“Do you want anything, Minamitsu?” You wave the café’s menu in the air when you ask.
The ghost scans the single page of items. The café isn’t anything special. Their menu is full of sandwiches, drinks and desserts, each one named to be more ridiculous than the last. Naturally, the prices directly correlate with the increasingly long descriptions. “Can you really afford all this?”
“Of course I can. You saved me a fair amount.”
Minamitsu wavers before setting the menu facedown. “It’s fine. I don’t need to eat.”
“Just because you don’t have to doesn’t mean you don’t want to.”
The human mind is a strange thing. For a ghost, eating is a net loss. They need to waste valuable energy breaking down food that they can’t use – not everybody has a mana generating black box enchantment laced inside of them. Yet the allure of partaking in such a human activity is too much to resist for most.
You see Minamitsu begin to sway. “It sounds like you want to spend your money.”
“Maybe I do.”
She pointedly ignores your suggestion, but only for a few seconds. “Fine, but you offered.” The ghost flags down the waitress and lets you order first. Then she grins and takes the stage. “I’ll have this triple scoop sundae, this double berry smoothie swirl, the…”
At some point Yoshika jumps in, pointing at the menu and splitting the waitress’ attention. The poor girl has a look of confused delight on as she races to write down everything the two of them are asking for.
For two undead creatures, they eat far more than you ever would. Or could. You speak up, looking to end this before all your savings are for naught. “Hey, I was hoping we could start heading back soon. If you two just order everything on the menu, I don’t think-”
“Don’t worry sir. We have takeout boxes!” The waitress rushes back inside to grab one, as if to guarantee they exist.
They do. And they can be packed with ice. How thoughtful.
And this is why you don’t write blank cheques. You watch with slight despondence when the waitress dashes back inside to begin filling the order. Thankfully, she brings out a set of sandwiches first, letting you refuel.
“Anyway Minamitsu, thank you for helping out with all this shopping. I would’ve been wandering for the rest of the day without you,” you say between bites.
“Not a problem. I’m always good for a spot of navigating. You needed some very strange items, though.”
“Yeah, some of the items are unconventional, but it’s what I learned with. In the end, the emotional attachment I have to them outweighs any proscribed formulae.” Magic is a force of feeling and emotion as much as anything else. You might be a person that casts with their mind more often than not, but flinging spells with the heart is just as workable.
The great eastern mystics might have used rice in their rituals to disable the undead, but you used whatever you had on hand when you needed to a few years back. For you, that meant permanently changing the key casting reagent from rice to jelly beans. You could probably work with either, but there’s something ‘right’ about throwing a handful of chewy delights at something trying to kill you.
It happens. The strongest magic is always wielded by the most dedicated and, consequently, the craziest.
You eye the box of four sundaes the waitress brings out before sighing. It’s the last of the large order. You reluctantly hand over your money to the ecstatic waitress and stand up, half-eaten sandwich in hand. The three of you grab the boxes of food and start walking off.
In the end, you estimate that you still saved money even with Minamitsu’s splurging. You probably earned some appreciation from the café too.
And it went towards a good cause. Huh?
You didn’t actually think this was all for her, did you? ….Maybe?
Count, you idiot. Other than ordering one of everything on the menu, which you’re also sure she did, it seems like there’s enough to go around for a group of seven. That is what your sister meant, right?
And you didn’t even think of buying the jiang-shi anything to eat. You already fed them once!
Uh-huh. This is getting more and more expensive every day.
You free yourself from gloomy financial thoughts of the future. “So, about Obon.”
“What about it?”
“I’m curious what you plan on doing. I mean, you’re here instead of helping out at the temple.”
“Aye, I am,” Minamitsu lifts one of her boxes and takes a sip from the straw of her milkshake. “There’s no reason to get in everybody else’s way.”
“I thought you said this was all hands on deck.”
“I did say that, didn’t I?” She laughs and shrugs. “Well, I can’t say folding paper all day appeals to me.”
“You were just trying to make me do your work, huh?”
“Not…necessarily. Byakuren would definitely appreciate your help. That was true advice.” Even though she says it with a huge, suggestive grin on her face, you think she genuinely means well.
