Date: 06/24/23
Weather: Summer Rain. Summer drizzle. Overcast and more Drizzle. More overcast less drizzle. Finally some Sunbreak. A little bit of sun, a little bit of drizzle. Some rainfall here and there.
Dear Diary.
Maybe I should have rationed out my Dandelion roots... I'm good for one more but afterwards, I'll have to reuse the roots but the coffee which will get gradually watered down. On top of that I woke up with a minor issue. Well it wasn't much of an issue, but something that I wanted to fix up. I haven't shaved for eighteen days and my facial hair is starting to show. I wish I could grow a magnificent beard like some of my friends could, at least then it would look real rad. Oh snap, that would have been actually so cool. Since I've sort of gotten into learning actual magic, not the sleight of hand kind; if I could have grown a full beard I could have been a super cool wizard, with an even cooler beard...
Right anyway my coffee ration running low, and my face getting a tad messy with facial hair I had my work cut out for me in the morning. Now that I think about it, I'm surprised that the girls didn't even point that out. Were trying to be courteous? Well my morning rituals had an additional to do of shaving. There was just once minor problem though... I didn't bring a razor or shaving cream... and the closest thing I had were my fixed blade knife and a knife from my multi-tool.
Shaving my face was akin to defusing a bomb. I think using my multi-tool over my fixed blade to shave was a good idea. A smaller and generally sharper blade was easier to manipulate, but even with all the pros, shaving was difficult... I got a couple light cuts here and there, and the shave wasn't even that clean...
Meiling looked pretty worried that my face had cuts and when I told the gatekeeper my shaving misadventure she had a pretty good laugh mentioning that it must be rough for men to cut their face every once in a while in the name of a clean face. The exercise and martial arts picked up the pace even in the cold and rain. Punches, kicks and blocks getting faster and more elaborate. The gatekeeper correcting my forms when ever I was a little bit off. Meiling was getting all sorts of hype. At the end of the session to my surprise, the gatekeeper mentioned that I was almost ready to spar. What with Meiling? Pretty sure she'll wipe the floor with me, but I am happy that she thinks I'm ready.
The babysitting shift was a little bit more slower side. I've been sort of holding back on the book reading session since Flandre was more interested in the outside world however mundane it was. But for the 18th, I caught up on the chapters for the Hobbit. Not going to lie, the little Vampire seemed a little less interested in the story, but was just enough to ask me questions. The questions were a bit... Morbid? Stuff like "Why didn't the good guys just kill the bad guys?" Hearing that out of the blue definitely threw me off and took me a good minute to come up with an answer. In the end I had to explain to the little Vampire that the good guys were fighting an uphill battle where they had to work much harder than the bad guys to win. Flandre seemed satisfied with my answer, but not the Good guys being that strong.
There I learned first hand why Flandre was more or less imprisoned in a basement for five hundred years. Turns out she has the power to just blow up anything she sees into dust. According to the little Vampire and her demonstration quite literally everything has something she calls an 'eye', she can also move the so called 'eye' to her hand and squeeze. When the 'eye' gets squeezed the object that shes targeting gets destroyed. Flandre gave me a startling demonstration on one of her toys. Watching it just exist one second then out of nowhere blowing up into fragments gave me chills. She can do that to anything or anyone... But this begs the question. If she can just blowup everything in sight, how has she not broken out of her room? Is this done by choice? Or was there another factor that limited her options to escape?
On another note I learned that Flandre can clone herself up to three times. So one original vampire and three clones. According to Flandre the clones are strong enough to take on any challenge but isn't as strong as the original. Glad to hear that only the original can just blow up whatever she wants... I need to remind myself that I'm currently at the bottom of the food chain and need to stay on everyone's good side...
Seeing Flandre's destructive powers got me real motivated to learn more about magic. Not to get stronger and beat these girls or anything, but for the sake of my survival. So what magic did I learn? Nothing. The book that Koakuma recommended on the 17th focused more of exploring and discovering the 'inner arcane power' or something like that. Nothing definitive like 'to throw a fireball do this' and more in the lines of 'Open your inner eye and unleash the magic potential' sort of mumbo jumbo. It isn't to say that the book was a load of baloney, it was still a fascinating read. Just reading the stuff felt like my brain was expanding, metaphorically speaking of course. It only took like three quarters of the content of the book to actually get to the practical stuff. Stuff about Magic circles and what not. Those circles in the book went straight into my phone camera so I can practice them in my room if I need to.
