Chapter 44: The Missing Spring part EX(?)
Beta: Katanasoul_91.
-Morning, Hakurei Shrine-
-My POV-
Two little girls arrived on the Hakurei Shrine. They arrived by piggy backing the other one.
"We finally arrived! We did it!"
"O-oooo."
"Where's your energy! Say 'We did it!'!"
"W-we did it."
"Louder!!"
I pat her head. "Funya!"
"Just let her go, not everyone have that much energy as yours." I reprimanded her before I removed my hand from her head.
"Y-yes, sorry, Akyuu-chan too, I'm sorry." she said her sorry as she lowered Akyuu to stand on her own.
"Don't worry about it, its Bara-chan after all." Akyuu gave a wry smile to her.
I smile in satisfaction seeing their friendly interaction.
I look around the Shrine ground.
There's Reimu, she's giving us unimpressed look while sweeping the ground.
"Please don't be loud first thing in the morning, and what are you all doing here?" she ordered and asked us at the same time.
I raised my Picnic Basket for her to see. "Flower viewing and victory celebration."
"Morning, Reimu-san!" Bara waved.
"Sorry for intruding." Akyuu bowed.
"Good morning to all of you too, by 'victory celebration', that mean I can join in right?" Reimu eyes turned sharps.
"Of course, I also already prepared some extra for the other two, in case they joining in too."
"Then I'll finish this quickly, just give me a minute." and then she start sweeping the ground very quickly.
"Haha, then we will go ahead, come on girls." we move to the area where there's more tree in the Shrine ground.
We found some good clearance. We settled down on it after that I evened out the ground and place a huge mat on top of it.
'The atmosphere really relaxing, like the saying, you need to enjoy the moment while it still last, after all, there'll be another incident soon in a few weeks, and knowing the System, that mean I have to work for it.'
I sigh.
I noticed something floating beside one of the tree. That something is in a color and shape of a white ball.
It's a Phantom, a ghostly remains from a living being. Usually they are resided in Netherworld, but they are constantly can be seen in Gensokyo now.
'They are everywhere now, I guess you can compare them to flies, rather than giving disease, they gave you a chilly aura instead.'
It has been a few days since the conclusion of the incident, aside from the spring comes back to Gensokyo, the Phantom also comes to this place.
The Human start freaking out because of the sudden appearance of the Phantom, but I'm sure they will get used to it in a few days, that's just how Human are.
I think that's the only thing that difference after the incident, now onto the next stuff.
My Quest Reward.
[Main Story Quest Completed]
[Reward: 40.000 AP & 40.000 IP, 2 Random Skills & 2 Random Items]
The reward really increased just like the System said.
For the new reward, I rolled some really good one and a really random one.
[Object Enchantment]
[User could infuse object with any unique effect as long as User provided use mana as its cost, the duration of the enchantment depend on what kind of material that the object have and how much User pour mana into it.]
[Detecting inferior skill of the same category from User, [Enchantment: Strength, Endurance, Agility] are fused with [Object Enchantment] for performance efficiency.]
[User level increased from Lv.75 to Lv.77]
Finally! After tricking everyone that I could enchant an item, I finally really could perform an enchantment! So with this skill, I enchant the Picnic Basket in my hand with [Spatial Enlargement] and [Weight Reduction], tiresome but very satisfying, now with this I don't need to buy anymore enchantment from the System.
As for the second skill.
[Origami Master]
[Make User the master of folding paper (Origami).]
Really random but I'll take it nonetheless, I'll just use it to have fun in my free time, ….I wonder if I could make a dragon out of folding paper?
Now for the new item, I think I hit another jackpot on one of them.
[Sleepy Medallion]
[Anyone that saw the eye side of the medallion would feel drowsy until they eventually fall asleep.]
[Eternal Illumination Jewel]
[A jewel that producing light until the end of time.]
Praise the Tiny Luck! I don't know if that's really your doing, but praise you! I promise I won't shit talk you ever again!
Now I could freely use my Light Saber technique without any cost, adding the fact that I have Swordsmanship Lv.EX, those thing gonna be deadly! …But now that I think about it, isn't that mean I could pretend to be a Jedi now?! I also have my Telekinesis! Hohohohohohohohoho, I got another idea, give me Electro Master and I could pretend to be Emperor Palpatine!
But I will wait for my free Electro Master, I'm saving up my Ability Point right now, after all, upgrading my skills into Lv.EX is more important than getting new skills.
I guess that's it for anything new, now I only need to relax and wait for the next incident to happen, yup, only need to relax.