It would be a decent way of starting to repay what Byakuren has done for you, at least. Along with perhaps earning some goodwill from the temple? “Maybe if I manage to find the time. Have you had any thought about my offer?”
“Was that serious?”
“Well, I do need a way to make my own money…” Especially considering the skyrocketing costs of maintaining the jiang-shi. Building up your savings during Obon can’t hurt.
“I’ll consider it. A nice split would sweeten the deal.” Suddenly, bringing in the ghost on any entrepreneurial effort seems counterproductive. She’ll take your money as easily as anybody else’s.
The three of you walk through the village. When you look around, it seems like most people have cleared the streets in favor of finding delicious food to eat.
“So, what’s your problem with Mokou?” you ask without preamble.
Minamitsu doesn’t freeze, but she does come to a halt and turns her entire body to face you. “You’re straying into dangerous waters, don’t you think?”
“Am I?”
What the hell are you doing? “Why do you want to know?”
This is not the way we should be going about this! “I’m concerned.”
“Why?” Minamitsu wisely sets down the foodstuffs she carries, giving in to the flow of the conversation.
“I don’t want my friends to be fighting. Is that wrong?”
You can feel the air chill, your words setting off all the wrong warnings. “That Fujiwara is your friend?”
“Yes. So I’d like to know, with actual details, why you hate her so much.”
This can’t be happening. Minamitsu voice’s is carefully controlled, strained but still even-measured. “You can’t trust her. You can’t trust any of them.”
“Has Mokou, specifically, ever done anything to you?”
“…No.”
“So the problem is her family?”
“That’s right!”
“What did they do to deserve your unending hatred?”
“What didn’t they do? Those damn serpents praying on-”
You cut her off with a question. “Minamitsu, how did you die?”
Well, that’s it. We’re done for. It’s a calculated risk. If this goes south, you’ll be the cause for unleashing an out-of-control hundreds of years old ghost in the village.
Sprits are creatures of emotion. Without a body, the soul is powerful but volatile. It is easily influenced and unbalanced, one of the reasons why sane ghosts are the most dangerous. Somebody that had the strength of will to remain on the earth, the power to fight off any who would stop their mindless rampaging, and then the ability to reign themselves in an gain a semblance of control? Minamitsu is a barely contained explosive when you consider it all.
If she never fully sorted out her past, which you guess she hasn’t, these questions are playing with fire. You should probably dance around the subject but that isn’t your style.
Oh no, you can’t be cautious. You just have to blunder right into the mess and hope it works out. She doesn’t explode immediately. That’s a good thing. “Why do you want to know?”
“I want to understand your suspicions.”
“I drowned,” she says, letting the words slowly escape her mouth. Finding the words to be just right, she begins to elaborate, faster and more assured. “I fell off my boat in a storm and drowned.”
“Minamitsu-”
It’s a storm, sudden and furious. You stand at the edge of a howling gale, words formed into a force of nature. “I drowned! I drowned in that damn storm! We drowned! We had a fishing boat! We never should have been out there! Everybody knew not to go out! We told them! I told them! Dad told them! Nobody in their right mind would go out in that storm! We told them we told them but they didn’t care! Those idiots! Those damn Fujiwara!”
Crap.
“They thought they were so important! They thought their business was urgent! They were insane! Damn them for ordering us out! We told them! They deserved to die! They deserved it! Those damn Fujiwaras killed us all for their foolish self-importance! I wish I could’ve drowned them myself! I would’ve poured the water down their dirty throats myself! I wanted to see their eyes bulging as they choke and gag to death!”
Terrible idea. You’re going to have to-
Suddenly, the cold dissipates. As if someone shut the freezer door, all of Minamitsu’s rage disappears back behind her carefully controlled countenance. “There. Are you happy?”
She stands across from you, arms crossed and foot tapping, as if she had just elaborated on why your fashion sense is horrendous.
“T-Thanks for telling me,” you manage to say.
“I hope you know that is hardly the only incidence of the Fujiwaras’ guilt. I met many more men shoved around, left to flounder like fish in the open air because of the Fujiwaras.”
Long seated grudge confirmed. You wait a few seconds, letting the gravity of Minamitsu’s hatred sink in.