Which I absolutely did in my room. According to the book even the slightest mistake on the Magic circles can alter what the outcome would be, but thankfully all the examples were more like a basic enchantment like 'Make object x glow for a set period of time.' That was interesting and all but the one I wanted to actually try was a magic circle that essentially acted as a teleporter sort of thing. 'Two magic circles, one as an entry and one as an exit. Teleport any object that can fit in the entry circle to the exit circle.' I was thinking of making shortcuts through out the mansion but I'm going to need practice first... One thing at a time, first is practicing the 'make object glow' Magic circle playing it safe and all. Also, magic aside I think it'll be wise for me to ask around the mansion of the big colleagues, I'll start with my Boss Izayoi first.
So the 19th was quite the busy day. The rain died down to a drizzle and I had my last of my watered down Dandelion Coffee. I'm going to need more but for the 19th I simply couldn't give myself the time. Quick morning ritual, a real quick practice drawing spell circles, help out the Fairy maids with some minor work chores, and then just enough time to run to the morning exercise with Meiling.
While working on some forms I dropped the question to the gatekeeper regarding her technical boss. For Meiling, the relationship between the Gatekeeper and her technical superior is... Mixed. According to Meiling, Izayoi can be real strict, scolding the gatekeeper even on the slightest slack off, but at the same time Izayoi is kind enough to look out for her subordinate. One of the time was when Meiling was passed out in the scorching summer heat and Izayoi brought her inside so the gatekeeper doesn't suffer heatstroke. The rest of the rest of the exercise was my very first sparring session with Meiling. When it was said and done I was out of breath. Not a single hit connected even with the massive handicap and inevitably Meiling was the victor. Even with the crushing defeat I wasn't bitter or anything. Meiling holding back and encouraging me to take the initiative and go on the offensive, on top of that her morale boost was very much appreciated.
With the morning routine done it was time to start my shift. Grab my lunch, and a cup of plain hot water. And make the descend. The shift with Flandre was fairly ordinary. A chapter covered for the Hobbit. And before I told Flandre another tale from my world, I asked how she felt about Izayoi. Flandre and Izayoi seem to have a sort of a neutral relationship. Izayoi won't go out of her way to get to know about Flandre, but she's willing to humour the little Vampire if shes in the mood. I'm sure Izayoi means well but the lack of interaction is probably not the best for Flandre's mental health.
Now the story that I told Flandre was another camping story, but set in the winter. Another survival exercise where we had to make a shelter in the snow. Seeing Flandre's crystal wings flapping while listening to my story was real cute.
The little Vampire did ask a question that I thought she would ask. "How do you sleep inside a mound of snow? Wouldn't you freeze to death?" I did admit to the little Vampire that I thought like that at first, and explaining that the mound of snow with a hole dug in with a charming name of Quinzhee or the lazy man's igloo being exceptionally warm thanks to the walls of the thick wall of packed snow insulating the interior was a bit more difficult than I'd like. Thankfully Flandre either understood it or just took my word for it.
With the shift done and a quick detour to my room to grab a couple of effects, the library to practice magic was next on the list, granted it was going to be a bit of a shorter visit. The effects that I brought were my small note book and a pen to practice the magic circle drawing. While drawing the magic circle I did ask the Librarian and her assistant on what they thought about Izayoi. The answers were fairly positive. I also learned two other very important information. First was that Patchouli technically outranked Izayoi since the maid did serve the Librarian. Second was a massive discovery. I finally found out how Izayoi's been sneaking up on me this whole time. Turns out that she has a super power. The power to manipulate time. Well it isn't stupid broken like she can rewind time or something. According to Patchouli, Izayoi can greatly slowdown or outright stop time. The time stopping ability does have a time limit though. Still kind of bonkers. All in all I got some decent practice in drawing basic magic circles and learned a valuable lesson on Izayoi.
The day was wrapped up with me doing a solo visit to the lake. Izayoi did spook me good by sneaking up on me, and when she offered to go with me, I respectfully declined. I had another reason for exploring a small portion of the lake. I needed to get some laundry done. This laundry run was unfortunately going to be not as clean as the first run, I ran out of my Saponin filled plants so I was forced to just wash with water. Better than nothing I suppose.
