Flandre's Quest (Touhou) World - (Madness Quest)

Illyasviel sighed and dropped the book onto her chest. "Why am I doing this?" The red-headed librarian-devil looked up from her desk for a moment and shrugged.

"You want to learn magic, don't you?" Illyasviel shot her a dirty look.

"Yes. So why am I reading encyclopedias instead of … I don't know, learning magic? That's what she's doing, isn't it?" The familiar nodded and tapped her lips thoughtfully.

"Ah, so the problem is that you don't understand what you're doing. Well … I suppose that's because you're not a magician, and Illyasviel is much closer to a magician than you are." Illyasviel scowled, and the devil sighed. "It's true. Her body, part-homunculus as it is, and further modified by the Einzberns to be a perfect Master, is exceptional at handling magic. No human in our world is as capable at it as she is, and precious few non-magician youkai. Magicians, long-lived or not, are - but that's because they as a species are very well suited to handling magic. Your body, on the other hand, isn't particularly well-suited to handling any kind of magic apart from that inherited from the Archer it's based on. So if you want to learn magic, we need to start you from the basics, which means you have to learn the same things a human magician would." Illyasviel's scowl tightened as she looked back at the book, ignoring the approaching devil.

"Yeah, but it's so boring. And half these books contradict each other!" She looked up just in time to see the librarian hop sideways onto her.

"Of course they do, sweetie! Welcome to the wonders of humanity, contradicting each other for the past half-million years or so, give or take. I don't know, history's not my forte. We've probably got some books around here …." She giggled and poked the girl's stomach, then warded off the book-turned-cudgel. "Now, now - don't be like that!" She somehow slipped around and underneath Illyasviel, catching her wrists with one hand and gently poking the girl's cheek with the other.

"Al-right, I'll stop." Illyasviel scowled darkly at the prodding finger, but the last time she'd tried biting the devil when she did that was reason enough to let it go. "So why am I learning a bunch of contradictory information that may not even do anything?" The hand released her wrists, but then the devil's arms wrapped around her, holding her in place as the librarian smelled her hair. She suffered through it silently.

"… Because you're human," the librarian replied, sighing. "Miss Patchouli is magician's magician, a magician among magicians. Young as she is, she's still talented enough to get use from any magic system she turns her will toward. I'm not even remotely as good a magician as she is; even Lady Remilia isn't her equal in breadth of talent, although having a few extra centuries of experience and a superior body do make her superior in her chosen field. But Miss Patchouli wouldn't have approved these books for you if you couldn't get any magical use out of them. More to the point, however - you're a human, not a youkai." She released the girl and gently pushed her up into a sitting position. "You have imagination, something most youkai can't appreciate, and even if something doesn't work for you in its base form, maybe it'll spark a thought or connection somewhere else, and you'll do something new." Illyasviel stared at her for a moment, then slid off the couch and picked up the book.

"Well, can you teach me something instead of making me just … read it all? I'm gonna go nuts." She set the book on the table and glowered at the smirking devil. "Something besides how you're going to win every sparring match we have for at least the next ten years, please!" The devil chuckled as she rose to her feet.

