4 The Scarlet Mist part 1
Editor: Acerman
-Afternoon, Forest of Magic-
"Hum-ti-dum~ running in a forest~ forest of magical stuff~ with many animal and big trees~"
Heyo, Arah-sama here, time goes by really fast when you have special power, suck it to everyone whose normal, hahaha…haha…ha…I don't know why but I feel sad all of the sudden….
Back to topic, as I said time goes by really fast and what I mean by that, 2 weeks already passed after I arrived in Gensokyo.
There wasn't much happening in that 2 weeks, aside from the first week nothing really happened.
…what happen in that first week you ask, well…
Marisa and Reimu visited me a few days after I moved in Akyuu house.
[Lv.22 Ordinary Magician, Kirisame Marisa]
[Lv.85 Hakurei Miko, Hakurei Reimu]
Out of curiosity and worried that I would cause some trouble, Reimu kindly visited me, by visited I meant threaten me, and I genuinely felt threatened when I saw her level.
"If you cause trouble in here, I will beat you to a pulp for making me work."
"Relax Reimu, Akyuu let him stay at her mansion herself, he probably not gonna cause trouble-ze."
"Hump! I hope so!"
Just as expected! An answer that befitting of Hakurei Reimu, the Lazy Miko.
Beside the threatening visit, I also upgraded my arsenal.
Vector Change Lv.2 - Lv.3 - Lv.4 = 30.000 AP (10.000 AP + 20.000 AP).
Body enchantment Lv.1 - Lv.2 = 6.000 AP
Apparently, it multiplied the price for upgrading the ability, Now, I can do more crazy shit with my ability, I also figured out something unexpected.
My level went up when I upgraded my ability.
[Lv.24 Outsider Extraordinaire, Arah]
…and my title change too.
So, levels are not really like how great a power level a person has, it's probably how good they are at kicking your butt.
Then how about the level up thing when I'm in Muenzuka?
Probably one of the ways to level up, I can't really kill anything because Yukari already warned me about it.
I also have a couple of theories about why I can see Reimu's level even though Reimu is way more powerful than Yukari. I think it's because of level discrepancy when I first met with Yukari or maybe I was still shit back then, I still can't see the difference between our power or also maybe because Reimu level is that high of a level because she's inside of the Hakurei Great Barrier; after all the biggest barrier in Gensokyo is Hakurei Great Barrier and it is said that the Hakurei are more powerful inside it.
Continuing on with my report, I also bought new ability.
Magical Sense Lv.1 - Lv.2 = 6.000 AP (2.000 AP + 4.000 AP)
Photographic Memory = 5.000 AP
Seems like every Touhou main cast has some kind of magical sense, even Akyuu has it but it's weaker, probably because she's a Human. Therefore I decided to have one too but of course a stronger one. I'm probably at the same level as Marisa; she's a Human Magician, but a Magician nonetheless.
Photographic Memory is my answer to remembering all Touhou plots and characters, recalling all the Touhou information that I have and voila! Unless I got fucked by a Satori or something similar, I'm good.
Next, I bought new Item.
Black Yukata: Black Cloud
Add-ons:
- Air Conditioning
- Self-repair
Total: 5.000 IP
A black Yukata with black cloud pattern. The pattern is darker than the Yukata, so it's kinda visible because of it. I also have add-ons on it, Air Conditioning and Self-repair. This will make my life easier in here.
I wore the Yukata over my shirt and put away the jacket into my pouch, it's so cool even though it's summer right now.
That's it for my new item.
….what? I want to save IP; I have a plan in the future.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this but the system actually gave me daily quests.
[0* Say Good Morning to Friends]
[0* Say Good Afternoon to Friends]
[0* Say Good Evening to Friends]
[0* Travel 100 meters]
[0* Use your ability 1 time]
The rewards for each of the quest were 500 AP and 500 IP.
There were also 3 weekly quests and 1 monthly quest.
Weekly quests rewards are 5.000 AP & IP, monthly rewards are 20.000 AP & IP
Talk about a mobile game. You will come back everyday to ensure you get the reward, even if you went to another world. Mobile games will follow you everywhere.
I think that's all the noteworthy stuff that happened. The villagers lost interest at me in after a few days, and since I wore my Yukata they don't really stare that much anymore.
"Magical forest~ magical forest~ every kind of animal are inside~ because animal are immune to the boundary~"
Right now, I was walking in the Forest of Magic, searching for empty clearing for my new home; as far as I know the Forest of Magic is the second safest place to live in Gensokyo if you can take stand the illusionary spores in the area. Because of these spores Youkai and anything similar stay away from here.
