Date: 09/17/23
Weather: Sort of stuffy, sort of warm.
Dear Diary.
Well I have myself some good news and some bad news... and like another bad news, well was more of a semi bad news? Anyway, The good news is that through some real stroke of luck I managed to commission myself a spear to use against Konapku. The semi-bad news is that it's going to take several days to get one, which is understandable since the blacksmith is going to have to start from scratch. The actual bad news is that as I'm writing this, I feel absolutely exhausted... Gog, my body feels almost limp and my hands are trembling just trying to write this entry. Lets start my day from the top. Today was the first official day of my 'training arc'... Man that sounds dumb, training session to prepare myself for the duel with the Gardener.
Because of the severity of the future event I didn't have time to shave, just splash some water on my face and get ready to train. The Morning session would have felt like any other morning session if it wasn't cranked to eleven. Before I started the training session with Coach and trainer Meiling, the two of us had some friendly small talk regarding nick names. Ever since yesterday's team meeting the Gatekeepers been calling me 'little bro'. Personally I didn't have anything against it, but Meiling seemed oh so slightly hesitant on calling me that. She went as far as asking if it was okay. I sort of found that a bit strange, Meiling was pretty casual, almost playful calling me 'little bro' yesterday, why the change? Well since Meiling is now calling me little bro, I got the direct permission from the Gatekeeper to call her Big sis. I've always sort of seen her as one and now it feels like it's come full circle. Now I've gotten myself an unofficial big and little sister.
Now to the details on the training itself... Meiling is scary when she's holding back even less. Her punches and kicks look like a blur, and I pretty much have no time to react, and I have to just take a beating. Sure the Gatekeeper was apologizing every time I took a heavy hit from her and the apology sounded very genuine, but holy moly... Three months of physical and arcane exercise is not enough to keep up with Meiling... I get the feeling that at this rate my body will break before the duel. There was also one more thing that Meiling mentioned before I went to my next training session that really didn't bolster any confidence. According to the Gatekeeper, she has duelled with Konpaku before. It was a Danmaku duel so things were slightly more evenly matched, but even with that equalizer set, Konpaku was no joke... I know this is just day one but still...
...
I honestly thought training on dodging Danmaku bullet was going to be hard. In a way it sort of was, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I did have to ask why I had to train a possible long distance encounter. Koakuma didn't have much answer but the Librarian did. Turns out Patchouli also have dueled with Konpaku in the past and surprisingly enough the Gardener does have some ranged capabilities. It's apparently not as strong as Patchouli's magic but enough to be ready for. Danmaku dodging training was separated into two parts. First was a three minute warm up with Koakuma. Last was five twenty for minutes dodging with Patchouli separated by five minute breaks. Apparently the break was less for me and more for the Librarian since that girl was about physically fit as a life time shut-in.
I wish the training itself could have gone much smoother. Flandre basically busted out of her room to watch the entire thing. And the little Vampire was harping on both Koakuma and Patchouli for 'being too hard on big brother.' It got to the point where Patchouli and the little Vampire argued during the five minute break for Patchouli. Which in turn made the next 'round' easier for me since the Librarian was fatigued from arguing with the little Vampire. The subsequent rounds were even more difficult. I think the Librarian was still a bit upset at the fact that her precious days of reading books in peace is disturbed for a little under a month that and Flandre being a helicopter little sister. Still, the difference between Koakuma and Patchouli's bullets feel like night and day. Some of the Danmaku bullets that the little Devil fire feel almost hollow? The size of the bullets are deceptively small, meaning that even if I got real close to the bullets I won't get hit. Patchouli's Danmaku bullets on the other hand, feels regular sized but much more dense, and the sheer amount that she fires felt absolutely overwhelming. The different 'elemental' bullets ranging from fire, water, metal? Earth, and wood? I think she also mentioned sun and moon bullets. How does that even work? Regardless the bullets hit a lot harder than Koakuma's bullets that's for sure.
...
