Gensokyo's Darkest Day.
Gensokyo, the land of illusions. It is the home of many youkai, as well as me, Hakurei Reimu. Some feel that this land is a magical world filled with happiness, friendship, and... magic. Well, you can call it that, but to me, it is a land of annoyances. Day in and day out there come various youkai who seem to have nothing better to do than to bother me. And then there are the incidents...
It has become quite popular, as of late, to stir up an incident, and to irritate me. Many are for childish reasons, ranging from taking over the world... to blocking out the sun... and just being bored and wanting to get your ass handed to you.
Yep. Gensokyo. The land of illusions... chaos and drinking. While it sounds fun... the 'fun' is reserved for most of the residents. What I get is a headache. This is just one of the many incidents I have the duty, and 'pleasure' of getting to resolve. It started out as just a normal night... but then the day would not come.
"Reimu? Reimu? Reimu! Hakurei Reimu wake up!" A familiar voice calls out from outside the shrine. It is Ruukoto's voice, and she continues to repeat my name until I get up out of bed. As I lift myself up from my futon, an anger vein appears on my forehead, as my robotic maid has just woken me up in the middle of the night.
"Ruukoto! What gives! This better be important, waking up before the sun rises is not exactly how I like to spend my poverty stricken life!" I berate the maid a little more than I should have, reminding myself just how poor the shrine is when I can see the light, or lack of light, from a hole in my wall.
"Miss Reimu, the sun has risen. My internal clock is reading 11:47 ante meridiem. I have checked myself for system error, and found no bugs in my system. I confirmed that it is indeed morning by performing a simple task?" She talks as various ones and zeros run down her deep blue eyes, doing something technological again... maybe this is why I'm never nice to her...
"In Japanese Ruu! Ja-pan-ese!"
"Look up." I turn my head to the sky and see the sky, dark as night, but starless... save for the sun, which looks more like a full moon. The only ways I can tell the difference are that it has a slightly brighter glow than the full moon, there is no rabbit in this round orb, it still feels warm as day, and I know the phases of the moon because of all the youkai going wild on the full moon. It's supposed to be a waning crescent tonight.
"What's going on?"
"My sensors are reading that, while all of the heat and energy provided by the sun is still present, only 10% of the sun's light is reaching the surface."
"Suika!" The small oni gets up from a pile of empty sake glasses, in a drunken glaze.
"Bwah?" Her eyes are blurs, and everything she sees must be one as well.
"Incident, watch the shrine, NO DESTROYING!"
"Awight!" She jumps up, and throws off her outfit, digs through my closet, and pulls out one of my own outfits, complete with a gohei. Meanwhile, I start to fly off to see one person who would either help me, or who caused this incident for her own personal gain.
It's become a habit to see this one youkai at the beginning of an incident, it always cuts out alot of the guessing, she usually points me in the right direction... Yukari Yakumo. I fly towards the part of the border directly opposite to Hakurei shrine, and stand in front of a small western house.
BGM - Necrofantasia
"YUKAR-" I begin to call out, but am quickly silenced.
"Calm down Reimu, I'm awake..." Yukari walks out of a gap, holding an ice pack to her forehead. She is flanked by her shikigami... and her shikigami's shikigami.
"Y-You're awake? It's around noon... despite the looks." I stutter at seeing this normally sloth youkai awake.
"Yes..." she says lazily, "this one is not one of mine Reimu, the day turning to 'night' is messing up my sleep schedule..." She yawns.
"One day without sleep can do that to you?" I sweatdrop, as Yukari walks back into her gap.
"Solve the incident Reimu... I'll bother you later..." She closes the gap, moaning as she does so.
"I know!" I call after her, and start flying away to my first guess. As I do so, Marisa flies at my side from above.
"Reimu, I heard ze!" She smiles, flying on her broomstick, and has a cheerful expression on her face. "Someone's messing with the sun, we gonna go find the culprit?"
