View: https://youtu.be/cgW2u0IqXyo
[A girl who both did and didn't exist, was curious about you]
—
You make your dignified withdrawal from Cirno's particular line of reasoning. Surely there must be other matters in the shrine worth keeping an eye on. And indeed, soon enough, a blur of movement between two of the outbuildings makes itself apparent to you, as Kyouko scrambles along the slippery pathway to chase after… hm.
A strange girl, this one, even by the standards of Gensokyo's denizens. A satori dressed in green, that much you can tell at a glance, but her identity is deeply fractured, tenuously hanging to her by the slightest of threads. And her conscious mind is all but absent. A creature of pure emotional reaction and instinct, mimicking the behaviours of the past she can recall without any true understanding.
For a normal human, such an affliction would be harsh enough. But for a satori, one who touches upon the minds of others… You can feel the blind, unthinking
pull she applies to your consciousness, which would snatch away the perception of her and cause her to swiftly slip from memory. It fails, of course - your grip upon your mind is inviolate - but abilities such as yours are not common. To the vast majority of people, even here in Gensokyo, this girl would be an invisible, immemorable phantom.
Your gaze catches on Kyouko. Or… perhaps not? The yamabiko seems to be having no trouble following the girl. Her name… it whispers to you, in the edge of your consciousness. It's a forgotten thing, even by the universe. Koishi. Koishi Komeiji. Why is she hidden to you? You stare at her, laughing as she chases after Kyouko. She narrowly misses grabbing the girl by the tail, her arms flailing wildly at her sides to catch herself, her feet briefly leaving the ground from the speed of it all. Then she stops, bending forward, regaining her balance… and locks eyes with you.
A satori.
You had never met one before.
"Good morning," you greet quietly.
Closely examining the girl, you can practically see the memories snapping into place, her pose partially flowing into repeating a half-remembered response without conscious cognition. "Morning!"
A cheery grin that doesn't quite reach her eyes, vacant as they are. Even in the memory she is now reenacting, she wasn't truly happy. Merely putting on a brave face.
You smile back, lowering yourself down into a crouch. "Are you seeking someone here?"
She skips back a step, ducking into a half-twirl as her hands play along her dress, that false smile still firmly planted on her lips. "Don't worry! I'm having lots of fun with the pets!"
You stare at her, continuing to see her past. It's a difficult thing, you see it as she sees it. But she sees very little, fragments, ghosts of images. It is enough. "This is not your manor, little one."
A small frown, an echo of indignity. "I'm not that little anymore! I can help!"
"Indeed you can," distantly, you see Kyouko turning around, realizing that Koishi was no longer playing. The mind of a child, to perceive a child. The echo youkai was staring at you now curiously as you regarded the Satori. "You are in the Hakurei Shrine however. Have you come to seek me?"
Koishi slips into a more mature, more self-assured tone. "Miss Hakurei is a destructive lout and vandal… but I'm glad she came to the Underground when she did."
You smile. "That is your sister speaking, do you recognize where you are?"
The girl in green smiles, again. And for the first time, you think it's an echo of something genuine. "One day… one day we'll be able to go to the festival! And talk to the people, and be merry, and just have fun! I know it'll happen, someday."
Your smile fades away, and you watch in silence as the girl skips along again, chasing after Kyouko. She was gone, literally and figuratively. Koishi was not present, a tagalong in her own mind. Only ghosts remained. It was something you could feasibly fix, no. It was something you
can fix. But then, she had chosen this for herself.
The pain of rejection, of perception, of fear… it had driven her to mutilate herself simply to escape. And if you carelessly pushed her back into her own mind, and cut off that escape… if you weren't very careful, it would simply end with her reenacting her disassociation with redoubled force, causing still further harm in the process.
Was she even aware you were here, you wonder. Had something called to her here? Or had she merely shown up on a whim. "Poor girl." You say quietly.
"We couldn't help her." Nazrin admits. The forced humility sits poorly upon the proud mouse, and her gaze… she's following Kyouko's movements, her eyes silently slipping right over Koishi. "Byakuren is the only one of us who can even see her. Well… her and Kyouko."
She inclines her head as your eyes drift towards her, responding to your unvoiced question. "We heard about her as someone who had managed to come close to severing the self. So we looked for her, as someone who might be able to provide an insight into Buddhism. But in the end… this wasn't a path that was healthy, or desirable. The best we could do was to tell Kyouko that the temple's doors should be open to the wandering satori, whenever she decided to visit."
"She may be free of true desires, but she is far from what our ideal is." You say. "And good morning Nazrin."
"Morning," she replies, quietly excluding the 'good', in an unconscious echo of the satori she cannot see.
You smile. "Someone is in a poor mood I see."
Nazrin exhales a deep, deep sigh. Almost too large a sigh, for her size, but she manages it anyhow. "I'm managing. It's just one mess after another, riding herd on everyone. Especially Shou. You really should take her with you for something soon - she doesn't handle being cooped up without any action well, when things are going down."