Sweet mother of Gog... The wash was brutal. The chilly air from the drizzle and overcast. And the ice cold water of the lake, I wasn't having fun. The no fun laundry run did take a bit of an interesting turn though. While I was wringing out the excess water from my clothes, I got visited by a stranger. It wasn't that Ice kid from before, this stranger came from the lake itself. A real life mermaid. The girl went by the name Wakasagihime, strange name but I suppose in her point of view my name would be strange. Apparently the mermaid's saw me when I was doing my first laundry run and decided to pay a visit. Though the mermaid was a Youkai she seemed surprisingly pleasant. And from the little mermaid I learned that for the most part Youaki in Gensokyo won't actively do any harm to humans as long as the humans show some respect. Though there will be a few bad apple in the bunch. Eventually I had to part ways with the friendly mermaid since I did eventually finish wringing out my wet clothes I did promise that I'll come visit from time to time. All in all a pretty good day. Hopefully my clothes dry in my room soon.
Its been four days since I've seen the Sun. I'm out of my Dandelion Coffee and everything is cold and at the very least damp... Kind of like my clothes... I mean I've been having a good week and I like the rain, but I also like the Sun. I can sort of see the morale drop just a tad within the mansion too. I wonder when we'll get some sunbreak soon. The low morale seemed to hit Meiling too. The Gatekeeper's usual bright smile isn't as bright. The workout felt a bit slow, the sparring session ending a bit quick. Well that did give me time to ask about the mansion's librarian.
Turns out the relationship between the two isn't the best. Its not like they hate each other, Meiling seems okay with Patchouli but not the other way around. The librarian is a bit condescending towards the poor gatekeeper. I guess even a tight knit community like the Mansion has a little bit of abrasion. Which got me thinking... Does Patchouli feel the same about me? Best not to ask, or think too much about it for that matter.
While the morning routine was a bit on the slower side, the shift with Flandre was pretty the exact opposite to my morning routine. Seeing that little Vampire's smiling face as soon as I open her room door definitely cheered me up. I remember hearing from a few Fairy maids that Flandre was a troubled kid being a bit of a loner or a bit unhinged. There might be some level of truth to that but for the most part I only see a misunderstood kid locked up in a basement. Eating lunch with her, getting my heart tear in two when my question "What did you do today?" was met with "I was waiting for you to come visit." That little response got two story from me.
First was the story of the time when my younger brother and I took the wrong ski lift and landed on top of a mountain peak. Where my mind was conflicted with the absolutely breathtaking view... And the absolute dread of the fact that I had to ski down the entire mountain while I was a sub novice skier. Naturally the little Vampire asked what a Ski and a ski lift was. She seemed a little confused at the fact that humans would strap two thin boards on their feet and slide down a snow covered mountain and or hills. What confused Flandre even more was the fact that humans had make so much effort just to find a bit of excitement in their lives. The second story was one of my very first encounter of the Northern Lights. A cold winter's night, a curtain of green dancing among the sky. Flandre seemed a little down as I finished the story though, the fact that a weak human like myself had the freedom to do these things must have gotten to her.
I tried to get the little vampire distracted by asking what she thought about the resident librarian and it honestly didn't help much. Flandre didn't have much interaction with Patchouli and the few times she did was neutral at best. The little Vampire did perk up a little when I asked about Meiling though. She apparently interacted with Meiling even less than Patchouli but all the interaction she had with the gatekeeper was positive. Maybe I can ask Izayoi if Meiling can visit Flandre from time to time, granted that would leave the gate wide open...
Post shift was another brief trip to the library. First priority was practicing drawing magic circles. Drawing even a basic magic circle was real tough. Oh writing about Magic circles, there's something I neglected to write on my previous entry since I was too excited to do some magic. According to the book that Koakuma recommended, there are many many sub types of magic circles, but when its boiled down the very fundamental magic circles comes in two variety. East and West. Once again, both absolute basic magic circles for both side do nothing, they act as the catalyst or an activator and adding different details are what does the 'Magic' in the magic circle. For example, you can't just boil water and expect to get soup. You need different ingredients like meat, veggies, seasoning, etc. The absolute basic magic circles in the soup analogy is the water while the different ingredients are what actually makes the spells.
So after like an hour or so of magic practice I thought I'd change the pace and bug the librarian regarding how she felt about Meiling. It wasn't really good... Patchouli had a minimal appreciation for Meiling doing her job. She was mostly making complaints that she wasn't doing her job good enough. And made a side comment on how Meiling was a bit of a meathead...
