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High above the land of Gensokyo, there lies an upside-down castle in the air near Youkai Mountain. The castle saw its creation long ago, when the inchling Issun-boushi obtained a mallet that can cause miracles after defeating numerous monsters. Due to careless and power-hungry usage of the mallet by later generations of inchlings, the castle was created, and then the mallet ran out of energy, flipping the castle upside-down.
The castle’s residents are almost entirely inchlings, among these residents are the current owner of the mallet, the inchling Shinmyoumaru Sukana, and from time to time, the amanojaku Seija Kijin. Seija and Shinmyoumaru met when Seija had attempted to use the inchling and her mallet to start a rebellion, the two had split up, and continued in their separate ways. However, Seija didn’t like how calm she felt in her heart without the mallet and its owner. She wanted to see things, and people, get stirred up again.
And one fateful day, she decided that she was finally going to do something to satisfy her heart’s desire for disorder.
Seija was sleeping silently in her hut on the side of Youkai Mountain, when she woke up to the sun shining upon her as it slowly peeked over the horizon. She got up and yawned. “Beautiful day today,” she snarled to herself, annoyed.
She got up. Her right arm itched, so she scratched her left arm to alleviate the inconvenience. “It’s so peaceful here nowadays, makes me sick!”
The more the sun made its way up into the cloudy sky, the more it agitated Seija. “Ugh! Every single day I have to deal with this! This serene sunrise! I hate it! Actually, you know what?!”
Seija was so aggravated by the sun that she snapped and used her ability to flip things, effectively turning the sunrise into a sunset, and putting the sun behind her, where she could no longer see it. “Much better,” she said, relieved.
Her relief didn’t last long, as she soon realized something. “Hey! That doesn’t even fix my number one complaint! Where’s the drama?! The havoc?! The mayhem?!”
Seija paced in a circle, thinking to herself, trying to come up with ways to throw the world around her into chaos and confusion.
How to make people hate her again.
She missed that feeling.
Until, suddenly, it hit her. “I need that dumb mallet back!”
Her head began turning with ideas. “Yes. Yes! It’s had enough time to recharge its energy by now! And it’s guarded by inchlings! Puny little inchlings! Oh, how they’ll fear me! Maybe they’ll even remember me! How they’ll hate to see me return!”
Seija was so excited about the idea of getting the mallet back, that she went into a laughing fit. “It’s a perfect plan! I must go back to the castle immediately! It’s not like it’s a ten minute walk across the mountain. Oh wait, it is!”
After continuing to cackle to her heart’s content, Seija got up and left her hut, and traversed the dark side of the mountain as quickly as she could. Until finally, the upside-down castle in the sky came into view.
She could barely contain her excitement. “Ooh! There it is! I can almost feel the mallet’s power in my fingertips at this very moment!”
She rushed over to the castle and before long, she found herself at its doors. Seija smiled, and prepared to kick down the door…
“Hello,” came a small voice from above her.
Seija looked up, and groaned as she saw an all-too-familiar face smiling back at her.
“Shinmyoumaru?” Seija asked. “What are you doing on the roofs up there?”
Shinmyoumaru giggled. “The morning suddenly became evening, I knew you were up to something.”
Seija was bothered by the fact that the inching wasn’t scared to see her again. She didn’t even seem annoyed. She scoffed and faced away from the castle.
“Seija, I know you’re here for something,” Shinmyoumaru said as she climbed down from where she was sitting. “Someone like you wouldn’t just come here for no reason.”
Seija clenched her fists, ready to snap at any moment. Why wasn’t Shinmyoumaru angry with her? Doesn’t she remember how Seija betrayed her? And now she has the audacity to just sit there and smile at her like that?
“What’s got you all riled up?” Shinmyoumaru asked. “You seem more agitated than normal.”
Unable to hold in her rage anymore, Seija turned around and grabbed Shinmyoumaru, picking her up. She began yelling. “IF YOU DON’T SHOW ME TO THE MALLET THIS INSTANT, I’LL SQUEEZE YOU TILL YOU POP!! I’LL OVERTURN THE WORLD!! I’LL… I’ll ummm… uhhh…”
Staring down at the inchling in her grip, Seija became confused. Shinmyoumaru was still smiling. She wasn’t scared. Not even a little. She just kept on smiling.
“Seija, you’re upset.”
“Yeah I’m upset!” Seija snapped back. “Where’s all the hatred?!”
“You need to calm down,” Shinmyoumaru said, her voice soft and soothing. “Find peace in the turmoil of your heart.”