Final training was with Izayoi, which took place in a fairly large hall within the mansion. From the training session with the head maid and my technical boss, I learned a couple things about Izayoi. First was that Izayoi today seemed surprisingly sympathetic regarding my well being. I thought her training involved some hard core Karate Kid-esque indirect training like moping the floor, and wiping the windows, like maid cleaning stuff disguised as some multi levelled body training or something. Nope just some regular fight based training. The training itself was surprisingly relaxed too, it felt like just physical training with the Gatekeeper. Maybe she saw me exhausted from hours of fighting and wanted to cut me some slack? And figuratively speaking of the training itself; second thing I learned was why Patchouli thought Izayoi was representing the mansion for the duel, and why she was the Big Boss' second in command. That maid sure knew how to fight.
Mixing both close and long range with dining utensils of all things, throwing spoons, and forks. According to the Boss she prefers to fight with and throw knives, but since it was my first day decided to cut me some slack. Even though Izayoi was holding back skill wise and not using her preferred weapon of choice, I think it was as hard if not harder than the sparring session with Meiling. Oh and regarding those spoons and forks, when it came to throwing cutleries that Maid never seem to run out of them too. Where does she keep those things stored? Is it some strange maid magic? Actually I think it's best to not think about it... Before I made my leave the Boss let me know that the training session with the Big Boss tomorrow was going to take place in her room.
...
With the training ending a bit early I visited the Village. This is where I got that 'Good news' that I wrote at the start of my entry, though it did come at a bit of a cost. First 'cost' was me getting spooked and falling on my butt by that Umbrella girl. The evening's darkness, being tired from a long day's training and mentally preoccupied with obtaining a spear for the upcoming duel kept my guard down. Though that was more or less a blessing in disguise. While Tatara was laughing her butt off I could almost feel a very specific memories of her self proclaiming to be a first class black smith after I counter spooked her like a month back. This Umbrella was my ticket to my spear. I had to pull the Umbrella girl to the side to talk some business.
First was to confirm that Tatara was in fact a capable blacksmith, which she confirmed. Second was asking if she could smith up a spear for me. Now for the second 'cost'... The Umbrella was fairly hesitant at first but requested that if she was to make this spear for me I had to get spooked by her for the rest of my life as payment... Did that suck for me? Kinda yeah, but was it worth it in the long run? Absolutely. Now I have an appointment tomorrow evening to talk more in depth about my spear; I'll be meeting the Black Smithing Umbrella in the village square. All I have to do is create a design and... a name for my spear? I guess tomorrow's me have some work to do.
-R.F.
Date: 09/18/23
Weather: Rainy mornings, warm days.
Dear Diary.
Oh boy... today's been one heck of a trip... I am physically, mentally, and emotionally drained... I don't know if I can keep this up... Starting the day I may or may not have forgotten that the Fairy maids were also now involved in my training regime, but to my poor defence, I didn't get much sleep last night. After writing last night's entry, I've been up til late trying to come up with a design for my new spear and draw one out. I wanted the spear to be have a focus in versatility, and aid in survivability. In the end I came up with the idea of a sort of a spear with a hook. The shaft, or the body of the spear made of a wood that's more of the rigid side, with parts of the shaft and the butt of the spear being plated with steel thin enough to not make it too heavy but thick enough to withstand Konpaku's swords IF I was forced to block with the body of the spear itself.
Now the tip of the spear I thought of dividing into two integral parts. First is the tip, just a run of the mill design for piercing, but just slightly below I was thinking of something like a hook, where the outside of the curve is shallow and bladed enough to do a bit of slashing if need be, but deep enough to catch and pull the Gardener by the leg or something. Drawing last night was pretty hard to say the least. With me writing surprisingly a lot for last night's entry, the fatigues, the shakes and the fact that I was the farthest thing from an artist, didn't help with me drawing out the design for the spear itself, but eventually I think I got a pretty good design. Going back to what actually happened today.
