Chapter 1
Within the forest, just beyond the outskirts of the village, was a small shack, crudely made by inexperienced hands. Smoke wafted through gaps in the woodwork, haphazardly replaced every few years whenever its owner was in the mood.
Sanae touched down gently outside, descending gracefully to the grassy floor of the forest upon a gently swirling wind that buffeted the smoke away. Her appearance was the opposite of the shack's, the white of her traditional outfit immaculately clean and pressed, her soft limbs and face cleaned caringly, her brilliant green hair shining with health. A beacon of light in the shadows of the forest.
As she approached the shack, the smoke parted, the winds themselves protecting her from the ill-effects of the smoke. She knocked politely, listening for a response. Nothing came, so she prised the worn door open, pulling at it with all her strength. The ill-fitting door scraped against the grass and dirt below, and Sanae drew the smoke out from within the shack, the wind swirling behind her as it carried it away.
Inside, the shack was disorganized, clothing and food strewn about here and there, a shattered and bloody mirror leaning in the corner of the singular room. The half-naked figure lying on what passed for a bed groaned, rolling over lazily.
"Hey, you." Sanae glared at the figure. "You're the one who's been scaring people around here, right?"
The woman grumbled to herself.
"Hey! I'm here to exterminate you, so you'd better prepare yourself," Sanae insisted. She knew the woman wasn't human, despite her appearance. A half-youkai. No-one knew who she was, or when she'd turned up, and she hadn't answered any questions either.
"Fine! Then I hope you're prepared to face the consequences for your actions!"
Sanae struck first, sending a wave of magical shot at her unprepared opponent. The woman, too slow and groggy to react, took the hits head on, a magical field flickering around her as Sanae's shots chipped away at it. She rose from her makeshift bed, throwing her blanket around her in some kind of shawl to preserve her modesty.
"This is how things are now, isn't it?" she mumbled. She raised a hand, a flame sparking to life within it and streaking towards Sanae like lightning. Even as the bolt of fire left her fingertips, Sanae was already moving, dodging the first bolt, then a rapid-fire barrage, the wind beneath her keeping her upright even as she pulled off maneuvers that would have sent someone without her powers tripping and stumbling. She withdrew from the shack, impacts thudding against the door as she slammed it shut with her wind magic.
The woman was hot on her heels, barrelling through the flimsy door like it was made of paper and lunging at Sanae with an outstretched hand. Sanae leaned back, her throat mere inches from the woman's grasp, cartwheeling backwards upon a gust of wind. Now that she was standing up, Sanae could see how the older woman towered over her, one hand holding her blanket around her neck. She wasn't the tallest person Sanae had ever seen, but the only people taller tended to be Oni.
The woman's lips curled into a snarl. Her face was worn, tired and unhappy, her long, dark hair plastered against one of her cheeks and curling away from her head haphazardly. Flames licked from between her clenched teeth like a the gate of an iron furnace and glinted off her dark eyes.
With an inhuman roar, the flames burst forth from her mouth, a solid hit that quickly broke down Sanae's defenses, the winds not being enough to deflect the intense heat on their own. Sanae took to the sky, keeping her distance now. A few more hits like that would take her out of the fight. The woman kept after her, ascending into the sky directly at her. Sanae reeled, backpedalling desperately to keep her distance from the woman.
She drew a star in the air with her gohei, the magic blasting the woman back as she slammed head-first into it. She recovered her balance, throwing another series of fire bolts at Sanae. Sanae now responded with her own attack, the fire flying far into the sky above as Sanae moved. Her shots hit the woman, her defensive barrier flickering and breaking under Sanae's concentrated firepower. The magic knocked her back, her form sliding along the ground.
The woman lay there, staring up into the sky as Sanae landed beside her.
"Well, that was a lot of fuss," Sanae commented. "Looks like you'll be coming with me after all."
The woman lay in the dirt a moment longer. "Yeah, I guess." She sighed, getting to her feet. "I don't suppose you'll carry me."
"You can fly on your own!" Sanae snapped. "And put some clothes on!"
Selena looked over herself. All things considered, she was a mess. If her father had seen her in her current state, he would've died of shame. She did her best to neaten up, finding her beret and cloak amidst the pile on the floor, and tried to get a good picture of how she looked using the broken mirror. Her blood was still on it. That wasn't hygienic at all.
"Miss Selena?" Sanae poked her head through the splintered doorway.
"Just a moment, please, Miss Kochiya." The two of them had exchanged names earlier. Sanae had told her that she was a priestess of some kind, up on the mountain. She was going to take her there, later, but first, she intended to drag Selena through the human village on a few other errands.
Lunch, too. Even in her sorry state, Selena remembered how important lunch was.
She'd spent the last few years living alone. She'd built herself a modest home, and had been living off whatever she could catch, forage, or even take from unwary travellers that had bothered her.
"No-one remembers you." Selena's head snapped towards the broken mirror, her face splintered and distorted. She thought she saw someone else there, as well.
That girl.
She understood what this place was. Gensokyo - a place where legends went to be forgotten.
"It's not important," she reminded herself. "Just listen to her."
She tied the laces of her boots, and straightened herself out. Before she left, she picked up her sword, an ancient, ceremonial thing that was all she had to remind her of her family these days. She gave the mirror one last look, and headed out.
"Coming," she called, heading after Sanae.
"What happened to you, anyway?" Sanae asked. She was a little plump, Selena supposed, watching the girl shovel noodles into her mouth.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I heard you used to fight other Youkai. Quite fiercely, too. What happened?"
Selena frowned. "That was just the one time, kid. I don't know what happened. Ever since I came here, it's been like I'm drifting. Maintaining existence, if you follow what I mean."
"Sounds like a Youkai thing." Sanae gulped down some of her drink.
"I guess it is. But it's frustrating, too. The games the Youkai my age play, that it. It's really depressing."
"Oh? Which ones?"
Selena grumbled. "That reporter Tengu, for one thing. The fox, too. Probably a whole lot more I don't even know about." She tipped back her own drink.
"That's the thing about Gensokyo, though." Sanae winked. "You can basically do whatever you want to do. I think that's wonderful."
"Whatever I want, huh." Selena tipped her head to one side as the thought about that.
"Yeah. It doesn't matter who you were in the Outside World. Here, you can do whatever you want!"
Author's Notes
This story is a bit of a lighter story, mostly just practice for writing a character, in this case, Selena, in a setting I'm familiar with. It'll be a pretty short series, perhaps.