散るをいとふ

世にも人にも

さきがけて

散るこそ花と

吹く小夜嵐

"The world and people who hesitate to fall

are preceded

by a night wind that says:

'falling is the essence of a flower'"

-Yukio Mishima's death poem, 25th of November 1970, at the JGSDF Ichigaya Garrison.

"So, what am I supposed to do?" I asked the maid who, by the way, has still not told me her name.

"First of all, clothing." She turns back to me, "Though now by all means you are a villager, you do not look like one, a peasant's rags will be provided to you so that youkai do not attack you in confusion." I didn't agree to this.

"…What if we don't?" We are standing to the side of the fields, they are outside of the village, but there's more people working on them, so there should be no confusion as to what I'm doing there. "I'm quite comfortable with my clothes, and I see no reason as to why youkai would attack me here."

She looks at me in the eyes and glares, opening her mouth to speak, I cut her off. "Actually, before we argue, what is your name?"

"My name is Hina, and there is nothing to argue about." I think I'm angering this lady more than I should, and I hope I don't have to interact with the other Hina ever, so that I don't end up confused half of the time. "If you die on Hieda grounds, the blame will likewise fall on the Hieda." Reasonable, but not enough for me, I'm a greedy man.

"Well Hina, if you want me to be indebted to the Hieda like that, what about giving me a scythe for my personal use?" Though I would like a better weapon, beggars can't be choosers, and I can disguise this one as a mere tool. "Give me a scythe and I will use it to defend myself as a fierce peasant does. I have trained my strength and dexterity for much of my life, but youkai are naturally stronger." I begin my plea, "If you do this no blame will ever befall the Hieda, but not only that, I will bring glory to their name by defending their lands."

The furrow of her brows tells me enough, her face looks conflicted. Physical appearance is oftentimes very useful, and having someone who towers over you say such things must be a hard decision to take, she can rely on my looks, but the burden of choice befalls upon her shoulders. In the end, she relaxes her shoulders and sighs, opening her mouth to answer. "I will give you a single scythe,one, and you better be careful of what you do with it."

"Don't worry, I'll treat it well." I'm going to melt it into a war scythe. Glory will be his edge, Death his bride, long live Death.

She looks strangely at my most serious face, "You are a strange man, Focalor." I have been called to oppose the world, what did you expect? "Now, let's continue with the explanation." Sure. She turns back to the fields and extends her hand to one side, pointing, "You will have to toil on those three fields. Your fraction plants red beans, wheat and millet. Since you have told us you know about farming, I will assume you do not need any information about how or when to plant these things." She really just wants to leave, two days in, and I'm already making enemies.

"And where may I find them? Will tools be provided, or am I to do it with my own hands? I'm quite sure you already know I have no money here." I tell her, it's starting to feel constricting to ask everyone to give me whatever without being able to give anything back.

She points to a sort of division between fields, there stands a small wooden structure, "We place the tools and seeds there, we also put what we collect in bags that are stored there, so it is always locked, we don't want any youkai to come and think it is an easy target." If I were a youkai, I would not attack a group of people who dedicate themselves to manual labor and have tools which might as well just give me an express lobotomy, but I suppose that there are stupid people everywhere, so the lobotomy won't change much.

"Got it, do I also get a key, or am I supposed to ask someone to open it." I am not given an answer, she just looks at me and holds out her hand with the keys dangling, I put my hand under, and she lets go. "Alright, anything else?" I ask one last time.

"No, but when you finish report back to me, I still have to show you around your place of education." She speaks and turns to walk back to the village.

I bow down, my left knee very slightly bent, she does not turn back. It is sufficient for me to ritualistically show such things, even if it is shown to nobody in this world.

And so likewise, I turn back to the fields and walk to the shack or shed, whatever it is.

My boots are good for this terrain, and my steady step leads me quickly to the front door, the keys are inserted for a first time and the wood creaks as I walk inside. The place is well-kept, though slightly dusty in some parts, it is organized and cleaner than I thought it would be.

To the right side is a rack full of tools: scythes and pitchforks, ploughs and shovels, spades and pruning shears. They cover the wall in near rust red metal glory, I pick the spade, a hoe and the shovel, from what I've seen there are no animals here, so we'll have little use for a plough.

Putting the spade on my belt since it's smaller, I turn to the sacks with seeds and the like on the left side, looking one by one I find what I must plant, but unable to put them in anything other than the empty sacks to their side I choose to instead stuff them in my pockets. My mind keeps telling me that what I'm doing is a mess, but if I have to listen to a perfectionist all day, I will go actually insane, so it's best not to think much.

After I'm out of the shed -let's just leave it at shed- I set down the hoe for a moment and lock the door again. Setting the key upon one of my belt loops, I walk in the midst of the fields.

