three; audio.

[ungodliest]

The third Sunday of June, is it..? [ There's a little sigh, almost over the top melancholic. ] Too bad, that means some of us are missing out on a festival, right? It truly is a shame to not be able to celebrate Wataganashi this year..

[ There's a chuckle, and it's a bit eerie - like someone who's telling a ghost story. ]But I guess that might be

Comments

[ungodliest]

[ OR CAN SHE-- well, no, she's more just aiming at scaring people randomly.. ]

Oh? But surely even you must have heard about it back home, right..? It was something pretty big, after all.

[ungodliest]

My my, how bold.. [ She chuckles. ] I thought everyone believed in the curse back home, rather than risking facing Oyashiro-sama's wrath.

[Audio]

[ascendedpawn]

Isn't being here away from our worlds enough of a curse, Takano-san? In fact maybe the faes already did that and that's why we're all here. Maybe this is what happens to those who are demoned away.

[It's not as if we know what actually happens to them after all, right?]

[Audio]

[ungodliest]

[ Oh, this is amusing. She just giggles a little again. ]

That's quite an interesting theory.. But that would mean we should be able to find the people who were demoned away before here as well, don't you think?

[Audio]

[ascendedpawn]

[Keiichi chuckles in return.]

So cute and naive, Takano-san. I wouldn't have thought you would get such naive ideas. All those other people were demoned away in previous years, right? So they should have been here for at least a whole year in the case of the most recent victim. But we also know that time stops at our worlds until we return... Or so they say, maybe it doesn't stop but the conversion of time is some crazy amount, like... One millisecond at home equals one year here.

With that theory time still passes at home, which allows us to be aware of people being missing... And it translates to them having been here for a crazy amount of years. And why would faes keep anyone here for so long?

Maybe this village is their fridge, where they keep food until they devour us. So they definitively wouldn't be here yet, but maybe in the stomach of the faes.

[He can make up scary theories as well, Takano.]

[Audio]

[ungodliest]

[ Oh boy, it's on. But instead of showing any hint of fear at Keiichi's story, she just laughs. ]

How scary, Maebara-kun..! So you think we're all just waiting to be eaten by those things in this place, and that's how the demoning away works? I wonder what they'd think of such an explanation back home..

Audio

[trashheap_angel]

Wataganashi? What kind of festival is that?

[Someone is apparently not bothered by the creepiness.]

Audio

[ungodliest]

[ welp, she just has to try harder!! ]

It's a festival back home, in the village Hinamizawa.. it's the festival of cotton drifting. But.. you could say the tradition changed a little over the years. In earlier times they didn't quite drift cotton of all things, you see?

Audio

[trashheap_angel]

[Good luck!]

I see... if not cotton, what was it? And why?

Audio

[ungodliest]

Something similar to pulling cotton from a matress, and yet quite different.. Like pulling guts out of a human.

[ Yup, not even sounding disturbed either. Maybe a bit amused instead. ]

[as_you_command]

The fae set their own schedules when it comes to festivals, though it would not prevent you from observing your own form home, should you choose to do so.

[ Though that isn't to say he isn't somewhat bothered by what she was implying. ] Precisely what is this "Wataganashi" you speak of? [ Thanks to the training he had in dealing with Elevens the Japanese, his pronunciation is not embarrassingly bad; just incredibly stiff. ]

[ungodliest]

It's a festival back home where people drift cotton down the river. And of course there are the kind of game booths and all one migt find at a festival as well. But..

[ She pauses for a slight moment. ] Unfortunately a terrible sort of curse has also started to combine itself with the event each year for the past few years.

[as_you_command]

[ Ordinarily, Guilford would scoff at such superstitions, but this place has softened his skepticism to some degree. ] Precisely what manner of curse?

[ungodliest]

Each year someone from the village is found dead. The same night another person entirely disappears without leaving a body.. they call it being demoned away.

[ She doesn't even really sound disturbed as she's telling about it - actually, she sounds rather interested, perhaps even slightly amused. ]

That's Oyashiro-sama's curse.

Audio

[bloomnobly]

Wataganashi? I don't think I've ever celebrated that...

Audio

[ungodliest]

I don't think it's celebrated in many places outside of Hinamizawa. So I wouldn't be too surprised if most people here have never heard of it before.

Audio

[bloomnobly]

That makes sense. After all, there are many things in Gensokyo that outsiders have never heard of.

And what of this Oyashiro-sama? Is such a being restricted to Hinamizawa as well?

Audio

[ungodliest]

It's the local deity, so yes, I guess you could say it's restricted to that place.. or rather, only known in that place and its near surroundings.

But it's still quite a feared being for those who do know him..