Chapter 2
The Lost Mausoleum
Kaguya got to her feet. "What the hell are Shades?"
"They are," Mokou said.
The creatures that emerged from the surrounding forest were like nothing Kaguya had ever seen. Their forms were humanoid, but… well, not just inhuman, but… Kaguya had no idea how to describe it. It was almost like they didn't fully exist. Their forms were shadowy, and seemed to… to shift, or something. Even their coloration was inconsistent, always a combination of black and yellow but ever-changing. And the weapons they wielded were the same way. "What the hell?"
"Nobody really knows," Mokou said. "They just came out of nowhere one day. The day you attacked, actually."
"From your reaction, I assume they're hostile."
"They are."
"Are they all that small?" The Shades she and Mokou were facing stood at about half her height.
"No," Mokou said. "These are just one variety. Fairy-types, they're known as."
"They don't look much like fairies."
"They're small, weak, annoying, and there's a lot of 'em. What else would you call them?"
"Good point." A pause. "Um, are they going to attack?"
"I'm surprised they haven't yet."
"Do you think they're waiting, or something?"
"They've never done that before, but it does kind of look-" Mokou cut off as more Shades emerged, larger ones. "Okay, it definitely looks like they were waiting for backup."
"These ones are larger," Kaguya noted.
Mokou nodded. "Human-types; they're pretty average in every respect. This is a large group, too, larger than any I've seen. And I think they're ready to attack. Try not to die."
Kaguya took a ready stance. "You're worried about dying? Someone who's immortal? Is there something about these creatures I should know?"
"I don't know what would happen if they killed one of us," Mokou said. "They've never managed to take me down. But they've injured me, and although the wounds do heal, there's something different about wounds they inflict. Don't ask me what. All I know is they feel weird and take a little longer to heal. And hurt differently while healing. I don't know what would happen if the things killed me, and I'm not eager to find out."
"Right. Any combat tips?"
"They're resistant to magic," Mokou said. "Not immune; it just doesn't hurt them quite as much as it should, especially pure shots. You can't think in danmaku terms against these things. Distance also affects it. The best way to fight is with a combination of physical weapons and stronger magic at close range."
"Do they use magic?"
"Kind of. Almost all just random shots, and most can barely fire off any at all. Magician-types can fire off a hell of a lot, but I don't see any of those. The shots can be deflected or destroyed with weapons. Getting hit hurts more than you'd think, though."
"Can they fly?"
"Only certain types."
"Then should we run?"
Mokou pointed up. "Tengu-types are above us. They fly, they're fast, and they can put out some sort of field that slows aerial movement. They're less resistant to magic, which is good, because going airborne and trying to close in doesn't really work very well. They won't deploy the field if you're only a few feet off the ground, though, or if you're only airborne for a couple seconds, so you can use it for combat moves. Expect them to stay in the air and not attack us; they only attack if you try to fly, and they tend to flee if they're the only ones left, so we don't really need to worry about them."
"Right. Um, do you think these things are waiting for something? Is that why they haven't attacked yet?"
"It hasn't happened before," Mokou said, "but then again, neither has Shades just standing around like this instead of attacking."
"So something's different what the hell is that thing?"
The creature that emerged looked like a human-type Shade, except several times larger. "I've never seen one that size," Mokou said. "Looks like it's what they were waiting for, though, because here they come!"
The Shades charged. Kaguya was ready to meet their charge, but Mokou held her back. As the Shades closed a wall of fire blazed into existence in their path. They charged right through it, but not unscathed. Many were burned, and others were burning. "Softening them up." Mokou dissipated the flames. "They'll die quickly now. Go!"
The two immortals attacked. Kaguya thrust her sword through one's chest, and as it fell to the ground, she swung the sword through another one's neck. But although the Shade recoiled in pain, its head remained attached. "Huh?"
"Don't ask me," Mokou said, grabbing one Shade and throwing it into another. "They don't suffer injuries for some reason. Damage them enough and they die, but until the point of death, it doesn't affect them in any way." Mokou impaled a Shade until it fell to the ground.
Kaguya formed a magic field around herself. Reaching her would require passing through it, enduring the pain and damage it caused. But to Kaguya's surprise, the Shades did exactly that. Taken off guard, Kaguya was unable to react in time. They would have struck her if not for Mokou igniting them with her flames. "Really, Kaguya? You're letting them almost get you like that? You're a better fighter than this."
