章 50: Night Parade of One Hundred Oni Every Four Days Part 1
-Early Noon, in the Middle of the Road-
-My POV-
"…This is nerve wrecking." I said.
"Which is?" Bara asked beside me.
"The fact that we're heading toward one of the place that I hesitant to visit."
"Bamboo Forest of the Lost? Is it a dangerous place?"
"Yeah, beside the self explanatory name, I'm more worried with the people that residing in there."
"What's wrong with them? Are they bad people?"
"Well, not really, I think."
"Then why were Master worried about them if they're not bad people?"
"…Hmm." Then I start rationaling my feeling. "I guess I was being paranoid because I only heard about them and not meet them personally. People tend to assume something bad with anything that they never seen before, no one excluded from this problem, it was the fear of the unknown. The only way to fix this is to see them personally, see them with your own eyes, judged them based on their action. "
"A wise word from someone of your age, now, all that left is for you to implement them." A third voice joined in on our conversation.
"Easier said than done, there's still something called 'being nervous', the most unpleasant part of the ordeal in my opinion, Keine-sensei." I glance at the person behind me while still walking forward.
I see Keine turn her head to the side to glance at me too, right now she's back to back with me while sitting on a chair, a makeshift one that I made using wood, vines, leafs, a bit of toughness enchantment, and a bit of Vector Change for extra stickiness. If you look at it from a far, you may assume that I carried her on my back, but in truth, I carried her using Telekinesis.
As for why she's in this situation, it all started when I arrived at my usual path to enter the Forest of Magic. On there, I saw Bara piggy backing her, it was a strange sight considering the difference between their body sizes.
She apparently wasted all her energy after using her ability, so that mean she can't do anything for a while because of it, now when she was on the lookout for any enemy approaching her, she found Bara wandering in the forest (Because she 'ate' the village history, the world presenting what happened to the Human Village area if the village doesn't get to be build in the first place, which is why the area turn into a forest right now), after much talk between them, Keine asked Bara to moved her to her friend place, but then Bara asked if she could get me first to help her, and Keine agreed.
Bara also explained that she still remembered Keine but she doesn't know anything else, guess Keine still keep her history.
As for the chair, I just want to make her comfy, I or Bara can't possibly piggy backing her until we reach the Bamboo Forest, that'll surely made everyone involved to feel uncomfortable. So with that reason, I make the chair, I add padding, arm rest, foot rest and everything to it. I also keep it constantly stable with Telekinesis. …So yeah, Keine was satisfied with it, and I think Legendary Butler skill lend a hand in the making of the chair.
"Then you should talk with other people more, the more you talk to them, the less time you'll feel nervous doing something similar." advice Keine.
"I don't think your solution will help me because my 'being nervous' is from 'meeting someone that's more powerful than me'." I look back toward the road.
"Then that mean you won't get nervous when dealing with someone that's weaker than you?"
"Yes. I know that it sounds rude for the people that I met, but I could at least have a bit of peace of mind that I could at least survive with whatever they thrown at me."
"…What kind of scale did you use in your reasoning?"
"Gensokyo scale."
"We're actually not that bad."
"Says the one that could 'eat' a history."
"Is that a confession that you knew about what I really am?"
I blink.
"…Yeah."
"…When did you noticed?"
"…When we first met."
"…I see."
And then she goes silent. I look to the side to saw Bara's worried expression. I gave her small smile to assured her that everything is gonna be all right.
'I think I need to be honest when that kind of question was asked, I don't want to regret it later on because I lied.'
A few seconds later, I once again hear Keine's voice.
"…So, what do you think?"
"About what?"
"I didn't know how you do it, but you still remember right? It's about me living inside the village. it's about me teaching the children. What do you think of it?"
"Being a teacher is a noble job. You're taking apart in a delicate process of personality building inside the children, based on the evidence that there were no complain from the parent children or the children themselves. With only that fact, I've no issue whatsoever if you're a human or not."
"..."
"Basically you're doing a good job so far, just does your stuff like you normally do, there's nothing to worry about." I hurriedly said in case my previous word sounds too stuffy thus making it didn't hit the mark.
"There's nothing to fix because there's no issue in the first place?" Bara added.
"Y-yeah, like what Bara said."
I hear a chuckle from behind me.
"If you say so, I'm glad then."
After I feel satisfied from her answer, I internally sigh in relieve.
"But now that I think about it, if you already knew about me from the start, why did you look suspiciously at me when the mist incident happened."
I flinch.
"I wonder why you did it, Arah-kun. There's no way you did it just for fun, right?"
I didn't look back and start walking faster.
"W-wait! Master!" Bara start running because there's a difference between our distances between steps.
"Hey, Arah-kun, why won't you answer the question?"
I stay silent and just fast walk toward the Bamboo Forest.
"Master! Slow down please!" cried Bara.
-Afternoon, the Entrance to the Bamboo Forest-
"So let me get this straight, the reason as to why you knew that there are people living inside the Bamboo Forest was because you 'read' it 'somewhere'."
"Yes."
"…But where is this 'somewhere'??"
I smirk. "Heh, you think I'll answer that question. I have my secret as well, I'm not gonna answer it to just anybody."
