Chapter 6 – A New Life Awaits
Small miracles supposedly happen every day, or so some people say. One such miracle was that Kyouichi woke up early in the morning all by himself and what's more, he even felt quite refreshed. Today was his big day after all. Today he would open up an entirely new chapter in his life. One that he didn't even imagine in his wildest dreams. Starting today, he will officially become one of the denizens of Gensokyo, a fantastical land full of supernatural beings and people with various magical abilities. Of course, he is only an outsider and as such, he doesn't have the predisposition to learn any form of magic, but he will at least be admitted into the society of the village.
Without dressing up, he walked straight into the bathroom. This time he decided to have a proper bath, rather than just cleaning himself like he did yesterday. His wounds were only stinging a little bit now. In a matter of few days they should heal up completely. As he was relaxing in the ofuro full of nice warm water, he was trying to plan his schedule for today. What should he do after he gets all the paperwork at the village hall done? Just wander around the village aimlessly, or to revisit Naota and have that welcome party they were talking about, or perhaps he should visit the village archive? He had a lot of options, but he couldn't make a decision at the moment, so he just closed his eyes and relaxed a bit longer. When he had enough, he got out of the ofuro, dried himself up and returned to his room to dress up. His kimono was formal enough so he didn't need to think too much about what to wear for his admission. He opened the sliding door to the kitchen and greeted Minako and Chitose:
"Good morning, Minako-san, Chitose-chan."
"Oh, good morning, Kyouichi," greeted a slightly surprised Minako. "I was about to go and wake you up, but as I see, you already had a bath and dressed up…"
"Good morning, onii-chan." greeted Chitose as she was drinking her tea.
"But I'm not really your brother, you know…" said Kyouichi.
"I know, but it's fun to imagine that you are." replied Chitose.
"Whatever…" the outsider muttered, when his nose caught a pleasant smell. "Mmm, something smells good… What's for breakfast?
"Tamagoyaki." answered Minako while serving the fried egg omelet roll on a plate. "Here you go, Kyouichi."
"Thank you, Minako-san. Itadakimasu!"
Kyouichi ate the tamagoyaki with appetite and had a few glasses of milk afterwards. Chitose looked at him after she finished her tea and asked: "Hey, onii-chan, will you tell me something about the outside word?"
"Hm? What about it?" he asked after he drank the second glass of milk.
"What magic do you have in the outside world?" asked the curious girl.
"Hahaha!" Kyouichi started laughing. "We don't have any. We only hear about it in fairy tales, or see it in movies and anime and such…"
"Huh? Movies? Anime?" wondered Chitose while scratching her head.
"Errr… never mind. Suffice to say that there's no such thing as magic in the outside world, as far as I know."
"Then how do you defend yourselves against the youkai?"
"There's no need…" smiled Kyouichi. "There are no youkai."
Chitose looked very surprised. "Eeeeeh?! No youkai? Did you hear it mom? It must be a very nice and peaceful place then…"
"Actually, no." opposed Kyouichi.
"Why not?" kept asking the curious girl. "Youkai are the worst enemies of humans. At least most of them are… If you don't have any youkai in your world then why isn't it peaceful there?"
"I'll correct you a bit… Not the youkai are the worst enemies of humans, but the humans are the worst enemies to themselves. We have crimes, wars, terrorism, racism..." explained Kyouichi, "As if the natural disasters, poverty and all sorts of diseases weren't already bad enough. Even without the youkai, there will always be conflicts… as long as there are people."
"I didn't know it was so terrible there…" said Chitose with the same surprised look.
"But don't get me wrong. It's not like the whole world is being ravaged by war or something… Fortunately, there are much more peaceful places than war zones in the world. And of course, there are many, many wonderful people in the world… I was merely trying to say that it isn't a perfect peaceful world as you might think. Perhaps Gensokyo is a much better place then the rest of the world. But I barely spent any time living here to claim something like that, right…?"
"Well, here in Gensokyo, we only have to defend ourselves from the bad youkai. But there are many good ones too…"
Kyouichi hoped to see some other youkai besides the fairies, preferably the "good" ones, but so far, he hasn't seen any of them in the village.
"Hey, Kyouichi," asked Chitose suddenly. "Did you come from a peaceful place or from a war zone?"