I know I can still live in Akyuu's mansion but I can't rely on Akyuu all the time. I'm a dude brah, I feel the shame when I start relying on a girl, for fuck sake, every anime that has OP girls and dinky weak as shit male main character. Have some shame dude, hiding behind girls, 0/10 will burn the blu-ray.
"This place looks perfect. I found the clearing I was searching for."
….shout out to Marsupilami, I just said a line from the opening song. To anyone who remembers that show, you guys are cool.
System, is there a house to buy using the shop?
[Summer House 2 floor: 20.000 IP]
An image entered my head, 2 bedrooms on the second floor, 2 beds in each rooms, a kitchen on the first floor, 2 nice, long sofas facing each other and a coffee table between them in the living room, and a spare room. All kinds of furniture also placed around the house.
A nice house indeed and I will blatantly summon a house out of nowhere. Sooner or later Yukari's gonna visit me and torture me about how I made a house suddenly appear out of nowhere. Lovely….
I will summon the house after I talk about getting out from Akyuu mansion.
"And now", I take out a pouch from my pouch, more pouchception, "let's sell this pouch full of magic plants and mushrooms to Marisa, or Alice if she's not home."
In these 2 weeks, I started adventuring to many places, including Forest of Magic. When you adventure there, you're bound to eventually encounter the magicians that live there, Marisa and Alice.
The only way to describe Marisa's house is that her house is very unkempt, the wall around her house crawling with vines, trash everywhere around her house, and a lot of mushrooms near her house. It's probably her Mushroom garden. There's also a sign that say "Marisa Magic Shop" in Japanese. In her shop she sells Youkai extermination stuff or magical items as her merchandise.
For tidbit of info, extermination in Gensokyo doesn't mean killing Youkai but beating them up or outright sealing them if they are too dangerous to let loose in Gensokyo.
In case you wondering how I can read Japanese, I asked Akyuu help to show me Japanese script to memorize. She was unexpectedly happy when I said I have Photographic Memory. Guess being alone for a human is a bad thing after all.
"There's Marisa house." I arrived at Marisa house. "Hey~ Marisa~! *knock**knock*" I called her out.
But nobody came….
I felt dirty saying that line.
When I first arrived at Marisa house, she started blabbering about her ware, cheerful even though I was only half paying attention to what she said. If you asked me what my impression was of her, I'd say she's probably a Star in my opinion. Shining brightly in any situation, full of energy, and too bright for everyone else.
I asked if she would buy any magical ingredients if I sold it to her and she said she would. She then she gaves me plants, mushrooms, and an encyclopedia about something. She said to memorize all the stuff in the books right there and then, apparently because she didn't want to lend her books to me and wanted to get of the house for a while. I could do it thanks to my ability but please don't say something absurd to other people.
When I said I memorized it all, she turned to my direction, away from her some kind of alchemy experiment.
"No way-ze! You must be lying-ze! Normal people can't memorize all content of a book that big in such a short amount of time-ze! Even Reimu give up after 3 second!"
"Well, first I'm not Reimu, second I am different from others, and third I really remember all of it."
"Hump! If you insist, I'll quiz yah-ze."
"I see you don't trust me. Go for it then."
"…you asked for it-ze, how to harvest [insert magical ingredients]?"
"It's [insert answer here]."
"…then, where do you get [insert magical ingredients]?"
"It only appears in [insert answer here]."
"He actually remember all of it-ze, then your ability must be Photographic Memory!" she exclaimed, pointing at me.
"Did you know that pointing at someone is considered rude behavior?" I answered with a smile.
"I'm right, right?!" she still pointing at me, grinning.
"I wonder about that~"
"Fufu, I'm such genius." The smugness is real.
"Then about our conversation…"
"Yes, at first I was just joking with you, shoving those 3 encyclopedias to distract you enough until my experiment finished and then I could shoo you away from my house, but after that, you probably know how to properly cultivate all of the ingredient. I think I can trust you enough with it." She nodded understandingly.
"Now, get out of my house!"
And that's how I properly met Kirisame Marisa.
"No one home huh….let's try Alice house." I started walking towards Alice's house.
As for Alice, well, the only impression I got from her is just she's a friendly girl.
I remembered where Alice house is, so this shouldn't be too hard.
I arrived at her house after a good walk.
Alice's house is very clean I guess, white walls with blue rooftop, 2 story tower that connects with her house, probably her lab. Her house always looks new; she probably repaints her house every week with her dolls.
I knock on her door.
"Hey~ Alice-san, are you home?"
I waited for while before I heard footsteps from inside the house.
