Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor
Chapter 2- The Moderately Magnificent Mimicker
Hakurei Shrine, just after Patricia had left the scene...
"See ya later, Reimu! Have a fun day!" Patricia Hakurei shouted to Reimu, flying away slowly, before turning around and speeding up so as to catch up to her 'Aunty Marisa'.
Reimu looked on, and waited until Patricia was the size of a pinhead in her view before turning away from her herself, muttering, "Yeah, I'm gonna have lots of fun sitting around in a house on my own..."
The mild whirring sound which had constantly accompanied the air in the Hakurei Shrine's territory suddenly became apparent to Reimu, and she looked up at the source... the mansion which seemed to eternally belch out two great plumes of fire from its underside, and the sight caused her to soliloquise, "...hm, maybe I should torment him for a bit..."
Reimu floated up to the massive mass of brick, metal, rocket fuel, and countless pointless possessions, and decided to check if her 'sky-neighbours' were in. Instead of knocking on the door, like a polite person, Reimu decided to look into the mansion from the front window, and the resulting images that reached her retina, and by proxy, her brain, were somewhat confusing to the shrine maiden...
Standing in the foyer was a tall, youkai man with somewhat long, black, spiky hair, and a certain blonde-haired kitsune wearing a rather baggy, black cloak was standing next to him... these two people belonged here, however, what was off was the person standing opposite to them... for whatever reason, the ever-classy, self-assured Border Youkai was wearing her trademark smirk, and seemed to be calmly discussing matters with the two. While Reimu couldn't quite hear what they were saying, it was clear the man was somewhat unnerved by Yukari's speech, despite the relatively non-aggressive expression on her face.
Yukari pointed at Ran for a moment, and then hid her face with a fan, before disappearing into a gap. Reimu decided that now would be the best time to knock the door, however, just as Yukari had completely removed herself from view, her voice made itself apparent behind the shrine maiden.
"Well, hello there, Reimu." Yukari greeted, a slight hint of irritation in her voice, "It's not nice to snoop, is it?"
Reimu jumped out of her skin, and turned to face the Border Youkai, "Oh! H-hello, Yukari...I didn't notice you there..."
"Oh, is that so?" Yukari replied, every word's inflexion demonstrating how little she bought the priestess' excuse, "Well, you must be very busy if you're checking the windows for... integrity. What a devoted miko..."
Reimu looked away from Yukari with a certain indignation, "Just... shut up and leave me alone. Unless you have a problem with what I've done, would you kindly leave me alone?"
"Oh... I see." Yukari opened her parasol, and suddenly let gravity have its way with her, descending to Earth in a manner similar to Mary Poppins, "...good job with your parenting, by the way. You know, your successor may well be ready to deal with an incident soon enough... we'll have to see what comes up..."
Reimu rolled her eyes, opened her mouth to say something in response, but by the time she made any noise pertaining to speech, Yukari had already long since disappeared, seemingly while Reimu wasn't looking. Deciding that she'd do what she had resolved to do to kill boredom in the first place, she moved in front of the floating mansion's door and pressed the button to the side of it.
A ringing sound was heard, and after a very short wait, the door opened, revealing the black-haired man. His facial expression seemed a little worried, however, it quickly changed to an almost forced-looking smile, "Hello there, Reimu! What brings you here?"
"I'm bored..." Reimu muttered, "...I... uh... just thought I'd come over..."
The man's smile seemed to become a little more meaningful, as if something had picked up his mood, "...you were bored, so you decided to come here? That means you associate me with entertainment! That means my fake incident was a success! I'm glad you enjoyed it..."
Reimu rolled her eyes, "Don't infer that much from it..."
The man's enthusiasm refused to be quelled, however, and he somewhat joyfully said, "Come on in, Reimu..."
Reimu floated into the doorway, before landing in the foyer. The youkai man closed the door behind her, and he clapped his hands excitedly, saying, "Okay, I'll just put some tea on..." before rushing out of the foyer. After a pause, his voice was heard shouting, "Hey, Chen! Reimu's come over, you wanna come down?"
