User:HoG/Chapter 27: A Dream Granted~ Emperor's Decree

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Light, it seems to be streaming into the room as the darkness of night has faded into memory.
A women’s voice, indescribable by a first hearing and being so brashly awakened.
My eyes begin to adjust to the light; however, this is no longer the world I once knew.

Chapter 27: A Dream Granted~ Emperor’s Decree

I’m in a basement, filled about with worn out device that would have filled shelves on my store and a drawn picture of myself that seems to mock my existence.
I stand from the peace sleep gave me and walk upon those wooden stairs to face another day.
This is how things are now and have been for the past 18 years so I don’t expect them to change until I leave this place.
It’s funny, in a way, it’s almost looks like my beloved shop but lacks the real uniqueness I put into making it.
Ah, yes, you must be wondering who I am if you haven’t figured it out already, I am none other than Rinnosuke Morichika in the flesh in the outside world.
It’s far too complicated to explain how I am exactly here but let’s just say Yukari is behind most of it.

She helped make this body I currently inhabiting along with the man who helped her create Gensokyo.
If you think it’s the original Hakurei priest, he only helped sealing it.
The man who helped create Gensokyo was able to control the dragons to make such a world possible.
I won’t go anymore into it because only the enlightened can figure that out.
Before we go any farther, I want you to get this trough you head, I am not the representation of Hakurei Kannushi in Gensokyo. We are separate beings though we look strikingly similar.
Even more so now that my hair is no longer sliver.
However, it’s getting there due to this body’s inherited genes.

Anyway, I’m getting off topic.
You probably want to know just how I came to be in this world, right?
Well, that’s a very long story but just to let you know I’m not the only one awake in this world.
Reimu, Marisa, Aya, Momiji, Suika (Remilia, now) and a few others who are in intermediate sates where I can’t tell who they exactly are.
You could say Hakurei Kannushi was our prophet to tell the outside world of the existence of Gensokyo.
You could say I’m the Pied Piper as I intend to bring us all back.
How? Simple, Yukari.

However, the date for when it will happen is like determining if you can throw yen into a donation box from 5ft away.
However, when we go, this world as you humans know it will begin to crumble and leave its natural inhabitants to deal with it.
I pity you left here in what can only be considered this world’s hell.
I won’t go into a religious debate here.
Religion can blind people to the truth.
I’m not saying to be an atheist or anything but to have an open mind about things.

If you think reincarnation exists, however, you’re sadly mistaken.
You don’t get multiple lives in this world, only one existence.
If you have read my book, Curiosities of Lotus Asia, you’ll remember in chapter 19 how I speak of the cicadas being linked with reincarnation.
Let me rephrase what I said earlier, reincarnation doesn’t exist in this world.
It’s far too complicated how it exactly works so I won’t bother telling you, just that humans who reincarnate will most likely never be human again.

You may think Akyuu disproves my theories all together with what you’ve read.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
How she inherits memories from her previous descends is simply an ability which I call “collective souling”.
It works like this, once a person dies, they may become a ghost or something of the like.
Their memories, however, stay adrift in the world unless someone of blood descent inherits them.
All the “Child of Miare” had this ability.
It was also heightened by the text left behind by previous incarnates.

However, having this constant ability in a family wears on the lifespan.
Thus is the reason why the “Child of Miare” lifespan became shorter over the passing generations.
Humans in the outside world also seem to have this ability but it is much rarer.
It was due to her I realized the truth behind the idea of human reincarnation.

I’ll explain another Buddhist idea to you that is the truth but many people believe it’s fictitious.
That would be the 49 parallel types of existences.
By reading a Tibetan Buddhist grimoire, I was able to discern this information as being factual.
Muenzuka, if you may recall, is named after the 49 days it takes after death to become another existence; such as a ghost, vampire, or youkai.
Death itself is also an existence, being a state of being where the soul has departed from the body but the spirit awaits liberation at an appointed time.