Seeing them side by side I step with care into the dirt, the shovel on my right is put down in the dirt by the side, and walking deeper the hoe is carefully but forcefully brought up and down to earth up the soil since they appear to not have removed a single weed in months.

I frown, before rolling up my sleeves and going at it again, it's clear that today is going to be a long second day compared to yesterday.

It's been a long time since I woke up, but I honestly could not tell you when it was, since I have no such thing as a clock here. I would say that it was around five or six in the morning since those are the hours I always woke up at to work, so by now looking at the sun in the middle of the sky -well almost in the middle- it might be 13 or 14. Eight hours of work is good work though a bit underwhelming, but I think it's just because I have a few fields for myself, while others do their own. "Suum cuique", I will not complain.

My stomach growls asking for nourishment, since I have not eaten in such a long time -in my physical body, that is-. And so, I put the last details by watering the crops a little with a bucket I had to pick up from the shed because I forgot to pick one up, with water from a small river that seems to come down from the Youkai Mountain, I'll most likely follow that river upwards just for fun one day. For now, let's walk back to the shed and leave the tools for others to take.

With care of not stepping over any plants I walk to the midst of the fields, where the earth is raised, and then onwards I look to the Heavens once again. It will not rain today, how boring. To the side of the shed, there is the young man who led me to my current residence, he has a bag tied to the left side of his hip looking at me, he smiles and raises his hand. I salute back, though I regret being so rigid.

Walking closer to me, he fumbles with the bag while trying to retain his balance, I keep walking towards him but his voice and arm reaching out stops me.

"Here, eat." A small loaf of bread is stretched out towards me, "Bread, okurimono." It's weird to hear someone say a word that's the same in your language, "pan" being bread, but I still can remember a few words of Japanese so that's good. I think "okurimono" was a gift, because okuri was "presenting" …right? Anyways, I stretch out my hand and gently hold the bread.

"…Arigato gozaimasu." Ugh… fucking, I don't know what to say because it's like the words almost come to me and then fizzle out, "Uh, ore no namae wa Focalor." I then point at him; "Kimi no namae wa?" I hope he gets what I mean, he brightens up and his smile widens slightly.

"Hisashi." Nothing more to say? I mean, maybe he assumes I'm not going to understand him, which is correct, but still.

Uh. "…Hisashi-san, Hina doko…hanasu?" I'm cringing so hard internally, you would not believe it, honorifics reminds me of the weird weebs online I used to talk with, and talking a language I don't know so obviously incorrectly is like stabbing my brain. I might have to do extra studying just to remain in the clear of not suffering this embarrassment ever again.

I think my suffering wasn't so "internal" even though I thought it was, because Hisashi is now laughing his ass off at the expense of my tense face, I do not blame him because I would most likely laugh too if I was him, but I also get Marisa's feelings now. "Here." He says in between chuckles and signals somewhere with his right hand, I take a bite out of my bread because I don't know whether to laugh or cry, and begin following after him when I realize he meant we're going back.

Looking curiously at the fields, now that we're done ourselves, I take note of the peasants that are still working, the older ones are clearly having more trouble than the younger ones. I can assume a lifetime in a place with such constrained resources as Gensokyo will place a great amount of pressure upon one's health, I pity them, who will not be able to even reach the peak of their physical prowess. Looking forwards I dismiss my feelings, I doubt they would even want such thing, a simple life is a good life to the average man and that is alright, there is no need to muddy simple things with ambition.

It is of notice how the roads lack maintenance, they are dirt roads no different from the ones leading to Marisa's house, just on a larger scale. Fully knowing that there are enough materials to change this, even if only for the common man, but that cowardice and greed prohibits men to come together and fulfill works of charity drives and grazes my sin of wrath.

May Love keep that feeling of hatred towards the depreciation of the divinity so prevalent in humankind tame, for my time here I would like to not be engaged in any form of paramilitary action, but my mind yet wanders towards the chances I was given here. The peasants in the fields not only keep working, but it is also clear that they are poorer than Hisashi with me, is this the disposition in which the farmers of the land who toil under the sun are tasked to succeed on average in dif-?

-I frown, my walk has almost ceased in my anger, I speed up, we are almost there.

Let us follow, is this fact in differentiation to the ways of the Hieda, or is this a mere privilege afforded to me as an outsider? Valuable in resources, knowledgeable in nature, am I kept as a future advisor like a mere investment or as a person to help?

We pass through the main gate without any trouble.

It is clear that the Hieda are in wait for outsiders, most likely for things such as mobile phones, maybe to overcome the kappa's in the technological battlefield? Sadly, it appears their efforts are futile, humans have been doomed in a project of progress for youkai growth, such thing will never happen. That is my belief.

Hisashi hails a fellow friend.