"I'm here, give me sake!" Reimu arrived.
"Here," I gave her a bottle of it and its Sakazuki, a saucer like cup for drinking sake. "Just so you know, I will keep the stench away from the other."
"As long as I get to drink the Sake." she received it happily.
"Here's some snack to go along with it." I place the food on the mat before I proceeding to get myself a thermos containing my tea, my own sweet vanilla flavored tea.
"…" I noticed Bara staring at Reimu's Sake.
"That thing burned your throat, consume more it will burn your kidney, consume more and you probably regret what you're doing while you're drunk." I said my impression of Sake to Bara. "Here's some sweet tea instead." I gave Bara a cup of tea, she took it.
"Sweet tea?" asked Akyuu.
"Vanilla flavored tea mixed with sugar, you want one?"
"Sure." Akyuu took a sip. "Hm, this drink may also be suitable to accompany reading books." Akyuu gave her impression.
"More!" Bara thrust me her empty cup.
"…I know you almost resistant to the heat but can you slow down your drinking speed?"
"Yes, Bara-chan, you need to drink it slowly to enjoy it fully." comment Akyuu.
"But the taste is so sweet! I just want more of it you know!" Bara says her reasoning.
"Then eat this cookie instead, too much tea will lead to another kind of emergency." I gave her a plate of cookie.
"Emergency?" asked Bara with question look but she still take the plate anyway.
"Just eat the cookies, if you want more, just asked me again."
I caught a glimpse of tinge of red on Akyuu face, as for Reimu, I don't know if it's red because she hear what I said or just already drunk from her Sake.
We continue our friendly conversation while enjoying the atmosphere but not long after that, Marisa joins our little party.
"So is this gonna be a thing-ze? Each time we solved an incident, we will have a victory celebration? I'm down with it-ze!" and she took a gulp of her share of Sake.
"Now that you mentioned it, are you okay doing all of this Arah-san?" worried Akyuu.
"It's okay. You don't need to worry about it." I answered.
"So he says!" yelled Reimu merrily.
'…She's totally drunk.' I thought. "Let's talk about something else, I'm actually curious about you girls side of the story from previous incident."
"Oh, now you're saying it I also curious about yours as well-ze. Hey, Reimu, sober up, I want to hear yours as well-ze." Marisa tapped Reimu's shoulder.
"Hm? Incident Story? It can't be helped, now listened to the story of this great Reimu-sama solving the incident."
"What do you mean by Reimu-sama?! All three of us solved the incident-ze!"
"Four, I'm giving you the boost item, remember?"
"In the first place you're siding with the enemy-ze! You don't count!!"
I look to the side, Akyuu is in her listening mode right now, she's concentrating to listening to us, or should I say 'recording' us, while Bara is happily nibbling her cookie.
And so I listened and give away my side of the story; of course I left out the System Quest part.
On Reimu side, after she concluded that the spring won't come back at the start of the second month, she started her duty to save Gensokyo from an incident (…it sounded honorable and such, it also fit her character that she will move if Gensokyo is in danger from an incident, but I have a feeling that she left out something in-between), because the winter is unending, she started beating up all the Being that could control the cold (she fought Letty, the 1st stage boss and Cirno, the 1st stage preboss), until a few days later that she have a feeling that there's something more up in the sky, and thus she found the Barrier between Life and Death, and we know what happen next.
On Marisa side, after she founded mysterious pink petal that fall in front of her house, she concluded that in some part of Gensokyo has spring in it, so she set out , after flying around for days without anymore clue, she come across with Alice (the 3rd stage boss), they banter for a while, then they fought, then Marisa won. After that Alice gave her a hint that the there's something going on up above the sky, but Marisa didn't get it until she heard the loud noise.
Guess that mean Sakuya fought off Chen (the 2nd stage boss) and the Prismriver Sisters (the 4th stage boss).
As for my side, I used my head (this ticked off Marisa and Reimu, their expression is so precious, I just wanna laugh out loud), found the door, I used my head again (this really ticked off Reimu), have a meeting with the one behind the incident, and the other know the rest.
"Reimu, did you asked her what I asked you to do?" I asked Reimu.
"Yes, but she said something about breaking the seal and freeing a soul."
"Ah, you mean her monologue about reviving a soul before we fought her-ze?"
"Reviving a soul?" asked Akyuu.
Then friendly banter ensued, interestingly, no one berated me for picking the culprit side, which I thankful off, guess they accept the fact that even thought I became enemy at that time, I still , or they just don't want their drink to be gone because I'm feeling butt hurt, which I'm thankful nonetheless.