"Me? I came from a peaceful place, in a big city of Tokyo. With many, many buildings, some of which are as tall as smaller mountains. It's so big that I would have to walk for almost an entire day from one end to reach the other. There are roads everywhere, and people travel around in cars or buses or motorcycles or trains - all of these are vehicles that people use to travel fast and far…"
"Eh~? Amazing!" exclaimed Chitose.
"Okay, Chitose-chan," said Minako, "You can talk with Kyouichi-kun later, but right now he has to go to the village hall so that he can become one of us."
"One of us? Yay, so you will also learn about using magic, right?" cheerfully asked Minako's daughter.
"Umm, Chitose-chan, Kyouichi and all the outsiders like him can't learn magic like people born in Gensokyo." explained Chitose's mother. "You know Naota-san, right? He also can't learn any magic, since he wasn't born here."
"Oh, no! That's bad. How will he defend himself if he meets a bad youkai, huh, mom?"
"By making sure that he doesn't meet them in the first place. This village here is the safest place to be in Gensokyo. As long as he's here, he doesn't need to worry… Now, let's go before the village hall gets too crowded."
"Okay, we'll go…" agreed Kyouichi.
Before he left, he went to the bathroom once more to brush his teeth, but instead of toothpaste, there was some unknown creamy and powdery mixture in a glass jar and a pile of paper rags next to it. Uncertain of the jar's content, Kyouichi took a whiff before trying to put any of that stuff in his mouth. It smelled almost like regular toothpaste with a mixed scent of some unknown herbs.
"Well, here goes nothing…" said Kyouichi as he put some of that creamy substance on one of the paper tissues. He slowly opened his mouth and started wiping his teeth with it. The "paste" didn't taste very well, but at least it got the job done. After a few minutes of "brushing" his teeth, Kyouichi rinsed his mouth with fresh water. He was now ready to go.
Minako was already waiting for him in the corridor.
"Ready to go?" she asked.
Kyouichi nodded.
"Alright, then, let's go."
They left the house and walked down the street to the market district where the village hall was located. There weren't a lot of people in the streets yet. Besides some Ryuuken guards, there were only a few villagers strolling about. Kyouichi and Minako kept on walking without words until they reached the marketplace, where they could already see the village hall building and the dragon-deity statue standing in front of it.
"Here we are." announced Minako. "Let's get in…"
Upon entering the building, they found themselves in a large hall with many doors leading to various offices. The door in the middle had a large sign with words "the main office" written on it. There were only two people standing in front of it and waiting to be called in. Kyouichi and Minako took their place at the end of this short line and waited.
"I came with you not just because we're taking you into custody, but also to pay my monthly rent for the shop." Minako explained. "Better sooner, than later…"
"Say, how long does this admission process take, Minako-san?" Kyouichi wanted to know.
"Not much." she replied. "You'll just fill in a form, sign it, then I'll sign it and finally, you'll get an ID card within a couple of days. The paperwork should take no longer than 10 minutes, though."
Finally, as the person standing in front of them left the main office, it was their turn. In the meantime, a fairly long line of people has already formed behind Minako and Kyouichi, so it was a good idea to get up a bit earlier today. A young secretary opened the door and called them in.
"You may come in, please."
Minako bowed and Kyouichi did the same. "Thank you."
They entered the office room with one large, low-leveled, Japanese style mahogany conference table. Sitting at that table covered by a pile of various documents, scrolls, books, quills and ink flasks with different colored ink was an elderly man with long grey hair tied in a ponytail. He had long grey sideburns and a goatee. He was dressed up in a luxuriously looking kimono. It was mostly dark-green and black with golden ornamental patterns. The man's face still looked relatively youthful, at least in comparison to someone like Naota. As Kyouichi entered with Minako and greeted him, the man nodded. "Good morning to you, Saitou-san and…" he curiously looked at Kyouichi whom he couldn't recognize.
"Ishimaru Kyouichi, pleased to meet you."
Minako immediately explained: "Apparently, he's been spirited away from the outside world two days ago and he was lucky enough to make it to the village."
"What? Another outsider?" asked the village chief. "Say, Ishimaru-san, did something strange happen in the outside world?"
Before Kyouichi could answer, the chief continued: "Because, you're about the tenth outsider who's come to get admitted here over the last few days… I wonder what's going on."
Both Minako and Kyouichi exchanged their surprised looks. Kyouichi did recall that he had seen a group of outsiders yesterday at the Uzume tavern, but didn't pay much attention to them.
"All of these outsiders seemed to come from Japan, as do you… from a certain city known today as… Tokyo." said the man as he read a couple of documents, which were probably the admission forms filled in by the other outsiders.
