Touhou Gensokyo: Lotus Land Reverie
Stage 1: Phantom Night
Disclaimer: I do not own this or any of the other games in the Touhou series; that honor, as well as those [legal] rights, goes entirely to ZUN, who handles all aspects of the series with the exception of all artwork and some music from the side materials (The official manga, the fighting games by Twilight Frontier, etc.). About the only thing I own here is my interpretation of the events played out in the original source material, Lotus Land Story.
Author's Note: As I do not have a PC-98 emulator at this time and am, thus, unable to play the game this story is based on, some details, including the ending, will be entirely fabricated based on my own loose conjectures; as a warning to those who have 1CC'd Lotus Land Story, as well as anyone else who cares, THE ENDING WILL BE MADE-UP BY ME. ANYTHING I CREATE AT THE ENDING WILL MOST LIKELY NOT EVEN REMOTELY RESEMBLE ANY OF THE FOUR GOOD ENDINGS.
Otherwise, I did try to research the events, dialogue, backgrounds, attacks, etc. fairly extensively through the Touhou Wiki, TV Tropes, and some playthroughs of the game on YouTube. If I had any facts wrong, please make note of it in a review so that I may address the errors, if correcting them won't clash with the rest of the story. Finally, This fanfic is meant to be viewed in the default position (Default font size, default font, Full layout, Small E, and with a Light background). To anyone with a different layout - I apologize in advance if the layout of the fic seems a little weird, or if the way the words are set up hampers your enjoyment.
…
It was an entirely ordinary day. Of course, people in the outside world would normally be hard-pressed to call anything involving the fantastically magical land of Gensokyo "ordinary", but anyone who stumbled through the border that day would just find some beautiful, seemingly-uninhabited wilderness. Not even the exuberant, albeit dull-witted, fairies that constantly dotted the landscape flew out of the woodwork that day. In fact, let me retract my previous statement; a peaceful day like this in Gensokyo is far too calm to even remotely be considered normal. A better phrase to use would probably be…serene. Or maybe placid? Let's just go with serene; it just sounds better.
Aaaaanyway, I think the author's getting worried about driving away his readers with this pointless scenery talk (If you ask me, he was already starting to drive them away. I mean, did you see the Disclaimer and the Author's Note? Who reads those!) - Oh? What was that? "Aren't you the author," you say? Now why would you think tha- ohwaitnevermind. But seriously, I digress. It was so calm that it made a young girl, tending to her family's shrine, sigh in abject boredom. "Wonder if there's any work (something amusing) around," she wondered aloud, sweeping her broom to clean the steps in the manner of one of those stereotypical miko you see in anime and manga sometimes. Of course, "stereotypical" isn't exactly the kind of phrase I would use to describe this girl in particular, but again, I digress. Roughly ten seconds after stating her ennui to no one in particular, wave after wave of youkai, ghosts and fairies alike began assaulting the shrine. In the words of a [translation of a] certain beer-loving kannushi['s words] - You reap what you sow.
However, the epic tale of Miko vs. Spirits is not the focus of this particular story. No, that honor belongs to another young girl, one who, much like her shrine maiden counterpart, looks no older than 12. With a violently-violet dress, a matching purple hat with a strange bend along the top, an immaculately-maintained broom, and a small wand, this girl looks like the quintessential Western witch, or at least the apprentice of one. Even her hair, a vibrant blonde almost as golden as her eyes, and her name, Marisa Kirisame, supported at least some Western heritage. However, these looks of hers are not her concern right now. In the middle of the Forest of Magic to gather some more phantasmal mushroooms for her various research and reagent-related needs, she suddenly stopped, noticing an immense burst of magical energy coming from the mountains behind her friend (?)'s shrine. "Hmm…what's this magic power?," she thought aloud. Her thoughts were broken up by the practical army of youkai coming out of the woodwork and heading to that shrine, perhaps in a mistaken attempt to get that enticing new power for themselves. "Lovely. Where'd all this insane heap of magic power come from?" With more or less the exact same thought as those youkai, but with a more distinct idea of where the power was, she flew on her broomstick to the most suspicious mountain she could think of that was also behind the shrine…
…
(Heh. Betcha were expectin' that Narrator guy again, huh? Well, it's been, like, three pages of nothing but boring descriptions and notations, so I decided to really get this show on the road~. So, howdy. Name's Kirisame Marisa, or just Marisa, for short. I'm an Ordinary Black Magician, and this is the story of how I became the second best Incident resolver in Gensokyo!)