Kaguya threw a Shade to the ground and stomped on its head. "You've been my only enemy for hundreds of years. I may be a little rusty when it comes to fighting anyone else. Also, how the hell was I supposed to know they'd charge right through that? Are they suicidal or something?"
A group of fairy-typed leapt onto Mokou, only to be flung off by an explosion of flame. "I believe I mentioned that they attack mindlessly."
"Then why's the big one just standing there? Why isn't it attacking?"
"I've never seen one of those before. How the hell should I know?"
Kaguya leapt over a Shade and impaled it from behind. "How the hell should I know what you know?"
Mokou cut through a Shade vertically. "Shut up and fight!"
Kaguya sent a barrage of lasers through a group of human-types, keeping them staggered as she ran in and cut through them. "You shut up and fight!"
Mokou slammed a Shade into the ground and bashed its head against a rock. "You're the one asking questions! Right, almost done."
"Just a few left, but the big one's coming in!"
"I'll handle the big one," Mokou said. The only weapons the larger Shade had were its fists, and as Mokou ran at it, it took a swing. Mokou ducked under the strike, cutting at the arm as it passed over her. She leapt over it, spinning around and carrying a slash into its back all the way down its leg to the ground. It tried to kick her, but she ducked around its foot and cut it through the ankle.
The Shade turned around and reached for Mokou. Mokou jumped on top of its hand and ran up its arm, thrusting her sword through its head. It tried to grab her, but she pushed away and jumped back to the ground. The Shade faced Mokou and swept its arm close to the ground, sending out a crescent-shaped blast that caught Mokou off-guard. Gah! The damn thing uses magic?
Mokou circled around the Shade, waiting for another blast, and before long, the Shade fired one off. Mokou immediately charged the creature, leaping over the blast and thrusting her sword into its eye-or, rather, into whatever the odd-looking thing was that was where the eye should be.
Mokou rebounded off the ground. She stuck her sword into the Shade's arm and swung around, cutting all the way around the arm. Then she kicked off and slashed down the length of the other arm before rebounding off it. She landed on the Shade's head and thrust her sword straight down. The Shade staggered, paused, and then fell to the ground, dead. And like all dead Shades, its form faded away, leaving no sign of the creature that had been there just a few seconds ago.
Kaguya came up beside Mokou. "Pretty good. I finished off the other ones. And you were right about the tengu ones; they're gone. Why do the bodies vanish like that?"
"One more thing nobody knows."
"Right," Kaguya said. "Okay, there's the orange tint, these Shades, and I'm assuming there's a few things I haven't seen yet. Maybe you should tell me just what all happened over the last five hundred years."
"I'll tell you what I know. It began five hundred years ago, on the day you attacked us. I was underground and didn't witness it, but the beginning of all this was an event known as the Radiance. Many things changed in that instant, such as the sky, and it's also when the Shades first appeared.
"Nobody knows what the Radiance actually was, or what caused it; only its effects are known. Those include the sky and the Shades, and also…"
Many people died when the Shades appeared, but no deaths had more impact than those of Reimu Hakurei and Yukari Yakumo.
Gensokyo is a land separate from the outside world, a place for that which the outside world no longer believes exists. It is kept separate by the Hakurei Border, named for the family line that created it and has maintained it since its creation a couple thousand years ago. If the border were to fall, it would mean Gensokyo's end.
The border is tied to the Hakurei Shrine. Not the physical structure, of course; that has been destroyed multiple times. No, the border is tied to the shrine's spiritual properties. But that alone is insufficient to maintain it. It must also be tied to the power that created it, the power of the Hakurei maidens. Without that connection to a living Hakurei maiden, the border would collapse. And in the initial Shade attacks, Reimu was killed and the shrine destroyed.
By the date of the Radiance, Reimu did, in fact, have a daughter. And that daughter was not killed. The witch Marisa Kirisame did not arrive in time to save Reimu, but she was able to rescue Reimu's daughter, Renia. Renia was not yet a shrine maiden and did not have the connection to the border, but she would as soon as the ritual was performed. There was, however, a problem: Renia was an infant, not even six months old. Someone so young could not withstand the spiritual effects of the ritual; had it been performed, it would have killed her.
At the time, of course, I had no idea what was happening; Byakuren and the rest of us were far too busy at the temple. We, along with most others, learned of these events later on from Ran Yakumo, Yukari Yakumo's former shikigami.
