Archive of Our Own ^beta

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It had been 5 days since she had gotten any viable sleep. An urban fox laid curled up in an apartment, whimpering about how dull the world is now. The urban fox -- or kitsune, rather, had spent most of her life living through the industrial revolution. She whispered inventions in peoples' ears, she watched as people's jobs were automated out of existence. And she liked it. Everything was changing around her then, so so rapidly. Every new invention made, every new product automated into abundance, it tickled her. The cities, her natural habitat, grew wildly and everywhere. More and more foxes were becoming just like her. No longer scared witless of human interaction, some like her even craved it.

Yet, the glory days of the industrial revolutions were entirely behind her. So here she sat, in her apartment she bought while in a human guise, moping around doing absolutely nothing. She picked her head up and looked at the small desk-shrine of Inari, kami of foxes and industry. She was no closer to discovering what kind of freak of nature or the supernatural she was, besides joking about being some "knock-off female Tails" due to her second tail. She was no closer to creating any new inventions that would start an industrial revolution, despite literally going invisible and whispering in peoples' ears to spur on the industrial revolutions of the past. She felt utterly, completely, empty inside. There was just... nothing in this world that motivated her for long.

Well, that was until her world went entirely white. Is this how I die, demotivated and listless with no dignity? Her head was swimming, and she could barely even focus on her computer screen as it felt as if she was getting... sucked into the wall? She turned to the wall to see something that couldn't be described by science...granted, the fox herself couldn't be described by science, but... there was a hole in the wall that was pulling her in. A hole in the wall. With eyes.

It turns out, if there's a giant hole in the wall sucking you in, it gives you both the will to live and extreme energy! As a result, the listless fox started screaming, gekkering, and clawing at the ground. She shifted into her humanoid form, not even her proper human one, to scream at the top of her lungs. "HELP! I'M BEING ABDUCTED!" Though no one ever did come, as the fox was dragged further and further into the gnawing, hungry gap in the wall, threatening to engulf her entirely within mere seconds.

And so, engulf her it did, but she wasn't dead yet. As soon as she awoke, she could see no sign of civilizations except for her inter-industrial revolution-era outfit, which had somehow mysteriously been placed on her, and her herself. But, other than that, all she could see was a tiny village, and nothing but fields of grass. The thought of being so far from an industrialized city, which this village somehow wasn't judging by its appearance, made her weak in the knees and... well, pass out after a few minutes of hyperventilating fox noises.

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There Kyouko was, after around one hour of being unconscious, being dragged into the village. With a groggy rub of her eyes and a flick of the tail, she... admittedly panicked as she felt like the human dragging her may be her kidnapper. "W OAH HEY WHY ARE YOU KIDNAPPING ME WHAT'S GOING ON," she screamed in a panic as she flailed and thrashed against the man dragging her. Her claws dug into the man, before he inevitably let her go out of sheer shock.

"Woah, you were knocked out on the ground," he said as he points to the Human Village nearby, "and take you to the village, to get looked at! It's not everyday you see a youkai passed out on the ground in the middle of Gensokyo." Human Village, youkai, and Gensokyo were all very unfamiliar to Kyouko, so she acted incredibly, incredibly confused -- as if the man had been speaking a foreign language to her. "Woah, don't tell me you don't know where you are. Fox tails and ears, kitsune, right?" Kyouko Kaneko, the urban fox from the outside world, just blinked in confusion. "Oh, I'm Sato Haruto (佐藤 陽翔) , what's your name, miss?"

Unlike Gensokyo or Human Village, Kyouko had heard about "youkai" before and she... from her research, seemed to fit the bill? But youkai certainly weren't real, there were explanations for a vast majority of the phenomena. And kitsune were just... literal foxes. She realized she hadn't responded to the man for a good few minutes, so she responded as she gets up and started walking towards the village on her own, unaided. "Kaneko Kyouko (京狐 金子), it's nice to meet you Mr. Sato," she said, her voice very uneasy. As she took a look around the village, she saw no train lines, she saw no evidence of electricity or even steam making things easier. Sure, she saw blast furnaces for making steel, but, was that it? Kyouko closed her eyes in resignation, knowing the listlessness would never stop, especially here in what seems to be a rural village from some time ago.