"Ara, what a lovely feast, did you perhaps has room for one more guest?"
I jumped a little when I heard that voice.
"Oh, it's you." Reimu turned a little bit sober.
"The culprit-ze."
I slowly look to the new voice.
It's Yuyuko.
…Relax, just relax, the incident already passed, she has no more reason to attack us, except me, I'm fucked, I'm fucked am I? …Let's just see what happen.
"So can I join, Arah boy?"
"…Please sit whenever you like."
"Sorry for intruding then."
…
She sat beside me.
…I want to scream, I wanted to scream so bad right now.
Let's just give her share of foods, yeah, her share of foods. I knew that somehow she will appear when I'm doing this. In the game, every last boss always visited Reimu every time she solved their incident.
I take out many foods from the food basket using Telekinesis.
After the mat is full of food, I pile them up. Pile and pile of food keep stacking up in front of Yuyuko.
A bit of information, Yuyuko is a glutton.
"What a smell, I'm sure the dishes gonna be delicious as well." said Yuyuko with a cherry tone.
"…Oi, isn't this a preferential treatment? Why did she have more food share than we do?" Reimu is annoyed with what she sees.
"There's something that he didn't say to us-ze, something happened when he met her that he's doing this-ze." said Marisa with suspicion.
I ignored them. "Please help yourself, Yuyuko-san."
"Is that so? Then I won't hold back, all right?" Yuyuko said with a smile.
She picked up her chop stick and then her mouth turned into a black hole.
She put the food into her mouth, and a second later another food enter her mouth, and this action repeat itself several times. I didn't even saw her chewing her food, she just stuff food after food without pause.
Reimu and Marisa are flabbergasted with what they seeing right now.
"Master, this person is amazing!" Bara expresses her amazement.
"Ooooh, this is the first time I saw such hungry ghost." Akyuu voiced out her interest.
Another bit of explanation, Phantom and Ghost are different thing, when someone become a Phantom, that's when they accepted the fact that they're death, they're willing to go to the other side and be judged by the Yama, the judge of the afterlife, but Ghost, they appeared when someone is in denial with their death, they will stay in the world until someone do their memorial service, they accepted that they died or their grudge is disappear, and you know how dangerous a ghost is if they have their grudge on, hint hint, 'The Ring', that's a nice example of a grudged ghost. So in essence, Ghost is more dangerous than Phantom.
"I've come to search for the Miko, thinking that she already moved to do something about the new mess that is currently happening, but what did I see, she's actually just enjoying a feast without worry right now."
I look at the new comer.
Sakuya has arrived.
"The culprit from before also here as well, then can you do something about the sudden mass appearance of the Phantom? They are swarming our Mansion every day, and their presences are not welcomed by our mistress." complained Sakuya.
"She's right, nowadays all I see is Phantom around my house-ze. You're the mistress of Netherworld; can't you do something about it-ze?" add Marisa.
"It's the same for me." Reimu slip in her complained.
"Yuyuko-sama!"
And then another one arrived.
It's Youmu.
"Yuyuko-sama, what are you doing in this kind of place?! Something bad had happened!"
"…Oi, what do you mean by 'this kind of place'?" Reimu irritated by Youmu's remark.
"More importantly, what happened, Youmu?" Yuyuko is curious.
"Oi! What do you mean by 'more importantly'?!" Reimu is furious.
"That person that we asked to mend the barrier is still asleep! What do we do?!" continued Youmu.
Reimu is ignored, poor Reimu.
"Hm, she always asleep in winter, I guess the spring hasn't go on for too long now for her to wake up. Then it can't be helped, I'll visit her later." consider Yuyuko.
"Then the barrier mending gonna be postponed? Then I guess its fine."
"""It's not fine!""" yelled the heroines.
"But there's another matter at hand, a mysterious person has been come and go from the Netherworld, she said that she's a familiar of Yuyuko-sama's friend."
It's Ran (the EX stage 1st part final boss) and also, is their conversation staged? These two are ignoring the heroine words.
"Then why don't you cut her down to confirm her identity?" asked Yuyuko.
"Please don't joke around. If she's what she claimed to be, I can't be rude to Yuyuko-sama's friend servants."
"Then I'll check it for you." said Reimu.
"And I'll cut her down." said Sakuya.
"As long as the Phantom infestation is gone-daze." said Marisa.
"Well then, I'll leave it to all of you." concluded Yuyuko.
*ding*
[Extra Story Quest]
[Personally Participate and Win against the Boarder Manipulator]
Nope.
