Perfect Memento in Strict Sense

...great.

Now I made things awkward. Damn, how do I console a little child? I know that Akyuu lived through eight lifetimes, six more than me.

But at this point, she was just a child. Not only at heart, but she really was one.

"Hey, I know it's late to mention, but who are you, and what is your name?"

...

Yeah. If you paid attention, Akyuu didn't tell me her name yet. Something she also just realized. It shocked her so much that she forgot about being sad.

"I am so sorry. I don't know where my manners are. No, I don't know where I forgot my head at. I can't believe I forgot something so fundamental to a conversation!"

Akyuu told me, repeatedly bowing down in front of me. It made me embarrassed.

"No, it's also my fault for going along with the situation. So, how about we make wrong right and start from the beginning?"

Akyuu nodded, still with tears in her eyes. If someone saw me, they would think I enjoy bullying lolis...

...and they wouldn't be that wrong.

"I am Rin Satsuki. At least, that's what I think my name is since it was engraved on my Erhu. I don't quite remember a lot about myself, but I do know that I know a surprising amount of things. As for other things, my soul tells me that I am not the only one that forgot about me."

"Ah- alright. I am Hieda no Akyuu. Ninth Child of Miare from the Hieda clan. I turned 10 recently. I must write the Gensokyo Chronicles. That is my duty. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Oh boy. Time to act like a clueless idiot.

"Child of Miare? Is that like a title you inherit or something? Well, that only applies if the nine states your generation and not something else."

"Ah, right. An outsider wouldn't know. The Child of Miare. To explain that we need to go all the way back to the year 700, around the time when my ancestor Hieda no Are was born. Someone you should know very well if you know anything about Japanese history. That's right. She is the same Hieda no Are who compiled the legendary Kojiki in 712. The Child of Miare is born in a 100-to-150-year interval in a process called the Miracle of Miare, who is the reincarnation of Hieda no Are. As you already figured out, I, Hieda no Akyuu am the ninth reincarnation who inherited Are's fabled ability, the Gumonji, making me capable of flawlessly recalling everything I have experienced before and even recalling some events of my past reincarnations. However, we possess small lifespans, seldom living past the age of 30. In those 30 years, we are tasked to write a record of the land ourselves."

...

Hey, System, any way to increase lifespan?

[No.]

Huh? That can't be. Hell, couldn't I even expand my lifespan with my core vitality?

[Oh. That is what the user meant. Let me elaborate. Natural lifespan cannot be extended that number is predetermined since birth and cannot be changed. It can be cut off due to outside interference, but the lifespan can't be changed. The only way to extend life is to use another resource as fuel instead to replace the consumption of natural lifespan. For example, cultivators do that by accumulating Ki in their Dantian. Though if you managed to abolish the cultivation of an ancient cultivator that is thousands of years old their age declines rapidly as their bodies start to rely on their natural lifespan again, usually turning them into old men or outright killing them.]

So what? If I can't extend her natural lifespan, all I have to do is give her something that can replace it, like my core vitality, right?

[Highly unlikely.]

Why?

[While a transfer of things like Ki or Core Vitality is possible, does the user really think they can go against the Yama? In front of the judge of the afterlife it doesn't matter what you are, be it human, insect, God, youkai, cultivator, or something else. Everything gets judged equally. Does the user really have the courage to go against a contract made by death itself?]

Right. That's a problem I would have to deal with if I ever hoped to extend Akyuu's life. Not to mention that I didn't know whether she genuinely wanted it or not.

"A pitch-perfect memory, reincarnation, and not to mention being part of such a revered bloodline..."

As I started listing everything Akyuu told me, I could see how an empty expression formed on her face. But it wasn't one created because they are bored or didn't feel anything at that particular moment. It was an empty face created to hide behind.

To hide the pain one is in. To hide from all the words she received thanks for being the Child of Miare. To hide away from the envy, pity, and whatnot she received just because she had that ability.

The right thing to say in this situation would be...

"That's so cool. To have the right to reincarnate and remember everything you experienced. But wait, if you are reincarnating and this is your ninth incarnation..."

I know what I just said to Akyuu might sound a bit insensitive towards her, but...

"...doesn't that mean that you are about 250 to 300 years old if we just consider your time in the realm of the living?"

...for Akyuu, who sees her duty as a burden, a genuine compliment sincerely with no pretenses, if what I say helps her see the bright side of her ability...

...I'll gladly do it again.

"HUH!?!! 250 years old! N-nonononononono! I might be technically the reincarnation of Hieda no Are, but I don't retain much of their memories outside of what I need to write the Gensokyo Chronicles! I am my own person. I am just the 10-year-old, lovely Akyuu-san!"

Pft- that certainly wasn't a reaction I was expecting. Thinking about it again, it was totally the reaction I was expecting.