The door opened, revealing a blonde girl wearing a red band, a light blue dress with long white sleeves, and a long pink ribbon going round her neck and another one round her waist.
"Oh, it's you Arah-san, is it the usual?"
"Yes, the usual."
"Then please come in." she smiled while inviting me in.
"Thank you, sorry for intruding."
I went inside the house.
[Lv.39 Seven Colored Puppeteer, Alice Margatroid]
Alice Margatroid, a Doll User Magician, to be more specific a human turned Magician, it is said that with "Abandon Food" magic and "Abandon Temper" magic, one will be become a complete Magician. When you become Magician, you didn't need to eat… I want to be a Magician…you didn't need to shit if you didn't need to eat and even if they eat, it's only for enjoyment …talk about eating for fun.
I put down 10 bags of magical plant on the table.
"Here's the item that you requested, my lady?"
"Haha~ yes, thank you kind peddler." she said, faintly amused.
She started browsing through the pouch.
"Yup, these are all the items I requested and in a large quantity too."
"Yeah, I discovered more plants than the usual."
I started this service after my conversation with Marisa. Using my Magical Sense and Photographic Memory, I started gathering all Magic Ingredient in the forest to trade with the Magicians for money. One delivery per week.
I also upgraded my Magical Sense to Lv.3 for 8.000 AP to be able to find more magical ingredients.
At early level, I can only identify something magical if the item is in my vision, and because I upgraded it, the skill change how it works, at Lv.3 its work like a sonar, I subconsciously sending a pulse with me as the center, the pulse came back and giving me the location of every magical thing in the are, so if I don't control it, I'd become a Human Beacon to everyone in the vicinity, and becoming a Human Beacon in the middle of monster territory isn't the best idea.
Alice took the entire pouch from the table and exchanged it with a pouch clinking with coins.
"Thank you for the service."
"No, thank you for your patronage instead. The only one that use my services are you and Marisa.
"To be fair, with this service I don't have to get out from my house to collect plants. I'm actually an indoor person you see, and only go out when there's a festival in the village to do my doll performance."
"Doll performance?"
"Yes, I display a performance; you can say it's part of my training as puppeteer. You can come if you want."
"Thanks you for the invitation, Alice-san." I thanked her, "Oh yeah, just to tell you, tomorrow I will build my house in Forest of Magic."
"You want me to help you with it?" She offered.
"No, there's no need to help me, I can finish it myself."
"Really? Are you sure?" she looked worried.
"Yeah, I have my way to do it."
"…If you said so." She still looked worried.
"There's no need to worr-" right at that time, I noticed it "?!" I looked in direction of the door.
This massive magic, where is it coming from….
I looked at Alice.
Alice narrowed her eyes, seeming like she noticed it too.
We nodded at each other and we went out to Alice's porch.
Over there, we see it. The red mist.
"Red smoke?...no…it's a mist, but why is it red?" Alice inquired.
Red mist? Don't tell me…
*ding*
[Quest Alert]
[5* The Red Mist Incident]
[Help the Incident Solver solve this incident]
And thus it begins. I've arrived at EoSD. I decided I'd check the SDM in few days before but the mist is being a dick and start spewing nonstop at my face. Ugh…nature…
"Alice-san, Is the Mist dangerous?" I ask Alice.
"Hang on, let me check." She started approaching the mist.
She examines the mist with her magical heeby jeebies.
"Hm…it doesn't have effect on me but I think it probably will have bad effect to humans." She explained.
"How bad is the effect?"
"I'll say whichever human unfortunate enough to inhale it will get a slight headache, or at worst they'll become nauseous."
"I see. I'll be okay but I don't know about other human, I'm gonna take a look at the others. Thanks and stay healthy, Alice-san." I said my goodbyes to Alice.
"Yes, stay safe on the road, Arah-san."
I started jogging to the Human Village.
-On my way to Human Village-
I started running a few minutes after I left Alice's House.
The mist moved out of my way, as if it was avoiding me.
This is the effect of my Vector Change; I changed the direction of mist so that it gets the fuck away from me.
I looked at the sky.
The sky is filled with red mist, completely covering the sky.
This is absolutely the incident plot for EoSD(Embodiment of Scarlet Devil); scarlet mist enveloping Gensokyo, bloating the sun, covering Gensokyo from its rays. Remilia thought the sun was overrated, so she summoned red mist to be the new weather in Gensokyo.
The thing was, in the cannon they resolved the incident in little more than half a month. I bet Reimu spent all that time just to locate the source of it, so that mean my job is to speed up that process. The problem about how I know the source of the mist is covered, I think. The only thing left is check Misty Lake and then tell Reimu about it.
