Chapter 2

Apparitions Stalk the Night

First, there were two souls

One hunts the other one, while the other one ran for their life.

And then, there were none.

A cold breeze swept upon my face, dropping a single sweat from my forehead. As much as I want to run as fast as I can away from her, my leg won't move at all, probably because the sheer amount of terror I felt right now, or…

The insurmountable amount of excitement I've had right now. Not everyday you can meet a Touhou character, in the flesh, with your own eyes, without some proxy like artworks, games or something. But Rumia is the one I would've rather avoid right now, given the circumstances. It was nice to know that I just met a Touhou character in real life though. Or, should I put it, in Gensokyo.

If there's Rumia, then there should be... others. But that's not what I should be concerned about. Right now, my first priority should be getting out of here alive and head to any place that is safe enough for me to avoid wandering hungry youkai like her.

Asking direction to the Hakurei Shrine sounds like good idea if I happen to stumble into the Human Village.

With those thoughts, I gained some courage and determination to escape this dangerous youkai that's, probably, waiting for me to go panic and run madly without thinking for some plan first. Slowly, I try to moves my leg a little without making any useless noise that might makes her notices my attempt to escape from her.

"That's strange~"

But before I could move an inch, those lines made me froze in place again and snuffed any courage I have gathered. If a normal little girl said those, it wouldn't scare me to death like this. But if you know that she wasn't a normal girl, that she was a starving man-eating youkai, you probably guess that she's about to pounce you anytime soon.

"For a second, I thought a human was here. But I don't see anything… maybe it's just my imagination."

She starts to hovers forward slowly in my direction. Another cold breeze swept through my face as I waited for her to be far enough for me, so that I could moves away from her safely. After she was far enough to be not on my sight again, I sighed a breath of relieve and starts to walks in the opposite direction where she headed.

"FOUND YOU!"

Unfortunately, that is the biggest mistake I've made this night. As I try to walk slowly, I didn't notice a branch was in my way, and when that branch crack was heard echoing through the forest, she screamed those words in my direction.

Usually, those cute screams imitated by my fellow Touhou fans in MewTube would make me cringe at how cute and perfect they are at imitating Rumia's voice, even though neither I nor them never heard the real one. But hearing it from the real one only gave me a slight relief of knowing that even if I die tonight, I've heard one of Touhou's character real voices. Besides, she sounds cute way cuter than those MewTubers that attempt to imitate her voice.

Crap. Time to run?

Time to run.

Hearing those screams giave me the adrenaline and motivation needed to sprint faster than I usually do on gym classes that I usually took when I was still a high school student.

As I ran through the forests, I can feel that she's already tailing me by hovering toward me, even though I haven't looked back because of unexplainable fear I felt that if I look back, it would slows me down significantly. Because of the amazement I felt if I looked at her face? Or is it because of the morbid curiosity I felt at her dark sphere? Before I could answer that myself, I heard a strange sound coming from behind that sounds like a incoming bullet you used to hear if you play those first-person shooter game. I took a quick glance behind, and my fear was confirmed.

She's shooting magical bullet, or should I put, danmaku, at me.

It was only a single, purple colored danmaku she shot at me, but I didn't dare enough to stop and let the danmaku hits me to see what impact it would give to my body. Fortunately, I managed to roll forward in time before it could hit me right the back while avoiding a tree that blocks my path in the process.

The previous tree I avoid earlier was hit instead of me, and it gives a small, low pitched but piercing explosion sound when it does. The tree itself leaves a small burnt mark on the spot it got shot. It seems the danmaku itself gives a slight burn, but wasn't severe enough to burn a whole tree by a single bullet. Probably, it would do the same to my body if I get hit. But I wouldn't risk my body and my whole life only to prove my obvious theory was correct.

"Ugh, stop moving so I could hit you~." She says while continuing on shooting her danmaku blindly towards me. One of the bullets almost hit me, only missing by an inch.

I obviously can't do that, Rumia. If I do that, I would probably get shot and eaten alive by you. And if I get killed now, I can't meet other Touhou character. Well probably I would be sent to Hakugrokurou, and ends up by Komachi retelling my whole life up to the point before being eaten by you, but that's still a nope. Hell, I even haven't got the chance to see your cute face up close.

As my fatigue began to catch up only after 2 minute of non-stopping sprint, I began to lament my lack of exercises in my spare time. When I try to slow down a bit, I felt a rock large enough to obstruct my movement hit my foot, causing me to trip and hit a hollow tree right in front of me.

Shi-

Landed awkwardly and face first on the tree, I still count myself lucky as I still could evade a bit of the tree before getting all of my face mashed up with the tree hard, only managed to get a gash in my cheek in the process. As I try to recover from my fall, I look to my above, only to see Rumia's holding her both hands pointed at me, with palms open. Purple energies began to gather around her hand, and I can only guess that she's charging her attack for a one-shot kill.

What should I do? I already get into her point of view, there's no way to evade this one. Trying to run again would only tires me further, and she can easily aim me at that point. Or… should I bet? Should I rely on my remaining luck? After all, I only learned this move in video games…

I sat on the grasses while leaning to the tree. My plan was to feign surrender to her, while I don't expect any mercy, I could expect her guards down while thinking that I was an easy target, thus no aiming is required. I could try to dodge the bullet on the small window timeframe when she shoots the charged up danmaku, because from my split-second observation in seeing the bullets and some wishful thinking, it was pretty slow to begin with. Well, not as slow as a turtle, but certainly not fast enough like a real bullet. Although I was betting my life on it, this is the only chance I have.