"I'm going to do it anyway... it would be nice if you helped me instead of getting in my way." My own excitement long since passed compared to Marisa's, she just chuckles to herself.
"So, what's with all the weather related incidents, ze?"
"I dunno, but it's better than all the religion related ones..."
"So, where do we go first?"
"Follow me, I have a guess!" I yell as I bank to my left, and Marisa jumps out of my way.
We fly off, and of course, on our way to the culprit, we fight several youkai, riled up by the 'night.' But the worst part is, we end up fighting the most annoying, and most numerous youkai. Yousei, or fairies. We end up having to blast at least 1000 of them before we reach our target.
BGM - Septette for the Dead Princess
Remilia Scarlet - The brat who hates the sun.
Marisa is off to the side, blasting lasers at Sakuya, who wards them off with her knives. I stand in front of Remilia, who stands panting, holding on to one of her spears.
"Give it up Remilia!" I shout at her. "Bring back the day, now!"
"Ehh?" She blinks, "That's what this is all about?"
"Of course, what did you think I wanted?"
"To beat me and have a tea party." She says, shrugging.
"I wouldn't exert the effort; now just stop the dimming of the sun."
"I didn't do it."
"What?"
"Yep."
"B-But you hate the sun, and turning a plan that failed completely into a new one by tweaking it only slightly is right up your alley!" She turns to her maid, still in combat.
"Am I really that cliché Sakuya?"
"Yes mistre-" Sakuya turns to us and tries to answer Remilia, but gets blasted by a master spark for her troubles.
"Yeah... still wasn't me." Remilia sweatdrops at her maid, who is now embedded into the wall.
"Prove it!" I yell at her, and Remilia snaps her fingers. Patchouli floats out to the library, reading a book.
"Remi thought she could go out with the day like night." She says, not even looking up. "But there was still some sunlight seeping through, causing less severe, but still burns on her skin. If it was her or I causing it, we would have stopped by now, Remi always wants 'perfection' and 'elegence' in her plans, you'll find it to be true." She floats through another door, leaving as fast as she came.
"So yes," Remilia continues, "Either leave my mansion already, or play with Flan-"
"BYE!" Marisa and I fly out, leaving the Scarlet Devil Mansion in shambles. Remilia sighs as we leave.
"Sakuya..." Remilia looks at her large dining room as a piece of the ceilling falls to the ground, and the fairies start to respawn.
"Yes mistress..." Sakuya pries herself from the wall, sighing herself.
Ok, so maybe my first guess was off... but there is someone who controls the weather, and who would do anything for faith.
BGM - The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field
Kanako Yasaka - The goddess who can create, and destroy, the sky.
Marisa struggles against the wind, trying to charge right at Sanae like a comet. I stand in front of Kanako, and throw multiple ofuda in all directions, as I dodge flying Onbashira.
"Kanako, I know you're holding the day hostage for faith, so just give it up already!" I graze the flying projectiles, charging in close as the goddess sips her sake. Unfortunately for her, I get in real close before she can finish that drink, and I barrel into her with a large ying yang orb.
"Wai-" She starts, but I don't give her the chance. I pull out a spell card, while biding my time with some standard danmaku, and many smaller ying yang orbs fall on Kanako from all directions.
"Flare Sign~Lord Atago's Flame."The spell card dissipates, and several blazing flames appear around me, all homing inward to the trapped goddess. The pile quickly immolates, and explodes in a blaze of glory. "There, it's over, now give up."
"Alright alright..." Kanako gets up, allowing several burnt ying yang orbs to fall to the ground, and brushing some black dust off her clothes.
"Now bring back the daytime!"
"About that... it's not me."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, I'm not involved in the slightest."
"But then why were you just fighting!"
"Because nothing ever happens around here, you get all the outsiders it seems, and it was a good way for Sanae to get experience." The wind priestess in question had been beaten as well, and was now laughing like a madman with the maddest person I know. I quickly grab Marisa by the ear, and start dragging her by the ear.
