So it was three more days in the village that I taught those school-children basic stances (the forward stance from aikido seems to be the easiest to teach, since the other stances taught to me were more physical and complex to master). I'd barely finished teaching the children (in somewhat less halting Japanese than a few weeks ago) how to strike a stance and perform forward rolls, when I spotted that unmistakable large hat.
"Hey, outsider boy, check your vest pocket," she snickered. I checked as requested, and realized that the pen given to me – yes, that same, expensive-as-hell yet ordinarily-treated Alfred Dunhill – was missing from my pockets. She waved it at me cheekily as she tossed it right back at me.
"I should probably call you 'thieving Marisa', I gather?" I jabbed at her a little.
"Not really, it was just simple time-space magic. Yukari's more capable in time-space stuff than I am. I'm a combat magician, and she sucks at my kind of stuff."
That name seemed familiar, somehow.
"Nya, it's the woman Suika was screaming her ass off to the other time, remember?"
Oh, right.
"Anyway, one of the rabbits is in town for an errand now, last I checked, ze."
"Which means what, exactly?"
"If we could just coerce the rabbit into smuggling us into Eientei…"
The thought of coercion made me feel like a criminal, but since there is no police to nab me around these parts, I didn't hesitate.
"When do we go… accost this rabbit?"
""""""
It never ceases to amaze me that in this world at least, humans and youkai can conduct free trade the way they do in Gensokyo. Since the skin color of the humans were mostly the same – come to think of it, I haven't seen a single white human folk the entire time – that did draw a weird parallel of racial harmony… except, this "racial" thingy was quite literal, species to species rather than between homo sapiens.
So it didn't surprise me anymore to see a humanoid bunny girl sporting floppy ears and wearing a simple purple one-piece, buying essential stuffs at Kirisame's sundries, without anyone batting much of an eye on her.
Looks like Miss Keine's vision from Mockingbird is taking off pretty well.
"There we go, the bunny girl. Let's trail her, ze."
"Aight."
The bunny girl packed her purchases, and then – as expected of a bunny – hopped and covering large strides on her hinds, the extra length of her feet somehow disguised by the length of her dress. I controlled my sprinting – and thus tendencies to clang into such things as a billboard – by leaping and sprinting to the top of all the village buildings, shadowing the rabbit from overhead to avoid the obstacles below, while Marisa did likewise and flew on her broom – did I mention that was near-stereotypical witch behavior? – And soon we found ourselves at the outskirts of town, where a horse carriage awaited the bunny girl.
Before the horse could giddy up, I threw myself right in front of the carriage to stop it…
…While Marisa, of all inexplicable things to accomplish a mission, crashed herself – body and broom as one – into the back of the carriage, causing said bunny girl and her horse handler companion to tumble out of the carriage comically due to the nerve-shaking jolt.
As the poor rabbits returned to their senses, they began shrieking at their loudest. I swear to the gods, I've never had to hide myself in utter embarrassment for this, but the more important thing is to now pacify a pair of surprised rabbits before we're wanted for disturbing the peace or something!
""""""
"So… so you… outsider human, want to see Yagakoro-sama?"
"Yes. Stop shaking, we don't mean to harm you."
"Really?"
Yes, really. Stop questioning me, half-ghost.
Poor bunny girl, she's totally taken by surprise by Marisa's antics. I could only frown, slightly bemused by the spectacle and the large, gaping hole at the back of the horse carriage.
"Talk about a grand entrance, Miss Kirisame," I joked.
"Well, I didn't know you'll throw yourself in front, so I jacked myself into the horse's back, ze!"
I didn't know how to respond to that, except by furiously tapping my head with my index. At the very least, she didn't go crazy enough to rip through the carriage, which was a good thing – I don't want to have to pay more reparations before I could actually earn anything substantial around these parts.
While handling the bunnies' scratches, I had a fleeting thought – once I get this settled, maybe I could find myself a job as a cross-world trader or something. I know there's quite some money to be made in this trade – all that's required is an opportunity.
"Miss… umm, what's your name, girl?" I swear, my Japanese is shaking less than the bunny girl now.
"Me? My name's… Udongein Nina. In front is my sister, Usami."
Interesting surname, I thought. "Alright, um, Nina, can you lead us there now? I need to see your legendary… uh … medicine lady urgently for personal matters; I'm an acquaintance to Suika the oni and the other shrine maiden."
"Shrine maiden?"
"To be exact, I'm referring to the one who wears white and red."
