Prologue:
*Boom!*
The fireball made contact with the ground. Sizzling hot earth flew in all directions. More fireballs hit the earth as Reimu dodged past. Waves of bullets. She flew upward to avoid the dense cloud of water droplet danmaku.
"Tch..."
She's going all out this match.
In the distance, Patchouli hovered close to the ground, obscured by the mass of elemental danmaku. Despite the arrays of projectiles and bullets, Reimu's reflexes, coupled with her intense focus, prevented her from being hit. That was all she could do however, as Patchouli's unending barrage left her with no openings for any type of push or counter-attack.
This was Reimu's first match against Patchouli since the start of the Competition. Her plan was quite different from the usual, but much simpler. Get in close, then kick her in the face. Unfortunately, Reimu did not predict such a fierce resistance.
Without warning, a several pairs of fireballs streaked in from the sides, catching Reimu by surprise. She darted upward in alarm, failing to see the wall of danmaku closing in from the front.
Emergency stop! A twist to the left and... bend! She narrowly slipped through the wall.
That was a bit too close for comf... Ack!
However, the maneuver had slowed her down enough to prevent her from clearing the flaming projectiles. Reimu tried to flip upward, but it was too late. A wave of heat streaked past her hip, sending the scent of burnt clothing into the air.
"Hey, knock it off with the fireballs!"
Not a second after her remark, several shafts of wood hurtled towards her from multiple directions. Reimu took a steep dive.
"What's up with you all of a sudden?"
More shafts. More bullets. Water bullets. Energy bullets. Thankfully, no fire bullets, but still!
Patchouli yelled to Reimu from across the arena field.
"Don't you see? This is my chance! I have always had the potential to beat you, always, but... due to my physical condition I was never able to show you. Now, I am free! After all this time, let me show you my full potential!"
A shower of golden bullets, backed up by a sprinkling of water danmaku. Another close maneuver. The constant rain of danmaku had been on for about half an hour now and shows no signs of stopping. Reimu's plan had been completely shut down. She had actually moved back several meters!
Ugh, I'm getting tired. She's going to hit me soon. How in Gensokyo did she get so powerful?!
Then... an opportunity. Maybe Patchouli was getting tired. Maybe she took less effort on the design of this wave. Maybe it was just plain luck. It could have been for any of those reasons, but for a sliver of a second a tiny opening appeared in the cloud of danmaku.
There it is!
Reimu threw several homing spirit-amulets at the hole as it closed. Two made it through the gap, closing in on Patchouli from opposite directions.
Patchouli's eyes flickered towards the amulets. With an upward motion of her hand, several boulders broke free from the ground and rose around her.
*Bang!**Crack!*
The rocks shattered from the magical impact of the amulets.
"Do you honestly believe a few amulets could...?"
Her eyes narrowed as she shifted from an aggressive stance to a balanced casting stance. Several more amulets were weaving their way towards her. When she blocked Reimu's attack, her concentration over her aggressive danmaku weakened, resulting in a slight misalignment in her pattern.
A misalignment that gave Reimu another opening. A longer opening.
More amulets slammed into what was left of the remaining rock defense, leaving Patchouli with a handful of dust. Against the increased number of amulets, she was forced to summon up more earth defenses.
This in turn... took its toll on Patchouli's concentration.
Across the battle arena, the density of danmaku drastically diminished. That miniscule hole. That one tiny slip-up by the elemental sorcerer. Reimu grasped at the opportunity. Like a snowball rolling down a snow-capped mountain, her assault intensified. The first domino had tipped over. The counter-attack began!
Patchouli strafed past the new waves of persuasion needles. Globs of dirt exploded as they absorbed the homing amulets. Despite Reimu's new offensive, nothing could come within three meters of Patchouli. Although she now maintained a full defensive stance, scores of wooden shards and water pellets swept towards Reimu. No good defense is without its element of offense, and she didn't earn the title of 'Best Ranged Fighter' these past few weeks over nothing!
But for Reimu, it might have well been nothing. There's no point in being the best at range if you get floored by a kick to the face. This was why she decided to change up her dueling style for this match. Reimu darted forward as she kept up the counter-attack. She had closed the distance. She could see the desperation on Patchouli's face.
It's time to get in.
Reimu took out two amulets from the insides of her sleeves. These two amulets were different from her usual amulets. A difference was their color, as these glowed bright yellow instead of the standard dull red.
The other difference... was their enhanced homing and dodging capabilities.
This is the end!
With a flick of her wrist, the holy spirit-amulets took flight towards Patchouli. They traveled upward in opposite directions. One to the left, the other to the right.
Patchouli's response was immediate. Several boulders smashed their way upwards into the air from the ground, attempting to intercept the amulets. Both weave their way through them, unhindered by their presence. Jets of water leapt up to meet them as shards of wood rain down from above. The counter fire from Patchouli trickled down to nonexistence as she poured all her resources and concentration into both defending herself from normal projectiles and defeating the holy spirit-amulets.
Yes! They're going to hit...
Abruptly, the boulders exploded in mid-air, creating a flak-like cloud of debris. A flash of yellow-orange light signified the end of one amulet. Only one amulet. The other; however, managed to evade even that.
Now it was too late to intercept. The amulet was too close. Patchouli raised a bunker of stone of earth around her.
With another flash of yellow-orange light, the amulet hit, sending clumps of dirt and stone into the air. The ensuing dust cloud obscured Patchouli's vision. Now was the moment Reimu was waiting for.
Reimu charged towards the dust cloud, her leg back in preparation. The cloud settled, revealing a surprised Patchouli, completely open.
