"This ship is quite nostalgic," Byakuren sighed, looking around at the Holy Palanquin as she drank her tea. "I never thought I'd see her in working order again, though she's clearly seen better days." It was a bit of a transparent attempt to change the topic of conversation to something a little lighter then the question of her freedom, but I at least welcomed the distraction. Hey eyes settled on the broken stump of the shattered mast. "Oh my. I suppose it has been a thousand years since the ship was built."
"Ah, mother Hijiri... I'm sorry you have to see her looking like this," Murasa said, looking flustered. "I had actually fixed her up previously. She was looking good as new, but the journey to Makai ran into a few... complications." Byakuren walked over and rested her hand on the jagged splinters of what remained of the mast where it jutted sharply up through the deck. Captain Murasa raised her arm as if to stop her, but then drooped in defeat, clearly too ashamed to say more.
"We collected all the broken pieces of the mast we could find..." Ichirin volunteered, stepping forward. I know this ship is one of the last reminders you have of your brother, mother Hijiri." Behind her Unzan silently drifted forward, carrying a large number of the wooden fragments that had fallen across the deck after their power had been spent.
Byakuren smiled up at him. "Oh, that's wonderful. With these I should be able to repair the ship. Do you have the rest of the mast and the sail?"
"Um, they're down in the hold mother Hijiri, but on our way out we'll need to pass through a rather narrow cave. Let's hold off on repairing the mast until we're out of there at least." Murasa mumbled, looking down and folding her arms behind her back self-consciously.
"Fair enough. Perhaps I can repair some of the other damage now then."
"Ugh, I'm sorry about all of this mother Hijiri. I know you made this ship just for me."
"This ship is yours, captain. It may once have been a part of my temple and before that my brother's storehouse, but it belongs to you now and was made to be a part of you. I can see that in the thousand years we've been apart you have suffered greatly, but endured. It is only fitting that this vessel shows the same endurance and careworn nature. With time and effort, I hope to restore you both. To have you be here and to have this ship be intact and flying after a thousand years shows me you've taken excellent care of the gift I gave you, though it can't have been easy."
Byakuren turned back toward Murasa as she said this, stepping closer and reaching down to gently stroke the captain's bowed head. Overcome by emotion, Murasa reached out and embraced her once again.
"Ah! No fair, Murasa!" Ichirin cried. "You're stealing another Hijiri hug!" Byakuren smiled and opened her arms in a welcoming gesture. Ichirin dashed over and Byakuren embraced them both. It was a cute, if slightly awkward, scene.
A moment passed, then Sanae, who, oblivious as always, hadn't been paying attention to the emotional exchange approached them holding one of the larger chunks of the mast. "So are these really UFOs then?" she asked. "And what do they have to do with this ship? They're not floating any more and they seem to have a little weight now. Are they... dead or something?"
"Youeffohs?" Byakuren asked, looking towards her with a confused expression.
"These sorts of flying saucers are called UFOs. Unidentified Flying Objects."
"What saucers? That chunk of wood doesn't look anything like a dish." Murasa interjected, turning toward Sanae and looking at the block she was holding.
"Wood?" Sanae asked, confused. "They're metal, aren't they? Or ceramic maybe? They're all smooth."
"I realize that all broken up like this they don't look like much, but they're parts of the ship's mast, so of course they're wood." Byakuren said, eyeing Sanae oddly. "Before it was a ship, this vessel was originally a storehouse that was given to my brother."
"Well it sort of feels like wood when I touch it, but how do you mean that its 'all broken up?' Did these once fit into some larger container? Or do they transform and combine like Getters!?"
"What?"
"What? You don't know Getter Robo? I suppose if you've been sealed away for a thousand years that's excusable, but it's absolutely foundational!"
The conversation styles of the two of them seemed destined to mismatch on multiple levels. The fact that Renko and I had never explained to her about the way the UFOs didn't appear as UFOs to me probably didn't help. Clearly, to the crew of the Holy Palanquin, the objects resembled the same chunks of wood I saw them as.
"Hey whoa, there's something inside of these UFOs," Marisa said, prodding a long sliver with her finger.
"An alien?" Sanae cried, rushing over to her excitedly.
"I dunno," Marisa said pinching at something with her fingers and digging it out of the wood. "It just looks like some kinda tiny snake."