Well Awkward conversation aside I needed some fresh air before I headed off to bed, so off to the lake I went. No mermaid in sight but I did have another encounter... It's the ice kid from before I learned two things from the encounter. First the kid has a name, and according to her it's Cirno. Strange name... Also who named her? Does she have a parent? Did she name herself? Why Cirno? Anyway second thing I learned is her super power is kind of scary. The ice kid's surroundings were starting to freeze, including parts of the lake. She was talking all big, and rightfully so. She could easily turn me into a popcicle so I did what any normal person would do. Accept defeat, immediately leave, and took a warm bath before bed to warm up from the cold. A bit of an underwhelming end to a day but what can I do.
So on the 20th day I learned that there's some level of one sided abrasion within the mansion, mostly Patchouli having a... either a neutral or a tiny bit negative view on her mansion mates. Although I can't fix that specifically I can at least make some of the other folks within the mansion a bit happier and thats with the power of technology. It all happened waking up on the 21st, the third week of landing in Gensokyo to pull a massive prank, with an epiphany. So Meiling and Flandre interacted with each other only a few times at best, but every single interaction was a positive one. Well that was from Flandre's perspective. So what can I do to keep that positive feed back loop going a bit longer? Record videos of Meiling and Flandre with short messages. Basically a face time with extra steps. But first I had see how Meiling felt about the mansion's little Basement Vampire.
Turns out it was pretty good. According to the Gatekeeper she saw Flandre as a little sister and would have loved to just hang out with her more, but can't do that due to... Conflict of obligation? Pretty sure that's the correct phrase. Well after the workout in the gloomy overcast I got to show Meiling what else my phone could do. Surely enough the gatekeeper was absolutely flabbergasted. Seeing herself move in the phone must have been straight magic to her. Which is kind of strange considering the fact that Meiling literally lived in a world where magic existed.
At first the gatekeeper had a hard time coming up with what to say to the little vampire. Eventually she did come up with a basic hello and a "I wish I can see you more." I also had to let the gatekeeper know that at a certain point I would have to delete some of the messages due to storage issue. I half thought Meiling would say something like "What if we put the messages in the mansion we have plenty of space there." I just didn't think she'd actually say something in the lines of that. I guess the idea these videos were going to get digitally trashed was a bit heartbreaking for the gatekeeper, but my options were very limited.
When it was time for me to start my shift there was a bit of tension. Not from the mansion or anything like that, just from me. I got a bit worried how Flandre would react to the video. Would she get overly excited and break the phone? Would she be unsatisfied and break the phone? Would she be neutral to the whole thing and not break the phone but kill the mood? Well she wouldn't be the one killing the mood, it would be my dumb idea. Thankfully I could put that thought to rest when I actually implemented my little video call strat.
I had to implement the whole thing nice and slow, starting off the shift like its another day, then substitute my story time with the video call strat. And I had to give like a million different warnings like telling the little Vampire that the phone was ultra fragile and needed to be handled by the weak hands of the human. Thank goodness I drilled that into Flanre's head otherwise I would have lost a phone. Showing off what it can do was the first step, but for time's sake I skipped the photo feature and immediately went into the video feature. First filming Flandre do a little wave at the camera, then showing it to the little Vampire. As expected I could see Flanre's mind get blown, and I immediately had to calm her down so she doesn't do something reckless. After calming down the little Vampire, I showed Meiling's video. She may or may not have shed like a little tears of joy. Final step was filming Flandre's reply. Dropping this little project out of the blue must have thrown the little Vampire off guard since Flandre didn't have much to say other than a hello and a "I want to see you again Meiling." I think I can safely say that this little face time experiment was a success. I guess this is going to be a thing now.
The library run was a bit uneventful compared to the shift though. Eventful yes, but not AS eventful none the less. My ability to draw shapes to make magic circles gotten much much better. I don't know if that's my new gift of the arcane arts assisting me or just repetition. Regardless I managed to cast my very first spell. Making things glow for like five minutes. As hyped as I was, getting hit by a noticeable headache. Might be a side effect to casting a magic spell for the very first time... Pain aside I'm pretty proud of this achievement.
The solid day that I was having was topped off with chilling with Meiling for a minute on top of a couple other events. Seeing the Gatekeeper watch Flandre's response and get all giddy made me very happy in turn. But the happiness did have to die down a little bit when I suggested that the gatekeeper does the recording in the morning, since I was on a mission. With the weather getting just a little bit better, I decided to make a quick run to forage me up a bit more Dandelions. I honestly didn't have to travel far since even in Gensokyo, Dandelions bloomed a plenty. Unfortunately things got a bit more dicey than I'd like. The Ice kid returned, but this time she had a friend. Green hair in a ponytail with a ribbon, different wings compared to Cirno. The way the friend was more or less always trailing behind the Ice Kid I could tell who wore the metaphorical pants in the relationship.