Reimu shrugged her shoulders, and walked towards the sofas that surrounded the foyer's fireplace... Ran was sitting there, somewhat quiet, her face looking like one that didn't want to be disturbed. Despite the painfully awkward atmosphere, Reimu decided to ask the kitsune the question on her mind, while the overly-enthusiastic mimicker was away.
"So... what was Yukari doing over here?" Reimu quietly asked the fox, "...and why is Dawitsu acting like nothing's happened?"
Ran's face briefly looked panicked, however, she quickly composed herself, "It's... nothing important. Yukari was just... discussing matters relating to... well..." Ran finally decided to use anger as an excuse to not tell her, and said, "...it's none of your business, alright?"
"Hey, as far as I know, you guys could be plotting something together!" Reimu pointed out.
"Yukari doesn't even like the ma- I mean, Dawitsu, why would she work with him?" Ran equally pointed out, "Not only that, but what would motivate Yukari to plot anything... if you wish to know, Yukari was actually discussing the lack of trouble-makers in Gensokyo... she was asking us if we were interested in a friendly fight... for the good old days. She had heard about what he had done for you and Marisa, and she wanted to have a fight herself..."
"Hm?" Reimu seemed quite confused by this story, "So... why didn't you break into a fight?"
"Dawitsu didn't want to get hurt..." Ran replied, "...given he was quite badly injured after his fight with you, I would be avoiding Yukari too..."
Reimu sniggered to herself, "Heh, you didn't get injured, and your part was very important. I bet Dawitsu has a lot of fun with that little outfit you wore..."
Ran folded her arms, and said, "For your information, he does! At least I'm having sex, which is more than can be said for you..."
It was at about this moment the rather cheerful, youthful-looking cat youkai of the mansion skipped into the room, holding a set of teacups, only to have her cheerful expression swiftly change to an embarrassed one upon hearing her mistress' last piece of dialogue.
Chen blushed, and mumbled in a slightly bitter tone, "Boy, do they have sex... here's your tea..."
The nekomata placed the cups of tea on the nearest coffee tables to their respective drinkers, and left an extra two on another coffee table, before sitting on the sofa immediately in front of it.
Reimu picked up the tea and looked into it before smirking a little... it was strawberry tea, and judging by the smell... it had sugar added. If there was one thing she could credit Dawitsu for, it was being a sad enough loser to memorise things like tea preferences... although that may have been something to do with his nationality.
Taking a sip before burning her tongue and putting the tea back down, Reimu sat back on her sofa, and asked, "So, why isn't Dawitsu joining us?"
"He's just sorting something out..." Ran answered swiftly, "...just... matters in his office. He'll be here soon enough..."
Chen was clearly still mortified after overhearing Ran discussing her decidedly private matters with a visitor, and stared into her tea quietly, before saying, "Dawi said he'd be down in a minute when he had me make tea..."
Reimu was about to reply, however, a loud crashing noise was heard from above the foyer, followed by the sound of lasers being fired, finally followed up by a rather strange, artificial-sounding noise, some sort of clicking, before one last crashing sound.
After about a minute's wait, Dawitsu returned to the foyer, ash on his face and a tear on his blue cloak. Walking towards the sofas, he asked in a weak tone attempting to masquerade as a cheerful one, "So, did you make us tea like I asked, Chen?"
Chen nodded eagerly, "Of course, Dawi! What happened up there?"
Ran decided to answer, but Dawitsu got there first, "...oh, minor... failed attack test. I was trying to perfect a cluster bomb, you see... and I guess I forgot to install the pin, heh heh..."
Reimu's eyes narrowed... everything Ran and Dawitsu was saying sounded like some kind of lame excuse... they were definitely covering something up. Given that both of them were quite the incident causers, or at the very least, accomplices, Reimu's instincts instantly set upon the two.
"Okay, you two, tell me what's up." Reimu bluntly said, "I guess I've still got it... I was only intending on visiting you guys, but I stumbled upon Yukari, and you seem to be hiding something. Don't you know that I always accidentally find out what's going on around here?"
