1/4
The next morning, after breakfast, I was busy sweeping and rearranging the store as usual. The snow outside picked up compared to yesterday, and it was difficult to imagine anyone wanting to brave the cold and the flakes pelting their skin, melting into frigid water which exacerbated the effects of the cold air's bite.
And yet today, one girl with a cone hat and a large wooden crate on her back braved the harsh weather to come to this place. The wind blew in through the door as the bell rang, the girl taking her snow-dusted outer jacket off and hanging it up as she entered.
"Good morning, Reisen," Masato bowed.
"Good morning," Reisen bowed back. She set the crate down on a desk and shuffled through it looking for the drugs Masato had requested. Again, I found it difficult to make eye contact with her. There was just… something about her blood-red eyes that unsettled me, almost on a supernatural level, like they were primed and ready to hack apart my soul at any moment. And yet, Reisen herself did not seem like a bad person, and Masato greatly appreciated her presence because she brought him his medicine which kept his pain under control.
Medicine… perhaps I could try asking her…
I got up from my current task and approached her. "Hello there, Reisen-san," I waved.
"Ah!" Reisen jolted and raised her hands up slightly. "Sorry, I was focused on sorting my medicine, I didn't notice you coming up to me!"
"My apologies," I bowed. "I merely wanted to speak to you, that's all."
"Er, uh, why?"
Masato chuckled. "He does work and live here, after all, so of course he would want to talk to visitors. Besides," he winked, "a cute girl like you? Of course a young man wouldn't ignore you."
"Eh?" Reisen blushed up as I stood there and groaned.
"That's… not it at all," I said flatly. "I merely want to get to know her as an acquaintance."
"Is that so?" Masato asked with a grin. He handed Reisen some money for the medicine.
"It is so," I replied.
Masato's shoulders slumped and he frowned. "Oh, alright, fine. I apologize." He sorted through the medicine Reisen gave him. "Still, this is rather out of the blue, you wanting to get to know her."
"I'm merely trying to make as many connections as I can. I don't have any here otherwise."
"But… why me?" Reisen asked. "I'm… not particularly interesting or anything, I'm just a medicine peddler…"
"You come and go from this place from time to time, don't you?" I asked her. "Would it not be good if we at least came to know each other?"
"But… you're a guy, and…"
"Men and women can be friends without being lovers," I countered.
"Oh, I, uh, well, I guess so…"
"Why don't you go with her for a little while?" Masato suggested. "You're ahead on your work hours, so you can afford it."
"Uh, I still have a couple other stops to make…" Reisen said hesitantly.
"He can wait outside," Masato smiled. "Come on, it would be good for you to make new friends as well, Reisen. Akechi-san here is a pleasant person, I think you two would get along well."
"Oh, alright…" Reisen still wasn't too sure about me coming along with her. I wasn't, either, mostly because of her stranger red eyes making prolonged eye contact impossible for me. Still, she sold medicine, and if what Masato claimed about the medicines they made at "Eientei" was true, they would come very much in handy in the Metaverse, so I had to forge a relationship with at least her if I wanted a shot at their best medicines.
In the end, I decided to go with her after finishing up a couple other tasks, putting on my boots and my heavy jacket before heading out behind her. The snow outside was flurrying, and few other people were outside. As promised, I stayed out of sight while Reisen made her last few deliveries, including the Heida House where she left behind a rather hefty amount of medicine intended for Akyuu. Afterward, I invited her to go for a drink, but she insisted that she didn't like Human Village places. I told her I was capable of flying, even demonstrating for her after she didn't believe me at first but was impressed at how proficient I was. She revealed she could fly as well, and promised to lead me back to Eientei itself, where they had shelter, tea and food.
To get to the place, we traveled through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, the same forest where Mokou, the woman who found me, lived, and we passed by her house as well. I felt an odd sense of "homecoming" passing by it, since her home was my conscious starting point in my life here. The forest itself, as we ventured deeper inside, lived up to its name: it was an endless maze of bamboo shoots the size of trees, and it was easy to get turned around; if not for Reisen guiding me, I wouldn't have thought I was heading anywhere at all.
Finally, after what felt like a long time weaving between bamboo plants, a large, brown object came into view through the gaps. As we approached it, it soon revealed itself to be a sprawling wooden mansion, by far the largest single non-Fortress structure I had seen in Gensokyo so far. This was Eientei, the mysterious home of Reisen and her master, a genius doctor who made all the medicines which Reisen sold, and who in turn bought ingredients from Marisa to use. Simply being near it gave an otherworldly, old-world feel, as though time itself forgot it existed. It also seemed unusually pristine for such an old wooden structure, with not even mildew sullying its outer walls or moss collecting on the edge of its roof.
Once we reached the front entrance, we came across two guards standing on either side, each armed with a modern-looking pistol and a sword, as well as large, stained wooden mallets affixed to their backs. Their oddest feature, however, was what was on their heads…
"Welcome back, Reisen," one of them said. She tilted her head. "Did you bring a lost Villager with you?"
"Actually, I picked him up during my medicine rounds," Reisen replied. "He said he wanted to come to this place."
I pointed at the guard, who had blue hair and red eyes similar to Reisen's own, which also created a sense of unease in me. "Excuse me, but are those…" I reached out to touch one of them out of curiosity.
"I'd prefer if you didn't," she said, twitching her bunny ear back. "Yes, they're real. This is a house of rabbits," after all."
"Rabbits?" I asked.
"I'll explain inside," Reisen told me. "It's cold out here."
