Chapter 7: The Dreamer from the Outside World
The next morning, Tenshi took her keystone across the skies of Gensokyo on her way to the Human Village. Tapping her fingers on her crossed arms, she murmured "Kokoro better have some idea where we're going today" before descending to the edge of the village, not taking care to alert the humans of her presence and causing some mild panic for the time being. Kokoro was thankfully waiting for her, preventing things from getting any worse.
"…Tenshi, you shouldn't have flown down." Kokoro noted while glancing back into the village, and Tenshi patted her on the shoulder before replying with a slightly pompous smile "Oh it'll be fine. So you ready to do that silly 'charity work' stuff?" Kokoro frowned a tiny bit and then looked over her shoulder, right into Tenshi's eyes.
"Tenshi…Please take this a little seriously. It's mostly for your benefit." Tenshi then laid her hands behind her head and asked "You haven't even told me WHO we're going to see today. That would reeeeeeeally help Kokoro." Kokoro's reply was to shake her head and remain silent.
"Aye, seriously? Well, then lets not waste any time here, take me to whoever you want me to 'apologize' to." Tenshi made air quotes at the end and then went back into the air with her keystone after Kokoro nodded her head. But Kokoro quickly grabbed Tenshi's left hand and gave it a light tug, much to her puzzlement.
"No more panic in the village please." She begged, with Tenshi sighing before she leaped off the keystone and buried it into the ground. Then the two started to make their way through the forest, with Tenshi saying in a lightly irritated manner "Kokoro seriously, you can at least tell me our destination. I really hope you aren't stalling because you don't know where to go."
"We're going to the Bamboo Forest. I don't want the person we're helping to be scared off by your presence." Kokoro's swift answer led to Tenshi grinning a little before she said "Well ok, that's not too bad. Ummmm, now what was in the Bamboo Forest again?"
Tenshi held her arms behind her head and tried her hardest to remember just who she affected with Kokoro's powers. Her mind was filled with nothing but silhouettes save for people like Byakuren and Miko, but the one silhouette that struck Tenshi in particular was of a person with roaring flames around their body that was in the middle of the Bamboo Forest. Tenshi then widened her eyes and started erupting into laughter.
"Oh I remember that person! Hahaha! Oh this ought to be a lot of fun!" As Tenshi spoke with the utmost glee, Kokoro rested a hand on her forehead and let out a sigh, thinking to herself "Maybe I should have started with someone else." Even with her concerns though, Kokoro wanted to put all her faith into Tenshi making things right, even with her roguish personality.
It didn't take long to get out of this forest and end up on the dirt path dividing that and the forest of bamboo shoots. As they go into the next forest, Tenshi asks "Say, did you even eat anything this morning?" Kokoro looked back and nodded her head lightly, but then she let out a light cough that left some slight pain in her chest.
"Well it seems what you DIDN'T do is get some water like I told you to Kokoro. Come on, listen to your big sis every now and then, I'm not going to cause YOU any trouble." Tenshi said while gesturing outward, and with a lightly distressed look Kokoro whispered to herself "I don't think something's stuck in my throat."
"What was that?"
"Nothing…Nothing Tenshi, lets keep going." Kokoro quickly looked ahead and kept walking, but Tenshi wasn't having that answer and told her "You aren't good at hiding stuff Kokoro. If that cough is hurting you, then you REALLY shouldn't be out today."
"I'm FINE!" Kokoro firmly planted a foot on the ground and clenched her fists, her voice expressing actual anger. Tenshi froze up for a bit and as Kokoro glared back at her she grimaced and said "Kokoro you just don't want to get sick. Last thing you'd want is to spread another disease across Gensokyo."
Kokoro slowly turned her head back and tried to relax herself, even if she knew what Tenshi was getting at. But she calmly argued "I'm a Youkai…I don't get sick, at least not like others do. A cough is nothing to worry about Tenshi."
"Guess I wouldn't know that. But I'm serious anyways, don't push yourself…Last thing I want to do is tell those two that you got sick on my watch." Tenshi said while thinking of Byakuren planting a fist deep into her gut and shivering. Kokoro, however, closed her eyes and thought of what her parents would do were she to get sick, and Byakuren coddling her for warmth and Miko providing hundreds of different medicines concocted by her ancient wisdom were the two biggest things that stuck to her mind.
"…But I have to take care of myself, I can't rely on them forever." Kokoro snapped those images out of her mind and kept moving through the forest with Tenshi behind her, eventually hearing a couple voices murmuring in the distance. Kokoro held her arm out to make Tenshi pause, and then they slowly crept closer to the voices while avoiding the leaves on the ground so they don't startle the beings.
