The Disillusioned Land

Chapter 22 - A Message from Beyond

"...don't have one?" Did I hear her right? She doesn't have a name? First she comes out of a box, now she says she doesn't have a name. Next she's gonna say she has no memories. Wait... "Do you remember anything before you were in that box?"

"I- uhh... heheh.. No?" She looked around nervously while she said this, she's obviously hiding something.

*Sigh* "Well, what do we call you then? We can't just call you box rabbit or something like that."

"Ummm Rei- no wait, wait, that won't work. Uh, Usagi?" She looked up at me like an expectant child.

"I know that just means rabbit, try again."

"Ooohhh..." She practically deflated when I shot down her suggestion, I wasn't just going to call her rabbit, that shows a lack of creativity. She took a long pause, trying to find a name for me to call her. We sat in silence for a bit. I noticed Kyoko left somewhere, maybe to go get Reimu? Suddenly the rabbit girl broke the silence, yelling out the name she came up with.

"T-TSUKIKO! Yeah! Call me Tsukiko!" She held her breath, waiting for my response. She must have put a lot of effort trying to come up with that.

"Alright then Tsukiko, let's go." I started walking out of the storage room, motioning for her to follow me.

"G-go? Where?" She started to look nervous again.

"To go talk to Reimu of course. She's in charge around here and someone just showing up out of nowhere is something she needs to know."

"RE-REIMU?! So I AM at Hakurei shrine..." Her outburst sure isn't helping her case, she knows about Reimu.

"You know, for someone who says she lost her memories you sure know a lot." I looked at her suspiciously.

"U-UM- I mean, uhh, I do remember Reimu... haha..." How can a girl lie this badly? In any case I start to walk out, and she follows me. I was going to walk all the way to Reimu, but I saw Kyoko walking over with her. This saves me the walk I suppose. I waved at Reimu but I saw her freeze, she instantly started sprinting over to me, and practically threw me out of the way.

"Ryan, what the hell is this?!" She put herself between me and Tsukiko, pointing her gohei at our new visitor.

"W-what do you mean? Didn't Kyoko tell you someone was trapped in a box? That was her." I pointed at Tsukiko. She surprisingly didn't look very nervous...

"Yeah she told me that, but what she didn't tell me is that it was a moon rabbit!"

Once Reimu said this it set in, I didn't realize it before but she was right. A moon rabbit, still living, suddenly appeared in a box in a storage room. Nothing about this situation was normal. We were all silent, Kyoko also had pulled out her gohei behind Reimu, Tsukiko was staring at the ground, and I was caught in the middle of all of this. I decided to speak up.

"Hey, I know you said you don't remember anything, but I think you should try to explain, Tsukiko." She looked up at me, her dark eyes practically piercing through me. I don't know what happened, but the nervous girl trapped in the box was practically gone. That gaze caught me off guard, and I took a step back. I think she noticed this, as she snapped out of whatever that was and looked at me sadly.

"Ah, I-I'm sorry about the stare, Mr. Ryan, sir... It's an old habit of mine..." She took a deep breath before speaking again. "Lady Reimu Hakurei, I have come to fulfill a promise. I am here to ask for your help to restore my home to how it once was." No one said a word after that, I felt horrible, talking to her this whole time, knowing what I've done. Reimu still held her gohei up, and Kyoko looked nervous behind her. After sighing deeply, Reimu lowered her gohei, and began to speak.

"And how do you expect me to do that? I haven't the slightest clue how to put a celestial body back in the sky. I don't know what you know about me but that is not what I'm good at." Reimu looked slightly annoyed.

"We use Yukari Yakumo, Lady Hakurei." Tsukiko stated without hesitation. What did she mean by that? "I believe you have been acquainted with another Yukari Yakumo, yes?" Reimu hesitated before answering.

"Y-yeah, but what does that have to do with anything? And how do you know that?!" Tsukiko didn't answer, all she did was pull out something from inside her jacket, and hand it to Reimu.