When we're in the road, Keine finally asked as to how I knew that there are people living inside the Bamboo Forest. This is a precaution incase somehow people keep pointing out about how I knew so much, so with this I could slowly put the idea of me knowing about a lot of things, and not forcefully says things like 'your world actually just a fiction', seriously, anyone that said that word in an explanation, prove that they actually have a shit for a brain, you sound like an arrogant prick when you said those kind of word. So I arrived to this solution.
'If everything in Gensokyo has vague explanation, then let's be vague as well. If they have the wrong conclusion then it's their fault for wrongly interpreting my answer.'
"But like I first said, I only knew about them, I never met them personally so I didn't know what kind of person they are."
"And then what will you do when you knew what kind of person they are?" Keine asked.
"Become friends with them, right? Isn't that usually the first answer for things like this?"
I offered my hand to help Keine stand up.
She took it and leave from my makeshift chair.
Now that there's no one in the chair-Bara plop down on the chair.
…
"I'm tired~" Bara whine.
"…" I sigh. "Oh well."
*pat-pat* someone patting my head.
"That's a good way of thinking, keep it that way and you will have a future without worries."
"If I succeed in making them my friend that is, so, how will you find your friend in here?"
She smiles. "Well, like this," she breathed in. "MOKOUUU-CHAAAAAAAN!!!" Keine yell.
A second passed.
"DON'T CALL ME BY THAT NAMEE!!" A girl voice rang back from the Bamboo Forest.
'Ho boy.' I thought.
After waiting for a while, I see a girl coming out of the Bamboo Forest.
As she keeps getting closer to us, I slowly could make out her detail.
She has red eyes and ankle-length pale blue (almost white) hair. Her hair's tied with red and white paper charms. She wears a light brown shirt that appears as if it's been discolored from fire, and dark red hakama that are randomly decorated with paper charms, and she walks while keeping her hands in her pocket.
"Oh, it's just you, Keine. I thought it was Kaguya taunting me to fight her again, even thought I already said it has become annoying after 300 something years. What's up?" greeted her.
I look at her status.
[Lv.?? Immortal Phoenix, Fujiwara no Mokou]
'Fujiwara no Mokou, one of the badass, my favorite character, and compelling character in Touhou, although, I don't really like her character theme.' I thought.
"Hello to you too, Mokou, as for your question, I really do want to say everything is fine, but in reality it's not. I used my ability." Keine answered.
"'Used your ability?' …Ah, I see. So, what's with the kids around you?"
"Fufu, Let me introduce you. This is Arah-kun," Keine introduce me.
"Hey." I greet her by raising my hand.
"And Bara-chan." she introduce Bara.
"Hello~" greeted Bara with a drool face. …is the chair really that good?
"Even though they're new in Gensokyo, they are good people. Thankfully they found me after I used my ability and then help escorting me to this place."
"Hoo, that's pretty good." Mokou look amazed. "Good job, kid."
[Impress the Immortal Phoenix]
[Reward: 20.000 AP & IP]
"I'm sorry but I'm not a kid."
"Then how old are you?"
"…15." I painfully admit.
"Still a kid to me, but thank you for your hard work, let me handle it from here." She brings out her hands from her pocket.
"Eh? W-w-wait! M-mokou?! Wait a second!"
"Ei! Don't struggle!"
And there goes Keine getting princess carried by Mokou.
"See you guys next time."
"B-be safe on the way back, okay?!"
With that final parting word, they disappeared into the Bamboo Forest.
"Well, that was pretty good for first impression."
I look behind me and saw Bara sleeping on the chair.
"…Now I'm really curious as to how the chair actually feels."
And with that word, I also start walking back home while telekinetically carrying extra budget.
-Evening, In front of my house-
"So, you want to go in and have some tea?"
"No need because my business in here will be over in a jiffy."
"'Over in a jiffy' is it? …May I know what kind of business you have in here?"
"Testing."
"…Hm?" I titled my head.
"I want to test your ability to stay alive."
…
…My eyes…they're twitching.
I JUST arrived to my house, I JUST finish putting Bara in the bedroom, I JUST start trying to feel relaxed, but the universe said "you know what, let's throw him Yukari so he'll start panicking again".
…So yeah, Yukari visited me and ordered me to go outside.
She smiles.
"So do try to convince me that you won't make her run amok in Gensokyo because she didn't satisfy with your performance."
"What do you mean by 'satisfy with my performance'? Who is 'She'?"
"I'll tell you if I satisfied with your result but do try your very best, because if you don't, I'll be the one that will kill you instead." She still keeps her smile as she said those words.
"…Then there's no choice to do my very best then." I said as my determination to win start flaring ever since I step into this fantasy land.
'If I went by the game logic, is this my 1st stage fight in my story line? Already fighting Yukari in the 1st stage? What kind of nonsense is this?! I CALL HAX!!' I complained in my mind.
Author Note:
Heyo, Author here! Work has been very hard to me! Update schedule gonna go haywire from now on! Good bye! Good day!
About rivalry between Mokou and Kaguya, the wiki said that Mokou actually already given up killing Kaguya after 300 year while Kaguya keep fishing for Mokou to fight her. So yeah, fan work actually deluded me from the canon version until now
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