One of those days.
It was one of those days, where everything was rainy and wet. An 'indoors' day, as many would call it. However, one certain youkai didn't care.
While everyone else stayed indoors, Koishi Komeiji wandered, like always. She didn't care about the rain, though. Walking in the rain was a whole new adventure. At least, for the little satori it was.
"It's a beautiful day" Koishi giggled, but didn't smile. She kicked out each step in front of her as she walked.
Left-right, left-right, spin, left-right-left, left, trip, jump back up, spin, left-right-left-spin.
The satori did not have a care in the world. Technically, she didn't even have any thoughts. The little youkai didn't seem to care about her own emotions, anyway. She was perfectly happy, spending her days walking nowhere in particular.
"The sun's gone today~ My fingers are starting to feel cold." Koishi stopped and sat down on a rotting tree stump. Her dark green eyes scanned the sky, only to see dark clouds rolling over the horizon. She moved her hand to shield her eyes from the falling rain.
She shifted her gaze to the ground. Though there was no wind, the matted-down grass rustled. The satori tilted her head.
"Hello?" She called. Forgetting about it a few seconds later, she was distracted by a rock in the grass.
"I wonder how everyone's doing." Koishi wondered aloud. "Everyone always hides when the sun's gone." she heard another noise, this time more like a small zapping noise, as if an unfortunate rodent got struck by lightning. The satori yet again looked around.
"Are you sure you're not there? Are you hiding because the sun's-"
"The sun's not gone." a calm, almost silky voice replied. Koishi suddenly shot up and spun around, trying to find where the voice was coming from, but couldn't see any movement other than the trees being lightly rained on, the leaves shaking from the small droplets.
"Huh-"
"If you think about it from a different viewpoint, the sun is just hiding. The clouds are in the way, but the sun's still there, just like it always will be. Even when the sun goes down, imagine it as if the earth itself is in the way. The sun will always be there, no matter what happens."
Koishi was dumbstruck. She tried to wrap her mind around the subject, but with her subconscious blocked by her closed third eye, she could barely understand what the voice was saying anyways.
"I-... I-... I can't..." Koishi looked around to try and find the source yet again, but the voice stopped talking. "Why are you here?"
The satori couldn't hear a reply. The voice had ceased completely. The little youkai was starting to feel antsy, knowing the voice was still there, but she was too impatient to wait. She kept opening her mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say. Koishi settled by silently hopping from foot to foot, waiting for a reply.
"If you need to say something, why don't you just-"
"Be careful." the voice suddenly cut in after the long pause. "Everything's about to change. The answer to every problem is at its waking hour." Koishi shuddered. Even without a sense of thought, the satori could sense how ominous the phrase was. The voice continued.
"This is very important, so listen up, little youkai. Trust no one. Don't turn your back to anyone. Even your closest friends, don't take their words for anything. Don't ally yourself with anyone, and if the opportunity presents itself, save yourself before anyone else. Integrity, honor, pride, these traits are all none-existent. Do you hear me?"
"You mean Okuu, Orin, sister? I can't trust them?" Koishi began to look a little worried, as if the words were finally starting to sink in.
"...No. I'm sorry." the voice's tone suddenly changed. Was that sorrow? Remorse? Guilt? "I- I should just... Bah, whatever."
"Huh? What were you gonna say?"
"...Little youkai. Take this." Koishi suddenly turned over her own palm to see a stone charm that had been placed right in its middle. When did that happen?
The satori turned over the charm and saw that she immediately recognized the phrase that was engraved.
Courage.
Suddenly, without warning, the youkai felt a small ding in the center of her mind. A sudden warmth spread from her toes all the way through her nose. She could feel her subconscious being prodded by an invisible force, trying its hardest to comprehend.
Unafraid.
Koishi was startled by the sudden thought in her mind. She checked and saw her own third eye was still closed. Why was she feeling thoughts?
I'm unafraid.