"Owowowow, I can walk by myself ze!" Marisa complains, skipping on one leg.
"Come on, I want to be done with this incid-" Suddenly, a small blond girl pops up from the ground, grinning like a pervert or an idiot. Or both.
"Now you get to fight m-" She calls out, but I know just what to do.
"Not in the mood!" I quickly toss Suwako to the side, and start flying away, Marisa struggling to stay on her broom.
"Oy Reimu, calm down, look around at the nice scenery ze!" Marisa says, hopping onto her broom fully and starting to fly on her own accord.
"Yes, I can see it." I say as I blast a fairy out of the way. "All these 'beautiful' danmaku and danmaku patterns I have to weave through."
"No, look past the danmaku, the scenery is very nic-"
"You can look at the scenery later, let's just finish this!"
We go off, near the human village, passing the dragon statue with glowing red eyes, and go into one certain temple.
BGM - Emotional Skyscraper ~ Cosmic Mind
Byakuren Hijiri - the Buddhist who seeks to unite man and youkai.
"Alight," I say, pointing at Byakuren with Marisa at my side, Shou at hers. "Before we actually fight, tell me, are you the one that dimmed the sun?" Byakuren just smiles warmly.
"Yes, I am."
"Why!" I already have a rough guess, but I want to hear it from the culprit herself for this wild goose chase I've gone on.
"To truly unite human and youkai, we must first unite night and day, don't you feel so?"
"That's foolish, all that will do is cause chaos! Humans and youkai will end up confused by the night, and just end up fighting each other!"
"At first, yes, but in time they will get involved. The only way to make change is to cause a little disorder."
"Well I don't like it! Give up now!"
"Sadly, I must decline, shall we settle this by way of beauty?"
"I'm already ready for that. Dream Sign~Evil Sealing Circle!" Almost instantaneously, a red circle of talismans surrounds Byakuren, firing danmaku at her from all directions. I know Byakuren, she has a fear of seals, this will be over in a fl-
"Brilliant Magic~Frolicking Scroll!" Huh? From behind Byakuren, her scroll wrapped around her body, and many lasers, I would like to call them, fly rapidly around like wind. The 'lasers' are in red blue and green, unlike the normal yellow.
I dodge through the lasers narrowly, but one of them explodes into a mesh of blue energy, knocking me back. I thought she was supposed to be weak against seals! I quickly get up, and start to dodge again, firing charms and orbs at my enemy.
The fight is long, tedious, and strange. We don't use any actual spellcards save for our first two, and all she seems to use is globe danmaku patterns, much faster than her usual danmaku, but she lacks her 'flower options' like she had the first time I fought her. She plays defensively, but the result is still the same. Through tenacious dodging, with precise death-bombing, and one ruined temple later my opponent falls to the ground.
Then she 'poofs' with a cloud of white smoke, as the smoke clears I see a leaf on her head and that her 'scroll' was really just a tail.
"Ahh... you went and broke the illusion. ...Does that mean it's okay to drink now?" One tanuki stares at me through spectacles with a smile on her face.
BGM - Futatsuiwa From Sado
"Mamizou! What? Ho-"
"Double illusion." She points at Marisa who's now talking with Nue. "Any flaws in one illusion would be corrected by the second. The mimic of Byakuren's spell cards was just my animals moving very fast with seeds of non identification attached."
"But why did you do it!"
"To make you think you were fighting Byakuren."
"No, why did you dim the sun!"
"Oh, yeah, that wasn't us."
"What!"
"Yeah, not us in the slightest. Our illusions aren't nearly as fun at night."
"Then are you covering fo-"
"Not Byakuren either."
"Then why did you say you-"
"Boredom."
"...Really?"
"The last time I got to be in an incident you did all the work for me... and illusionist youkai are the most playful kind of youkai."
"Do you know wh-"
"Nope, sorry."
"..." I stare at the youkai, eyebrow twitching, and gohei drawn. She just sighs, and turns around, walking away.