“How am I supposed to do that?!” Seija demanded. “An amanojaku like me is only at peace when there is chaos!”
Shinmyoumaru just continued smiling. “You can learn to find peace in anything if you try hard enough. When I get upset, I sit on the soffits of the castle and watch the clouds go by. You should try it with me, it’s great!”
Seija was even more confused now. She put Shinmyoumaru back down. “Why would I watch a bunch of dumb clouds?”
Shinmyoumaru chuckled. “You say it like that because you haven’t tried it yet. Come on, if you try it with me, I’ll let you have the mallet again.”
Seija groaned loudly. “Ugh! Fine! Show me to wherever you watch the clouds.”
A few minutes later, Shinmyoumaru and Seija were sitting together upon one of the lower overhanging soffits of the castle. The sky was a deep orange due to the sunset that Seija had caused earlier, but the clouds were still visible, lots of them. Dark and poofy clouds, thin and wispy clouds, clouds of all shapes and sizes.
Shinmyoumaru sat with her legs dangling over the edge of the castle. She sighed and hummed to herself, satisfied with the situation around her. Meanwhile Seija had made herself comfortable by curling into a little ball and looking at the sky like that. She was not pleased.
“How are you so happy?” Seija asked. “You know I could easily just chuck you off the roof, right?”
“You wouldn’t,” Shinmyoumaru said. “You want chaos, one death means nothing to you.”
Seija pondered what the inchling had just said. She thought and thought. She wanted to have an excuse to throw Shinmyoumaru off the castle, but she just couldn’t come up with a good one. It simply wouldn’t cause enough disorder to satisfy her.
“Hey, look,” Shinmyoumaru said, interrupting Seija’s thinking. “Look at that cloud.”
Seija directed her attention to where Shinmyoumaru was pointing. She had nothing better to do anyways. Her eyes landed upon the cloud that Shinmyoumaru was referencing. It was long and thin, except for a thick part at the very end of the cloud.
“What do you think it looks like?” Shinmyoumaru asked.
“Eh?” Seija got more and more confused every time the inchling talked.
“That cloud,” Shinmyoumaru pointed again. “What’s it look like to you?”
Seija really didn’t want to play along with whatever Shinmyoumaru’s game was, but since she didn’t really have a choice, she joined in. She examined the cloud for a brief second and almost immediately had her answer.
“It’s a lit torch! I’d use it to wreak havoc upon the human village!”
Shinmyoumaru giggled. “Oh Seija, you’re so silly! I see the miracle mallet, I’m surprised you didn’t think of that first. Are you sure you want it as much as you say?”
Seija couldn’t even think of a response. What was Shinmyoumaru doing?
The inchling smiled again. “Just something to think about.”
In response to this, Seija just sighed. She decided that at this point, it would just be better to turn off her mind and play along with Shinmyoumaru until she gave her the mallet.
So she began to look for a cloud of her own.
Eventually she found one. It slightly resembled three triangles stacked on top of each other. So she pointed and asked Shinmyoumaru, “How about that one? What do you see?”
“I see a tree,” Shinmyoumaru responded, “how about you?”
Seija thought to herself for a little, and then made her response. “A jagged knife.”
“Come to think of it,” Shinmyoumaru added, “it also looks like this castle, but upside-down.”
“So it does,” Seija said plainly. Then she smiled. “But what if I do this?”
Seija snapped and the cloud flipped vertically in the evening sky.
“Now it looks a lot more like this castle,” Shinmyoumaru said in between giggles.
“Yeah,” Seija said. “And now the knife is falling down too.”
“I guess your knife cut down my tree and built us a nice castle,” Shinmyoumaru said.
“Huh?” Seija asked. “No. I’ll cut down the castle too!”
Shinmyoumaru laughed, leaving Seija once again bewildered.
“What’s so funny?” Seija asked.
“It’s just nice to see you enjoying your time with the clouds,” Shinmyoumaru responded. “You don’t seem to hate it as much as I thought you would.”
“I guess so,” Seija admitted, “but I’m still only doing this for the mallet!”
“Sure you are,” Shinmyoumaru said. “Now, what’s that one look like to you?”
The inchling directed Seija’s attention to a long and squiggly cloud in the distance.
“Oh, a rope,” Seija said. “Ropes are real fun to cause chaos with. There’s a lot you can do with them.”
“Interesting,” Shinmyoumaru responded. “I see a snake.”
