Chapter 1
Sighting
"It's hard, sometimes," Liri said. "I mean, I'm fine with the way my life is, but..."
"You feel like something's missing."
"...Yeah."
She'd been considering it for a while, and now, Liri Takoru had finally paid a visit to the Myouren Temple. She knew several youkai who'd found help there, and now she herself was the one seeking their aid. And she'd been lucky; rather than speaking to just any of the temple's residents, Liri had been approached by Byakuren Hijiri herself, and the human-turned-youkai had quickly zeroed in on Liri's anxieties.
"It used to be," Byakuren said, "that a youkai was born with a purpose. Something brought a youkai into being, and that something was the reason a youkai was alive. Not all youkai were like this, of course. The distinct youkai races such as the oni and the kappa, for example, or youkai born from animals. But for others, yes, they were born each with her own purpose. But that was before Gensokyo was separated into its own land. Today, youkai can still be born in that way, but the sense of purpose that once came with it is no more. Do you know why?"
"...No, but if it changed after the separation, I'd assume that had something to do with it."
"And you would be correct. In the outside world, youkai were often shaped by humans' perception of them. Here, in Gensokyo, that is not the case. Youkai, like humans, are free to shape themselves. But while humans have always been that way, youkai have not. This, Liri, is why you feel like something's missing. Something within you expects a sense of purpose to be present. You feel like something's missing because something-that sense of purpose-is missing.
"There are two ways to deal with what you're feeling. One is to simply ignore this feeling. Just live your life as you have been, paying it no heed, and eventually you will cease to notice it. It will no longer bother you. This may sound simple, and for some it is, but for others it can be very difficult. If you choose this path, know that you can at any time come to us for aid. This also holds true for the other path; however, there is less we can do for you if you choose it. That second path to overcoming the absence of a sense of purpose is to find it. Find a purpose for yourself. That, Liri, is the option I chose.
"You may be thinking-many do-that I don't understand what this is like for you because I was born as a human. But I do understand, because no human is born with that sense of purpose. A human who desires a purpose must find one. This has been true for them since the beginning. And yes, many humans simply live their lives without a purpose, and some of those who try to find a purpose never succeed. But others do find their purposes, as I have found mine. Perhaps they find it by searching hard enough, or perhaps, like me, they more stumble upon it. Either way works.
"Those are your options, Liri. Either find a purpose, or learn to live without one. Both are equally valid options. I can't tell you which choice to make; that is up to you. What I can do is to give you an idea of the difficulties each choice carries with it, and to help you overcome those of whichever choice you do make. But which choice you make is up to you. Do you understand?"
"I... yes," Liri said.
"Good. I have other duties I must attend to, but feel free to stay as long as you like, and to return at any time. I or one of my companions here can answer any questions you might have, or give you information you may want. And when you do make your choice, we will do everything we can to help you on your path."
Tilea lay on the ground, idly forming balls of dirt and tossing them into each other. Where is she, anyways? She's usually here right now, isn't she?
Tilea heard someone approach and quickly leapt to her feet, shaking the dirt off her wings as she turned to face the new arrival. "There you are, Liri! Where've you be-wait, you're not Liri."
"What?" The newcomer said, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "I'm not? Are you sure?"
"...Shut up, 'Kara."
Enkara Oshiniri just laughed. "Actually, I thought Liri'd be here," she then said, "but I take it she's not."
"I'm looking for her, too," Tilea said. "I found something I wanna show her. Hey, you should come, too!"
"Well, maybe. I was just in the area and thought I'd come say 'hi'. Wasn't planning on sticking around for too long. 'Course, I wasn't planning anything else, either. Well, 'cept drinking."
"Yeah, you and your sake. I don't get how you oni stand that stuff. I think it's gross."
"Eh, your loss. Anyways, what did you find? If it sounds interesting, maybe I will go with you."
"It's a-wait, no! I'm not telling! You'll have to come along if you want to know!"
