When I awoke, I found myself in the room where I awoke from my evolutionary slumber, so to speak. Unlike last time, there was no one in the room alongside me. I sat up from the bed and took this moment of silence to reflect on the danmaku duel that I participated in before falling unconscious.
‘For my first time doing this, I’d say I did fairly well. I definitely need to get better at analyzing patterns to find sweet spots to dodge the bullets, improving my reaction time so that I can actually dodge the bullets as they near me, and staying focused on the battle. I’ve noticed that I have a tendency to get lost in my thoughts at times. This tendency played a part in my downfall in the battle. I got so caught up in my thoughts that I lost focus of the battle, and as a result, I was hit by a bullet that I could’ve dodged otherwise.’ I summarized my primary weaknesses during that spell card duel.
‘Well, at least it seems that my patterns are pretty effective as Koishi was caught off guard several times by the patterns. Actually, was her getting hit caused by my spell patterns or because she was just going easy on me? I hope it’s the former, and I’ll just assume so unless given proof that it isn’t because I did see a surprised expression during some parts of the fight.’
Knock Knock
A faint knocking sound made me raise my head and look toward the door, thereby snapping me out of my thoughts. A few seconds after the knocking stopped, the door opened, revealing Orin standing in the hallways.
“Oh, you're awake! Do you feel any discomfort at all?” She asked while walking into the room, reminding me once again of a mother concerned about their child’s wellbeing.
“N-no, I don’t” I responded shortly after she finished her question.
‘Wait, did I nearly answer her question without stuttering? Did I answer her without taking too much time lost in my thoughts, trying to convince myself to speak? Is it that I am getting better at talking to people I don’t know, or is it that I am starting to get closer to Orin?’ I wondered. I felt a weird connection with Orin, actually not just Orin, but everyone in the palace. I couldn’t tell what this connection was, it was sort of like the connection I felt with my parents, but also not at the same time. It was hard for me to explain even to myself, but I was sure that something was there or at least developing. Orin acted like my mother, always there to care for me and make sure everything was alright. Satori and Koishi both acted like my sisters, which they were, who tried to make me feel welcome and get me to fit in with the rest. Okuu, who I had only met once, easily accepted who I was. Even though they have done all this for me, I’m still not ready to accept them as my family yet, despite the fact that I know for certain they are certainly my family.
“I heard you battled Miss Koishi yesterday, how was it?” Orin asked, walking towards me before sitting down on the bed, right next to where I sat up while I was still deep in contemplation.
“I-it was okay. I managed to m-make her use h-her spell card.” I answered.
“Oh, that’s pretty impressive! You managed to make Miss Koishi use her first spell card despite it being your first time battling with danmaku. Although she may not look like it, Miss Koishi actually has a lot of experience in battling. Most of those who she battled did not make it past her first nonspell.” Orin praised before reaching her hand out towards my head.
I shuddered when I felt her hand reach my head. She started to slowly move her hand from side to side, patting my head. I felt a heavenly sensation when she began to do so. The head pat felt so comfortable that my body relaxed involuntarily. I had entered a trance-like state of pure comfort from her gentle caresses. I even heard myself start purring, which I didn’t even know I could, because of how good the head pat felt. I soon snapped out of this trance when I realized I was purring. I blushed heavily when I finally got out of the trance and slowly backed away from Orin until I couldn’t feel her hand on my head anymore.
Orin, who definitely heard my purring, as she was chuckling, moved towards me again, extending her hand towards my head. I tried to dodge as best that I could, but eventually, her hand reached my head. Resisting a bit at first, I tried to pull her hand off my head with my own hands, but they didn’t have enough strength to overpower hers. I continued my useless struggle until Orin scratched behind my ear. A pleasant sensation that felt better than any other sensation I had felt in my life assaulted me. Losing my will to resist, I surrendered myself to Orin and started to lean into her hand, as if begging for more scratches.
