Darkness of Illusion
Chapter 2
Encounter
Reimu Hakurei was jolted awake by the near deafening noise. She looked around in a panic before she realized it was from outside. She rushed over to the nearest window of the shrine to see the Forest of Magic engulfed in flames.
"Marisa!" she cried out.
Reimu quickly got dressed. A shirt with detached sleeves and a red skirt. She reached for a staff with paper streamers coming from it, a shrine maiden's gohei.
She rushed outside. She made a gesture and a perfect sphere of white and black appeared before her. It split into two smaller spheres, those two split into even smaller orbs, and they each floated around her. Her Yin-Yang Orbs.
Reimu rushed past the gate of the shrine and took off, flying much faster than usual. She soon reached her destination to see that the place was in the middle of a full-blown forest fire.
She flew over the forest, swerving once to avoid a swarm of panicked fairies, fleeing the flames. She saw the mages of the forest casting water spells to douse the flames, but they were not having much success.
She soon came to Marissa's house. The small home was engulfed in flames. Looking in the broken windows, Reimu could see the flames taking on unnatural colors as the fire touched her magical items.
She couldn't get any closer to the building. "Marisa!"
Reimu heard somebody land behind her. "Marisa? Are you… oh it's just you."
A girl in a pink dress with small bat like wings was standing in the clearing.
"Remilia Scarlet?" Reimu asked. "What the hell are you doing here?" And where there's one…
"Milady!" Reimu looked up without surprise to see the vampire's maid Sakuya landing."
"Ah, sorry for flying so fast."
"It is no matter milady." Sakuya assured. "Have you seen her?"
"No, I'm afraid. And I was certain she would be here." Remilia answered.
"You still haven't answered my question. What the hell are you doing here?" Reimu repeated.
Remilia turned back to Reimu and said quite calmly. "Looking for my sister."
Reimu visible paled. "What? W-w-what did you say?" she stuttered, shocked.
Remilia was clearly enjoying the shrine maiden's panic. "You heard me. Looking for my sister."
Reimu didn't know what to say. If that insane, overpowered girl is on the loose…
There was a sudden burst of wind and the sound of massive wings. Reimu looked up to see two large reptilian creatures, something like flying lizards. In an instant, they transformed into two humanoid figures. One male one female.
The two of the landed next to the rest of the group. They both had blonde hair and blue eyes. The man had no hat. The woman wore a round hat over her head and a pair of earrings shaped like fangs. She carried a staff in her hands.
They were siblings. Vincent and Hotaru, they had caused an Incident last winter, raising the heat to the same as the hottest days of summer claiming to have wanted to create a desert. Not to mention a few other minor problems and annoyances. They were Gold dragons, or so they said, and hated the cold. They lived rather far away from the shrine in a mountain range near the other side of Gensokyo, a volcanic region primarily inhabited by wild and feral youkai.
Reimu instantly stomped over to him. "Vincent! Did you cause this fire?" She said angrily.
Vincent smiled, yet shook his head. "No. But I wish I had. Look how big it is! This is awesome!"
His sister stomped on his foot and then stepped forwards. "What my brother means to say is we're just as mystified as you are." Hotaru said calmly, while Vincent hopped around clutching his foot. "What did cause this forest fire? Do you have any clues?"
"Some sort of explosion." Remilia said.
Vincent ceased his hopping around and turned to her direction. "Vampire? And maid? You're here too?" He smiled a greeting. "How are things going?" He asked.
"Fine actually, we've managed to clean up from the last time you set fire to my manor." Remilia hissed.
"It was a big house, dragons hoard treasure and to my knowledge, the best treasures are found in the biggest houses. What's the big deal?" Vincent asked.
"You smashed an entire wing of my home! You're lucky it didn't draw Flandre's attention!" Remilia shouted, angrily moving towards him.
Vincent however appeared not to notice, still on another train of thought. "At least the vampires place was worth the trip. That place in the bamboo forest… that doctor can do some crazy stuff with needles...
"Pay attention to me!" Remilia demanded, the effect somewhat ruined by her being about half Vincent's height.
Hotaru sighed and walked over to Sakuya. "Please tell your mistress that we are sorry for any sort of problems. Despite my older brother's boasts, we have no intention of causing any more trouble in Gensokyo."