Yukari's power over boundaries should have enabled her to sustain the border long enough for Renia to become old enough to withstand the ritual, but she found herself unable to stabilize the border. The Shades' attack had somehow damaged it. Somehow-likely because of some property of whatever the hell the Shades are-when they destroyed the physical shrine, they also affected it spiritually, and whatever effect they had on it carried over to the border.
Given that nobody knows exactly how the border ended up damaged, I should probably stop trying to explain it and get to the effects. The border had become corrupted, and as a result, it was resistant to Yukari's abilities. Which was a problem, as the border was beginning to collapse and Yukari's intervention was needed. But Yukari kept trying. She gave it everything she had, and eventually, she succeeded in stabilizing the border, as well as purging it of the corruption from the Shade attack. But what she did had two major side-effects. One of these, of course, was her death. She had given everything she had to stabilize the border, given too much, and though she succeeded in saving the border, doing so cost her her life. That was one side-effect. As for the other, well...
Saving the border had required Yukari to completely seal it. I don't know what exactly she did, but it had the effect of strengthening the border and making it absolute. Before, it had separated Gensokyo from the outside worlf, but after, it cut Gensokyo off from other worlds, as well. It is no longer possible to travel to or from the Netherworld, or Makai, or Higan (although it's assumed that people still end up there when they die). Gensokyo is cut off from all other worlds. The underground is still accessible, of course, as it is part of Gensokyo, and the same goes for heaven. But any place that is not part of Gensokyo, any place that was merely connected to Gensokyo, can no longer be reached. Gensokyo had been saved, but only at the cost of isolation.
When she was old enough, Renia underwent the ritual to become the Hakurei maiden. Yukari's actions saved the border, but according to Ran, it was still most likely not completely stable without a connection to a Hakurei maiden. Any collapse would take far, far longer, leaving a significant margin in case of similar situations, but eventually, even if it took hundreds of years, the border would collapse without a Hakurei maiden to sustain it. Renia inherited her mother's task, and she passed that task down to her daughters. Thus, the Hakurei line and its duty still remain.
"So basically," Kaguya said, "you don't know what this 'Radiance' was, and you don't know what caused it. It spawned the Shades, which you don't know the nature of. The land is basically dying, and you don't know why. Shade activity has been on the rise recently, and you don't know why. There's this 'Black Scrawl' thing that nobody knows anything about. Is that everything, or is there anything else you don't know?"
"Look, nobody knows what the hell happened, okay?"
"Yeah, okay, fine. Different topic, then. Why'd you get me out?"
"Excuse me?"
"It's been five hundred years since I was thrown into that room, but you only now got me out. Why? What prompted you to do so?"
"Nothing I'm interested in telling you about," Mokou said. "It's kind of personal."
"Was it the hell raven? Did she decide I'd been punished enough?"
"No," Mokou said. "Quite the opposite. She's more pissed off at you than ever. She's been talking about killing your people in retaliation for what you did. And that's in addition to leaving you in a star."
"Killing my-wait, what?"
"She wants to break out of Gensokyo, go to the moon, and do to you what you did to her. And I don't think she's worrying about minimizing casualties."
"W-why?"
"Look, I don't know what happened, okay? About a month ago, she just lost it, I don't know why. I think she'd almost forgotten about you, but now she's suddenly obsessed. I don't know what the hell happened, but it drove her over the edge. She's starting to remind me of the damned Shades, okay?"
"The Shades?"
"She's suddenly gone hostile towards an entire people. That's one step closer to the Shades."
"Wait, so you think they did something to her, and you think this because she's been acting a little bit closer to how they behave? You think that her hating my people proves that she's turning into one of them? Well, let me tell you something: I did plenty to cause her to hate me, and I'm Lunarian royalty, a representative of my people. I can easily see her hatred turning to all of us. If she hates my people, it's my fault. Shades have nothing to do with it."
"There was a Shade attack," Mokou said. "On the day her attitude changed, Shades attacked the underground. Before the attack, she was normal, and after it, she was the way she is now. I don't know what happened to her during that attack, but whatever it was is the reason she changed."
"Oh. Um..."
"Forget it, Kaguya."
The pair was silent for a while. Eventually, Kaguya spoke. "Well, you got me out. What's next?"
"I assume your first thought is to return to Eientei."
"Yes. Um, is everyone else still there?"