"Ok fine, we're leaving, come on Nue." Nue floats up, and becomes a ball of unidentifiable light. She follows the tanuki out as Marisa flies over to me.
"Sure got us good, eh Reimu?" She says, chuckling to herself. "And here I thought I was finally gonna master the 'Curved Spark' spell I'm making up."
"Why are you so happy! We've been in three places, and had to barrel through so many youkai just to get here, only for us not to find the real culprit, and for all these 'masterminds' to waste my time!"
"Oh calm down Reimu, we'll get that sun back to normal eventually."
"At least Yuyuko gave hints when she wasted our time during that time with the taoists! But these three!" I stomp around the blasted temple, venting some anger.
"We don't need hints, we have your intuition remember! It'll lead you right to the culprit, ze!"
"Yeah... let me just think for a moment..." I sit down on a fallen pillar, and breathe in, and out. Has my intuition been getting worse? During that incident with the Taoists I was completely off... No, I'm fine. I jump off the pillar, and stand proudly on the wooden floor. "Once I get my hands on the ones who caused this incident I'll... I'll..."
"Have tea with them?"
"Probably! But before that I'll make them wish they never started an incident to begin with, I'll make them never threaten Gensokyo again!"
"That's the spirit!" Marisa chuckles to herself, and spins her broom around, stabbing the ground with the tip. "So, where are we going next?"
"Well, I have a vague id-" Suddenly,
"Oh, the world of Dharma is filled with light." Byakuren, the real one, walks into her ruined temple, smiling as she walks towards us.
"Sorry, gotta run, ze!" Marisa flies off like a missile on her broom, crashing through the roof.
"Yeah... you know, shrine maiden stuff, saving Gensokyo, fixing the sun, fighting countless yo- BYE!" I follow her through the hole in the ceiling before a danmaku pattern straight out of Makai blasts us to bits.
I hate illusions... but yes, I quickly catch up to Marisa, and point her in a different direction. We fly through a deep bamboo thicket, and end up meeting one of the great masterminds of Gensokyo.
BGM - Voyage 1970
Eirin Yagokoro- The Brain of the Moon.
"So..." I say, sipping some tea. "Do you have any idea who's dimming the sun?" Across from me sits Eirin, also taking a drink, while in another room Kaguya is sharing tales with Marisa, flaunting various Lunarian devices.
"I cannot say that I do... I thought you would have already resolved the incident before I could figure out the culprit." Eirin says after finishing her cup.
"I thought I would as well..."
"It'll probably be something you should have seen, but end up smacking yourself in the face for not seeing it sooner, or in hindsight. That's how it always seems to be for me."
"...You're not giving me advice just so I'll leave, and you can continue on with dimming the sun?"
"Honestly Reimu, even if I had the ability, what would I gain from that? I have told you time and time again that I have no further connections with the moon, and this has nothing to do with the moon anyway, it's affecting the day."
"Yet... it seems like anyone could have motives for such a plan."
"But less have the ability."
"But that's still a large handful of individuals."
"Well, the sun is a star, if you don't mind me talking about science; I know you're not a big fan, but it operates by nuclear fusion. The underground may be a good place to look for more hints."
"Thank you Eirin, for the advice and not fighting me on sight." I bow to her, grab Marisa by the ear, and start to fly away.
"Thank you for not destroying my home like the last incident." Eirin sips a cup of tea as Kaguya goes back to laying in bed.
Marisa and I fly off, down into the reclusive part of Gensokyo, the harsh underground, to call it hell would be wrong, but calling it old hell would be right on the money. While most of the youkai would be unaffected by the sun not shining, there is one who can, and usually would, use her power to affect the surface.
BGM - Hellfire Mantle
Utsuho Reiuji- The Bird-brained Nuclear 'Scientist'
"Okuu... did you turn off the sun?" I sigh, asking the bird in her metallic reactor.