I got jumped by fairy maids the minute I got out of my room to start my training with Meiling. The Maids seemed real excited to blast Danmaku bullets at me, giggling and just having a grand'ol time, and since I didn't have any offensive magic, the best I could do was just dip and dodge my way to the front of the mansion. Thankfully though, as soon as I got outside Meiling was there to redirect the fairy maids back in the mansion which got the little Fairy maids pretty disappointed like kids being told by their parents that play time was over. The Gatekeeper was the first to point out how tired I looked, but that didn't stop her from being pretty tough with the training. Gog it felt like my brain was straight up lagging behind, every perception and reaction to the Gatekeeper's attacks felt delayed and by the end of the training my clothes got muddied and wet from getting thrown around by the Meiling.
...
While the training session with Meiling was physically taxing the training session with Koakuma and Patchouli was emotionally taxing... I got lectured to high heavens by the librarian... That on top of having to listen to Flandre and Patchouli argue... The training session itself wasn't too bad, I think my body's gotten used to dodging Koakuma's bullets specifically but I still struggled to squeeze through the Librarian's dense Danmaku bullets. Flandre was there cheering me on and still sort of harping on the librarian. Now... about that lecture from Patchouli... A part of me think that Koakuma and Flandre praising me on my improvements triggered the Librarian to go off, but honestly, I think this was going to happen regardless of the praise. So after the session ended, while I was catching my breath and collecting myself, the little Devil and the little Vampire praised in my improvement, which was promptly cut off by the librarian.
"You're not trying hard enough. At this rate, you'll lose to that half-baked gardener plain and simple." That first bit was more of an insult than a lecture, and I wont lie, that did cut me a little bit. Flandre was there to defend me while Koakuma looked real awkward being sort of in the middle of all this. Then the Librarian went into details behind her prediction of my loss. "He's been here for over three months. To my surprise made leaps and bounds in the study of magic. I can go as far and say that he's improving faster than Marisa, and Alice who's been studying magic all their lives. But now, he's stagnating in his studies, getting complacent. How many spells have you actually mastered? How many magic spells do you know that can actually hurt and deter that Gardener? None. You've learned a couple parlor tricks and now treating magic as if it's a joke. And as a Magician, I'm insulted."... I had to physically hold Flandre back from going off on the Librarian to a point where I was getting dragged by the little Vampire. Being a Vampire aside, just where does she keep all that physical strength in that tiny body of hers?
Hurt pride aside, Patchouli was completely right, when I first learned that I had the affinity for the arcane arts, I was hyped to learn all sorts of magic, but I've learned only a handful of spells that made my life easier and never really completely mastered any of them... As much as hearing all that from the Librarian hurt emotionally, I needed that wake up call. Before I left to start my very first training with the Big Boss, Koakuma made a suggestion that more or less benefited everyone. Instead of doing the magic sparring every day, just do it every other day. All the in between days can be used to learn and actually master new magic. That way, I'll be more prepared for the duel and Patchouli can have a break every other day. The librarian seemed to like that idea so moving forward the magic dueling session will be done every other day.
...
Okay... So after that wake up call from Patchouli, Flandre followed me around pretty much for the rest of the evening... The little Vampire was visibly upset and repeatedly asked why I didn't defend myself from Patchouli's lecture. I had to reiterate to Flandre many times that although Patchouli's words hurt, she had a good point. I don't think Flandre is okay with me just taking that from the librarian... Now about that first day training with Remilia... Entering the Big Boss room, the Big Boss was already there with Izayoi close by her side. The first thing she asked was why Flandre was following me around, and the little Vampire went off on how the Librarian was grilling me on not being good enough. The Big Boss more or less ignored the miffed little Vampire and acknowledged Patchouli's points, which in turn made the little Vampire more upset.
But as upset as Flandre was, I think Remilia's 'training regime' helped the little Vampire cool off a little. The session opened with the big boss ordering me to hit her as hard as I can. I wont lie, that threw me off when I heard such an order, and just from the expression, I think that surprised both Izayoi and Flandre as well. It took me a full minute to mentally prepare myself and when I threw a punch as hard as I can at the Big Boss. She blocked my punch with just her finger. If she wanted the Big Boss' real pointy finger nail would have pierced right through my fist... Scary... I know that there's a colossal power gap between me and everyone in the mansion, but that... that still hurt a bit of my pride... I guess today was just 'lets bruise R.F.'s ego' kind of day... And on top of that, Big Boss more or less poured salt in my wounded pride agreeing with Patchouli, adding that she might have made a mistake choosing me to represent the mansion...