Sakuya simply nodded.
Vincent finally noticed (or decided to pay attention) to the angry Vampire. He looked down at her and picked her up by the back of her dress. She flailed her legs and arms wildly, but was unable to escape a dragon's strength.
"Hmm? Were you saying something?" He asked curiously.
"Do you have any clue as to what caused the explosion?" Reimu asked, doing her best to tune out the argument nearby.
"I didn't hear the explosion." Hotaru replied. "We came here because I detected a strange magical energy. I have at least determined that the type of magic isn't native to Gensokyo."
"So you saying whatever or whoever caused this, is from the outside world? I thought the magic in the outside world was very weak."
"It is. The energy felt like that of Gehenna or the Nine... " Hotaru paused and then turned to face the opposite direction.
"What is it?" Sakuya asked.
Remilia and Vincent had stopped as well and were looking in that direction as well. "I hear something…"
Reimu couldn't hear anything over the sound of the fires, she was about to voice this when she realized that the others had far greater hearing than she did.
"Someone's talking over there."
She quickly dashed off into the trees, considerately making a few gestures and causing water to douse the fires in their path.
The others followed, and stopped next to Hotaru who was looking at two figures from behind a group of trees and stones. Reimu moved closer and got a better look at them.
One was a man with black feathered wings. Reimu had first thought him a tengu, but no tengu she had ever seen had gray skin. He wore elegant black clothing that gave him the appearance of a nobleman and he carried a sword at his hip. The other figure had waist length silver hair, with streaks of purple, along with purple bat wings and a long thin tail ending in a triangle point. She was idly tossing something from hand to hand. Upon closer look Reimu's heart sank. She was holding Marisa's hakkero!
The man seemed to be upset, while the woman looked annoyed at the man being upset. "Do you recall what I had said about not causing too much of a disturbance? We are not looking to draw attention to ourselves at the moment!" The man said, with the slightest hint of annoyance.
"Well that human totally had it coming!" The woman argued. "Attacking me out of the blue, I say I was justified in my actions."
"Defending yourself was justified, dear. But unleashing that much energy, setting an entire forest ablaze just to defeat one human, that's just going overboard!" The man said.
"I suppose you do have a point. It's not my fault the Prime is so fragile though." She replied. "Anyways, what do you think this thing is?" She tossed the hakkero back and forth from hand to hand. "It appears to be magical, and it's obviously used for combat. But it uses a strange type of magic..." She examined the octagonal magical device, turning it over in her hands.
"Well we could have asked her, had you not reacted with such explosive force. She's probably just a burnt corpse, if there's even that much left of her." The man sighed.
"Oh don't be so dramatic, honey. I felt a magical shield being raised in the instant before I attacked. Doubt it was strong enough to protect her completely but…"
Reimu had heard enough. Ofuda appeared in her hands and she leaped from her hiding spot before any of her allies could react. "What have you done with Marisa?" She demanded.
The silver haired woman turned towards her. "What the hell is a Marisa?"
"I think it's the human's name, love." The man sighed. "Well, so much for avoiding drawing attention to ourselves. I can only hope Kyreth is having better luck…"
"And you say I'm overreacting. The answer is simple. The dead tell no tales… usually… so all we have to do is kill the witnesses." The woman smiled. "All of them."
She pointed at the spot where there others were hiding, and several green rays fired out, disintegrating boulders.
"Has anyone ever taught you that it's rude to eavesdrop?" the woman asked.
Reimu did not answer; instead, she tossed the talismans towards the woman. Her enemy easily dodged them. The talismans stuck to a tree behind her and exploded. The woman lifted her hand and red bolts of energy fired from the palm of her hand. Reimu easily dodged the bolts, getting in close before throwing more ofuda at her. The woman disappeared, reappearing behind Reimu. A leg sweep sent the shrine maiden to the ground. She looked up to see more red bolts forming when suddenly there was a distortion in the air. Sakuya appeared behind the stranger, a knife in one hand and her signature pocket watch in the other. Sakuya immediately pressed her knife against the enemy's throat.
"A clever trick." The woman said. "Now this place seems even more interesting. I would love to learn how you did that, but I am rather preoccupied at the moment. Wait your turn."
