Quoted By:
"Hmm..."
You were flipping throughout the pages of the rented textbook as you walked along the road. By the time all your business had concluded following your long travel through the Bamboo Forest, it was now entering dusk as you and Reisen Udongein Inaba neared the Hakurei Shrine. Well, really, you were about half the way there, at least you didn't start this trek when it turned dark.
<span class="mu-i">"Having much luck?"</span> The Rabbit asked you, trying to make conversation.
"Well, it would be accurate to say I'm pretty lost, hahah. But, I do remember seeing a few of these..." You didn't want to call them 'symbols' out of a petty feeling you'd offend anyone now; "-letters before. At some shop. Had smoke billowing from out the doors, or steam. If I'm right... then I was likely looking at a noodle joint or something."
<span class="mu-i">"Oh, you mean the place we passed by on the seventh street in the southern entrance to the Village after Mokou parted ways with us? Yeah! That's a noodle shop, they have great soba there on good deals, it's one of my favorites! 'Utada's Noodles'."</span>
You make a mental note to try it out one day, maybe you'll even ask her to take you there. Well, depending on how much longer you'd be in Gensokyo. To be honest, you had no idea whether or not this Hakurei Shrine would be your last stop, going back on how Mokou said the maiden there usually handled your kind. Perhaps she'd send you back to the real world.
You got to thinking for a moment about how, if that was so, and in many ways you did hope it was, that you'd... miss this experience overall.
Don't get yourself wrong, you! You're terrified, and just want to go back your studio flat and be in fuckin' New York, not Japanese Mythology. But, you'd be lying if you said you didn't enjoy some parts of this magical journey, and your pants would on as much fire as that Immortal was if you said you didn't become fond already of some of the company you've met. Fujiwara no Mokou, she was straightforward and you could respect that, Reisen was helpful and you found her kinda cute as well, and that Kagerou, you'll feel bad that you won't have gotten to say goodbye in person either.
But, whatever happens happens at the same time. You won't say you miss the part where glowing animals are out for your neck, or Rabbits are making you drink dishwater for funsies, or that there's a smug bitch waiting to smug at you every time you fall asleep.