I honestly thought I was going to turn into a popcicle but things were different this time around. Maybe it was because the Ice Kid's friend was with her, maybe it was because the Ice Kid knew that I wasn't a threat. But unlike the 20th the Ice Kid seemed more docile? Well not exactly docile but more curious on what I was doing. Both Fairies didn't really understand my explanation of foraging flowers for consumption, and eventually flew off. Guess they got bored. I'm just happy that I managed to get enough Dandelions to sate my thirst for more Coffee, though... I wonder if things would have played out differently if the friend wasn't around.
Well its only took five days to see a bit of sun, and boy does it feel good. The warmth, the 'After rain' smell, and on top of it all, the week overall was looking pretty good. I'm working on getting Meiling and Flandre to converse in the more inefficient way possible, I'm finally making some headway in casting magic, and best of all. I have Coffee again. The 22nd day went well too! Busy, but well. I was juggling a ton of stuff. Work out in the morning, recording Meiling's message, and I'm already getting ahead of myself.
With the finally welcomed sunbreak, the workout felt invigorating. The sparring session felt whatever the opposite of sluggish is, and the Gatekeeper looked all happy go lucky. There were times when Meiling cranked up the intensity to a point where I couldn't keep up, and I had to ask nicely to slow down. Maybe it was the combination of the sun and the fact that she was talking to Flandre, maybe they were closer than I thought. For the video message, Meiling rattle on about, what her day was like, how her day was going, and once again, wished that she could see Flandre again, even if it was just for a little bit. On top of both the sparring routine, I continued my little mansion interview. This time it was the mansion's BigBoss, Remilia.
Remilia according to Meiling was enigmatic, charismatic, and had an air of regalia about her from day one. There's a definite chance that the Gatekeeper and I see Remilia very differently. I mean I do see Remilia with an air of charisma and what not... But Personally that charisma feels like a kid is trying to act all charismatic... Maybe back then Remilia acted differently? Hard to say...
So the morning exercise went very well, and the shift went just as well too, maybe a little less well but still real good. Got to say, it was nice having lunch with Flandre and I had my Dandelion coffee with me. First bit was showing Flandre Meiling's message. There was a bit of uncertainty(?) When the message ended the little Vampire got all teary eyed, and that sent me panicking. Frustration. It was Flandre getting frustrated. The fact that she couldn't leave, and the fact that there was someone on the outside that still cared. It took me great effort to calm the upset Flandre down. I thought my spine was going to break when the little Vampire hugged me... A size of a kid and a strength of thousand men. Once again I could see why Remilia decided to lock Flandre up not that I agreed with the idea. The last thing that I did was record Flandre's message. She was still visibly upset but tried to look like everything was alright. I guess my little face time idea had a double edge sword effect...
With the shift done it was time for me to practice more magic in the library, among other things. The practice went alright but not as good as I wanted. The aching back that I got from Flandre did a number on me, but I did managed to replicate the 'make things glow' spell from the 21st day, and with that was another wave of headache, but it wasn't as bad as the one on the 21st. On top of magic practice I also asked the librarian how she felt about Remilia. And surprisingly it was very positive. Patchouli considers Remilia to be a close friend of hers, though I've never actually seen them interact. Maybe those two don't need to share a common interest to be close. So those two events were a bit underwhelming, what happened right after was the exact opposite of a boring event. It felt like it was absolute pandemonium.
The witch in Black and White Marisa payed a visit to the library. Well 'payed a visit' would be pretty generous. She more or less barged in real loud like she owned the place. Naturally the Librarian and even the assistant was visibly annoyed, and I was shook from the abruptly loud entry. I wonder if she does that to every building or place that she visits. Anyway, the Witch went about taking books left right and center. Once again that ticked off the Librarian til she took action. What I saw was essentially a laser light show. Colourful... Bullets? Projectiles? Can they even be classified as bullets? Lets just call it bullets for consistency's sake. Colourful bullets of varying size flying about in every conceivable direction. It didn't travel as fast as a bullet from a gun but it was simply overwhelming due to the sheer number of them... I didn't even notice that I took cover and was peeking every once in a while to see the spectacle. Seeing the two cast magic spells around, weaving through the bullets like its nothing. It was chaotic, wild, confusing, but there was a level of beauty that I didn't expect. Eventually Patchouli took the win, I think a stray fireball nailed the witch dead on, and Marisa left shouting that she'll come play some other time. I think she still stole some of the books... That was a pretty good cue for me to leave as well. I think I heard the Librarian cough up a lung while cursing out Meiling for not doing her job properly. That was one way to end a day...