"...ah, right." The guards let us through the door, into a small room where we could hang up our gear before entering the mansion. There, Reisen took off her hat, causing two bunny-like ears to unfold and stand up straight. Removing her heavy outer robes revealed her outfit, a white jacket with a red tie and a short purple skirt. When she turned away from me, a small, cotton ball-like tail stuck out of her back.
I… wasn't sure if Masato slipped some of his drugs into my tea before I left. I've been to the Metaverse, I've been to the Netherworld, I've been to Ethos. But somehow, seeing a bunny girl was just a tad too much for me to comprehend right now.
"Phew. That thing was getting hot. I can finally breathe again," she said.
I stood there, my face blank as I tried to understand what was going on.
"Oh, surprised?" she smiled, twitching her ear. "Don't worry, most people are when they see me without all that gear the first time."
"...are you a rabbit?" I asked awkwardly.
"Yeah. I'm a rabbit. A Moon Rabbit, specifically, although I'm more of an Earth Rabbit anymore these days."
"There's a difference?"
"Huge difference. But not like you'd care right now, I'm sure," she joked. "I'm Reisen Udongein Inaba, but you can just call me Reisen. Welcome to Eientei, Goro Akechi. I can lead you to my master, and then I'll get some tea going for us."
"Um, sure…"
The mansion, Eientei, consisted of long hallways with a number of rooms, most of which were servant's quarters. The servants in question were other bunny girls, each of them shorter than us and whose round, floppy ears, Reisen explained, identified them as Earth Rabbits, compared to her, Seiran and Ringo (the names of the two guards), who were Moon Rabbits. There were also a large number of animal rabbits which followed the human-looking ones. Each of them, understandably, took an interest in me, a strange man who towered over all of them, and the way in which they all stared at me was, for lack of a better term, creepy, especially the eyes glinting red from dark crevasses. Now I was wondering how far down the rabbit hole I'd gone, both figuratively and literally.
Eventually, we arrived at a room resembling a doctor's office. Sitting at the desk was a woman, with long, white-grey hair in a large braid dressed in a distinctive red-and-dark blue checkered dress wearing glasses who was busy with some documents. She was older-looking, but had no wrinkles, and conveyed a very professional, very mature air.
She glanced up at us from her work. "Welcome back, Reisen," she said. She got up, clasped her hands and bowed. "And you've brought a guest. Welcome to Eientei. I am Eirin Yagokoro."
"And I am Goro Akechi," I bowed back. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"He… Mr. Kirisame brought him into his house recently. Apparently he fell through the Barrier from Outside, and Mr. Kirisame is giving him work. He suggested he come with me so we could get to know one another."
Eirin rolled her eyes. "Oh, Masato, you never change, trying to set up young men with whatever women happen to cross paths with them."
"You know him?" I asked her.
"Oh, of course," Eirin smiled, "I know almost everybody in Gensokyo to some extent. I've known him ever since he was a boy and his parents or Rinnosuke would take him here sometimes. He was such a troublemaker as a kid, always getting into places he shouldn't and doing everything everyone told him not to. It didn't stop when he became a young man, either. He was a stud, I'll give him that, but it seemed like he would try and get with every single girl in the Village. Small wonder where Marisa gets her behavior from, then."
"I...see."
"Of course, judging by your appearance you don't seem to have much trouble attracting girls, either," she chuckled.
*sigh* - Here we go again.
"M-master!" Reisen protested. "He just wanted to get to know me as a friend!"
"Oh, that's what all the men say," Eirin said playfully, "but you know where things tend to go before you know it."
"I, er…"
"Are you gonna bring him into your room and do lewd things all night?"
I turned around and saw a black-haired girl with floppy bunny ears peeking her head out of a barrel.
"...what are you doing there, Tewi?" Reisen sighed. "Didn't Master give you a long list of cleaning chores this morning?"
"Finished them all up," the girl, Tewi, chirped back.
"...I'm sorry, and you are?" I asked her.
Tewi jumped out of the barrel and walked up to me. She was a short thing, no larger than a grade-schooler, in a pink dress with bare feet and a very fast-wagging tail. "The name's Tewi. I'm an Earth Rabbit. I'm the boss of all the Earth Rabbits here at Eientei." She looked at Reisen, then back at me. "I gotta say, I'm a little envious of you, Reisen. Bringin' home a tall, handsome guy like this? I woulda thought for sure my cute charm would win some schmuck's heart before you ever could."
"That's because you have a habit of setting up rope traps in the forest and then blackmailing people for money to cut them free under the guise of helping them, and selling counterfeit items at festivals," Reisen shot back. "Honestly, if you weren't such a lying cheat, then maybe fewer people would want to cut you up and sell your parts as good luck charms."
Eirin shook her head. "Can you two not bicker in front of our guest?"
Reisen spun around bowed. "I'm sorry, Master. I'll go make some tea right now."
"Should I go get the Princess?" Tewi asked.
"Only if you promise to behave yourself," Eirin said sternly. "That goes for you, too, young man. You are to maintain the utmost respect and etiquette around her."
Princess? There was a princess living here? What kind of princess was she? Who were these people?
I nodded and bowed. "I understand."
A short while later, Reisen had set tea and snacks on a table for all of us. One of the place settings had notably more expensive and regal-looking dishes than the others, no doubt the one meant for the princess, whomever she was. The rest of us all sat down, and waited for her to show up.