“BLEH!” Seija spat. “No need to be reminded of the filthy goddess who thinks she owns this mountain, no thanks!”
“Not a big fan of snakes, are you?” Shinmyoumaru asked.
“Well, if we remove them from the context of the goddess, snakes are pretty cool,” Seija said. Then she laughed. “Shinmyoumaru, have you ever seen a human’s reaction to a snake? It’s hilarious!”
Shinmyoumaru watched as Seija went into another laughing fit on the soffit, kicking her feet up in the air and cackling mad.
“Oh my goodness, it’s so funny!” Seija said as she sat up and wiped tears from her eyes. “One time, I collected a few and let ‘em loose in the human village. Had me laughing for days, it was amazing!”
As Seija finished calming herself down, Shinmyoumaru looked for another cloud. Eventually, she found an almost circular shaped one, but it looked quite funny to her. “Seija, look!” she said, pointing at her next cloud. “It looks like your head!”
Seija directed her attention to where Shinmyoumaru was pointing, and there she saw it. The circle, with two spots on the top resembling her horns, and two little wisps on the bottom to account for her upside-down tie. She frowned at the cloud.
“Are we serious?”
Shinmyoumaru chuckled. “Isn’t it a nice cloud?”
“This is dumb,” Seija said, holding her head in her hands. “Let’s move on to a different cloud.”
“If you say so,” Shinmyoumaru said. “Look for one you like.”
Seija sighed as her eyes went to the sky again. After some time, she landed on a small cluster of clouds that looked somewhat familiar.
“Hey Shinmyoumaru,” Seija said. “It resembles your bowl.”
“Hm?” Shinmyoumaru asked as she looked for the cloud. “Oh! So it does!”
She marvelled at the collection of clouds that Seija had identified as her bowl. The clouds that resembled the leaves and vines painted around the bowl. “Excellent find, Seija!”
Seija just ignored her. She had never been one to like compliments.
“Well, you can have the mallet now if you’d like,” Shinmyoumaru said. “I think we’ve done enough cloudwatching.”
“Huh?” Seija said, turning back towards Shinmyoumaru. “Oh, right.”
“I can go get it now if you wait here,” Shinmyoumaru said as she got up.
“Another time,” Seija said, somewhat surprised by her own calmness. “I…”
Now Shinmyoumaru was confused. She stopped and turned around to face Seija with a short “Eh?”
“I don’t really feel like causing turmoil right now anymore,” Seija admitted. “I feel more… calm.”
“See?” Shinmyoumaru said. “You can find peace anywhere, in any way.”
“I guess,” Seija said emotionlessly. Then she got up. “I’m gonna go home now. I might be back tomorrow if I feel different.”
“In that case, goodbye Seija!” Shinmyoumaru said as she and Seija went back to the front doors of the castle. “I take it you enjoyed your time here?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Seija replied. “It was just boring. Just clouds.”
With that, Seija began her trek back across the mountain. She did not announce or acknowledge her departure.
“Oh,” Shinmyoumaru said once she realized that Seija was leaving. “I’ll probably see you again here eventually. Goodbye Seija!”
“Hello, Shinmyoumaru,” Seija said softly as she continued walking.
Shinmyoumaru waited until Seija was out of sight, and then she returned to the castle’s interior. She thought aloud to herself, “I wonder if Seija remembered that she wouldn’t be able to use the mallet without an inchling?”
As soon as Seija arrived back at her hut, she opened her blinds to darken the room, and flopped down on her least favorite spot on the floor. Her body was still and calm, but her mind was in a frantic tizzy.
Why was she calm?! Seija was never calm! Not unless the world around her was in turmoil, that is. Could it be that Shinmyoumaru, combined with Seija’s preexisting agitated state, had annoyed her into such mental discord, that it soothed her? Or was something else going on that she didn’t know?
The clouds. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw them. Many clouds in the dark yet luminous sky. She kept being mentally drawn back to them, and the shapes they were. Did she enjoy her time with the clouds? Did she hate it? Or was she indifferent, like she had said?
And Shinmyoumaru herself. She had matured a lot since the last time they had interacted. She would’ve just given in and let Seija take the mallet and help her use it, but had she grown up more? Or had something changed her?
Seija’s mind kept racing over and over, racing around and around, so fast she was dizzy. She was getting stressed over the situation that had happened, and over all the thoughts in her head. Soon, however, the stress had grown to a point to where it calmed Seija down, being the amanojaku she is. Eventually, this stress would finally lull Seija into deep and peaceful sleep.