Seo the Earth-Moon Rabbit

---((Eientei, Thursday Afternoon))---

“Alright, Seo. You can start by telling me what happened bit by bit. Go nice and slowly so that you can remember the details.”

“Okay… here goes…” You took a deep breath before continuing. “It all started last Tuesday…”

---

Last Tuesday…

You and Orin went to Eientei to retrieve a medicine for your cold and fever. At first, Satori told Orin to go alone, but you decided to go with her so that Eirin could give a better prognosis. Since you are too tired to walk, Orin pushed you to Eientei in her cat cart.

“I appreciate if you stayed at home and let your friend bring your medicine for you, Seo.” She told you in a light scolding tone, once you rested yourself in her office.

“I know, but I’m better off being told the important things in person, Miss Eirin.”

“If you insist, then.” The then performed some routine checks on you, before writing off some notes on her clipboard. After a small chat, she called Udonge to her office.

“Yes, shisou?”

“Have no worries, Seo. It’s just a common cold. Udonge, please help me and retrieve the medicine in this prescription, please.” She ordered, passing a small note to the moon rabbit.

“Yes, shishou.”

The moon rabbit then disappeared again, showing up a couple of minutes later with a small bag in her hand.

“Remember to eat before taking your medicine.” She advised. “And don’t work too hard, Seo.”

You let the words sink in your head. “Right. I should be off now. Thanks, Miss Eirin.”

“Just doing my job.” She smiled. “Have a nice day.”

Rin then propped you to walk to her wheelbarrow outside of Eientei’s compound.

---((Palace of the Earth Spirits, your room, Tuesday Night))---

Back at the palace, Rin dropped you in front of the palace, and you dragged yourself all the way back to your room. After taking a hot bath, you walked up to your desk. Not wanting to wait for dinner before consuming the medicine, you decided to eat on some biscuits you stashed in the drawers.

“Alright, time to eat the meds.”

With closed eyes, you popped the tablet into your mouth, swallowing it down with a glass of water.

You felt a bit relived, until you heard peculiar popping sounds.

“Huh?”

You opened your eyes and stared at the mirror in front of you.

“What the hell…?”

The mirror reflects your surprised expression – which you can see a pair of white and long rabbit’s ears poking out from the top of your head. You tried to pull them off, but you felt pain in doing so, as apparently they were attached to your scalp – just like Reisen’s.

And then there’s the tail. The tail…

“Seo! Dinner’s ready!” Satori called, snapping you out of your thoughts.

“In a minute!” you replied to her call, as you started panicking about the ears. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, what the heck am I going to do about these rabbit ears?!”

Before you could hide the ears, the door clicked open and a gasp could be heard. You turned around and saw Satori staring wide-eyed at your head, speechless.

“What… in the world…”

Satori walked towards you to touch your rabbit ears.

“I am dreaming am I?” Satori asked nervously.

You pinched her cheek, which made her third eye to focus on you.

“Pretty sure you aren’t, ma’am.”

“You’d be late for dinner, come on.”

“Wait –”

“’It’s embarrassing’, you say?”

“Yeah, it is.”

However, you have to give in to your employer’s persistence, and let yourself being led to the dining room hand-in-hand.

The dining room echoes with the laughter from Satori’s pets and her younger sister when they spot your unusual ears. In response, your rabbit ears covered your eyes while your face turned crimson in embarrassment.

In the end you ate your dinner alone with the mind-reader.

---

Other than your expected increased cravings for carrots, your irises seem to be turning red in color. Listening to the comms unit becomes quite awkward since you can’t mount your headphones on where your rabbit ears are without having them fall off your head. In the end, you have to settle for earbuds and your headphones ended up as a decoration around your neck.

---((Eientei, Thursday Afternoon))---

Back to present day …

“So… yes, that’s actually what happened…” You finished explaining to Eirin. “I think it’s maybe the medicine sort of replaced with a different one?”

The brain of the moon looked thoughtful for a while “I am more inclined at the fact that Reisen may have made a mistake. That or Tewi had replaced your prescription.”

“Okay then…” You then forwarded another problem of yours to the doctor from the moon. “Do you think I can get my normal hearing back too? The usual things seem louder for some reason.”

Eirin laughed lightly. “Of course. Those ears can hear a lot of different sound pitches that a normal human couldn’t hear.” She said. “I’ll look it up tonight so that I could make a medicine to make you look human again. So where are you staying for tonight; your house?”

“I don’t think I am going to hear Daisuke scolding me for being a guard or the rest of my older siblings freaking out at me and saying that I am a youkai so I’m gonna stay at Alex’s place for the night.” You explained.

“Alright, if you say so.  Meet me again tomorrow or the day after it; I might be able to finish the medicine by by then. If I do, I will send you a message as soon as possible.”