She once again chuckled at my behavior but continued to scratch behind my ears. I closed my eyes in pleasure and heard myself purring again, but this time I disregarded it. The only thing that mattered was the feeling of being scratched behind the ears. There was nothing that could drag me away from Orin’s hand right then, but just then, my stomach released a loud growl. The growl woke me up from the trance and I blushed a deeper red than I had before, in part due to the embarrassment I felt from being played with like a cat and from my stomach making such a loud noise.
“Awww, kitty is hungry after all that purring.” Orin teased before slowly removing her hand from my head. I frowned when he did so, to which Orin laughed again. It took me a while to realize what Orin had just said because I was too focused on her hand, but when I did, my blush somehow deepened, which I didn’t think was possible at all as my face was already completely bright red. I hid my face with my hands, not daring to see what face Orin was making in response to my reaction.
“Hahaha,” Orin laughed even harder seeing my actions. “Let’s go get some food then.” She said before gently guiding me to the edge of the bed and pulling me up to my feet. Once I was up, she let go of my hand and gestured for me to follow her. I did so and soon we ended up in the royal chamber hallway. We walked out of the hallway and into the Great Foyer. From there we simply climbed down the stairs before walking straight until we got to the door directly across from where we came from, entering the dining hall.
Unlike the other halls, this one looked very uninteresting to me, only having a few decorations. The only notable part of this area of the house was the 5 doors that the hallway connected. Orin guided me to the room closest to the door where we had walked in from. She opened the door to reveal a grandiose dining room with massive tables and enough seats to fit about 40 people. The room was lit by several crystal chandeliers and a clover-patterned floor made of some kind of polished stone that I did not know the name of. The walls were covered with paintings that had gemstones embedded in the frames of the paintings. On the table, several candlesticks were already lit and all the plates and silverware were already set out. Orin led me to one of the seats and gestured for me to sit down.
“What do you want to eat?” Orin asked me while standing beside my seat.
“A-anything is f-fine,” I answered.
“Would you rather have human food or youkai food?” She asked, hearing my answer.
“W-what is youkai food?” I questioned.
“Well, some youkai typically prefer to eat humans instead of regular food, so we decided to name it that way. If you were wondering, everyone in this palace likes to eat regular food. Actually, to tell the truth, most youkai don’t need to eat to survive, but many still eat just to experience the taste of food and the euphoric feelings that come from eating good food.” She explained.
“I-I’ll take r-regular food, please.” I requested, still a bit shocked at the revelation that some youkai liked to eat humans.
“Alright, would fettuccine alfredo with chicken be fine with you?” Orin asked.
I simply nodded, to which Orin said “Alright, I’ll be right back then.” She walked out of the dining room, presumably towards the kitchen.
While Orin was away, I returned to my thoughts and started to put together a plan for the future.
‘I should go to the library after this to find out about Gensokyo and its inhabitants. While this might not help me in potential battles in the future, it always is a good idea to understand your surroundings and the world around you, at least to a point. There were also those two books that I had when I first woke up, I should probably read those as well. I should also see if the library has any books about space. Although I have a stellar affinity, I don’t know too much about the complexities of space itself. Learning about those complexities could lead to new ideas for danmaku patterns in the future.’ I thought to myself.
‘After I finish up what I want to do in the library, I should try to find ways to improve either the quality or quantity of the danmaku energy inside me, so that I can use more spell cards or create more intricate patterns. Right now I have a few ideas on how to, and I am decently confident that they will work based on my understanding of danmaku energy. Well, only time will tell I guess. If they work then great, but if they don’t then I’ll have to rethink my idea of how danmaku energy behaves.’
Just as I concluded my thoughts, Orin came back into the room holding a plate of fettuccine alfredo that was still steaming. I thought that only a minute or two had passed since I started my thinking, but it seems like more time had passed than I thought as all the recipes I knew required around 8 to 10 minutes to prepare. It appeared that my issue with getting lost in my thoughts was more severe than I first thought.
“Hope I keep you waiting too long! Usually, this only takes around a minute to prepare, but I made a small mistake and ended up taking 2 minutes.” Orin said while placing the plate of freshly cooked pasta in front of me.