"That," Mokou said, "is a good question. Eientei has… changed. One more thing nobody knows the cause of. Or the nature of the change. What I can tell you is that apparently nobody's been able to truly get inside. They can enter, yes, but no matter what, they always end up coming out, regardless of which passages they take. The place is… warped, I guess."
"Then I have to go there. I have to see what's happening. But… I don't recognize this part of the forest. Which way is Eientei?"
"It's been five hundred years, Kaguya. Of course you don't recognize the forest. You've missed five hundred years of growth."
"Good point. So, which way?"
"None right now," Mokou said. "We'll go tomorrow, not while it's dark. There's an abandoned hut just over that way. Not good for much more than a roof over your head these days, but it's usable. I've been using it, as it turns out that my old home isn't there anymore. Not surprising, given how long I've lived underground, but it did mean I had to find somewhere else. So I'm using this abandoned hut. It's my home now, and I'm heading back there for the night. I've got some food prepared, and it's a place to sleep. I'll take you to Eientei tomorrow; if you want to go now, you're on your own."
Kaguya took a moment to think. "Well, I guess you know the current world better than I do. If you think it's best to wait until morning, I will."
"Shades are more active at night. It's better to wait until day."
"Very well, then. We'll go tomorrow."
The ruined Temple of Myouren was a familiar sight, although it had been some time since Nue had last been there. As planned, she'd left for the ruins in the morning. Byakuren was not with her; she'd remained in the village, providing aid to those in need as she always did. This investigation was Nue's task. But despite Byakuren's absence, Nue was not alone at the temple, as she saw upon her arrival. Another was standing among the ruins.
The oni Yuugi Hoshiguma turned to face Nue as she landed. "Nue. Wasn't expecting to see you here."
"And I wasn't expecting to see you," Nue said. "What are you doing here, Yuugi?"
"Shades seem to be gathering here. I came to kill 'em. You?"
"I'm looking into why Shades would be gathering here. Byakuren and I think it may have something to do with the mausoleum."
"The mausoleum?"
Nue nodded. "If nothing else, one would expect such a location to appeal to the Shades, given their apparent dislike of sunlight. But until now, there hasn't been any sign of them moving in this direction."
"I came through here a couple weeks ago," Yuugi said. "Thought the same thing, that the place would have a bunch of Shades, but it didn't. It's only over the past couple days that I've heard people saying Shades were heading this way. And I've already checked what's left of the temple. No Shades up here, so if they have been coming here, then they've got to be down below. I was about ready to head down when you showed up. You're heading down, too, right? Let's go in together."
"I had the same thought," Nue said. "Let's go."
Yuugi hates the Shades. Nobody is exactly fond of the shades, of course, but Yuugi's hate is on an entirely different level. An understandable one, though.
A month ago, there was a Shade attack underground. Hardly the first time Shades had shown up down there, of course, and whenever they did, the oni took 'em out without a problem. But this time was different.
The underground is the former site of hell, called the Hell of Blazing Fires. And although hell relocated long ago, the blazing fires remain. For a long time, the only way to reach them was through the Palace of Earth Spirits, but when the reactor project began, a new way in was made, and it was that path by which the Shades got in.
The Palace of Earth Spirits sits on a hill far above the city, set against the edge of the underground. The massive cavern that houses the fires is within this hill. When Hell was underground, the fires were spread throughout the entire area, with only the hill rising above them. When hell was moved, the fires were contained within the location now knows as the Former Hell of Blazing Fires, a place where none but the kasha and the hell ravens could survive. Any of the fires that remained outside simply died out. This was thousands of years ago, and the fires were contained within from then on. Until the Shade attack.
As with everything else about the Shades, how they did it is a mystery; breaching the containment, set up by the Yamaxanadu herself, was supposed to be impossible. But when the Shades attacked, it was breached, and the fires poured out. Once again, the fires flooded the underground, only the hill and the palace remaining above them.
The oni had almost no warning, and most perished in the flood of flames. Some, however, did manage to make it out, including Yuugi, one of the four Devas. Another Deva, Suika, had been living above-ground since before the Radiance, so she, of course, also survived. Neither of the other Devas did, though, and most of the oni died with them. The surviving oni fled to the surface. They've taken up residence in a small, formerly uninhabited area of the Forest of Magic.
Until Suika first came to the surface, the oni were spoken of mainly in myths and legends. Because of this, the region of the forest they inhabit has come to be known as the Forest of Myth. It is Yuugi's home, too, but she spends little time there. She hunts the Shades, now, in vengeance for the deaths of her people. She's been to the human village a couple times, eager to hear of any Shade sightings. It's not really a surprise, then, that with Shades apparently heading towards the temple and/or the mausoleum, she would head there as well.
The path to the mausoleum lay beneath the graveyard behind the temple. Nue led Yuugi to the cemetery, through the passage beneath it, and into the mausoleum.
Yuugi took a look around the massive entry hall. "Pretty impressive," she said. "You've been here before, right?"
"Just a couple times," Nue said. "I know the basic layout of the place, but I wouldn't say I'm very familiar with it. Miko's group used this place, not us."
"Doesn't really look like a mausoleum."
"Yeah, don't ask me why they call it that. The full name is 'Dream Palace Great Mausoleum'."
"Well, the 'palace' part is certainly a more accurate description, but, well, I'm not really sure I can say it looks too much like one of those, either. Kind of, but not quite. Almost like a cross between a palace and a mansion. Guess it doesn't matter, though. Let's go kill some Shades."
"You said Eientei's been warped," Kaguya said. "Any dangers in the area?"
"Not that I know of," Mokou said. "Well, except for any Shades that wander close. Those damn things are everywhere."
"You think we'll run into another group?"
"How the hell should I know? There's no telling when or where those things will show up."
"So you basically know nothing about what to expect."
"Shut it," Mokou said. "Come on, let's just go."
Yuugi slammed a Shade into the wall, then took hold of the creature's arm and tore it off. Then Nue finished it off with a trident through the chest area. "You seem to enjoy doing that," she remarked as the Shade fell to the ground.
"It's satisfying," Yuugi said. "Plus, it gets good reactions from people who think Shades can't be injured, just damaged and killed. Guess they don't realize you can rip limbs off them. Course, most people don't have enough strength to do it. That's basically just an oni thing."
"You can blow limbs off if you channel magic in. Pretty much requires a magic-imbued weapon that's pierced into it. Most people just don't bother to try it; there are more efficient ways to take the things out."
"Not as satisfying, though," Yuugi said. "Right, that makes a grand total of three Shades so far, all human-types. So much for the damn things gathering here."
"Can't you feel it? There's something here. I can't tell what, but there's something. I think it's fairly small, but it's there."
"You know oni don't have the same level of magical sensitivity as other youkai. If it's a small thing, I'll sense it once we're close. You'll have to lead the way. Is it on this floor, or are we going further up?"
"We're on the top floor," Nue said, "so no, we're not going higher. And yes, it's here. It seems to be in… this direction."
Nue set off down the hall, Yuugi following behind her. Before long, they entered a small room, empty and, except for another door on the opposite wall, completely featureless. "Right," Yuugi said, "the hell's the point of this?"
Through the door was another room just like the first one. Except that this one wasn't empty. It was full of large cube blocks, many right next to each other. "Okay," Yuugi said, "forget the last room. What's the point of this one?"
Nue examined the arrangement of blocks. "This is deliberate," she said. "The bloks were arranged like this deliberately."
"Looks pretty random to me. And look, there's a couple blocking the next door."
"And the doors seem to be opening towards us, which means they can't be opened with blocks in the way. That's one of the things that jumped out at me. In addition, those two blocks are blue-ish, and the others are brown."
"So…?"
Nue walked over to one of the blue block and pulled it. "Damn, these things are heavy. No way a human could move one, at least not alone." After mobbing it two block-lengths back, she pulled the other one back. But it could only be pulled one block-length before one of the brown blocks was in the way. But there was now a clear space to the side, which Nue pushed it into. "There we go."
"Um…"
"It's a puzzle," Nue said. "You have to move the blocks the right way in order to move on." She pushed one of the brown blocks, but it didn't move even slightly. "Thought so. Only the blue ones are movable."
"…Why the hell would someone make something like this?"
"No clue," Nue said. "Come on."
The next room held another block puzzle. This time, five blue blocks were arranged in a T shape, with the head of the T against the door slightly off-center, leaving only half the leftmost block of the head actually in front of the door. Brown blocks were positioned a half-length away from either end of the head, and others a half-block away from the stem blocks. More brown blocks completed the enclosure, preventing the blue ones from being simply pulled away.
Nue examined the arrangement briefly, then went to work. "Okay, bottom one to the left… next one to the right and in beside the bottom one… middle stem block pulled out and moved left… right stem block a half-length over and back to beside the center stem block… left stem block a half-length to the left… aaaaaaaaaand done."