"Oh, it's the Hakurei's shrine maiden. Usami, let's go now."
"With these people in tow? You sure that's alright, Nina?"
"I…well, I think it's okay! They are friends to the red-white Shrine Maiden! I recognize that witch girl, too."
I could hear "aka-shiro (red-white)" distinctly, and for unknown reasons I found myself having to stifle my laughter in the jerking motions of the carriage.
"What's the matter with you?" Marisa raised an eyebrow at me, not sure what the funny was about.
"Ah, ha, it's nothing," I reassured Marisa. "I just suddenly found aka-shiro funny. When you guys talk to me, you also refer to that shrine girl as red-white. What's the deal with that?"
"Well, that's obvious isn't it, ze? That shrine maiden simply refuses to wear anything other than her standard red-white, and will only wear white-black when required to perform funerals. Over time, any youkai and human close to her – like myself, we've been friends for at least ten years – we call her red-white, ze."
"A shrine maiden's life is pretty sad, then," I remarked, remembering what Suika told me about a certain Mima killing everyone in that shrine, save for that shrine maiden.
"Well…" Marisa paused, presumably thinking about her own past which Suika told me about, "I do notice she's usually at her happiest and most active during, and the week immediately after incident resolutions. Although she claims to be lazy, I suspect she's just extremely lonely; there's nothing in here to excite her other than these incidents. Even I fail to understand her motives at times, and I thought I was the most clairvoyant and mysterious woman, ze."
"Is that so…" I intentionally dragged the 'so', not really taking the witch too seriously on her last statement.
"Oh, right, I forgot to ask – did you tell Keine you're coming out, ze?"
I thought for a bit, then realized I had completely forgotten to tell Keine about this. I remembered still having more lessons to teach that same afternoon.
"Oh, damn! What am I gonna do?"
Marisa smirked, packing me into the carriage. "Well, she could do with one less teacher! Let's go already!"
""""""
It took an entire afternoon for the horse carriage to tumble its way down a forest full of bamboo trees. If there were more fauna around these parts, perhaps the pandas would have already settled here – this is like heaven to them, given the sheer volume of bamboo.
"We have had black-and-white bears in these parts way before the sealing of the Hakurei Border, but I wonder where the bears have gone to," sighed Usami. "They used to help us control the number of bamboo trees in this forest but lately, Kaguya-sama kept asking us to chop down the bamboos because they're blocking our entrance in and out."
So perhaps this was a panda paradise. While thinking of the possible reasons any sane panda would've left a paradise, the horse carriage giddied to a stop.
"Welcome to Eientei," smiled Nina. "People, we have guests!"
A moment later, (yet another) girl, this time dressed in one of those traditional garbs that looked a bit more regal than those the Child of Miare wore, emerged from one of the side hall areas.
"Guests, you say, Nina?"
"Yes, Kaguya-sama, an outsider human and Miss Witch!"
"Outsider humans… what are they here for anyway. No bother – it's been a while Marisa," greeted Kaguya casually as Marisa smirked in response. "This is…?"
"Evening, my name is Pasonia Seltia Keros. I have a possible other name of Konpaku Yuuji."
"I thought you looked somewhat familiar. You seem like a direct relative of that half-ghost girl Youmu, from the Netherworld."
"Yes, it would certain seem to be so –"even though, in all honesty, I've never met this Youmu before – "Ma'am, pardon me but your name is?"
"I am Kaguya, of the royal Houraisan-of-the-Moon lineage. You may address me as Princess Kaguya if you'd like, or Kaguya if you just want to be friends with me."
I could only smile in response at such casualness – I don't know what these women think anyway beneath all those niceties. "May I speak to this medicine lady? I need her for an urgent matter."
Kaguya stared blankly at me, and I could tell nobody has spoken to her about me in full length. Perhaps that oni lied.
"Eirin! Did you have appointments today? There seems to be an outsider human patient!"
"No, Princess, I don't have appointments!"
"The medicine lady says you have no appointment with us."
"Hey, I could hear that, Nya!"
Those were my sentiments, too.
Marisa, sensing the same as I did, quickly stepped up and gave a quick explanation of the situation. After a minute, the Princess finally got it.
"Oh, so you're here looking for the Medicine of Languages! Eirin, can you give me a vial of the language meds?"
"I ran out of stock, ma'am! And why are you communicating to me in that New England tongue?"
"Because we have an English-speaking visitor, that's why!"
"…an English-speaking visitor?"
