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Touhou Nekokayou #135: Elixir Not Found

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Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red #135

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Characters: Watatsuki no Yorihime, Watatsuki no Toyohime, Reisen II, Fujiwara no Mokou, Kaguya Houraisan, Reisen Udongein Inaba, Iwakasa, Princess Sakuya (no relation)

So, at first, this was just going to be a straight up "they're just, y'know, investigating Mokou" kinda setup. But then I remembered that they aren't supposed to officially know where Eirin is, and decided I could have a certain amount of fun with that. This only slightly changed the punchline, though.

I had to juggle Toyohime's dialogue in the first panel a bit, in order to provide that "so, there's this girl on Earth" line without having her babble stuff that all three of them know perfectly well. I think this is more amusing than the original line,1 though.

Reisen's "Not again!" is a reference to a scene in Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth, in which the Watatsukis also come to Earth just for a "quick question," although that time they were the ones answering it.

I figured I'd make up some fanon about where Mokou's actual phoenix-powers came from. I was shooting for something that wasn't particularly angsty or evil, and didn't have the possibility of Yasora-style "o hai, I am in you" shenanigans. I arranged panel 7 such that if ZUN ever does give an actual explanation for Mokou's fire-powers, I can simply remove it from this comic altogether with no break in the flow.

Princess Sakuya (no relation) and Iwakasa are from Cage in Lunatic Runagate, as their wiki-links sort of imply. Iwakasa's hair pretty much gave me the most trouble out of any other part of this composition, since pretty much none of Create.swf's options look masculine, especially that of the actual male characters. I eventually gave him Reisen II's hairstyle (since in-comic it's mostly hidden by her helmet). And young-Mokou got that of Male Shingyoku. And if anyone wants my badly-photoshopped jar, you can have it. I also gave him Konngara's clothes (recolored), basically for want of anything else.

I have got to do something about this wall-of-text habit.

Transcript

  1. (Yorihime is standing in a room in the Lunar Capital. Toyohime and Reisen II are entering.)
    Yorihime: Any luck figuring out where that Mokou girl got the Hourai Elixir?
    Toyohime: I did what I could without actually saying "Oh, hi, there's this girl on Earth who's living with Eirin. Yeah, we've actually known where she is all this time." But no.
    Yorihime: Ugh ...
  2. Yorihime: (looking away) Well, at least we got permission to investigate it at all.
    Reisen II: How did you do that, again?
    Toyohime: By sending Lord Tsukiyomi a private letter to the effect of "Um, we've sorta 'found evidence' that an earthling may have *slightly* used an unaccounted-for dose of hourai."
  3. Yorihime: Yeah, and "Oh, the reason we're being discreet about this is we don't want everyone in the Lunar Capital to go nuts." (aside) (technically true)
    Toyohime: Personally, I think Lord Tsukiyomi actually knows that we're hiding Eirin, but doesn't mind.
    Reisen II: (thoughtful) Hmm ...
  4. Toyohime: But seriously, a missing Hourai Elixir is a pretty big deal. We have records of every dose ever made, especially contraband, and *all* of them are accounted for ... Yes?
    Reisen II: (approaching closer) Um ...
  5. (They turn to face her.)
    Reisen II: If we know where she is on Earth, can't we just go and ask her?
  6. (Beat panel.)
    SFX: (BEAT PANEL)
  7. (Mokou, Kaguya, and Reisen ... Udongein Inaba are sitting outside Eientei.)
    Mokou: Yeah ... it's just, it was a 4000-year-old phoenix, dying of "old age," and it thought I'd have a use for its powers.
    Reisen U.: ... Huh.
    Kaguya: So, nothing like that hell-raven, huh?
    Someone Off-Panel: Um ...
  8. (Enter Toyohime, with Yorihime and Reisen II trailing behind.)
    Toyohime: Quick question!
    Mokou: You came all the way to Earth just for a quick question *what.*
    Reisen U.: Not again ...
  9. Narration Box: Before Mokou could say another word, there was a flashback to her backstory! Left to right: Mokou, Iwakasa, Princess sakuya (no relation)
    (Mokou and Iwakasa are standing at the top of Mt. Fuji, with Princess Sakuya (no relation) hovering in front of them. There is carnage and blood around them, plus a blackened and smoking skeleton.)
    Princess Sakuya: Yeah, uh, sorry, Iwakasa, last night your men all ... killed each other over that elixir of immortality you were supposed to burn here. Yeah.
    Background Text: ATOP MT. FUJI
  10. (Young-Mokou, holding the Elixir, shoves Iwakasa off a ledge further down in an apparent panic. Part of the word "FUJI" is visible above in the background.)
    Mokou's Thoughts: Oh, right, I was supposed to be stealing this, as revenge against Kaguya.
  11. (Toyohime, Yorihime, and Reisen II, arriving in the previous room in the Lunar Capital.)
    Toyohime: So, um. As Lunarian princesses, it would be most unseemly for us to wonder who is to blame for immediately writing off *that* one as "destroyed."
    Yorihime: (sweatdrop) Yes. It was 1300 years ago regardless. But we will still have to report to Lord Tsukiyomi ...
    Reisen II: .....

