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[0] Tanner and the tank girl…
State: Aya Shameimaru observation: Day 8
Time: 3:26 PM, Afternoon
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I pat the grumpy guardsman on the shoulder, the thick bone mistakable for the pauldron he isn't wearing. "I'm just happy that we can sit down and have drinks again," I tell Kazegou. It's been some time since we last talked like we have for the last hour.
He harrumphs, cautious of saying he's enjoying himself, "You should thank Miss Kamishirasawa for changing my mind."
That must've been no small feat. It took a lot of bickering to convince him to talk to his own sister because she's a Youkai, so I can only imagine how betrayed he was to see me die and walk around a few weeks after. I couldn't get a word out of him, much less any reaction at all.
"I'll be sure to kiss her until she tells me otherwise," I laugh, swinging a half a glass of whiskey around. "Truly, I'm glad you're willing to talk to the weirdest guy in town."
He smirks at this, stating, "Guy, maybe, but there are many stranger women. Of all the people in the village, I don't think you're even close to the weirdest." He nurses a cup of sake, a few hours left to sober up before he goes on duty. It's hard to tell if he's joking or not through the light lisp on his tongue.
"Not even close?" I puff. "That's hard to believe. You could tell me Akyuu and Keine, sure, but who else is there? Meira? Mokou?"
The bar's saloon doors bang open. "Aha!" a youngish voice projects from the entrance. "I've been looking for you, mister researcher!"
I was hoping it was for any reason other than me or Kazegou, but I guess that's impossible when it's just us and the bartender. I turn in my chair to find a little girl. White collared shirt, khakis, comfy looking slip on shoes, and twin braids reaching past her neck. Why do people think I'm a tengu, again?
"And who might you be, kid?" I ask the little scamp bounding over to us. "Aren't you a little young to be in here?"
Her brows scrunch in at my dismissal, but Kazegou quickly identifies her, "Rika, what are you doing here? You're not causing any trouble, are you?"
She takes a moment to recognize the man at my side by comparison, eliciting a squeak when she does and puffing up her chest. Waving her braids back and forth, she denies, "No sir, I'm looking for trouble, and I've heard that guy causes more trouble than I can! I want to hear all about it!"
Kazegou and I exchange wary eyes. "I have trouble you want?" I repeat back.
"Well… not like that," she deflates from the simplest prod at her boasting. "I saw a bunch of articles about you in the paper and thought, 'Oh! A foreigner with a scientific background! I could use– I mean ask for his help! The last time that happened was with the Moriya Shrine, but they still won't let me go there."
Kazegou leans over to me, half whispering, "Their shrine maiden claimed she was troubling them by turning their, uh… 'toaster' into a 'heater?'"
"They kept complaining about how cold the top of the mountain is, so I used their internal power grid to change a heating coil into a central unit," Rika brags.
I raise my brows, pondering, "How did you actually push the heat around? Did they have fans lying around they weren't using?"
"So you do know outside technology!" Rika acts like we're not talking about commonplace devices. I narrow my eyes at her, waiting for my previous question to be answered. She folds to the demand, “I… may have used a box fan they kept in the shrine. Then I stuck the highest voltage I could to it and the toaster."
I take a deep sigh, visualizing poor Sanae having to disarm the little fire hazard that could. "Alright, listen kid," I start, "I'm not interested in whatever you're up to, so find some other shmuck."
She furls her brows, pouting with a puff, "Hmph. First of all, I'm not a kid. Second, I'm coming to you because my creative well is running dry."
"You, running out of ideas?" Kazegou chuckles, turning away from his drink. "Next you'll tell me the Dragon God appeared in the sky."
Rika rounds on the man, punching his arm, "Very funny! No, what I want is to trade ideas with an outsider, someone that knows of all the wild things the outside world has."
"And why should I go along with you? I'm visiting a friend right now, and I don't mean the drinks," I grouse, leaning back into the bar.