Dawitsu laughed nervously, "Look, honestly, Reimu, I know that I... have a bit of a track record with these things, but... I think your incident compass is a little wonky. It isn't me this time..."
Reimu rolled her eyes, "Look, you're not convincing me. Ran said that Yukari was here because of some lame reason... what was it? Wanting a little nostalgia herself? She's the freakin' Border Youkai, I know she's lying..."
Chen cocked her head, "Huh? Yukari was here?"
Reimu sighed, almost feeling sorry for the utterly terrible liars, "Okay, now I know something's wrong... I mean, you're withholding information from Chen. Chen was highly involved in your fake incident, so what's the deal with keeping her in the dark..."
Dawitsu's face denoted a clear uneasiness, and after another session of weak, nervous laughter, he finally came to a stammering confession, "Okay... okay, I'll tell you! Yukari was... Yukari was concerned about the situation in the underground..."
"The Underground?" Reimu's asked, her interest piqued, "What's going on down there?"
"Apparently someone's causing some serious unrest down there..." Dawitsu said, taking a sip of his tea before continuing, "Yeah, Yukari wanted to see the situation, however she's unable to... you know, due to the restrictions?"
"But you're an above-ground youkai too..." Reimu pointed out, "...how would you help?"
Dawitsu smiled, and clicked his fingers, "...well, Miss Hakurei, I may be classified as such, but my miniature clones... they're very much in the grey area. I got them to scout for me when gathering mimicry information on the underground youkai... well, they were also acting as Marisa's options at the time, too, but... oh my, isn't that nostalgic? Marisa was a cute girl back then, wasn't she?"
Ran gave her husband a somewhat irritated look, and Reimu slouched a little in her seat, muttering, "Can you please get to the point?"
"One minute, Missy..." Dawitsu quickly replied, "...anyway, I've attached what the outside world calls 'video cameras' to a troop of my height-deficient clones, and I've connected them to a wireless feed set up by Yukari... the noise upstairs was me sending a few of them out. With her set-up, and my clones doing the monkey work, we'll be able to check up on the situation. Hell, my clones may be well-equipped enough to handle the unrest themselves!"
Reimu was beginning to see holes in this story, "Okay, smart guy, why didn't Yukari go to Patricia about this? She was the one who wanted me to adopt a successor, you'd think she'd know the significance of her as an incident solver..."
"Oh, well... Yukari said she was too young..." Dawitsu's smile became somewhat condescending, and he flicked a strand of his hair effeminately before whispering, "...too... fragile, untrained, and weak to go just yet. I mean, the youkai of the underground are..."
"UNACCEPTABLE!" Reimu stood up and shouted, a motherly attitude suddenly overcoming her, "HOW DARE YUKARI, THINKING I'M DOING A BAD JOB OF TRAINING HER!"
Ran smiled in an attempt to defuse the situation, "...I'm sure Yukari is only doing it because she doesn't want the younger miko to die before she can be there to help Genso..."
"SHUT UP, YOU RANDY EXCUSE OF A KITSUNE!" Reimu screamed, "Okay, screw you, I'm gonna make Patricia go down there myself, just you see..."
Dawitsu remained seated, and he calmly said, "...see, this is why Yukari didn't want you to know... her plan is very delicate, and if you act like a spanner in the works, things could turn out for the worse..."
Reimu put her hands on her hips, "Just tell me, smartass, how many times has my way of solving incidents failed?"
Dawitsu sighed to himself, "...none."
"...so, who's way is better?" Reimu rhetorically asked, "You're not even an incident solver! You're not even a playable character!"
Dawitsu hung his head in shame, and Ran stood up, saying, "If you're going to shout, we're going to have to ask you to leave."
"Fine!" Reimu shouted, "But I'm not gonna be quiet about this! You just wait and see! Next time Yukari checks her little 'video feed', she's gonna see my Patricia kicking butt! And that'll teach you for saying I'm a bad teacher! You'll see!"
Reimu proceeded to stamp out of the house, slamming the door hard enough to make one of the foyer's many paintings to fall off of its allocated space on the wall. Chen sipped her tea, and quietly said, "...did I do well?"