Then, to sum it up: The ruling class is unable to be assured of their future survival under the rule of youkai sages and a goddess-claimant who decisively was exiled to the eighty road-windings, seeking the power of technology to overcome this in similar manner to the people on the outside, because I was obviously an outsider I was quickly shown to those who demanded me, and so I supplied them.

We are closing towards our houses.

Therefore, I was never seen as someone to help by those declared virtuous guardians like Keine, but as a mere service or good, when I was shown to be unable to actually supply them with their unfortunate demand the market redirected me. This is not to say that Akyuu is not virtuous, but Akyuu does not represent her entire family, nor the views of the village, or even the next Child of Miare.

The humans need to feel safe from the perspective of a human society to remain cohesive, did not even the Lord need to say, "It is I; be not afraid"? How are they expected to feel safe when they are held loosely at the border of the abyss by forces they cannot ever trust? Fearfully put in an enclave, fleetingly living with such a small number of resources, they are told this fear is natural.

No, let us not deceive ourselves, this fear is natural. No less natural than the evolution of animals and plants in their different biomes. Whether that biome be artificial or not one must worry little, this is the natural end it would reach either way. In this manner, I truthfully am no different than those who wished to trap this grand faery, certainly I am a wolf.

Hisashi looks at the number on the door before knocking.

What a shame, it appears this life of mine will not be a peaceful one, but I suppose at least the joyful sound of the windows breaking will be for a good cause.

Hina opens certainly quickly, looking at both of us, Hisashi salutes her by waving his hand and wishing her a good day and they exchange a little bit of their time and effort in talking, I can understand a few words of wellness, but I disregard them too quickly to actually remember what they are. Hisashi ends up turning back to me and waving his hand again, before silently leaving. I suppose he does not expect me to even know how to say goodbye correctly, he is right.

Hina looks at me for too long, even if it was a mere second, "Come in." Sure, "I have that scythe you asked for." Good. She sits at her bed, much fluffier than mine but still obviously for a servant, the scythe -which looks pretty new- is at the bed's side. She sits it up without any problem and extends her arm, it tilts towards me, I walk closer and grab it. She lets go.

"…Well? What about education?" I ask her.

"I would like to know first why you seem so angry, as you may already have figured out, my job is managing how people work and live under the clan." She looks intently, "It is part of my skillset to notice how people act, and it is in my interest to know if anything out of the ordinary has happened." No, there are monsters on the outside too, my dear, there is nothing out of the ordinary.

I shake my head, "Not at all." I tell her, then continue, "If anything I'd like to say the people are quite kind, Hisashi gifted me some food after work." She has already noticed my anger so it is a horrible idea to utterly deny it, "I think I'm a little bit annoyed because I had some problems sleeping, but I will quickly grow used to it." I always do, it is an imperative to do so, failure towards adaptation is punishable by death.

"Well, if you say so…" She's obviously not convinced, but if I have not given it importance she will not do so. "Just say also if you need anything, the Hieda will provide." Of course they will, it is in their best interests to do so, I do not blame them either.

"Sure, well then, about the whole learning Japanese thing." I steer away the argument, even if more brusquely than I probably should, "I believe my capability to communicate with the locals is of more importance than my personal feelings." I do not only believe, I know.

"Yes yes, I get it. You will go to a "terakoya" administrated by the Hieda, if you do not know about what that means, it is merely a type of school." Hina says, I've heard of it, worry not.

"And?" I ask her, since she seems so satisfied with her answer.

"And what? Is there anything else you need to know?" I feel like I've met this type of person too many times in my life.

"Where is it located, if I am supposed to pay, and who is going to teach me come to mind." I tell her, at this point, was asking me why I was angry just an attempt at bothering me more?

"If you continue walking past this residential area to the east you will see a temple, that is the place, it is hard to miss. You do not need to pay, the Hieda will pay the school board whether you go or not. A tall silver-haired lady named Kamishirasawa Keine will teach you, she is a history teacher, so she most likely knows more about English than me." Hina answers, joy.

"Alright. Bye Hina." I'm not giving you honorifics, you do not deserve my cringe.

"By-Wait a minute." I turn back. She opens a cabinet to the side of her bed and hands me a really big bag with difficulty. The reason? It's heavy.

"What's this?" I ask her.

"Around 4000 mon." She answers. That's too much you're not telling me.

"And that means what? Am I going to have to pay it back?" I'm getting into debt with everyone I meet, man.

She smirks at me and looks like the stingiest man on the planet, "No." Alright, thanks for the explanation.

"What does this buy me?" I'm actually curious about the economy for once.

"Enough rice for a month, now go, you have classes to attend." She waves me away like an insect with that smug smirk of hers, do you show that face to everyone else? "You still have to pay taxes." Yeah but, damn, that's still a lot of money. Are they really that desperate?