It was nice to see the sun while it lasted. Another day of overcast and a little bit of drizzle. But the slightly gloomy weather wasn't what was on my mind. The thing that happened on the 22nd... The Witch and the Librarian throwing colourful bullets all over the place. So on the overcast-y day of 23rd was the day where I found out a bit more about what that was all about. Well as much as I wanted to make my little 'bullet throwing spectacle investigation' a primary priority there were other things that I needed to get done first.
Sort of like the morning exercise. Sparring felt a bit underwhelming, well the Gatekeeper still wiped the floor with me, but Meiling was more focused on seeing what Flandre's message rather than the whole exercise bit. The gatekeeper was ecstatic seeing the little vampire telling her highlight of the day which was just her hanging out with me. And I got teased by the gatekeeper that if I kept that going the little Vampire might fall in love with me. I honestly hope that doesn't become the case... If Flandre actually falls in love with me it would greatly complicate well... Everything... And I'd get unjustly put on a list or something. The teasing aside Meiling was happy that her boss' sister was doing well. Meiling's main message to Flandre was to go easy on me so I don't break so quickly. I don't know if that was a jab at me... Putting that aside just as I was going back to get ready for my shift Izayoi paid a visit. She volun-told me to help her with groceries for the 24th and tell her if I needed anything from the village. I personally didn't need food but did need extra clothes.
Well the workout was pretty good but what about the shift? That went pretty good as well. Flandre seeing Meiling's teasing message got her looking real smug. Saying stuff like "Don't worry, out of all my toys you've lasted the longest." I cant tell if thats a compliment or not... That aside I've almost finished reading her the book The Hobbit. It felt like the little Vampire was losing a bit of interest in the fantasy settings. Thankfully I got more than just the books from J.R.R. Tolkien. What she was interested in was more of my adventures. I told Flandre the first time I experienced hail. It was when I was still in grade school, during science class. A sunny days with a hand full of heavy looking clouds in the middle of summer. In a flash I could hear the sound of window getting pelted by something. Naturally I wasn't the only one hearing the sound and everyone's attention was focused on the outside rather than the class. The teacher was chill enough to let the kids just go outside and see what the commotion was about. I remember the hail being the size of a pea. And it didn't really hurt or even last that long. Flandre naturally asked how something cold as ice form and fall during the summer. To that I didn't have the answer. I did promise her that I'll look around in the library and see if there are books on hail. She seemed satisfied with that. Around the end of the shift I got Flandre to record her little message to the Gatekeeper. I honestly didn't expect Flandre to be this theatrical. Replying to Meiling not to worry and she'll be real gentle with me, while hugging me tight out of nowhere. I almost dropped my phone on her head trying to not make a sound from the pain. Getting hugged two days in a row by a kid with a strength of thousand men... I swear it feels like shes going to be the death of me... Well compounding back pain aside the shift went well.
Post shift meant the trip to the library. There were several things I wanted to find out. First was if magic could cure a sore back. The answer according to Koakuma was sort of. A fair amount of magic based healing usually comes with side effects. Maybe it might be a brittle back later on, maybe its complications somewhere else down the line, etc. Which meant that I was just going to have to walk the pain off... Fun... What Koakuma said sort of made sense though. If magic was just a silver bullet for all life's problems, someone like Patchouli wouldn't look so frail. She would have used some magic to make herself physically fit with no ailments, and clearly that's not the case. Second was a promise for Flandre. As expected of the mansion's library there was many books on natural weather phenomena, including hail formations. Long story short Hail is formed when a massive storm cloud keeps a super cooled water droplets from falling down as rain. The droplets then starts to grow in size from being lifted up by the updraft of the cloud and falling down from the weight of the droplets. Start the process you get the blueprint for hail. Repeat the process the size gets bigger. I guess that's why we don't see hailstorm during winter. The water vapour freezes into snow crystal too quickly. Finally the last thing was just practicing magic. I kept it nice and simple by just doing the glow object spell. Another serviceable success, and on top of that I get much headache. It's either I'm getting better at magic or the back pain was just more noticeable than the headache.