Moments later, a lady dressed in a blue-red checkered combo and a blue cap with the universal red cross emerged from the room. From her gait it was obvious she was walking towards me.
"Are you Mister Konpaku? I recall the oni came here looking for me several days ago about your problem."
"That'd be Suika, Miss…?"
"Eirin. Yagakoro Eirin. I don't really bother how you address me. Anyway, yes, that was the oni that came looking for me about three, four days ago."
I didn't really know how to respond to that. Memories of that splash act on her came streaming back, and I shuddered. I didn't know if it was out of guilt or something.
"…what's the matter, Pasonia? Ze, you look kind of guilty of something."
"Me? Guilty? Who ya kiddin'? I'm just a bit tired, Miss Kirisame. Miss Yagakoro, um, you don't have any more medicine for languages?"
"Sorry, not at all."
"… But I thought the oni asked you?" I felt my heart drop below my willy.
"And… so? Does that overbearing oni expect me to do things just because she asks me to? I've got my experiments to conduct as well, and you lot are in my way. Tell you what, help out here and I'll consider about the meds later, but I ain't gonna give ya any guarantees."
With that, the medicine lady retreated back to the inside of the residence, slamming the wooden door hard.
"Well, I apologise for her rude attitude," the princess smiled awkwardly. "You came in at a time when an experiment of hers went wrong. Maybe you'll like to take up residence? Eientei doesn't usually get visitors in such a… unique manner."
Right after that was said, the horse carriage behind us collapsed in a rather spectacular fashion, sending the two bunny girls running after the alarmed horsies. All I could do was laugh nervously.
"So much for trying to get things done ASAP," I droned.
"Well, that's as far as I'll help then, ze," blurted Marisa. I struggled to remember something I was meant to tell Marisa, and then remembered it before she got on her broom.
"Er, yea, hey, Miss Kirisame! I got something to tell ya."
"You like me?" She smirked, obviously kidding.
"Nah, I already have someone else, but more than that – one fine day your dad told me he's lookin' for you. He told me that the day after he fixed my foot."
Marisa paused for a moment, saying "I'll give that a thought" before finally taking off into the evening sky on her broom.
""""""
Taking up residence in this household reeks of that nagging but warm feeling of familiarity, somehow. On the outside this Eientei seemed like your typical household, but the innards of this household is actually quite techie with something that I couldn't quite put my descriptive powers to – something beyond LCD. With bunny-like creatures springing about doing their household chores, I had the privilege of speaking to the lady of the house.
From initial observation it seems she is quite interested in the outside world, too.
"So, I see, you came from the United States. Last I've been there was for a little sojourn around the time of Kennedy, before I moved here," spoke the lady.
"I see. But, if you do have connections to the outside world, why then…"
"It's because Gensokyo as it is, is now the only safe haven for Lunarians like me. In fact, the whole house here is updated and privy to the outside world, only because it is actually uplinked to the moon, and then we get our downlinks back to earth via tapping into their satellites…"
I could only smile wryly. "I lost you there, Miss Kaguya."
"Oh, sorry. Hmm, I guess an easier way to put it is that ever since the Internet was invented, Eientei has ceased its existence in the outside world. It's an amazing past 40 years that I'm isolated in here, I guess."
"Ah, I see. Well, I'm sorry to say that the United States post-Kennedy is nothing short of epic failure."
"I do get that sentiment from the outside world network forums I read, but you're the first person I've ever seen to explicitly mouth it out."
"Well, I have my reasons," I blurted, feeling a bit queasy about it. I hadn't told her the entire truth about being wanted by Interpol and all, but I guess with technology this advanced it's only a matter of time the lady finds out anyway… if she wants to.
"I'll try to get Eirin to push the medicines out asap, I understand you need to speak to the Princess of the Netherworld 'coz the oni said as much. In the meantime, if you want to pass your time I guess you can use my terminal."
"What's a terminal, Miss Kaguya?"
"It's what you refer to as a Personal Computer, a P.C."
"Oh, right. But won't it be different?"
"It wouldn't be. Lunarian terminals can interface with any existing technology and can even emulate existing human operating systems at 100% compatibility rate."
"Sorry, I lost you again."
"Meaning you're right at home even if you're using my terminal. If you know how to use a P.C., that's how it's gonna feel like to you."
"Excellent news! I won't stand on ceremony then," I know I broke out into the widest grin I had for the longest time. Finally, a golden chance to leave a message to the people outside of Gensokyo and clear my name – and just a day ago I thought that was nigh impossible!