But first, I gotta check Akyuu first. I know she has my Lesser Vitality pill, but she's already fragile enough as it is and I don't want her to become sicker than she is now…
-Human Village, Akyuu's Mansion-
The mist is only at ground level, not as high when I was in the Forest of Magic. It's probably the Tengus' doing that the mist only at this level, when something happened that could harm Human in Gensokyo, the Youkai are obligated to protect them, albeit secretly, so that they won't lose out their only source of Fear, the source of their existence, and in Tengu's case, they lowered the mist height by controlling the flow of the wind.
I started searching there room where Akyuu usually hangs out and finally, I found it.
"Akyuu-chan! You okay?!"
I barged into the room.
The first thing I saw in the room was that, Akyuu sitting down, reading many scroll while being surround by many servants. All of their faces have surprised look on it, probably because of me suddenly barging into the room.
I was relieved after I saw that Akyuu was okay.
"Arah-san, you came back." Akyuu said.
"Yeah, I just got back selling magic plant from Alice-san house." I sat down on the floor.
"Alice Margatroid house, I see."
She seems kinda down after I said that and the servants start whispering out of nowhere…freaking women, they probably gossiping about me going alone into a girl's house in the middle of forest or something. It's not like they are wrong or anything, it's just that, gossiping dude, what if they just started bad rumor about me, ugh…
"So, what are you doing right now?"
"A-ah, yes, right now, I'm going through Hiedaa family record."
"Searching for this red mist?"
"Yes, at least I have to figure it out if it's safe or not, it's for the safety of everyone."
"I see, then that mean I got the right information about the mist."
"About the mist?" she looked at me.
Then I gave the explanation about the mist from Alice and told it to Akyuu.
"It will give you a light headed, and at worst, nausea." She started processing the information I gave her.
"Yes, but sorry, I don't know where it came from."
"Don't worry Arah-san, just knowing the effect of the red mist is enough help already." Then she started giving order to the servants, "Spread word about the effect of the mist, don't let anyone inhale the mist too long."
The servants started filing out of the room, leaving just us alone in the room.
We looked at each other for several seconds.
"So, Arah-san, you'll start investigating where the mist came from starting tomorrow, right?" She suddenly asked me.
"Ahaha, well," I gave a helpless smile to her, "Even though we've only known each other for 2 weeks, you can really guess what I'm gonna do."
"Of course, based on your personality and your word, Arah-san probably will investigate this incident, BUT!" Akyuu glared at me, "Arah-san doesn't need to help, and Reimu-san probably got this incident figured out already."
"But I'm gonna be okay, I only just gonna investigate it, really. I've lived in Gensokyo for 2 weeks; I can look for myself now."
"But, there's still a possibility that you could get hurt out there."
"Everyone can get hurt out there Akyuu-chan, it's not just me, even Reimu can get hurt too."
"But Reimu-san is different, she's the Hakurei Miko, she will be okay no matter what in Gensokyo"
…dammit, I can't refute that statement, Reimu is practically invincible as long as she's in Gensokyo. What is this, since when this conversation become a mother refusing to release her son from being independent.
She looks as if releasing me is the last thing she will do in her life, what do I do…
"Akyuu-san, can I have your time? I need to inform you about something important."
There was a voice at the entrance of the room.
We look at the direction of the voice.
A woman was standing at the entrance. She had brown eyes and long silver hair with blue highlights. She wore a hat that looks like some kind of building with a red ribbon on top and glyphs inscribed along its side. Her dress was dark blue with white short sleeves, and a red ribbon was tied to the bottom of the collar.
It was Keine.
[Lv.25 History Eater, Kamishirasawa Keine]
I did meet with her in my 2 weeks stay, but I only knew her as a teacher.
"Oh, is this a bad time for it?" Keine probably feeling the atmosphere between us in the room.
"No, no, Keine-sensei, Sensei doesn't need to mind us, please tell us about this important thing, isn't RIGHT Arah-SAN?"
Uwaaaaah, what is this murderous aura coming from this loli.
"Y-yes, of course, our talk can be postponed, please tell us about this important thing." I urged her.
"If you two say so then, it's about the red mist."
Then she started talking about the red mist. She gave us information about the effect of the mist. That's it, seems like she didn't know that it's the work of Remilia or she didn't want to talk about the Vampire because I was here. Akyuu knews that Keine is a Youkai, but I technically didn't know anything about her...I want to tease her…
"…How did Keine-sensei know about the effect of the mist?" I asked her with my "genuine" questioning look.
"I-uh observed the effect of the mist from the villager that inhaled it."
"Observed a villager? But the mist only at ground level. How did he inhale the mist if it's that low?"