"Of course, it is my duty to ask you as well," continued the man, "before we can make you an official citizen; where were you last before you found yourself here?"
"T-Tokyo…" replied Kyouichi with an uncertain tone.
The chief looked concerned. "Hmm, so another one, huh…? Can you remember what happened before you were spirited away?"
"Well, I do recall I was riding on an underground train back home, but I had fallen asleep." explained Kyouichi as he was trying to recall the event from two days ago. "I was certain that I wasn't alone on that train… As I was awakened by what I think was an earthquake, I could see nothing but darkness and hear screams of other people everywhere around me. But as soon as that earthquake stopped and I made some light, I could see nobody. Everyone seemed to have disappeared. I walked all the way to the very front of the train, but there wasn't a single person to be seen. As I reached the front car… I was no longer underground, but somewhere outside… in the wilderness. I found the road to the village by sheer luck. It was already dark by that time, but I somehow made it all the way here. The first person I met was Mizuto Saitou and he treated my wounds and offered me a place in his house…"
"Hmm… I see…" replied the village chief while scratching his goatee. "All the testimonies of the other recent newcomers from the outside world and you had one thing in common… They all said they were riding this… train… thing…"
Kyouichi suddenly recalled what Mizuto told him on the first day. "I… I've heard that when one gets spirited away, he can appear at any random location in Gensokyo…"
"I guess that's not only a theory…" thought the village chief aloud. "The most common places for outsiders to appear are the Hakurei Shrine and the Road of Reconsideration. But as it seems, people can get spirited away to basically any place in Gensokyo."
"Shrine's the most common place for outsiders to appear?" asked Kyouichi. "I've been there yesterday and the miko said she hasn't met any outsiders recently."
"Well, some of them claim to have appeared right near the village, the others near the Forest of Magic and some near the Bamboo Forest of the Lost… None of them mentioned the shrine."
"Do you know where I can meet those other people from the outside world?" asked Kyouichi in hope of getting some explanation from the other outsiders.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot give away any personal information about anyone, unless you're a relative or one of the Ryuuken militia."
"Alright. Never mind… As you already know, I've decided to stay here in Gensokyo for the time being…"
"Hehe, for the time being he says…" chuckled the village chief. "As if there was a way for us humans to cross the barrier to the outside world."
"You'd be surprised, but there actually is. The Hakurei shrine maiden knows how to travel through the barrier and even take people there and back. But as the shrine in the outside world lies somewhere deep in the mountains, I did not have any clue as to where should I go to get home… Returning here was my only option."
The elder gazed at Kyouichi with his eyes wide open in amazement. "Well I'll be… I've lived here for nearly sixty years, and you barely for three days, and yet you seem to have found out something I had no idea about…"
"How come you've never even heard about it?" wondered Kyouichi. "Aren't you in contact with the shrine maiden?"
"Of course we are in contact with the Hakurei Shrine. It's just that… she never brought anything up about it. Apparently she just kept returning most of the outsiders back through the shrine without our knowledge."
"Only those outsiders who found the shrine in the outside world would know their way back home… Those who were spirited away form other places, like me, wouldn't know which way to go from there… Not even the shrine maiden could help me."
"I see… But that means you're not staying here "for the time being" as you said, but for the rest of your life, Ishimaru-san."
"Umm… you may not be completely correct about that one either…" remarked Kyouichi.
"Don't tell me you know something more…" smiled the elder.
"Maybe… Surely you've heard a legend or two about Yukari Yakumo, right?"
"The ancient youkai of boundaries, borders and gaps, who by historical accounts originally came up with the idea of sealing Gensokyo and made an agreement with the Hakurei clan to erect the Great Boundary. In 1885 Gensokyo was sealed. That was the last time the Dragon-god was last seen… and the last time anyone reported a sighting of Yukari Yakumo as well…"
"Yes, that youkai." nodded Kyouichi. "She's supposedly the one who can travel freely through the Great Boundary and even take things and people from one side to another… Some say that she's still here."
"Don't tell me you believe in that legend…"
"I didn't. That is until I've heard directly from Reimu Hakurei and her friend, Marisa Kirisame, that they personally know the youkai. However, this youkai shows up on a very irregular basis, so only time can tell when she'll show up again."