Renko rushed over to her too. "Whoa, that thing's thinner than a worm. I don't suppose a snake that small could be venomous, could it?"
"I don't think so," I said, following behind her, "especially since that's not a snake. It looks like a little seed."
"What?" asked Marisa, looking up at me.
"Huh?" asked Renko matching her.
"Oh!" cried Sanae pointing excitedly at the chunk of wood in Marisa's hand. "It transformed!"
Renko and Marisa looked down at the piece of wood and both made odd, surprised noises. Then they both looked at eachother, seemed to nod in agreement about something, and Marisa wedged the tiny seed back into the piece of wood. They both gasped in surprise.
"It's a UFO!" Renko said.
"Yeah, but It's really a piece of wood!" Marisa exclaimed.
"That's a pretty lame transformation." Sanae said, sounding disappointed. "What kind of UFO transforms into a piece of wood?"
"What are you all talking about?" I asked.
"When I put that snake back in here..." Renko began.
"You mean the seed?"
"Whatever. When I put that thing in here, it makes it look like a UFO. But when I take it out, it just looks like a piece of wood. I take it it always looks like a piece of wood to you, Merry?"
"It has since the beginning, yes."
"That snake must have some ability that allows it to interfere with our recognition of images. It doesn't work on Merry though, it seems. When the snake is in there, the object appears as something else..."
"It's not a snake, Renko, it's a seed."
"That's still a weird thing for a seed to do too, right?"
"If you say so. I don't see any of that happening."
"Hey Reimu, come over an' take a look at this, it's interesting!" Marisa called, ignoring us.
"Huh? What're you all doing?" Reimu asked coming over to join our little huddle.
"Watch this," Marisa said, and pulled the seed out.
"Whoa!" Reimu exclaimed. I could see from Renko and Sanae's face's that they were impressed too. Sanae watched in rapt awe seeming to try to spot the exact moment that the seed was removed and making a weird noise with her mouth as it was.
"So then these aren't really UFOs? They're just chunks of wood and that snake makes them look like UFOs?"
"Yeah, it seems that way."
"How disappointing!" Sanae cried, looking genuinely hurt. "I thought I had caught a real UFO, this was going to bigger than Roswell..."
"I'll admit, it's a bit of a letdown," Renko agreed. "But I'm curious as to what these look like to you two when the snake is put in," she said, turning to Marisa and Reimu. "Still a disk-shaped little metal object with tiny windows and bumps on the bottom?" They both nodded. "Had either of you ever heard of a UFO or seen a picture of one before?"
"Not until Sanae came and told us all about them," they answered in unison.
"I see. Sanae, when you told these two about UFOs, did you show them any pictures or diagrams?"
"I scratched a little drawing into the dirt with a stick..."
"Hey captain, what does this look like to you?" Renko asked, raising the piece of wood over her head and craning her neck around.
"A piece of the mast," Murasa answered, looking confused.
"And it's always looked like that to you right?"
"What else would it look like?"
"Thanks, that's all I needed to know."
"Wait, what?" Murasa tilted her head in incomprehension as Renko smiled and turned back to our group.
"To everyone on this ship, this has always just appeared to be a piece of wood."
"So is it some kind of trick? Or does the snake not work on them?" Marisa asked.
"I think it doesn't work on them because they knew what these were to begin with -they saw, or in Murasa's case, felt them break off of the mast. I never did though, I was inside the wheelhouse at the time, and by the time I saw one of these splinters, Sanae had told me they were UFOs, the same as you guys. It seems like the snakes make the object they're attached to look like whatever you expect them to look like."
"Then how come I don't turn into a UFO when I'm holdin' one?"
"Because we already know you're Marisa, just like the captain already knows this is a piece of the mast. If Sanae had told us that she had caught a bird instead of a UFO, I bet that's what we would have seen them as. Unless you're Merry of course. Her eyes are special and everything just looks like the most boring possible option to her."
"That's not how it works, I just see them for what they are!"
"Well that must be a pretty handy ability for a Relative Psychologist, to be able to see the one uncontestable and non-subjective truth, right?"
"You're trying to rile me up but I'm not going to fall for that trap. Honestly though, what would be the point of all this? Why would someone disguise all of these chunks of wood like that?"