Soon, the princess appeared from down the hallway. Right away, I was taken by her beauty - normally, I wasn't the sort to admire the looks of, well, anybody, given how antisocial I was until recently, but there was just… something about her that made even me take note. It was hard to pin down why: maybe it was her floor-length, silken black hair, her beaming white, perfectly-shaped face, large, hazel eyes with long lashes, and an elegant pink shirt and long, red skirt with floral designs. She strutted down the hallway, then seated herself in front of all of us in a way which caused her skirt to flare out across the floor.
She took a sip of tea, spent a moment savoring it, then placed her cup back down. "Kukicha today, Reisen?"
"Of course," Reisen nodded. "How did you know?"
The princess giggled. "You expect me not to know my tea? I could tell by its nutty flavor."
"I haven't made it in a while, so I thought you'd appreciate a change of pace," Reisen said.
"I appreciate it, thank you." She looked over to me. "Ah. Do we have a guest today?"
"It's a pleasure to meet you," I greeted. "My name is Goro Akechi."
The princess smiled. "It's nice to meet you too, Akechi-san. I'm Kaguya Houraisan."
"...come again?" I asked.
"I'm Princess Kaguya," she repeated. "Yes, that Princess Kaguya."
I was stunned. The Lunar Princess from the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, one of the defining stories of the Japanese mythos? The one who challenged men with her Impossible Requests before returning to the moon? She was here in front of me, right now?
"Akechi-san?" Reisen asked.
I shook my head. "My apologies. It's just… I simply never imagined I would ever meet you in person…"
Kaguya chuckled. "Ohoho. Well, I should have guessed an Outsider like you would react that way to meeting me."
I tilted my head. "How could you tell?"
"How? Your accent, it's different from everyone else's here, and you use a dialect with words ours lacks. You're also much taller than human men generally are here; only those from Outside get as tall as you. Never underestimate a princess's discerning eye for detail."
She took another sip of her tea, and the rest of us sipped ours as well. "Now then, what brings you to Eientei today?" she asked.
"I wanted to get to know Reisen-san here," I replied. "I heard you make excellent medicines which Reisen sells in the Village."
"My medicines are simply the best in existence," Eirin boasted, somewhat haughtily. "I've prepared drugs which can cure all sorts of maladies including cancer, and can put even the best Outside medicine to shame."
"Do you have Marisa to thank for that?" I asked. "She told me she sells you ingredients."
"She's one of my suppliers," Eirin answered. "It's how I keep her from stealing from me, by paying her for the ingredients she extracts from her mushrooms. She's good at what she does, I have thought about hiring her more than once, but she always turns it down, says she doesn't want to listen to anyone's orders except her own." She took another sip. "That girl is so difficult sometimes, and so hard to understand, just like her father."
"But," Kaguya smiled, "I'm sure you don't want to hear us talk about other people. You're here visiting us, after all."
"Indeed," I replied. "I suppose most of all, I want to know why you are here when the legend says you returned to the Moon."
She was silent for a second, and I could tell the others were as well. I feared I may have brought up yet another sensitive topic.
"The truth is, I never actually went back to the Moon in the end," Kaguya explained. "I quite prefer it down here on Earth, even if it is impure, or perhaps because it is. There's just something about watching life go on, seeing the seasons pass and living things be born and then die. Eventually, Eirin-san came down to be with me, and the rabbits all moved in with us."
"I see…" I moved to change the subject, since I felt somewhat pressured to do so. "Also… what do you mean by 'impure?'"
"Life as you understand it doesn't exist on the Moon," Eirin said. "We, the Lunarians, went there to fully separate ourselves from the cycle of life and death. Not just ourselves but everything we brought with us as well, even the trees. The seas of the Moon are fishless. Nothing rots, no mold or moss gather on the buildings. Nothing lives and nothing dies. Everything just is. "
"Er…" this was all very confusing. "I'm… not sure I entirely follow you. And the seas of the Moon… I thought the Moon was just a barren rock."
"That's because the Moon you see here from Earth is actually the False Moon," Eirin explained. "You've never seen the True Moon, the Moon which the Lunarians inhabit. That's because they use a barrier, much like the one isolating Gensokyo from the rest of the world, to hide themselves from humanity, concealing themselves in such a way as to make the Moon appear as it has for billions of years."
I still had a look of perplexion as I tried to digest this information, a task not being made easier by the bunny girls around me.
"I'm sure that's a lot of confusing information to take in at once," Kaguya said. "We don't expect you to understand it all right away. The fact that we have all these bunny girls is likely overwhelming by itself."
"Ah… yes," I said back. I remembered Masato and Keine telling me "there is no common sense in Gensokyo." Right now, not only was common sense completely failing me, I felt I was losing my grip on reality as well. And there were likely stranger things still left for me to uncover.
...which, now that I thought about it, was rather odd, since up to this point I had gotten accustomed to the bizarreness of the Metaverse and had even taken going to the land of the dead more or less in stride. Seeing a number of bunny girls surrounding me should not seem like much in comparison to the things I've been through. Instead, I felt as though I was slowly going mad, to the point where being in Princess Kaguya's presence seemed to be the least strange thing happening right now. I had to wonder: was it an effect of the bunny girls themselves?
"How about you?" Eirin asked, breaking my train of thought. "I'd like to hear a little more about yourself, your life before coming here and especially how you came to Gensokyo in the first place."
"Oh, right," I said back. "Well, of course, I come from Tokyo. Shibuya, specifically. I was an honor student and a detective working for the SIU, and became something of a celebrity out there for solving seemingly unsolvable cases." I looked down. "You see, I've been an orphan for as long as I can remember, passed between different sets of wards on a regular basis. I developed my gift for deductions early, and eventually used it to break out of that vicious cycle and strike it out on my own; not the easiest thing for a teenager to do, especially not in Tokyo. But I managed to do it, and if I do say so myself I did quite well. I had all but written my own college acceptance letter, and the SIU offered me a comfortable job once I was done with my schooling."
