Chapter 32: Gensōkyō's Magic
Kaguya-sama: I spent all 300-something Points I had on physical enhancement. But I get the feeling I'm still a long way from being able to train the Six Powers. Going to need more Points.
Kaguya-sama: The entry barrier is kind of steep. But after enhancing my constitution…
Kaguya-sama: I can clearly sense a dramatic difference in my body.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: For ordinary humans like yourselves, the entry barrier to any cultivation system in this group is quite high. Even Gensōkyō's is the same.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Gensōkyō's cultivation system requires spiritual-power aptitude, just as the Six Powers require a physical baseline. Of course, if anyone is interested in magic, this one wouldn't mind uploading a few things~
Crazy Diamond: Magic! Like the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh, pew-pew-pew kind?!
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: …That's not an entirely inaccurate description.
[Member "The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden" uploaded a Group File, titled: A Certain Gensōkyō Sage's First Compiled Document]
What Ryū hadn't anticipated was that Yukari Yakumo—that unreliable Gap Yōkai—had voluntarily uploaded an entire Gensōkyō cultivation system to Group Files.
Then again, after a moment's reflection, it made sense. The Yōkai Sage had been alive for an absurdly long time.
That brain of hers probably contained an enormous trove of useful knowledge.
A cultivation system accessible to humans?
For someone like her, that probably didn't even register as anything special.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: These are materials this one collected some time ago. Whether they're outdated, I'm not entirely sure. Feel free to give them a try if you're interested~
The Little Wandering Planet: Having no arms or legs, it seems the Six Powers are beyond my reach.
The Little Wandering Planet: …Opened Yukari Yakumo's file, and it turns out that also requires limbs. This limbless sphere quietly sheds tears of sorrow. This is discrimination against spherical group members. …Sniff sniff sniff.
Kaguya-sama: SHOCKING: A certain alternate-dimension Earth is making sniffling noises!
Kaguya-sama: I just tried the cultivation system Yukari-nee-sama uploaded. As expected, it requires spiritual-power aptitude. And the Points cost to enhance spiritual aptitude seems about the same as the Six Powers.
Crazy Diamond: But magic is way cooler, right? Comes with like a billion yen's worth of special effects built in.
Crazy Diamond: And of course, a tough guy like me would obviously… want both!
Edward Newgate: Little Josuke, do you have that many Points?
Crazy Diamond: …That one cut deep, old man.
"…"
Ryū had already opened the Group File Yukari had uploaded. He stared at the dense, arcane text—easily over a hundred thousand characters—that read like scripture from another dimension.
Heaven only knew how Yukari had managed to type out over a hundred thousand characters in such a short time.
Maybe she'd used the chat group's image-to-text scan function?
He vaguely recalled the group having that unassuming little feature buried somewhere.
Regardless of how Yukari had done it, the file she'd sent to the group—a cultivation system that humans could actually learn—had genuinely piqued his interest.
A cultivation system from Gensōkyō, huh?
Ryū's knowledge of Gensōkyō was limited to what he'd absorbed from various fanfiction and derivative works. Beyond knowing a few of the more famous figures and being aware of several conceptually broken abilities, he genuinely hadn't known that Gensōkyō had a formal cultivation system.
Then again, the Touhou franchise was essentially a convergence of fan-created material.
Primary canon, secondary canon, tertiary canon—
Who knew whether the Gensōkyō where Yukari lived was the official primary setting, a secondary fan interpretation, or a tertiary derivative built on top of someone else's derivative? The more he thought about it, the more the word "canon" started to lose all meaning.
He skimmed the opening summary, and his eyelid twitched.
Just as Yukari had said.
The human cultivation system of Touhou's Gensōkyō didn't require an absurdly superhuman physique.
But it did require sufficient spiritual-power aptitude.
And boosting one's spiritual-power aptitude meant… spending Points to upgrade the stat.
Did anyone really think a random civilian could just waltz into a high-tier cultivation system?
That would be pure fantasy.
For ordinary people, the lowest entry barrier probably belonged to wuxia-type martial arts systems.
Problem was, the lowest-barrier world currently in the group was Josuke's—JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Hamon was probably the most accessible system there, but Josuke didn't know Hamon at all. He might not even know what Hamon was. By Part 4, the Ripple had long since faded from the story.
"This Gensōkyō cultivation system really isn't simple at all…"
Ryū gave it a cursory glance and decided not to dwell on it.
Gensōkyō's power tier was unquestionably higher than One Piece's.
That was beyond debate.
But when a world's power ceiling went up, the entry barrier for its cultivation systems rose with it—unless the system had reached the point of universal accessibility. And the Gensōkyō that Yukari inhabited, whatever "canon" it belonged to, clearly hadn't reached that threshold.
Otherwise, why would the file she'd uploaded also have a high barrier?
RawrSoFierce: Just went through the Group File. The power level of Yukari's world is definitely higher than One Piece's, but the entry barrier for this cultivation system is roughly on par with the Six Powers. Mid-tier, it might even be steeper.
RawrSoFierce: Getting your spiritual-power aptitude high enough to begin training would probably cost around 2,000 to 3,000 Points.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Ara ara~ Well, this sort of thing isn't exactly a widely accessible system where this one comes from. Otherwise, why would humans fear yōkai at all?
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Even a certain someone was only able to cultivate this system to a jaw-dropping level because she was born with extraordinarily high spiritual aptitude.
Crazy Diamond: 2,000 to 3,000… These impoverished tears of mine are flowing again.
RawrSoFierce: @Crazy Diamond, weren't you the one who said you wanted both?
Crazy Diamond: Did I? That was definitely someone who hacked my account. Yes. That's exactly what happened.
Crazy Diamond: Kisama! Some jerk in the real world just said my hair looks weird while I was distracted by chat!!
Somewhere in the world of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a vein bulged on Josuke Higashikata's forehead. His consciousness snapped out of the Dimensional Chat Group.
Eyes narrowing to slits, he fixed his gaze on the man standing not far away.
This guy. The one holding a knife.
He's the one who said his hair looked weird, wasn't he?
* * *
Back in Konoha, Ryū noticed that Josuke had gone dark immediately after sending that last message.
Come to think of it—the first time Josuke encountered an enemy Stand user…
Wasn't it triggered by someone insulting his hair?
Oh… could that be Angelo?
He had a feeling… Josuke's storyline had just begun.
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