"Bah, you always keep the drinks as a third wheel, you stupid bastard," Kaze mocks. He shuffles next to me, suggesting in a low voice, "Just go with the girl. At best you convince her to make something that isn't a weapon."
"I make more than weapons, you jerk!" the girl fumes. She drags me out of my seat, receiving only token resistance as I'm admittedly curious. A little engineer girl from the human village, not the strangest thing I've heard but far from expected. I wonder how different her creations are from the kappa's.
Before I'm fully whisked away, I call for the bartender to put my drinks on a tab. The giant only spares a grunt for me and my antics.
Rika drags me for a jaunt outside the village, close in the direction of Meira's shack, but breaking off far deeper into the woods. The area is more than a little familiar to me, as it stretches directly out to the Garden of the Sun, though without any indicated path.
Rika asks me to 'regale' her with tales of the outside world along the way. I can understand a curious kid wanting to know what's beyond the barrier, so I do just that, telling her of what world history I know past the year Gensokyo was isolated. It's similar to how I endeared myself with the Youkai buddhists and Byakuren, so it could earn me favor here. She stops me before I get into anything about the industrial revolution, though, claiming an apathetic knowledge of those concepts and wanting more of the technological innovations that happened. I shift to describing the industries and experiments of the time: railroads, electromagnetism, radio communication, whatever came to mind first.
After some time of my lecturing I worry that we might stray into the garden itself, an existential problem if Rika set up shop around Yuuka Kazami's sunflowers, but she stops short of a forest clearing. I assume the clearing itself is where we're going, the identifiable marker of flattened ground showing some level of manufacturing, but instead she crouches over an overgrown spot of grass, beckoning me next to her. Plunging her hand into an opening, she pulls something that emits a click.
Seconds pass and the ground churns, one of my feet catching on a raising section only for me to retreat it and find I'm the one descending. A square patch of grass lowers Rika and I into a metal plated shaft. The further we plunge, the tighter the platform feels. On all sides metal hugs us, the sounds of hydraulic machines reverberating through the interior.
"I'm impressed, but did you think to maybe make it hold more than one person?" I groan, tucked up against the kid. I'm afraid of what burrs might be hidden in such a hole, regardless of how impressive a galvanized steel elevator is.
"It's supposed to hold four," she retorts, just as confused as I am by our uncomfortable packing.
A familiar feeling pricks my brain, and I turn to find my everpresent partner taking up most of the elevator space. Or rather, her tails do.
"Five would be sufficient. Seven centimeters on each side would amend the issue," her usually dry voice notes.
Rika swerves her head around through the fox's well-softened clothes to determine who this intruder is.
"You couldn't wait until we were inside to show yourself?" I complain to Ran, knowing full well that she could shrink her profile to half of its current volume, all of which being her tails.
She closes her eyes and tuts, "This girl is not as she seems, and yet your unguarded trust brings you directly into her lair."
"Lair? Seriously?" I find the words wholly unnecessary.
Rika presses herself off of Ran's dress and growls back, "I'm not some Youkai! I'm a respectable tinkerer!"
We nearly burst out of the elevator as the doors open. I take a second to regain my footing as Rika and Ran file into the underground hideout we've been whisked away to. The ride down was somewhere between fifteen to twenty meters, all of which has been cleared out into a massive chamber. Metal walls the same as the elevator uphold the bay, giving the same factory made impression as the kappa's main hold. For that matter, with the number of parts, devices, tools, apparati, and inventions strewn about, I find it hard to believe this isn't a kappa's hideout.
Hell, even the walls aren't spared from the scrapyard aesthetic, housing the same assortments at least twice as high as Rika could reach. Collections of tables are scattered evenly around, holding regular household appliances on some and entire engines on others. I could swear at least one engine was stripped straight off of a biplane.
"... Rika, is this all yours?" I falter, looking back to the girl.
