The Hourai Poison

It was early morning, and Reisen and Eirin were preparing her clinic and laboratory for the day. Reisen picked up a few boxes too many. Tewi saw this as a good chance for a nice prank. She takes a banana, eats it and drops the peel in front of where Reisen was walking. "Nice try Tewi, but this isn't a cartoon. Who could ever fall for something like that is beyond me." Just as soon as she said that, Reisen lifts her leg to avoid the banana peel, Tewi then pulls a really thin cord making Reisen trip. Reisen falls, followed quickly by the boxes she was just carrying, and a few empty vials and filled drug containers, making a lot of noise, spilling a few drugs on the ground. "Udonge~" calls Eirin in a strict, yet sweet tone of voice. Tewi sticks her tongue out at Reisen, who just sat up and looked up to see Eirin's angry grin. "I'm so sorry, master. I'll clean this up right away!" exclaimed Reisen in panic. "Once you are done, I'll give you your punishment. We can't let you get away from this mess that easily, now, can we?" Reisen looked miserable, and for good reasons. Just as Eirin turns around, Reisen notices a large vial rolling to the edge of the top shelf. She tried to warn her master, but the large vial fell, breaking on Eirin's head and knocking her unconscious. "Master! Master! Wake up! Tewi, help me get master to the bed!" At that moment, Eirin completely loses her consciousness.

Eirin suddenly finds herself on her old lab back at the Moon. She could see herself mixing the chemicals to create the Hourai elixir. Next to her was a list of the counter-chemicals for each and every chemical added for the elixir. Suddenly, Eirin was now sitting on her current lab chair, looking at an aged Mokou, next to Kaguya, both smiling and thanking her... and then... they both died at the same time. Eirin felt both happy that she was able to grant them the gift of death, but felt terrible sorrow, seeing them die, just like that. Finally she wakes up, seeing Reisen's, Tewi's and Kaguya's concerned faces. She smiles at them, but suddenly turns that smile into a determined look and said to them "I need to go into my lab... I do not want any interruptions, understood? NOBODY is to even dare knock on the door, did I make myself clear?" All three look at each other, then back at Eirin and nod. Just before Eirin closed the door behind her, she glares at Reisen and says "Udonge, by now I trust you can handle things here. Only call me for a life-or-death situation." Reisen perks up and says "You can count on me, Master!" Eirin quietly smiles and was about to close the door behind her but stops and adds "Oh, and make sure to sell the appointed medicines and drugs at the village, or there's gonna be hell to pay." And with that, the door closes behind Eirin, leaving a depressed look on Reisen's face, while Tewi, who was being snuggled by Kaguya, simply grins at her.

For two weeks, the only time Eirin was out of her laboratory was late at night, right before bed time. She would barely eat, sleep then wake up impossibly early and went back into the lab to continue working. Reisen was doing a good job on her own, keeping the clinic up and running, AND selling the medicines at the village. Whenever she had some doubts, she'd look into Eirins notes for reference, but she was feeling a bit lonely without her master... then finally on the third week:

"EUREKA!!!" Eirin's voice came out of the laboratory early in the morning. Reisen sprung from her futon and dashed to the clinic to fin Eirin dancing on her own, repeating "eureka, I've done it" over and over. Eirin spots Reisen and grabs her, forcing her to join the dance. After a while, Tewi and Kaguya enter the clinic to find the current spectacle going on. Eirin spots Kaguya, lets Reisen go and dashes to her saying "princess, I've done it! I found a way to counter the Hourai elixir!" Kaguya, still half asleep, stares back at Eirin "eh? You... need breakfast?" Eirin, then shows her a little black bottle while smiling widely at her. Kaguya's eyes open widely, and still in disbelief asks "you-you really did find a way... to kill...me?" Kaguya's eyes fill with tears, then starts crying twin waterfalls. Tewi opens an umbrella just in time, while Reisen was drenched in tears. Eirin takes a deep breath, sighs, then holds Kaguya's shoulders "I think I could really use a good breakfast after all."

While eating breakfast, Eirin explains about the poison: "After that vision, I knew I could accomplish it, so that's why I spent so long in there. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find all the right mixtures." Reisen forces a smile, then reluctantly asks "b-but master...? How do you know it works... you would need some test sub...jects?" For a moment, Reisen though she saw her master's eyes sparkle along with an ominous smile as she says "I used some of the rabbits from around here. Don't worry... most of them are still alive." Hugging each other tightly, trembling at Eirin's casual comment and relaxed look just now, Tewi and Reisen both look at Eirin with great fear.