Another block puzzle awaited them in the next room. "This one looks trickier," Nue said. "Give me a minute."
"To hell with this," Yuugi said. She jumped onto one of the blocks in front of the door and tore the door out of the wall. "There," she said, tossing the door aside.
"…That works, too," Nue said. "Right, let's go."
They moved on, Yuugi simply removing the doors in order to bypass the block puzzles. Before long, they came to another empty room. This time, the next door was on the right wall. "Okay," Yuugi said, "I'm feeling something now."
"It'll be in the next room, I think. Come on."
The room they entered was longer and wider, and kind of had the look of a hallway, although far wider than most. There were two notable features immediately visible. One was the altar-like structure at the other end, flanked by two worn-colored, lance-holding, armored stone statues. But it was the other that demanded immediate attention. "Well," Yuugi said, "I think we've found the Shades."
"All fairy-types," Nue said. "Huh. Right, let's-whoa!"
One of the Shades let loose a brief barrage of magic. Despite being caught by surprise, Nue and Yuugi had no difficulties dodging it, thanks to their experience in danmaku fights.
"That's the kind of burst you don't see from any Shades but magician-types," Nue said. "Are there magician/fairy combo Shades now?"
"Fight now, think later."
"Probably a good idea. Let's go."
The magic used by Shades is different from any other magic known. It's actually most like danmaku. Like danmaku, Shade magic consist of multiple shots. Danmaku shots tend to be varied in form, but Shade shots are always reddish spheres. In addition, danmaku is meant to be non-lethal, but Shade shots actually are harmful, and in fact much more damaging than one might expect. They can, however, be blocked with weapons, as well as destroyed with weapon strikes or magic of one's own. And, interestingly enough, when destroyed, the magic that formed the shots remains for a brief moment before dissipating, during which time you can use it for your own magic.
Most Shades don't use magic at all. They can normally only manage a few scattered shots, which is fairly worthless. Some varieties can do better, though. Magician-types, of course, are the most obvious example, and they do fire more than any other types, but tengu-types and others can fire off decent numbers, as well. The 'patterns', though, are quite rudimentary and barely qualify as patterns. And that's when the shots aren't just in a scattered burst. The most you'll see from a Shade is a vertical wall, or periodic waves, or maybe a spiral pattern.
As with everything else about the Shades, nobody knows why their magic is the way it is. It's just one more strange thing about them.
Yuugi finished off the last Shade with a punch to the face. "Right, then. Nue, you're the one who wants to know why they're here. Think it has something to do with that altar?
Before Nue could answer, the two stone statues stepped away from the wall and readied their weapons. "That's new," Nue remarked.
The statues charged, one at Nue and the other at Yuugi. Nue leapt to the side and hit it with a beam as it ran by. Yuugi,on the other hand, met her statue's charge head-on, avoiding its lance and delivering a punch to its torso, sending it flying into the wall. "What the hell?"
Nue's statue stopped its charge and turned to face Nue again. This time, Nue leapt over it as it charged. "What?"
Yuugi's statue was getting up. "I don't think they're made of stone. That did not feel like stone when I punched it."
Nue landed and fired another beam. "Then what did it feel like?"
"It felt like a Shade."
"Are you saying these things are Shades?"
"No idea, but I'd bet they take damage like 'em. We can think once they're dealt with."
"Right."
Yuugi's statue charged. Yuugi met its charge again, but this time the statue jumped over her, thrusting its lance downwards. Yuugi sidestepped and grabbed the lance, which the statue still held, and swung it, slamming the statue into the ground. Yuugi tried to swing it overhead and slam it down again, but this time the statue let go of the lance during the upwards arc, slamming down on top of Yuugi.
Nue sidestepped a strike from her statue and thrust at it with her trident. Yuugi, it seemed, was right; the trident didn't impact as though it had hit stone; it instead pierced into the statue, and when Nue swung it to the side, it moved as though it was passing through the strange combination of substance and nothing that was a Shade's physical form.
The statue spun around, swinging its lance at Nue like a sword. Nue leaps over the strike onto the statue's head and thrust her trident into it. She pulled her trident out, then found that the statue was no longer beneath her; Yuugi had thrown hers into it, and both impacted the wall.
Both statues got to their feet, but then the one Yuugi had been fighting knelt down, and a barrier formed around it. "A new trick," Yuugi said. "Seems like a dumb one, too. Looks like it has to stay in that position to use the barrier. Which makes this two against one."