She paces ahead, keeping a keen eye on my partner before announcing with glowing pride, "You bet it is! All my years smashing things together are right down here! In fact, you haven't even seen the best part!"
She claps her hands in dramatic fashion, as if calling someone to a stage. Dozens of compartments in the walls reveal themselves, sending out an army of small, floating white balls. It seems she has a flair for giving such devices character, as they each lead in with comically large tongues and trail away with wispy tails. A couple dots for eyes and a triangle at their 'forehead' gives them the vague image of a ghost, but they're definitely something else.
Dozens of them fly overhead, seeing to tasks Rika set them to before, taking apart or building up the exhibits on all the tables. The sheer number alone is impressive, but the way they handle tools with opposable fake tongues borders on magic. The outside world would do so much with these, after getting past their uncanniness.
"Robots? Do they have electronic components? How do they float about?" I think aloud, attempting to narrow down what exactly they are. I snag one from the air, the thing waddling in my hands like a soccer ball with a fish tail.
"Automatons propelled and programmed by magic, using precious gems as mana receptacles for recharging based on reservoir reserves drawing on local leylines," Rika states in as lengthy a manner as allowable.
Ran looks at the one I grabbed, tapping a few times to somehow determine, "Why are they set at sixty percent output? Do they have cooling restrictions?"
"No, not cooling. The other forty percent is only used for big jobs. Something like digging out this base inside the leyline. I was worried I'd be stepping on a witch's territory when I did it, but I haven't had to fight anyone ever since coming out here," Rika reports, looking into one of the glowing ghost mounts in the wall.
"You're a magician? Like Marisa?" I question. I haven't seen any of the magically inclined from Gensokyo try to look at technology, so this is a first for me.
"No!" she denies, even more insulted than when I called her a kid earlier. "Don't lump me in with that project wrecking, thieving, constantly intoxicated wasp! I don't fling spells, I make things. If you want to compare me to a magician at least make it the dollmaker."
"S-sorry?" I always forget how much people actually dislike that girl. She might be one of the few names that can so unanimously exert that effect. That list including Yukari and Aya, of course.
"Apology accepted," she grins to herself, strutting deeper into the lab. "Now, for the real show," she continues, pointing to the far wall. A number of ghosts break off of their previous tasks and take to numerous devices, the exact function of any particular lever or switch up for debate in the sea of machines. After a few seconds of this, the far wall lowers into the floor, revealing an extension to the room with a surface ramp in line with the flat space I saw earlier.
Before the ramp are two massive 'projects.' One, a black ball with tentacles and wings, hangs high in the back. The other, the centerpiece of the lab, is in the shape of a tank.
I say in the shape of because the thing looks like it was Frankensteined together from pieces of old real world tanks and newer custom made mechanics. Its circular dome, bordered by thick vines, is crowned with a black and white decal, giving off a decorative purpose for the vehicle more than a practical one, but I'd bet it functions just as well as it looks.
I thought Kazegou was ribbing her, but she really is a lot more than I anticipated. A few outside world appliances, sure, but an entire tank? No wonder he mentioned weapons explicitly. "Why in the world are you asking for my help, again? You've got way more chops for making things than I can even begin to understand. I mean, that's a god damn tank."
"Well that's just the problem!" Rika exclaims. "I'm so good at making things that I've run out of new prospects that interest me. I need to know what's out there and start catching up to the outside world's innovations."
"So you're… what? Looking for a challenge?" I ask, still deciding if I'm capable of offering this girl such a thing.
She puckers her lips, mounting the nearest table and resting an arm against the remains of a gas motor engine. "A challenge? I guess that's what I want? Something people think only the outside world could make, right here in my lab! Something like that would definitely be fun to do! … But what do you think I should make?"
I gesture to the rest of the room and its hoard of ghostly robots. "Well, you'll have to show me what you've made so far." She smiles and jumps from the table, beginning with an explanation of the motor she was leaning against. A gas motor taken from a lawn mower, by Ran's confirmation. Rika pays little mind to the humble utility it once was and instead focuses on the exact values the engine outputs, especially mindful of the efficiency she got it to.
