The three of us are now currently watching Rumia being thought how to properly fight with her fist.
An entire day has elapsed since our small victory in the snowball fight. Now that we all essentially introduced ourselves, we have become friends and got to know each other better.
Rumia, the so-called fistfighter amongst us, asked for some advice on how to fight better using her physical prowess. So here we are now talking about all sorts of topics while Shinomori mentors Rumia.
"Sooo... I've been meaning to ask, what brings ya here? Around these parts?" Apparently deciding to address the elephant in the room, Cirno asked the same question that's been on my mind.
"Training. As for why here exactly, no reason in particular." Shinomori shrugs. "It just fit the criteria. Away from the bustle of the city and not much people around."
"A hermit?"
"Oh! Ya mean like Seiga?!"
I took a small glance at her. 'Isn't that the Taoist? I haven't seen her or heard others talk about her, but it seems like Cirno did so perhaps she went into seclusion or went outside gensokyo... but the question is, why?'
"I have never heard about this person named Seiga but from your expression, it would seem that it would similar." He nodded.
"Cirno... Who's Seiga?" 'More information is what I need. Perhaps I can get a clue about this world if I know where she went.'
Cirno opened her mouth to answer my question but she froze and her face took on an puzzled expression. "... That's weird... I can't remember..." She replied while scratching the back of her neck.
'Daiyousei seemed like she didn't have an inkling as to who she is either. Rumia is... she is too focused on honing her skills.' I took note of their reactions and decided to ask Sekibanki later. 'Worse comes to worst, I'll ask Reimu. She'll either coerce me into running errands or trick me into cleaning the Hakurei shrine first.'
Shinomori noticed this exchange but decided against adding anything to it, thoughtful enough to know not to butt in on another village's affairs, especially ones that kept the children in the dark of the matter. Perhaps he also didn't want to corrupt the innocence one can only have during their childhood.
Brushing aside such thoughts for now, I decided to capitalize on this opportunity of getting stronger. Gensokyo also has it's own combat specialist but the issue would be finding them, let alone asking for their teachings.
It would have been easy if the scarlet devil mansion exist here but unfortunately, for some reason, it does not. Alongside some other characters, not to mention those that I and my friends are unfamiliar with, otherwise, I would have asked Hong Meiling to teach me long ago.
Sure the more super-powered individuals and mystical characters would get together once a month, albeit separated in group or by their lonesome, to eat and drink under the moon. Something like a gensokyo-style festival get-together. But personally knowing them and interacting with those people are different from simply being aware of their presence.
A loose yet tight-knit community is what gensokyo is. Just because we live in the same relative area doesn't mean we should or could get along. Like how Cirno would stay away from the volcano laboratory and it's residents due to the difference in temperature. She can bear the heat but it is very unpleasant to do so.
In addition, the fighting techniques and martial arts of the modern era is vastly different from the ancient ones here. They all have their pros and cons, and the ancient techniques and martial arts wouldn't fit my physique. Not exactly a fan super buff bulkiness either.
Therefore I opted to ask Shinomori advice about movement techniques and some tips about what to look out for in flying enemies.
At first he raised an eyebrow at the second question but he understood when I told him about Hitching a ride on my flying heads. I only asked about how to develop my body-related aspects as I would train my head and powers related to my head with the expert herself, the local rokurokubi and my sister, Sekibanki.
Seemingly bored, Daiyousei and Cirno started to play with snow while me and Rumia are training alongside Shinomori. Thus began our new routine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It has been a month since that day. The training has certainly been beneficial in mine and Rumia's fighting style. Her punches pack more power behind them despite having the same output and her attacks have more accuracy even when she loses herself to her anger. In the words of Shinomori himself, "she's less of barbarian and more of a proper fighter now." Is what he said.
Meanwhile, my maneuverability has improved a bit, mostly when on land considering that Shinomori himself cannot fly therefore limiting the amount of feasible advice he can give me.
My stamina has also improved much more than the usual amount, thankfully, considering that it's pace of improvement has started to slow down before this new routine.
Cirno got bored of just playing with snow and decided to throw snowballs at us. Rumia would try striking them down from midair while I would either dodge them or catch and throw them back at her. This seemed to make her more invested in this 'training' and Shinomori joined along, although he limited himself to evasion.
Daiyousei would practice her danmaku during such moments or prepare refreshments for everyone. She didn't have to do such a thing but she insisted, I suppose she either just caring, thoughtful or both.
Speaking of which, although the ingredients were brought by us, the refreshments were made in Shinomori's home. His place is situated in a mountain cave that he dug out with a few punches. It only had the bare necessities inside like a futon, some change of clothes, and a few camping equipment.
Seeing such a depressing scene, we added some stuff to make it more homely (idea courtesy of the kind Daiyousei).
In a newly punched out section further inside, blocked by a door, Cirno made some really dense ice to work as a freezer room. The coldness was concentrated inside that room with the help of Rumia using some sort of paper seals, which she probably acquired from Kiene who was more than happy to help.