‘Oh, I was wrong, it seems only a few minutes passed.’ I was slightly relieved that my issue of getting lost in thoughts was not as bad as I had just thought. ‘Wait, how did she prepare the pasta this quickly?’ I wondered.
“H-how did you prepare t-this so quickly? A-all the recipes t-that I know take 8-10 m-minutes?” I decided to ask her.
“Oh, we have special equipment here that allows us to lower the time required to cook food. It also helps that we are able to harness a higher temperature than normal.” She responded. “Enjoy your meal!”
I nodded, satisfied by her response, before taking a bite of the dish she had placed in front of me. When I chewed the food, I felt tears start streaming down my cheeks. I wasn’t sure what had caused tears to flow.
“Are you okay? Was the food not to your taste?” Orin, noticing my tears, asked me, concerned about what had caused me to cry.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I quickly shook my head before trying to figure out why I started shedding a few tears. At first, I thought it was because the food was too hot, but I quickly dispelled that idea because I didn’t feel any pain that could have caused me to cry. After considering a few other ideas, I finally realized the reason why I had started to cry. It was because the taste of the food tasted like the food cooked by my mom. I could not remember anything about my mother herself, but I could still remember the taste of her food, the gentle caresses when I felt down, and her hugs.
This sudden influx of memories related to my mom caused more tears to stream down my face before I started full-on sobbing. Orin, like before when I cried, quickly enveloped me in her arms and gently hugged me before starting to pat my back in an attempt to calm me down. Unlike last time, she didn’t say anything, she just methodically patted my back. I wrapped my arms around her and buried my head in her shoulder, still sobbing. I gradually felt my eyes start to dry and tears no longer fell out of them. I felt calmer, yet still a bit emotionally unstable, as more tears could flow out at any moment.
“W-why d-does y-your c-cooking, hugs, and p-pats f-feel like mom’s?” Regaining the ability to talk, I asked her in a croaky voice, still a bit winded by my emotions.
“That’s because I was the one to teach her how to cook and I was also the one who your mom ran to when she needed someone to comfort her. Apart from your dad, I was her closest confidant. You see, I was her friend before I became Miss Satori’s pet. Actually, one of the reasons I became Miss Satori’s pet is because your mom requested me to. I owe my life to your mom as she was the one who took me in. Before meeting your mom, I was like an abandoned kitten with nowhere to go and scarcely anything to eat. I wandered everywhere in the Underworld searching for any kind of food. One day when I reached the entrance to a large building, I collapsed due to hunger. As you can imagine, this building is the one we are in right now. Your mom, then the mistress of the palace saw my pitiful state and decided to take me in. She fed and nurtured me until I became an adult and gained a human-like form, the one you see right now. Upon obtaining a human form, I treated her like my mistress, but she requested that I treat her like a friend, so I did so, yet a feeling of owing something to her remained. For this reason, I naturally agreed to her second request that she had given me.” She explained, reminiscing about the past.
“Then one day, she suddenly disappeared with no warning. Everyone in the palace was sad, but we all had to move on. Years later, you appeared with the last name Komeiji, a name uniquely exclusive to your family, so I knew that you were most likely the third child of your mom. When I first met you, I was surprised because you reminded me of your mom when she was younger if she were a human. Your personalities were also very similar, which is what caused me to hug you and then tease you afterward.” She concluded her story with that remark.
“H-how w-were my parents when t-they were here?” I asked.
Orin had a blank look on her face as she looked towards the sky, seemingly feeling a bit downcast as she was reminded of her memories with my mom. My parent’s disappearance must have greatly affected her.
“I-if you don’t want to, y-you don’t have to answer.” I quickly added, seeing her downcast look.
“No, it’s fine, sorry for getting lost in my memories for a bit. Your mom was the sweetest soul I have ever met. She was gentle with anyone she met, she was friendly enough that she could befriend anyone she met if she wanted to. She was also very excitable and had a lot of energy. She loved playing around with everyone, and everyone enjoyed her company.” She answered slowly as a small smile started forming on her face, probably because she was remembering the happy memories with my mom. “Is there anything else you want to know right now?”
