Tanabata: Apprentice of the Hakurei (Touhou Project)

[Shinobu Oshino]

Prologue: Days of Yore​

In my earliest days, in a faraway place, there was a peace I had never known. A life without want nor need, a complacency I had once yearned for with my best friend at my side. Sealed off from the outside world, a land governed by magic and faith, where common sense had no place to call home. In the stillness of that frozen world, my friend had ventured forth through the veil. Without hesitation, I followed after her.

"You would leave our home?" my friend asked me.

"I'll follow you, wherever you go," I said as if it were a matter of course. I should've questioned myself on that decision, whether it was the right thing to do or not. I never did. Perhaps it was because of my unkept promises, or maybe I was simply too kind. I left without saying good-bye to my friends, never leaving any semblance of my belonging. It was the flippant nature of a youkai to be present one day, then gone the next. A cursory thought, or loose conversation, is all the mourning my absence would bring.

I had left the cradle of Gensokyo, and moved into the outside world. A churning engine charging toward a future with no need for something like me. Yet, I still existed, in the hearts of the few who had hoped for good fortune. In the years that followed my absence, I had learned a great many things. The years had taken their toll on my closest friend.

"Please, watch over them," she often asked. As her health declined, her body weakened and aged, she still held me to that promise. A promise that may have been a cage for some, but it provided me a purpose. A reason to exist beyond what was expected of me. When I had made that promise, I was under the impression the role would be different from that of a mother to a child; an advisor, a guide, a protector. Something I had confidence in, to spur her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren onto the proper path.

Then, my expectations were shattered in one fell swoop. A night I would always remember.

"Rin! Please, you're going to crush my hand!" the mother of the child grimaced, pain plain on her face. She was fighting a war on two fronts; pushing the child out and trying to calm me, the acting wet nurse.

"But you're having a baby!" I yelled. "I don't know what to do. We need a doctor! There's got to be a--" I was overcome with panic unbecoming my station.

"You knew I was having a baby for six months!" she said through grit teeth, taking her turn to crush my hand.

"I mean, I know, b-but…" I mumbled, my eyes turning toward the peanut gallery. "Y-yukari, you can help, right? Please? Use your gap. Get the baby right out!"

"And stifle the miracle of natural birth?" Yukari brandished a fan, doing little to hide the smile creeping onto her face. "Why would I ever do that?"

I wanted to protest, but no words could articulate the complex mixture of disdain and anxiety my heart had undertaken.

"Rin, I think you should prepare yourself." Yukari said, leaning over my shoulder. "I think I see the head coming out."

I scrambled with the wet blanket to the mother's side. Coaching her to the best of my lacking ability, the birth was, somehow, a success. The baby had been born. She lay in her mother's arms, crying enough for both the mother and me. I found myself staring. I'm not sure why, still not, but I found myself drawn to her. At some point, my hand had slowly moved toward her face. Perhaps I wanted to poke her pudgy cheeks, or pat her bald, bulbous head. Before I could make a move, she had my finger in a vice grip.

"She got you," the mother said.

"No getting away now." Yukari added.

"I suppose… not." I sighed. "What are you going to name her?"

"I've been meaning to talk to you about that," the baby's mother, Yume, grinned.

"What? What do you mean?"

"I want you to choose her name, just as you did for me."

"You choose now to spring this on me?" I acted surprised, but truly, I was happy. It has become some kind of tradition in this family. I was nothing more than a spectre, a spirit housed within the shrine, yet I couldn't have been happier. "I-in that case, I suppose, her name will be…"

[_] Saya
[_] Izumi
[_] Yuki
[_] Write-in