"Alright, alright." I bow down ritualistically in the most classic manner and exit the room before closing it with care.

Out on the road, ignoring the curious stares some villagers just give me every time I pass around the place, I walk east. How do I know the east from the west you say? I do not, the sun is in the middle of the sky, and I do not remember from where it rose regarding my current position, I am wandering in hopes of not missing the temple school. While I walk, I grab and open my backpack, then plop the bag in it, it makes the way a little heavier on my back but it's alright.

By trying to look over the houses and stores as much as I can, I end up catching a glimpse of a building that is taller than the average at my right side, I would say it is a two-story building. I redirect my step towards it steadily, even if it wasn't the school I find that my curiosity wants to go there, so I will deign to listen to it and feed it even if only this time.

Passing a home at the corner, I can already see the place, I honestly do not remember how the temple school looked in the manga, but I assume this is it.

One of those bluish black Japanese gable roofs is sat upon its head, like a dignified hat upon the old construction that it is, the walls are white, and almost spotless. It seems charity is not actually lost in the village, maybe it only is in the lands surrounding it, where people may feel less safe than they are.

Those strange paper doors are everywhere on the first floor, and so I cannot rely on knocking at the gates, but by the time I'm close enough and nobody is around I open up a little bit on what I think is the front door, it appears to be some sort of reception area with a desk looking towards the door.

Sat behind the desk on front is Keine reading over a small stack of papers, with a modern pen, and writing over them from time to time. I open the door silently, walk in, and silently again close it.

With care of not making noise my dirtied boots are removed, I do not know whether it is necessary for me to do so, but I'd rather not get on Keine's bad side of all people. Someone like Hina is acceptable, managers often feel the need to have control over those they manage, so a transient person like me who comes and goes without care of her authority is a target for her wrath; Keine is not a person I should be on bad terms with, she is the protector of the village, and a beloved teacher to boot.

Walking on my socks, it is even easier to make little noise, sliding over the polished wood towards the desk feels a little weird to what I am used to.

"Miss Kamishirasawa?" I voice out, long names and stories have always been things I've cared to remember well, it is a good trait to use when meeting higher class people. The elite always care about connections, and in parties it usually comes to pass that they will remember everything you tell them, and they expect you to remember everything in turn. Businessmen, ruthless and an evil bunch they often are when they do not come from low or religious classes, are always very smart and well mannered.

She looks up from her papers as I arrive in front of her, "Yes, that is me, are you the man I was told to expect?" She looks at me with a gentle smile, carefully taking in my appearance, stopping briefly at the large scythe I have been carrying around.

I smile back, holding out my hand, "Focalor, an outsider, it is a pleasure to meet you Miss Kamishirasawa, I was told great things about you." I tell her, truthfully, "I hope whomever informed you of my visit said good things in turn." I jest.

She grabs my hand with her own strong one, we shake hands carefully but not awkwardly, "I was not told much about you other than what type of help you needed, but I can assume most of it by your presentation." She jests back.

"You most likely assume correctly. I speak many languages, but Japanese is not one of them, I know the hiragana alphabet and some expressions though, so I shouldn't be such a bother to teach." I shamefully but hopefully tell her, "I would like to begin now, but I was not told much about when we were going to start or end these "individual classes", so if you are busy with what I assume is the qualification of your younger students I will come tomorrow at the early afternoon." I bow down my head just a little in respect.

"No! Don't worry, let me finish this exam in a moment and we'll get to it, I was just passing time until you or someone else arrived." She assures me with a smile yet again, a nice woman, isn't she? It shouldn't be doubted why she is the guardian of the village.

"I will wait then." I tell her, and rest against the desk while she corrects the student's errors. She truthfully is quickly going through it, but it feels like she isn't cutting any corners, it is just her skill as a teacher who loves her work that has led her to this point.

As soon as she is done, I hear the click of the retractable pen, "There, follow me, let's sit at a table inside." She gets up, and she really is tall, certainly not taller than me but taller than most people. Going through the hallway at the left of the reception desk, I follow her as asked. Just some meters inside the hallway she opens a paper door to the right side, it looks pretty similar to how classrooms looked back when I had to do my obligatory education. The contrast between how modern the inside appears to be and how old the outside presents itself is a little curious, but I give it no thought. "Grab a chair, please." Keine says as I look around the place. Grabbing a chair, I follow her to the teacher's table and set down the scythe on the floor next to us.

Setting the chair down I sit at her side, "Now, I know you said you already knew the hiragana, but just in case let's do a little refresh before fully diving in." A good idea.

"Sure." I say, I don't doubt that this period will be much more enjoyable than most.