“Right. Let’s head back to Muenzuka.” Not that you wouldn’t love to pick her brain further, but this is about as far as you’re willing to push your luck. “Actually, Minamitsu, I have one last thing to do here. Can you bring all this back to the jiang-shi with Yoshika?”
Minamitsu looks around, observing the multitude of villagers standing around staring at her. The ghost’s not-so-little tantrum attracted everybody’s attention. She had been disguised before, but normal humans don’t cause the air temperature to drop. You can see the guards hovering, not quite sure whether to approach or not. “Fine,” she agrees.
“Thanks. See you soon.” You give the two of them a smile and wave, glad to see that the gate guards aren’t harassing them as they leave.
Want me to go with them? Please. Keeping things light should be all that’s needed to make sure nothing escalates.
You feel your sister shift over to Yoshika. With you well and truly alone, it’s time to find an immortal and make amends.
Finding anybody on your own in this village would be a difficult task, but luckily Mokou stands out. More than her appearance, it seems everybody knows the few places where the immortal might hang out.
After a few quick questions, you manage to make your way to the village’s main schoolhouse. While there are other private tutors and places to learn, it’s this schoolhouse that covers most general education for the young.
You remember Keine from when you met her and Akyuu on your first visit. Nice lady.
When you go to knock on the front door, your hear something on the other side of a window. Eavesdropping is wrong, but…
It takes a couple of tries, but you manage to magically enhance your hearing a few degrees. “-trying so hard Keine but isn’t nearly as easy as you keep telling me it is. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be doing when stuff like that happens. I mean, how are you even supposed to be thinking straight when they’re attacking you and you have your memories and maybe just maybe they aren’t actually wrong with what they’re saying so you have to wonder if you’re really even right?”
“Mokou, some people are simply unreasonable. You can’t let them dictate how you think.”
“But I don’t know what to think Keine! I want to say that she’s wrong and completely off base but I can’t say that because then I might be lying. Even after all these years I still remember back when I was a child and looking at those memories now, I’m not sure if I can honestly believe in what I thought I should have been saying.”
“Don’t let this ruin your day, Mokou. Give it some thought when you can, but don’t let it bother you overly much.”
“You too, Keine. I wasn’t even planning on annoying you with all this but you started asking and I couldn’t stop myself. I’m sorry, you have another class soon and I took up all of your break and-”
“I asked, silly. I’m glad to talk with you.”
“T-Thanks.”
Well, that’s a good enough pause of any. You tap politely on the door and listen to the rustle of wood.
A moment later the door opens revealing the long bluish-silver haired schoolteacher. “Hello? Oh, it’s you. How can I help?”
You give her a slight bow. “Ah, sorry Keine. I’m actually here for Mokou.”
From over Keine’s shoulder, you see the white-haired immortal walk into the hallway. You can make out tiny portions of the room they were in. The desk leads you to believe it’s just a generic classroom.
“Excellent timing then.” Keine steps to the side, allowing Mokou to walk outside. “Have a nice day Mokou.”
“You too.” The immortal gives her friend a slight hug before stepping onto the road and turning to you. “So, what’d you need now?”
“Sorry for putting you in that situation,” you apologize.
“Don’t worry about it. You didn’t mean for anything to happen.” There’s no hint of anger in her voice. If anything, you think she sounds apologetic.
“I’m still the one that helped create the situation.” The two of you walk side-by-side, aimlessly navigating the streets of the village. “I was wondering how you saw things. Do you have a problem with Minamitsu?”
“More like she has a problem with me. When I finally started trying to socialize in the village more, these people I’ve never met thought I was some kind of lying cheating monster! I have no idea what’s wrong with Murasa to have spread rumors like that.”
“She’s…just a bit vengeful. Part and parcel of being a ghost, really. It’s hard to fight it.” Sure you’re making excuses for the moderately stable ghost, but you think this might help mend their relationship. Lessening the feelings of hatred on both sides has to help. It’s an innocent lie.