I once again had to hold Flandre back from straight up attacking the her sister, while the Big Boss asked if that was really my hardest hitting attack, ordering me to hit her as hard as I can again. It took me a second to sort of figure out what she meant. The second time around it took me only seconds to get ready and throw out a kick. Since my legs by default had more muscles it could release a lot more power than my strongest punch, and that theory was proven true with the Big Boss blocking my kick with her whole hand. Now for the actual training regime, my job was to essentially chase down and hit the Big Boss. Sort of like a game of Cat and mouse... Cat and Bat? Well Big Boss sure moved like a Mouse... Or any animal that can easily out run me. Throughout the entire training session the Big Boss was just barely out of reach. Even when I increased my speed with the Expedite spell, even when I increased all my physical capabilities with the Chi boost... No matter what I did, I couldn't catch Remilia in the end.
Quick side track. For the most part I've written the Mansion crew and the folks in Gensokyo by either their last name or a little title that I've come up for them with a couple exceptions. Out of all of the folks in Gensokyo, it feels the strangest to write the Big Boss's name. Pretty sure that's due to me actually calling Remilia 'Big Boss' on a regular basis on top of writing out 'Big Boss' in my entry. Now back on topic. At the very end of the training session, I think I got kicked in the gut by Remilia... One second I was sort of catching my breath, next thing I know I'm on the ground with gasping for air. I mean the Big Boss helped me up and whisper "Not a bad work for your first day training with me Big Brother." First and foremost, I wish Big Boss would sort of stop giving me mixed vibes. Is she trying to be all cutesy calling me Big Brother like Flandre? If that's the case, it's sort of hard to see when I was on the ground completely winded... Second, it still feels strange to write her name.
...
Other than the bruised stomach that I got from the Big Boss, the second day of training came to an end. For me however... I had one more thing to do, which was handing in the design to Tatara in the Human Village. What I didn't really expect was Flandre tagging along for the entire thing. The little Vampire practically begged to tag along for my personal errand and to be honest, I thought this was a really bad idea, and looking back I sort of think it was still a bad idea... At best, really risky... but in the end I let her follow on two condition. She had to be on her absolute best behaviour and if I tell her to simmer down in case things got heated she would listen. This marks a momentous occasion of Flandre setting foot outside the mansion ground and into the Human Village. From being stuck in a basement for five hundred years to leaving the room, leaving the mansion and entering the Human Village with in what four months?
Pretty good on Flandre if I do say so myself. Well minus the detour that the little Vampire and I had to take when I had to stop by my room to grab the real crude drawing of a spear. Teleporting to the edge of the Village with Flandre, entering and sort of semi exploring got the little Vampire real hyped, I can easily tell that she could barely hold in her excitement. The little Vampire's presence was known real quick among the villagers, the mutters and barely audible whispers in the setting sun. Pretty sure that killed Flandre's mood, enough to just cling onto me. Having Flandre with me also had an additional effect when I met up with Tatara. That being the little Vampire being a bit of a tiny tiny body guard. I'm not sure if the Blacksmith met Flandre before but she seemed real shook. It got to a point where Tatara asked if I brought Flandre as sort of a leverage for the spear making. Naturally I didn't capitalize on that for the sake of honesty.
The Spear business between the Blacksmith and I... And Flandre was done in a small corner of the village. Most likely to not get any more attention from the villagers. Due to the darkening skies I had to Explain the thought process of my spear, though I did give her the paper with the drawing. I don't think Tatara was disappointed or anything, but just from the expression in the dark, maybe she wanted... More? Anyway, the blacksmith took up on the job, did a quick measure of my body and let me know that it'll be done in two days. Now, what did Flandre do during the entire thing? To my surprise, the little Vampire was more or less keeping it to herself. And just like that the little Vapmire and I were back in the mansion. Before I got into my room and started writing my entry, I also helped Flandre to her room.