This suddenly reminded her of the something. It felt like the time she had accidentally picked up the Mask of Hope, which temporarily gave her the ability to hope. However, the process of learning the emotion was never there, unlike now, in which she could feel her own mind unfolding itself. Like a crumpled piece of paper, her subconscious slowly unraveled itself, whereas the small word, courage, was wedged in before her mind could close again.
I can stand up to anything.
Koishi grasped her head, letting out a small moan. Feeling, thinking, everything was so... foreign.
This is exciting. I'm still unafraid.
She couldn't believe she was thinking, feeling. It was limited, as her mind was still incapable of any other emotion. But, she was actually able to think.
I'm ready for anything.
Koishi silently prayed that no memories would come back. While her own subconscious was cool and all, there were some memories that she just didn't want to return. For example, the one memory she tried to stay clear of is the reason behind closing her third eye. She shivered, trying to push it away.
Why try to push it away? I'm not afraid anymore.
"No... I- I don't want to remember!" the satori ran a hand through her silver hair. "D... Don't make me!"
"Little youkai. Something is starting. You are about to change the world." the voice replied. Suddenly, the wind picked up and the trees all shuddered, before the presence of the voice completely vanished.
"Hello?"
"Are you still there?"
"..."
Koishi groaned.
Okay, self, we're gonna have to get along, 'cause I'm gonna be here for a while. Remember me, silly? I'm your own subconscious. In a more poetic way, you can say I'm your own worst enemy.
"I know, I know" Koishi plopped back down on the tree stump she was sitting on. "Just try not to remember anything... Bad... 'Kay?"
Right-o. Self, I hope we'll get along.
Koishi felt silly for talking to herself, and to any other person, she would seem crazy for having a conversation with her mind.
But... Will you ever forgive me? For what happened?
"...No. I got rid of you because of the bad choices you made. So you better not try and get all buddy-buddy, 'cause once I figure it out, you're gone!"
Fine, you meanie-weenie.
"So... what now?"
I guess we just wait.
"O-kay..."
Something probably will happen soon. And when it does, I'll be ready. I'm not afraid of anything.
"Waiting is boring though... Well the weird voice said something about everything changing..."
Yeah, she was pretty weird. But take her word for it. She gave you part of a subconscious. She means business.
"'Kay. And, uh, mind?"
Mhmm?
"Can we stop talking like we're two different people?"
...Yeah, it's kinda freakin' me out.
Okay, I'm 100% here now. Of course, I still can't access every corner of my mind. To do that I'd have to open my third eye. And that's... Not happening. Whatever you say. 'Kay, this is getting pretty jumbled. Ewww, this is why thinking sucks.
"Reimu. Reimu. Reimu. Reimu. Reimu. Reimu. Reimu. REIMU."
The shrine maiden of the Hakurei shrine, Reimu Hakurei, was fast asleep. Her dark brown hair spilled all over her pillow, and her small body was curled into a red blanket. She was peacefully dozing in her own dream when a foot violently kicked her in the side.
"Reimu. Reimu. Reimu. Reimu." Reimu opened her eyes to see a familiar face hovering mere inches above her own face. Dazed and hazy from just waking up, the miko tried to focus her eyes on who it was. Realizing who the girl was, Reimu groaned and thrust her fist upward to connect with the girl's nose.
The girl flew backwards from the impact, her long, green hair flowing like water. She smacked into a wall, knocking a few objects from shelves around her. She clutched her nose with a panicked expression. A trickle of blood peeked through her fingers.
"Owowowow... Reimu, why'd you do that?" Sanae Kochiya, the shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine, asked. She fixed Reimu with an innocent gaze, her wide, green eyes pleading for an explanation.
"You shouldn't come sneak up on me while I'm sleeping." Reimu sat up and stretched her arms over her head. "You didn't have to kick me, anyways." Sanae muttered an apology.
"Uh, I was kinda just flying past and I saw that some youkai were messing around out on the path to the human village. There was about four of them, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to beat them..." the green-haired miko looked sheepish. Reimu groaned and let herself fall back down, throwing her pillow back over her head.
"You woke me for that? I thought you were like, the strong-independent-shrine-maiden-for-hire." Reimu said, her voice muffled by her pillow. "They're probably gone by now too."