"Unyu... why would I do that?" She tilts her head to the side, either playing dumb, or just being bird-brained.
"To take over the surface."
"How would that work?" She puts her control rod to her chin, resulting in a clean 'Thwak' as she ponders this.
"...Marisa." I nudge my friend, code for 'lie to the girl.' I know I can't lie, at least not well, but Marisa comes from another walk of life it seems, and possesses the skill of deceit I lack.
"Well Okuu, if the sun was suddenly turned off then the people on the surface would be in a panic, if the heat did not reach the surface then most humans, and even youkai, would fre-"
"MARISA!" My friend clearly missed the point... or just wants to annoy me.
"What?"
"Disregard everything she said." I turn my head to Okuu as I say this.
"But... if I turned off the su-" I interrupt the hell raven before she gets any ideas.
"Then Satori would very angry."
"Unyu..."
We leave the reactor, flying through the streets of old hell.
"So... where now?" Marisa says, flying behind me.
"I honestly don't know..."
"Well, I've got no idea, I'm just going along for the ride."
"Well then, follow me. I hope this works..."
I take a sharp turn, and start flying into the palace of earth spirits.
"Hey Reimu, why don't you let me pick the next stop, my intuitio-"
"Satori!" I call out, and echos resound throughout the palace.
"Oy, Reimu, I don't think we shoul-"
"Ah, Reimu." Satori walks through the shadows, and smiles at me. "I see you've reached the end of your rope and have come to ask for advice."
"Come off it Satori, all the clues are in my head, and I know you're smart enough to figure out wh-"
"While I could figure it out from clues in your head, you have nothing but red herrings and assumptions. It wasn't a youkai who did this, but Marisa."
"Well, I gotta g-" Marisa starts off, but is caught very quickly.
"Dream Sign~Evil Sealing Circle." A red circle of talismans surrounds her, but instead of firing at her, enclose her in a red transparent bubble. I turn to Satori. "Explain."
"Ahem. 'I can always steal stuff during an incident, ze! If I can create a vague incident, like one involving weather, it'll be impossible for Reimu to guess who did it, meaning I can steal from a lot of places, ze! And, if I go with her, her intuition will go haywire, because I'm already next to her, ze! It'll be so fun blasting through fairies and youkai, with all these new outsiders it seems like we never get to do anything, da ze~!' End quote."
"Ze..." Marisa sweatdrops from inside her little bubble.
" .Sa." To counter her sweatdrop, there's an anger vein larger than my head that's somehow stuck to my head.
"I know what you're going to do, so will you kindly take her off my property before you do that? ...All of my property, including Old Hell? Thank you." Satori walks back into the shadows, and I kick Marisa with enough force to drive her right through the ceiling... and to the surface. Because of this, the seal breaks, and Marisa just floats on her broom in the dark twilight sky, the 'day' turning to night.
Final Stage.
BGM - Love-coloured Master Spark
Marisa Kirisame- The Thief that Stole the Sun.
"Marisa? How the hell did you dim the sun!"
"S-simple my dear Reimu. I'm a master at lasers, which means that means refracting 90% of the sun's light away from Gensokyo while keeping the heat is a simple task for me."
"How coul-"
"Training ze~. You should try it sometime, it's great to see the fruits of your labor rewarded."
"Hey, I trained, did you see that flame from before!"
"Even when you train~, all you do is call upon the gods for assistance~, you lazy miko~."
"Why are you lecturing me! You're the one who should be getting a lecture! You caused all this... and for what!"
"Fun, shiny items, and a good time with my best friend, ze!" She says with a smile.
"Marisa..." I smile at her, and put my arms to my side. "If you were my best friend, you would have stopped this at Remilia." My gaze narrows, and I stare right at Marisa.
"N-now Reimu, let's not get too heated, you know that you enjoy resolving these incidents. L-look, it's resolved, I've stopped the spell."