My lack of doubt was confirmed as the afternoon went on, and by the end of it I'd like to say I came out a much more learned man even if I was still not going to understand more than a few words of Japanese. Upon finishing, the somewhat rudimentary looking notebook that Keine had brought out so we could note things down and practice literary exercises was given to me, I put it with care in my backpack in a separated section from the one where I stuff everything else in order to preserve the notes I took as faithfully as possible.

Curiously enough Keine had a clock in the classroom to check the hour, we started at around 15 and ended by 19, mostly because we had little time to continue and Keine had other things to do. I will make sure to try to get things done earlier tomorrow.

Walking to the exit -or entrance I should say- I turn back to Keine following me to bid me farewell. Carefully I set my scythe against my own body. Left knee bent very slightly, heel in the air with the forefoot holding my weight, right hand to my chest and bow down my head lightly. "As I said before, it has been a pleasure, Miss Kamishirasawa." I say before ceasing my bow, "I will be back tomorrow, hopefully earlier." I continue, now giving my back and putting on my boots back again, "But in that line of thinking I would like to ask where a blacksmith may be, so that I can purchase some sort of clock or device to tell the time." I end my reasoning.

She seems a little confused by my bowing but nods understandingly, walking by me and putting on some sandals, wandering to the outside she points towards a street, "If you go down that way then to the left, you will find a store with the character for "dawn", I believe I've taught you this already so think of it as a small test." She says, but then opens her mouth again and continues, "I would like to add something to note because you are an outsider, but clocks are expensive, so maybe you would be better off with a sundial…and please feel free to call me Keine."

"I believe I have not said so but thank you for your efforts, Miss Keine, I'm glad everyone I've met here has been so accommodating." I tell her with a slight smile, "I will do my best to communicate such sentiment to the shopkeeper, even though it might be a little hard." I once again turn and give my back, "I will return tomorrow at around the same hour."

She waves her hand as I walk away, "See you tomorrow!" I salute back.

Following her instructions I walk with scythe in hand, I take the first left turn I can take, and now I calmly look over at the buildings with signs. Quite quickly I do find the place Keine was talking about, and opening the heavy door reinforced in metals I walk inside.

The blacksmith is in the front, a tanned older man, but looking around his early 30s. Up at the front I set down my backpack and take out my sack of mon, putting it on top of the counter. The blacksmith looks at me directly.

Pointing my left palm upward I put my right index finger pointing to the ceiling in a diagonal line, then I remove my right hand and do some sort "woosh" sound trying to emulate sun rays with it, finishing I look at the now chuckling shopkeeper with the best poker face I can fathom. He looks under the counter for a short time before bringing out a small sundial, he bites his thumb looking at it for a moment before raising eight fingers and then lowering them, just to raise 4 more specifically put separately.

Hina did not give me enough money for a month of rice. If we say this sun dial is costing me around three euros or dollars, that cannot be more than 150 euros. I bring out the coins which apparently amount to 84 with some struggle as he counts and he takes them, putting them somewhere below the counter, which must be wherever the sundial was. I grab the thing, and stuff it in my pocket.

Now, to throw the rest of my money down the drain. I put the scythe down on the counter, then with care my hand is now on top of the blade but like sideways, in this manner I do a very poor imitation of a rusty metal door screeching and straighten my hand to tell the guy I need him to straighten the blade. He looks at me with a raised eyebrow but doesn't appear to question my motives, raising his hands he does a five but then he waits a moment and does a separate six, and he then really accentuates a last closed fist so I think he's saying I need to pay around 560 mon. I bite my own thumb myself. Damn.

Fuck it, let's count to those 560. I start putting coins on the counter, and saying that the blacksmith looks a bit exasperated would be an insult to the very concept of vision, so he starts bringing out coins too. A pair of minutes later we end up with him having 120 coins valued as four mon each -which we figured out with a little more sign language- while I bring out a last 80 valued as one mon each, I stopped him at that amount so we didn't end up bringing out any more than we wanted to, I move the coins together and then push it towards the guy. I thought I could manage understanding numbers in Japanese, so I told him a few numbers to get my point across, but we gave up halfway when I completely lost what was being said in the conversation and I apologized to the poor guy.

He holds his arms up a little bit up to the waist, but he moves them around like he just doesn't know what to do now, which like, same brother. After a bit he goes through a door behind him and returns with a bucket that he decides to hold slightly below the counter, so he just starts pushing the coins inside, which is actually pretty efficient apparently. When he's done with that, he stops for a moment to think and picks up the 84 coins we had exchanged earlier to pour them into the bucket also. We take a moment to contemplate the present and sigh, this was really tiring for what it was, and it shouldn't have been.

Without much delay the blacksmith takes my scythe and takes it to the back through the door, and now it's just a waiting game, so let's think for a little bit beyond "I think this is like not enough money bro" since I don't know if he'll take hours to do this or even days.