"Impressive," Kaguya lauded. "That must have been a very tough childhood for you, but the way you elevated yourself in the end is commendable." She took a sip. "Now then, how did you arrive here in Gensokyo?"
"It can't be because of Yukari," Eirin added, "because she's usually hibernating about now. Actually, Winter arrivals in general are very rare, so, indeed, how did you come here?"
"I'm not entirely sure myself," I said, getting ready to tell the same lie as before. "You see, I-"
*boomf*
Ah. Seemed like a rather chunky rabbit climbed up onto my lap and made itself comfortable. This one was black, unlike most of the others which were stark white.
Tewi giggled. "Seems Boss-kun has taken a liking to you. Why don't you pet him?"
"Boss-kun?" I asked.
"Most of our rabbits are female, but Boss-kun is special," Tewi explained. "He's an old guy, 'bout forty years or so by now."
"...forty?" I asked, surprised. "I thought rabbits don't live for nearly that long!"
"Usually they don't, unless they're destined to become youkai rabbits, which I think that stud will do in a few years," Tewi replied, smirking. "He's actually already the dad of some of the servant rabbits. And surely he'll repay Reisen for all the years she took care of him…"
I looked at Reisen, who was blushing slightly. "Er…"
"He's my pet rabbit," she said. "Tewi gave him to me to take care of a while ago after I first came here. She thinks I've done a good job, but…"
"He's quite large," I complimented. "And rather full of himself, I must say."
"Well, he's our only male rabbit," Tewi said, "so you can imagine he'd build a huge harem for himself. So big, so strong, so confident. Reisen really did outdo herself raising him."
I sat there looking down at him, closing his eyes and twitching his nose, before I continued with my story. "As I was saying, I was investigating a corrupt politician who was running for Prime Minister. His name is Masayoshi Shido. He ran under the pretense of leading Japan out of the slump it's been in for a while and toward a prosperous future. In reality, he's a lying, cheating ultra-nationalist who manipulated the media and leveraged his powerful connections to marginalize and eliminate his rivals. He even bribed the Yakuza to carry out killings for him. Of course, very few people knew the truth, but I was one of the ones who did, and of course I had to expose his crimes for the public to see."
Eirin looked down and shook her head. "What is this country coming too… well, I suppose I should be glad people like you still exist."
"Indeed," Kaguya said. "In my opinion, it's only gotten worse and worse ever since my time. I haven't actually seen most of it, but I know enough from various sources. About the Imperial era and how they raped and pillaged Chinese and Korean villages… it's not a legacy we here in Gensokyo care to be associated with."
"Yes, of course. So, I investigated him and his cronies in between my other cases and coursework, and managed to build up enough evidence to find and expose a powerful Yakuza who is connected to him. So, I gathered several officers and we stormed the compound in Shinjuku where he was based. One shootout later, someone lit fire to a gas tank which caused the place to violently explode into flames. I just barely managed to make it out by jumping in and out of pipes and broken walls, then jumped off a balcony to safety. Or, well, that's what I expected, but instead of hitting the dumpster I was aiming for I just kept falling into a black abyss for what seemed like hours before hitting the snow and losing consciousness. I was found by a strange woman named 'Mokou,' who took me in and-"
Kaguya let out a hearty laugh. "Ohohohoho! So you have met her!"
"You know her?" I asked.
"Oh, of course," Kaguya replied. "Her father was one of the men who tried to clear my impossible trials and of course failed. Ever since then, she's been trying to avenge him and her family's honor, but she never will because-"
Tewi tugged her sleeve. "Uh, Princess?"
"What is it?" Kaguya asked, before looking at the window, and saw Mokou staring at her, scowling and flipping her off.
Kaguya stretched her arms. "Oh, I suppose it's that time again. If she wants to fight, I'll give it to her." She stood up, stepped back, then very quickly spun around, flinging her clothes off in all directions, before she finally stopped, revealing the frilled, highleg wrestling singlet and white boots she had been wearing underneath. She cracked her knuckles. "Alright, it's time to rumble!" She then jumped out the window and tackled Mokou to the ground. A few moments later and out of sight, the macabre sounds of explosions, bones breaking and blood gushing everywhere could be heard.
I stared wide-eyed toward the window, wondering just what was going on out there. Meanwhile, Eirin groaned and got up from her seat. "Guess I'll have to get ready to clean the Princess again," she grumbled, before walking back into her office and closing the door behind her.
Reisen looked at me. "They'll… be a while, I'd imagine." She got up. "Why don't we go someplace else to continue talking?" she suggested. So she led me down a hall and into another room, while Tewi went elsewhere in the mansion with some of her rabbits.
The room was dark when she threw open the door, but upon clapping her hands it lit up to reveal a room full of labelled shelves, atop which sat a grand number of bottles. "This is our medicine storage area," Reisen explained. She pointed at a steel door on the opposite wall. "In there is Master's production lab. It's where she creates all the drugs she sells, and where we store all the ingredients. Since I'm her apprentice, I'm in there helping her as well, and I have my own lab near this one. She'll frequently send me out with medicine to sell it to the villagers, about once a week or so in the Winter, and more often in the Summer. Each of those shelves is labelled with a customer; we fill their order and then I transport it to them at the designated intervals. We make and sell just about anything you can get Outside - painkillers, fever reducers, allergy pills, even specialized medicine for rare conditions. We can also vaccinate people, and Master has a high-security biolab under the mansion for producing them. In short, we're pretty much Gensokyo's doctor's office."