"Oh? How would I know that? The sun has set, so I won't know till morning." I smile at Marisa. "And a quick correction, I'm a fan of beating the idiot who starts stupid incidents because they annoyed me. That happy look on my face is the satisfaction of ending the incident, myself. I can't just let you resolve the incident without a battle, that wouldn't be fun now would it Marisa, my best friend." I say, with a dark veil over my face.
"N-No, we don't need to have a sp-spell card battle, it's over."
"Oh, I agree, my spell cards would knock you out too fast. Hax Sign~Burn Everything wouldn't thank you enough. For such a wondrous incident I think I should do something a little different."
"R-Reim-"
"Hypercombo~infinite air juggle!" It's not a spell card, but more of a... skill card. The urge to say it out loud, however, is the same.
"Nooo-" One hit, two hits, three hits, I spin around in a circle, knocking Marisa inwards and rapidly catch her with another hit, knocking her back inwards. The speed of such hits increase with my own speed, reaching a blur that appears to be a black and white ying yang orb. After a good one hundred hits, Marisa starts to fall to the ground. She lands with a thud, coughing. "There, it's over."
"Nope. That was more than enough hits to activate fantasy heaven."
"Eh?" She pulls her head up, worried, and sees one hundred ying yang orbs, circling, glowing.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I meant, 'EX-Fantasy Heaven.' The the more ying yang orbs, the more damage." And this was why I was saving my cards.
"No, it's over, sto-"
"It's not danmaku if it's not flashy." I light up, and so do Marisa's eyes, as the ying yang orbs spin round and round.
And there's the satisfying sound of a resolved incident... which sounds alot like the sound of a hit box exploding. It is over...
Extra Stage.
BGM - (No sound, peace and quiet)
"And thus, another incident is resolved." I sigh out, sipping tea on the porch. The sun has risen again, this time granting all of its light down on Gensokyo.
"Yes Miss Reimu." Ruukoto bows, and pulls herself up near me. "Are you sure she should be doing all that work herself?"
"This punishment is cruel and unusual!" Marisa shouts from across the courtyard, sweeping the shrine. I ignore her, and turn to Ruukoto.
"Ruu, how does a vacation sound? I've heard you moping around for that... upgrade thing you want from Nitori."
"It sounds wonderful Miss Reimu, but will you be alright without me? Your work ethic is, if I must say, a bit lacking."
"I'll be fine, Marisa will do a good job while you're gone, and for awhile after that, isn't that right Marisa?"
"Like hell ze! This broom is for flying, not for sweeping!"
"Marisa," I start, sipping tea, "it's either this, or you have to return everything you stole. Ever."
"Grr... Yes 'Miss Reimu.' Sure 'Miss Reimu.' I'll clean the shrine for you 'Miss Rei-"
"Marisa!"
"Yes Miss Raymoo?" She turns towards me, teeth clenched. I tip my cup to her.
"More tea." She sighs.
"Yes Miss Raymoo."
"And smile some more! You already have the maid outfit, take in the grace!"
Author's notes: Well that's the short incident for Reimu. I think that this plot would work nicely for a fighting game, Marisa dimming the sun so she could steal all the stuff, Reimu blaming everyone else and fighting everyone, and everyone else in chaos from all that... Ahhh~.
So yeah, just a quick fic, nothing much, but eh, felt like I had to do something of the notion. RAYMOO NEEDS MORE LOVE! ...As do the Aki sisters, but I DIGRESS! With all these outsiders Reimu gets no love OR hate anymore.
Jack: Did someone call for an interrupting OC? *Gohei'd*
So yeah, to those folks in the United States, Happy Independence day! To those not in the united states, I'll still launch some fireworks (Danmaku) for you all, but hey, I hope this was a nice read for you guys~!
And don't reveal the twist, I'm asking you like ZUN asks players not to spoil the endings outright.
SPEAKING OF ZUN!
Touhou belongs to him. Or Team Shanghai Alice. Or his wife. I never know.
7/4/2012
~A Successful Businessman.