A couple of things before I close out today's entry. First, I feel bad that Flandre's first time in the Village was a sub par one. I get why that was a thing and I personally think it was borderline inevitable, but still... Maybe I could have done more... Second is also regarding Flandre. I just don't know what that little Vampire sees in me. She treats me like a hyper fragile thing while considering me as an 'older' sibling. I feel as if the way she reacts when I'm met with any level of negativity justified or not is going to cause a bit more of a trouble than I'd like. Since Flandre is going to help me train tomorrow, I'm going to have to talk to the little Vampire about her coddling me...
-R.F.
Date: 09/19/23
Weather: Chilly mornings, mild days.
Dear Diary.
I have to say, today's training was a bit more relaxed than the last two days, and thank Gog for that... Any more training of the last two day's pace I might have died. The surprise Fairy maid attacks were mild and there was pretty much no physical training from Meiling. For today's lesson, it was all about mediation and understanding the aspect of one's 'spirit'. According to the Gatekeeper the individual's spirit/soul/will is as important as being physically fit. "Physical prowess means nothing if you have no will power to enact on the things you want to do." I can see what she's getting at. What I didn't understand for a bit was why Meiling was keeping her distance at first. It was pretty embarrassing to learn that I had a bit of a B.O. from not giving myself the time to take a bath... That and my clothes being just as dirty... That little trend of 'everyone keeping their distance' was a recurring theme for the rest of the day...
...
Speaking of which... today's magic lesson was just a me time to develop new spells while mastering the ones that I already knew. Well, today was all focused on spell mastery and not any new development. Patchouli, Koakuma, and Flandre kept their distance while I was practising... The librarian wasn't bothered to point out that I had a bit of a smell on me, and Koakuma was a bit more polite about it. While practising, The little Devil also asked a question regarding some of the spells at my disposal. "Your little Teleport spell seems pretty good, have you considered using it during your Duel with Miss Konpaku?" I had to show Koakuma where, while it sounds like a good idea on paper, in reality my teleport spell had one crippling weakness. Regardless of the distance the spell has a bit of a wind-up before the teleport, and a bit of a recovery after the teleport. Knowing how fast the Gardener was its a death sentence to use it during a duel. In the end of the session I think I did make a noticeable improvement.
...
Moving on to training with Flandre was... Difficult to say the least. Not the training it self, but getting the little vampire to help me get ready for the duel felt equally hard... It's been more than three months since I've been looking after Flandre and I can absolutely tell that she's been very reluctant to 'hurt' me in any way. Patchouli intervening and lecturing the little Vampire with a 'if you don't help him get stronger now, you're not going to see him at all.' probably made things worse. In the end I did come up with a temporary solution. Suggesting Flandre that she does the same training routine that the BigBoss made me do yesterday did sort of convince the little Vampire in the end... Now the session itself? I anyone with a functioning pair of eyes saw the session they could tell that Flandre was holding back. She let herself get caught on numerous occasion, on the first half of the training. I had to tell the little Vampire that she had to try a bit harder... And she did on the second half where Flandre did move as fast as the BigBoss. I'm going to have to have a stern sit down with Flandre sooner or later regarding her coddling me...
-R.F.
Date: 09/20/23
Weather: Morning showers, cloudy days.
Dear Diary.
Okay so here's something that I didn't even put into consideration... So three out of say six mansion crew has thrown hands with Konpaku in the past... Why didn't I ask them how the Gardener fights? I mean the old saying "Knowledge is half the battle." has stood the test of time for a reason... Right? I guess I'm asking the crew tomorrow. Aside from my late epiphany the training session today was alright. Oh before I continue to write about today just a quick side note. Glad I took a bath last night, because the Mansion crew's reactions were like night and day. That and being clean is a good thing. Can't say the same about trying to hand wash clothes in the cold lake though... Now back to the training regime. Training with Meiling were divided into two halves. A physical sparring session, and a meditation session to help increase my... Spirituality? Still don't really understand the whole thing. If one's 'Soul' is sort of like their will power, wouldn't it be more efficient to harden that will power by just pummelling me and force me to keep fighting or something? Clearly I'm missing something. Guess I'm asking Meiling that tomorrow too. Aside from me not understanding exactly how one's 'Soul' works. Actually seeing the improvements that I'm making compared to the very first time I tried sparring with Meiling. I know that she's still sort of holding back, but the fact that I can almost consistently see her attacks coming and respond accordingly feels pretty good.