This leads to them standing behind a thicket of bamboo shoots and peering into a secluded part of the forest, where they find two people sitting on a large rock. One was a pale skinned girl with very long nearly white colored hair and paper talismans for hair ribbons. She wore a discolored brown t-shirt and dark red overalls covered in more talismans, with her eyes being unnaturally red. The second girl looked strange by Gensokyo's standards, as she had a more "normal" outfit of a purple plaid skirt and matching sleeveless top, complete with long-sleeved white blouse, a black bolo tie, and white bowed socks and black shoes. Her hair and eyes were brown, with a black hat and red framed glasses finishing her ensemble.
At the moment, the strange looking girl held an equally bizarre black rectangle with an orange hexagram on the back, pointing at it as the red-eyed immortal known as Fujiwara no Mokou looked on with a placid grin of intrigue on her face. Mokou nodded a couple times and then was allowed to hold the rectangle in her right hand, with her commenting in a puzzled tone "So you just tap this 'icon' and you can play a game?"
"After giving up a proper amount of yen to the greedy corporations, yeah. Anything you recognize on there Mokou?" The girl said in a chipper tone, though not before she was a bit condescending towards the prior mentioned corporations. Mokou glanced over the odd device and commented in a humored tone "Three things are eternal in this world it seems…Me, Kaguya, and card games."
"No joke. There's even card games where you throw monsters down onto a playing field and use magic and traps to get the advantage over your opponent until they lose all their life points." The girl said with rather nonchalance in her tone considering the grandeur of what she spoke of, to which Mokou thus replied "Duels with magic, cards and monsters? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were speaking of danmaku. To think the outside world has developed such a spectacle on their own."
"Pffft, yeah right. You won't get any spectacle unless you watch that anime they made on the card game. I could always download an episode or two to watch on the tablet if for whatever reason you're interested." The girl said with a shrug, but Mokou handed the device back and said "Actually sure, it'd be nice to see what the outside world considers entertainment these days" much to the girl's surprise.
"W-Well I could always wake up and come right back with them, cause thank god it's a weekend." The girl commented, and Mokou put her hands into her pockets and shrugged "If you want, but I can wait if you'd like to just keep talking." The girl kept herself planted on the rock and after a bright smile the two kept talking, still unaware of Tenshi and Kokoro observing them.
"Figures the immortal looks no different, but who the hell's that other girl?" Tenshi whispered bluntly, but Kokoro was currently glaring at that person with some blue spiritual fire around her. After a few seconds she murmured "Nemesis Two…" with Tenshi looking at her with a puzzled glance.
"Whoa now, a second Nemesis? Who would be the-" The image of a green-haired girl popped into Tenshi's mind for a moment and she quickly continued "Oh right, her. So what, this odd-looking girl did something terrible to you?"
"She…She caused an incident not long ago, and because of her I was almost fully possessed by an Urban Legend. I think I fought her, but I don't remember much of that…Just a lot of tall towers with bright lights and some noises I've never heard before." Kokoro commented, and Tenshi's interest was raised as she then asked "Well ok, but what about this girl's name?"
"…Sumireko…That's the most I can remember of her." Kokoro said while grimacing to recall, and Tenshi looked at the girl and commented "Looking at her, she reminds me a bit of that shrine maiden on the mountain we had go crazy. That strange demon square of hers is really interesting too. Hehehe, maybe this will be a lot more fun after all."
"Tenshi, stay focused, we can't…" Kokoro was stopped from finishing her sentence by an untimely cough, which she couldn't control the volume of and thus caused Mokou and Sumireko to look their way finally. Tenshi, at the risk of getting infected, laid a hand on Kokoro's mouth to stop the noise, but it was too late. Mokou raised an eyebrow and casually snapped her fingers out in front of her body, a spark of flame igniting a couple bamboo shoots and making them burn down to ash and revealing Tenshi and Kokoro's odd position.
Kokoro's mask of surprise appeared beside her face as Sumireko glanced her way and grimaced in such a way that her glasses slipped down her face, while Mokou's glance made Tenshi grin and casually wave her free hand that way.
"You…I remember you. The Celestial that buried me under a mountain of rocks." Mokou said with a light smirk as she held her hands out and created small embers in the palms, and Kokoro quickly pushed Tenshi's hand away so she could lavishly hold a hand out towards Sumireko while stating firmly "Nemesis Two!"
"N-Nemesis? Wait, hold up, what's going on here?!" Sumireko became flustered with shock and looked to Mokou for answers, and the immortal grinned as she leaped off the rock and explained "Don't worry about it, I'll just be turning this Celestial to ash and then we can get back to talking. Menreiki, you don't have to have your powers abused by this nut job anymore, so just run before you're in the crossfire."
Mokou displayed her powers by creating magnificently towering pillars of fire in her hands that ruffled her hair with the blaze of hot winds it released, but upon hearing the immortal out Kokoro stopped her focus on Sumireko and remembered what she came here for in the first place. Looking at Mokou as best as she could with the flames in the way, Kokoro said "Ummm, I'm sorry, but Tenshi isn't manipulating me anymore."