So anyway, like he says, I'm just flyin' along, tryin' ta reach the top of this mountain 'cause it's just bursting with arcane power inside it! I mean, I can't really explain it all that well, but seriously, if ya could see the kind of power coming off that direction, it'd probably be like a second Sun, or something. 'Course, you can't really see that kind of thing in the air unless you have Mage Sight or some other ability; no, what really gave the mountain away was the amount of youkai I had to beat along the way. See, even though most of the youkai were back at the Shrine, some of 'em headed past it to the path I was going through. So, I just beat the hell out of them and moved on, but that's just a given; small fry like them ain't worth worryin' about.
I was even able to power up my shots a little, thanks to the magic in the air. I swear, every time one of these Incidents pops up, so much magical power gets tossed around that you could probably put chunks of it in little charms labeled P or Point and hand it to people like candy! Boy, that was a weird thought. Might just be my imagination talkin'. Then again, ya never know; I bet Yukari could make 'em look like that lickety split, although I'm not sure why she'd do that. I'm sure those things would be really tasty treats, if they were actual candy, though. Still, that's not really how I see 'em; they look more like small, colorful balls of energy, though I can usually tell' em apart from danmaku pretty easily. Come to think of it, maybe I should taste one of' em anyway, just to be sure - NO! Focus, Marisa, you're startin' ta sound like that Narrator, or even worse, like Yuyuko when she gets hungry-
...
In the middle of her leisurely (For Gensokyo standards, anyway) flight, Marisa looked beneath her to see something burrowing from the ground. It's some generic flower-looking fairy midboss (HA! Take that, Ms. Ordinary Witch! This is for calling me boring!)! With that [rather petty] remark over with, the Narrator turned his attention back to the mid-boss, who shot some generic dagger-looking bullets in her general direction, all of which…failed to hit her entirely. Against her onslaught of stars and lasers, the poor thing never even stood a chance, being vaporized on the spot.
(HA! Like you said, Mr. Narrator - Energetic, but Stupid! And that's Ordinary Black Magician, to you! Now, if you'll let me take over, I can add the excitement that these people wanna see!) Not a chance! Do you honestly think you can do better than me at narrating? I think not! Even if we're not wanted, the people need to have narrators for these kinds of stories. How else would they visualize what's going on! Besides, you just skipped a whole section I was going to add about the look of the field! Now, all they know about the starting area is that it's along a mountain, and that some fairy dug a tunnel and tried shooting at you when she emerged! Do you really want that kind of loss on your conscience? (First of all, what else would you describe? That it's some kind of grassy field? That there's some river beside it? Seriously, the most interesting thing about Stage 1, besides the tunnel thing, is the random boulder or two that I passed by - Not some rolling piece of danmaku, but just some big rocks in the background! When that happens, I'm pretty sure we can be safe avoiding those sections, thank-you-very-much! Second, why dontcha just tell the people what they're supposed to be seeing? In fact, ain't that already what you're doing? Finally, what kinda Narrator insults himself so often? Ya know, it'd probably attract more people if you didn't make fun of yourself so much…)
I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped like that. It's just, I'm new to this whole thing, you know? I'm worried that, if I miss something, or if I act too haughty, people here will hate me for it…I guess I can give this job to you. If you really think you can do it better, like maybe showing the audience instead of blatantly telling them like I have, then it's yours. If you excuse me, I'll just mope in the corner now…
(W-w-wait, don't go all tsundere on me! I'm sorry, too. I mean, I never meant to say I'm better than you or anything, I was just getting frustrated because it felt like you were taking soooo long, ya know? I really wanted to show the people how I roll an' everything, but it felt like you were drivin' them away before I could get to them…If it really means that much to you, why don't we just work together on this? Why don't you work on the story and the backgrounds, while I make sure the audience really gets to know me better? Besides, even if no one likes our little spin on things, we didn't start this up because of them! We started this because we wanted to see this kind of world, but no one else had anything like it! This vision is yours, and it runs on your belief, not theirs! Now why don't we kick that Boss's ass and move on?)