When she finishes gushing over it we begin touring the rest of the lab with the same level of scrutiny. I ask if she's made a proper heater– not a probable housefire– and she shows me one that could burn down a warehouse. I ask if she's made a motor engine, and she shows me one smaller than I considered possible, to the point that I worry if such a thing could keep a vehicle grounded. This back and forth continues for some time, with every challenge I pose already completed, sans the atypical quirks, until we've made it through almost everything in the room.
Communication devices, household appliances, machining apparati, this lab is a museum of the twentieth century, of that I'm now certain. We're really only missing the infomercial bullshit… and one particular field. What may be considered the crowning achievement of human civilization.
I pose my final challenge as we stray by mid-century bullet casings, "Have you made anything designed to be in space? Something to get there, stay in orbit, or going beyond Earth's orbit?"
She holds a completed bullet, which she had been using to taut the tolerances she could achieve to Ran, but now cups her chin to ponder my question. "Outer space? As in towards the stars, past the very atmosphere of the planet?"
"Yeah. Made anything getting to the stars?"
"No, I haven't. I know people sent things up there but I don't know why they'd bother," she answers, placing the heavy calibre bullet on a table she then leans against.
The statement wounds me for all the curiosity she's previously displayed. How could a kid like this not have starry eyes for space travel? "They do it for the challenge of doing it. For the many scientific mysteries lying in wait beyond our little ball of dirt and water," I retort.
Her braids droop as she looks up in thought, "Hm? It's challenging to get up there? But I've heard stories about the shrine maiden and a vampire launching their own rocket. If those two nimrods could do it, anyone with enough drive could, too."
Admittedly fair. I don't know the exact mechanics it takes to launch a rocket in Gensokyo, but it surely couldn't be that easy. How much magic did they have to use to accomplish such a feat? I remember it was a moon trip as well, but did they take the same rocket back? Even more, do they have a concept of a vacuum sealed space? Does the barrier interact with such physical concepts? There's far too many variables I have no direct background in for this conversation.
"The task was considered impossible for humans of the outside world until only the prior century," Ran comes to my aid. "The technology required for reaching the vacuum of space, traveling through it, and lastly remaining in specific gravitational orbits has largely been credited as a triumph in human ingenuity." As reported by humans, I can feel her lips clamp shut to leave out.
It looks to have done the trick, though, as Rika is now all ears for the idea. "An invention that could impress the humans of the outside world…" she muses to herself. "Alright, so what do you think I should make? I'm more than ready for a challenge like that."
I stop typing, the draft on Aya's report still in the early stages, and walk out to the back. Keine shields her eyes from the sun, looking directly up at something. She glances over to me and points up, as if it wasn't obvious enough that something's wrong. I follow her gaze, but I'd have to be half blind to miss it.
A metal blimp, the size of a shipping container, floats across the blue sky of Gensokyo. Whatever keeps it afloat so high above isn't apparent, nor where it might've come from. Unfortunately, I have a strong suspicion of it's exact origin.
Keine swipes her head down to me and interrogates, "Have you been talking to anyone recently?"
I recoil, overemphasizing the movement to try and mask my awareness. "Why do you automatically assume I'm to blame for that? That could just be someone getting bored and making something ridiculous."
Her brow shoots up. One brow means she knows I'm lying. "And they would just happen to make an artificial satellite? In the shape of outside world orbital stations noted in numerous articles dating to the seventies? Something that bears little practical use in Gensokyo?" she rubs in the absurdity of the notion.
"Okay, so maybe I gave that girl Rika the idea…" I admit.
She closes her eyes and sighs, "Right… well, I suppose it was inevitable the two of you would meet, though I'm surprised you didn't ask her to make something more mundane, like a refrigerator or air conditioning."