However, as she closed her eyes, she saw a familiar and glorious sight. She saw lists of items, with names tagged alongside them, scrolling past her view at a wild pace. And every time she tried to focus on one of these items, she saw the information on what it was, how it can be used, what it can be used for, and what tools are needed to produce the precursors, and what comes after. She did this again and again, closing her eyes for a solid 10 minutes just basking in the glory of the mostly-familiar interface she had spent so much time with. She fantasized about the village being caught in a whirlwind of industrialization, all because of one crazy fox who just wanted to go back home. She could feel her motivation to live, her motivation to do anything returning. With a wide, fanatical grin, she asked a question. "Can you show me where the most advanced technology in this village is? I'd like to have a look while I'm here."

At this question, the man hds to pause for about 5 minutes, before eventually directing her to a shop, right next to a forest, with what appeared to be... a veritable pile of televisions outside, which only confused the urban fox even more. Why would they have TVs and not know how to use them? As she was contemplating the absurdity of this village, she heard an angry woman's voice coming closer and closer to her. As the red-clad young woman came closer and closer, Kyouko could make out the frustrated complaints. "Why did you drag an unknown youkai into the human village, Sato? Are you absolutely crazy?" Kyouko was... still confused. She didn't know what she was, and youkai were all... fairytales from Japan, essentially. Used to explain the unknown. Ball lightning. Rain without clouds. That sort of thing!

"Hakurei Reimu, I uh," the man stuttered to the young woman, "I didn't know she might be dangerous! She was passed out! Didn't even know what Gensokyo was!" As Reimu shook her head in utter disbelief at this man's apparent idiocy, Kyouko attempted to slip inside the shop with the pile of televisions, only to be caught by Reimu. "Where do you think you're going, youkai?" And then, out of nowhere, Reimu suddenly started flying and challenging Kyouko to a "spell card battle", which Kyouko still had precisely no idea what that even was. She did manage to fly after closing her eyes and figuring out the process, but every time she'd flown, she'd been on a plane! So, upon flying, she immediately was extremely off-balance and nearly vomited about twice before the spell-card "battle" even started, flailing around in cartwheels mid-air as her ability does not come with instructions on how to get off the ground, not control herself while she was in the air. As soon as Kyouko blinked, Reimu shouted out the name of a spell-card, Dream Sign "Evil-Sealing Circle", and amulets were already flying around threatening to strangle the tumbling, meandering kitsune... and strangle her they did as quite a few got tangled up in her ears and tail as the fox desperately went around trying to dodge, only running into more amulets as she failed at doing anything properly.

And so, Reimu surprisingly called off the spell card battle after seeing that the kitsune posed literally no threat at all, exclaiming. "... Oh. You're less dangerous than a fairy. Sure, look inside the shop," the shrine-maiden said as she roughly pushed Kyouko inside the shop, amulets clanking against the ground as they fell from her fur. Kyouko coughed and sputtered, and introduced herself to the man running the shop, seemingly in her mid-to-late 20s. "Hi, I'm Kyouko Kaneko, I... where did you get all the appliances outside?" The man introduced himself after with a bow, "Rinnosuke Morichika. Those devices came from the outside world once they were forgotten about and passed into Gensokyo," the man said, to which Kyouko responded with confusion again since normally objects don't just... move on their own. "Those are--", the man said, only for Kyouko to close her eyes and repeat what the scrolling information was telling her about the televisions outside she had pulled up. "Televisions, or TVs, known for transmitting visual information across long distances from either recorded media or real-time through broadcast stations. The ones there are mostly cathode ray tube based televisions, created with cathode ray tubes, and various forms of plastic, some bakelite, some more modern. They are powered by 100 volt electricity for the majority of them, at 0.5 to 2 amps. Some of them run at 120 volts. They operate at 50 or 60 H..." Kyouko paused as she almost finished reciting whatever information her newfound-but-familiar power gave her about the object, combined with what she knew about televisions from having witnessed them in action, only to see Rinnosuke just staring blankly at the kitsune as if she just spoke a foreign language. "I... I think I'm from this 'Outside World,' as you call it. Might I ask... how are youkai real?"