The last thing I wanted to ask either the Librarian or her Assistant was what the little duel was about. But I was once again rudely interrupted by the witch... Again. Apparently she was here for a rematch. And just like that I got to experience the spell slinging light show. The two were evenly matched, but the fight this time with the Witch being the victor, winning with a massive laser beam. The way it lit up the entire library like it was a sunny afternoon, I had to look away so I didn't go blind. Before I even got to ask the assistant some question about what the spell slinging was about, I did notice one thing. The only thing that took actual damage seemed to be the spell slingers. Not a single scratch on the library or the books.
So turns out what that was all about was something called a Danmaku Duel and it wasn't exclusive to just magic users. Anyone with powers can fire off Danmaku bullets, and Koakuma was nice enough to give a demonstration. According to the Assistant Danmaku Duels were well... A duel for beings with powers to settle issues, and they came with rules. Danmaku duels are all non-fatal, Dankamu duels sort of puts both party in an equal playing field meaning someone whose objectively stronger will have their powers dampened while the weaker individuals gets a bit of power boost, both duellists can't fire off bullets that either participants can't dodge or 'Graze' through because that would be cheating. This sort of explains how Patchouli won the first duel but lost the second. There was one more thing that Koakuma mentioned. Danmaku duels are sort of the go to during an 'Incident'. Apparently the mansion crew experienced this first hand when they caused an incident in the past, and the incident was resolved by the Witch Marisa and someone else. A Shrine Maiden of the Red and White named Hakurei Reimu. Wait... I was sent here to cause an incident though... I don't know how to fire magic bullets... Is this why Yakumo gave me a year to prepare myself?
So on the 23rd I learned two major things about the Mansion and Gensokyo. First is that Incidents are almost like a necessity in Gensokyo. Second even the mansion partook in causing an incident. So for the 24th day I decided to do a little more investigating on the mansion's incident and a little more about this Danmaku business. But once again, I needed to please my coworkers first.
Meiling was the first and the easiest to please. A good company and an enthusiasm for the martial arts. Oh and now sending messages to Flandre. Thankfully I've gotten half decent at doing all those. A little bit of slow paced stretching here, a faster paced sparring there, chalking up another win for the Gatekeeper, I know it hasn't even been a week since I started sparring with Meiling so I shouldn't be too hard on myself but still, I can't tell just how large the gap is between the two of us. Actually that's half a lie, I know the gap is like heaven and earth. What I don't know is how big that gap of heaven and earth is. I write this because I've learn so much about the gatekeeper and why Remilia hired her.
Turns out that Meiling was a Youkai. She has literal thousands of years worth of martial arts experience on top of super natural physical feats. Could I beat her? Maybe if she had a million handicap. Like tying all her limbs behind her back cover her eyes and ears and lock her in a cage. Even with all that the chance of me beating her would be a closer to a zero percent. Actually, there would be one easier way for me to boost my chance on beating her. A Danmaku duel. Since all 'Power levels' would be equalized. But since I don't know how to throw danmaku bullets I still wont be able to beat the gatekeeper.
Theories aside, post sparring session I did ask whatever questions I wanted about the mansion's history. According to Meiling the incident that the Mansion crew caused was called the 'Scarlet Mist incident.' Remilia covered Gensokyo in a thick red smog causing the locals to freak out. The incident was eventually resolved by the Marisa and Hakurei Reimu. That's the second time I've heard of that name. Second question was regarding Meiling's Danmaku. Seeing the Gatekeeper throw out her own personal bullets were breathtaking even in the overcast-y weather. The shimmering rainbow coloured bullets flying fast and fading away just as quick with a swipe of her hands. The way she mixed her martial arts with Danmaku was a sight to behold. Meiling also demonstrated that she can fire off a different kind of Danmaku as well. A longer range Danmaku that took longer to conjure up. It looked more dense than the short lived rainbow coloured ones, and the colouring didn't have the rainbow trait either, it sort of reminds me of fighting game fireballs. Last on the list with Meiling was watching the message Flandre left her and record her own. At my own expense of almost getting my back broken, Meiling got a pretty good laugh out of the little Vampire's message. Meiling's message to Flandre was actually a bit more supportive towards me with a side of tease. Saying stuff like "Make sure to be a good girl and listen to what your companion has to say. For a human he's not too bad." I've had a pretty good idea that Humans in Gensokyo were sort at the bottom of the pecking order but hearing a full blooded youkai say something like that so casually definitely sealed it. I'm sure Meiling means well though.