I whistled. "I can tell your Master's medical and scientific knowledge is unmatched."
"She wasn't called the 'Brain of the Moon' for no reason," Reisen smiled. "She's practically an entire hospital staff unto herself."
I looked around the room. "Still, why bring me here? Surely the public isn't allowed back here."
"True," Reisen admitted, "but, honestly, you're a very strange Outsider, one who's already learned how to fly, among other things. If you're going to see all of Gensokyo, then I might as well show you our work and what we do."
I nodded. "I suppose that's fair. So, if you and your Master make medicine, what do the others do?"
"The rabbits are the mansion's staff," Reisen said. "They tend to the princess's needs, clean, cook, and do repairs, and Tewi directs all of them. They used to also guard the mansion, but ever since Seiran and Ringo arrived they picked up guard duties in exchange for living here. They guard against anyone attempting to break in and steal medicine and ingredients. That included Marisa, until Master struck a deal with her to have her be one of her suppliers."
"And I would imagine defending Princess Kaguya too," I said. "Surely, there must still be people either trying to get her hand in marriage or else try to assassinate her."
"Who, the Princess?" Reisen shook her head. "The Princess cannot die."
"...what do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean exactly that: she does not age, become diseased, nor can she be physically killed: she simply regenerates from any lethal injury, no matter how severe."
"That's… gruesome," I remarked.
"It's because she's a Hourai Immortal, a person who drank Master's forbidden Hourai Elixir. It's why she was banished from the Moon originally. Mokou out there also drank it at some point, and the two have duelled for the 1300 years since. The elixir makes you literally unkillable: as long as magic exists, you cannot die by any means. A shinigami even once tried to rip Kaguya's soul out of her body to bring before the Yama, and even that failed."
I thought for a second. I could have pondered a number of things: how that elixir could cause me to cheat death and never pay for my crimes… but I would be on the Yama's bad side, and I would outlive everyone else and be virtually friendless as a result. Or how "literally unkillable" meant that I could potentially survive for billions of years past the death of Earth, and live to see the end of the universe itself and the cosmic horror that would inflict upon my mind, and how future civilizations would regard me as some sort of god while they evolved and died out, from my point of view, in a flash.
...instead, the first thing out of my mouth was, "oh, so just like SCP-682?"
Reisen looked confused.
"Ah, sorry, just a reference you wouldn't get," I said, shaking my head.
Reisen smirked. "Like I said, a strange human. I would have expected all the elixir's implications to be your first thoughts and instead, you hit me with an Outside reference, I would assume, from some science fiction work."
"Your deduction is spot-on," I smiled.
"Er… yeah," Reisen stammered, before clearing her throat. "Regardless, it is a forbidden potion. There is no recipe to make it, Master has it completely memorized, and she's refused to make it ever since those three doses."
"...who got the third dose?" I asked.
"Ah! I… said too much!" Reisen exclaimed. She cleared her throat. "...forget I said that, please?"
...I understood. Obviously, the recipient of that last dose, or its location, had to remain a complete secret. I didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize making a deal with her, so I nodded. "I will, don't worry."
"Oh, thank you," Reisen sighed heavily. "Master would kill me if she heard that."
"...I won't keep the secret for free, however."
"Eh?" Her ears perked up.
"I'll be clear: I want to strike a mutually beneficial relationship. Business partners, if you will."
"...what do you mean? What's this all of a sudden?"
"The Shrine Maiden, Reimu, is teaching me Spell Cards. That means I might end up getting in fights in the future. Surely, access to your medicines would be important for me and us to have, if that is the case."
Reisen looked at me sternly. "If you want medicine from us, you can just schedule an appointment with Master and she can set you up with any that she thinks you need."
"Let me rephrase that," I replied, a little more coldly and clearly. "I want this to be a mutually beneficial relationship. That is, I provide a service for you in exchange for you providing a service to me. Now, with that in mind, is there a service I could provide which would be worth, say, access to medicines most people don't get to see?"
Reisen looked at me suspiciously for a moment, probably thinking I might be some kind of druggie, before thinking it over and replying, "well, now that you mention it, Master hasn't had any human male test subjects for any of her drugs in a long time. It hinders her research, since of course male bodies react to medicines differently from female ones, and youkai physiology is far different from a human's as well. If you became a test subject of hers, that'd knock out two birds with one stone. But… while I can assure you she won't try to kill you, I can't promise you'll still be recognizably human and/or male at the end of it all. Some of her experimental drugs have… effects which, say, ibuprofen doesn't, for example."
"What kinds of effects?" I asked.
"Well, I've already disclosed that she has made an immortality potion. So I'll leave it up to your imagination as to what else she can do, and there's a good chance she can make it into a capsule or potion. But the pay's good, and if you agree to it I'm sure she'll let you see the 'special' menu for a price…"
I thought about the potential risks. This doctor made drugs no Outside physician had, some with effects which I could only guess, that went far beyond simply treating pain or psychiatric conditions: cancer cures, I was sure, but most likely other supernatural effects such as the immortality that one potion offered. On the other hand, I likely had no better options for getting medicine for our Fortress infiltrations. This was also a chance to deepen my bond with someone, and given that this mansion housed Princess Kaguya I was legitimately curious about their backstories and how they got here, which I could learn if I got closer to them.
So I stuck out my hand. "I accept your offer."
