The Disillusioned Land

Chapter 20 - Lost and Forgotten

Returning to work almost makes me wish I got knocked out cold during my training with Kasen. This menial labour wears down my mind like no injury ever could. "After all I've done for them, they still treat me like a corndog" I say to myself as I clear out an abandoned storage room "Boiling me in oil". My protests fall on deaf ears, the towering pile of boxes in front of me remains as tall as ever. At the very least most of them are fairly light, filled with naught but cobwebs and the stray spider. This also means they are completely useless, years of neglect have degraded them beyond repair. I carry the few boxes I managed to pry loose during my short monologue outside into a fire pit.

After an hour, or perhaps three, of work I narrow the contents of the storage room down to a few crates that seem to be in the best condition. Three of them stand even taller than me, about twice as tall as the shrine maidens that would be expected to work here. I suppose that's why no one has cleaned this room in so long. I investigate the two smaller ones first.

The first contains a number of books. 'Truth Versus Lies', 'Politics and the English Language', 'Introductory Statistical Thermodynamics'... bunch of complex nonsense that holds no significance to me at the moment. One book in particular catches my attention: 'Physiology and Composition of Theoretical Lifeforms'. I skim through hoping to find some information on the unusual dreams and visions I've been experiencing. The book's contents seem utterly deranged, not that I would expect anything regarding this topic to make sense of course, but this is practically incomprehensible. The only part I can make out is something about memory fields and demonic possessions, and how they're somehow related. Only after I've reached the end do I notice the summary at the back of the book. "This is a work of fiction based on the **** series" I could not imagine a worse use of my time, but here we are. I set aside the rest of the books to bring to permanent storage later.

The inside of the second box is padded with velvet cloth, a large knife lies comfortably in the middle of it. The blade is engraved with red lines in impossibly complex patterns that almost seem to change every time I look at it, though I hope that's just due to my stupor and the room's poor lighting. A single pearl adorns the hilt of the blade, blueish white to an almost iridescent degree. Regardless it's pretty clear this knife is for some ritual purpose. I'm extremely tempted to just pocket it before anyone notices, the weapon might as well be calling out to me. My better judgement takes hold of me before I can do the deed, I set the blade aside and decide to ask Reimu about it later.

Moving on to the large standing boxes, I pull up a stepladder to reach the lid at the top. Pushing the aforementioned lid aside I reveal the crate's contents. A cloud of dust emerges from within the container and immediately assaults my eyes and throat. The sheer amount of dust would be almost comical if most of it didn't go straight into my lungs. I reposition myself to the top of the stepladder once again. The smell makes the box seem more like an open coffin, further discouraging me from looking inside. And yet all I find inside is a collection of broken brooms, some rotting rags and a gohei snapped in half from the top. Still coughing I push the entire box along with its contents over to the fire pit.

I decide to open the next large box from its side to allow the dust inside more room to scatter, instead of going straight into my vital organs. To my suprise the inside of the crate is relatively clean. A full set of ancient japanese armour complete with an armor stand keeping it all together rests inside the container. Next to it is a seemingly unopened package with the rough dimensions of a sword. The package is labeled 'lagomorph capture device', so it probably isn't a sword, unless I seriously misunderstand what a lagomorph is. The armour is too heavy for me to move, not even piece by piece. The blow to my pride as a man aside, it makes me wonder who in the world this armour could be for. The crate remains in the room, I will inform someone of it later.

Before I can make my way to the last large box a woman's voice stops me.

"Hey! You're late for your practice!"

I look and see Kyoko standing at the door.

"I'll be right over"

I'm pretty much done with cleaning anyway, suppose I'll just check this last box when we're done.

I was somewhat intrigued by how training in the divine arts would even work for me since I have absolutely no talent or experience in magic. Well the first step is for me to sense the flow of magic. This is accomplished by having the shrine maidens repeatedly blast me with divine energy. Given that the first thing I did after waking up this morning was get beaten up physically I suppose this isn't too surprising. Still, I was somewhat hoping for something a little more relaxing.

After training ends I am once again sprawled out on the ground.

"Hey you good?" I hear Kyoko ask.

"Yeah I'm just tired, don't worry about it."

"If you say so. But if you get too worn out you should probably talk to Reimu about it. I know she seems strict but I'm sure she'll understand if you just ask her."

"Quite frankly I find that hard to believe, I think she'd rather give me more tasks for having the audacity to ask."

"Well it hasn't been too long since I was still in training, unless she's changed in that time I think you'll be fine."

"Huh, did you also receive training via firing squad?"

"Of course not, I'm not that inept, no offense."

"Yeah yeah it's fine. I should get back to that storage room before it gets too late" I say as I get up.

"Alright, take care!"

I return to the singular tall box still unopened in the storage room. A chain wraps all the way around it, the only way to open it is from the top. I walk over to the stepladder and move it over to the crate. As I make my way up the steps I slip and hit my head right on the box.

"Ah!"

Yelling out in pain is unbecoming of me, I thought myself better than this. Actually, now that I think about it, that wasn't me. I knock on the large wooden crate.

"Is someone there? Can you hear me?"