Daiyousei, who like glittery and shiny scenes influenced by her power, decorated certain parts of the wall with images using small gemstones. We have a small heap of them in the hundreds from occasionally helping Momoya, the insect princess, look for dragon stones, we hand her over those as well as the larger gems. In return, we are allowed to keep the smaller ones because as prideful and muscle-headed the dragon-eater is, she is an individual that values fairness and someone who repays kindness with kindness.
I, on the other hand, decided to hang some paintings I made in my free time, and added some copied books from the gensokyo Library. These were the hobbies I decided to pick up alongside the occasional reading of this gensokyo's version of novels.
After we were done, his placed looked even more homely. He was a bit embarrassed at the beginning but just shook his head and helped out Daiyousei in imbedding the gems.
We definitely did not help him out with any ulterior motive. The small extra rooms further inside are a coincidence and definitely not for when we decided to do a sleepover. A totally normal and comfortable place that can be considered a home-away from home and not some sort of pseudo secret base made on a whim just because we have the capability to do so.
And of course we didn't forget about Daigoro, who comes by every now and then to deliver supplies and information to keep Shinomori updated on what's happening outside. After a short rough confrontation, and the attempted questioning of our origins, we finally managed to get along.
The biker-looking baldie helped out in our training sometimes. Even though he was apprehensive against hitting children at first, He now mostly sparred with Rumia, my guess is that they shared a bond during an exchange of fists like Kirishima and Tetsutetsu after their match at the sports festival.
He also occasionally sparred with me, using his black whip to hit me from all directions while I tried my best to avoid them or at least minimize the damage done to my body. One of the best things I learned from him is how to better make my landings so I won't injure myself. Apparently, he often uses his black whip to kinda move around like Spiderman. 'Kinda like Spiderman' is what I thought because he isn't as agile. If anything, he's more like a wrecking Ball rather than a graceful spider.
We visited this place so often that Daiyousei started to plant a few tea trees and a few medicinal herbs. Why we hang out around here so often can be attributed to the fact that having an outsider around is just a fresh experience for us who are basically country bumpkins, well, not me entirely since I still remember bits and pieces of my previous life.
Another matter that happened during this past month was when I asked Sekibanki about who Seiga is, and if there are others that went outside. What she told me in her long speech can be simplified as "I'll tell you when you're older." While Reimu kept changing the subject and avoiding the matter.
Of course I tried asking her when she was drunk during the monthly gatherings, which happened the night after we first began our training but she was still surprisingly adamant in not divulging any information. If even THE drunk Reimu is that tight-lipped, then I wouldn't have any chances of prying open this box of secrets from any other person in gensokyo.
To no one's surprise, scouring the bookstores and libraries in gensokyo wielded no result either. Even after taking the risking of sneakily checking the restricted areas only gave me access to what was essentially some poorly written spicy reading materials used by the quirkless villagers.
Let's not talk about the library and knowledge reserves of private locations because let's face it, no way I can bypass the security of both magical and scientific in nature of those places.
And even using a disguise to fit in a bar to listen in and inquire about some rumors regarding them was all but a wasted effort. Like, do you realise how hard it was to make that disguise? To make a 10 year old boy seem like a young adult is no Walk in the park.
So left with no other choice, I have temporarily dropped the investigation.
On a side note, as I said, my training went very well. Although the results wouldn't be on the level of Rumia, who can now make a cave on the mountainside with a few dozen punches, I now have confidence in my stamina, speed and maneuverability.
My jumps can now reach a height of nearly 3 and a half meters and I can outrun any relatively healthy person.
Probably because we live in an area surrounded by nature, our stamina is already pretty good. Now after a month of training, I can hike a mountain with barely any sweat.
I can now also maneuver around attacks in all directions but I have yet to begin training on how to go on the offense with that sort of agility so it's mainly used for evasion.
And lastly, about training my powers with Sekibanki.
The upper limit for the amount of heads I can create and simultaneously control went up from 35 to 60, which is nearly a double increase. Of course these are just basic heads that can only fly and physically attack.
If you include eye lasers, that I recently learned how to use, then the amount is 14 including my main head.
Exploding heads are much more taxing on my current energy reserves, being able to create a measly 5 of them. But at least they have a max firepower to individually blow up a tree in half. If I lower the output then I can make more of them.
Danmaku, a Touhou staple, my light bullets and light beams can now make a simple pattern. If I have to describe it then it should be a semicircular attack that can raze what's in front of me, and using Touhou terms to describe my Danmaku then it should be on the level of 'normal.'
This month has been very fruitful in my endeavours and I was hoping to learn more from here on out. I need to make use of this time to further hone my skills because my instincts have been telling me that something is about to happen. They have never been wrong even in my previous life, and I need to prepare for what's to come, whatever it may be.