Talk about a convenient plot device, though.
""""""
"Okay, this is shaping up to be pretty bad," I mumbled, trying for the umpteenth time to log into my email account. "I don't know what the heck's going on, but I can't access my own email right now."
I should have guessed it coming. Whoever's gonna set me up to take the damn fall would've also taken everything that belongs to me. I just hope my gal is fine in L.A.
"It seems like you have a problem with the terminal, Mister Keros?"
It was the self-proclaimed Moon Princess, now dressed in a rather intricately patterned pink garb that gave off the same vibe of regal grandeur as was the case at that Child of Miare's residence.
"Ah, Miss Kaguya… umm, I'm not sure you can fix a problem of accessing emails?"
Kaguya chortled slightly. "Email… we had this TechPost tech that was phased out a few decades ago, and this email thing does look remarkably similar to TechPost. But if it's an account-access problem, then I don't know what's going on… What's the matter?"
"Well, it seems that either the network to my own inbox is faulty, or someone stole my account. I can't access my email now."
The Princess frowned slightly. "This terminal, as far as I know, doesn't disconnect from any terminal as long as that terminal exists on a network, even if it's powered off. Do you need someone to help you retrieve messages stored inside?"
"Well, if it isn't too much trouble…"
As had already been the modus operanti from previously, I don't want to overstay my welcome.
"How about this, Miss Kaguya – I work in the household in any posting you want to? I don't feel so good overstaying my welcome at all."
"No, it's fine really…"
"I insist, Miss Kaguya! I'm not a leech and I will do anything I can, in terms of labor, to justify getting assistance from anybody."
She replied my insistence with a little chortle; understandably, maybe she's carefree about things like that and might even find me a bother for asking.
But, for me, I sure ain't gonna wait for something to happen before lamenting.
"Okay, well, I'll get Usami to find you something you can do. In return, I'll help you however I can with your little P.C. problem."
"Much appreciated, Miss Kaguya! Thank you!" I tried to sound as cheerful as I can, but somehow, out of my slightly gruffy voice it's hard to make myself sound sincere and cheerful.
"Cut the pretence," she mocked, patting my shoulder. "Just kidding, aight? We Lunarians are just good at reading Earth humans' emotions, to the point of clairvoyance. I don't know what's stressing you out so much, but – relax! Why so serious?"
I swore I heard someone say that last line not so long ago. Was it The Joker?
""""""
The other side of the building, I swore at first sight, is a freakin' factory… of something. Girls with bunny ears almost seemed lined up, working on a conveyor belt that carried this mysteriously, green-light-emanating shiny stuff from within the forest.
"What the heck's this?" I queried aloud.
"This is the machine we use to pick Lunarian ether," explained Usami. "We use this to power the house's facilities and supply Eirin-sama with materials for her medicines."
"Hey," I blurted, noticing some bunnies had upright ears while others had droopy ones, "how come some of you bunnies have different ears?"
"Pointed ear bunnies like us both, came from the moon," Nina blurted. "We are servants to the Lunarians for as long as I can remember. The earth bunnies, however, are self-developed youkai who've gained human enlightenment. Too bad, though… Reisen-sama and Tei-sama are away. They might be able to give you more on the core differences."
"Let me guess – they're your bosses, and they're really powerful bunnies?"
The two bunnies stared at me wide-eyed. "How'd you know?"
"Nya, you did it aga – "
I know. Don't remind me. I seem to have a knack for guesswork anyway.
"Sheer guesswork," I reassured them – and myself, since I am not entirely convinced that I'm a subconscious clairvoyant. "Now, can you explain what the bunnies are doing?"
"They're using their breath to activate the ether. Somehow, only bunny-breath seems to be able to activate the ether. In any case, we have a central storage – "
"Usami! It's good to see you here! We have a problem at storage area!" A bunny came bouncing towards us, clearly antsy and worried.
"What happened?"
"Mizuna sprained her back after colliding with Chisa. We're short of bunnies to carry the ether boxes…"
Usami swung her head at the bunny speaking, and I nodded in response, to which her entire face lit up. As I was pushed by a bunch of excited bunnies through the bamboo forest, I thought: That's the only thing I'm good at for now, anyway. Odd jobs beat slackin' off without doing nothin'.
This work, in comparison almost feels like I'm back in my old element. At least, that's the only thing I could try to convince myself to, for now.
I hope this ends soon.