"She desires to fight something." You say bluntly.
Nazrin inclines her head. "She does. She has the discipline to avoid it, when she must, but to wait idly sits poorly with her. And such frustration leaks into everything else she does."
"What a difficult situation you must find yourself in, child of fortune and wealth."
Nazrin pauses, for a moment, before a slight smirk emerges on her face. "So you know about that mess, huh? Shouldn't really be surprised, I guess."
"There is little about any of you I don't know," you say, then turn to face the mouse fully. "Though such knowledge does little for actually knowing the
person that lives their history. You were lost in a bet I believe?"
The mouse's smile turns bittersweet. "Yeeeeeep. A drunken bet between Daikokuten and Bishamonten, shifting my fate forevermore."
"I can intercede, should you so wish." You offer.
"I-" she blinks. "I don't really want to see Daikokuten's face again, honestly. I was tossed away once already, on a whim. And while your pull is great… I don't think an honest apology is within your power." Her eyes turn towards Kyouko, who is now scrambling up the side of a building to reach Koishi, taunting her from a rooftop, her grip tearing dents into the wood as she goes. "Besides… it's not been
too bad, sticking by Shou."
You smile a touch wider. "And you think she's pretty."
Nazrin huffs a laugh, staring down at the snow. "It's true, the view doesn't hurt."
You think about it for a few moments. "She does not have the same mounds of faith as my sister was renowned for. But she is not poor to look at."
Nazrin's eyes turn upon you, wide. "Did you just-" She starts to laugh again, a bit hysterically - it sounds a little like the squeaking of a mouse. "Oh wow. But yeah, Shou's pretty, but it's not like she sees me that way."
You stare at her. You say nothing. Your smile widens. You continue to say nothing.
Nazrin stares back. "She's my sworn superior. It would - it would be weird!"
You turn your head back, watching as Kyouko now chases Koishi around the grounds, you watch as they both fall into the hot springs, dragging stones with them all the while. "She will be disappointed that you said that."
Nazrin blinks, then suddenly whips around to see Shou, where you had summoned her rather abruptly. You turn to look at the tiger, glaring at you, clearly inclined to ignore the slight blush growing on her cheeks, but mostly glaring at you. "Good morning, Shou."
"Lord Myouren. As you have summoned me…" She grits her teeth. "May I be of assistance?"
"Yes, actually." You reply. "I require a servant of Bishamonten. I require your spear."
She slowly blinks. "You do?" An edge of disbelief colors her voice. And then her expression goes blank. "Of course, my lord." She is suspicious of you, and combined with her distaste and prior negative experiences, is expecting to simply be used as an ornament.
"I shall be attacked soon, and it is a fight I shall not be able to avoid. I cannot defend myself, and so I shall require you to be my champion. Is this agreeable?" you ask.
She nods, dawning hope that she will, for once, be able to perform the righteous combat she is an avatar for, clashing with cynicism and distaste for you telling her to temper her expectations. "Of course, Lord Myouren."
"Thank you, I am rather averse to someone cutting off my head with a sword. It shall not hurt, but it is still something to be avoided. I trust you know how to use that spear?" you ask. You know the answer, but it is best to get her… excited.
She just about manages to hold back her enthusiasm, her desire to actually fight outweighing her dislike of you. Just barely. "I have been trained under Bishamonten himself, and not been found wanting. My spear is at your service."
You smile. "That is good, now, Nazrin wishes to speak to you regarding lust. I shall leave you two to it."
"You fucker-" Nazrins obscenities quickly turn into unintelligible angry squeaking. It puts you in mind of a mouse being accidentally trodden underfoot.
You turn away, facing the open air. "Yukari, shall we?"
And without missing a beat, the air splits apart in front of you, a passageway to bamboo and mist unfolding before your feet. The Border Sage's comedic timing, if nothing else, is impeccable.
You step forward, and through. Finding Yukari waiting on the other side, the fan covering her mouth almost, but not quite, managing to hide her smirk as the mouse continues to swear behind you. Then the gap closes, and the sound is gone. Replaced by the sound of birds chirping, and the faint drone that hangs over the bamboo forest of the lost, the aftereffect of the magic cast over the place.
"Having fun?" Yukari asks.
"I see little reason to delay such things," you answer.
"I was speaking of Nazrin, not our trip to this forest." Yukari replies, closing her fan.
"As was I." You look past her through the forest, you could see Eientei, impossibly close, impossibly far. The distance stretching and shrinking as you observe it. And you see something else, something closer.
—
[] [A Woman of Fire and a Lady of Knowledge]
[] [A Spy, from the Moon]
[] [A Journalist, Hopelessly Lost]
[] [An injured rabbit, but not the being you are searching for]
—
AN:
Erien: For those who got blue-pointed, Koishi will be coming up more later, much more.
Redshirt: Myouren's thoughts regarding Nazrin and Shou: "My Fucking God! These Bitches Gay! Good For Them! Good for them."