If my gift of prophecy is real, and the sundial worth 84 mon is also worth 3 euros, that would mean a euro is worth 28 mon. I do not remember what the exchange rate of euros to yen was, so I'm throwing that "trifecta" of coinage out of the window.

We are saying that 4000 divided by 28 is going to be what I was given in euros then, I'm not going to undermine myself, and say that means it's going to be 1000 divided by 7.

So, ugh, ten and seven is three.

Then we have 30, so that is seven times four which is 28 with a quotient of two.

Then two to 20, 20… minus fourteen, that is a quotient of six.

In total, 142 euros with a quotient of six, yes. If we furthermore say that six divided by seven is like what… just… we already refreshed our Japanese knowledge so let us just do mathematics too. I feel like such an idiot.

Let us turn six to 60, that means that seven times eight, so 56 with a quotient of four.

Four to 40, that means seven times five, 35 with five as quotient.

Five to 50, seven times seven is 49, fuck you, one as a quotient.

Ten, times one, three.

30… wait. We are back to 30? You gave me a repeating decimal as a gift? Hina, you bitch, that better have been something set down by the Hieda… Well, I suppose neither of them would have known how much money that was in euros, I just want to give my annoyance a face to hate.

I inhale for a moment, and exhale slowly. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. This time I'm trespassing against others for such a small reason.

142,857142. With a repeating decimal starting on eight and ending on two…We'll say it is 142,86. It would be a very poor living one would have to eat rice all days of the months with just that amount.

Waiting for more time in silence and almost falling asleep in the process, I jump slightly when the door is opened, getting up and patting myself down, I look at the blacksmith. There he is, in all his glory, with my scythe turned into a war scythe. I thought he was an ordinary guy, but then he pops up like less than 20 minutes later, or so I think unless I actually fell asleep, is he a magician or something? He gives the thing to me horizontally and I grab it with care, because I feel like annoying our magically gifted friend more than I already did is not a good idea. He smiles, apparently proud, even if for such a little thing.

Resting it on myself like a Swiss guard with his halberd, I bow down and quite deeply to express my respect, and upon rising he looks a little flustered. I suppose it makes sense, what I paid was technically pretty cheap and I'm bowing to him like it was a masterpiece, but to me it is a masterpiece. Now, I actually have a good weapon to defend myself with, now, I am able to be set out on the hunt. "Domo arigato gozaimasu."

I wave goodbye and turn back leaving him with a smile, with great speed I get to the door, but I open and close it silently. Out of the blacksmith I tune out any noise going through my mind, I set a fast march, I have not eaten anything since the middle of the day, and that was basically just a small piece of bread.

Now, what I will be doing might be reckless, not because I'm going to hunt, but because I'm going to eat whatever I hunt. With an actual weapon, I should easily be able to kill a youkai similar to the one that attacked me, merely by the virtue that I won't need to get close enough to stab it through the chest or neck.

I cut through the corner, then passing the Hieda mansion I salute the guards, now we push forwards one last time. This avenue follows to the gate that leads to the Forest of Magic, so I don't need to cross any more streets, closing towards it I see a guard at the gate look at me.

I hail him and ignore anything he might say as I open up the gate, closing it slowly enough to not make any great noise but fast enough to not cease my momentum. On the open fields I turn my constrained march into a jog, now that I do not need to heed care of any civilian in my way, I can simply do a small warmup.

The grassy land, the dirt under my feet, the feeling of rocks counteracting my weight. I take a deep breath, I have not appreciated it much until now, but the clean air is noticeable. The earth, and the air, so I look at the heavens. Deep blackness with strongly dotted stars in the firmament reminds me of old days of adventure in the wildest villages and the freed jungles, it is a blessing for a man to be able to enjoy nature, and I cannot fathom what the people of the future outside will have the chance to enjoy.

The birds of the air are harder to see now, but even at this hour there are some that grace the sky, it shames me to admit that I was never interested in them now that I want to describe their beauty; I only held a most royal eagle one in my childhood, what a beast to see up close. As I near the Forest of Magic I slow down my motion, and then take a detour through a small path at the right, which I have not explored yet.

The path is not…narrow, well it is narrow but not on the level of a one-person path, it would be correct to say that it could be a small road if properly paved. I take my time walking thinking this might be the "Youkai Trail", but when I am not attacked or anything, I decide to instead cross into the forest by turning left.

I lower my scythe with enough force and sustained strength to create a line in the humid soil as I walk, still walking parallel to the road I can hear some sounds close. At first, they were either altogether getting closer or just static far away, but now I can only hear a single constant. I cease moving, and grabbing my scythe backwards strike a nearby tree.

Once, twice, thrice. My opponent has been notified, I will not move from this spot, and I am willing to defend my position.