Looks like I’ve been beating around the bush for far too long, I’ll get to the real story now. I only woke up last year so there isn’t much to tell.
Let’s just say I was a miserable human being who aimed too high for his own good.
I was-and still slightly am- in love with a certain girl who semi-woke me up from stagnated old existence and introduced me to “Touhou”.
Really, only Hakurei Kannushi could name our existence something as fantastical and surreal as “Touhou”.
I’ll go back a bit farther to where I started using the internet.

I was either 12 or 14 when I first began to use it.
I was in an even sadder state back then.
Godless and lost, with a slight case of loneliness mixed with insanity.
Now, I knew who God was and everything but I just didn’t see how he fit into my life.
Then, I met her and she changed my views on life forever.
I won’t embarrass her by using her human name here, I’ve done it far too much on other human works of mine.

I’ll just give you, my readers, a small hint.
She’s named after a river though I only found out that fact this year.
Known her for six or four years and I just find out the meaning of her name.
We used to be real close, too; but this distance grew in us.
It didn’t help earlier on I was pretty paranoid and I left her two-three years to deal with real jackasses.
I wish I could have woken up sooner but that’s just the way it is.
I was still able to talk to her but she’s always been a quiet person.

However, I got shut out by her again when a deceitful person told me she committed suicide.
That worried the hell out of me.
To get her to responded, I clicked on the webcam and she blocked me.
I should have had more faith she’d never do something like that but I was too far worried at the time.
Maybe that seems all too personal to you alienated readers from the outside world but this is just how I am.
I mean, I may seem calmer and listless in CoLA but that’s only due to me not having to worry all the time about every little thing.

Despite worrying, I generally do have a very neutralized somewhat bleak personality with a bit of underlying wisdom disguised in the form of satire and sarcasm.
You’d already know that if you read my book.
While we’re on that subject, before I really boil this hot pot epic over, could someone for the love of Gensokyo finish translating it!?
Look, I get that translating is hard work and it takes time to do thoroughly but it needs to be done.
Don’t get started on how retarded it was to have chapter 21 translated before 20.
It was an excellent chapter, despite a few flawed translations with grammatical dysfunctions and I more than anyone get that most stories in my book are individual pieces besides the first few but I’d like to follow in chronological order of which I wrote them.
It really helps restore my memories.
Oh, wait, let me guess, you thought we’d just come here and be perfectly fine, right?

No, most of us aren’t.
To even be in this world we pay a price.
How this price was determined I can’t remember but most of them are physical, mental, or spiritual sufferings.
Sometimes, it may be all three.
Mines mostly mental, not being able to remember my memories and some other slight annoyances.
I get a glimpse of truth every now and then but it’s triggered so randomly.

Another not so full awake one of us as of yet, I’ll call her Nine for comedic purposes and also due to the fact she was one of the characters she used while she may actually be her; has multiple personality disorder.
We all have a price to pay in this world, like those who die for a cause.
We all have a purpose in this world, too.
Even you, people of the outside world, have a purpose.

The thing is most of you just give up on looking for it or go on to do evil.
Never think your life is without meaning or you will never find out what you were meant to do.
I have to bring us back and see this world one last time, it’s that simple yet hard as a kappa’s shell.
Everyone so spread out.
Both tengu in Britain, Reimu in Russia (This is what you get for calling Marisa a Communist…), while Remilia and Marisa, brother and sister; existed on the west side of America along with river girl but they travel a lot.
It’s really odd, both Remilia and Momiji being born male in this world.

But, I guess it just the only bodies they could get to be close to Aya and Marisa.
I try not to think about it too much with my ability, heh.
It kinda stinks that I no longer speak and write in my native language but if I had I probably would have thought nothing of Gensokyo or “Touhou” if I had been born in Japan.
English is my new vernacular and I’m alright at it.
However, when it comes to writing it with a pen or pencil; it looks nothing more than scribbling of a mad man.
I’m so relieved I can finally use these shikigami known as computers.
However, I’d prefer the elegance of a brush stroke any day.