"But-" Sanae was cut off by the flat pillow being thrown at her at a high speed. Unable to evade it quick enough, she was once again sent crashing down to the ground by the soft object. "I mean, we could find some other youkai-" she threw the pillow off with a pleading look on her face. "-And we could beat them up..." Reimu rolled her eyes with a grimace, but suddenly the sour look turned into a cheeky grin.
"Ohhhh, I get it... You're just-" Reimu paused for dramatic effect, fixing Sanae with a really intense, creepy expression "-lonely- aren't you?"
"Not!" Sanae was once again thrown off her feet by a slipper crashing into her cheek.
"You are! And you're just bored too, probably. 'Cause I bet Kanako doesn't have any services for you today, and you just don't know what to do with yourself!"
"It's because no incident has occurred for such a long time!" the miko threw the slipper right back at Reimu. "I was just starting to get into the hang of things, so I'm just itching to go out again so I can solve something!" Reimu dodged the slipper with ease, raising an eyebrow.
"So that's it? You got stars in your eyes from solving just a few incidents." the red-white shrine maiden stood up once again. "You going a little 'incident-happy', aren't you? You sound like Marisa-" she grabbed her pillow and put in on her head to resemble a hat.
"-'I'm so bored! Why can't something happen? I wanna blow things up! Ze!'" Reimu said in a lower-pitched voice from her own. Sanae huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I mean, I get where you're coming from, but after a while you learn to enjoy the spare time between incidents." Reimu tossed the 'hat' aside.
"But I'm so bo~ored!" the inexperienced shrine maiden stuck out her bottom lip for dramatic effect.
"Hmm." Reimu thought for a second. "Why don't we do a danmaku battle or something? That'd be fun, right?"
Sanae jumped up at the offer.
"That sounds awesome! I'll show you how strong I am now, right?"
"Ze!"
A human dashed through the woods on her broom. Dodging through the trees, she fled the barrage of danmaku being thrown at her at alarming speeds.
"Marisa! Get your skinny little ass back here!" Alice Margatroid shouted, throwing dolls and spellcards every which-way.
"Holy-" Marisa Kirisame jerked her broom upwards, thrusting herself towards the open air, just as a colorful laser shot past through where she just was seconds ago. "Shiiit!" the magician gaped as the whole tree burst into flames.
"I'm sorry! How's that? Sure, I might'a spilled tea on your book, ze..."
"It was my Grimoire! Do you know how long that will take to fix?!"
"Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!" Marisa dodged around a huge wave of rainbow-colored bullets. The magician wasn't one to apologize much to keep her pride alive, but at this point she knew she was, in her own terms, in deep shit. She knew Alice was always hot-headed, especially towards her, but even if anyone touched her precious book she would pound them through the earth to the Hell of Blazing Fires. Spilling tea on it? Marisa knew she was sure to have a fate even deeper than the former hell. I might even get disintegrated in some kinda nuclear reactor core if I don't get away... the magician felt sweat dripping across her forehead as she imagined her surefire demise.
"I'll sue you! I'll have you put in jail! I have a lawyer!" Though Marisa couldn't see her, she could tell that Alice was probably tomato-faced and squeezing the life out of the dolls she was carrying. Sighing, Marisa turned her broom and flew backwards so the raging puppeteer could hear her.
"Aliiice! I'm sorry! I know your mad, so if you can just let me go, I'll leave you alone 'till you cool off..."
"Let you go? What if I spilled tea on your grimoire? Huh?" Alice shouted right back with a threatening voice. Marisa bit back a retort about how many copies of her grimoire that she has. Figuring that Alice wouldn't calm down anytime soon, Marisa turned her broom back around and tried to speed forward as fast as possible. Alice was fast, but not as fast as Marisa's broom. At least the rain had stopped.
"I'll help when you're not trying to stab my severed head onto a stick!" Marisa stuck out her tongue as she flew out of the forest. Nearly crashing into the ground, she tumbled off her broom and steadied her landing by kicking out her legs and softly landing on her feet. Right away she realized that she was standing at the edge of Misty Lake.
