Date: 07/16/23

Weather: Sun and Clouds.

Dear Diary.

Well its that time of the week again. Getting my face cut from shaving... A mildly bloody face aside, the sparring session with Meiling went surprisingly well. I mean sure I still lost, but the fact that I'm managing to keep up with the Gatekeeper's pace when she was starting to hold back just a little less means that I'm making progress. Still... I don't understand how Meiling does it. Blocking her punches and kicks hurt so I'm forced to dodge and weave through the flurry of attacks. But every dodges I make, makes the follow up dodges much harder to do, and eventually she just lands one hit after another til I submit. And I learned something very important after that sparring session.

...

According to Meiling my dodges are some what predictable. On top of that because I'm too busy being on the defensive, she can force me to take specific dodges and eventually land a hit... I'm happy that I'm making strides in my physical prowess, but pretty upset that Meiling is just toying with me... And why didn't she teach me this before? And How would I go about improving my offensives when I'm forced to be on the defensive almost at all times? Meiling tells me that things like this just takes time... But it feels like the gap keeps getting wider...

While the morning sparring session felt Sisyphean, the shift had a pleasant surprise for Flandre, which in turn was good for me. Can't say the same for Patchouli though. I'm still being greeted by Flandre as Big brother. I guess this is a thing now. While the little Vampire and I was reading our respective books in the library, we were greeted Marisa's audacious entrance. Probably here to steal some books. Flandre seemed to be happy to see the Witch, flying to meet her half way. Though the two were happy to start throwing Danmaku bullets at each other the Librarian was already getting a bit upset. I had to do damage control. Sending the two off deeper into the library so Patchouli won't be as bothered. Flandre seemed to listen to what I had to say, but the Witch seemed to be pretty upset. I guess she doesn't like being told what to do. It took me a while to convince Marisa that getting Patchouli upset would make the Witch's life harder than it should be. I think Marisa sort of gave in, in the end. Dodged that metaphorical bullet. I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching a Danmaku duel.

The sights, the sounds, the adrenaline rush, watching the two girls dodge and weave through tiny gaps in thousands of bullets, the Witch firing off massive lasers. Whoever thought of this system to sort out issue and have fun is a genius. The victor for this Danmaku duel was Flandre once again. Even with the tattered and torn clothes, the Witch seemed in pretty good spirit. Shouting that she'll come visit again some other time. Although Marisa is sort of a bad influence on the library's sanity, I think it's pretty good for Flandre. She shouldn't just have to depend on me for growth and interaction. The rest of the shift was pretty quiet. Flandre reading her book, asking me questions about the book every once in a while. Some of the questions were actual plot about the book and because I didn't know what the book was about, I had a hard time answering some of the question. Other questions were more generalized about the outside world. Those kind of questions I fared better. I was reading more on the whole arcane arts business.

...

Post shift meant that I could do some active practice for my magic spells. Well I know I can do it during the shift and I have done it plenty of times before... But sometimes I just like working on stuff on my own. On top of keeping up with the spells I know, I got to try my hands at the new 'make dodging easier' spell. The spell once again doesn't have an official name, and is a type of spell that I've never tried before. Self enchantment. According to the book self enchantment, for the most part is a temporary buff. Interestingly Self enchantment is fairly similar to spell circles, where the spell comes in two parts. First is the 'Spell Self enchant' after I cast that on myself THEN I can do whatever enchantments that I about over complicating things. Even though the enchantment was from the same series with similar application, learning and applying felt like learning a foreign language for the first time. In the end I wasn't successful with this whole self enchantment business.

Well, the magic session sort ended in failure but honestly I'm not too bothered by it. I mean sure it sucks that the magic didn't work after all I've achieved, but the fact that I still have some level of success under my belt means something to me. Well failed magic aside I also added and followed through with 'Visiting the Human Village.' to my to do lists since you know, I literally have a way to fast travel there. Learning about the village, and its people on top of getting some fresh air would probably do me good. Not going to lie, as much as I love trekking, this whole teleport business is pretty rad. The Village seemed like it was sort of getting ready to close shop, or at the very least was starting to slow down for the evening. It was pretty similar to the last time I was visiting the village, the very definition of Peaceful. There were a few villagers that seemed to notice me, giving me a wave. There was even one dude who thanked me for taking care of that other worlder, striking up a conversation. Though I didn't really do anything. Asking why the Village peacekeepers didn't do anything about that other worlder was met with "Well, before you came along he wasn't really much of a threat. Sure he was a nuisance but he didn't try to kill anyone, y'know? Well until you came along." I guess the Village is very lenient. The rest of the exploration was pretty aimless, but I did notice something about the village. I think the Village does slow down a bit as the night approaches but never really comes to a stop. With the setting sun, a lot of the shops seemed to close but the restaurants looked like it was only picking up in pace. If I have money I'd love to visit them.