"Oh, very well. Let's take a walk, shall we?" The two meandered through the shelves of the library, occasionally flying higher through the librarian's magic, but usually walking quietly. "In the beginning, there were animals. And for a long time, animals is all they were. They fed on plants, on each other, and they mated and they died. Sure, they have fear and curiosity and such, but that simply leads to images of better, stronger animals. And then, several times, intelligence occurred. Sometimes it was snuffed out by the uncaring world, but other times it grew, blossomed, and flourished. Humanity had arrived, and with it - intelligence. Fear. Hope. Desire. Imagination." As they walked and as she talked, the librarian spun an illusion of the world, sketches history to illustrate her points, and Illyasviel stared at them - studying not only the story they told, but how the devil told it, how she drew the illusion on the world. "And when mankind asserted itself, it began to question, to study. 'Why does lightning strike? Why do these things keep happening to me, and not the old man who lives apart from everyone else? How does the old woman know how to cure this strange illness?' And with the power of belief in such a raw world, awash with fear and conflicting thoughts - youkai began to arrive. Lightning strikes because of lightning spirits, or because there is a god in the sky who casts them. The old man and the old woman become wizard and witch - or even youkai of fortune or knowledge themselves. And as belief becomes purer and more concentrated, as humans grow in number and fear the youkai more and more - youkai become more common, more powerful, more terrible and more meaningful. To be a youkai in the old days meant something. Magic was possible. There were endless ways to make magic! Song, dance, poetry, the written word, blood, sex, life and death! The power of magic - one who mastered it was master of the lands around him, because it was so rare, even among youkai, and because the human magician and the friendly magician were humanity's best defense against other youkai. To sing a song to soothe a swine was no sin, but safety. To ring a castle, you might invoke stone or bush, stave or water, sound or light, in any combination or variety. Imagine -!" She halted and cast her arm in a grand gesture.

Ahead of them, empty space became the stage of a theater, with a single form standing there. From a shapeless mass, the form became something humanoid, then something distinctly human. "Imagine, if you will, a time over a thousand years ago. Imagine a youkai - a guardian of boundaries, an entity that ensures the distinction between places, who watches over the beach and the riverbank, the mud between the road and the field, the wall and door between what is outside and what is inside. And people believe. They are grateful to you. They respect and fear you, and they pay homage to you. You are safety, that which protects them from outside when appeased, and lets in the dark when angered - or casts them out." The figure blossomed into that of a woman, wearing a stately gown and long hair. And all around it, shadows of humanity wandered and blurred. And then … the figure blurred, twitching like a static-filled screen. "And then … people stop believing. They stop fearing. They stop remembering. All the power you once had - it's fading and failing. You are disappearing." The devil waved her hand sharply - and the stage fell away, the figure vanished. She looked at Illyasviel.

"… So what happened to the youkai?" The devil shrugged.

"A lot died. Regardless of what you may have read, guns are dangerous to youkai. Even swords and other melee weapons can kill them, that's just a lot harder and more dangerous for the weapon-user. And when people start - not just 'not believing' but actively disbelieving in youkai, they start dying. Belief in existence, belief in nonexistence. They are the cornerstone of every supernatural event." Illyasviel scowled.

"So, what, just … believe hard enough, and I'll be good at magic?" The devil chuckled.

"No, it's not that simple, I'm afraid. Youkai don't exactly generate much … 'power of belief', I suppose - as humans, but between Miss Patchouli and Lady Remilia, you are going to have to really work at it. And it's not like belief has unlimited power, anyway - a whole lot of humans may believe in a single universe-creating deity, but if they're right about that, it's because that entity existed before them and us, not because they believed it into. One planet of people doesn't get to tell the rest of the universe how things work, even if the rest of the universe is empty." And one human doesn't get to tell the rest of Gensokyo how things work, even if the rest of Gensokyo doesn't care. Illyasviel nodded and sighed.

"Well … thank you for teaching me something," she said. "I guess I'll go back to my books now." But the devil held her by the shoulder and shook her head, smiling gently.

"Why don't you take a walk outside? It's nice out, after all." Illyasviel looked at her, then looked down at the outfit she'd been forced to wear - a long blue coat, albeit finely tailored and of excellent material; a black skirt reaching almost to her ankles; and a long-sleeved dark red button-down shirt - and then glared at the giggling devilish librarian. "I'm sure Lady Remilia will be pleased to see you wearing something so modest!" Illyasviel scowled at the now-laughing devil and took off her coat, throwing it over the librarian before walking off. She'd show them that she could be graceful and modest and respectable. She grumbled all the way to the staircase leading upstairs, and the devil chuckled until she returned to her own work.