I kinda stutter when I speak, not that I’m nervous or anything but it’s another inherited trait of the males of this family.
So’s the writing, for the record.
Really, America isn’t too bad a place; natural beauty wise.
Sure, you see society falling apart and people believing money is actually worth something but that’s a given in a nation as big and foolhardy as this.
This whole world is mostly corrupt.
I don’t think I’ll ever boast about it again.

Now, don’t get my words crossed here.
I was and still am impressed by how much it advanced in only a short amount of time and there is true good in this world but all that is over-shadowed by its negativity.
Still, most of us came here to see it one last time.
I’ve even heard Marisa’s father may be here.
Really, master being here just baffled me.
It shocked Marisa too when told her.

You may or may not be wondering where we all meet if we’re all spread out.
Nothing more than a simple chat site, really.
I’ll tell you the truth; this world can really piss me off sometimes.
All this regulation and backwards red tape has got my head spinning at the moment.
I wish it wasn’t this complicated to get into a simple college but nobody ever told me any better.
Especially someone you expect to help you, a counselor.
No, they’d rather sit in their office and twiddle their thumbs.

With all I’m saying you’re probably thinking I’ll say “I wish I never came into this world”, right?
Despite this, I’m still glade I’m here but it’s just negative things outweigh the positive.
I get real sick of it sometimes.
Nobody to help you out, they all just expect you to do everything.
When did humans become this cold-hearted?

I know more than most of them and everything but it seems like they treat me lower than dirt.
Don’t misunderstand me; I do have some friends here in the outside world.
Most of the time they call me retarded and insult one another.
It seems strange at first but I’ve gotten used to it over the years.
It’s all some elaborate joke where you insult each other.
I don’t mind it and neither do they.
I don’t mean anything when I insult them which cause most of them to laugh; just like being an actor on the stage.
How odd it really is now that I think about it.

That doesn’t bother me as much as needing a certain type of test and completing a critical paper that hang on my mind like a noose.
The paper is to show how college life will be like and the test is a regular evaluation.
However, it’s full of hypocrisy and stupidity.
It’s suppose to be an evaluation of basic skills but all it really does is shows how flawed everything is.
Why do I need it to get into college!?

I really don’t even want to go but my human mother’s the nervous type.
It’s also the cheapest way I can exist on that side of America so I can’t complain.
I thought of just living with Remilia and Marisa but I’d only be a burden on both of them since they struggle to make ends meet in this world.
It was simpler running Kourindou… I wish I could just do that.
Run a curious antique shop where I could just relax, read books and drink tea; while every now and then sell something to make ends meet.
Preach some eccentric wisdom to customers who stopped by, too.

That isn’t how things run here.
It’s all about money, money, money!
Why do you people treat simple green paper as if it were the highest existence!?
It’s just aggravating.
All this pressure builds up on me daily that it feels like I’m going to lose it.

Look, even Gensokyo has currency but people don’t go this crazy about it.
They realize it’s only a symbol and leave it at that.
I get it; I really do. The test, the money, the colleges, and the other side of America.
They’re all things I have to overcome before I see Gensokyo.
It’s like this old say I remember “ You can’t have the carnival without the hard work”.

Or was it something else? Oh well, the overall message is the same so I’ll leave it at that.
I don’t intent this story to be too long so I basically poured my illusionary self on these pages.
What I’ll basically say is how Marisa is on the trip with that Oni while a certain reporter Tengu was telling me and Nine how she was doing.
You see, Marisa’s been in pretty rough shape due to this certain demon.
He’s really messed with Marisa but he isn’t the only one.
There are two demons that hassle all of us, demon A and demon E.
You may think I’m talking about youkai by the word demon but I’m not.

This is the problem with the Westernized world, always assuming things so much it’s rubbed off on me.
Youkai can choose to be good or evil the same way humans can. Not many people know this fact.
These two individuals, on the other hand, are the real deal of wickedness.
I’ll give the A some slack, though.
This individual may even seem to be someone from Gensokyo but their too warped for me to tell.
A is schizophrenic and lacks empathy.
It claimed to be male but now say female.