-R.F.


Date: 07/17/23

Weather: Sun and Storms.

Dear Diary.

-Morning routine.

I have discovered something incredible, but also hopelessly out of reach... But more on that later. The morning routine was fairly uneventful, but the morning exercise was when I tried something a bit different. Normally the sparring goes as follows. Meiling gets on the offensive and I'm forced to block or dodge. Back when I first sparred Meiling she encouraged me to be on the offensives but that's sort of changed. I wonder when that happened. Anyway, I thought I'd flip the script and get a lot more aggressive during the sparring match. I think that took the Gatekeeper off guard for a second. Me just taking hits so I can take more effort in trying to land a hit. Did I land a hit? Nope. Was I close? I'm getting there but still ways off and even with the clouds rolling in, cooling down the day. I was sore and sweating at the end of the match. The Gatekeeper seemed pretty impressed with my change of strategy so I guess that's a big plus.

...

The shift focused primarily on learning more about this whole 'Self Enchantment business.' I tried asking the Librarian but that didn't really get anywhere. Turns out Patchouli sort of min maxed into a specific type of magic, and doesn't really bother branching out... Well I think that's a wrong way to explain it. Patchouli IS interested in magic. Its just that the Librarian isn't really interested in the magic format that I'm learning. Oh, I also got a bit of scolding from Patchouli for actually not doing my job of looking after Flandre. As much as I did appreciate the little Vampire trying to defend me but the Librarian sort of had a point. Asking Flandre if she wanted to do anything specific, and my question was met with "I just want to spend time with you like how you used to spend time with you little brother back home!" Yikes... I got some real big metaphorical shoes to fill... There's also a chance that Flandre might have misinterpreted the relationship between me and my younger brother. Yes we were close, but the closeness wasn't suffocating. Not to say that Flandre is suffocating, far from it, but there is a possibility that Flandre's perspective of the sibling relationship that I had, and the standards that come with it, might get to a point where I can't meet it... Well until that happens I guess I'll keep trying my best. So, even with the scolding from the lackadaisical librarian I went back to studying self enchantment with Flandre as my assistant. At the end of the day I think I made some level of progress, but not much.

...

Post shift I kept the momentum going by learning more about the aspect of Self enchantment. Only to be met with a bit of a roadblock. I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm pretty sure I'm interpreting the words on the book right, and trying to replicate what the text is saying... But no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to activate the spell properly. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Alright. So about that discovery. Turns out Gensokyo does have Coffee! But there's are couple catches... Coffee is a luxury item that sort of drops into Gensokyo by sheer chance so supplies are hyper limited meaning that it's expensive... On top of that, I literally have no money, and asking Izayoi for a ton of cash so I can get my next fix would be pretty unreasonable. I learned all this because a vendor had roasted coffee beans for sale. Fate is a cruel mistress... I wonder what kind of side hustle I can do to make some cash.

-R.F.


Date: 07/18/23

Weather: No Sun, just Storms.

Dear Diary.
Man, it feels like Gensokyo can be such a tease. The Coffee discovery yesterday that's perpetually out of reach, and the stormy weather would have been perfect to just get cozy, listening to the rain, the thunder, and wind while sipping on some coffee. What's worse is that I ran out of my Dandelion Coffee a while back so I don't even have that. First world problem I know, but still... The Sparring match also kind of sucked. The wind, the rain, the slick ground made it hard to keep my balance it felt like the sparring match was a two on one. Fighting Meiling and the Gog dang elements. Speaking of Meiling, she moved around like she was fighting on a bright sunny day, no rain, no wind, not a single slip. Perks of being a Youkai I guess.

...