Akyuu is even blushing furiously because of her sudden outbreak just now. Though, I started to worry as the color of her face didn't return to normal after a while.

I didn't overheat the girl with a weak constitution, right? What if she gets a fever from that.

Leaning in closer, I first touched my own forehead to see if it was any good. To be honest, I didn't know if my body emitted any human warmth since it's only technically alive right now, but since blood is running through my veins, I think it's safe to assume that my body temperature should be that of a living human.

So, after I made sure of that, I leaned in and checked Akyuu's temperature by touching my forehead against hers.

And for some reason, this was the moment she came to herself again.

"S-Satsuki-san. I am doing fine enough. Thank you for checking up on me."

"Are you sure? You feel pretty hot right now if my forehead is anything to go by."

"Y-Yeah. Your forehead is really cooling. But now you are a bit too close."

Now it seemed that the girl was embarrassed about something else than her previous actions.

"Well, that's fine and all, but you have to understand that as someone who makes medicine, I can't help but be worried when someone looks sick."

"So, do you think that I am sick right now?"

I leaned back when she said. If she looked fine before, around the time when we met, she certainly didn't look fine anymore.

"I'd say it's getting there. Your condition is at a point where it's difficult to tell. You could be developing a fever; you could also be just overheating a little bit. Case in point is, I wouldn't recommend staying in a place like the Road of Reconsideration if you are weakened."

"Wha-! But I am not finished with my..."

"What? Do you mean notes on the Road of Reconsideration, or are you seriously telling me you planned to write the entire entry of it on-site? Look, I am sure you experienced most of what this place has to offer already. So, there is no reason for you to stay here any longer than necessary."

Hearing that, she avoided my eyes as if I just hit the nail in the coffin. Seriously? Did she plan to write the entire entry of the Road of Reconsideration for the Gensokyo Chronicle on-site?

Well, if I think about it, I am sure she would have been able to do that if she didn't meet me. But she did meet me, and we can't change that now.

"Sigh. What is missing? If I can help out, I'll gladly lend you my help."

For some reason, her eyes started to shine when I mentioned that I would lend her my help.

"Then since you are willing to help me, can you draw, Satsuki-san?"

What? Draw? Huh?

"Eh-? Why would you need someone who can draw?"

Seeing my confusion, Akyuu started to blush. It seems she was getting embarrassed by her request to the point where she started to hide her face behind her notebook.

"It's... I wanted to have some illustrations along the entries for my Gensokyo Chronicles."

...

I just realized, but are you seriously telling me that all the contents of Perfect Memento in Strict Sense are one-to-one the pages from the Gensokyo Chronicles?

No, it's not that. It's not simply that the contents of Perfect Memento in Strict Sense and the Gensokyo Chronicles happen to be the same.

The book Perfect Memento in Strict Sense probably is the Gensokyo Chronicle. To be exact, it's probably the first volume she compiled and then bound because the material was getting too much to contain in a single volume.

Still, it was a bit awkward suddenly having to draw a picture out of nowhere.

"Don't you have a camera or something like that?"

"Camera? Oh, you mean those boxes that capture light and then project the image on film? They were just recently getting in trend during my last reincarnation, but aren't they kind of heavy to carry and difficult to maintain? Oh, are you telling me that technology improved to the point where those cameras were easily portable?"

Considering that the Great Hakurei Barrier was created in 1885, the camera was getting introduced to Japan around 1850 and Akyuu was the first Child of Miare that was born inside of Gensokyo...

...yeah, it made sense. The first commercially available cameras must have cost quite a bit and were probably difficult to maintain. Not to mention that they must have been a new fad at that time.

It was curious. In just about 150+ years, the world changed so much that the revolutionary invention of the camera is just a commonplace part of everyday life. Everyone had one at hand at any time nowadays.

In your very pocket is a convenient camera. As well as a phone, and what do you know it can do?

But in Gensokyo, a place that forcefully stopped development after the year 1885 with only the occasional outside world interference affecting it, things still worked as they did in early Meiji Period Japan.

The camera was still revolutionary equipment and instead, miracles were commonplace here. It was amusing to think about.

"Yeah. They optimized the camera so much that you can easily carry one around if you wanted to."

"Woah. That sounds so cool, but no. Here in Gensokyo we sadly don't have something convenient like an easily portable camera as the outside world has."

Acting disappointed, I sighed.

"Just stand over there in that spot. I think the composition will look good if you stand there."

Hearing my suggestion, Akyuu's eyes started to visibly shine. Ugh...

...her expectations. I am not that good of an artist. I am more of a musician! An idol to be exact!

"Does that mean you'll draw an illustration for me?"

"Yes, but don't expect too much. I am not that well versed with the brush."

"Well, that's more than I am capable of. Cause I can't draw."

With that, she just gave me some ink, a brush, and some paper, before running off to the spot where I told her to stand.