"'Hope that little fairy doesn't show up..." the magician rolled her eyes.
"'Scuse me?" Marisa felt a tug on her sleeve and readied herself to swat away the ice fairy that seemed to find joy in annoying her. When she turned around, however, she just saw a hat right at her eye level. Looking down, she saw it was none other than the little satori with the closed eye, Koishi Komeiji.
"Eh?" Marisa turned to face the satori. "Oh, it's just you."
The satori, unexpectedly, looked taken aback.
"J-just me?" Koishi fixed Marisa with an intimidating look.
"Look, if you want to pick a fight, I'd be happy to oblige. I'm pretty bored, anyways. It'll take my mind off my angry friend, who's probably trying to sniff out my trail as we speak." the magician pulled a spellcard out of her hat, holding it out in challenge.
"Are you... Trying to scare me?" Koishi's eyes widened. Marisa expected her to back away, but suddenly Marisa found herself taking a step backwards.
The little satori grinned.
Marisa took another step back, grabbing the brim of her own hat with one hand while still holding the spellcard with the other hand. She opened her mouth in preparation to say the name of the attack, but never got the chance when she found herself underwater.
"It's not working, y'know." Koishi shrugged, the goofy grin still spread across her face. Marisa swam to the surface, coughing as she retrieved her hat.
"Holy-freaking-shit." The magician breathed as she gaped at the cloud of heart-shaped bullets hovering right above her. "What's with today? Maybe I should just go home and go to bed, it'll be tomorrow quicker. Ze."
"What, are you afraid now?"
Marisa suddenly whipped around as fast as she could while still in water, to see the satori was hovering inches above the water, just behind her.
"Uh..." trying not to make any quick movements, Marisa summoned her broom and climbed onto it. Koishi was still smiling, and Marisa had to admit, it really was creeping her out.
"Leaving? Does that mean you are scared?" before the magician could reply, Koishi suddenly swung her arms in a dramatic motion, making all the bullets drop out of the sky.
"Holy-freaking-"
"Shit?" the satori was suddenly in front of the magician again. Before Koishi could react, Marisa whipped out her hakkero and muttered a quick 'master spark'.
Koishi flew backwards as fast as she could, trying to evade it.
Why try and get away from it? Are you scared? the satori mentally asked herself. Making a split-second decision, Koishi stayed exactly where she was, watching as the huge laser got nearer and nearer.
Don't be afraid.
Marisa watched as Koishi stayed put, as the master spark completely hit her with full force.
"What the hell?" Marisa muttered. "T-this is weird... Maybe I should go tell Reimu...?" the magician dodged through the still-falling bullets and flew into open air. Straightening her hat, she changed her direction and sped off toward where the Hakurei Shrine was located.
"Owowowwow... Why'd I tell myself to get hurt? I coulda dodged that... But then it would have looked like I was scared, though. And that can't happen, no no... Next time, maybe I will dodge it. Ow, that hurt." Koishi stood up and hovered out of the rubble she was trapped in. Surveying the area, the brought her own barrage of bullets to a quick stop. In one swift motion of the arm, all the heart-shaped bullets evaporated.
"I'm not afraid to make anyone feel pain anymore... I can beat up anyone it want!" The satori crossed her arms, a look of both excitement and determination in her gaze.
Sanae stepped outside, taking in a deep breath of the cool, rain-soaked air. The rain had stopped, but the wind still smelled like mud. Finally! Sanae thought to herself. I get to show Reimu how strong I've gotten! I'd take fighting Reimu over an incident anyday!
Reimu walked outside shortly after. She stood, facing Sanae, about ten feet away from her. She closed her eyes as she inhaled.
"You ready?" Reimu exhaled, opening her eyes again. Sanae nodded enthusiastically. Pulling out a spell card, Reimu called, "Spirit sign- Fantas-"
The miko was cut off when a flying object flew out of nowhere to crash Sanae into the ground. "What the hell?"