I shook my head because I didn’t want to trouble her any further than I already had, and I didn’t want to force her to remember the sadness she felt when my mom disappeared. I resumed eating the food that Orin had prepared, each bite giving me a nostalgic feeling, until the plate was empty of any food.
“I’ll take that plate for you Ayaka.” Orin offered.
“T-thank y-you.” I meekly responded before handing her the plate.
She walked out of the dining room and I followed her. Outside the dining room, I told her that I was going to the library. Before I split up from her though, I remembered that I needed to ask her something.
“Ummm, Orin, w-where a-are the books I had w-when I f-first met you?” I asked.
“Oh, they are all on the table closest to the librarian’s desk in the library. I figured that you would stop by there at some point, so I left them there so you would easily see them.” She answered before walking down the hall towards another door.
I went back through the door to the Great Hall before climbing the stairs right next to the door I came from to get to the recreational hall. In the hall, I went to the 2nd door from where I started and opened it. Once I did, I saw a large room that was filled with bookshelves housing thousands of books that reached the ceiling. The entire room was lit by bright lamps attached to the walls. At the entrance area were several tables and seats near an L-shaped desk protruding from the wall that served as the librarian’s desk. A medium-sized crystal sat atop that desk with a piece of paper next to it. On the table closest to this desk, I saw the familiar cover and title of the two books that fell near where I was when I woke up.
Seeing the sheer amount of books in the room, I wondered how I was ever going to find the books I wanted. I was intimidated by the thought of the task, but still resolutely walked towards the books, determined to find what I wanted. Before I got past the librarian’s desk, I saw the crystal faintly glow, as if beckoning me towards it. I walked over to the crystal and read the paper next to it. The paper read:
How to Find the Book You Want
Visualize what you want to know and then move danmaku energy from your body into the crystal. The crystal will glow, causing some books on the shelves to brightly glow. Each of the glowing books will have the information you are looking for. The glowing will last for 10 minutes to allow you time to collect them.
‘Okay, the first thing I want more information about is this place called Gensokyo, so all I have to do is visualize the word Gensokyo in my mind and transfer some energy to the crystal and some books should glow’ I thought to myself. I did that, and to my surprise, only a single book glowed. I went to collect it and saw that it was only an extremely thin book titled Gensokyo The Basics.
I went back to the tables and took a seat before starting to read the book. After spending a few minutes I quickly finished the book due to its small size and my already fast reading speed. To summarize the book, it basically said something along the lines of:
Gensokyo, a world of fantasy that used to be a part of the Outside World, but was separated due to the creation of a barrier that divides reality and fantasy made by the youkai sage Yukari Yakumo to restore the fading power of youkai in Gensokyo. Since the creation of the barrier, Gensokyo has become a place for things that have become fantasy outside, namely things that have been forgotten by the Outside World, like youkai and lost items. Gensokyo was further separated from the Outside World by the creation of a second barrier called the Great Hakurei Barrier, which reinforced the separation of Gensokyo from the increasingly scientific Outside World.
Youkai, its main inhabitants are mainly folk creatures or supernatural beings that have been forgotten in the Outside World. They are primarily spiritual beings rather than physical beings, so faith-based attacks are more effective on them than physical attacks. Youkai have long lifespans compared to humans but are not immortal like fairies. Most youkai have a special supernatural ability that allows them to do usually unimaginable feats.
‘The phrase Outside World is an unfamiliar term to me, is it possible that I was somehow transported from this Outside World to Gensokyo? I should ask Miu to double-check my reasoning. My memories of before I woke up in the cave are still hazy regarding the place I was in for most of my life. I assume I didn’t live in Gensokyo my whole life as this whole area looks unfamiliar to me. Hey Miu, did I get transported from the Outside World to Gensokyo?