Now it steadily waltzes just a smidge slower than the run it had preferred until now. I count steps, it is too fast to be a beast on two feet, I feel glad I won't be eating any human looking thing tonight.

The night is dark in the forest, but by now my eyes have acclimated even if just a bit, the light the moon so viciously reflects illuminates the forest as much as the blessed sun can afford to fuel it. I see a shadow moving in the distance, like a church facing the east in eternal service, the specific lack of light denotes its presence.

I position my war scythe comfortably, but tightly defending my center, pointedly and menacingly daring anyone to attack my throat. Without any hesitation the youkai beast approaches me in a quick charge as soon as it gets close enough, clearly wishing to snap my legs like twigs, a black boar-like being sprints forth.

I move in between the trees at my left side, and dance with it around a tree to catch it off guard as soon as I can by flanking him around the thinnest tree I can find. I step back and get in between trees by glimpsing quickly to avoid any impacts. A feeble enough tree shows itself when I retreat enough under the beast's relentless attack, and as the boar rushes towards me I dive to the right and strike it in the space between its neck base and shoulders. The slice from above pierces decently through its hide, I think the blacksmith might have sharpened the blade, but a good piece of fat and a strong bone stop any attempts of slaying it. Shit.

I quickly step backwards, with my right foot almost flat and my left talon slightly in the air, I almost slide away from danger; my footing is kept as much as I can keep it in this terrain, so my left never overcomes my right and vice versa.

I really underestimated the speed of a youkai "boar", or whatever this is, because even though I have trained myself to retain a good stamina I am getting quickly winded up from running away. The boar regards me for a moment, its intelligent eyes tell me that we are both fighting for a meal, it is a shame it won't return with a full belly to his home.

As soon as I see movement in its hooves, I run away searching for some way to catch it off-guard, I have given my back, but it will pay off. Running deeper in the forest, still in parallel to the road far off in the distance, I see a small "hole" in a hill with trees and foliage. I can do this.

Going up the hill I threaten to fight the boar again, but as soon as it reaches what I consider a dangerous distance I dodge left again, now quickly walking backwards to the hole I jump down behind one of the trees trying to keep my balance. I prepare my war scythe and point upwards from the hole, the boar runs through the foliage, unprepared to counter the fall.

A fleshy slash rings through the night, its belly is ripped open like a sack of crimson water ravaged by high pressure and flesh swollen by fat. Before my scythe gets stuck or this thing reaches stable ground and tries to run away, I follow the direction of the fall turning away, just before it reaches the soil, I push with all my strength. A squeal follows the slash, I push into its belly again before ripping out my war scythe, just to descend again and strike as deep as I can into its organs.

I cut them down, again, and again, and again. It squeals, but here in the battlefield of life it would have given me no quarter, I stab it with as much force as I can muster.

Through sinews and organs, and all kinds of tissues, my blade faithfully cuts.

It ceases any form of struggling and fearful crying out, but I keep on striking it.

By the time the initial effect of my adrenaline wears off, the boar's belly is truly ripped open, watery blood and pieces of organs lay on the ground in the midst of the fallen leaves.

I put my bloodied scythe through my belt and grab the boar by its legs with my now wet gloves, it is heavy, but with my own blood still pumping I manage to bring it out of that hole and into the hill. With some struggle I put the thing on my shoulders, my back regrets carrying so many things on my backpack and now an extra weight of at least 70 kilos, but eating is more important. I think I have to give up on following that line I made in the dirt though.

Going down the hill with care of not losing my footing due to the change in balance, I end up seeing the road, and into the road a light. I walk steadily, as soon as I get to a much smoother terrain, and when I end up on the road, I find a girl to blame for the light.

With a strange looking attire, pink hair, and the appearance of some sort of strange bird, I can only assume this is Mystia, I am too tired to add much more. Also, it seems like this really was the Youkai Trail. If I remember correctly this is a horrible person to meet, but I honestly cannot care less now, I was going to cook the boar over a fire but now I think I'm going to trade it for a meal.

Walking up to her, she looks at me with a dismayed and slightly condescending face, I'm not blind by now so I'm guessing I'm safe.

"Ryori…?" I point at the boar as soon as I'm close enough, I think "ryori" meant "cooking", I do not know any other way to say it, so it is all or nothing. She still looks like she doesn't want me here, but now the boar is an incentive.

"Smile…youkai…?" I don't get anything she said other than those two words, but I pat my face, I am indeed smiling. Not a youkai though, maybe she means the boar?

I probably did something wrong, because she just gives up on words as I question myself and does some sort of cutting motion on her hand, before pointing at the counter and then at me. Cut the boar? Skin the boar? …I suppose I'll do both. I turn my back and put the boar on the counter with as much care as I can, Mystia doesn't stop me, so I assume it's fine.