"Giving up, are you~

don't worry, it will be quick and painless~"

The wind moves the grasses around me, and shaken the leaves of the tree I was leaning. The silence was only broken by the small humming voice of the energy gathering by Rumia. It was quite a melody, to be exact. The cut in my cheek starts to bleed a little, and I began to realize that if I didn't go back fast, either Rumia will chase me to death here in this obscure forest located in Gensokyo, or I'll bleed to death little by little, which I didn't really want to.

The clouds finally unblock the moonlight which I hoped for long ago, and the light itself shines at the very spot where I sat. With the help of the light, I finally managed to see her face at last, obscured little only by the dark sphere she created. The face of the cute, grinning little girl that wants my flesh so bad. Is she grins because she founds her dinner at last? Or because of the accomplishment sense she had right now, that she has successfully caught a human? Well, I hope it wasn't either both, because if my stupid stunt succeeded without a hitch, she would be disappointed.

"Well then, bye bye~"

Now!

As she lashes out the energy she's gathered at me, I almost caught myself too dazed by the beauty of the moving concentrated energy directed at my face. In a apparently slow motion, I managed to see the pattern of the danmaku. At first glance, it looks like a large purple energy that would surely disintegrate anything that it hits. But upon closer look, it was made and arranged of small bullets that was moving in harmony and straight to it's destination without any fluke.

Without spending another millisecond admiring the danmaku, I rolled sideway before the danmaku hit me. Although I managed to dodge it in time, leaning to the tree was a bad idea, as when the danmaku hits the tree; it was shattered and completely blown up, with its pieces flying toward every direction. I managed to cover myself from the tree pieces with my both hands while I was pushed back a bit because of the explosion, but I knew it wasn't sufficient.

"Ugh!"

I let out a small groan of pain when splinters of the tree gashes my arms. I still considers myself lucky because it didn't hit my vital areas, but nonetheless it adds more bleeding problem to me if the chase going to last until morning.

Running before she charges up another danmaku sounds like a good idea.

I managed to summon the every last bit of strength I had to stand up and start running again. While the gentle breeze that was flowing to my face when I was running is enough to keep my concentration without passing out, it didn't help too much with my bleeding problem both in my cheek and arms. The one that is pretty badly wounded was my left arm, and as my right hand was only gashed a little, I used my right hand to pressure my wounded left arm to stop the bleeding a little.

"Ahahaha, yes... keep running, I like it when they didn't gave up easily~"

I realized something when she uttered those lines. She's purposefully shot the danmaku slow so I could dodge, and she also let the chase continues on. I remember that the danmaku were usually used along the spellcard rules, and as far as I know, danmaku isn't meant to be some sort of hunting device. Judging from her lines and expression, I think she knew that even if I somehow managed to get even remotely a meter away from her, she can simply pounce at me full speed and happily enjoys a happy meal on this dreary forest. And the reason behind all of this mess was very simple.

She's enjoying the hunt.

And I am simply the helpless prey right now.

It's pretty sad to think that this might be my first and final run on Gensokyo.

As I continue to run forward, I noticed the bleeding on my wounds got worse. Not only just that, I also noticed that my line of sight got blurrier each time I took another step. The feeling was identical like when you're sleepy, but if pain gets any of your sleepiness completely gone, it didn't help too much in this case. As I can't keep going anymore partly because of my pain and the blurry feeling I experience, I let myself fall to the ground.

Expecting a soft landing to the grasses that surrounds the forest ground, I was greeted instead by an endless void when I face the ground. Without any time to react, I began to freefall through the void. Usually, if you fall from higher ground, you'll greeted by breezes and air that flows to your face. But this time, it's different. There was nothing, it was akin to falling deeper into sleep.

Crap, did I die...?

This sucks. I haven't even met others…

Well... Hakugyokurou it is then. Or maybe… straight to the Blazing Hell?

Guess I'll be seeing Komachi soon.

And thus, my consciousness slips even further while I fall into the endless void.

"Ugh…"

I felt like I just dreamed something very fantastic.

Before I open my eyes, I was expecting that I would wake up in a futon, prepared by Youmu, in the Hakugyokurou while being briefed about how pathetic I died. Or maybe, I would wake up in a familiar looking shrine while Reimu and Marisa chat about random things in the balcony.

But upon feeling the surface of the bed I slept on, sense of disappointment overwhelms me. It was so familiar like my bed, and I realized that I was back on my apartment room upon opening my eyes. The sun already sets out in the outside, but luckily my room's curtain spares me the agony of being basked in sunlight before even I get prepared for it.

So much for being spirited away to Gensokyo eh… I guess it was only a dream after all.

A real vivid one, that is.

As I try to move myself from my bed, I noticed something amiss. When I took quick glances at my bed, I noticed it was soaked with fresh blood. While it wasn't too soaked like there was a murder going on or something, it was certainly horrifying. When I try to support myself with my arms to get up from the bed, I felt sharp pain coming from both of it.

"Argh!"

What... the hell..?

As I checked my both arms to see what's wrong, I get the most startling revelation.

Both of my arms were bleeding and wounded, exactly the same in the manners when I was dreaming about Gensokyo. I rushed myself to the bathroom to check my faces. As I got to the mirror above my washtable, my eyes opened wide in disbelief.

A wound in the cheek, and my clothes were dirty with dirt and grasses. I can only look at the mirror while lost at thoughts.

What in the world...

But... it was surely only a dream…

Or…

It wasn't...?

Chapter 2 Ends.