...
(…You're on. Let's see what I can whip up, for now!) After a rather lengthy [and meta] conversation which, come to think of it, she shouldn't have been able to have, Marisa reached a point where she was suddenly assaulted by waves of danmaku seemingly coming out of nowhere and heading directly at her. Dodging with the skill and ease of a practiced magician, she continued forward, before suddenly slowing down and stopping in midair. Someone else's power was blocking the way, and if she didn't get past them, she wouldn't be able to reach her destination. "Oh? What is this? I can't go any further," she spoke to herself. As if in direct response to that statement, a youkai, much stronger than all of the ghosts and fairies she had faced on the way thus far, flew in front of her. Looking even younger than Marisa, her orange-red hair was topped by a yellow hat, both of which were nicely complimenting her simple green and yellow dress. As opposed to Marisa's wand, she carried a baton as her primary implement. All of these little details drew attention to a certain...feel...about the girl; despite her hair, her fair skin and her face, she and her outfit looked vaguely Chinese…
Ah, her. Heh, it's always pretty funny facing people at around her level. 'Cept when they're actually holding back their true power. Just feels real condescending, if ya know what I mean. Sucks all the fun out of a battle. Then ya get to wondering, "What are they like at full blast? Ooh, I wanna try!" At least, when you think like I do. Believe you me, in Gensokyo there's a lot of people who think like I do, or at least have that thought running through their heads. And sometimes, that particular train o' thought ain't much fun, either - sometimes, it's way more trouble than it's worth. If you gave me some coins for every time I asked to fight Alice at full strength up 'till now, well…Let's just say I'd be rich enough to buy the Shrine, destroy it, then buy it again. Then other times, just like this Incident, people like me and those legions of Youkai have a different question in mind: "That power is so awesome! Maybe if I get it, it'll make me stronger…MOAR POWER GIMMEGIMMEGIMME!" That kind of thinkin' can also be pretty dangerous, too, and, again, way more trouble than it's worth. The kind of annoyance I felt when I found out that I couldn't use any of the spells in Alice's Grimoire…those thoughts are kinda ugly. Maybe I can save 'em for another time.
So. Back to Her. Haa, I wonder what she'd say now if she could meet herself back then…Hmph, I'm losin' track again! Right, so she comes up to me, and says: "Where are you planning on going in the middle of the night? Flying around and all." Come to think of it, I was pretty surly to her back then; should I apologize? Maybe later. Maybe she won't take it the wrong way if I explain it; that power was pretty enchanting, even from there, and I was real anxious to get to the source of it. So, back to the…encounter, the rest of it goes somethin' like this:
"Just a little bit of work."
"Hey now, that can't be it." A bead of sweat slowly slides down her cheek.
"It is, so move. You're in the way." Marisa showed a face that implied some annoyance.
"Oh, really? Sorry, but I can't let you pass on a night like this." Folding her arms, she showed a resolute look on her face, as if attempting to look badass, but failing miserably due to how childlike she looked.
"I'll say it once more. You're in the way. Move!" The look on Marisa's face no longer needed explanation.
"I-if you want to pass, then you must defeat me first." Losing her composure, Orange nonetheless stood in the way.
"Well then, I'll help myself~." Closing her eyes tightly and showing a smile, the danger that the Ordinary Magician presented was even higher than it was before. The last sound made before the battle began was a tiny squeak from Orange.