It was captain Murasa who answered. She had walked over to join us and was frowning down at the piece of wood in Renko's hand. "I may know the answer to that. Were you saying that all of these pieces of the mast looked like something else to you until just now? If so, then it's probably the result of a prankster who stowed away on this ship and came up from the Underworld with us." All eyes turned toward Murasa as she cut in and she scratched at her head, looking chagrined. "The person behind these little pranks got us a lot back in the Underworld. They must have delayed the rebuilding of this ship by at least a decade over the years. I expect it's their fault the mast broke too." Murasa sighed and crossed her arms.
"That sounds like a hell of a prank. Why'd you let someone like that on board? I'd have just smacked 'em." Marisa asked.
"That doesn't sound like just a prank to me," Reimu grumbled. "Maybe someone down there had the good sense to try to stop you from releasing Hijiri."
"Oh, they could be an ally, Reimu!" Sanae suggested cheerily.
"I don't want a Youkai for an ally." Reimu said, crossing her arms and grunting irritably.
"What's this prankster like, captain?" Sanae asked. "Are they here now?"
"I don't think they're here any more. They probably fled once we reached the surface. As to what they're like, no one knows. Ichirin claims to have seen them once or twice, but I never have."
"So in addition to you lot there's an unknown prankster youkai from the Underworld running around on the surface? I'll probably have to exterminate them later." Reimu growled. "I assume there'll be no objections about that at least?" she asked, glaring at everyone.
Murasa seemed like she might have been about to object, but Marisa shook her head warningly. "Let her have this, captain. Reimu gets grumpy when she doesn't have a butt to kick." I suppose it must have been a pretty frustrating day for Reimu. Almost nothing had gone as she had planned and she had been opposed and confounded at every step while attempting to resolve this Incident. For my sake as well as Renko's, it was better not to get in her way any further.
-.-.-.-.-
After that, everyone moved with saint Byakuren over toward the wreckage of the wheelhouse. Murasa had attempted some jury-rigged repairs to the tiller, but they amounted to nothing more than a few long planks jammed against the stem of the rudder and tied in place, allowing for a few shallow degrees of yaw in exchange for a great deal of manual force.
"Oh my, this looks rather serious," Byakuren said, looking out through the holes in the walls and ceiling of the wheelhouse.
"Sorry, mother Hijiri, this is mostly mine and Unzan's fault. There was a fight here earlier," Ichirin said, bowing her head.
Byakuren didn't answer but instead walked over and laid a hand on the shattered tiller. Stroking it softly she murmured her thanks. "Thank you for seeing everyone here safely." She bowed her head for a moment, seemingly about to be overcome by emotion, then raised herself up and called out. "Shou? Bring the houtou, please."
"Ah, here it is, mother Hijiri," Shou said, producing it from a sleeve. I'm afraid it's lost its light altogether now though."
"Not to worry, that's easily fixed." Byakuren said, smiling calmly as she held the pagoda. She closed her eyes, holding its crystal sphere between both palms. A moment later the sphere began to glow again. Softly at first, then with a radiance that seemed to not only illuminate but cling to every bit of the wheelhouse, until all the walls were radiating the same harsh light. A flood of white light engulfed us soundlessly. When I was able to open my eyes again, the afterimages of the glowing walls were still fading but all of the sections of the walls and ceiling that had been broken were flawlessly repaired, with no sign that they had ever been damaged.
"Oh wow! What a dramatic makeover!" Sanae cheered looking around in wonder. "It's like one of those home renovation shows."
"Thank you, Shou." Byakuren said, handing the newly luminous pagoda back to her. "Captain, I think the rest of the repairs can wait until we're out of Makai, yes? I'd like to see what's become of the world.
"Aye aye!" Murasa said with a grin. "Next stop Gensokyo, full speed ahead!" There was a brief pause then, with everyone standing expectantly, waiting for something to happen. After a moment, when nothing did, Murasa reached out and grabbed the tiller. As she hauled on it, the whole of the ship lit with a faint, watery flame for a moment then slowly began come around, then accelerate, feeling in every way as if were cutting through an actual sea, bobbing faintly on unseen waves. With a sense of relief visible in the set of her shoulders, she continued to cling to the tiller, turning us through the skies of Makai, heading back toward Pandemonium, moving much faster than before. Thus, the Holy Palanquin began its journey home.