1Roughly, "You have to remember that we can't say 'oh hi, there's this girl we ran into on Earth who used the Hourai Elixir' without risking giving away that we know where Eirin is."

All Touhou characters are © Team Shanghai Alice and/or ZUN; create.swf is ⑨ KirbyM with help from Thefre. "Sakura petals" brush in main/4koma logo was made by Kisara Girl. "Falling leaves" brush in 60-Years logo came with Photoshop.

18 Comments (auto-closed) (rss feed)

Rainy Daze

Mokou's response to the slaughter seems a little... out of it.

Medinoc

Damn, all I can think of after reading this is "Were Mokou a robot, Iwakasa would have lived six seconds longer". >_<

Shadow12000

@Medinoc

Cave Johnson here. Here at Aperture Labs, we've discovered a suitable reward for those actually willing to help with our not dangerous at all testing. We call it Life Extension Juice, or something, the boys are still working on a name. We figure we'll give it to you for completing all the available tests and signing a required contract to test any future tests we think up. You wont be able to die, so that makes you the perfect test subject. To add to it, we'll put it in a cake, even have a little candle on it, sounds like the good incentive to me.

Warning: Side Effects may include inability to die, spontaneous combustion, and some of that other stuff you see on medicine side effects. Except dying. Maybe. We'd have to test it.

Wyrm

"Princess Sakuya (No relation)"

Oh Wrrreeeaaalllyyyy?

kwsn

@Rainy:

This is Mokou we're talking about...

John Evans

Hmmm. There's a little thing over there. Hmmm...HMMM.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

@Wyrm: Correct. Princess Sakuya (no relation) is, in fact, no relation to Sakuya Izayoi.

@John Evans: A thing, hmm?

KennyMan666

Reisen II's position in the first panel makes no sense. Her shadow is right at her feet, so she's not flying, but the shadow is partly outside the curtain, which seems to be hanging down. So it should be utterly impossible to stand like she's standing. It mainly looks like she's supposed to actually be behind the curtain, but the layering (yes, I know there's no layering, you know what I mean) fucked up.

Bocaj

The many many many many years have not been kind to Mokou's recollection of getting the elixer, huh?

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

@Kennyman666: Oh b'duh. It's because I was originally using a different background and forgot to change her position. FIXED!

TakerFoxx

Yorihime's speech bubbles make it look like that round window-thing is talking.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

I know ... goddamn Create.swf ...

Andyzero

@Shadow12000
They were harvesting moon rocks, and darned if there wasn't a chamber of the stuff. Only accessible by Portals; oddly.

Saphyr

@Andyzero, Shadow12000, and Medinoc:
(for the hell of it)
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

Space Sphere Quotes: They're The New "The Cake Is A Lie"

Enlong

"Yup. They all killed each other... and burned themselves. You can trust the goddess of water and fire, can't you?"

Eletale

Pincess Sakuya (no relation) does almmost as good a job at covering her mass murder as the Watatsuki sisters at covering their mess ups XD

Dudethunder

Well, Ms. Possibly-Izayoi's-aunt does have the advantage of believability. I know lots of people who would murder each other over the fountain of youth, let alone actual immortality.