Keine Quest (Part 2): Broken History

[Hello Purvis]

>"Not usually, thank heaven. Though you and I did get into a bit of trouble on occasion."
>If she insists, tell the abridged tale of the events following the moon incident.

[DracoOmega]

>"Not usually, thank heaven. Though you and I did get into a bit of trouble on occasion."
>If she insists, tell the abridged tale of the events following the moon incident.

>"Oh, did we?" You can hear a hint of a smile in her voice. "Such as?"
>You tell her a little about what happened the night after Reimu and the others convinced Kaguya to open up Eientei, omitting a few needless details, such as the exact identity of some of the would-be assassins. Probably wouldn't make the best introduction for some of the people whose existence so much has seemed to rest on, here...
>"She sent how many people to kill me that night!? Ok, if we really make it to Eientei somehow, I'm paying her back for that. I don't even care that she hasn't done it here."

>"But, I guess that wasn't an everyday thing, anyway?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"No, not at all. In fact, once things were cleared up, you got to be rather friendly with most of them. They really weren't there to assassinate you, I should note, they were told it was a trial of guts. But normally, things nice and peaceful for us. We'd visit each other, go enjoy things around Gensokyo, have quiet evenings alone. Although at first I kinda had to pry you out of your chair, so to speak, to get you to go to a festival or a concert."

[DracoOmega]

>"No, not at all. In fact, once things were cleared up, you got to be rather friendly with most of them. They really weren't there to assassinate you, I should note, they were told it was a trial of guts. But normally, things nice and peaceful for us. We'd visit each other, go enjoy things around Gensokyo, have quiet evenings alone. Although at first I kinda had to pry you out of your chair, so to speak, to get you to go to a festival or a concert."

>"Huh. Yeah, sounds about right. Don't like crowds. Why'd you think I came here in the first place?" She walks on in silence for a little while. After some time, you hear her add, rather more quietly. "...doesn't sound half bad, actually."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yeah, that's about what you said then, after some cajoling."
>Grin.

[DracoOmega]

>"Yeah, that's about what you said then, after some cajoling."
>Grin.

>"Yeah, well, you know...." She goes quiet again for a bit, and you can't help smiling a little. This really does feel strangely familiar, almost like you could start from here and do it all over again. She may not be your Mokou, but she could just as well be your Mokou from several years ago. It feels a little like traveling back into your own past. Despite it all, it's somehow comforting.

>"Sorry I can't say anything helpful about all the weird shit you're going through," she says, after several more minutes of silent bamboo diving. "I've never seen anything like any of that. Not that this," she gestures between the two of you, "isn't weird enough, itself, let me tell you."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Don't worry about it. But I felt you should know, anyways."
>"How close are we, by the way?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Don't worry about it. But I felt you should know, anyways."
>"How close are we, by the way?"

>"Another couple minutes before we get to where the ward starts. After that we should be something like 15 or 20 minutes from Eientei, if the forest made any damn sense."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>Proceed.

[DracoOmega]

>Nod.
>Proceed.

>You follow Mokou through the forest for a little more. After a few more minutes, she stops and looks around.
>"I couldn't say exactly where it starts, but this is pretty close. About this far out in all directions, as far as I can figure. I've never been out this way with anyone else, so I couldn't tell you if we'll suddenly find ourselves halfway across the woods from each other. If you have any bright ideas, now's the time. Or you can just walk in circles a whole bunch until you get tired, whatever."

[Hello Purvis]

>Think back to whether Patchouli mentioned separations being a significant problem.

[DracoOmega]

>Think back to whether Patchouli mentioned separations being a significant problem.

>You don't think she mentioned it, although she implied the Sakuya accompanied Remilia on at least some of their attempts to find the place again. It's possible it wasn't an issue.

[Hello Purvis]

>"I think, as long as we don't separate ourselves, we should be fine."
>"But, if you want some assurance..."
>Take Mokou's arm.

[DracoOmega]

>"I think, as long as we don't separate ourselves, we should be fine."
>"But, if you want some assurance..."
>Take Mokou's arm.

>Mokou stiffens when you take her arm in yours, but relaxes a little again, after a moment or two. "Well, it's, uh, better safe than sorry, hey?"
>You feel a tug on your other arm, and look over to see Rumia trying awkwardly to mimic the gesture; easier said than done given the height difference.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Precisely."
>Take Rumia's as well.

[DracoOmega]

>"Precisely."
>Take Rumia's as well.

