xp194 2013/01/11 (Fri) 15:01 No. 164376 ▼ File 135791649237.jpg - (1.55MB, 1600x1200 , 7705a6508bde67f47ff8d1faf4a997fe.jpg)
[x]Get up and apologise or otherwise attempt to reason with the girl?
-[x] Surrender, admit that she's the Strongest and praise her. Maybe a pretentious child like her will let us go if we play the foot-licking peasant routine.
Realising that fleeing is no longer an option, you throw your hands up and cry out to the advancing fairy.
"Okay, okay! I give up! I'm sorry! You... you are the Strongest! I'm sorry I treated you like a kid! Oh gods, just don't kill me!"
A large grin plasters itself on Cirno's face and the stream of projectiles halts as she lands. "Hah! Sure am. Don't you forget that now!" She chirps happily, heading over towards you and giving you a look over.
"Hm... looks like I got you a couple times too... you're dressed kinda odd... Are you from around here?" she inquires, holding out a hand.
"... Depends. Where /is/ here?" you ask, taking it. She's cold but... a hell of a lot stronger than she looks, apparently, as she pulls you to your feet with ease.
"Gensokyo" Is her response. Like it's common knowledge.
"... Uh. Which province is this in?" you ask, even more lost.
"... Gensokyo" She repeats, then adopts a manner of speaking that people tend to use on thick or hard of thinking. "That's Geeenn... soooo.... kyoooo. Get it? Gensokyo. It's not that hard."
"... Yes, I heard you the first time." you grumble. "I've just never heard of the place before."
Recognition dawns on the little fairy's face. "Oh! You must be an outsider then! We get them occasionally." It is then replaced with slight horror. "... Usually because of someone's reasons... Dammit. The lake might be getting raided again soon... it takes forever to fix it up again after that."
"Umm...?" You respond, uncertainly.
"... Probably best you get to one of the shrines, for the time being..." The little fairy muses. "They tend to be sort of a neutral ground deal, so you can get sorted out there. Yeah! And if I go with you and say I found you, I might get rewarded!"
"You could also show me the way." You note. "I have... /no/ frame of reference here."
"Hah. Sure." She giggles. "Cirno! The strongest and the guidingnest!" You begin to wonder if this is actually a good idea...
A while later... Could be a few hours, maybe less, you arrive at an old fashioned Shinto shrine. You attempted to get more information about the place from Cirno, but she didn't exactly prove helpful, throwing around a lot of names and events that hold no meaning to you. Hopefully this... "Raymoo" person Cirno's currently chattering on about has more... useful answers to give you.
Approaching the shrine, you see a teenage looking girl in red and white sweeping the steps. Cirno buzzes on ahead. "Hey, Reimu!" she yells, happily, "I found an outsider!"
"Oh for... Not another one." She mutters, loud enough to hear, turning and looking at you, taking in your... presently rather dishevelled appearance. "Sheesh... What happened to you, then?"
"My... err... reception was a little... Icy." You reply, shooting Cirno a significant glance, which totally goes over her head. Reimu, on the other hand, gets your meaning.
"Count yourself lucky." She notes."Enthusiastic as Cirno can be, at least she wasn't trying to eat you. Can't say that about everyone around here."
What.
"... Sorry, there are cannibals around here?" You ask, voice shaking slightly.
"No... well... possibly. None that I've encountered. Youkai." She notes your blank look. "Demons, Spirits, that sort of thing? Some of them are friendly enough... others give me cause to have to go out and whack them around occasionally."
"Urgh... Sorry... this is a little much for me..." you groan, clutching your head. "... So... all those legends and myths... they're true? Is that what you're saying?"
Reimu considers. "... I don't know about that." She says eventually. "What I do know is that the beasties do exist, and they pretty much all live here."
That's it. You decide you've officially had enough of this place. You want out and back home, and you say as much to Reimu.
"Don't really blame you." She replies. "Okay, it's easy enough. Just walk up that path..." she points. "And you should could come to what looks like a swirly-magic wall. Just walk through and you'll be back in the outside world, no problem. Oh, and the toll charge is 2000 yen."
Grumbling, you fork over the money, then follow the indicated path. Well... that was something of an adventure. Quite enough for one lifetime, you reason. And you can't really tell anyone about what happened, they'd never believe you... You shrug as you come across the 'swirly-magic wall', grin slightly, close your eyes and step through...
And bounce off.
"What the hell?!" you yell, loud enough to cause Reimu to come over to investigate.
"What happened?" she asks.
"The... wall thing..."
"Barrier." She corrects.
"The barrier wouldn't let me through!" you yell, almost livid now.
"... Odd. Looks like it's working fine..." she says, inspecting it... and steps through. A few minutes later and she returns. "Yep. Functioning same as always. Maybe you missed or something? Try again."
You nod, rolling your eyes, and try again.
And bounce off again.
You turn to look at Reimu, who has a midly puzzled look on her face. "... Argh, crap..." she mutters. "... I've got no idea what's going on here. It works fine for me, but not for you? ... I'm... dammit, I'm going to have to call in Yukari, on this..."
"... And she can fix it?" you ask, hopefully.
"Probably, yes..." Reimu nods. "She did make the thing, but she has a tendency to be unhelpful, when it suits her. Or, if she is being helpful, it's in a way that's not obvious for a couple of years down the line, usually. She's nice enough if she's not screwing around with something or another, but there's a very good chance that you can't get through because she doesn't want you to." Noting the question you're about to ask, she butts in. "No, I don't know why she'd want that. Maybe even she doesn't, and just thinks it'll be amusing. So... Yeah. Even if she is awake, which is rare enough, the odds of her actually being helpful are rather low."
She looks to you, and a genuine flicker of sympathy crosses her face. "You might well be stuck here for the forseeable future. Sorry about that. If it helps, I can rent you some floorspace here at the shrine. It's as safe as you can get in these parts. There's also the human village a few miles away, you can stay in, but, if Yukari does decide to be helpful... she doesn't often visit there. Could be a blessing or a curse."
Do you:
[]Stay at the Hakurei Shrine? It's close to the Barrier, after all, and you might be able to get home quicker if you're here...
[]Go to the Human Village? On the other hand, this 'Yukari' sounds like a nutjob and it'd probably best if you weren't around where she is.
[]Panic/flip the fuck out?
[]EMERGANCY TELEPORT GOOOO!
Also, write in things to ask Reimu about! Gain knowledge and profit! Or something like that.