I had enough time for a quick soak in the bath to warm me up, but I swear... The basement is chilly as heck... It's great during the hot summer days but a freezer when its not hot outside. Talk about a double edge sword. How in the world am I going to survive the winter trek? Do I set up exit points for the basement and Flandre's room so I don't have to walk all the way down? I mean it's a pretty good idea but I don't want to be too dependent on magic. I might get lazy or something. Now the shift felt rather quiet. No magic practice, just a bit of reading with Flandre. I think the little Vampire did enjoy just having a quiet day with me but something tells me that she wanted to have more fun. Where's that Witch when I need her?

...

I don't know if its the quiet day that made a difference or something, or a different look at how to tackle the problem, but I think I've finally made some breakthrough regarding the self enchantment and the 'Make me dodge things easier spell.' I swear I need a more convenient name for these spells. Why haven't the author of the book name these spells I'll never know... I think I'll just call it 'Arcane Dash' or something for the time being. Anyway I think I almost got to use the spell. The concept of self enchantment is a bit different from say enchanting an item like a rock or something. For starters a rock is a bit more simple than a full bodied human stuff like the difference in size and the compositions. But I think the biggest thing is perspectives. When I enchant a rock to make it glow, I can look at what I'm enchanting, but I can't see the entire me without something like a mirror. Thankfully the library had exactly what I needed. The end result wasn't completely successful but I think I did manage to enchant myself. Self enchantment feels sort of... Tingly? And it has that sensation of a free fall like on a roller coaster, but instead of a regular speed free fall sensation, it feels... Slower? Its hard to put into exact words, and like what I've written above, the spell itself ended up in failure but this is a major discovery so I'll take that win.

...

On top of that win on self enchantment, I learned something very interesting during my visit to the Human Village. I have to say, I need to thank that other worlder for being a real jerk and the whole attempted murder. Thanks to his violent antics the folks in the village seem to recognize me a lot more. I mean sure they already know who I was from that news paper interview with Shameimaru, but I think fighting off that guy by not fighting at all most likely helped. Enough for a few gentlemen to approach me and offer a free meal. I didn't want to look like a jerk by refusing their offer, and free food is nice so I accepted the gentlemen's offer. Man the meal was great. Normally in the mansion the meals were mostly western themed, it sure was nice to mix things up a bit and eat a Japanese food. The gentlemen seemed to be fairly understanding of me declining to drink alcohol, since I might not be able to take the trek back. The meal was definitely nice but what I learned was even more important. You see, the Gentlemen that offered me a free meal were self proclaimed Youkai Exterminators. And they were getting drunk and conversing among themselves. One of them actually pointed out that the business weren't doing so great due to the relative peace. And that got me asking questions. I mean Youkai are more or less all around outside the village right? Why not just go out and slay some Youkai?

Turns out things aren't that simple. Youkai can only be exterminated if they're a threat to an individual or a threat to the village. My mentality was equal to, 'Just go out and kill some bears since that might make money' They metaphorical bears aren't a threat so there's no reason to go out and hunt them. That applies to Youkai. On top of that not all Youkai are malicious or evil. Like the Mansion crew. Or even Shameimaru that plays an active role on the Village as the paper girl. The more I think about it, slaying Youkai just because they exist sounds pretty... Racist? Another thing that I ask was the whole exterminating Youkai bit. The Exterminators didn't look exactly fit in the physical sense. Sure they weren't over weight or anything, but they didn't have the physique of a body builder that would wrestle bears for fun. According to the Exterminators, the biggest important thing in Youkai extermination is Spirituality. No matter how strong an individual gets physically, a Youkai would simply shrug off or just heal whatever physical damage they get inflicted, but a Spiritual damage to a Youkai is much more lasting. Asking if Spirituality was sort of like Chi, one gentlemen explained that Chi might play a role but the biggest thing was Faith. If all fails Magic is pretty much the only other way to exterminate a Youkai. Spirituality? Faith? I guess I have a lot to learn about Youkai and Youkai extermination.

-R.F.


Date: 07/19/23

Weather: Sunbreak, passing rain.

Dear Diary.