Silently I begin skinning the beast with my war scythe as best as I can, considering I do not have a skinning knife. Even then, when I accompanied hunters, we did things with guns and machines, so I think I'm doing a good job. I take out its glands with care as I separate the skin in the flank and legs.

I've skinned the thing, even if really messily since now the counter is full of blood, and now I have to quarter it. As I bring up the blade to cut through the front leg's joints Mystia cries out, "STOP!" Surprisingly, it is in English, "Tomare!" Sadly, she does not speak English again, so I think it was just an attempt at getting my attention.

Mystia drags the carcass gently, so it doesn't move things around, or break anything, that youkai strength obviously helps her. Then she herself starts cutting things with grand precision, she could have been looking at me like an insect, but I think I'll forgive her.

"Okane?" I ask her, I just said money, don't remember what "paying" was. She looks at me over the flesh, since she's kind of small.

"…450." Yon is four, hyaku is a hundred I think, go is five, and juu is for making that 50. I think I'm getting scammed; I gave her a shit ton of free meat, that boar creature was actually pretty big.

"…Hyaku roku juu, to gohan ashita." I'm not giving her more than a 160 mon for the service, she's also getting most of the meat anyways for today and tomorrow, keep some for me.

She does not take that well, but then she looks at me like a homeless dog -even if a bloodied one- for a moment and grimaces, "Oke." Says a lot that the lady that should be just dragging my corpse around the road or something is making food for me for cheap, I think that if I let the Hieda give me food I'd end up three gazillion mon in debt. But honestly, I feel like I'm scamming her now, I'll pay some more today and tomorrow.

From that moment on we are silent, I look around the road so that we don't get attacked or anything, but yeah, I don't think anyone is coming any time soon.

In the end she does these brochette or skewer sort of things pretty quickly, and some strange really small salad with seaweed. I start taking out the money, plus an extra 40 mon, as she sets up everything on a plate.

Just as I'm doing this she asks, "Sake?" She brings up a glass, like just a plain glass but a little smaller, not a shot glass though.

I look at her, "Okane?" If it works don't fix it.

"100." She deadpans at me, that's probably expensive for sake, but whatever.

I nod, then keep bringing out money. By the time I'm done the food is on the counter and the sake in the glass. She takes it with much less care than I brought it out and just stuffs it somewhere I care very little to peek for.

I finally relax as I taste the strong yet somewhat dry meat of the boar, she put some strangely sweet sauce on it, so it does have a really good contrast to how tough to swallow it is; likewise, the seaweeds are quite sweet, but I find them enjoyable. The sake has that classic taste of a fruit you have never tasted with hints of rice, which is like the uncanny valley of alcohol flavors to me, it's pretty good, but I like the good old European alcoholic stuff better. Now that I think of it, I hope I haven't sprained or broken anything, would be a really bad thing to just fuck up my legs after I almost fucked up my arm.

The night slowly passes in silence, but even then, it is interesting to see how human a youkai is, even if the moment of realization is her cutting your prey's meat as you eat.

Third chapter. I thought of doing some sort of interlude but ended up making it an expansion of the Gensokyan economic system, with a mix of adding to Focalor's personality and geography.

I was quite happy with this last fight as a step up towards a closer sense of his fighting capabilities, he will lose against basically anyone, but among normal people and youkai he is…stronger. Do not expect this to remain a constant, though, demons are ambitious as you may have noticed.

I should also inform you, if you hadn't already assumed so, that Focalor here is quite the unreliable narrator, and his monetary standard is basically a shot in the dark, so it is not worth trying to tie the Gensokyan economy to the outside world. He also is pretty bad at mathematics.

I also ended up answering a part of your question before I read it, Al. Keine was not there because he was such an obvious outsider, that he was shown directly to the Hieda, and never managed to get inside the village in any manner to be deigned something the guardian of the village should attend to. Focalor is certainly wrong in his near-paranoiac ramblings, but I'd say that people like Akyuu are quite interested in outsider technology and habits based on Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, so it wouldn't be weird for them (outsiders that is) to be seen as technological investments like a foreign advisor would be to a nobleman.

I also ended up making this chapter a few thousand words longer than the other two; I really want to end up writing longer chapters, but I feel like if I lose steam I'm going to just end up forgetting to do anything at all, 6300 words should be the minimum and from then on whatever happens happens. I've checked for grammar and found nothing lacking, maybe a few repeating words or strange idiosyncrasies of mine here and there, but I'll check over the day of today and tomorrow multiple times again to see if it is an issue or if there's any actual mistakes I was enough of an idiot to never notice.

As always: I thank you for your attention, interaction, and inspiration. So on and so forth.

Dominus Vobiscum.