"Honestl,… To think of all the new things I find out about Gensokyo in this old age… and from an outsider…"
Kyouichi shrugged. "I just got good advice form good people, I guess… But you may be right about me staying here for my whole life. Who can predict how such a youkai will react to someone's request to return them back. Especially if she could be the one who spirited me and others away to this place…"
"I should let the Hakurei shrine maiden know about all the other outsiders as well. Maybe this is another incident that needs to be resolved." said the elder and noted something down on a sheet of paper.
"Well now, Ishimaru-san, I've almost forgotten that you're here to get your admission, right?"
"Heh, yeah, I almost forgot about that too…"
The elder reached in one of the shelves and took a sheet of blank admission form. "Here you go. Just fill in the information about yourself and sign here… And this form is for you, Saitou-san."
Kyouichi took the form and a quill and filled in the basic information about himself; name, date of birth, address (both in the outside world and his new one in Gensokyo), and education.
Finally he signed the document and let Minako sign it as well.
"Ah, so you've filled it in?" asked the elder as he took the document and briefly checked if it was filled in correctly. "M-hm, okay, then… Your ID card will be ready within 3 days and sent to your current address… I'm guessing you'd also like to apply for some job here, right?"
"Yes, that would be great, but I'm not sure if I'm qualified enough to apply for anything…"
"Since you're an outsider, it is also necessary for you to have proper knowledge about Gensokyo and a certificate that confirms that."
The elder took another sheet of pre-written form from one of the shelves. "You shall enroll for studying at the Kamishirasawa Affiliated Academy. There you'll learn not only about Gensokyo and the youkai, but you'll also get to choose a studying guild where you'll learn specific knowledge and acquire specific skills in a particular area of your interest, which will enable you to qualify for a job in that particular area. Of course, as an outsider the study of magic will serve you no purpose, but you are free to study anything else. Until then, you'll only be able to get part-time jobs here. Or perhaps you could start your own business, if you save up enough money for that…"
"So I'm going back to school?"
"Well, you probably already know how to read, write and count to ten, right?" smiled the elder as he was filling in Kyouichi's application form to Kamishirasawa School. "You'll only need to take the last stage of the elementary education before you get to choose your studying guild. You will start attending the school from tomorrow until winter, when you'll do the final test to get your elementary certificate and then you'll get to choose a guild."
"Do all the outsiders have to study at that school?" wondered Kyouichi.
"All of those who wish to find some decent work here and are older than 6 years. The knowledge about the life in Gensokyo may be in fact even more important than any practical skill which helps people apply their trade. Even if you were older than me I'd still highly recommend you taking the final course of the elementary education, just to increase your own safety…"
"I heard one of the teachers is a youkai…" recalled Kyouichi.
"Yes, indeed. Kamishirasawa-sensei, the one who founded the school is a youkai, but you don't need to worry. She's the kind of youkai who'd rather sacrifice her own life than see a human suffering. She's a great teacher. You'll like her too…"
"Umm… Mr. Village Elder?" Kyouichi addressed the elder.
"Hm? What? Did I forget to introduce myself again?" asked the elder who looked a bit embarrassed. "It's been happening to me quite often lately. I must be getting old. My name is Toshimi Fukukane, and as you can see, I'm the current village elder since 108. I've been thinking about retiring soon… I should leave this job to someone younger and more competent, but maybe I can still manage a year or two… But I think you wanted to ask me something, right?"
"Yes, I'd like to take a part-time job. Are there any offers?"
"Hmm, let me see for a moment…" said the elder and searched the shelf with the documents behind him. "Ah, yes, there's still one left here…"
"Only one?" inquired Kyouichi. "One job offer in the whole village?"
"Well, there haven't been many offers lately anyway, and now that we've experienced this sudden wave of immigrants from the outside world, most of the part-time job offers were already taken. If you came a bit sooner, then you'd have a wider choice. But it's true that people don't offer employment as much as they used to, these days." complained elder Fukukane.
"Well, I guess the global economic crisis has hit even Gensokyo." supposed Kyouichi. "And what sort of part-time job is that last one?"
"A sales assistant in a bookstore." answered Fukukane. "It's close by, you'll just return to the marketplace and turn left, that is to the west, and enter the street between the Drunken Oni and the ceramics shop. It's called Starlight Glyph. It's the only book shop in the entire village so you can't miss it."
Kyouichi already knew where the bookstore was, since he took a small village tour with Minako yesterday. It was on the same street as the village archive, the house of Hieda family.
"Oh, I think I know where it is." said Kyouichi. "So what are the details about this job?" he asked.