I had a really hard time focusing on the morning exercise and sparring session with Meiling today and my distraction effect me the rest of the day too... Last night's little enlightenment regarding the Youkai, made me inadvertently see the entire mansion crew in a new light. I dont know if I like this though. I originally thought if I got at the very least physically strong enough I can just K.O. any Fairy or Youkai, and now that's not the case. I need this 'Spirit' on top of a good knuckle sandwich to do any effective hurt. Which means that I'm once again at the bottom of the food chain, well that's technically wrong I'm not 'once again' at the bottom; I never left the bottom. The power gap keeps widening and I don't know if I'll ever get strong enough... The enlightenment also got me thinking about the Mansion's Gatekeeper. Why does Meiling take the time out of her day to help me get fit? I mean I appreciate the effort, but muscles clearly aren't enough to slay a full blooded Youkai, and the power of Chi is only a part of the whole spirituality thing. Maybe she just wants to share her enthusiasm about martial arts... I don't know...

And speaking of Meiling and martial arts, I got my butt kicked extra hard during the sparring match. Combination of a slippery ground and not being focused will do that to you. Post sparring session I got to talk to Meiling about my little misadventures last night. I have to say, I'm surprised that she took my... Situation? Is that the right word? Well she took my situation surprisingly well as if I was the one that was making a big deal out of nothing, maybe I was. Meiling even joked that she should be scared that I'll come around and exterminate her one day. The Gatekeeper did ask me a question "Why the sudden focus on Youkai and Youkai extermination?" I wasn't focused on Youkai extermination per se. I was more focused on defending myself against a Youkai. The Gatekeeper being the almost perfect big sister type did her best to cheer me up telling me that I'll be doing some special training after my shift. I did tell her that I'll do what I can to see her after shift so I'm obligated to follow through. I sure hope it isn't just me getting beaten some more...

...

While I was greatly distracted during my morning routine, I was a little less distracted during my shift. Maybe it was the combination of Meiling trying to cheer me up and the fact that the power gap between me and Flandre is so unfathomably large that my brain chooses not to grasp at the difference and just see the little Vampire as my 'little sister'. Whatever the reason may be, being less distracted did help me with my magic practice session during my shift, Flandre being my little assistant once again. So yesterday I got to sort of do some self enchanting, and today I got to actually enchant myself with the 'Arcane Dash.' The sensation of this little spell felt so weird. It feels like every cell in my body is turning into mush, move in a direction with a fixed distance, and reform into my body shape in a single fluid motion and during the entire dash I can't see a thing. The first time I successfully casted the spell I got real nauseous, and not the 'low MP' headache kind. Its like after riding a roller coaster and throwing up, but instead of riding a roller coaster, you ARE the roller coaster, made of some weird fluid like substance to a point where I had to take breaks after every successful dash. I know I shouldn't down play the advancement in my arcane arts but I do need to point out a tiny issue. It still takes me a long time to self enchant, on top of needing a mirror. Realistically speaking, no hypothetical bad guy would go all like "Oh sure dude take your time setting up a mirror and like three minutes to enchant yourself from a single attack of mine, no rush." I'd just get pummeled into the ground. Well self criticism aside I had to experiment how the spell worked with the advancement that I made. A fairly simple experiment. I cast 'Arcane Dash' Flandre fires off a Danmaku bullet, and I dash through it. If everything goes well, I go through completely unscathed. I dashed through completely unscathed. Flandre was very impressed while I was on the verge of throwing up, and in the end I managed to only do one more test before my body was at it's wits end. The rest of the shift was much more quiet, just a little reading with the little Vampire.

...

I got to say, I sure learned a lot today. Learning magic, and now the special lesson with Meiling. Meeting up with the Gatekeeper post shift we made some small talk about how my job went and how Flandre was doing. When I suggested that Meiling can ask her by the Video recording which either of them didn't do for a while, Meiling sort of pushed that onto the back burner. According to Meiling her focus for the evening was to cheer me up the best way she knew how. Martial Arts, and today's extra lesson was releasing my Chi. Long story short: My butt is damp from sitting on it for like an hour. The long story: And I thought Magic was hard... First lesson of 'Finding and feeling my Chi' was hard enough. Just goes to show how little I know about myself and my body. Sitting on the cold and damp ground meditating trying to find my Chi. Meiling gave me the fairly standard pitch of "Emtpy your mind, feel the world around you, and then find yourself." to guide me. If some pompous yoga instructor was telling me this, I would have demanded a refund, but since this was Meiling, a Youkai with superhuman strength there must have been some merit, though I wish she didn't use such a meta quote. Eventaully I think I made progress. I honestly don't know how to explain this feeling but this 'Chi' almost feels like another being? Or is it like some sort of a power source? Like a burning wood furnace. I honestly don't know. Whatever it was it felt very warm almost inviting, cozy. I would have loved to continue the training session but I had to postpone it since I had a personal job that I had to get done. It was Laundry day.