Her body crackled with electricity, leaping to the metal blade of the knife and straight into Sakuya's body. She cried out and collapsed to the ground, her body shaking. The others joined into the fight. Remilia was suddenly holding a red spear in her hand. She flew towards the strange woman, but again, the woman disappeared, before reappearing right above Remilia. A kick sent the vampire crashing into the ground.
Vincent charged at the woman, letting lose a blast of flame from his mouth. The woman gestured with her hands and the fire passed harmlessly to either side. When her view cleared, Hotaru had taken the opportunity to get in close and strike with the staff. The woman's reflexes were top notch though. She caught the staff in one hand and placed another hand on Hotaru's stomach. She was blasted back into a tree. Vincent removed his gloves, revealing hands with golden-scaled claws. He slashed his claws at the woman, but she dodged away from the slashes and then fired a red bolt of energy. Vincent was hit and sent flying backwards.
Meanwhile, Remilia had already stood up. "Where is Flandre?" she demanded.
"The hell is a Flandre?" The woman asked.
"I think it's a type of gelatinous dessert." Said the man.
"Why is she asking for sweets?"
"Flandre is my sister! Where is she? What have you done with her?"
"Gah… mortal names are so odd… and I haven't seen anything called a 'Flandre'"
Remilia cried out in rage. She lifted the spear, which glowed with a red light and shouted. "Divine Spear, 'Spear the Gungnir'!"
She hurled the spear, blazing with red energy, straight at the stranger. It was a direct hit and blasted the woman back, demolishing a line of trees along the way. Surprisingly the woman was still standing, despite the fact that part of her dress was torn, and she was bleeding from several open wounds on her body.
She stumbled back, with a slightly annoyed expression. At a gesture, the wounds in her body healed and her clothes repaired themselves. "I'm not going to lie. That actually hurt. But I guarantee this will hurt even worse!" She spread out her arms and a massive amount of black spheres appeared around her. The spheres transformed into the shape of arrows.
Sakuya managed to recover from the electrocution. The Gungnir would take time to reappear to Remilia; she needed to buy her mistress some time. She reached for her pocket watch and with the pushing of its switch, time froze.
When time resumed, the arrows went wild as the woman was forced to dive to avoid the knives that suddenly appeared around her.
Now to finish the job. Sakuya thought. She stopped time once again, and was about to reach for more knives when she felt something grab her hand. She turned to see the gray-skinned man. "I was wondering how you were doing that." He said.
Sakuya tried to break free of his grip, but it was like iron, surprising for someone who appeared to have little muscle. "You're stopping time, aren't you?" He said calmly. His smiled, not a sinister smile but a cheery one, as if they were having a peaceful conversation over tea. "Yet with such a great power, I'm wondering why you didn't simply attack her directly while she was unable to counter. I arrived at the conclusion that anything near you is unaffected, isn't it? It's how your thrown knives are able to have any momentum at all."
He figured it out that quickly? Sakuya thought. Time resumed as she attempted to break free of his grip. She managed to get a knife into her free hand and slashed his arm, drawing blood. She put some distance between the two of them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reimu hurling more ofuda at the other opponent, while Vincent and Hotaru had recovered. Vincent was bombarding her with fire while Hotaru let lose barrages of danmaku.
Sakuya figured she could afford to focus on this foe. She reached for her pocket watch, only to find it missing! "Looking for this?" said the stranger. "Now you see it…" He was holding her watch in his hand, and then with a flourish of his hand and a sweep of his sleeve, the watch disappeared. "…Now you don't."
The stopwatch was what allowed her to stop time, but she wasn't powerless without it . With a thought, she slowed down time. She threw more knives at the stranger. He didn't bother moving but instead tilted his head slightly. There was a brief flash of light and the knives were deflected. His expression changed to one of boredom. He looked up at the sky, before turning to the woman.
"Kanna, dear. As fun as this is, we do have a job to do."
Kanna flicked her wrist, and her opponents were sent flying back. She sighed. "Fine,"
"Hey!" Reimu shouted. "You can't just leave!"
"Oh relax. I've got plenty of people for you to play with right here." Kanna snapped her fingers and several black circles appeared on the ground.
"Ta-ta now!" She said tauntingly. Both she and the strange man disappeared in a flash of light.