...
Library training session was divided in to two halves like training with Meiling. First half was an endurance session with Koakuma and the latter half was the same just with Patchouli. Before I started anything, I had a small talk with Flandre about the two not holding back. I could really hear that reluctant "Okay" from the little Vampire... I'm just a bit glad that she's at least humouring the idea. The first half went really well. I only got blindsided once by a stray Danamaku bullet and maybe it's my body getting tougher, but it didn't hurt as much as the very first time I got hit. Now Patchouli on the other hand... As much as I appreciate her not holding back... A part of me sort of wished that she held back. The seemingly never ending barrage of bullets and when she was taking her break, she was lecturing me on how I've still not developed any real useful spell to deter Konpaku. I guess I'm hitting the books tomorrow.
...
Training with Izayoi felt like a good mix of my morning and afternoon sessions. Unlike the first time I trained with the maid though... She started using actual knives, like real sharp ones. Talk about a difficulty spikes... Dodging knives bouncing around while block and dodge Izayoi rushing me down with knives in hand trying to cut and stab me. The whole thing felt pretty spooky. Like sure getting hit by a Danmaku bullet is going to leave a nasty bruise if I'm not careful. But knives? They're going to make me bleed, which it did. I'm just glad the knives were razor sharp, it would have hurt a lot more if they were dull. The session sort of ended with Izayoi helping me get patched up; she even went as far as complimenting my improvements.
Now the last bit of the day was meeting up with Tatara to collect my new weapon. Meeting up in the village, travelling out of the village to get my spear. Now being old as I am, I have to admit that I've gotten a bit jaded when it comes to buying and obtaining materialistic goods. But getting this spear felt like I was a kid on Christmas morning. The blacksmith did an outstanding job. What she didn't do was actually give me the spear until I gave it a name. That was something that I had in my mental back burner ever since I got the thing commissioned. At first I thought I'd name it something like 'Cerberus Plus One' since it had four main way to dish out the hurt. Pierce, Slash, Hook and Pummel; that and it was a name from a weapon that I liked from a video game that I played many years ago. Another name that I thought of was something real edgy like 'Memento Mori'. Since it was a weapon that could kill that and a part of me resonate with that saying as lame as it sounds. In the end I decided on the name 'Lady Luck". It feels like Luck was something that's been with me pretty much all my life, even before I entered Gensokyo. No matter how bad things got, it sort of worked out in the end and that's been even more relevant with me in Gensokyo. Tatara didn't look like she understood the idea of lady luck but didn't argue. Well now I'm up one weapon... That I don't know how to use... Maybe the Library has something like an idiot's guide to using a spear?
-R.F.
Date: 09/21/23
Weather: Mild and cloudy.
Dear Diary.
So Meiling being a Martial Arts master I thought she would know a thing or two about weapons and what not. Nope, the Gatekeeper more or less min maxed on hand to hand. Other than that though, I did learn quite a bit about Konpaku and her fighting 'style'. According to Meiling, Konpaku's attacks are committal compared to someone like Meiling. Where something like a jab from the Gatekeeper can be converted to a hook, or even a feint to literally any other hand to hand attack mid attack; if Konpaku does an attack, a downward slash for example, she'll commit to that attack another weakness is how she moves, to make a long story short, she moves pretty much in a straight line. Now these are huge weaknesses that I can maybe exploit, but there's just one problem. Konpaku has an advantage in every aspect of combat. The exploitable weaknesses mean little to nothing if she's exponentially stronger, faster, and tougher than me... I guess this is the part where I have to get good.
...