I love the idea of minimalizing my belongings but not going to lie, not having a week plus' worth of clothes to fall back on and having to hand wash my clothes consistently is... Rough. My hands get red and raw from washing my clothes in the ice cold water and wringing out the clothes as hard as I can... On top of that today I had to deal with the Ice Kid. Where in Gog's name was she like a week ago? Of all the days why today? The Ice Kid... I think Cirno was her name? Was going off how she was going to beat me up today. Pretty poor timing too, I didn't even start wringing my clothes. The kid's presense was more than enough to drop the temperature. I think I saw the shoreline of the lake starting to freeze over. Pretty sure I made the fastest teleport to the front gate like ever. Though all my clothes including the ones that I was wearing was soaked in bone chilling water. Meiling was kind enough to buy me some time to wring out my clothes, by play with the Ice Kid. Oh Gog my hands are still sore...

-R.F.


Date: 07/20/23

Weather: Sunny days.

Dear Diary.

Okay maybe Gensokyo IS being a bit of a tease... Either that I was a bit too hasty on doing my laundry in the cold... Today was sunny and bright, not a single cloud in the sky. You know, perfect laundry day weather. Well at least it was nice and warm and dry for the morning exercise, is what I would write if I worked out and sparred at all. Technically I did have a morning routine with Meiling but for today it was the continuation of the 'Awaken my Chi power' lesson'. I think I'm getting a hang of this whole Chi business. By the end I can warm myself up real quick just by finding my Chi. I think that'll come in handy during the winter. The Gatekeeper seemed pretty happy with my progress too.

...

The shift was, could have gone better. It started fairly normally, with bringing Flandre to the library, and reading some books and getting Flandre's help with my magic. What made things interesting was that today, the Librarian seemed pretty upset. While I was practising my self enchantment Patchouli did something that I've actually never seen her do. Stand up. And Walk. I didn't know she was capable of doing that. Jokes aside, the Librarian came over to let me know that me getting all glow-y from the enchantment was distracting her reading. It was a fair point, and I was going to apologize but the little Vampire trying to defend me may have exacerbated things. It got to a point where the two were arguing. Flandre telling Patchouli that I just wanted to practice magic and it wasn't a big deal. The Librarian telling the little Vampire that It was her library her rules, and the nail in the coffin. Flandre trying to out rank Patchouli by saying "It's my sister's mansion so its her library, not yours." Pretty sure that was the worst thing she could say. Long story short, we got kicked out of the Library. The rest of the shift was spending a quiet time with Flandre in her room. Not a good day...

Honestly, it was my fault that Flandre got kicked out, all I had to do just not practice at the front of the library. So I made a Hail Mary play on heading back the library to personally apologize. I think it went well. Patchouli was still upset, and wanted nothing to do me but with Koakuma's help I got to apologize to her. Well apologies weren't enough, as a sort of punishment I had to help Koakuma with the library upkeep for the rest of the month. Wait rest of the month? Then month ends in like two weeks. I guess that just Patchouli's way of going easy on me. On top of that Patchouli even compliment me that I was better than Marisa but only because I wasn't a Kleptomaniac the Librarian promised that she would keep this little incident to herself and not tell the Big Boss. I guess even that anemic looking librarian has a heart.

...

So... Topping of the rest of the day with the visit to the Human Village was, interesting. Not a bad one just interesting. Its strange that even though I get stronger and... Smarter? As an individual but I still get spooked real easily. I was just exploring the village, minding my own business, and some girl deliberately spooked me from behind followed by cheers of kids. Gog I hate when my legs sort of give out when I get spooked. A strange girl running a blue and white aesthetics for her clothes, blue hair, thin build and a tad shorter than I am. There were also two big thing that I did notice about this girl, first was that shes has Heterochromia which I'm a bit of a sucker for. Left red eye and blue right eye. Thats rad. Second was with a big'ol umbrella. The umbrella didn't look like a normal umbrella either. With its very large and long tongue, and a single red eye. Pretty spooky stuff, if I saw that at night I'd probably get a heart attack. I think its a safe bet that shes a Youkai or something. The Heterochomatic girl seemed pretty happy that she got a good spook out of me, running back to the kids cheering and what not. I wonder if shes some kind a Youkai baby sitter or something.