Dawitsu grinned, "Yeah, we all did well... yeah, Reimu reacted exactly as Yukari said... I wonder why she didn't just decide to tell Reimu herself, though..."
Ran shrugged her shoulders, "Yukari is never one to be direct... hundreds of years under her command, and most of the time, it was Zenki and Goki who relayed her commands to me..."
Dawitsu shrugged, "I guess..." the youkai stood up, and his eyes met Ran's, "...I love you so much, you know that? We make a great team..."
The two proceeded to hug each other, leaving Chen to finish off her tea, before leaving in mild disgust at the sickening pair of sweethearts...
Marisa's House, the Forest of Magic, seven o'clock, post-meridian
Marisa, Jean, and Patricia were just about done eating the Bracket Fungus Soup that the former had worked rather hard on, and each put down their eating utensils with satisfaction, letting out a rather content 'Ah'.
"I never realised earthworms were the secret ingredient to the soup, Aunty Marisa..." Patricia spoke up first, "I mean, I've always liked it, but to have something so... horrible-sounding in it, it's just..."
Marisa shrugged her shoulders, "Ah, food isn't about looks... it all goes down as a disgusting mess anyway. Nah, it's about the taste... and hey, earthworms are easy to find if you know how to charm 'em..."
Patricia turned to Jean, "So that's what that 'tapping on the ground' thing was all about?"
Jean nodded, "It is difficult, but you have to make it seem like there is an earthquake going on. Once that happens, they crawl out!"
Marisa rolled her eyes, "Such interesting conversations we have, eh? This world sure is boring at the moment... not like the glory days, I tell ya..."
Jean decided to partake in some eye-rolling himself, and responded with, "...you mean the glory days in which everything was trying to kill us?"
"Well... that still happens, it's just..." Marisa sighed, "There's no real 'visionary' youkai out there any more, know what I'm saying?"
Patricia was beginning to get rather tired of Marisa and Reimu's constant talks of 'the glory days', days in which they claimed you had to solve incidents left, right, and centre, because all youkai wanted to do was cause them, for whatever contrived reason. Apparently there were some things that were guaranteed by nature, like a seventy-yearly incident involving possessed flowers, however, Patricia wasn't going to get to participate in such a thing... no, it'd have to be her successor... or her successor's successor... that was a scary thought. Over in Gensokyo, humans were like what tiny mayflies were to the outside world... they didn't live anywhere near as long as the creatures that made the world what it was.
Before Patricia could depress herself with pondering about her existential meaninglessness, she decided to call it a day and head home.
"Aunty Marisa... Uncle Jean, I was thinking of heading home..." Patricia said, getting out her hakkero, "Thanks for the gift, Aunty Marisa. Uncle Jean said you wanted me to have this too..."
Marisa grinned, saying, "Well, I just wanna see how jealous Reimu will be when she sees her sheltered little shrine maiden firing Master Sparks..."
"Well, I'll wait until I'm older before I show it off to Mum..." Patricia replied, and after a short pause, said, "...uh, I mean, Reimu. Thanks for showing me how it works, Uncle Jean..."
"It is no problem..." Jean replied, "Just remember not to bring it to your first date, or you may confess your love before blasting the area apart..."
Patricia blushed a little, "...Uncle Jean, I'm too young for that stupid stuff..."
"This is true." Jean replied, "I'll take you home, shall I..."
Marisa stood up, "Oh no you don't! We're all going together!"
Patricia shrugged her shoulders, not particularly bothered about who escorted her, "Whatever you guys want, I should be fine taking myself home..."
In the end, the three decided to return to the Hakurei Shrine together. As a party of three, practically all youkai in the forest stood next to no chance against them, and the feral youkai seemed to have developed a knowledge of whether or not humans were well-equipped or not... in other words, they knew who not to attack.
Once the three got to the Hakurei Shrine, they knocked on the door of the main building, and after a very short wait, the door erratically opened, with an equally erratic Reimu at the door, speaking in a highly erratic tone.