--((Human Village, Thursday Evening ))—

Since you did not want to have a heated argument with Daisuke at your home, you decided to stay over at Roach’s house. The American was a close friend of yours, despite the fact that Alex or “Roach” as Zero nicknamed him, was older than you for a few years.

You decided to tell your friend about the rabbit ears, because they are very impossible to hide.

“I can tell that it’s a prank. Not a deliberate mistake.” Roach started after you finished explaining. At the moment, both of you were on the village’s lookout tower.

“How so?”

“One. Eirin cannot have misplaced the medicine. Two. Reisen only take the medicines based on the prescription. So if someone replaces the medicine she would be a good fall guy.”

“Or girl.” You corrected.

“Right. The medicine that has been replaced might have been way too similar, so you can’t see the differences.”

“That’s what I had in mind too.”

“Still, I’m pretty sure that your rabbit ears do seem to fit you. You should delay on getting the medicine to remove that stuff.”

You sighed out aloud as Roach passed a cup of hot tea to you. “If I could, I would, but I just can’t stand Orin laughing at me the whole time I have it on however.”

You can clearly see Alex snicker at your comment. “Tea or coffee, Rin?”

Orin jumped from your head and transformed into her humanoid form. “Tea, please.” Roach then passed a cup to the kasha. “Thank you.”

“No probs.” He then finished his cup of coffee. “So are you two staying the night together in the same bed?”

Your friend’s question made you nearly spat out your tea.

“What? Weren’t you two used to sleep together?”

“Say that again and you can kiss your house goodbye.” You muttered darkly.

“Ooooookay.”

--|| Eirin, Eientei, Thursday Midnight ||--

As midnight approaches, you finally had the chance to examine the pills that was returned to you earlier. You took the originally prescribed medicine from the proper shelf before examining the tablets closely, comparing them side by side.

Even with some careful scrutinizing, the tablets look the same in the exterior, so you thought of making a quick experiment to know about the contents by the chemical composition.

“That might take quite a while.” You commented.

Then all in a sudden, you remembered the tablets you made that would give the consumer the qualities of a moon rabbit. That medicine was made as a result of an experiment with the Watatsuki sisters’ Reisen, but since you had nobody willing it to be tested on them, you decided to lock it away in a shelf – complete with a proper warning.

You dashed for your experimental medicine shelf, and as expected, the glass bottle containing the medicine tablets were empty. The shelf was also left unlocked. Whenever you are in your lab, you have made sure that the shelf remains locked. Not for today, though.

You remained calm, however.

“Ah… just as I suspected. Someone replaced the medicine…  I better make up for a counter-medicine and ask Udonge to help me when she wakes up tomorrow.”

And with that, you cancelled off your chemical composition experiment turned off the lights to your lab, before you proceeded to take a good night’s sleep.

---((Eientei, Friday Morning))---

After you finished preparing yourselves for the day and having breakfast with the princess and Udonge (sans Tewi, who for some reason is missing) you summoned your assistant. She quickly scampered to your office once she’s done with the dishes.

As she approached your office, the loud and hastened noise of her feet thumping the walkways could be heard.

“You called for me, shisou? Did something matter?”

“Seo had his medicine misplaced and right now he’s sprouting moon rabbit ears on the top of his head.”

“Misplaced? Rabbit ears…? But I thought I had followed the right prescription!” Udonge said, looking nervous.

“Well, you do take the correct prescription, dear. It’s that someone exchanged the contents inside the bottle.”

“Who?”

“Who else do you think it is?” you smiled, casting a glare at the the shaking bush outside of your office room. “Right, we time get on with the business. We can get it done by today night. Reisen, prepare the lab apparatuses.”

“Right!”

---((Seo, Bamboo Forest of the Lost, Friday Morning))---

“So what’s up with those ears?” Mokou asked. “Took the wrong medicine?”

“Right on the spot, Mokou.”

“To be honest, Seo, you look much better with those ears sticking out from your head.”

“What she meant by better is that you look cuter with those out.” At this point, Mokou gave a hard punch to your squad leader’s right shoulder. “Ow! What the bloody hell was that for?!”

“I don’t mean that way either, you know.”

“Dang, it smarts.” Zero said, rubbing his right shoulder in an attempt to relieve the pain.

While you were following her to Eientei, you heard the sound of something snapping. You quickly turned around to the source of the sound but you saw nothing. Instead, your squad leader bumped into you.

“Ow!” He cried out again.

“Oui! What’s with the holdup?” Mokou called out in an irritated tone when she noticed the distance between her and you.

“Why did you stop?” He asked.

“I think I heard something snap. Did you hear it, sir?”

“I don’t hear anything special. Maybe it’s just you. Move along.”

“Orin?”

“I don’t hear anything either. On your feet, start walking.”

“Geez, fine. You don’t have to be that demanding.”

You arrived in Eientei within a couple of hours before noon.