"She wanted a challenge," I counter. "Ran and I thought to have her build a rocket with a GPS satellite. We told her not to launch it into space, of course. Ran almost showed emotion at explaining the political problems that would cause, gods forbid."
"Ran agreed to the idea? How did that happen?"
"I don't know, ask her." I shrug, looking back up at the metal tube in the sky. "So is there a problem?"
Keine looks up at it for a few moments more before concluding, "Well… it's probably not able to remain up there forever."
"How do you think?" I find the idea moot when it's built by a girl that creates flying robots.
She scratches the back of her neck, screwing her mouth replying, "Who do you believe is the most likely to fight it?"
"Fight it?" I croak in between a laugh and a scoff. "The inanimate object in the sky?"
"Of the kind that no one has seen before, yes," she remains firm in the idea.
Staring at the metal contraption, and understanding how testy Gensokyans can be on the best of days, I answer, "The kappa. If just to pick it apart after."
"Dinner's on you if it's Cirno," Keine jokes back. "Could you please have the girl take it down before it causes any damage? I don't want to explain why Rika got someone hurt when she wasn't making a weapon. For once."
"Give Ran and I 'til the end of the day, we'll shoot it down ourselves if we need to… and I'll tell Rika to develop a fridge."
Extra credit post to come soon with the new thread!
It’s time for a third miniature assignment from you all, and a quick followup from me. I am currently out on vacation for this coming week, and won’t be working on an update because of that. If I’ll be working on an update the following week is also up in the air at this time. What I will be working on if I have any available downtime is one of my old exhibition pieces. Please bear in mind the operating word of downtime. I may have next to none in all reality.
But that’s all about me and this week specifically, what’s the assignment?
In the simplest terms, what do you expect to happen in this story? Whether that be next immediate or next long term or even the end of the story itself, go crazy. I want to know if you all can weed into my head, if not give me some brain-worms to crib later ideas for myself.
In longer terms, after analyzing a book, The Two Faces of Tomorrow, with a group of peers, I learned that it can be important to keep an audience’s/reader’s expectations in mind when planning scenes for narratives. While not the most revolutionary idea, it struck a chord with me when we decided to drop the aforementioned novel because the story wasn’t following any path that we thought would be wise to traverse for the underpinning themes present. That, and the incessant presentation of office drama instead of the actually interesting parts of the premise. I don’t care about the protagonist’s love life when an almighty force is growing to break all of society.
In that sense, I wouldn’t mind hearing what my actual factual readers have to predict about the story that I’m writing. Is what I’m planning in line with what everyone thinks is going to happen? Will I be going off the deep end with my plan and need to change course or decide to stay true to my guts and hope it works out? These are things I ponder every time I write, past the simple struggles of putting the right words together in the most practical or eloquent way possible. So, help me meditate on things while I have you all.
Huh. We're on the last lesson. Hadn't even really considered that.
This is a tricky question, because in all honesty, this story really reads more like slice of life than it does something with a planned out ending. I could very easily see this as Season 1, with Yukari giving Tanner a break as she plans out Season 2 of his lectures. Or throwing him into them immediately, or even just calling on him time to time as new issues crop up.
Point is, this is one of those stories where "The story continues" feels like a valid ending option, perhaps even the default one. Which isn't to say there aren't some things to resolve.
First, there's the obvious set of questions. What's Yukari's goal with Tanner? What's her big plan, why him? And for that matter, what exactly did she do to let him recover from serious injuries and even return from the dead?
I think "why him?" is answered very well by the story so far. He has repeatedly forced the targets of his investigations to confront some painful but necessary truths, and by and large brought them to better, healthier status quo's than they had before. Given Yukari's position that Gensokyo is for everyone, this feels in line with the goals she's claimed to have.
The fact that working with Tanner has led Ran to growing more as a person is a bonus, though I suspect it's more Yukari taking advantage of an unexpected development than something she'd originally masterminded.