'There's no penalty in this quest. That means there's no need for me to participate.…Yeah, fuck that, fuck that quest, nah ah, are you kidding me?! I'm not gonna go fight Yukari.'
But then I noticed everyone is looking at me.
"Come on, Arah. It's time to redeem yourself-ze." said Marisa.
"It should be faster if the four of us combine." said Reimu.
"Can Arah-dono do it?" asked Youmu.
"There's nothing for me to add anymore." said Sakuya.
Akyuu look worried, but Bara expression different from her, she look so confident of me that it's hurt.
And I'm sorry that I'm betraying everyone expectation.
"The name of the Yuyuko-san's friend is Yukari, and some of you know how Yukari goes, even if you win, she probably didn't even do what you asked her." I blur out the name of the final boss of EX stage, the one that they're supposed to fight, and the result of what happened if they won the fight.
"…So it's her." Reimu still look irritated.
"Yukari? You mean the gap youkai?" asked Sakuya for confirmation.
"Eeeh, seriously-ze?! Is what you're saying true, Arah-ze??"
"Yes, is that really true?" asked Yuyuko.
"…Yes." I nodded. 'Yuyuko question. Even thought her question is the same as Marisa, the meaning behind it is totally different.' I thought.
"But that shouldn't mean we don't do anything about it, I'll still try to fight her myself." said Reimu.
"If Reimu said so, then I'm with her-ze."
"I still got my order from my mistress so."
As expected from the heroine, they still resolute to did it, even though they heard what I said.
"Then I'm sorry to disappoint all of you. I really don't want to fight Yukari." I said truthfully. "But instead."
I peel off one of tree bark using Telekinesis, and I search for its Cambium for me to peel, and then I make it into a bracelet, I make three of them for each of the girls.
I gather the bracelet into my hand, and then I start enchanting them.
[Enchant Durability] x 3.
[Health Regeneration] x 3.
[Stamina Regeneration] x 3.
[Mana Regeneration] x 3.
[Increase Surrounding Awareness] x 3.
[Increase Reaction Time] x 3.
…I feel so tired after enchanted all these three bracelets.
"Because of the material…last only one day… takes these…in place of me…and once again…I'm sorry." I offered them the bracelets.
All three of them take their bracelet.
"I understand and thank you, Arah." Reimu understand.
"I guess it was okay-ze." said Marisa as she eyeing the bracelet. I don't really know what her 'okay' means, but I didn't curious enough to know further.
"…" Sakuya didn't say anything.
And we said good bye to them before they leave to the Netherworld.
"What a lively girl and they should be lively considering they're still alive." said Yuyuko as she continued the food.
"Um, Saigyouji-sama, I'm sorry for not introducing myself from the beginning, my name is Hieda no Akyuu, the 9th child of Miare." Akyuu introduced herself.
"Don't worry. I've noticed who you're from the beginning. I heard that your entire predecessor works hard for the Yama in the Afterlife." said Yuyuko.
And they start their Q&A session.
As for me, I'm opted to rest to erase the fatigue from enchanting those bracelets.
In the end, I feel asleep until Bara wake me up to remind me that it's time to go back.
We send Akyuu back to her mansion before we go back to our home.
-Night, My House-
*ding*
[Quest Failed]
"They finally did it."
I trust them so much that I didn't even imagined that they will lose to Yukari.
I sigh.
Bara rustled from her bed and then she turned her head toward me, she's awake.
"Ah, sorry, did I wake you up?" I gave her my apologetic smile.
"…" she didn't say anything and just look at me.
After staring each other for a while, she got out from her bed and got in to mine.
She hugged me.
"…Now this is embarrassing, a master shouldn't be consoled by his own servant." I quipped.
She hugged me tighter.
"…"
I hug her back.
I don't know if this eased me a little bit or this raised my feeling of disappointment toward myself.
But I know one thing for sure is that, this day marked as the first failed quest ever since I arrived in Gensokyo.
Author note:
Heyo, Author here.
About the Yukari fight, it is too complicated for me to describe, that's why I didn't included it in the story, you probably thought that I'm just lazy to write it, and yes, you're right, I'm just being lazy to write it. So I'm sorry for all the reader that anticipated any action in this chapter, action twice in a row is impossible for me.
If you people want to see the Yukari fight, search the video of 'minusT' in Youtube, just type 'Human vs Yukari', all the scene in my story is inspired by his/her video. He's a God for creating all those Danmaku battles.
Also for the next chapter, it's gonna be the Side Story.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone