Gensokyo Origins

Chapter 5: Exposure

Despite a few hiccups here and there, the plan went off without many complications. After returning from my mission and still receiving an earful from Keine, I began my training with Patchouli not even a week later. The start of it was, painful at best and nearly lethal at worst. She wanted to assess my magical ability before going into it firsthand. So, she had me fight everyone in the mansion until I dropped. I guess I can give myself some credit for being able to last at least ten minutes, which was longer than what Patchouli expected. From there, the next few years were filled with rigorous magical training. Not only had I mastered the spells that I already learned, but I also learned some new forbidden spells that I had no idea could be learned. For example, I learned how to manipulate a person's consciousness and soul. So, I could, in theory, possess someone or mind control them. Another few examples are Void magic and Telekinesis. I honestly did not think that such widely known abilities in my world were so rare here, even rarer to be able to learn and master. As such, when Patchouli found me rummaging through the forbidden books of the mansion library and saw me being able to perform such magic, she was amazed. Of course, she broke my concentration, which lead to me getting spliced. To be brief, when performing Void magic, if one is not careful and loses concentration when inexperienced, it can lead to them getting spliced, which is having a piece of their body removed from existence. Fortunately, it was just a piece of my chest, but had it been an arm, or the splice went deeper, it would be very problematic. I was, of course, barred from using Void magic unless in Patchouli's presence, which was fine, even though she was part of the cause of me getting spliced. As I continued to age, I noticed that it has begun to get harder for me to perform physically demanding tasks. It seems that all the wear and tear I put my body through has come back to bite me, as I'm now pushing forty and still have no way of turning my body into a youkai. I realized that turning into a youkai has become a requirement in order to continue my journey. I had heard of some Kappa that were technological geniuses while I was conversing in the village. They were apparently located at Youkai Mountain, so I made preparations for an excursion to the mountain. I plan to prove my worth to them by handing them that rose that never wilts. If they grant me access to their lab, I can rapidly speed up my research into altering my body into a youkai.

"Ok, I once made an exception back during the Red Mist Incident because of the situation and your vision. But just going onto the Youkai Mountain for research purposes is foolish! I understand that you are stronger now than you were before, but that place is still extremely dangerous for anyone from the village! You get hurt all the time and I don't want to continue seeing you hurt", Keine screamed out loud.

"I understand how you feel, but don't worry, I've heard some buzz going around that a Gappy Sue is here and is planning to go to the mountain as well, I'll take him along so that I'm not alone and I have an adequate meat shield", I said to her, to which she lightly started punching my chest.

"Now just because you aren't fond of Outsiders it doesn't mean you can get them killed now. You were an Outsider yourself once, remember."

"Of course, I remember, how can I forget the day that changed my life. However, I can't exactly feel any sort of connection to any other Outsider because my circumstances were much different from theirs."

"Was it because of the Backrooms?"

"Yeah, and in addition to that, most of the Gappy Sues that I met have been horny teenagers that came here with some overpowered ability in order to escape any sort of responsibility."

"Well not to compare, but you are quite overpowered yourself now with all those spells that you know."

"Through years of experience, experimentation, and practice. Remember how I was when I first came here. I had no skill in anything magic related and any time I practiced I got injured more often than not."