From each of the circles on the ground, some sort of creature arose. They were hideously deformed, so thin as to look nearly skeletal. Skin stretched tight over bones, showing the ribcage even more than the most starving person possibly could. They appeared to have no stomach, their abdomen contracted straight to their spine. Their limbs were just as thin, yet each hand and foot had razor sharp claws. Their skull like faces had a perpetual grin, made sinister with razor sharp teeth. The most noticeable factor of all however, was the large scorpion-like tail, likely containing some horrible poison.
"What the- what are these things?" Reimu asked.
One of the creatures spoke in a language Reimu had never heard, its voice raspy like sandpaper. It then leaped at her, swiping its claws.
Reimu rolled to the side, to avoid the attack and flicked her wrist. More ofuda appeared in her hand. She was about to throw them when the creature spun and struck Reimu in the side with a backhanded blow. It had amazing strength, despite appearing to have no muscle whatsoever. She was knocked back and rolled along the ground, dazed. Two more of the monsters advanced towards her, all the while speaking in that odd language. They raised their tails, preparing to impale her.
"Lightning Sign 'Wild Bolt!'"
Reimu felt her hair stand up on end as bolts of electricity blasted the creatures back. They hit a nearby tree and lay still. Shortly after their bodies dispersed into a dark cloud that quickly faded away. Reimu looked up to see Hotaru holding her staff like a gun, the tip of it still crackling with electricity. She had used one of her spell cards.
The other creatures were undeterred by the loss of their comrades. The one that had struck Reimu leaped towards Hotaru, only for knives to embed themselves in its chest. The creature stumbled back and then collapsed, its body dispersed into darkness shortly afterwards. Reimu rolled to the side as another of the monsters jabbed it's stinger down at her. She quickly flipped back onto her feet and hurled ofuda at it. She leaped back as they exploded, taking the monster with them. She turned to see Remilia duck beneath the claws of another and strike upwards with her spear, eliminating the creature.
The remaining monster was attacking Vincent with its stinger. Vincent dodged the strike and caught the stinger in his hand and then lifted the enemy off the ground and hurled it into a tree with such force that it the tree was snapped in half and the monster faded away.
"What were those things? Some kind of youkai?" Reimu asked.
Vincent's expression was serious for once. "Again… why must it be so?"He said to himself before noticing Reimu. "If I'm right… then-" Before he could finish there was a flash of light in the distance, followed by an explosion.
"Another explosion? What's over there?" Hotaru asked. She looked at Reimu and was shocked to see that she had gone completely pale.
"The human village!"
Wow, two chapters in a row ending in an explosion. I guarantee that the third will not do the same… probably…
Anyways, from this point on things will be getting a lot more serious, and more canon characters will appear. I finally added in some things from Planescape! Guess what their called!
Here's a basic description of some of the original characters I've introduced so far. The villains I'll introduce in-story.
Vincent
He's an 800 (approximately) year old dragon of the western variety, and has no relation to the dragon god of Gensokyo. He along with his sister, brother, and servants moved to Gensokyo rather recently (sometime between Mountain of Faith and Subterranean Animism), with humans moving in on the mountains he called home in the outside world. Vincent is responsible for a recent Incident during the previous winter where he caused the temperatures to rise to like the hottest days of summer, before being beaten by Reimu, Marissa and Remilia. Personality wise, he tends to be light-hearted and often drifts into tangents of thought, seemingly ignorant of what's going on right in front of him. However should the situation call for it he can act seriously, sometimes surprising others.
Vincent has made his new home in a mountainous region near the far end of Gensokyo, and has somehow managed to gain the loyalty of various tribes of reptile youkai.
Hotaru
Vincent's 600 (approx.) year old sister. She's a lot more level headed and displays far more common sense then her older brother, often reprimanding him for his chaotic behavior. She is a magician and her specialty is summoning though she is not limited to that style. Hotaru handles the magic needs for the family and she is the one who created the summer heat spell at Vincent's request.
Both of them have the ability to shapeshift. They nowadays spend most of their time in human form, far better to interact with the residents of Gensokyo.
I realized that I could have explained all this in story, but the reason for me not doing so is that I'm lazy. Maybe once this story is finished, or at some point whenever, I'll make a side story about that incident.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a review or a comment. Not only does it tell me what I could do better or change, but it also lets me know that people are actually interested in this.
~Dragonexx