CHAPTER 1. - A SUDDEN AWAKENING
My whole being is at pain…everything is dark and hollow… I feel as if I am dead… dead?... maybe, yeah… only the sweet methodical back and forth swinging of my body relaxes me. Feels like if I were being taken to heaven…
However, by some reason every second more and more heat engulfs me… each second makes that sweet rocking movement more wild and bumpy. From being pleasing, it quickly becomes annoying and painful, practically making me hop into the air. At times the sheer blind pain mi body goes through turns into a second plane as I hit against whatever is at my back. This… this isn't heaven… this feels more like… like
- Like hell!
- By the gods!.. Now this is something new…
Something is wrong here. My body hurts but I still can move around, even if clumsily. I look around me while asking myself if I am dreaming or really dead because of what I see. In my surroundings there nothing but darkness and fire, strange combination. The heat is so dry and suffocating that my lungs start to burn from the inside. The picture is so empty and shattering that the thought of having died looks more and more fact than joke, not even the cat-eared girl that's next to me can distract me from this sad view, it's like… wait… cat-eared girl?.
There, standing like if nothing is going on, was a girl portraying a curious long dark-green dress and hair as red as the fire around with to pig-tails to each side. Aside from that there would be pretty much nothing remarkable about her, could as well be describing a normal random person that you can see at any minute on the street, however there were another details to remark… her ears… not her normal ears which by the way where pointy, but what seemed to be an extra set of ears above her head, cat ears blooming with black fur, black as the ribbons that supported her braids.
- Hey… The dead are supposed to be mute… - The strange girl talks to me as she watches like if I were something curious to spectate.
- Then that should mean I am not dead, don't you think? – I retort rather annoyed but strangely confused. What is she talking about?
- That can't be… - The girl answers back with confusion of her own, however, unlike mine, in her's there's no annoyance but disappointment. – What a bum! And we were so close to the hell of blazing fires. Geez, I bet you would have made a beautiful pyre.
- I'm sorry but… the hell you just said?
I can't believe what I just Heard, did she really just said that her intention was to throw me to a fire?. No sir, oh no… no one cooks me alive. As I try to get up to get away from the crazy woman I find out that it is incredibly hard to do so… Whatever I am laying on makes it really hard for me to even use my arms to properly balance myself.
- What the hell?
- Hey! Don't shake up, you'll tilt my cart!
- Your cart? Do I really look like a lifeless body you can simply dispose at a common pit!?
- Well, you did a few moments ago, yeah. And please, it's not a common pit, it's an oven, it's very different.
- …
I don't know what's going on here and to be sincere, that smile the girl is giving me is only driving me more anxious. Despite the huge (and mysterious) pain that my body feels, I somehow manage to get down from that hellish cart. I turn back to the girl and noticed something I couldn't before because of how uncomfortable I was while in the cart. Tails…
- Ok, I want to know what business a weird cosplayer like you has carrying me around this place, babbling nonsense about dropping me into an oven.
- Cosplayer? What's that?... and I told you already, I thought you were dead so the only logical thing to do was to drop your body on the flames. Am I not clear or what?
- Hah, come on… a cosplayer is what you are with those cat tails and ears. And no, of course I don't understand!... who on his sane judgment drops a body within an incinerator… unless… unless you wanted to murder me!?
- I am not a cosplayer, I'm a Kasha. And why in blazes would I want to kill someone who I thought already had 4 days "dead"?
4 days?... that somehow rings a bell… wait a moment, now I remember. There was an accident and… and I was there. As I dig into my brain memories start to overflow. I remember the road that leads to the hot-springs resort, quite popular in my town, and the day before it had rained. We were going to the resort to… wait, we?... whose we? Agh, I can't remember, it's so frustrating!... however this girl might know something. As I observe her more and more I can't help but think that this is only a dream. Did she said Kasha?, the demon cats that carry corpses?, hah, yeah right.
- Sure, a cosplayer dressed as a Kasha, I'll give you that much, lass – I said sarcastically.
- You sure are stubborn. Maybe I should really kill you, that way we can both act as if nothing happened – She smiles as she tells me that…
- Good jo… ke?...
My surprise is big as I notice both her ears and tails begin to move in unison and in different directions regarding the movement of her own body. Also, several strange spheres appear from the dark and start to fly around her… I could notice small skulls inside those ghastly flames.
- What's the matter human?.. Did the cat got your tounge? – She smirks at me menacingly.
There was no reply from my part… while looking around me once again, I notice nothing that could explain such an effect and, being honest, everything looks rather real.
- Where am I? – I simply ask…
- Huh? You really don't know?... We are at the border between the hell of blazing fires and the Palace of Earth spirits.
- So… I am dead…
- I don't think so… You look rather lively to me.
- But you said this is hell…
- Yes, the hell of blazing fires, in Gensokyo… by the gods, will I really have to repeat every single thing I say again and again?
- Genso… kyo? W-what happened to me during these 4 days?
- How am I supposed to know? I found you at the entrance of the ancient city. For the whole duration you remained still so I decided you were dead.
- I see… you decided it, huh?
This doesn't makes any sense. I remember being at a car accident… how could I have ended here after such a thing? Something must have happened, but what? The heat of this place is starting to suffocate me more and more with every second I spend idle here… it truly feels like we are at a cavern, hundreds of kilometers underground… I need to get out, but how?