"Oh! Uh…" Reisen was surprised, as if she didn't expect me to still be interested. Then, she took my hand and shook it. "W-well, I guess I can't change your mind, then. I'll let Master know you're interested once she's free."
"Excellent, it's a deal then."
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 Moon Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…
We went back out to the main living room to see if Eirin had finished with Kaguya, but instead we found Marisa standing by her office.
"Master is cleaning up the Princess," Reisen told her.
"Geh," Marisa grunted. "I almost forgot I had a delivery scheduled today, and-" she noticed me. "Oh, hey! Fancy meetin' you here! What'cha doin'?"
"I just wanted to visit Reisen and everyone else," I said. "She comes by the shop often to drop off medicine."
"Oh, is that…" she started to say, before she presumably remembered yesterday's events and how I was going to try and get us all medicine. "I see! Well, anyway, I hope 'ya didn't forget about comin' over to my place tonight."
"I didn't," I replied. "We can head over together."
"Yeah, well, I gotta have Eirin check this and pay me first."
"I can take care of it," Reisen said, going over and taking note of the contents of Marisa's bag. She then compared it to a list on the desk, added up some numbers on a calculator, then went over to a safe to get a stack of yen notes and some coins, counted it out exactly and handed it to Marisa. "Here. I'll go itemize the expenses and put this all in the back."
"Would you like any help?" I asked.
"Thanks, but these all need to go into a secure area. I can just have some of the rabbits help me."
"Well, alright," I said. "See you again sometime?"
"Absolutely. You and Marisa go have fun," she smiled.
Marisa tensed and blushed up. "I-er, Reimu, Youmu and Nitori are all there as well, you know!"
"...Oh, I… see." Reisen turned and walked down the hallway with a load. Her ears drooped, and I could hear her mutter, "I wish I was as good at making friends as you, Marisa."
We made it to Marisa's house just as it got dark, its lights shining as beacons in the dark, thick forest and smoke lightly streaming from its chimney. We touched down right in front of the door to avoid the snow, stomped our boots on the mat and entered.
"We're back," Marisa said. "I got Goro with me too." In the middle of the room, a kotatsu had been set up in which Nitori was seated, with Reimu over by her while Youmu was in the kitchen cooking dinner. There was a large cauldron over the fire which I could see cut-up veggies and mushrooms floating at the top of.
"How 'ya doin'?" Marisa asked Nitori.
"I'm fine," Nitori said back. "A little sore still, but not as bad as this morning. Thanks for the cucumbers, by the way. They really helped a lot."
"Well, cucumbers are good and all, but me and Youmu are gonna get a nice, good meal inside 'ya."
Youmu went over to the cauldron and used a pair of large tongs to fish a whole chicken out of it, before taking it to the table and cutting it up. "I must say, Marisa, you have rather a lot of mushrooms and other odd ingredients."
"Standard witch fare," Marisa said. "Least I got all the basics, too."
"That is true… still, I feel you could balance your diet more. There was hardly any fresh produce besides the mushrooms, nor any of the spices I like to use, so I had to bring my own."
"Sorry I couldn't bring anything," Reimu said. "I of course don't have much food…"
"You should be thankful Marisa over here looks out for you. I have no clue how you manage to survive on rice and pickles only, but it isn't healthy."
"I've started adding cassava to it recently, does that make you feel any better?"
"Hardly."
"Ain't that shit toxic if you don't cook it enough?" Marisa asked, before shrugging, "well, not that it matters to Reimu I suppose. I bring her out on mushroom hunts sometimes; I've seen her eat Poison Fire Coral and be completely unaffected by it. Guess it's good she's got a gut like that, 'cause I can't imagine how else she keeps from bein' all bony, much less have those muscles and that big, thick butt. Definitely her charm point, am I right?"
Reimu visibly fumed while Nitori laughed, and I could tell Youmu was trying to keep from laughing too as she hacked apart the chicken into its various pieces. I just kept to myself, knowing that I, the one guy there, could cause a misunderstanding by doing almost anything if I wasn't careful.
A while later, dinner was served up alongside some tea. We all sat around the kotatsu, which had a longer table so all five of us could fit.
"Well, this turned into a real family dinner," Marisa remarked. "I'll admit, I'm not used to havin' guests over to eat. Usually, I'm the one doin' the visitin'!"
"More like 'freeloading,' am I right?" Reimu snarked.
"I prefer to think of it as coming together to celebrate our achievements so far," I added. "We've taken down a Fortress and uncovered Ethos, all within our first week of business."
Nitori looked up at us. "I'm sorry, but… I still don't understand. What… exactly happened back there in that tower? And what was that… power I gained to save you all?"
"That was your Persona," I explained. "It represents your desire to stand against the world's distortion and be true to yourself."
Nitori was confused. " Okay… I don't get it. Can you start from the beginning? Like how you got that power and found that place to start with?"
"Certainly." So I told her my backstory - still fake, but closer to the truth than she had previously heard. About how I met the Phantom Thieves, took down Shido, and how I disappeared in the collapse of his Palace and ended up here. I told her about the Metaverse, how it was the manifestation of all our thoughts and desires, about shadows, and about how people awakened to their Personas by accepting their shadows as part of them.
"Well, no wonder you kept it secret before," Nitori remarked. "People would freak out if they found out a place like that existed." She took a sip of tea. "Still, you all almost died in there. If it weren't for me… what are you trying to gain by going in there?"
"I seek to bring justice upon those who defy the system," I proclaimed. "And I… we… change their hearts to purify them of those distortions. It wouldn't even be the first time I almost died there, for the sake of my justice." I took a bite of my food, then said, "That is why I'd like to add you to the team."
