NAЯAKA

"Those with eyes, open them, and tell the blind of what you see. This illusion we witness together. An impossibility we bear witness to. A most absurd of occurrences." Warning! You are advised not to apply the following to other worlds, for it is unlikely to hold any bearing upon them. Satori Komeiji is my mistress and my master. She works hard and bears many troubles. I can't usually speak, so there shouldn't be anyone else who knows her. At least, I think there shouldn't... It would've been nice if there was some mention of "you" in the records I have access to. As of right now, it seems I can be of no use to you. If that changes, I'll let you know. If I feel like it, that is...

Animals live inside me. Why are there so many animals in the Underworld, you ask? Well, you see, the thing is... I dunno what things are like in your world or in any other world, but in my world, animals are humans of the past. Whoops, pretty sure you will have misunderstood that. I don't mean humans have been transformed into animals. There was once a time when humans were mere animals, and animals in the current day are reminiscent of that era. Those who went extinct, or have been brought to the brink of extinction, remember humanity's past better than any. And they are similar to the humans of old both genetically and physically. It's like, humans started out as fish, then evolved into amphibians, and then mammals, right?

Despised youkai fled below the surface to the Underworld. There was no paradise for them above ground. But that doesn't explain why the animals are here. Well, I dunno if this is true for other worlds, but gravity pulls downward, dragging old things down to the depths of the Earth. And that doesn't just apply to animals―layers of earth, ruins, fossils, traces of the past... Everything. Come to think of it, does that mean animals who've lived too long, and animals that humans have grown tired of and abandoned should fall down to the Underworld too? Hm, but since it's the surface world we're talking about, I guess they might escape to Gensokyo instead.

Let's discuss the spirits of the dead. Not vengeful spirits, though. If we talked about them, we'd be here all day. I simply mean the spirits of those who lived and died in a time gone by―ancestral spirits, if you will. Ancestral spirits are connected to animal spirits, you see. What? Don't give me that look. I was telling the truth when I said humans didn't transform into animals. There's no way that could happen. What happened was animals became human over time. In the outside world, I think they call it the Theory of Evolution, no? So in that sense, ancestral spirits have a lot in common with animal spirits. The Anima's existence is built upon this connection. It's an unwavering conceptual framework that uses me as a fixed observer.

Does the mind truly exist, or is it confined to the realm of fantasy? No one can know for sure. Answers that flirt with both possibilities without giving a definitive yes or no simply won't do. That's why we have to find it for ourselves. The location of the mind―the place where I reside. Hmm... actually, that doesn't sound so bad.