- Well, if you´re not dead then there´s no point in going down… guess I´ll go back – The girl places her hand behind her neck as she grabs the cart with the other one. With a firm step despite the perpetuity of the darkness, the girl starts to leave me behind. The hell?
- H-hey, wait for me!
- What?
- Do you intend to leave me here?
- Umm… well, yeah. I mean, you are not dead, no point taking you to the hell.
- You brought me here in the first place!
- Ok, ok, heh. Follow me then – The girl replies in a rather intrigued fashion. I can't tell if it's benign or malign. – But I tell you right now, I´m not carrying you again in my cart! I only transport corpses in here, you got it?
- Believe me… I hope to never ever again find myself in that cart – I answer with total honesty.
- Very well… oh, by the way, I am Kaenbyou Rin, but you can call me Orin, I don't really like long names, they are quite a pain in the tail, heh. – She tells me with a smile, literally "from ear to ear".
- Eh?... my name… my name is Makoto… Ichiharu Makoto.
- Maru it is!
- Maru?
- Yush. Didn't I just told you? I dislike long names, heh.
- Can you please call me by my name?
- What was that Maru? Said something?
- Damn… - Incapable of anything, I only sigh in defeat… - No, I didn't…
As I followed Orin, my doubts about where we were slowly dissipated. At moments the spheres were close enough for me to feel the strange and ghostly cold heat that emanated from them while these very flames faintly illuminated our path as dwelling torches. In a moment or two I could feel how her two tails rubbed against my leg and sense how real they felt. They were warm, like if they were indeed an extension to her body. I could also feel the warmth from the stone walls that shrunk around us with every step we took. Grabbing from it was painful thanks to its edged and sharp rocks, yet it was necessary as the path became more and more unforgiving and abrupt. The worst was without a doubt to look back… It felt as if thousands of eyes watched me from the shadows… thousands of evil spirits, all waiting for me to misstep and fall back into the abyss. I felt really relieved of having a return path.
- Where are we?
After all I have seen today, I can no longer trust my eyes. Where they once again trying to play tricks with me? From a cavern to a mansion? Seriously, what's going on?
The place was gigantic, it possessed windows just as big that, despite having blinding light from into them, wasn't enough to completely illuminate the vast hall. Pillars after pillars received us, all of them supporting what seemed to be pure dark… I couldn't see the ceiling at all. Anyways, these facts didn't really caught up my attention as the hundreds of animals that suddenly surrounded us. Cats, dogs, all kind of birds and even fairies were… wait, seriously? Fairies?
This place… it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I followed Orin all the way to this place but was now wondering if it had been a good idea. The place was eerie and full of critters… it looked like the perfect home for an old and crazy animal-lover.
- Old and crazy animal-lover?.. Well, I do admit that I love my pets but… old and crazy? I got to say that I feel rather offended by that comment.
A voice echoed from behind us, a not even remotely familiar voice. Orin and I turned in the direction the voice came from. She looked relaxed… I on the other hand…
- Looks like you had quite an unpleasant awakening… In name of my pet I apologize. After all she was just doing her job…
Every time that person speaks, the great hall finds itself surrounded on its echo. My confusion and worry only increased with every word that person spouted. This person nor Orin seemed to care about what was going on. From the shadows before us, on an aisle a figure began to take form.
- Do not worry, all those questions and worries have an answer, I'll personally help put an ease to such fears. It's the least I can do after what happened.
As the person stepped into the light, her attires became the prelude for who was to follow them. A long light-blue dress with pink frills on its arms and a skirt just as pink, with a strange purple-ish looking hair and fluffy slippers at her feet. Sooner than later the figure revealed herself… a woman as mysterious or even more than the one that stood right next to me. She carried an aura or respect and fear around her, like if for some reason she knew all and every secret of mine… even the deepest and darkest ones within my heart. It was like if that strange accessory that hanged from her chest, a bizarre looking eye-ball that hanged from several strings could look straight into my very soul as if my body was nothing but crystal clear water.
- I know it can be quite overwhelming for a human like you to wake up in a place like this, especially when you are not even from Gensokyo. Let me reassure you by saying that I wasn't eavesdropping on you two… as a matter of fact I just recently noticed your presence…
What's this? I haven't even uttered a single word yet I was receiving the answers to each and every question that crossed trough my head. It almost seemed like if she…
- As if I could read your mind, indeed. It is just like that. You'll see, the power to read minds is a rather scary power, but now and then it was its uses.
It was impossible… it had to be impossible… there should be no way that that could be true. But… but what if…
- What if it's true… well, that certainly seems to be the case. It seems you do rather comprehend to a degree what's going on, that's good… it will make it way easier to explain. You see… Gensokyo is a land of opportunities, where both humans and youkai can live in harmony the one with the other.
Gensokyo… that name once again. Something tells me that this place is like no other I've ever heard of from before.
- Heh, I see you're still with me. Very well. Then, I welcome you my friend to my place… to the palace of the earth spirits. Come, I'll have you some tea while we talk at ease… Ichiharu Makoto.
The Palace of the Earth spirits… Gensokyo… just in what mess have I gotten myself into?