I can’t forgive it, however, for treating my river girl like trash.
Why or how she felt anything for it is beyond me.
It said it loved her, as if.
However, it has a very good knowledge of things, almost info manically.
This led to me to believe it was Miss. Knowledge, at first.
If the real Patchouli is reading this, forgive me.
I don’t mean to insult you in any way by comparing you to it.

A’s name was taken that told me river girl committed suicide.
This only adds to the list of my grievances and loathing of this individual; God piety him for I cannot.
I feel genuinely sorry for this being and wish it would simply find happiness in this world without being a bother and in the next life.
The other, however, is the real thing.
E was introduced to be Marisa’s loving and caring other to me as a human.
However, it was a simple façade.
Aya was the one who introduced her and Remilia allowed it, something both of them would come to regret.
He has come to show his true colors over time and wishes to drag us all down with him to the inferno.

However, we have all learned to overcome his lies and deceit.
He is paranoid beyond belief, scapegoating two individuals who I will call K and G.
K has faded out of existence but G was his prime target.
However, G from what I’ve gathered was originally him all along.
Now, that’s just utterly pathetic.

He’s nothing but scum.
However, this G person came on and told me who he really was awhile ago.
I think of it but another lie.
Like I said, I try not to think about it.
Truth in the outside world becomes even more distorted then that of Gensokyo.

However, I have full faith in those from Gensokyo and that they’ll be with me.
It’s been at least two weeks since I started writing this so I’ll let you in a few things.
One, I found out by reading on the Tohou Wika that my book will be officially released this spring.
I can’t wait to buy it, untranslated, naturally.
That makes me wonder, why hasn’t ‘Touhou’ been released officially released in North America?
I understand that it’s simple to buy the games with English patches( Or be cheap like most are and download them from sites…) but why not the printed works?

Hakurei Kannushi, if you yourself actually read this (Which I doubt you will but thanks in advance for finally getting my book published for the outside world to have.)America would be a prime market for you.
Sure, they’re flooded in debt but that shouldn’t deter you from sending our message to that part outside world in literature form (You’d have more money to buy sake).
And, for the record, if there is an anime made out of us; no Mannosuke business…
Alright, with that out of the way back to you, the readers.

As I was saying, two new awakened residents have shown up upon that site where the symbol of my store stands.
One is Parsee Mizuhashi, Green Eyed Jealously.
She had to test me to make sure I was the real Rinnosuke by asking me a very complicated question.
Afterwards, she told me who she truly was.
She’s actually been awake more then I have.

Two years, I was highly impressed.
The only one I think that’s been semi-awake is Remilia since she’s known she was from another world when she was very little (She woke after awhile.)
With a little light hearted conversation, Parsee revealed to me she no longer had legs as she lost them when she was born into this world.
That made me rather sorry for her but she said she didn’t mind sitting.
Guess that’s what happens when you mostly sit on a bridge, huh?

However, she revealed another very interesting fact to me.
She said that both Fujiwara no Mokou and Yuugi Hoshiguma were both said to be incognito on that site and awake.
It was only a few days before I met the former. Mokou asked me another very complicated question, too.

I had to say Marisa’s father’s real name and t when the Hakurei Shrine was established.
Of course, not having all my memories intact I got the former wrong.
Is his name really Daisuke?
If so, fate is funnier in more way then one.
On the latter, I believe I was correct enough to prove I was myself.

Still, it left me with a very musing thought.
Gensokyo itself is separated from the outside world and because of it; it is stuck in the Meiji Era.
However, the timeline in which CoLA happens seems to be in the present date but is actually the past.
Time in some way is distorted from your world and ours.
Or Hakurei Kannushi modernized the text.
I believe more in the former because I always think of the unconventional (The truth is it is actually as hard as quantum physics but easy as a Zen Riddle.).

It’s highly complicated, I assure you.
So much so I can’t prove it to human eyes just like dragons can’t simply come back to life.
Time and belief, you see; affects everything.
Back to Mokou, she told me she retained most of her powers as did Parsee.
It’s limited by a potion Yukari gave her to prevent her powers from altering what humans consider “reality”.