"Huh?" Mokou dialed back her flames a bit so she could hear Kokoro out, but was left confused by what she heard. Kokoro then glanced at Tenshi, giving her a couple nudges with the side of her head before the Celestial got the hint. Looking away, Tenshi puts her hands behind her head and said "Yeah yeah, I'm here to a-a-apolog-g-giz-e-e…" straining herself in the process with her expression convulsion in different bizarre ways. Sumireko meanwhile cracked a forced grin and was halfway-tempted to get out of the area.
"What have I got myself involved in…?" She murmured while Mokou clenched her hands to stop her flames and remarked "You're kidding right? Last I heard you aren't the guilt-feeling type. Why should I believe you right now?" While still having her hands behind her head, Tenshi glanced down at Kokoro and then subtly nudged that way a couple times, and thankfully Mokou is able to pick up on that.
"Ah, so that's it. Hmph, well what do you have in mind for apologizing to me?" Mokou inquired and eased up enough to put her hands into her pockets, and after a slight flinch Tenshi looked to the menreiki and whispered "Kokoro, what exactly was your plan here?"
"Your on your own Tenshi, I'm just here to make sure you go through with it." Kokoro commented, and that basically cut Tenshi off of all other options. To make things up to Mokou, Tenshi would have to reach deep, DEEP into her heart to find the compassion necessary to-
"Hey, do you know what'd make a good apology, firebird?" -Or Tenshi could just rely on Mokou to do the job for her, that's fine too. Needless to say, Kokoro sighed and smacked her forehead, again questioning if she should've tried someone else first. Nevertheless, Mokou stared blankly at Tenshi for only a little bit before lifting her head up with a grin and saying "Alright, you know what? Lets have a spell card duel, just like before. This time I'm feeling more level-headed, so do you think your odds of winning will be as good as before?"
"Hah, I guess all disputes do end up being solved with danmaku here! Fine, if that's all, I'm game!" Tenshi spins her hand around and draws her Hisou no Tsurugi, poking the ground to make a keystone rise up under her feet. Kokoro let out a more audible sigh and commented while stepping aside "I guess whatever works Tenshi, please don't bury her under stones again though."
"Don't worry about it, I'll be done in a few minutes!" Tenshi said while brushing her finger under her nose, but Mokou smirks before glancing back at the bewildered Sumireko and saying "I'll be back in a blink of an eye, you don't have to stick around if you don't want to get in the crossfire Sumi." Mokou then bent down and kicked off the ground with a burst of fire from her feet to get into the air with Tenshi.
"Oh no big deal, just leave me alone with the freaky masked You-" Sumireko looks ahead and sees Kokoro standing directly in front of her, which causes her to scuttle back on the rock while screeching "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiii!" Her glasses fell off her face, and she scrambled to keep them from hitting the ground. After putting them on her face she looked at Kokoro's now tilted head, and again the menreiki holds her hand out dramatically.
"Nemesis two, you and I shall settle our differences here and now!" Kokoro proclaimed while her mask levitated in front of her face, and Sumireko blankly stared at her and said "N-Nemesis? What did I even do to you?!"
"Your incident almost got me possessed by an Urban Legend. My body is my own temple, it shall not be inhabited by any outside force!" Kokoro explained with a little more volume in her voice. Sumireko just blinked a couple times and said "Wait huh? How the hell did that even happen? Look youkai, I didn't know that was even POSSIBLE. Can't you just let it go? Even though you probably can't, I don't want a fight."
"What do you mean by that?" Kokoro said while tilting her head aside, and then she summoned a fan into her hand and tapped the side of Sumireko's head. Nothing happened, causing Sumireko to nervously grin and say "O-Oh right…Stupid dream mechanics. Look, if you attacked me now it'd really affect me in real life, and I don't want to explain to the plebians how I got attacked in my dreams."
"Hrrrrrmmm…" Kokoro thought things over for a bit while holding the fan at the side of Sumireko's head, noticing the light sweat forming on her head. Kokoro pulls back her arm and dispels the fan, commenting lightly "I won't hold a grudge…But don't cause trouble again, please."
"Ugh, after what all of you Youkai did? I don't want any part of that 'incident' insanity again. I'd rather just try and get to know Gensokyo and all of it's mystical wonders." Sumireko said with some light groans, and Kokoro tilted her head a little and asked "And that's why you talk with Mokou?"
"Well not to brag, but we're pretty close friends." Sumireko smugly said while rubbing her knuckles against her chest, and after thinking about the way the two were talking Kokoro nodded her head and then slowly climbed up onto the rock to sit beside the strange girl. As Sumireko gives her an odd glare, but Kokoro was too busy looking at the middle of Mokou and Tenshi's bullet filled duel to notice.