The other statue took hold of the barrier, lifted it-the first statue still inside-and threw it. Nue and Yuugi dove to the sides, and the thrown statue hit the wall. But upon hitting the wall, it bounced off. Nue leapt over it as it came at her. "Shit!"
"Guess it's not so dumb a trick."
"Yeah, watch out. The damn thing's bouncing all over the room."
"I'll take care of that," Yuugi said. "You deal with the other one."
"Be careful."
"Like hell." Yuugi watched the protected statue as it bounced around the room. As soon as it was on a path that would bring it close to her, she got in its path held her hands out. It hit her, and she pushed against it as hard as she could. It pushed her back at first, but she soon halted it.
Nue charged the non-barriered statue. She fired beams from the tips of her trident, hitting the statue's weapon, but the statue kept hold of it. Nue cut off the beams and threw her trident into the statue's face. It swung at her as she approached, but she leapt over the strike, pulling her trident out of its face. She landed on its head and was about to thrust her trident in, but then she saw what Yuugi was doing and got the hell out of the way.
Yuugi picked up the barriered statue and threw it at the active one, sending both into the wall. The barriered one bounced back at Yuugi, who stopped it again. The other statue was motionless for a moment, and then it fell to pieces.
As it couldn't move on its own with the barrier active, the remaining statue dropped the barrier and thrust its lance at Yuugi. Yuugi dodged the strike and kicked its hand, knocking the lance out of its grasp. She picked the lance up and threw it, sending it right through the statue's left eye. The statue staggered forward, then fell to the ground.
"Well," Yuugi said, "that was fun. Any idea what the hell was up with those things?"
"Not a clue," Nue said, "but it looked like they were protecting the altar. There may be a clue there."
The pair approached the altar, quickly seeing that yes, there was something there. Nue picked it up and examined it. The object was a stone tablet. The back side of the tablet was completely smooth, but the front had indentations in it. There were eight in total, forming a hexagonal pattern, and one of them had a smooth black object fitted in it. The indentations were all of different shapes; each one, obviously, corresponded to a specific object. "One of eight," Nue said. "I'd assume there are seven more of these black things somewhere."
"I don't really want to search this whole place for seven small whatevers," Yuugi said. "What about that inscription at the bottom? I can't read it; can you?"
"It's not a script I've seen before. We should ask Ari. And Miko, since this place used to be hers."
"I'll pass. I'm not interested in these odd mysteries. Do let me know if you ever have more Shades that need killing, though."
"That," Nue said, "I'll be sure to do."
"This is most unusual," Aki said. "In all my lives, I have never seen something quite like this."
Nue was in Ari's house; she'd gone there immediately upon her return to the village to show the Child of Miare the tablet. And Byakuren had come, as well. "I have seen many such objects during my life," Byakuren said. "What makes this one unusual?"
"The inscription. Or inscriptions, as I should say. This may look like one inscription, but it is actually two."
"How can you tell?" Nue asked.
"They are written in different scripts. And I only know one of the scripts, so I can only tell you part of what's written here."
"And what does that part say?"
"It says, 'The eight pieces face the shade's black mark. Seek with them the agent of change.'"
"Cryptic," Byakuren remarked.
"'Black mark'," Nue said. "Do you think it means the Black Scrawl?"
"You think so?" Ari asked.
"She's hoping so," Byakuren replied. "Nue jumps at anything that might involve the Black Scrawl."
"Understandably."
"That's certainly true enough. But, Nue, even if that is what it's referring to, it still gives nothing to go on."
"It said all eight pieces," Nue said. "Right now, there's only one of them in there. Step one would be to find the other seven."
"With no clues as to their location," Byakuren said, "such a search would likely be futile. And that's assuming it's ever referring to the Black Scrawl at all."
"Obviously," Nue said. "Before I decide on anything, I'm taking the tablet to Seafront. Miko or one of her people may know something."
"I find it unlikely that any of them knows of this object."
"They may recognize the second script, though," Ari said. "I cannot read it myself, but it does have similarities to the scripts of various temples and such. Given where it was found, it's not unreasonable at all to think that one or more of Miko's group know it."
"A good point. And I doubt I could stop Nue from going, anyways."
"You've got that right," Nue said. "If there's even a chance this can help save you, I'm not passing it up."
"I understand," Byakuren said. "Hmm… you know, it really has been too long since I last spoke with Miko. I think I shall accompany you to Seafront, Nue."