Without any hesitation, Kaguya grabbed the little black bottle and placed it on her lips, but Eirin stopped her at the very last second. "Listen, Kaguya. Although this negates the effects of the Hourai Elixir, it still won't work immediately. You, being a lunarian, and having had the elixir so long ago, I'd estimate you'll become mortal in about... two thousand years. Are you sure you want to do this?" Kaguya's face filled with determination, and without hesitation, she drank the entire bottle. "BLETCH!!! Tastes HORRIBLE!!! Couldn't you make it tastier at least!?" Eirin just smiles at her and reminds her "it's a poison..." Kaguya simply sighs and says "so in two thousand more years I'll be able to finally die... what about Mokou?" "Concerned for your friend? Don't worry..." Kaguya springs from the floor angrily shouting "she is NOT my friend. I just want to make sure she's not around here when I'm gone!!!" After that outburst, Kaguya realizes she had been completely ignored. Eirin had just finished writing a note. "Udonge, go and find that girl and give her this message. I need you to do this in less than 30 minutes, or you're going to get punished... severely." Eirin's eyes glint as she finishes her sentence. Reisen picks up the letter and dashes outside at great speeds, shouting Mokou's name.

25 minutes had passed and Reisen returns with much fear in her eyes, crying twin waterfalls. "Waaahh~ Eirin is gonna kill me..." Kaguya smiles at Reisen "watch this..." Reisen stares at Kaguya, who boldly steps out onto the entrance to Hourai and says "Fire sucks so badly. It just burns a little then fizzles. How pathetic!" From out of nowhere, an enraged Mokou, spitting fire from her mouth, and holding a ball of fire on her hand comes directly at Kaguya. Kaguya points her finger at Mokou's nose, stopping her at the very last second, then points reisen to Mokou. Both Reisen and Mokou were quite shocked as Kaguya calmly enters the mansion again. Reisen then hands Mokou the letter, then quietly backs away. Mokou quietly reads the letter, her eyes open widely with excitement, looks at Reisen, then asks "is is true? Eirin found a way to counter this infernal immortality?" Reisen looks back and simply nods, and then out comes Eirin with another little black bottle, looking a bit sad. She slowly walks toward Mokou then offers the bottle, but before Mokou accepts the bottle, Eirin warns her "I must warn you that... you, being a human, I don't know how exactly this will affect you. I tried it on many specimens, plants, rabbits... you could die immediately, right here and now, or..." Eirin stood quiet with a saddened look in her face, lowering her sights. Reisen simply looked in quietly in the background. Impatiently, Mokou shouts "OR WHAT!? Turn into a rabbit, a frog, get poisoned forever!?" After her last guess, Eirin's eyes opened widely. Although she tries to hide her face with a stern look, however Mokou simply smiles. "What's life without a few risks, huh?" After saying that, Mokou opens the bottle and drinks it's contents without hesitation. Eirin's eyes revealed great fear in her as she watches Mokou drink the poison.

Mokou smacks her lips and says "tastes horrible. Now what?" Eirin waits for a few seconds before saying anything, then sighs in relief "phew, it seems you're NOT eternally poisoned... but it is possible that you are already mortal, seeing as you are human, and all." Mokou smiles and says "there's only one way to find out... Kaguya, what do you say about settling our differences for good, right here and now?" From inside, sitting next to the table, Kaguya lazily replies "not interested." Mokou turns around shrugging, then as she reaches the gates of Entei she loudly says "ah well, guess I'll have to find out another way. It would have been nice to find out now, but I guess the NEET is tired..." and with that, Kaguya springs up looking incredibly pissed off by Mokou's words. "What the HELL did you call me? You have a LOT of guts, calling me a neet. Now you're gonna pay!!!" Kaguya comes out flying, Mokou following quickly in the air. Both start shooting danmaku at each other non-stop. Reisen shouts at botht of them "hey, go fight somewhere else... you're destroying the mansion!!!" Eirin quietly looks at the battle as it unfolds. After just a few minutes, both Kaguya and Mokou had sustained heavy damage from each other, Mokou looking very tired. "This is it, Mokou! You're going down!" and with that, Kaguya unleashed a barrage of danmaku, all landing directly on Mokou. A loud band and a bloody scream were heard all over the Bamboo Forest. Mokou lost the match, landing hard on the ground, Kaguya landing softly beside her opponent's bloody corpse.