"So what's your deal? You never keep the same mask near you." Sumireko got Kokoro's attention with that, and the menreiki replied "I am a tsukumogami of 66 masks. My name is Hata no Kokoro." Sumireko nodded her head a couple times then pulled up her tablet, tapping a finger across the screen while Kokoro leans over to see what she was putting onto it. There was a list of names filed under three categories of "Like", "Neutral" and "Wary Off". For the moment, Kokoro was listed as "Neutral" while familiar names like Reimu and Mokou were under "Like" and Kokoro couldn't quite recognize the names of those in "Wary Off" save for Rinnosuke.
When Sumireko notices her peeping, she hides the tablet out of sight and Kokoro pulls back. After a few seconds of being wary, the girl puts the tablet down on her lap and says "Well now I know your name and you know my name from before. What do you want to do now?" Kokoro looked away and laid a finger on her right cheek to consider what she could do. She hadn't really planned to get into a conversation with this strange girl…
"You know, at least it's nice to know you Youkais won't suddenly pull out a phone and start texting in it. There's something really nice about this place's combined simplicity and complicity." Sumireko wasted no time waiting for Kokoro and started a conversation herself, though the menreiki let out a sigh of relief since she didn't have to think about things now. However, Sumireko then accidentally smacked Kokoro in the face while swinging her arms out fantastically.
"The place looks simple, but the magic, the Youkai, the environments…! They are all so wondrous and free! Here, the struggles of reality are transcended, the cliques and crowds are almost nonexistent, it's a fantasy that has perfected reality!" Sumireko's behavior made Kokoro tilt her head and hum a little.
"Sumireko, do you hate your world?" She inquired, and the girl glanced aside and replied softly "Sort of, yeah. It's noisy, no one really listens because their faces are stuffed into the phones they carry, and technology basically runs everyone's lives."
"I'm…sorry to hear that." Kokoro said with as much sympathy she could muster, but Sumireko just swung her hand down and after standing up on the rock with arms folded she proclaimed "Ha, but someday the world will realize my brilliance and knowledge of the arcane and fantastical. Then they'll recognize how foolish they were to misjudge me!" Sumireko then started laughing out loud, though Kokoro just tilted her head further and felt unable to comprehend any of that.
"I wouldn't want to have lots of people know about Gensokyo. What makes this place magical is how few people are actually in here. Because of that, it's been easier to form bonds, or to correct mistakes that we might have made. If those lights and towers in your world represent the amount of people out there, then I'd be frightened if that many of them came here, and I couldn't imagine how the other Youkai would react." Kokoro made her point with the most her little young mind could come up with, and after a few seconds of blinking Sumireko sat herself down.
"Well I guess not all Youkai are easy to get along with. Wouldn't want to be known as the person who caused mass murder by opening the way to a realm of rabid beasts. But there has to be some way to show the world the truth without ruining the majesty of Gensokyo." She admitted.
"You should just keep that knowledge to yourself and pass it down to future generations." Kokoro suggested with a little uncertainty.
"Hahahaha…! So I'd be a granny telling the whippersnappers of my tales? Like that would ever happen." Sumireko said while resting some fingers on her forehead and letting out slightly unhinged laughter.
Suddenly, Tenshi drops out of the sky, landing flat on her back with some smoke rising out of her clothes. Mokou drops down with hands in her pockets and says with a smile "Told you so. But hey, at least you didn't try any dirty tricks." After a little chuckling she gave Kokoro a casual glance and said "Well I feel pretty satisfied now. But now I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Kokoro nodded her heard without a word and got off the rock, walking to Tenshi as she gets herself onto her feet, standing atop a keystone she summons from the ground. Mokou leapt onto the rock and was ready to continue talking with Sumireko, but before so the outside girl said "You're a strange one Kokoro, but if you want to meet up again you could find me here or at Reimu's shrine."
"I-I'll consider it. Come on Tenshi, we got another place to go to." Kokoro said before trying to brush some ash off of Tenshi's clothes as the Celestial coughed some of it up.
"A-Another place? …Ok fine, lets get it over with…" Then Tenshi and Kokoro took off, and after getting a good distance away from the forest Tenshi shook her body with a surprising amount of energy and forced a smile. Kokoro noticed this and commented "Tenshi, did you throw the duel to satisfy Mokou?"
Beyond a whistle, no sound left Tenshi's mouth, leading Kokoro to smile a tiny bit and say "Well, no matter. Our next stop is very close by. We got plenty of daylight left, so lets go to the Youkai Mountains." With the conversation with Sumireko in her thoughts, Kokoro guided Tenshi towards the mountains in the distance, still unaware that a familiar green-haired girl was tailing close behind…
Next Time: Masked Hero Kokoro…?!