*Klaxons blare*
CAUTION! Do at least read Negative Bullet up to Chapter 45: The Truth to understand this chapter! CAUTION!
*Klaxons fade out*
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Touhou, Team Shanghai Alice / ZUN does. Chôzen Gekido is mine.
Chapter 2: Turn back the pendulum, my arms flow backwards
Today, Gensokyo - Gekido-Taizai Residence
"So you had a nightmare last night?", asked Rumia as she nibbled on her bread. I had invited her for breakfast, and surprisingly, Nanatsu did for once agree. And they were not fighting, rather, they were peaceful, just like on the party right before the "Imperishable Night" Incident... Speaking of incidents, the last one, the "Phantasmagoria of Flower View" Incident, has just currently stopped... It seems that Shikieiki and Komachi finally managed to get rid of all the incoming souls...
"Hm... Well, yes I had...", I muttered, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment. I myself don't really know as for why I brought my nightmare up. "What was it about?", asked Nanatsu, staring at the angel of death. "...my past."
These words made both Rumia and Nanatsu flinch, the angel of death even almost let her bread fall. "You remembered something?", asked Nanatsu quickly. "More or less... it was a short part... to define it, I believe it was the moment before I entered Gensokyo for the first time... I saw many humans there, Yukari... and myself... I've been strange..."
"Strange?", asked Rumia, putting her bread down. "I've just been as many have described it... no... I've been worse... I... thought those... things...", I muttered, looking down at my own bread right in front of me. "What things?", asked Rumia, raising an eyebrow. At that, I just stood up, flinching as I heard the noise of my chair moving across the tiled ground.
"I do not feel like talking about it... I need some time for myself...", I muttered, then turned around towards the corridor. "I'm sorry that I can't be a good host today, Rumia. I'll make it up to you,I promise.", I smiled across my shoulder, but upon seeing the worried expressions of the two girls, I sighed. Apparently, they weren't buying my fake smile...
"It's really nothing... I'm fine... Just feel like... being alone for a moment...", I whispered, but loud enough for the girls to hear. "Listen... I may be gone for a few days... Don't search for me, you won't find me... But I am alright, please know that. I'm just spending some time alone in a place... no, enough words have been spoken.", I stopped, then, without glancing back another time, I walked towards the door, opened it, and stepped into the corridor.
Letting out a loud growl, I plopped down onto the ground, holding my head, which was hurting like hell. "Now?", I hissed, just as a feeling struck to me that reminded me of being struck by lightning. Letting out a loud hiss of pain, I clenched my head harder. "Why is this happening now?", I growled, just before another wave of pain hit me, this time, coming from the center of my chest.
As the pain went down this time, I simply growled, and let myself fall against the wall behind me. It was barely illuminated here in this cave... but there was a reason as for why I had come here. Just recently, I remembered this place in another dream... it was a cave in a cliff of a mountain near the bamboo forest of lost, which I could clearly make out when looking out of a small opening in the wall right next to my head.
This cave and I... our history goes back to the earliest days of Gensokyo. In my earliest years... I have resided in here... the memory seems so clear to me now... in the middle of a thunderstorm, I walked through the rain, not caring about the rain hitting my face or where I was... It had been all the same to me, rain and sun, residence and homelessness, life and death... I had not cared for a thing in the world, and even though I had not cared about sleep, I had decided to call a place my own... and that was how I ended up in this cave... not caring if my home was a house or a cave... or if I had one at all...
Deeper in this cave, there is a small miracle, though... in the deepest depths of this cave... is a large room, a small lake inside it. Though it is barely deep enough to reach up to my waist, many areas shallow enough that my feet barely sink in it... in the middle of said lake is a small island, grass growing on it. A large hole is in the ceiling above it, allowing daylight to shine inside. And in the middle of the small island grows a large, lonely sakura tree. It was the same sakura tree that I had asked out Nanatsu no Taizai beneath... it was the same sakura tree that Nanatsu and I had vowed our eternal bond beneath... our love... Only she and I knew of this place...
Suddenly, another surge of pain shot through me, and I clenched my head. This pain... whenever I remember those large informations, those enormous memories... when I try to remember them, I get a headache, if I do not stop trying to remember them, it becomes a sting inside my skull... to the point it becomes unbearable and I have to let go... but now, when those memories are triggered... it is a gigantic wave of pain flashing through me for a moment...
As it stopped this time, I let my head fall against the wall, ignoring the short pain as it happened. Bumping my head was nothing against the pain I felt when those memories return. Letting out an amused sigh, I closed my eyes, panting. Cold sweat was all across my body as it ocassionally flinched or twitched, and I even coughed once.
"Am I... getting a cold... or is it... part of my memories... returning?", I coughed, grabbing my chest as another wave of pain shot through me. "Impossible... this is not... a cold... just an hour ago... I felt okay...", I hissed, letting my head fall backwards, my face turned towards the hole in the wall so that I would be hit by the soft breeze...
As I opened my eyes to gaze across the bamboo forest of lost, I let out a sigh... and then spotted a very familiar red dot above the large bamboo. "M-mokou... Fujiwara no... Mokou... heading... towards the human village?", I coughed. And then, another wave of pain.
Glancing down at my watch, I hissed. Almost 6 PM... Should I return home... I said I would stay away, but with my current condition... No! I was too weak already, getting up impossible... my body feels so heavy... my eyelids... so... heavy...
As I closed my eyes to rest them, I glanced a last time at the watch around my left wrist... and swore I saw the arms flow backwards at a rapid pace... but as everything was swaying... I cannot be sure... And... was there actually someone... leaning against that wall...? Two persons...a male... and a ... female...?
"Sleep well, Mister Gekido..."
Glaring at them, narrowing my eyes to make out who it was... I failed as my eyes fell close and my body became limp.
She watched in silence as his body became limp, but as the world around him turned grey, she let out a sigh. "We just created a time paradox.", she spoke as she looked at the man aside her, who nodded. "But it is the least I can do to repay him. His memories have been loosened, yet he has to find them... this time paradox, turning the time back within his conciousness, will help him refind the loosened memories...", muttered the man, before he leaned against a wall.
"We cannot leave him alone in this state. I watch over him, you return to your job.", spoke the man. "Certainly. Please watch over him. Call me if anything is out of the ordinary... messing with time like that is dangerous...", whispered the woman, before she mysteriously disappeared, leaving back only a single card, falling to the ground.
And so, Chôzen has been put to sleep, ready to remember events of the past. This chapter plays right after Phantasmagoria of Flower View Arc of NB, even though it has not been finished yet (the extra chapter remains), but that is not of importance. The next flashback chapters happen chronologically in between I-Negative Bullet Arc 4's Extra Chapter and the first chapter of the fourth Intermission arc... Meaning that, in Negative Bullet, when the first chapter of the Intermission arc starts, Chôzen has already awoken again from his memories...
Yeah, so, can you guess who these two shapes were? Pretty obvious, ain't it?
Yeah, until the next update...
So long!