Training in the library focused mostly on the spear training. Thank Gog that the library has basically every book in existence. On top learning the fundamentals of handling a spear, I also learned a new spell, and learned another aspect of Konpaku and her combat style. According to Patchouli, another weakness that Konpaku has is her Danmaku bullets. Because the Gardener focuses so much on the mastery of her swords, Konkapu's bullets are not very dense, meaning I can either dodge or block the incoming bullets without taking too much hurt. Unfortunately Konpaku has a bit of a remedy for her weak bullet game. Her phantom half can also fire barrage of bullets, that and the phantom half can either use its... body?... to slam into the opposition. That and the phantom half can temporarily turn into another Konpaku. So its a two versus one from start to finish. As much as I'm dreading this duel, I'm glad that I'm learning this information.
Now for the spear training. Umm its going well? The closest thing I got to a teacher is a book and since I have no one to mock spar with other than maybe Meiling, maaaybe BigBoss? I don't even know if I'm practising the fundamentals correctly... I hope this pays off. Now what DID pay off was learning a new spell. An enchantment called 'Whispers'. Essentially any individual that gets enchanted by this spell gets to hear custom sounds of my choosing. Isn't that already a thing? ASMR?
...
Originally I was planning on using this new spell to maybe distract Konpaku during the duel, but it might just become the silver bullet against the Gardener. According to the BigBoss Konpaku gets spooked real easily especially from ghosts... That makes little to no sense to me. Konpaku herself is half a ghost, her boss is a full ghost. And she lives in a place where deceased folks go... The 'Whispers' Enchantment isnt a ghost perse, but since I can make the whisper whatever I want, maybe I can do a ghost sound? Moving on to the training regime with the BigBoss, it sort of involved a spear, not mine oh no, the BigBoss's spear. The session was just more or less a 'dodging spear session.' and the reasoning from the BigBoss was to "Mix things up a little." Fair enough BigBoss.
-R.F.
Date: 09/22/23
Weather: Warm and sunny.
Dear Diary.
I think the spear training is going to be a solo thing until further notice. As soon as brought Lady Luck to the morning session after dodging the fairy maids going ballistic on me and the Gatekeeper's first reaction... wasn't the happiest. So lady luck was taking the back seat, just leaning against the Mansion's wall while I sparred with Meiling. Today's session the Gatekeeper threw in some Danmaku bullets with her punches and kicks. I wish I saw that coming because I got decked multiple times. Blocking and dodging lightning fast punches and kicks are one thing but trying to guess my way through an instant follow up attack via Danmaku is on another level of difficulty... Looks like I still have a long way to go.
...
I'd like to make a real quick report that the Whisper Enchantment works like a dream. I held off on using it against Koakuma. I don't want to sound too cocky or anything but I think I've gotten used to dodging the little Devil's bullets to the point today, I didn't get hit even once. I even managed to do pretty well against the Librarian too thanks to the newly learned Enchantment. Well the final result was pretty good, getting the enchantment to work was the hard part. In order for the enchantment to work I need to physically touch whoever I want to enchant. Patchouli being the master of keep away with real dense Danmaku bullets, closing the gap was difficult. Once I did manged to get close enough after getting battered by fireballs that were as big as me, man... I don't think I've ever seen the Librarian to that much double takes. Constantly turning around leaving massive gaps between the Danmaku patterns. Once the session was finished though, I still got a bit of a lecturing from the Librarian, her going off on how that one spell isn't going to be enough. As much as Patchouli's got a point, that little 'victory' felt pretty good.
...
Wish I could write about how well the training went with Flandre, but that'd make me a liar. The little Vampire is still struggling with the idea of hurting me. That's partially on me since I've incepted the idea that I'm a fragile being, which I technically am... But I did get better. Well Flandre not hurting me is one thing, what I don't understand is why she's going easy on me when I'm just trying to catch her. Flandre is clearly stronger and faster than I'll ever be but she's literally slowing down, stopping at times for me to catch up... After the session was over I had to sit the little Vampire down and really have a talk with her and her refusal to hurt me. The little talk that I had with Flandre I sort of figured out that my frailty was a part of the problem, the bigger issue was apparently her. According to Flandre, she still feels like shes lacking the control over her physical strength. That's when I sort of made a deal with the little Vampire. Any time that I'm not training in the library with Koakuma and Patchouli, she's going to just tap my arm as light as she can. Then she's going to try and tap me a little harder, then a little harder, until I start feeling pain, but not enough to bruise. That's when she's going to sustain that power and keep punching me until she gets used to it. Flandre was naturally hesitant to the idea but I managed to coerce the little Vampire into agreeing. This is what I get for incepting Flandre... Sort of worth it though since now the little Vampire has the opportunity to learn to control her strength.