"Take this!"
The red-white shrine maiden swung her leg with all her might.
*Whack!*
Her leg hit. Hard. Very hard. Too hard.
"What?!"
She blocked it?
Reimu's leg had stopped centimeters from Patchouli's head. The magician's arm was raised, taking the blow.
She could see her flustered face. She could see her sweat, flowing down in rivulets. She could see the exhaustion, the rise and fall of her heavy panting.
But most of all, Reimu could see Patchouli's firm determination burning in her eyes.
As quick as a snake, faster than Reimu thought Patchouli was capable of, she grabbed hold of Reimu's leg with her other arm.
"You didn't know?" *pant*
Although her voice sounded weak and was full of gasps, one could hear a hint of satisfaction and accomplishment.
"Not only did my energy and breath come back..."
Reimu squirmed in Patchouli's grip, trying to free herself. A futile action in a situation she would never have expected to be in before.
Oh great, this isn't good...
"My youkai strength returned as well."
In desperation, Reimu swung her gohei, but was interrupted as Patchouli pulled back on Reimu's leg. The pull brought them together at an alarming speed.
*Wham*
Patchouli's fist connected with Reimu's stomach.
"Ugh...!"
The hit knocked the breath out from her lungs. She stumbled backward onto the ground, trying to shift into a defensive position; but, before she could react, another brutal blow struck, this time on the side. Patchouli's kick sent Reimu into the ground a few meters off to the side.
This is bad... I underestimated her.
Reimu picked herself off the ground, just in time to see a ring of energy expand from Patchouli.
"It is over! Moon Sign (Silent Selene)!"
She casted her hand outward, summoning a crystal blue web above Reimu. Blue beams of light shot down in a ring around her target.
"A spellcard? You think since you managed to hit me a couple times I'll be too weak to counter?"
Reimu moved her feet apart and shifted into her casting stance. From her sleeve, she produced a white amulet and raised it into the air. It glowed in anticipation, as if it knew it was going to be used.
"Great Barrier (Spirit Danmaku Barrier)!"
Reimu swung down with her arm, hitting the ground. With a wave of power, an orange light burst outwards from her, materializing into a box of hardened spirit energy.
This match is over as soon as Silent Selene finishes!
She was right. The match had gone on for a very long time. In these circumstances, both duelists would be nearing their stamina limit, Patchouli even more so. She had been the one firing the most danmaku. As defensive spell cards use less energy than offensive spell cards, Reimu would be able to gain the upper hand and attack while Patchouli recovered.
From the corner of her eye, Reimu noticed something wrong on Patchouli's face. Something very wrong.
There was a smile, and her eyes glinted with triumph.
"Last Word: [Purity of the Five Elements (Creation's Light)]!"
A radiant beam of white light blasted upwards from Patchouli's tome. The amount of energy radiating from it saturated the surrounding area, lifting her hair and causing the air to crackle. Even from within her barriers, Reimu could taste the metallic energy in the air. Five symbols manifested themselves on the ground, forming a pentagon around the shrine maiden.
Ehh? Last word?! Impossible! How does she have this much energy?!
The beams from Silent Selene aligned themselves to the five runes, absorbing the white energy. It climbed up the beams, shooting out rays of light at the web above. With a crack of thunder, the web collapsed onto itself, forming a crystallike polygon web above Reimu.
Patchouli was breathing heavily. It was obvious she was at her limit.
"I developed this technique recently... *pant* but was never able to test it! *pant* This is... the power of the triple elemental spellcard technique!"
"Whaaat?!"
The crystal lattice began to spin.
I-I completely underestimated her...
With no time to waste, Reimu poured all her energy into strengthening the barrier. For the first time in this competition, she felt fear. For the first time in this competition, sweat gushed down her back and trickled down her face. She was trapped. There was no way out. The line must hold.
I need more energy!
Reimu poured more and more energy into the barrier, making it glow as brilliant as the sun. Stronger and stronger and stronger still! The barrier became a dense wall of energy, and even then she still continued to reinforce it. Reimu's legs trembled. Her heart raced. She gritted her teeth.
"Guah!"
More energy! I can do this!
Moon, Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth: only one more remained.
"I... Win! Sun Sign (Royal Flare)!"
Thank you for reading! There are a couple of things I like to say regarding Legacy of a Different Gensokyo (LoaDG) that I'll probably append to the end of every single prologue or first chapter of the series.
First, do not consider everything in this work to be Touhou canon. Many ideas are part of my headcanon and may be influenced by canon, but have also been derived from fanon or have been loosely defined by scientific theorems and self study.
Second, Touhou and all its characters are created and owned by ZUN. Any fan characters I may use are owned by their respective creators. Any original characters made by me are owned by me (obviously).
As the previous point implied: Third, this work is an Alternative Universe (AU) with Original Characters (OCs). If you absolutely cannot stand AUs or OCs, this is a word of caution. I would like it if you continued reading, but if you wish not to, I respect your decision.
If you have no clue what in the world Touhou is, you can simply google: touhouwiki net to get a nice wiki with tons of information.
I would highly recommend reading Legacy of a Different Gensokyo Prologue before reading LoaDG II or III, as it contains some valuable information regarding some new characters. As of July 13, it has not been published, but will be after the first or second chapter of LoaDG I.
If possible, please start from the beginning. You can skip around, but this is a continuous story. You might miss a few things.
Currently, my goal is for biweekly releases, probably on Saturday.
Reviews are always welcome!
I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the story, and eventually the series! Once again, thanks for reading!