Speaking of that business acquaintance of mine, she’s been speaking to me for awhile now.
As has Remilia and a few others.
Remilia came to Marisa in a dream and told her she was Patchouli.
That lie, what was the significance behind it, to wake Marisa up? It’s also how she found out I was Rinnosuke because Remilia asked “How’s Rinnosuke liking his stay in the outside world?”, I had to say the truth after that.
After that, others began to wake up around me.
I had nothing to do with it nor did Marisa tell them.
She had dreams about being others but it must have been collective memories.
Now that she’s awake, I’m sure they’re set free to the others waiting to wake up.

I’m always thinking about the river girl.
I’ll just add one last hint; the river itself is an ancient one of Japan that she’s named after.
That’s all I’m going to say on her name and nothing more.
Who she is however is up to debate.
She could range from anyone from the book reading youkai who lives with me at Kourindou to Yukari herself ( I believe highly now she is the latter.).
I asked her once who she thinks she would be and she told me Alice or Remilia (Which she isn’t the latter because Suika is really Remilia).
She said someone else to but who that was I never got an answer to.
She’s been nearly everyone so it’s hard to tell.

I just know she isn’t a few people because they’re awake.
For example, there is this one girl who has been Youmu, Komachi and Sakuya.
She fits all of them to a tee but I have this grand idea she’s Sakuya because of how she acts (Wrong, poor fool, I believe she's Ran and the true Sakuya is semi-awake due to Remilia.).
There’s another who sure acts like Yukari but I doubt she is since she’s been so many people.
Just who she is complicated, she could even be someone from the old generation.
It may be strictly the copy write on them that Hakurei Kannushi doesn’t include them in the newer “games” or it may be they stop causing incidents after the first four incidents which were know as the PC-98 games.
Most of the people who aren’t fully awake play the parts so perfectly as if they were them.

Nine, for instance, mimics Alice in her own way it’s astonishing.
However, to bring a comedic note back into this story, another Sakuya (I don’t suspect of being the real one but she knew enough about “Touhou”) told me how it was funny I was on a chat site even though I don’t sell any electronic goods at Kourindou.
I countered that by telling her I sell computers but don’t see how helpful they’d be due to the fact Gensokyo lacks electricity.
I had to shower then but also realized I lacked most electronics because few of them are forgotten about and rarely pass the border.
With all I’ve been talking on about, I will now tell you my grandiose plans for the future and just where I’m going from this mock Kourindou I live in currently.

Soon enough I will leave the walls of this home I have lived in for nearly two decades; just as it was when I left my original home and began my apprenticeship in the Kirisame household.
Yukari recently gave me something using the power to manipulate boundaries that it frightens me some.
It’s a shikigami that resembles one of those eyes in her gap.
She told me with it I can wake the river girl up as she clamis she is her.
Sadly; Marisa isn’t doing well.
She’s in the hospital in critical condition due to a heart attack; she’s been thermally ill since the day she was born.
To fix the problem, Remilia has to get a high amount of money by three months.
If not, they’ll pull the plug.
The Tengu will give what they can but I’m hopeless to do anything but pray.
Thus, I send my message to all of you in the outside world.
Pray for Marisa; it’s the only thing you can do.(She survived, thank god.)
As for me; try and find me in this crazy place.
I wear a red hunting cap to resemble another gray haired protagonist[1].

You may dismiss this as mere fiction but I speak nothing but the truth.
River girl warned me to forget Gensokyo or it’ll disappear.
It’ll never disappear.
Wake up, all of you in this world and behold the glory of the illusionary existence that hides behind your sleeping eyes!
We will soon be free from this place of misery and be in our own home soon enough.
I leave you all with that assurance and comfort that you may be at peace when the time comes; sake is but a stone’s throw away. I leave all of you with this and nothing more.

^ (Changed over time) This is by far a condense sum of a much longer fable which is too long to tell but everything has improved for the better. And for the record, there are only supposed to be 26 chapters in my book but I guess it’s what happens when you have a half chapter and a drunkard of a messenger. Also, that was suppose to be our secret of my inhuman knowledge, Kannushi!