After trying to examine the kitsune to make sure there were no head injuries, Rinnosuke tried to explain at least the very basics of why Genokyo was created, how it was created by sages as a haven for youkai who thrived off of human fears, be it fear of the unknown or just... outright, direct fear. Besides a hint of recognition at the "Fear of the unknown" part, Kyouko seemed to absorb all this information as if she had never heard a single drop of it before -- because, of course, she hadn't heard a drop of it. She knew instinctively that human's fear of the future was downright delectable to her, but beyond that? She knew precisely knew nothing of where she was, what she was, or why she was. Let alone this new place she ended up in. After the very basics were finished being explained to the kitsune, she was shuffled off to a kappa merchant for any further questions, as someone riding a broom came into the shop and needed to be tended to... and since Kyouko had at least a few hours worth of questions, Rinnosuke decided it better if another full youkai could answer the questions posed to her.

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`Of course, this being the human village, the-odd-youkai out saw no kappa. From what she could tell, thee merchant stand the kitsune was being led to was run by an... odd blue-haired human with a key around her neck. Kyouko just blinked in confusion as she was led closer and closer to this "kappa". Then, she remembered some versions of the tool her ability resembled... had a tool for checking what mobs dropped, so she instinctively checks what "drops" Kappa had. While trying to get over the moral and ethical implications of seeing what another creature is likely to carry when they die, she realized all kappa -- nay, all youkai just... looked that anthropomorphic, not just kitsune. And so, she just stood silently in front of the merchant for a solid 10 minutes, until she felt a hand wave in front of her.

"Hey," the apparent Kappa said as she waved her hand in front of Kyouko, "are you going to buy anything here?" The hand she saw, however, was mechanical and immediately grabbed her attention as she analyzed it... it ran off of hydraulics. All while she was completely transfixed looking at the mechanical arm, Rinnosuke whispered a brief explanation of the situation into the kappa's ears, to which she had a shocked look on her face. "Oh. Forgot to introduce myself. Nitori Kawashiro. Are you... actually from the outside world?"

Kyouko took one last look at the hydraulic-powered arm, and began to explain how the device worked, though not in as much detail as she coul. "Want me to prove it to you by describing how your device works?" To this, Nitori seemed to nod, a bit interested in what Kyouko might say. "You're currently operating two hydraulic powered arms, i.e. arms that use compressed gases or liquid to cause motion, in your case: water. Given the design, I take it you can magically control the water? I don't see any other way the arm is getting power that's within your reach like a piston." Nitori just stood there, a bit confused on what to do, before Kyouko interjected. "I... I'd like some explanation on everything non-technological. Rinnosuke said I'd be better served an explanation from you than him. And uh... you probably saw how terrible I am at... actually being a supernatural creature."

At that point, Nitori led Kyouko off to a more private corner of the Human Village, putting a note that she would be back soon to sell people gear they didn't know how to use. "You're stuck here," Nitori blurted out, rather bluntly, once they were alone. "I don't know what kind of ability you have, but it most likely can't get you through the Great Hakurei Barrier with it. You don't seem comfortable here, so I wanted to get that out of the way." Kyouko did not exactly like this news, but took it better than the kitsune expected.

"Alright. So... first question," Kyouko asked, "when was this Gensokyo created?"

Nitori's response was simple, "Meiji 18, it's said on old documents. On this calendar, it's simpler: Year 0."

Kyouko rolled her eyes, "The people here created a whole new calendar? Anyways, onto the second question: why are all the humans in one village? I imagine that's the case, what with this place being called the Human Village and all."

Nitori paused for a bit before she began to speak again, "well," she asked, "what do you know about Spell Card Rules?"

Kyouko coughed. "You saw how pitifully I did against that miko."

Nitori laughed awkwardly. "Well. Uh. Humans from the outside world, and humans found outside the village, are free to be targeted by youkai. The spellcard rules were created after an incident with the vampires."

"EXCUSE M-" Kyouko sputtered before catching her breath, teeth bared temporarily, "excuse me, what? What's next, you actually pull souls out of peoples' asses?"

Nitori paused, gritting her teeth a little, but decided to be direct. "Well," she said, "prior to kappa befriending humans, yes."

Kyouko scoffed. "I'll try not to hold that against you," she said. "Rinnosuke did tell me that things exist... based on belief? I think he was over-simplifying, but wouldn't that necessitate you survive off of shirikodama?"

To that, Nitori paused a bit, before giving a satisfying answer. "We've became known for other things and gradually dropped our dependence on shirikodama. The vampires have gained and lost weaknesses in a similar manner, from what I've heard."

That, the very idea that these creatures weren't static, and could change to the environment and beliefs around them, gave Kyouko a horrific idea, one that she needed to get started on as soon as she could.

She'd either find a way home, or make a home here.