Well the gatekeeper's message definitely stuck with the little basement Vampire. Flandre's hugs didn't feel as back breaking as the previous ones, though I was still sore from the previous hugs. The shift went as well as I thought it was going to be, minus the tiny metaphorical curve ball that the little Vampire threw at me. Flandre asked what it was like to have friends, and when I replied with an "I think you already know." while pointing at myself. It was interesting to see Flandre's initial smile from my reply fade into a sad frown. Now I'm no psychic but I could easily guess what she was going to say next. "But you're just another staff that my sister hired. It's your job to like me." It was like reading an open book. Flandre may have lived longer than I have, but technically I have more 'life experiences.'
I got to flex whatever theatrical muscles I had in my body, telling the little Vampire that I was hurt from hearing something like that, and before Flandre could try and retort with "But it's true." I've already had a response ready. Well a question that would definitely make her think. "What about Meiling? She's also a staff here, you've only seen her a few times and you two are pretty close right?" Hook, line and sinker. The perplexed look that the little Vampire gave felt like she was never challenged like this for a very long time.
It took several minutes of thinking before Flandre gave an answer that I was half expecting for her to say. "Well she's a Youkai and you're a human so it's different." I could see where she was coming from, the concept of different species befriending one another must have been a foreign concept. I could tell that it would take some time for Flandre to understand the concept of friendship so I gave her an examples. First was the idea of Humans befriending animals like pets. Even with a language barrier and a species barrier the two can befriend each other. Naturally the little Vampire was puzzled at the idea asking questions like "But if they can't understand each other do they talk to each other?" Honestly trying to explain things like understand things by feeling was difficult. I blame my lack of articulation skills, but I think Flandre sort of got the idea. In the end the little Vampire asked if humans and Youkai can be friends, and naturally I said yes. I was relieved to see Flandre's frown turn upside down which translated well into her message for Meiling, promising the gatekeeper that she'll listen to what I had to say.
So my shift went well but my magic practice had a bit of snags. I have no one to blame but myself With my success with the object glow spell and being mesmerized with Danmaku I thought I'd kick it up a notch and try the teleport spell. Drawing two identical magic circle, put them a fair ways apart, put a single object on either circle, apply a bit of magic, then the object in question teleports to the second circle. That's the theory, but in practice... Well, I almost got kicked out of the library. I think I messed up from step one. I decided to use a small loaf of bread from the dining room for the test, and a single error in the spell circle was more than enough to cause a fire. On the bright side the bread did teleport to the second circle but with in seconds it just combusted. Thank goodness Koakuma was there to help put out the fire and have my back. The Librarian was rightfully upset but did respect my hustle on learning the arcane arts. I think next time I do this I'll get either of them to check my work, also use something that doesn't combust, like a rock or something.
The day ended with Izayoi coming to pick me up to assist her in Grocery shopping and picking up my new clothes. Apparently the maid went to the village on the 23rd to request the same clothes from the tailor. The trek to the village was uneventful which I'm okay with, I did have to deal with an indoor fire right before the trip to the village after all. I could tell that the village was slowing down, closing shop for the evening, but there were still a number of folks here and there, some making last minute shopping like Izayoi and some heading to what looked like restaurants to grab a bite to eat and a drink. The grocery run itself was sort of quiet, Izayoi handing me bags of ingredients to feed the mansion, and me holding on to them without a word. While I was following the head Maid around the village I did feel a little off, like I was being watched by someone from the distance, maybe its my head playing tricks on me... The last stop was my clothes pick up, I could hear the Tailor and the Maid make small talks but honestly I was focused more on the village itself looking around to see if I was going nuts or not, it might be just me.
The trek back to the mansion was just as quiet, well sort of. The sound of frogs, birds and insect chirping away, the gentle breeze and the setting sun reflecting off the clouds into a deep orange. Truly magical. There was one more thing that made the return trip a bit more eventful than the trek to the village. Around half way back Izayoi walking ahead of me gave me a compliment on doing a good job on looking after Flandre, on top of being just a decent colleague in the mansion. As much as I appreciated her compliment the way it sounded felt a bit strange, as if she was having a hard time putting the words together? Maybe its rare for her to give out compliments on a job well done. And just like that, Another week comes to an end... And I'm a week away from being in Gensokyo for a whole month. I learned a lot and it feels like I'm actually carving out a nice little place here in the mansion. Though I can't get too comfortable, I do have a job to do after all.
-R.F.
Author's Note: Well that's the technical end for the June entries since the next will be for the 1st of July. Looking back I think the story is almost incoherent and all over the place. For the future entries I will put more effort into making the entries more coherent. If you have any suggestions or constructive criticism please feel free to let me know. With that said I'll See you on the 1st!