-R.F.


Date: 07/21/23

Weather: Sunny and hot

Dear Diary.

Hot... It was so hot... Morning exercise felt like torture... I think Meiling was feeling the heat too. As much as I wanted to spar more, and practice the way of the Chi, I would have passed out from heat stroke. With the morning exersise being canceled due to the weather, Meiling and I made some small talk, stuff like what happened yesterday, Flandre arguing with Patchouli to defend me, how we got kicked out of the library, how now I have to help Koakuma clean up the library til the end of the month. Meiling seemed to get a bit upset at the fact that the Librarian kicked us out. Wait does she not see that it was my fault? I had to do a little intervention so the Gatekeeper don't march into the Library to tell Patchouli how she felt. Almost failed too...

...

Never in my life I would think I'd say that I'm happy to be in a dungeon. Well a basement, with dungeon aesthetics. Its so nice and cool. Flandre seemed to be in a better mood than yesterday, but her mood wasn't good enough to head to the library. Not going to lie though, the little Vampire calling Patchouli a 'book worm' was pretty cute. With Flandre not wanting to go to the library, we spent the first half of the shift in Flandre's room. Although this part of the shift was on the quiet side I didn't mind it, and I don't think Flandre minded either. Just chilling in her room felt almost nostalgic. The start of the second half of my shift looking after the little Vampire was got a little hairy... To both Flandre and my surprise we got a visit from Koakuma of all people. The library assistant was sent as a messenger from the Librarian, and the messenger was about to get shot, by the little Vampire. I had do a little intervention so Koakuma didn't get blown up by Flandre... That's was the second intervention today... On top of that I had to convince the little Vampire to forgive Patchouli. I even had to pull the 'Can you do it for me?' card. Thank Gog it worked... I have to say... It was a tad awkward in the library... Like the library was quiet, like how a library should be... but there was that tension, mostly from Flandre. The Librarian seemed to have already forgiven or forgotten yesterday's little altercation. The little Vampire and I stayed quiet, reading in the corner. I think it's going to be like this for a bit...

...

With the Shift finished I had to start my new second job of putting different books away with the Library Assistant. The second job wasn't anything too hard, Koakuma took the lead and I just supported by passing the books. Though some of the books were huge... Like 'open it up and I can sleep on top of it' big. While assisting the assistant, we got to make small talks, kind of like in the morning with Meiling. This time though, Koakuma sort of explained why the Librarian was mgihty miffed. Turns out the Witch took a book that Patchouli wanted to read that was sort of important for a new spell experiment. And that miffed-ness got reflected on to the little Vampire and me... It was still a bit my fault but talk about unfair... Finishing off the second job Koakuma hit me with a question that I didn't expect. Asking me to drink with her after work. I thought she was trying to hit on me or something. Thankfully it was more like casual drinking after work. We got a date set for tomorrow after the book tidying... the 'The time stated in terms of the day, month, and year.' kind of date not the other 'Date'. There is a slight down side to helping Koakuma though. By the time I finished up it was already pretty late at night. So no Village exploration, maybe a little magic practice before bed but not too long. Bummer.

-R.F.

Date: 07/22/23

Weather: Sun, Wind, Storms.

Dear Diary.

Man... If it ain't one thing its another huh... Yesterday was scorching hot today there's a storm? Well that didn't stop the Morning exercise with Meiling. It felt good to spar again, though I was slipping left and right thanks to the wind and rain. This sparring session I did focus more on awakening my Chi, mostly to keep warm. The wind and rain whipping at my face really cools you down til your cold. My recently discovered Chi powers helped me keep nice and warm. The gatekeeper seemed surprised that I lasted that long in the rain, though it meant more beat down by Meiling. I'm sort of okay with that though, not in some weird masochistic way... Post sparring with some time left the Gatekeeper and I made a bit more small talks. Meiling still seems to disapprove Patchouli's little demand to a point where Meiling would rant about how the Librarian would never step outside, always cooped up in the library reading books. Meiling seemed to be also aware how frail Patchouli looks. Not how frail Patchouli looks, but how frail she IS. I guess even the laid back gatekeeper has some gripes.