“Is that so? I guess I can understand that. It’s pretty hard to control yourself when you don’t really know how or can’t. I mean, it was hard enough getting back into the whole ‘acting human’ thing after, uh, not cavorting around but definitely living in the forest for such a long time. II guess I was barely more than an animal for some of that time so I can understand…”
“You’re a good person Mokou,” you begin. “I know I’m new here and all, but I’ll try to calm Minamitsu down. It’s the least I can do to repay you.”
“Oh no, it’s not like I’m keeping track of debts or anything. You’ve already done a lot for me too and you’re a pleasant sort of guy so I don’t mind helping you out a bit more than most people you know? Er, it’s not necessarily for any particular reason but, uh, I mean you are nicer than you appear, uh- Thanks.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Before you part ways, there’s one more thing you want to know. “Oh, by the way, what are you doing for Obon?”
“Eh? Well, in the past I’ve relaxed at home and sometimes I went around with Keine, but I think I might bring my stand over this year.”
“Great, I’ll be sure to stop by. See you later Mokou!”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, bye.”
You take off at a light jog and race out of the village. From there, you lift into the air and make the best time you can to Muenzuka. It’s not that you want to abandon Mokou, but you’re fairly concerned about how Minamitsu and the rest are getting along. If the ghost doesn’t have her emotions in check as you expect, things could be getting messy.
As soon as you land in Muenzuka, it becomes apparent you were worrying over nothing. Minamitsu has retaken her seat on a tombstone, the jiang-shi loosely arrayed in front of her.
“What took you so long?” she asks.
“Sorry, I had to wait around a bit.” When you examine the jiang-shi in greater detail, you notice the traces of ice cream around their lips. You also notice something missing. “Did they eat the cups? And the spoons?”
“Delicious~”
“Right. Should’ve expected that. Anyway, I guess it’s time to get started.”
You dig out the skin you harvested and get to work. You take it one jiang-shi at a time, letting them lie down on your jacket while you sew together skin and smooth over wounds. Part magic, part physical, you patch together the undead, replicating nerves in long dead eyeballs and quickly regenerating weathered and torn cartilage. You cut into throats to restore damaged larynxes and saw into arms to replace weakened bones. You hack and tear and smash, all in the name of restoring the jiang-shi.
A career as a medical doctor might be shot; surgeons generally need to keep their patients alive, something you’re not quite sure you can do.
I hear morticians can make decent money. That’s more up your alley at this point. They just ate and talked?
That’s right. I didn’t notice anything unstable about Minamitsu. That just means she can bottle up the little things, saving all her fury for when someone pushes her buttons. It’s a different type of instability.
As always, you don’t pay much attention to the chatter of the undead. They are talking about random things that don’t really mean much. As curious as Minamitsu is to how the texture of maple tree differs from an oak tree, you don’t particularly care. If the information ever becomes relevant, you’ll ask then.
Once you restore the jiang-shi as a patchwork of parts, the next task is making them look stunningly alive. You mix your blood with bone dust and other ingredients, painting intricate veins and other enchantments onto the undead. With your general resilience enchantments and Seiga’s own specialties, these jiang-shi could outlast you and all your progeny. At the end of it all they glow with false life, probably looking better than they did before they died.
Finally you finish to your satisfaction. The last jiang-shi sits up and looks down at her body before jumping to her feet in one fluid motion. “Thank you very much for fixing me Master! You won’t regret it!” the pink-haired Shilverase exclaims.
“That’s great. Want to put on your clothes?”
The naked girl looks away in embarrassment before throwing on her tattered uniform. You suppose you’ll need to buy all of them clothes as well.
The girl with long black hair, Rea, bows to you. “Master, I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations.”
“Thank you, Master,” Dio says, his new eye looking perfectly natural.
The biggest and manliest of the jiang-shi, Nekurow, grunts. “Master. This is passable for now.”
The big man’s semi-gratitude draws the ire of the others. “Nekurow, you should appreciate what master has given you,” Di chastises.
Shilverase jumps in with her own two cents. “Yeah you big grump!”
“I am not unappreciative. However, I lack the necessary tools to fight his or my prey effectively.”
“And what would these tools be?” you ask. You honestly didn’t think the jiang-shi needed more than their unnatural strength and ridiculous bite.
“A quality sword to begin with, especially one that can slay the beings of darkness we will fight. From there, armor and appropriate sidearms.”
