"Hey hey listen! I decided! You're Hourai! Hourai!"
Omoito is a four-part Touhou Project doujin created by Morino Hon (もりのほん)
. It is available translated on Dynasty Reader.
Alice's lesser doll Hourai, through circumstances yet to be found out, comes to life one day. With Alice kept in the dark and only a select few knowing about her newfound sentience, Hourai wishes to maintain her prior relationship with Alice while still being able to get closer to her as an individual... Until things get more complicated.
Each part is accompanied by an unrelated short story focusing on PC-98 characters.
Omoito provides examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Marisa rips a drawer out of out of Alice's shelves to protect herself from Hourai, but it turns out to have been her underwear drawer and Alice arrives to find Marisa covered in discarded underwear. Since Alice won't believe that Hourai is alive, Marisa has to say that she just likes Alice's underwear.
- Always Second Best: Patchouli discusses Marisa's status as this when comparing her to Hourai; Reimu can do anything without putting in much effort, and Marisa has to work her hardest to become strong. She doesn't want anyone to know how hard she works because if she fails, it will look bad.
- An Arm and a Leg: Hourai blasts off one of Medicine's arms. Alice offers to fix the arm.
- Bittersweet Ending: At the end of Vier and Omoito as a whole, Alice's grimoire is resealed and Alice and Hourai reconcile, but Hourai is sealed into the grimoire, with all of Alice's dolls returning to inanimate objects. However, the final few pages imply Shangai regained her sentience, with Hourai #2 sharing her original self's memories for her apparent awakening.
- Blatant Lies: Marisa tries to hide from Hourai by going into Alice's room and hanging up a sign reading "Marisa is not here". Unsurprisingly, this just signals to Hourai about where to go.
- Book Ends: The start of Eins and the end of Vier have Hourai awakening with memories of Alice as a child.
- Broken Masquerade: Hourai decides to keep her newfound sentience a secret from Alice because she worries her relationship with her with change otherwise. Shanghai's reasons for keeping the secret aren't given but are presumably the same as Hourai's. After seeing Alice try to befriend Medicine despite the threat she poses, Hourai reveals her sentience to ask Alice what's wrong with her behavior. Shanghai reveals her sentience later on to explain everything to Alice.
- Broken Pedestal: Hourai's view of Alice changes when she sees her try to become friends with Medicine Melancholy, becoming convinced Alice only makes friends at her own convenience and doesn't actually care about her.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The first two parts are lighthearted comedies while the later two are much more drama-heavy.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Part of Hourai's Hate at First Sight in regards to Marisa and Shanghai is because she feels she should be the only one by Alice's side.
- Cute Little Fangs: Cute Witch Marisa is frequently drawn with a single exposed fang.
- Cute Witch: Marisa is consistently shown in her witch attire and is frequently drawn with large expressive smiles, complete with Cute Little Fangs. In contrast to most depictions, Patchouli is drawn in Zwei with a large witch hat, though she's less conventionally "cute".
- Downer Ending: Drei ends with Hourai becoming convinced Alice does not really care about her and running away.
- Exact Words:
- Patchouli tells Marisa to return the books she stole, and she says her usual "I'm borrowing them until I die'' excuse. Alice tells Patchouli to just let it rest.
- Yuuka tells Alice when asked that she doesn't know of any autonomous doll. When accused of lying due to clearly knowing about Medicine, Yuuka clarifies that Medicine is a doll that became a youkai, not a doll designed to be autonomous, so she wasn't lying.
- Foreshadowing:
- After Hourai ends up dropping a piece of Alice's roof on Marisa's head, Alice playfully chastises Hourai, despite not knowing Hourai is alive and still thinking she is in control of all of her dolls, and then admits to Marisa that she sometimes doesn't know what she's doing. This habit ends up biting her later when she playfully chastises Hourai for protecting her from Medicine.
- Alice mentions to Yuuka that she's seen an autonomous doll before, but it's made apparent she still hasn't found out Shanghai and Hourai have come to life. It's because she's talking about Medicine Melancholy.
- When Yuuka first enters Alice's house, she starts randomly searching around. It is revealed later she was looking for her grimoire.
- Yuuka asks Alice if she's seen any plants behaving strangely. The Forest of Magic's plantlife goes crazy when Hourai starts to lose control of her powers.
- Hate at First Sight: Hourai decides she hates Marisa and Shanghai immediately upon meeting them.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Yuuka becomes concerned when she hears the black tea Alice gave her was made by Marisa with mushrooms and asks if it's safe to drink. Alice doesn't know, so Yuuka demands Alice drink it instead.
- Improvised Weapon: Marisa uses one of Alice's drawers to swat away Hourai. Unfortunately, it turns out to be Alice's underwear drawer and Marisa has to explain why she was found with Alice's underwear everywhere.
- Innocently Insensitive: Alice has a habit of playfully chastising her dolls for mistakes in spite of knowing she controls all their movements. This comes back to bite her when she does this with the now-living Hourai for damaging Medicine, which Alice assumed was just her house's automated defenses acting up rather than Hourai willingly trying to protect her. Alice trying to become friends with Medicine also crushes Hourai because her treating Medicine as alive and not showing the same concern for her own dolls comes off very differently when said dolls actually are alive now.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Shanghai's special ability is to summon large shields. Hourai isn't satisfied since she won't be able to fight back against threats to Alice, so Marisa tells them to work together if needed.
- Not Brainwashed: When Hourai finally reveals her sentience, Alice assumes it's that Medicine is controlling her, saying Hourai would never try to chew her out. Yuuka promptly blasts Alice for not realizing the truth.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Patchouli tells Hourai as she's expressing frustration about failing to make the dress for Shanghai that she's just like Marisa. Hourai hates this comparison until Patchouli explains Marisa's dynamic with Reimu and how what they share is a desire to not fail after working hard.
- Pokémon Speak: Before gaining sentience, Shanghai only "speaks" by saying her name.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The short-tempered and abrasive Hourai serves as the red oni to the sweet-natured and gentle blue oni Shanghai. Fittingly, the covers of Eins and Zwei color Hourai and Shanghai red and blue, respectively.
- Replacement Goldfish: Due to Hourai being sealed in the grimoire, Alice makes another doll to call Hourai. Marisa calls her "Hourai #2", which Alice objects to, suggesting she wishes to consider the new Hourai the same as the old one. Hourai #2 awakening with the original Hourai's memories suggests this isn't too far off.
- Secret-Keeper: Marisa is the first to discover Hourai gained sentience. Patchouli learns about it in Zwei, even if Marisa tried to hide it.
- Sneeze Cut: Yuuka asks Alice about the strange-tasting tea she brought, and she explains Marisa made it with mushrooms to Yuuka's horror. Back at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Marisa sneezes and tells Patchouli that she's sure that Alice is talking about how delicious her tea is.
- Spoiler Cover: Drei features Medicine Melancholy on the cover, a character who doesn't appear until the end of said part.
- Spotting the Thread: Patchouli walks in on Marisa talking to Hourai, and Marisa tries to hide Hourai's newfound sentience by saying she was just admiring how well-made the doll is. Patchouli seems convinced until she leans in closer and notices how Hourai's magic is different from Alice's other dolls.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Patchouli flat-out admits at one point that she really hates Marisa, but she's still shown to help her when needed.
- Wall of Text: Alice and Patchouli's conversation about the limits of one's magical power is represented by a single bloated speech bubble so the audience shares Marisa's bewilderment.
"I'm... Hourai."