I sighed. I had my work cut out for me.

...

Rin Satsuki is...

...an interesting person to say the least. I think I've slowly figured it out at this point, but no matter how I think about it, Satsuki-san wasn't lying.

I have recorded the stories of countless people, and I have modified their records on behalf of the people in power wanting so, and yet if Rin Satsuki was lying, it would be a first for me to experience someone lying like that.

She was kind. That much was for certain. Her worries over my well-being even though this is the first time we met proved that. Her pained expression when she is talking about the dead and the fact that she seemed to be a pharmacist pointed to that conclusion, or at least that's what I like to think about her.

I still have yet to verify whether she was the one who made the potion or just brought it with her, but at this point doubting that statement is superfluous. I simply didn't have enough evidence to draw a conclusion about that.

Still, I couldn't help but be a little suspicious. Dissociative Amnesia. She forgot everything, or at least most information, about herself. But she knows for certain that the outside world is also experiencing this.

Forgetting her. I couldn't imagine how such a kind and charismatic, as well as talented girl such as her, could be completely forgotten by the outside world.

An example of a living human, genuinely and truthfully passing over into Gensokyo, while not getting spirited away. It was such a special circumstance, but I thought if it were to ever happen, it would happen to a NEET with no survival skills, who both of their parents are single children and illegal immigrants to the country, as well as their grandparents on both sides had died long before, while their parents died in an accident or something.

An isolated person who never made any connections and their closest relatives are long gone.

Or maybe an orphan with an artifact that conceals their presence to the world. In both cases I am assuming that the person in question has made as least connections as possible so the outside world could remember them, but...

...Rin Satsuki didn't strike me as a person like that. Popular, kind, knowledgeable, and talented. A person like that would have made countless tiny connections in the outside world. People just naturally would notice her and yet...

...she passed over into Gensokyo, just like that. No matter how I tried, I couldn't wrap my head around it, yet...

...from how Rin sounds, she must have met Yukari personally and that must mean that Yukari met her and I can only assume that Yukari is asking me to take care of Rin with that message she sent me this morning. The reason why Yukari didn't kill or eat her on the spot must have been because she was such an interesting subject to learn about.

If Yukari allowed Rin to pass Muenzuka and go deeper into Gensokyo, that must mean that Yukari was accepting Rin as a resident of these lands, doesn't she?

An anomaly, to say the least, yet an everyday occurrence in Gensokyo. Because despite everything, items that people completely forget about still land in Gensokyo.

Rin is just like that, but the difference is that she is alive and breathing.

A person with a complete lack of attachment to the outside world on both sides...

...even I couldn't help but be a bit interested in her.

"Akyuu!"

"Huh!?"

"I finished the drawing come and look over it yourself."(+)

I called Akyuu over. Looking over the painting I just draw. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything to talk home about.

It was a simple drawing of a row of trees with the ground covered in spider lilies with an Akyuu in chibi style looking at the flowers with a gaping mouth.

Considering that the ancient Greeks already started to learn techniques to draw hyperrealistic, this was a far cry from it.

It was just a simple drawing in chibi style. Hell, if I had to admit it, I tried my best to recreate the illustration from Perfect Memento in Strict Sense.

Akyuu came over and looked over it, not giving a comment for a moment, silently looking over the picture as if she was admiring a piece of art.

"So, how is it?"

I asked hesitantly. Slightly fearing what Akyuu was going to say next.

She just smiled at me.

"It's cute."

Then she just took the picture and put it in her notebook.

"Let's go."

"Huh? Where?"

She just turned around, looking at me as if I am asking something stupid.

"It's getting late. Where else could we go, but the human village? What? Don't tell me you wanted to camp outside here!"

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit at Akyuu's overreaction. While camping out in nature under a cloudless sky filled with stars didn't sound so bad...

...telling me that the monsters that were roaming around in the day were now getting aggressive would most certainly deter me from doing so.

"Well, am I allowed to stay at your place then?"

I asked Akyuu, acting like a clueless fool. She didn't take it that well, in fact, she was surprised again as she realized something.

"Ah-, how could I forget something important like that, but if you currently don't have a place to stay, why don't you stay at my place."

She said, bowing down in front of me. Weren't the roles reversed?!

I bowed down myself.

"Ah, no. I shouldn't make my benefactor bow. I am grateful for your grace in allowing me to stay at your place. I hope I won't intrude."

"Ah..."

This bowing parade continued on for a solid dozen rounds when I noticed faint presences approaching us with moderate speed.

"Akyuu-sama, it's getting late!"

Four presences approached, seeming to be Akyuu's escorts. They seemed to hurry, as it seemed that they didn't want to spend any time longer on the Road of Reconsideration than they had to.

"Akyuu-sama. I hope you finished taking notes, but if not that's also alright. That just means we have to go here for another time."