Dio huffs, his boyish appearance spoiling the scolding tone in his voice. “There is a point where you ask for too much, and-”
You jerk to the side when your pink-haired jiang-shi decides to tug on your arm. “Are we getting weapons, Master? I’d like a handgun! And a really large sword, too. Actually, if you could get me a staff…flail kind of thing, I think that would work best!”
“A what?” you ask Shilverase.
“It’s a staff, but attached to the end of it would be a chain and a weight. I, well, I knew a guy that used something like that and I’d really like one for myself.” She seems almost bashful in her request.
“I…you…” You sigh and turn to the others. “How about you, Rea? Do you have some weapon from a past life you’d like?”
“Me? Oh, no, I didn’t really fight much. I think learning, uh, with my hands is best.”
“Okay. Fine. Dio? Any surprises?”
“Well Master, now that we’ve breached the topic, I’m inclined to learn how to throw knives.” He’s shameless, immediately capitalizing on the situation despite his earlier protests.
“Yeah, sure, why not? What about you, Yoshika?”
“I’m fine~”
“As sudden all of this is, getting you lot actual weapons is a good idea. At the very least, I should whip up some sort of enchantment that would let you fight a reaper.” Or a powerful and angry ghost. Everything else can probably be sorted out with a good bite or three.
“Wow. I didn’t think they’d look as good as this,” Minamitsu comments.
“Even after you saw Yoshika?”
“Well, it seemed crazy that you’d manage this all in day.”
“It’s not like they’re perfect. Your eyes might betray you, but any other sense would give them away. Granted, most humans wouldn’t notice that there wasn’t breath associated with the falling of their chests or they wouldn’t tell what the slight anesthetic smell meant, but they’re there. Of course, adding to the illusion after what I’ve done is exponentially more work for little gain. If they’re careful, their bodies are more than enough to live a simple life and deal with any surprising violence.”
If there’s one thing you’re curious about, it’s the jiang-shi. Yoshika has proven herself to be surprisingly capable; a beautiful fighter that can brawl and duel with the best of them. You don’t know much about her past, but how do these other jiang-shi compare now that their conditions are even with Yoshika?
You’d like to get a better grasp on their abilities, especially if they’ll be with you for the foreseeable future. How much are their past experiences relevant? Can you beat any of them in a fight? Can they ‘negotiate’ in the style of Reimu for you? What are their personalities like? Are they all as unreasonably dedicated as Yoshika?
Then again, none of that is an immediate concern. You’ll get to know them eventually and Seiga wouldn’t have kept them around if they weren’t useful in some way. These are the jiang-shi that already survived a reaper attack; your improvements can only increase their capabilities.
You could just as easily go visit somewhere else or return to the temple early. You still have a couple of hours before sundown, a perfect amount of time to get some practice in. It’s also around the time you expect normal families to be gathering around the table for dinner. You don’t really know how the temple does it-
But you can easily find out. Right. “Hey Minamitsu, how does dinner work at the temple?”
“Dinner? I guess it’s about that time. Whoever’s on kitchen duty runs it like a mess hall. People grab some grub whenever they can in-between their duties or whatever else they have on their schedules.”
[ ] Evaluate the jiang-shi
-[ ] Physical practice
-[ ] Spell card practice
-[ ] Just talk
--[ ] Motivations
--[ ] Desires
--[ ] Beliefs
--[ ] Pasts
--[ ] <Something else>
[ ] To the temple
-[ ] Rub a dub dub thanks for the grub
-[ ] Who needs a helping hand?
-[ ] Look for <someone> to talk to
--[ ] About <something>
[ ] <Write-in>
---
Updates will continue to be sporadic and unscheduled until I manage to hammer out a new routine. Sorry about that.
>>17337 >It’s lunch time and you need to decide on what to do. Generally speaking, I try to structure the end of an update with thoughts on the future/clarifying offered vote options. I also tend to mention any time-related issues there too.
>>173367 >canon relations As far as I’m aware no, they do not. But one of my favorite aspects of writing is examining relationships between characters. I’m no Japanese History major but it’s all very interesting to study and piece together, then fucking everything up and destroying all my plausibility; the joys of being a writer.