"...Fine. But only if Liri's here soon; I'm not waiting around here all day."
Keine looked out the window, at the small group making its way through the village, and sighed. The triumphant hunters return.
"What's up?"
Keine turned her attention to the other in the room. "It's just... well, it's the hunters. I... I just wish people wouldn't think such a thing was necessary."
"Well, let's be fair. Some youkai are a danger to humans."
"I know, Tenshi. But this is beyond that. These people are afraid not of individuals but of youkai as a whole."
Class had ended for the day, and Keine was tidying up the schoolhouse prior to her own departure, a task that had gone much quicker once Tenshi'd shown up, and they were now just about finished.
"Yeah," Tenshi said. "I'm just glad that doesn't include Celestials. It's bad enough that you have to hide what you are; I'd hate for you to be alone on top of that."
Tenshi was one of only a few who knew that Keine was half-youkai. Keine'd always hidden this fact. She'd feared the villagers would turn on her, that she'd be forced out of her home, and as much as Tenshi hated it, she knew that Keine was probably right. Tensions between humans and youkai were historically very high, and the idea of a half-youkai in their midst wouldn't have sat well with many of the villagers. And although relations had actually been improving for a while, especially during Reimu's time as the Hakurei maiden, tensions were once again on the rise. So Keine still had to hide her true nature.
"Indeed," Keine said. "I'm glad I have you, Tenshi."
"I know. Right, well, it looks like we're done. Let's get out of here."
"Yeah," Keine said, and sighed again. Such people were still a minority, fortunately, though a growing one. But... One day they'll see that youkai aren't always their enemies. One day they'll understand.
I hope.
Liri did have a few questions, mostly about what sort of things the temple did with some about the people there, especially Byakuren herself. But before long, she was satisfied, and left, heading for the Forest of Magic.
Liri soon entered the forest and made her way to a clearing she knew well. Might as well get some practice in. But as she neared the clearing, she noticed that two others were already there. Two people she knew quite well.
Most oni rarely, if ever, ventured to the surface, but Enkara spent almost as much time above ground as below. Why she was here now Liri didn't know, but it wouldn't be unlike her at all to stop by just because. And she knew this clearing was Liri's favorite spot to work. The earth fairy Tilea, seated next to Enkara, knew so as well, although she didn't really understand. Fairies were almost uniformly childish, and generally had no real understanding of work or responsibility or anything of the like. Some might find it odd that Liri, a magician who put a lot of effort into her studies of magic, would be friends with such a person, but she was. It helped that Tilea was unusually smart for a fairy, but mostly it was because anyone could use some relaxation every now and then, and it was hard not to relax a bit when someone like Tilea was around.
"About time you showed up, Liri!" Tilea said as the magician landed. "We've been waiting, like, forever!"
"I've only been waiting about five minutes," Enkara said. "Still, I'm surprised you weren't here already. Where were you?"
"I paid a visit to the Myouren Temple," Liri said.
"Ah, finally checked that place out? What'd you think?"
"They were certainly welcoming, and seemed to know what they were talking about. I may well ask their aid after all."
"I don't get what the big deal is," Tilea said. "Why d'ya need a 'purpose' anyways?"
"I don't, actually, but part of me feels like I do. That's the problem, actually. A youkai doesn't need a purpose in this world, but that sense that there should be one remains."
"...Huh?"
Enkara chuckled. "Don't worry about it, Til."
"'Kay. Now come on, you two! I found something interesting!"
"And what would that be?" Liri asked.
"Nuh-uh, I'm not falling for that! You'll have to come with me if you want to see it!"
"Well..." Oh, what the hell. I could probably stand to unwind a bit. "All right, sure. Where is it?"
"In the woods by the lake. It's this way! Follow me!"
"Lead on, then," Enkara said, and the three of them took to the air.
"So what exactly does this thing do?"