"Woah," Kaguya said.
"I did tell you Eientei was warped," Mokou said.
"Yeah, but I wasn't expecting… is it on its side and upside-down simultaneously?"
"I don't know what the hell's up with the place."
"How do we get in?"
"The entrance is where it's always been, even if it's not."
"What?"
"Just go in from where the entrance is supposed to be," Mokou said. "Even if you don't see anything there, it'll work. Or it did when I tried it, at least."
"You have Eientei memorized to the extent that you can find the exact location of the entrance without being able to see it in any reliable way?"
"Even after five hundred years underground, I still know it better than you ever have. Although we're on equal footing once we get inside."
"You're coming in with me?"
"I want to know what happened to everyone here, too. I haven't been able to make any sort of progress, but you may pick up on something I've missed."
"I see."
"Come on, let's get this over with."
Nue and Byakuren left right away. Ari was going to look into the object and its inscriptions, but with her perfect memory, she didn't need it in order to do so. "Unfortunately, remembering everything doesn't mean I'm aware of its significance," she'd said. "There are no direct references in anything I've seen to such an object, which means indirect references, connections I was not able to see before. Exact textual representations may be important. I'll need to cross-reference multiple volumes, compare with additional material, look for possible word games, consider-"
Nue and Byakuren had left soon after, heading south towards the ocean town of Seafront. On their way out, they made a slight detour to see Keine. "Ah, Byakurem," she said upon seeing the pair. "And Nue, too. What can I do for you?"
"We have business in Seafront," Nue said. "We wanted to let you know where we were heading. You know, in case someone's trying to find us.
Keine nodded. She was quite used to being treated as the village problem-solver; people often came to her asking for any number of things. Nue came to her often for information on possible jobs. "Got it," Keine said.
"Will you be all right with us both gone?" Byakuren asked. "By which I mean will the villagers be all right? With both myself and Nue gone, there may be concern, given the increased Shade activity we've been seeing recently."
"We've got fighting ability here," Keine said. "My own presence-as I've told you many times before-should be enough to comfort them, and I believe Yuugi Hoshiguma is in the village as well. At a bar, no doubt, but she is here."
"Yeah, I saw her at the temple earlier," Nue remarked.
"In addition, Tenshi should be here soon. In fact, she really should have arrived already. I have to wonder what's keeping-"
Keine was cut off by an object impacted the ground hard nearby. The dust kicked up quickly cleared, revealing the form of Tenshi Hinanai stepping off of one of her keystones. "Hi."
Keine sighed. "How many times have I told you not to do that?"
"Not enough."
"Aparently. Stones falling from the sky doesn't really help the people's nerves, you know."
"Yeah, yeah." Tenshi and Keine embraced. "Sorry I'm late."
The pair separated after a moment. "What kept you?" Keine asked.
"The recent upswing in Shade activity has heaven's leadership up in arms; it took me longer than expected to get away. They're still trying to get me to take part, to 'assume a role befitting the eldest child of the Hinanai.' The fact that I don't want anything to do with the celestial bureaucracy doesn't seem to register with them at all."
"The fact that you're the reason heaven has lost so little to the Shades may also be a factor."
"Hey, it's not my fault none of them could fight worth a damn until the Shades showed up and gave everyone a reason to learn. Me and Iku were the only good fighters up there, and she had other duties, so it's not my fault I ended up as the fighting teacher, either. And I only did it 'cause it was fun, anyways. Doesn't stop the leadership from seeing it as me 'finally becoming worthy of the name 'Hinanai', though."
"Right," Nue said, "we'll leave you two to talk about heaven. Come on, Byakuren, let's get going."
Yes, Keine/Tenshi. That pairing just appeals to me for some reason, I'm not really sure why.
So Nue had her first adventure, based on NieR's first dungeon area, the Lost Shrine. And she had some help, too. Yuugi's going to have a fairly large role, so we'll be seeing her again. I think a lot of us've wanted to take her approach to block puzzles.
FOr those of you who aren't familiar with NieR, I should mention that the way I described the Shade's magic is actually how enemy magic works in the game. Yes. They put danmaku in a hack-and-slash. Don't ask me why. All I know is that somehow, it works.
Well, that's all for this chapter. The next one will include Eientei, Seafront, and the first appearance of another character with a large role, so you can look forward to that.
And, of course, reviews are appreciated. The more you tell me, the better I can make this story.