"Okay thanks for taking care of Patty while I was gone you can go away now thanks." Reimu very hurriedly said to the three, dragging Patricia into the house and shutting the door behind them.
Patricia was understandably rather confused by her adoptive mother's strange behaviour, and sheepishly called out to Marisa and Jean, "See you later!"
After a call from behind the door returned such sentiments, Patricia asked, "Okay, what's all this... weirdness about? I didn't get to say goodbye to Aunty Marisa and Uncle Jean proper..."
"...will you just be quiet for a moment?" Reimu snapped, stopping the teenager in her tracks.
"But I..."
"...listen, would you?" Reimu continued, ignoring Patricia's concerns, "...hey, you know that creep, Dawitsu?"
"Yeah? What about him?" Patricia asked.
"He thinks you're not ready to deal with an incident..." Reimu said, "...he's so stupid... thinks he can keep an incident to himself... though I guess Yukari's even stupider for thinking he could keep her secret..."
Patricia was trying to decipher any meaning from this speech, but was finding it rather difficult, "...in order for me to glean information from your mouth-noises, I need you to make the context clear..."
"Hey, less of the sarcasm, kiddo!" Reimu replied, "Basically, Yukari thinks an incident's going on underground..."
"...oh yeah, I heard her mention something about that..." Patricia mused, "Oh, but she said it was fine for the time being..."
"W-w-w-when did she tell you this?" Reimu stammered, shocked at how she was left out of the loop, "What did she say?"
"Oh, it was about a week ago..." Patricia replied, "...when you were sleeping. She just said that I may have to be prepared, but... she returned later, saying it was fine..."
Reimu growled to herself, regressing into a petulant teenager, "Well, I'm revoking that right now! Yukari is withholding information, I tell you! She's getting that Dawitsu creeper to send his kooky little henchmen into the underground to check on the situation... but I won't allow that!"
"W-why not?" Patricia asked, quite shocked to see Reimu acting so... childishly.
"Because she got him to do that because she thinks you're not good enough!" Reimu shouted, "She thinks I haven't trained you well enough! You don't wanna be called a weakling by Yukari, do you?"
Patricia was somewhat sceptical, surprisingly being the more level-headed of the two miko, "Are you sure you didn't just misunderstand what Dawitsu had to say?"
"No, he said that Yukari thinks it's too dangerous for you!" Reimu stamped on the floor, "Ha! What a dork! You've got to prove him wrong! Prove Yukari wrong! Come on, this is a proper opportunity to solve an incident! You can't let something like this pass! It's what I've been training you for all these years! You can't let my effort go to waste!"
Patricia thought about the situation for a moment, before she made a tiny little smile on her youthful face, "...well, I did beat two magician youkai at once in a danmaku battle today... so perhaps I can handle this..."
"No perhaps! You can handle this!" Reimu said, "Hey, consider yourself lucky! My predecessor was dead before I was your age, I had to train myself! Do you think I just sat at home and waited for an incident to come to me?"
"Yukari said your first incident solution was due to the shrine being destroyed, so, yeah, I think you did..." Patricia rather disrespectfully pointed out.
"Hmph! Well, at least I did something when the opportunity called! And this is that opportunity! Come on, Patricia, make your mother proud!" Reimu shouted, before quickly noticing her error, "...um... make... make me proud!"
Patricia's heart softened a little to Reimu's demands after her Freudian Slip... and she decided that actually, there wasn't any reason not to go underground and check out the potential incident for herself.
"Why not?" Patricia said, "You're right, Reimu. This opportunity may not arise again for while, so I might as well strike while the iron's hot, eh?"
Reimu hugged her adoptive daughter tightly, and said, "That's my girl! I knew you'd make me proud and show those nay-sayers a thing or two!"
Patricia wasn't prepared enough for the hug to even respond, and simply received the hug, too constricted to move her arms and return it...