The escorts gathered around Akyuu. At first, it seemed like they didn't acknowledge my presence.

Well, this was a convenient time as any other to check their...

[Lvl. 16 Hieda Guard, Tonda]

[Lvl. 17 Hieda Guard, Honda]

[Lvl. 16 Hieda Guard, Konda]

[Lvl. 15 Hieda Guard, Tanaka]

...

What's with all those onda's! Are these even real Japanese names? And why is the common name Tanaka the weakest out of the four of them!? Besides, why is their level so high, wait is it even high? System what even is "level"!

[Lvl 1 is the strength of an average adult. After that, it gets difficult to go into detail about how the system determines a level. I can confirm this though. The weakest out of the four of them, Tanaka, could indeed defeat that Youkai wolf you encountered today by himself. To give a frame of reference, a world-class athlete would be calculated to be around Lvl 15 to 20]

...

Are you telling me those random villagers are total Gigachads?

[Oh no, Sir Giga Chad, is around Lvl 69 with an ascending trend. Though, if you are talking in terms of, could those common villagers break international world records, then yes. I am sure if they tried with all their effort, they could.]

As expected of the descendants of Youkai hunters and it seemed that they finally noticed me.

"Identify yourself."

"Who are you?"

"Why are you so close to Akyuu-sama?"

"Are you a Youkai?"

And all of them were pointing their spears at me. What a great situation I found myself in.

"Wait! Stop it, everyone. She is my guest."

"But Akyuu-sama..."

"No buts! I understand your concern for me since I made you wait at the beginning of the Road of Reconsideration, but this is still in no way how to treat a guest. While you might not trust her, I have determined her to be trustworthy. So that is it."

They seemed reluctant at that statement, glaring at me. Of course, Akyuu noticed that and gave them a glare they could never even in their dreams hope to imitate.

"We understood, Akyuu-sama. We'll escort you and that outsider-"

Wow, even I found Akyuu a bit scary when she glared like that.

"Ehem, we meant you and your guest to safety to the human village."

"Glad you understood Honda."

He nodded, before signaling the other four guards to surround us in the four cardinal directions to cover all directions where we could get attacked.

Surprisingly, the defense wasn't dissimilar to an attack. It almost made me feel like we are prisoners and not a noble and her guest getting escorted.

"Hey, Akyuu?"

For some reason, she started blushing.

"Huh, what is it Akyuu?"

She scratched her cheek, awkwardly staring at me.

"I just noticed, but you have been calling me by just my first name..."

Oh, that's why she is blushing. I have been talking to her as if she is my close friend the entire time.

"Oh, it's just that? Then you can just call me Rin too."

"But..."

"I mean, we are friends, right?"

"Huh?"

"Aren't we? I mean, you invited me over, and at least I see you as a friend. So, I just thought we were. Though, if you are uncomfortable with it..."

"No, I agree. We are friends, aren't we?"

"I sure think so."

I said to Akyuu, giving her my best smile. She returned my smile with her own and we started laughing.

It is my first day in Gensokyo and I made a good friend. I am also already on my way to a safe location. I felt happy.

"Oh, Akyuu. You said you were 10, right?"

"Yes, that's what I said."

"How far into compiling the Gensokyo Chronicles are you?"

It seemed as if I struck a nerve, as Akyuu continued to talk about the chronicles without a break, but from what I have gathered, she just recently started writing, and she is already excited about the things she is going to record, but that there hasn't been anything exciting to write about yet.

Akyuu is 10 and nothing happened yet. That could only mean one thing. I arrived in Gensokyo at a very early point in the timeline.

"Akyuu. Do you have a name for the Gensokyo Chronicles yet?"

"A name?"

"What, don't tell me you wanted to do something like "Gensokyo Chronicle, Part 1" right?"

She avoided my gaze.

"No."

...

"Well, how about naming it Perfect Memento in Strict Sense?"

"Perfect Memento in Strict Sense?"

"Well, since you have a perfect memory, it would be a perfect memento, no? And from how you are talking about the Gensokyo Chronicles, I gather that you are rather strict about what gets into it. So isn't it a Perfect Memento in Strict Sense?"

As she heard my explanation, Akyuu looked down and mumbled the words "Perfect Memento in Strict Sense" over and over again like a chant.

"Hey, if you don't like it, you can decline-"

"It's perfect! Thank you, Rin. I am going to name the first volume of the Gensokyo Chronicles "Perfect Memento in Strict Sense!" Pinky Promise."

A pinky promise over something silly like this?

Still, Perfect Memento in Strict Sense. It has recorded about every event starting from Touhou 6 - Embodiment of Scarlet Devil to Touhou 9 - Phantasmagoria of Flower View.

Now that I arrived here before all those incidents happened, I wonder how much my presence is going to affect the events that are going to occur in the future.