The last question is also potentially hand-wavable with boundary manipulation. A laugh, a wave of the fan, "Boundary of Life and Death", and people probably won't question it.
With that said, I do think there's some potential to tie these things together and bring the arcs to an end in satisfying fashion. From here, we're deviating off from what I think will happen more towards "how I would do it", so take as many grains of salt as necessary.
The first thing a climax needs are proper stakes. Naturally, these situations always tend towards dangerous on their own, and on a meta level, this being the final arc makes things more serious as well. (Nobody would believe Tanner would truly die before the end of the story, but now? Maybe, even if Ecology's not really that type of tale.) But I think we can tie together Yukari's purpose with the source of Tanner's unexpected resilience.
What if his continued living isn't something Yukari did, but is something she arranged for? If anyone has the authority to return a soul from the dead, it's the Goddess of Hell. As for why she'd do this... well, she does have a close friend in Junko with some fairly extreme emotional problems. (Junko: "I am perfectly stable. Every atom of my being is completely devoted to violently murdering Chang'e.") Of course, something that sensitive with a being of that power (not to mention a friend you care about) isn't a matter you'd entrust to some random school-teacher. You'd want to see proof of his capability first. Something like him handling a wide range of troubled youkai and consistently guiding them to better outcomes regardless of the personal risk.
As for what Yukari gets out of the deal, she gets the benefit to Gensokyo of all those past cases Tanner handled. Along with the brownie points from him helping the Goddess of Hell - Hecatia is one of those neighbors who cannot be ignored, even by the gap youkai.
In short, this last case with Hecatia is Tanner's final exam. She's satisfied with the results of his work so far, so now it's time for him to help her friend. This also means, in the worst case, his immortality can be revoked - she of all people can drag him straight to hell if she so desires. (For that matter, I imagine Junko could also do severe psychological damage with a purification, one that his physical resilience doesn't help against.)
Of course, this also means that if he does a good job... he's done. He may even earn a boon from Hecatia herself - which naturally could be used to end this "lecture series" Yukari has forced on him, though I'm sure he'll come up with a better use for it.
Speaking of which, as an expert on torturing Ran, the thought occurs that Junko purifying her would likely reset her to an existence very like what she had at the start of the story. She'd again be entirely focused on following orders, with Tanner being nothing more than the vehicle by which she must follow said orders. The loss of that bond, of the Ran he's come to know and care about (plus her caring about him) would be a vicious gut punch, both in and out of story. Food for thought.
As for what the scenario is with Junko, while her default existence already gives a pretty good idea of the problem, it can never hurt to have a scenario ramping things up.
One option is the canon events of LoLK. Perhaps Tanner needs to soften her somehow so she can accept that the protagonists have thwarted her, and switch to being interested in Reisen. Personally, I'd probably invent a new, second plot; some other way Hecatia and Junko have planned to strike at the moon and Chang'e in particular. One that very well may be successful.
Because this raises an interesting question. What happens to a purified spirit of hatred when the object of their hatred has been completely and utterly annihilated? Can she continue to exist, or will she fade away? Tanner needs to give her something to sustain her personality, while Junko is even more focused on her hatred at present: CHANG'E DELENDA EST and all that.
There's a few options I could see in that direction. One is her canon interest in Reisen; expanding on that is the obvious option. Another one, which is honestly more omake material than main story material would be bringing out a certain running gag one last time; the final, ultimate kidnapping of Nitori.
But I think the most interesting direction to take it is Junko's fox motif. Because not only are we bringing along a fox of our own, but consider Ran's character arc. She's gone from someone almost entirely focused on orders, who struggled to hold a conversation if it wasn't order-related, to having an actual friend in Tanner and being able to gently banter, even if her orders are still a huge part of her life. This is exactly the change we're hoping to see in Junko, and it forces Ran to reflect and emphasize the ways she's changed, putting both a spotlight and a capstone on her character arc.