"Ehh?" Nitori exclaimed.
"You already know our secret," Reimu said, "plus you have a power none of us have."
"That's right," I added. "With you on our side, you can be the team's eyes and ears, scanning for shadows, mapping out floors, seeking out treasure."
"That's…" Nitori looked down. "...wouldn't I just weigh all of you down? I mean, I felt so weak back there. By the time I got to shore, I was out of breath from swimming. I'm a kappa! Kappa don't tire themselves out from swimming, because we live in water!"
"Not now that you have your Persona, I don't think," Marisa said.
I looked over to her. "Ah, yes. You said you found something out that you wanted to share with us?"
"Yes." She got up and went back into her workshop. A minute later, she returned with a stack of notes. "So, I had the Mini-Hakkero set up to try and pick up magic wavelengths while we were in Yuyuko's castle, to figure out why we can't use magic in the Metaverse. Of course, Reimu's inability to use most of her powers can be easily explained by her being in a different realm from the Shrine, which is where her powers come from. But when I went back and compiled the results, I found out something interesting."
"What was it?" Nitori asked.
"So, as it turns out, magic DOES, obviously, exist in the Metaverse, otherwise we couldn't use all those cool moves. The thing is, it's got a totally different wave signature from any magic I've ever seen. Because of that, it's incompatible with any lifeform out here in the real world, meaning they can't use it even if they're seasoned magicians. The only way to harness it is to either be a shadow - which of course none of us are - or awaken to a Persona, which acts as a catalyst for that magic. But your Persona determines your powers in the Metaverse irrespective of what you can normally do in the real world, hence why we still can't use our normal powers in there, only the ones which our Personas grant us."
"Interesting," I noted. "Again, I never would have imagined magic theory to be so complex. You're quite knowledgeable in what you do."
"Honestly, it's basic 101 stuff Outside people just wouldn't get," Marisa dismissed. "You want someone to go talk your ear off 'bout magic, go to Patchouli. She'll go on for days about High Agarthan this and Vancian that, 'cause magic is all she ever reads about."
"Alright, so what does that have to do with me getting so weak suddenly?" Nitori asked.
"Well, for that part I'll have to first fill Goro in a bit on youkai physiology." Marisa sipped her tea before continuing. "Anyway, I'm sure someone told you 'bout how youkai exist based on human fears, beliefs and whatnot, right?"
"Yes, Keine told me all about it," I said.
"Right. So, youkai bodies are not like human bodies. Our bodies are made up primarily of physical elements and molecules, mostly carbon and water. Youkai bodies, by contrast, tend to be made up mostly of magic. You kill a youkai, that magic scatters back into the environment and all you're left with is a pile of dust and whatever clothes they had on them at the time. In other words, youkai are amalgamations of magic formed around a belief of some sort, and just like how us humans need to constantly replace the matter in our bodies with food, water and air, so do youkai have to constantly recycle their magic. One reason why they hunt humans is because human flesh metabolizes into potent, concentrated magical energy within their bodies. Now, there's magic all over the world - the universe, even - in roughly equal amounts with some hotspots, Gensokyo being one of them. The state of human society and the destruction of natural and historical areas are about the only reasons why it's dangerous for a youkai to be out there; in theory, a youkai could, if they were careful, still live out there blending in among the humans, and in fact many still do."
She took a bite of food. "However, what that means is if they ever get to a place with no magic, or in this case magic their bodies cannot use, they start to lose power as the magic seeps from their bodies. We saw this happen to a lesser extent with Youmu, who's half-Phantom, but in a pure magical being such as Nitori the effect is much more severe. As they lose magic, they lose strength and energy until eventually they don't even have enough to keep their own basic functions going, at which point they, well, die. By contrast, humans don't need magic to survive, so assuming they can get food and water the worst they're out is not bein' able to use any special powers they might have in the real world. I've actually seen something like this happen with evil spirits possessing people: since they suck up so much magic from their host they can actually knock out and sometimes kill youkai whereas humans won't ever suspect a thing, and some of them deliberately hunt youkai like this and suck away all their power, using human hosts to stalk them or use the host body as bait until the moment they can strike."
"I see…" Reimu took a sip. "So, then, what does awakening to a Persona do to youkai in this case?"
"Well, that part's still kinda conjecture on my part," Marisa admitted. "But my best guess based on the evidence I have is that their Persona somehow converts the Metaverse's ambient magic into a form the youkai can use to sustain themselves, partly because anyone who does fuses with their shadow and thus starts having the magic run through them, or something like that, I don't know for sure just yet. Either way, the point is, youkai in the Metaverse need to have a Persona or else they die."
"And all other supernatural powers are suppressed… it's almost like my Spell Card Rules," Reimu said. "They're designed to level the playing field between humans, youkai and gods, but in the Metaverse none of that matters since your power is dictated by your own heart and feelings. In fact, if anything humans have a slight advantage there since being there without a Persona isn't inherently life-threatening aside from the shadows making mincemeat of you if they catch you."
"I see, that is all very insightful. Thank you, Marisa." I took another bite before saying, "if that's the case, then we may need to either avoid or be careful with youkai additions to our team going forward. We must either have them quickly awaken to their Personas or else keep them out entirely. But," I turned to Nitori, "we already have you, if you decide to join us, that is."