...

The shift still had some tension between the little Vampire and the anemic Librarian was still a bit high. I had to sort of tip toe around the situation, bringing Flandre away from Patchouli to the back of the library. Practising self enchantment without a mirror was tough to say the least, but I think a little challenge is good for me. I think relating the self enchantment with awakening my Chi definitely helped out a little. And thanks to Flandre pushing me a little to do a little better by the end of the shift I think I managed to get pretty consistent at the 'Arcane Dash'. Well in a very controlled environment anyway. Now all I have to do is make sure that the little Vampire and the Librarian make up.

...

The clean up with Koakuma went smoothly. That library Assistant seemed to be pretty okay with Patchouli's antics. Antics mostly being finding books for her and sort of an 'assistant' for Patchouli's... Experiments. The fact that Patchouli can just pull the 'I'm your boss' card at Koakuma at any time, I feel sorry for her... After the clean up the Assistant and I got to grab a couple drinks. The location was a little sketchy. A small corner of the mansion kept tidy by Koakuma. According to her that's her little drinking corner and I'm her first guest. With the amount of things Koakuma had to do for Patchouli and the Library, I think she's built a bit of tolerance to alcohol, that and the fact that she's a Youkai. I originally wanted only like a glass of wine... But that little devil would just keep pushing and pushing... I drank like five? Six? Glass of wine... That's wayyyy above my tolerance. And the more she drank with me the more... Ummm whiny? I guess having a drinking buddy, Koakuma got to complain about how harsh Patchouli can get. "You're still not done organizing?" this "I need you for a new spell" that. Must be rough for the poor little Devil... The little drinking session ended with multiple trips to the toilet... I was almost dry heaving by the end of the night... I still feel nauseous... Its a struggle to write this entry...

-R.F.


Date: 07/23/23

Weather: Sunny, not as hot as Friday

Dear Diary.

Waking up with a wicked hangover is something that I didn't want as a start for today... I wish Koakuma would let me eased up on the wine... The headache was strong enough for me to not shave at all today. Gog, I must look like a mess... Thank Gog that the entire day was more or less uneventful. Not much of a sparring match today since I was fighting my own hangover. Meiling got a pretty good laugh out of it. Saying maybe next time she should join. I let the gatekeeper know that I'd ask Koakuma if I could bring a plus one.

...

I think next time I drink with that little Devil I'm going to be a bit more stern about my alcohol limits with her. The shift didn't go too smoothly since even by the start, I still had a bit of a left over hangover. If I told the little Vampire that I went on a forced drinking session with Koakuma, she probably would have turn the library assistant to ash... For not inviting her. So I had to explain that I did extra extra magic practice and I was recovering from my headache just to cover for her. So the shift was a quiet one just reading books with the little Vampire, with a little questions from Flandre sprinkled in. Mostly about definitions on different words.

...

For the post shift library tidy up; other than the little Devil thanking me for drinking with her, it went pretty quiet. Okay maybe I'll let her push a bit more drinks on me. But three glass max. I don't ever want to deal with hangovers ever again... Oh I also asked if Meiling can join this little drinking club. Looks like the club member count went up to three.

-R.F.

Authors Note: Hey everyone. Sorry to keep you waiting. I've made a completely avoidable mistake that forced me to delay the entry... On top of the general quality actually being lower compared to previous entries. I apologize. Okay. Now on to the actual bad news. Remember when I said I'll try my best at delivering future entries on time? Turns out there's a bit of a setback... I'll be out of town from the 27th of July to the 12th of August... And there a possibility that I won't have any access to the internet on top of me being busy out of town. I'll still try and do what I can to write the future entries to the best of my limited abilities. Absolute best case, nothing changes and the entries gets posted without any diminish in the already low qualities of my writing, the probable case, is that I'll somehow manage to post the entries but the quality will drop significantly, and absolute worse case would be that I'll be behind for like 3 week's worth of entries and I'll have to either catch up or condense the late entries. Hopefully its the first case and not the third... Alright everyone I'll maybe see you on the 29th!