Sorry Ayaka, but I can neither deny nor confirm your assumption as the answer to the question contains classified information. Miu told me in a downtrodden voice.
‘It’s fine, but it is a bit suspicious why the answer would be classified, but I’ll leave it for now. Next on my list of what to do is to read the books that have been with me since waking up here. I looked at the titles of both of them, Myths and Legends Around the World and How to Best Learn from Observation. I decided to read both books as I saw a potential use for the information contained in both of them. The information in the first book could give me clues about the capabilities, abilities, and even weaknesses of my youkai opponents seeing that youkai are folk creatures, meaning they should be found in the book. The second book might allow me to mimic the bullet types that my opponents use, thereby increasing my repertoire. As an added bonus, I would be able to use my opponent’s attacks as a source of inspiration for future spell cards or nonspells. I quickly finished and memorized the contents of both books within 2 hours. The content in the books certainly did not disappoint me.
After finishing the books, I moved on to my next goal of improving the quality or quantity of the danmaku energy in my body. I had one main idea for improving the quality and one main idea for improving the quantity. To improve the quality of my energy, I figured that I could try to condense it and make it purer so that making patterns and activating spell cards would not be as taxing on my energy reserves. Following this idea, I tried to will the energy in my body to move inwards towards an imaginary core in the center of all the energy. The energy started to follow my directions and got closer together before forming a small spherical clump. I tried using my will to force this spherical clump to move even closer together and move inwards, creating a dense clump, but I was unable to do so for some reason. I thought that likely it was because there was not enough energy present to have enough force to create that dense clump, so I decided to put that method aside until I had more energy.
My method of increasing the quantity of my energy was simple and based on how the human body builds muscle. The human body builds muscle essentially through strenuous and prolonged usage of the muscles. This causes muscle to undergo hypertrophy causing the muscle cells to enlarge. My method relies on a similar concept, if I use or release more energy, it will put a little stress on my energy reserves, hopefully causing my energy reserves to enlarge, like how muscle cells do in response to physical stress.
I was about to test this method by gradually releasing my energy and waiting for it to completely regenerate before starting the process to begin, I was interrupted by a voice and a screen.
Urgent Quest
-Stop the Intruders
Urgent Quests cannot be Declined
Quest Accepted
Mio’s voice rang out in my head while a screen appeared in front of me displaying the same information that Mio had just said
I started to panic a bit before regaining my composure and clicking the quest on the screen to get more details.
Quest Details
Head to the Untamed Courtyard and intercept the intruders intending to go into the Hell of Blazing Fires
Quest Completion Reward: Large Authority Level Increase
Quest Failure Punishment: Unsealing of a Traumatic Memory
Following the directions of the quest, I tried to remember where the Untamed Courtyard was, eventually remembering the tour with Koishi. I remembered that she said it was towards the back of the palace past the secondary foyer and servant's quarters. I quickly made my way over there, and before long, I arrived at the Untamed Courtyard.
The courtyard was full of overgrown plants and greenery. All the structures in the room had been covered with vines or moss, which really made the courtyard feel like a jungle rather than a proper courtyard. In the middle of the room was a large hole that was untouched by any of the plants. Walking closer to the hole, I felt a wave of intense heat emerging from it. Judging by that clue as well as the quest description, I knew that this hole was the entrance to the Hell of Blazing Fires that I was supposed to guard.
I stood, poised and ready for battle at any time, albeit trembling a bit, waiting for the intruder to appear. I didn’t have to wait long as a few minutes after I had arrived in the Untamed Courtyard, another person came flying into the room on a broom. The intruder was a human girl with blonde hair that reached the middle of her back. Her hair had one braid that rested over her left shoulder. She wore a witch’s hat with a white ribbon tied right about the brim of the hat, a white short-sleeved shirt under a black and white apron-like dress, and black shoes. She rode a broom, exactly like how witches were rumored to do.
I was nervous, but I knew that this was no time to be nervous. After all, this would be my first major battle in this land of fantasy known as Gensokyo!