It could even tie into the earlier mentioned purification of Ran. If she's able to fight her way through that, then that's very much proof of concept - being purified into a single purpose can in fact be overcome. At the very least, it forces Junko to admit that Ran's point of view has merit... and Ran can follow that up with the argument that her expanded perspective has made her more effective at her primary purpose, not less. As for how you'd bring back Ran from a purification, it's obviously about re-establishing her bonds with Tanner and Chen. It may well be that Yukari has a plan for this - perhaps Ran tagging along was something she masterminded after all. I'm thinking something along the lines of a boundary of memories - using Chen and Tanner's memories of Ran as the foundation, with how they care about Ran being used to reawaken Ran's care for them. And if Junko can be brought to agree, perhaps something similar could be done with Clownpiece and Hecatia, though I feel that might be too far, too soon. It may be more she just needs to hang out with and start bonding with people. It's even possible this is Ran's next long term assignment... or that now it's time to kidnap Nitori.
Oddly enough, it's even possible that their dynamic ends up being a distorted mirror of the Yakumo dynamic. Clownpiece is the child and by far the least powerful, Junko's in the middle with her fox motif and singleminded focus, and Hecatia is the ultra-powerful one calling the shots. It's not a perfect match - in particular, Junko is Hecatia's friend, not her servant - but it's a fun parallel to draw.
I'd argue the other big loose end at the moment is Tanner's relationship with Keine. They're together, sure... but after the Nyx arc I feel like there's still a lot of baggage to unload, even if Ex-Keine has clarified her position on what she wants to do to Tanner.
Well, Keine could be extremely useful here. She may be better able to remember and look at Junko's history than Junko herself. And if Ran gets purified, she could make a plausible mechanism for helping Ran to remember her own history and come back to herself - an extremely important piece of aid that I think would compensate for nearly killing Tanner in that previous arc. Plus, I think she'd be very important emotional support during that time where Ran is torn away from Tanner - I strongly suspect that seeing that (and being unable to immediately fix it) would bring out those depressive tendencies he's tried so hard to bury.
Also, if Keine is heavily involved, you could have Tanner consult with her on the boon he's getting from Hecatia - surely there's a way to help Mokou with this? If nothing else, she could potentially stay alongside her friend for all eternity. I'm sure she'd resolve to use it in a way that benefits him... it's possible that the end result is Tanner wishing to have his lifespan extended to match Keine's. (Cue the kiss.)
One more note. Eiki could easily make an appearance in this arc at some point (the whole Ministry of Right and Wrong integration), and I suspect a look into her crystal mirror would shake Tanner up a fair bit. I've gotten the sense he's tried to run from and bury his past ever since being in Gensokyo, so having it thrown out into the open could be both really hard on him, but also really good for him.
Oh, and just for fun...
> After the ministry was set up, the oni were employed into ranks led by the strongest
Clearly, this means that the final arc can only culminate with the unexpected Cirno victory! In a tale worth of Greek legends, Cirno braves into the depths of hell itself, and ascends to become the goddess of strength and champion of justice, Hecatia's chosen representative over all of Gensokyo!
Mystifyingly, her power after ascension is exactly enough to force a draw against a full power Ran. Funny, that.
(Seriously, why is it that I ask "What's the worst thing I can do to Ran?" and all these ideas start flowing out?)
>>45978
>A lot of good food for thought.
There's certainly a lot of great ideas in here, and I'll probably be integrating Junko a lot more than I previously planned due to the parallels you've presented, but I do also need to quickly reiterate one thing: this isn't the true final chapter/arc. You're on the mark that this is Yukari's final exam, but it won't be Tanner's final lesson. Well, it will be... publicly at least (and depending on the outcomes of choices yet to pass). That said, you've hit a lot of nails at once that I would have to tackle in this next chapter if it should have been the true end, and I'm flattered that you've been so contemplative on a lot of character arcs I've presented throughout, jokes or otherwise.