The Palace of the Earth Spirits, the Underground, just after the former events
Satori Komeiji... the woman even the evil spirits feared, famous for both her ability to read minds and her reclusive nature. Although many residents of the underground city had their theories about what Satori did with her day, the fact was, she mostly sat around her palace, talking to her countless pets in an overly sweet, loving voice. While she came off as a snide, bored, cynical misanthrope to the majority of people, beneath her icy exterior was a very, very soft heart indeed.
At the moment, she was feeding her various non-youkai corvid pets, throwing down some kind of birdseed for the crows and ravens in her aviary, reading the relatively simple minds of the creatures with a blank expression. However, her peaceful moment was interrupted as the birds began to give off vibes of fear, and they instinctively flew away from the ground, landing on the various perches Satori left for them. The other animals seemed to be panicked, and a whole host of Satori's pets suddenly ran past her, each one's mind saying something along the lines of 'Run! It's a monster!'.
Satori scowled, her emotions slightly tweaking. She spoke aloud for once, and said, "Who's there? I'll have you know, I don't take kindly to you harming my pets..."
A response came in the form of several injured fairies flying Satori's way, before being followed by a massive, blue-white laser. The beam shot past Satori, who instinctively dodged, before she asked, "Who... who are you?"
A monotonous, almost emotionless voice echoed through the palace, "I am here to cause chaos. This is my duty. I am here to break the peace. Sources indicate that you are a feared and revered individual. You are a suitable target to attack."
"...huh? Where... where are you?" Satori asked, looking around in disorientation.
A whirring sound was heard, and finally, the voice returned, much closer to Satori's ears. The youkai turned around to see an almost transparent creature, who instantly slapped Satori with the back of its ghostly hand.
"I am located in front of you." the creature stated as Satori fell to the floor.
Satori opened her third eye, and tried to remain calm, "I... I... wait... I can't... I can't..."
"Your highly advanced Ampullae of Lorenzini are not compatible with my methods of processing outer stimuli." the creature declared, and proceeded to pick Satori up by the throat.
"W-what do you want?" Satori struggled to ask.
"I do not desire anything from you." the creature mused, "However, I wish to defeat you, and flaunt my defeat to the residents of the Underground, so as to inspire fear within them. Are you willing to comply?"
Satori fired a bullet at the ghostly silhouette, causing it to flinch and let her go. She proceeded to float into the air, and said, "Very well, you strange creature... Recollection: Terrible Souvenir!"
The silhouette moved as Satori fired a wave of bullets, followed by a spiral of lasers that pegged the creature in one spot. However, after waiting for as short as it could allow, the creature responded with its own attack.
"Appropriate counter attack has been determined. Memory Sign: Brain Fingerprint!" the creature stated, and released several green bullets outwards.
The silhouette dodged, dipped, ducked, dived, and dodged as it followed up its relatively paltry attack with several green orbs which slowed down in mid-air and disappeared. Satori's eyes widened, as she attempted to read the creature's mind in an attempt to confirm her fears... however, once again, she was fruitless.
...not that her fears were not confirmed in some way. The creature proceeded to say, "Detonation of cloaked bullets initiated."
With this, the orbs which had disappeared suddenly reappeared, this time far greater in size, and covering the majority of the battlefield. The creature's field of vision was obscured by the sheer amount of light, however, once the attack ended, it saw its target spiralling out of the air like a poorly-swatted fly.
The ghostly figure floated along the floor, and picked up the downed Satori. After a brief wait, it muttered, "Defeat of Satori Komeiji was a success. Awaiting return of powerful pets, known by nicknames 'Orin' and 'Okuu'."
The ghostly figure floated through the Palace of the Earth Spirits, occasionally shooting a casual laser to make the place look a little destroyed. It eventually took rest in an area it had deliberately made into a pile of shattered stained glass, and simply sat, holding the incapacitated Satori the entire time...
Whatever the creature was, it seemed to have no aim, purpose, or agenda... thus far, all it had left in its wake was a pointlessly large amount of destruction... what did it want? It didn't seem all too sure itself...
Author's Note: Yeah, it isn't too obvious what's going on yet, is it? I'm trying to confuse you guys, I swear... ha, I'm bad at this, I really am...
Also, this chapter is laughably short, come to think of it...