"I-He-Uh…" her eye went back and forth.
She's panicking, oh my god, this is beautiful…
"W-well, what were you guys talking about before I came in?" she did an emergency topic change.
…nice topic change, I absolutely didn't notice the flow change there.
Even Akyuu was face palming with what she said but I'd bite anyway.
"Well, sensei, we were talking about letting me investigating the mist origin."
"No, you don't need to investigate it; we can just count on the Hakurei Miko to solve this incident."
…and now there's one more person rejecting my idea, great…
To my left there's a Loli that's mad at me and to my right I got a women teacher that's mad at me as well. If this is fanfic, I should be happy about this situation right? RIGHT?!
"But I have to know where the mist comes from!"
"See Keine-sensei, he's pretty adamant about it, please help me convince him to drop the idea."
…2 vs. 1, I want to see the GM, this is bullshit, and I don't want them to hate me because of this too.
"I see, then Arah, why do you want to know about it anyway?"
"Of course, it's for Akyuu-chan."
"For Akyuu?" she tilted her head, Akyuu too was surprised that I mentioned her name.
"Yeah, this mist can weaken someone's health, so I intend to located where's it come from and then tell Reimu about it to get this mist to disappear." Nice reason me!
Keine looked conflicted with the answer I gave her, and Akyuu somehow looked down. Is she mad at me? Whoops, she suddenly looking at me now.
"No! It's still too dangerous for you."
"Akyuu-chan, please, I beg you, I do this with you in mind."
"No means no!"
Ugh, what do I do with her now? She will get mad at me if I go and if I just go out without telling, she will get worried.
I looked at Keine.
She looks worried for us, not for me but for us now. Keine started thinking.
"Arah, do you have anything that will make you immune to the mist?" she inquired of me.
"Yes, I have my ability for it."
"Your ability only Photographic Memory. How would that help you with the mist?" Akyuu joined the conversation.
"Did I ever tell you that I only have one ability?" I answered teasingly.
"You have more than one?"
"Yes."
"What is it?" Keine asked.
"It's Vector Change, I can change the direction of an object surrounding me, and it will keep the mist away from my surroundings."
"I see, then you're most certainly safe from the mist." Keine nodded understandingly, "How about it Akyuu, can you let him do as he please?" Keine asked Akyuu, "He has lived in Gensokyo for two weeks and is still alive." Keine added.
Akyuu considered Keine statement.
"…All right, BUT make sure you take your safety as priority, okay?" Akyuu ordered me.
"ALL RIGHT!"
I got up, walked up to Akyuu and hugged her when she entered into huggable range.
"Fueeeee?!" Akyuu did her cute noise.
"Don't worry Akyuu-chan, your nii-san will stop this mist as soon as possible." I started patting her.
"W-who do you think you are?! You are not my "nii-san" at all, y-you stupid Arah!"
I put her down.
"Yes, yes, I need to prepare for tomorrow. Good bye Akyuu-chan." I turned toward Keine, "Thanks you Keine-sensei for convincing Akyuu for me." I bowed toward Keine.
"As long as you are safe when doing it, then it's okay."
"Then, see ya." I walked out of the room.
-Akyuu POV-
"Stupid Arah! Who does he think he is! He's just a boy, but he's acting tough about it!"
He's irritated me with the way he treated me.
"Even though he's just a boy, why is he acting like an adult, it's supposed to be my job."
"Why don't you just let him be, Akyuu. His reason for helping is because he's worried about you, you know."
My face suddenly started feeling hot.
"S-shut up Keine, it's still dangerous if he's going alone, more over why did you not stop him?! Aren't you the Guardian of the Human Village?!"
"Fufu, he's volunteering with his own free will and it also resulting in saving the Human Village in the process; for what reason do I need to stop him?"
She countered with sound argument.
"And beside, is this time finally a Child of Miare fall in love with someone?"
*BUFF*
"W-w-w-w-w-what are you talking about?!"
"Fufufu, I can't wait for the marriage to happen."
"KEINEEEE!"
-My POV-
There's still loud noise at Akyuu room, dude, she and Keine are probably discussing the fuck out of the red mist.
Just as expected of them, they will make the villager worry-free in no time at all.
Author note:
Heyo, Author here. OH-EM-GE, I CAN'T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY MADE THAT CONVERSATION BETWEEN KEINEE AND AKYUU, holy shit, is that really me? Fuck it, it is me.
About the pairing that going on between Arah and Akyuu, uuuuuh I'll roll with it, from the first place, I didn't expect this kind of development, but holy shit, the power of imagination and author writing really brought this one out of nowhere, literally.