---

“Good news, Seo. I just found the cure.” The pharmacist announced when the two of you sat in the main room. Mokou had left you, Zero and Orin with Eirin for her routine face-off with Kaguya.

“Any bad news?”

“The bad news is that you won’t look like a rabbit anymore.” She giggled.

“That’s… not a bad news to me.”

“To me it is, anyway.” Rin’s voice echoed as her cat body pulsed red.

She clasped her hands together. “Great! Now let’s get on with the medications, shall we? Reisen, fetch me the medicine satchel, a spoon and a cup of water, please.”

The moon rabbit bowed at Eirin before she left the room to fulfill her master’s request.

---

A little while later, she returned with the requested items. Udonge placed the items on the space between you and Eirin, before she sat next to Zero while facing you. Eirin then poured some grains off a small triangular satchel before mixing it with her spoon to finish the concoction.

“Are you ready?” the pharmacist asked. “You may go ahead and see if it works on you.”

With a deep breath, you took the glass of medicated water and drank the contents.

Seconds after you placed the glass back onto the floor, you can feel your hearing returning back to the sides of your head, picking up the radio chatters from fellow squad mates off the headphones around your neck. The rabbit ears then wilted, before they fell off your ears and turned into ashes on the tatami mats. Your rabbit tail then detached itself rolled away, and Orin promptly pounced on it.

You opened your eyes and touched the sides of your head, and you felt that your human ears had regenerated.

“So how to you feel now?”

“Feeling relieved and feeling normal. Thank you, Miss Eirin.”

The Lunarian smiled at your response. “No problem. Just doing my job.”

Zero the popped a question for you. “Say, Miss, Eirin… how come you know the medicine you worked on would work for sure? Did you test it on someone?”

“It’s tested on someone, just to be sure it worked. Guess who.”

“Reisen?”

“No.”

“Tewi?”

“Nope.”

“Kaguya?” Zero tried his luck and made a guess.

“Wrong.”

“Mokou?” You guessed.

“You’re getting a colder trail there.”

“Then who?”

The pharmacist then pointed a finger at herself. You and your squad leader stared at Eirin in disbelief at the revelation.

“Huh. For sure I thought the first victim’s usually Reisen.” Zero remarked.

Reisen sighed at your squad leader’s remark. “Having extra rabbit ears on someone who had a pair of them naturally just doesn’t work, you know.”

“Freaky thing to think about, I know.”

Few minutes later, Eirin gave you the right medicine for your cold this time. She chose to hand over the medicine to you personally, just to avoid any sabotage done by Tewi. After that, you and your group left Eientei before being escorted off back to the Human Village by Mokou.

Zero on the other hand took his path back to the Human Village for some important business he had to take care off.
\
After stocking up on your packed foods and ammo supplies from Roach’s house, you walked all the way to the gate to the Underground with the kasha in her cat form – sitting comfortably on your shoulder. Once you and Orin reach the gate to the underground world, she jumped off your shoulder and transformed back to her humanoid form.

“I’m glad that’s over.”

Orin chuckled. “Still, I’m going to miss the rabbit ears, Seo. It looks cute on you.”

“Oh, shush.”

The kasha then readied her cat cart. “All aboard the Orin Express~!”

Smiling to your companion, you jumped in the cart and held on the sides. “I’m ready.”

“Hang on, mister, this will be a wild ride~!”

“Heh. Like I hadn’t heard that before.”

---((Reimu Hakurei, Hakurei Shrine, Evening.))---

While you were sweeping the shrine grounds, you spotted the silhouette of a winged person flying towards your shrine. You sighed out loud when it landed in front of you.

“What is it, Aya?”

“I was looking for a scoop in Eientei, and guess what, I found something interesting!” She said, handing you a copy of her newspaper.

You took a quick glance at the headlines.

“Again with the nonsense, Aya.” you exclaimed, putting down the Bunbunmaru Newspaper next to her before sipping to your hot green tea. “Then again, how on earth does he get a pair of moon rabbit ears in all of a sudden?”

“Either it’s because of magic, or if it’s caused by Eirin’s shady new drug, or it’s a Moriya Shrine conspiracy.” Aya suggested. “Pick one that suits you the best.”

“Templates like that are forbidden, thank you very much.” You rolled your eyes away.

Yukari appeared from her gap, snatching the newspaper off your hand. “Oh, isn’t that the boy who worked as a tower guardian in Satori’s palace?”

“Wait, Satori had a guardian?” Aya asked.

The gap youkai chuckled. “Remilia told me about it; Satori asked for it, and didn’t your white wolf friend or the mountain wolves tell you anything?”

Aya simply shook her head.

“Reimu~ Why don’t you go and see him see if it’s true?” Yukari said. After all, I know you are curious about this matter.”

“Fine.”

Girls are going Underground…