...
With a flash and a snap of her fingers, the grassy field they were floating above turned into a small, dark field with a few stars, as if in imitation of the night sky. This usually signified the beginning of a magical duel in the land of Gensokyo. Following this seeming warping of reality itself, were what appeared to be small blasts of chi shot from Orange's outstretched fingers in all directions. Looking back at her, Marisa noticed she was now coated in a red aura, as if flames had spouted around her entire body. Dodging the first set of danmaku left her open to more of Orange's onslaught, wherein she fired larger bursts of chi fanning out of her outsretched hands. She then fired some more concentrated streams of chi towards Marisa, repeated the fanning blasts to lock her in, and finished by twirling her baton, unleashing a whirlwind of smaller danmaku that would be harder to dodge, especially after the storm of attacks she had started off with. After a second of nothing happening, she deeply sighed to herself, saying, "Wow, that wasn't so bad. Maybe I'm better at this than I thought!" However, as soon as she turned around, the young witch cleared her throat. "Was that all~?," she asked, that creepy smile still plastered on her face. An expression of horror made its way across Orange's face; as she turned back to face her enemy, she noticed that she had actually flown slightly closer than she was before.
"H-h-h-" "-How did I dodge that? It was pretty easy, you know~. It doesn't take a genius to find an opening and fly through, now does it?" "I-I-I-" "-Impossible? Do you even know where you are, little youkai? Nothing's impossible in Gensokyo." With that, she finally opened her eyes, and Orange took notice of their golden hue. Her passionate golden eyes, mixed with that smile that implied Orange to be the punch line of a funny little joke, made her even more frightening than if she had simply kept them closed. That expression made her look almost…demonic, in spite of her obvious humanity. Of course, Orange herself was too flustered to think anything other than ohmygodsi'mgonnadie! In response to the purple witch, who still hadn't fired a single star at her, she began firing wildly in every direction. Small bullets, large bullets, hands, feet, baton - it didn't matter what she shot or where she fired from, as long as she beat her foe before she really became the punch line of that joke. "You know, you look like you have some basic training under your belt. I'd think that you'd have more discipline than that. It's like throwing random punches and kicks in a serious match~," Marisa joked, flying closer and closer to the object of her ire. To that, Orange, having completely lost her cool, responded by turning her aura into a deep blue flame, and saying, "O-oh yeah? Well, you shouldn't underestimate me just because I'm a first stage Boss! JAOOOOO-"
While she fired herself up, she took little notice of Marisa suddenly standing up on her broom. As she powered up, she had closed her eyes, not noticing that Marisa was actually flying towards her. When she began her roar, Marisa jumped from her broom, plowing her backside into her hapless adversary's face. With one decisive move, the battle was already over.
Catching her broom in midair, the triumphant witch gave her fallen opponent a true grin before departing: "Sayonara. You're just the first stage boss, after all."
That remark, combined with her grin and the way she defeated her so easily, caused Orange to tear up in an endearingly-huggable fashion. "That was so humiliating~!"
Flying towards her next destination, that grin stayed plastered on her face. Aaah, I love this feeling I get whenever these incidents start up. Blasting through hordes of enemies, facing strong opponents, letting loose my full power, having the chance to improve my skills and get new treasures, books or magic - it's all so wonderful to me. I really have Reimu to thank; learning under Mima-sama was fun, but I don't think I ever would've discovered this feeling if it hadn't been for her. It starts up after beating the first Boss, then doesn't stop 'till I reach the end! 'Course, since this was my first real time solving an Incident, I wasn't quite that excited, but I still felt invigorated after givin' her a taste of my Bulletproof Bloomers! Really helped alleviate my anger, y'know? And, getting back to this Incident...
"Now then, next is…" The Ordinary Black Magician began, as she flew into another area. This time, she was greeted by a lake filled with blood instead of water. Where to go next, she wondered?
-To be Continued