-R.F.
Date: 09/23/23
Weather: About as same as yesterday.
Dear Diary.
Well It's been a whole week since I started training. I think my body is sort of getting used to the regime... Sort of... Still waking up early to a sore body, groggy mind, and still not understanding the idea of one's 'Soul' is something that I need to get used to... Today's training with Meiling once again split into two parts. More fast paced sparring with Danmaku mixed in, and more meditation. I think today the Gatekeeper was holding back even less. I thought I was getting used to Meiling's movement but now its almost a blur again. Is it my fatigue getting the best of me? Is Meiling actually holding back less? Maybe its a bit of both but by the end I was more catching my breath and meditating less. Before I went back into the mansion though, Meiling did tell me one other thing "Starting tomorrow, you'll be using your spear in our training regime." I guess starting tomorrow I'm going to implement spear play against the Gatekeeper. Actually looking back, I have no idea how that's a good idea. I mean I'm still an ultra beginner with my spear and Meiling expects me to fight and defend myself with it? Well that's going to be a tomorrow me's problem.
...
Today's magic training session was mostly brushing up on the spells that I know while I let Flandre just tap my shoulder with gradually increasing strength. I have to say, that it was pretty difficult to concentrate on reviewing my spells on top of the little Vampire being almost unrealistically careful like she was trying to make sure she wasn't tearing a wet toilet paper in the beginning. I had to let Flandre know on multiple occasion that she can actually hit me a bit harder. Eventually the little Vampire did hit me to a point where I was feeling physical pain, and she kept at it like she was trying to make it a second nature to hit me just enough to feel pain but not break anything.
...
Last session was once again with Izayoi. I half regret not bringing my spear to practice, it feels like I'm doing both my spear and Tatara who worked on it so hard a bit of a disservice, but at the same time, I'm pretty sure I would have made an absolute fool of myself if I tried using my spear against Izayoi... On top of that I'm going to train using my spear with Meiling tomorrow anyway... Pretty bad excuse but just for today, I'm going to die on that hill. The training session itself wasn't too bad. The Maid mixing between a rush down and a keep away on the fly really forced me to keep my guard up. That and I think Izayoi is starting to use her time powers. At parts of the session the knives that she threw flew a lot faster than normal. I mean the way she threw the knives looked like it would travel at a very specific speed but it traveled a lot faster. Is she making the knives fly faster? Was I slowing down? Hard to say.
...
You know what I totes forgot? BigBoss's blood donation. It didn't last too long though. BigBoss wasn't a fan of my room smelling like sweat, and according to her my blood tasted a bit too bitter and thick? BigBoss left the room telling me to drink more water... Man that's something... Back home I was always on top of making sure I was hydrated. I guess training for a duel that might get me killed made me forgot...
-R.F.
Author's Note: Hello everyone. It sure has been a while hasn't it. First and foremost I apologize about my disappearance. For the past 3 months I've returned to school to shift my future careers. That has taken pretty much all my time and will for the foreseeable future. While I was busy studying for exams and scrambling to complete the ever piling assignments my interest in Touhou and this little project of mine has rarely diminished. On my spare time I've been reading and rereading a single Touhou literature to understand the Touhou Canon which has opened my eyes on just how far from the Touhou Canon Devil Mansion's Part Timer: Redux was on top of my perpetual dissatisfaction of my work. As much as I want to just do another hard reset and start DMPT:R from scratch, I think I've come too far. Now that I have a bit of free time to I'll continue DMPT:R as much as I can during my break. Once I do finish DMPT:R though, I'll do yet another soft redux of DMPT, but it'll be posted on Ao3, but at this rate, DMPT3:R2Electic boogaloo wont happen for a long while. That all being said, until next time. Take care.