what Palaces were and how they represented distorted desires. I also told her a little more about my (fake) backstory, and how I got to be where I was. She was surprisingly understanding of all of it, although given that she worked in a land of spirits perhaps that shouldn't have surprised me.
"To be honest, I knew that what Yuyuko-sama was doing was wrong, but… I couldn't make myself see it, or stand up to her. My family owes a lot to her, you see, and we're conditioned to respect our superiors. It wasn't until I talked to you that, somehow, I felt that spark to do something burn inside me… I lied about 'going to find some artifact for her.' The truth was, I wanted to meet with you again, because you seemed like the kind of person who could help me decide what to do."
"But even then, you still tried to tell yourself that she could do no wrong," Reimu added. "Right up until the moment she tried to kill you, when you awakened your Persona, and you finally snapped. That, I totally get."
"Y'know, I just don't like this whole concept in Japan of how much we have to respect our elders, even when they're clearly up to shit," Marisa said. "It's even baked into the damn language."
"Would it be far-fetched for me to say that the injustices society allows those in authority to get away with was part of what motivated me to become a detective?" I asked.
"Not at all," Reimu replied. "A lot of incidents me and Marisa have put down over the years have involved people abusing their authority. Kanako alone is responsible for no fewer than three incidents, five if you count the fallout from her nuclear power venture that one time, and I still feel like she's up to no good cooking up hairbrained schemes to get more followers. It's gotten to the point where I now have Sanae giving me twice-monthly written reports on their activities as an added condition of keeping their branch shrine down here. I bet that kind of oversight doesn't exist in Tokyo."
I shook my head. "You wouldn't believe the kind of things officials out there get away with on a daily basis. Embezzling funds to take personal vacations, using shady contacts to discredit and in some cases 'disappear' rivals, evading taxes using just about every legal loophole in the book, and so on. Shido himself was the figurehead of an antisocial force attempting to overthrow the government and replace it with their own radical ideology, one which I had to stop."
Youmu pounded her fist on the table. "Well, I'm not gonna let that happen here! I wanna set Yuyuko-sama straight! Because…" She started crying a little. "Because I still love her and I don't want her to be like that!"
I rubbed my chin. "Interesting. So rather than stick it to her and rebel against her abuse, you want to reform her to become the good, caring overseer of the dead that she was in the past."
"As her sworn servant, I would be failing my duty if I didn't," Youmu insisted.
"I see, I see." To be honest, I didn't know Yuyuko at all beyond my impression of her shadow and the fact that she had a palace. Youmu, meanwhile, likely had known her since birth. I knew that could make her biased away from wanting to bring justice, but at the same time Yuyuko's crime didn't seem to be completely irredeemable, nor did she really strike me as evil to the core the same way Shido was. I knew very well that distorted desires - and thus Palaces - often were born from traumatic events in one's life. It was possible that Yuyuko's gluttonous behavior was spurred on by something that occurred in her past. Of course, now those desires had reached unhealthy, obsessive levels, and needed to be immediately tempered.
It would be easier and, in my mind, more satisfying to lay the hammer of justice upon her head, and yet my thinking was going toward trying to salvage her, someone I did not know, instead. How come?
"Alright then. Since you already have a Persona, why not come along with us and change your master's heart for the better?"
Youmu anxiously thrusted her hand out. "Yes! I want to do this! For myself and Yuyuko-sama!"
I smiled. "Well then, it's a deal. Welcome to the team."
I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow.
It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity.
With the birth of the Chariot Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…
Once I returned home, Masato greeted me again. "Long day?" he asked.
"Oh, it was only the afternoon," I replied.
He smiled. "You know, you and Reimu seem to be getting along very well."
"Don't read anything into it," I insisted. "I am merely getting to know her as a peer."
"You say that now, but I bet things will escalate before you know it. No man has ever broken her shell before the way you have, and you've only been here a few days!"
I brushed off his attempt at shipping the two of us as he gave me another cooking lesson. Over dinner, we made some idle chat about things going on in the village. It was a tiring day, so after sweeping up I decided to head to bed straight away. Getting dark so early in the winter made falling asleep earlier easier, and it was certainly helped by having a warm bed to look forward to.
I thought about what happened today. I gained a new ally, a new friend. My influence had grown so strong in just a few days, and I had no idea how far-reaching it would yet become. It really did seem as though I had lived most of my life ever since that day, not long ago, when a paranoid Shido phoned me as I was heading home from school to investigate his Palace for him. As it turned out, not for no reason. Still, it seemed surreal now to think that once I started that routine investigation, I would never again reenter the Outside world, and my life would change so drastically.
This magical valley gave me a chance to redefine my life for the better, and I knew better than to waste that chance. And yet, I still couldn't fully divorce myself from my past, or my latent distrust in people which my actions as of late betrayed...