>Mokou makes a small sound of acknowledgment and tries to look impassive.
>You try to give Rumia your arm, but logistics eventually lead you to settle for just holding her hand, instead. She looks rather happy just the same, though.

[Hello Purvis]

>Mokou makes a small sound of acknowledgment and tries to look impassive.
>You try to give Rumia your arm, but logistics eventually lead you to settle for just holding her hand, instead. She looks rather happy just the same, though.

>"You shouldn't try to so hard not to enjoy yourself, you know?"
>Onwards

[DracoOmega]

>"You shouldn't try to so hard not to enjoy yourself, you know?"

>"I'm not," she quickly replies.

>Onwards

>"Well, here we go, I guess. Where we end up, who the hell knows."
>Mokou leads onward into the forest, again. Or as much as she can lead with you holding arms. Rumia skips along besides you. As far as you can tell, nothing about the forest here seems any different than all of the woods you've already covered. Bamboo and more bamboo. It all pretty much looks the same to you, anyway, aside from the couple markers that Mokou had taught you, but there were mostly near her place. Outside of those, you'd have no idea if you were on top of Eientei, or back at the entrance. About the only difference you can tell, is that Mokou takes more pauses to examine the woods around her, and no longer seems quite as sure of her bearings.

>"Ok," she says after a few minutes, "we were going east this whole time, but I'm pretty sure we're almost due north of where we started, now."

[Hello Purvis]

>"And not a single shift in the bamboo itself? Not a moment where it change from one to the other? I didn't notice, but my eye's not a sharp as yours?"

[DracoOmega]

>"And not a single shift in the bamboo itself? Not a moment where it change from one to the other? I didn't notice, but my eye's not a sharp as yours?"

>"Nah, I can't really tell most of the time, either. Don't know if it's messing with our perceptions or what. It ain't just teleporting us around, though. Near as I can figure, space here is bent into a damn pretzel. Everything matches up smoothly. Just not in the way it's supposed to. I don't know if the whole place is bent, or if it just bends around intruders as they come in."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I assume you tried to mark a whole lot of things in different ways, and had no findings?"

[E-Nazrin]

>Can Sakuya mess with space, as well as time...?

[DracoOmega]

>"I assume you tried to mark a whole lot of things in different ways, and had no findings?"

>"Like I said, either the paths keep changing, or it just twists space at random. I don't know. But here, look at this." She tears off a small shoot of bamboo and ties it around a larger stalk. "See that? Now we're just going to walk straight in that direction." Taking your arm, you head 20 or 30 feet away. Then she turns 180 degrees around and walks back the same distance. "Can you see it now?"

>Can Sakuya mess with space, as well as time...?

>You think she can, to some degree. You don't really know how her ability to do this works, though. Presumably it wasn't strong enough to simply let her walk right through this, since her and Remilia failed to breach it themselves. It's possible it might be useful in some way.

[Hello Purvis]

>Look. Do we see it?
>"I assume walking backwards has never ended well?"

[DracoOmega]

>Look. Do we see it?

>You search around a bit, and don't find any sign of the marker. And, looking around, the layout of the trees doesn't seem quite the same, either. You wouldn't have been able to notice the difference if you hadn't just been here a few seconds before.

>"I assume walking backwards has never ended well?"

>"Huh. Hadn't thought of trying that one."

[Kasu]

> "Maybe we can reach it if we go in the opposite direction of where we actually want to go?"

[E-Nazrin]

>"Would a view from above help? Marking a line in the dirt?"

[DracoOmega]

> "Maybe we can reach it if we go in the opposite direction of where we actually want to go?"

>"Now that one I actually have tried. It doesn't seem to be as hard to get away from the place as it is to get to it. Which makes sense; they're not just trying to trap everyone who comes near here forever."

>"Would a view from above help? Marking a line in the dirt?"

>"Above is kinda interesting. The spell doesn't seem to work above the treetops. But it really doesn't help much. I know where Eientei is well enough to get pretty damn close to it from the air. But as soon as you go past the trees, the ground below you belongs to someplace else. As for making a line... well, kinda mixed success with that one."

[E-Nazrin]

>"Mixed how?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Mixed how?"

>"Well, I mean, it works for a little bit. It's kinda like that marker I tied on the bamboo. The marks will be wherever you left them, but even if you went to the trouble to leave a solid visible line the whole way, eventually you'd look behind you, and find that the line just ends a dozen or so feet away. Oh, and picks up somewhere else a mile away, probably."