"So Mokou, how many wins for me now...? Mo-Mokou? Is she really...?" Eirin gets close to inspect Mokou's body, when suddenly Mokou holds her stomach and begins to scream in agony. Eirin's face was taken by great fear. "Mokou, listen to me" Eirin said as calmly as she could, trying to drown out Mokou's screams of agony "try and relax... just relax". Mokou did her best, and was able to stop screaming and writhing around, and Eirin took the chance to inject her with a sleeping drug. Just as Eirin took a deep breath of relief, Reisen and Tewi's trembling voices woke up great fear in Eirin's heart. "M-m-master..." said Reisen followed by Tewi screaming "Kaguya, what's- why are you trembling... Kaguya?" Eirin turns around and sees Kaguya hugging herself and falling to her knees. Without a second to lose, Eirin injects her with another sleeping drug. Frightened, shaken and saddened, Tewi, Reisen and Eirin carry both girls to the clinic. "Master, what can we do? Should we-?" "No!" immediately replied Eirin, then continued "we can give them the Elixir so soon after consuming the poison. We need to wait a few days before we can do anything..." Tewi looked as though she was about to cry, seeing Kaguya lying motionless on the bed. Reisen places her hand on Tewi's shoulder, but to her surprise, Tewi jumps on her and hugs her tightly, looking away from Mokou and Kaguya. Eirin then closes the curtains and tells the rabbits to go back. Looking at Reisen't concern, she explains "don't worry. I injected them with enough sleeping drug to have them sleep for days. Don't worry you tow, let's go sleep now, alright?"

The next day, the rabbits were quiet as Eirin woke up. She felt a very strange atmosphere... something was wrong. Reisen woulnd't look at Eirin at any moment, and would just look sadly at the clinic's door. A black ribbon was already placed on the entrance to the clinic. Eirin slowly walked inside the clinic removed the curtains to find that both Kaguya's and Mokou's bodies had turn to ashes. She fell to her knees, holding back her own tears. Behind her she could hear Reisen's voice "master, master! Get up master!" Reisen's voice echoed in the distance, slowly sounding closer and closer and then...

"Master, please get up!" Everything was white, then slowly, Eirin could make out Reisen's silhouette. "W-what happened?" asked Eiring in a daze. "Master, you've been knocked out for HOURS. It's almost noon!" Suddenly, as if realizing something very important, Eirin opens her eyes widely and gets up in a jolt. "Where's Kaguya... and Mokou, what happened to their bodies!?" Reisen looked back at Eirin quite puzzled, then Kaguya enters the room asking "is she awake yet?" Eirin get off the bad and jumps on Kaguya saying "you're not dead! you're alive, you're alive!" Kaguya looked slightly annoyed and replied "Eirin... I am immortal, remember? Udonge, I think she is still half asleep. Better get her to her bad again." Eirin just laughed saying "I was just dreaming after all. What a horrible nightmare that was." Kaguya, still looking slightly annoyed simply walked back outside saying "whatever... I'm just glad you're alright." Eirin just smiles and then touches the back of her head. It hurt a lot when she did, and the bump was still there. Smiling and in a sweet tone of voice she says "Udonge... you didn't treat my injury like I taught you..." Reisen's face filled with panic "I'm so sorry, master, I forgot all about that, I'm so sorry~!!!" Eirin smiled and said "fine... I won't punish you this time..." Reisen's face filled with great confusion. Eirin simply walked by her and patted her head. Reisen flinches a little then looks at Eirin who tells her "I'm just glad... that was all just a terrible dream... and not..." Eirin puts her arm around Reisen's shoulder and asks her to take her to her room. As they close the door to the clinic behind them, Eirin added "but you will still have to clean the entire clinic and replace those vials you broke." A pitiful "yes master" was all Reisen could reply.

Inside the clinic, a little rabbit with white ears and a pink dress was hiding behind one of the shelves, her eyes sparkling with great mischief. "Heh heh heh he~~! That was completely unexpected... this is one powerful drug... ye~s." She held a little white bottle with green pills in it. She smiles at you and holds one of the pills close to you. "Would you like one?"

The End

Characters and scenarios all belong to ZUN

JUN 14 2009
written by:
Willie G.R. (a.k.a. OmegaStarstrike)