Nitori clenched her fist. "When I saw my Persona, it went on about how I wished to break out of my shell and move past my awkward, bigoted attitudes to guide the weak away from evil and shine the light of knowledge to give them power… I just, I never imagined that side of me ever existed but it felt so… right. Like, that's the true reason why I work on all my different inventions, or argue with goddesses, that I never recognized…"
"Your shadow represents the thoughts and feelings you try to suppress and distance yourself from," I explained. "Once you accept them as a part of you and resolve to overcome your weaknesses, that part of you is allowed to awaken. That… is your Persona, your strength in that other world."
"Fascinating…" Nitori was silent for a moment. "...to be honest, I don't get out of my cave much, but now that this has happened I feel like I just can't ignore it. Like, I absolutely must do something more and see the world, help those in need…"
"Like Goro said, your power is unique and would be a big benefit to us," Reimu said. "Besides that, we think a major incident involving that place, the Metaverse, is afoot, one that is mostly outside the scope of what me or Marisa can accomplish with Spell Cards."
"If we had 'ya with us, our investigations would go a lot better!" Marisa smiled.
"You would be doing great justice if you accepted our offer," Youmu added.
Nitori thought for a second, then smiled. "Well, okay, how about this? I use my power to help get us all through this 'Metaverse,' and as a bonus, I've also got my workshop and my skills to make all the weapons and stuff you'll need to fight those enemies."
"Is there anything you would like in return?" I asked.
"Well… if what you say about changing hearts is true, there's someone I'd like to look into, but we can talk about that later."
I stuck out my hand. "Well, if that's so, then let's seal our deal. If you're willing to commit to it, then we'll shake hands."
"I've already made up my mind," Nitori smiled again as she took my hand and shook it excitedly.
"Welcome aboard," Marisa said.
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 Devil Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…
Marisa looked around at all of us. "Well, that settles that," she said. "All of us together, makin' plans and becoming an actual, organized team instead of just a bunch of people pulled together. We've already taken down a Fortress, and we're well on our way to conquering even more, now that we got Nitori. But now we need a name for our group, somethin' to go by that gives us an identity beyond just bein' a bunch of Persona users!"
Reimu turned to me. "Since you're the leader, why don't we let you decide on a name, then we can vote on it."
A team name, huh? To be honest, I wasn't the most creative person on Earth when it came to names. Something like this couldn't be done as an afterthought; I had to make sure there was some kind of significance to the name, that it wasn't just some generic term that failed to convey the true scope of what we wanted to accomplish. Let's see… we're heroes of justice, whose goal it is to cleanse people of their distorted desires, freeing them from the prison in their heart as well as others from the tyranny of those desires…
"...it's almost like we're jail-breaking our targets…" I snapped my fingers. "...Jail Breakers!"
"Eh?" everyone wondered.
"Think about it," I said. "We're breaking our targets out of the prisons of their hearts!"
"...I kinda don't like it," Marisa said, "'cause we'll just sound like a bunch of crooks breakin' gang members out or something."
"I agree," Youmu said. "...although, I do like the 'Breakers' part. Should we shorten it to just that? The Breakers?"
"Then it just sounds like we're going around breaking everyone's stuff," Nitori said. "Kinda like Marisa over here."
"Hey," Marisa frowned, "for your information I don't break anything. I only st- er, I mean, borrow things."
"Whatever you say," Nitori smiled. Our eyes wandered over to Reimu, who seemed deep in thought.
"What's up?" Marisa asked.
Reimu opened her eyes.
"The Day Breakers," she said.
"...the Day Breakers?" Youmu wondered.
"Like the light of dawn, we appear over the horizon to cast away the darkness and evil of the world. With the sun to our backs our distinguished silhouettes tell the evil-doers 'we will eliminate your distorted desires without fail.'"
We stared at her in amazement. The Day Breakers, the dawn of Justice to cast away the evil lurking in the night. A very fitting name for a band of superheroes such as us.
"...THAT'S BADASS!" Marisa exclaimed with stars in her eyes. "That's, like, the best idea I've ever heard comin' from you!"
"That's not a high bar for any of her ideas to clear, though," Nitori snarked.
"Oh, screw off," Marisa said, sticking her tongue out. "Point is, it perfectly describes what we're doing!"
"Indeed," Youmu noted. "With our power and wit combined, evil cowers before us." She unsheathed part of her sword. "With my sword of great justice and Goro as our fearless leader guiding us through the unknown, we will bring this world out of the darkness of sin, misery and war and towards the nirvana of peace and enlightenment." Youmu's tough but high praise touched my heart in a way which few had ever done before. Never had I been very truly considered a strong leader which others looked up to and depended on for guidance; before, I had only ever been someone else's pawn working alone. For these girls, all far more powerful than myself in the real world, to see me in such a light…
"Now then," Marisa said, "since we don't do anything without a unanimous vote, let's all say who's for it."
"I'll start." Reimu produced a sake bottle and started passing it around, each of us filling our cups as it got to us. "Obviously, as it was my suggestion, I'll say aye."
"Aye!" Marisa smiled.
"Aye," Youmu said.
"Er- Aye," Nitori said.
"And you? You're the leader after all," Marisa asked me. I could, if I wanted to, strike down the name just with my vote and force us all to try to come up with a better name. If this were as recently as a month or so ago I may have done so quite readily as it was not my idea; my only votes for something with the Phantom Thieves were only done to get closer to completing my real mission.
But now, I felt compelled to honor the group's wishes, not as merely another member but also as their leader.
"If that is the case, then I officially declare the birth of the Day Breakers," I said.
"HOORAY!" Marisa cheered. She held up her glass. "Let's have a toast! For the Day Breakers!" And so, flush with energy and a jovial mood, we clacked our glasses together in celebration of the christening of our group, its advancement from an informal band of misfits to an official organization.