I'm also going to have to sit and think on any involvement with Keine, since again, we're not quite at the end, and this isn't going to be an environment we'd expect her to comfortably meddle in. Not to say I don't want any excuse to shove my favorite woman into any scenario I can, mind you.
I do also enjoy the idea of a last Cirno hurrah, as it's a capstone of her truly upward spiraling misinterpretation of Tanner's musings to her from the start.
>>45979
Give Tanner a third hand for Junko, that way he can impregnate her alongside Ran and Keine.
Junko issue solved.
But more seriously I don't think Junko would have an issue with passing away, eventually or otherwise, after Chang'e dies, I think it could be a pretty nice book end to her story. That is to say, having her grudge be fulfilled and her choosing not to take on something new to obsess over is also an ending I think you should consider.
>>45978
Project here. Since this is a goliath of a post please excuse the brief perusal to give some thoughts of my own. I don’t have explicit details on the minutiae of all events coming forth, but I do like a lot of the ideas presented.
> The fact that working with Tanner has led Ran to growing more as a person is a bonus, though I suspect it's more Yukari taking advantage of an unexpected development than something she'd originally masterminded.
This was something Poignant wanted to make more prevalent in the last couple of arcs to instill its importance, so I’m glad that it wasn’t overbearing or even detracted from many of the other characters. I personally want Ran to express more of a humanitarian approach that will directly conflict with her shikigami contract. This would lead to a power imbalance among the sages since Yukari’s hand is seen in conflict with her master. The result would lead to Tanner making Yukari question what to do when your shikigami is defecting due to her own meddling.
> There's a few options I could see in that direction. [What happens to a purified spirit of hatred when the object of their hatred has been completely and utterly annihilated?] One is her canon interest in Reisen; expanding on that is the obvious option.
I’d love to explore Junko’s absence of rage and what that would mean for her divinity, I think Zounose did one with her and Suwako. Perhaps in consideration of Reisen, we could bring her back as a fake love interest and make Junko jealous. This way we can skip “fixing” her “problem” and just go straight to divine punishment for encroaching on sacred rabbit grounds.
> not only are we bringing along a fox of our own, but consider Ran's character arc. She's gone from someone almost entirely focused on orders, who struggled to hold a conversation if it wasn't order-related, to having an actual friend in Tanner and being able to gently banter, even if her orders are still a huge part of her life.
Whilst the focus is Hecatia, I could see the relationship between her and Junko used to parallel with Ran and Tanner. Tanner and Hecatia would have more than enough tea to share between their experiences and would make for some enjoyable banter in addition to revelatory potential.
> I'd argue the other big loose end at the moment is Tanner's relationship with Keine. They're together, sure... but after the Nyx arc I feel like there's still a lot of baggage to unload, even if Ex-Keine has clarified her position on what she wants to do to Tanner.
Considering Tanner’s current predicament with his imperfect immortality, maybe the “boon” you speak of would grant him even more opportunities to further his influence with other figures in Gensokyo’s hierarchy? Having this many connections with Kasen, Nyx and now Hecatia could lead to methods of immortality outside of Yukari’s grasp. Honestly, if that doesn’t work out I’m sure Mokou can take care of Tanner’s kids after Gap Magic™ expires.
> Eiki could easily make an appearance in this arc at some point (the whole Ministry of Right and Wrong integration), and I suspect a look into her crystal mirror would shake Tanner up a fair bit. I've gotten the sense he's tried to run from and bury his past ever since being in Gensokyo, so having it thrown out into the open could be both really hard on him, but also really good for him.
With as much smear Aya has spread and most Gensokyans treating Tanner the same after the fact, I’m sure hes doing fine. I’m unsure how to balance that creeping resentment of the past with his now, more than fruitful, life hes stumbled into now.
> "What's the worst thing I can do to Ran?"
Giving her just one kit.