Sanae looked up at what had hit her, to see a face mere inches from her own. Marisa Kirisame was crouching over her, literally squishing her into the ground. Sanae felt her cheeks turn red. Marisa winked before getting off the blushing miko.
"Reimu!" Marisa called. "Somethin' weird's goin' on!"
Reimu brought her hand to her forehead and groaned. Was anything ever not weird?
"Like what? Is there a bunch of dead people or something? Or an incident? Or is it some kind of gossip?" Reimu asked with a nonchalant tone.
"No no no... I'm all kindsa serious." the magician set her mouth in a straight line and closed her eyes. "Y'know that satori? The one who closed her eye?"
Reimu took a second to figure out what she was talking about, then snapped open her eyes when she remembered.
"Koishi? What about her?"
"Well, she's not s'posed to feel any emotions, right? Save for the time she accidentally picked up the Mask of Hope, she can't feel anything." Marisa asked for a verification. Reimu nodded.
"Well, she suddenly came up to me, and seemed to be looking for a fight. She started asking all kindsa weird questions, 'bout fear and being scared. And something like 'I'm not scared anymore'." the magician grabbed the rim of her hat and tilted it out of her face. "She then proceeded to attack for no reason whatsoever."
Reimu pondered the situation, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"That's not very much like her." Reimu looked up at the sky. "Even though she mostly doesn't have a reason for attacking, she's not one to act weird like that. Not saying she's not weird, but this is weird, for her. If you know what I'm saying. Are you implying that she might have gained an emotion, like when she found the Mask of Hope? Is there something running through her mind? Influencing her?"
"The first test showed that the Pivotals are working as they should."
"Shall we spread the word, then?"
The tengu reporter of the Bunbunmaru News, Aya Shameimaru, sat at her desk, violently throwing pictures around. She was trying to search for a good news story, one that would absolutely boost sales to the max. The tengu was furious, as many of her subscribers decided to stop getting her newspaper altogether.
"I'll show them.. I'll get a good news story!"
For the tengu, Gensokyo was at an unlucky boring stand-still. She groaned as she viciously threw the last picture towards the garbage can, missing it by a few meters. She suddenly felt something pecking at her shoulder.
"What is it now?" Aya snapped. She saw that her crow familiar was holding a sealed envelope in its beak. "What's this, another death threat or something?" she rolled her eyes. The tengu snatched the envelope and used her thumb to tear it open. She read through the letter, her violent expression turning more curious, then excited.
"This is great! But why'd they send it to me, whoever they are?" Aya looked back at her familiar, who suddenly was carrying a huge carrying bag in its beak. Aya grabbed the bag and looked inside to see a large amount of the exact same letter. At first she didn't understand, until she found a small charm included in the pile of envelopes. Carefully picking it up, she saw one word on the charm.
Speed.
Aya grinned as she turned it over and saw a small note stuck to it which read 'Happy delivering'.
"Those subscribers'll be kissing my feet!" the tengu grabbed the whole bag and threw it over her shoulder. Faster than lightning, suddenly the youkai was gone.
A/N
Eyyy! How're my peeps doin'? Ahh, don't ask. I just gotta say sorry for the short chapter D:
This is actually way longer than anything I've ever written, though ^^; I know, kinda pathetic... I don't write very much though D:
I actually first started writing this when I was at practice for a musical I was in (that foolishness is all done and over with now, it was "the Little Mermaid" and I was a seagull) which was on 3/22. So over the course of the last two weeks, I wrote all this out. In that time I listened to a countless number of Buta-Otome, My Chemical Romance, and SOUND HOLIC albums, I watched two whole animes (Kill la Kill, Madoka Magica (they're both awesome by the way)) I wrote a whole science essay, my grandpa died, and I was in a musical. Flflfl, yeah, these two weeks have been kinda crazy. I'm just glad I finished this chapter though. Finally, something to work on! :D The future chapters'll be longer, I promise!
Also, I feel like the line breaks are mad at me. I tried using a simple underscore as a break and it deleted it D: so I have to use the big huge lines I guess o3o
And I still feel like the whole first part with Koishi seems rushed ._.