"Well, selling books, helping with book transcriptions, keeping the shop clean and so on… 5 days a week from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and a wage of 300 ¥ per hour."
Kyouichi nodded to the offer. "Better than nothing… Alright, I'll take it."
He used to work part-time at many places, doing many different and often physically exhausting jobs. This job seemed quite good to him because it wasn't too hard and he could start working even if he wasn't fully healed up. Furthermore, it wouldn't conflict his school timetable, since the elementary grade lessons usually ended even before noon.
"Hmph, working at a bookstore… How hard can that be?" he thought.
"Okay then, just sign this contract here and you can start working there tomorrow already." said the elder and passed him the contract to sign.
Kyouichi quickly scribbled his autograph on the contract and the deal was sealed.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" asked the elder as he stamped the contract with the official seal of the village council and folded it up.
"I think that's all from me for now," replied Kyouichi, "but I think Minako-san still has some business with you."
"Yes." nodded Minako. "I've come to pay the monthly rent for the shop beforehand…"
"So, you're already paying rent for Minazuki (June)?" asked Fukukane.
"Yes, it's better to pay sooner than to wait until the end of next month when the financial situation is the worst…" explained Minako. "That way I will know exactly how much money I can spend until the end of the month."
"Good thinking, Saitou-san." acknowledged elder Fukukane as he was taking the rent from Minako. He then jotted something down on a paper that looked like a ledger and let Minako sign another document.
"Thank you very much." he nodded as he took the signed document along with Minako's rent of 25 000 yen. "Is that all?"
"Yes, that will be all, thank you." replied Minako and bowed with Kyouichi to the village chief. "Goodbye."
"Until next time." the elder said his farewell.
The secretary, who was in the office the whole time now stood up from her smaller table in the corner and opened the door for them to see them off and call in the next person in line.
Kyouichi and Minako bowed once more and left the office.
"Well isn't it great, Kyouichi-kun? You even got a part-time job." said Minako with a cheerful voice. "And don't worry about the school. The elementary certificate tests are a piece of cake."
"You know, I'm kind of looking forward to studying at that school…" said Kyouichi as they both left the village hall.
"Well, Kyouichi, do you have any plans for today?"
"Hmm, not really." he shrugged. "Maybe I'll say hello to Naota-san again. Or maybe I'll check out the archives… I don't know."
"It would be better if you had some friends of your age here, but since you're a newcomer you don't know many people around here…" stated Minako.
"Well, the only friends closest to my age so far are Reimu and Marisa."
"Marisa?"
"Yes, Marisa Kirisame. Apparently, she's a good friend of Reimu, but I don't know much else about her besides her name." explained Kyouichi.
Minako was silently thinking for a while. "I think there's a family by the name of Kirisame here in the village, but I'm not sure where they live."
"So Marisa lives in the village?" thought Kyouichi. "If that's so, then Reimu doesn't come here just to shop, but to visit her fiend as well…"
As Minako and Kyouichi were nearing the Drunken Oni, Kyouichi decided to check out the village archive after all.
"Oh, so you'll be visiting Akyuu?" asked Minako. "Okay then, I'll be going back home, because I still have some work to do. If you need anything, you know where to find me."
"Well then, I'll be seeing you, Minako-san." bowed Kyouichi.
"Oh, and please, say hello to Hieda-san for me, ok?"
"Will do." Kyouichi acknowledged and waved his hand as he entered the street where the archive was located.
Before Kyouichi reached the house of Hieda, he stopped by the bookstore, where he was supposed to work from tomorrow on. The bookstore had one large display window filled with some of the best selling books in the village. A wooden sign with the shop's name written both in roman letters and katakana; "Starlight Glyph" was hanging above the door. The shop was closed today, so Kyouichi at least took a look at the books in the window. There were both handwritten and block printed books in the window and some of them were even illustrated with some high quality pictures. His attention however was captivated by one book that had a real photographed picture on its cover. It was a photo of the Ryuuken barracks. Even though Kyouichi barely saw that building himself, the book's title "The Legacy of Ryuuken" suggested that the depicted building is indeed their dojo. He was surprised to see such a book in Gensokyo, but he soon realized that it was only 125 years ago that this area was sealed off. That means they could have at least some basic photographic technology here, since the history of photography dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. When he briefly looked at all the books, he kept on walking to where he planned - the Hieda house.
As he was standing in front of the door he felt a bit nervous, but he gathered his courage and knocked on the door before he entered.