Nitori briefly turned her attention from the device she was setting up to the kappa standing beside her. "I told you, Liora, it's a large-scale optical camouflage system." The device was one part of a larger system, positioned at the center. In a circle around it were three rings of smaller devices. Another object, a power supply connected to the entire system, was positioned at the edge of the circle, and a control panel was positioned about ten feet beyond the circle.
Liora just sighed. "I know that, Nitori. But what does it actually do? Optical camouflage doesn't work on anything very big, so how is all this stuff supposed to change that? All you told me is that you need a lot of camera pods and the high-end projectors."
"Optical camouflage is perfectly capable of working on a large scale if it has enough power. You know that. The problem is that the effect is much more noticeable."
"I think you just won the understatement championships," Liora said. Optical camouflage, which removed its user from sight, worked by taking the space directly behind the user and projecting its image directly in front of the user, making it look as though the space occupied by the user wasn't even there. This was mostly very effective; it did create a minor visual distortion, but one that was very hard to see on a smaller scale, especially if one didn't know it was there. Try to camouflage something like a village that way, though, and the distortion was impossible to miss.
"Well," Nitori said, "that's because you're looking at one side of the area and seeing what's supposed to be on the other side. When that's done over a big area, it's hard to miss. So instead of projecting what's on the other side of the area, what you need to do is project what the area would look like if whatever you're concealing wasn't there."
"Which is easier said than done. Take our village, for example. You think you can just remove the village part? That doesn't work. I mean, for one thing, if the village wasn't there, the entire area would be home to every bit as much plant life as the area around it."
"Well, yeah. That's what all this equipment is for. And why I had to involve you in the test; you may not be as smart as I am in general, but you're much better than me when it comes to optics."
"...Thanks. I think. And yes, I'm aware that you think this setup can solve that problem, but what does it all do? Let's start with the camera pods. Why so many?"
"Well, you'd need only one ring of pods the old way, to record what's there for projection to the other side. And you don't even need camera pods for something small like a person, of course, just a basic short-range optical recorder. Anyways, my setup has two rings, one facing outward and one facing inward. The system needs to be able to see the entirety of the area it's going to conceal. At full size, with something like our village, it'd need pods throughout the area, too, to complete its sight, but this is just the initial prototype. Once I've perfected the system, I'll scale it up."
"I'll be impressed if it works even at this scale," Liora said. And it would be impressive. Currently, optical camouflage couldn't effectively conceal anything all that much larger than a person, but Nitori's system was enclosing a circular area twenty feet in diameter. "But, okay, you're covering the whole area with the camera pods. Then what?"
Nitori finished with the central device and got to her feet. "That's where this thing comes in. It takes the feed from the pods and extrapolates to figure out what the area would look like without anything in it. Enka helped me with that part."
"Yeah, that sounds like it'd be in her area of expertise. Although I bet even she had a hard time with it."
"Yeah, but she did it."
"Then why isn't she the one out here with you?"
"Because we've already tested her part," Nitori said. "The extrapolation system works perfectly, but she doesn't know crap outside of her area of expertise. This test is about the hardware and the overall system; she'd be useless here, but I do need you for the cameras and projectors."
"...Right. So, then, I'm assuming that this extrapolation is what's given to the projectors. And the reason you needed my projectors specifically."
"That's right. Yours are the best, and the only ones that can project the needed level of image depth and detail in a fine-enough resolution. Okay, you got all the rings set up?"
"They're in position," Liora said, "and the connections on their end are good."
"Central system's end is ready, too," Nitori said. "Okay, let's do this." She walked over to the power supply. "All right, generator looks good.." She then exited the circle, heading over to the control panel. "Okay, beginning startup. Make sure you stay in the center there."
"...Why? And why do you have the control panel all the way over there?"
"In case something explodes, obviously. That's why the central system is in the middle of the circle, too, while the generator is on the edge. This takes a lot of power, and it's the first test of the full system. Do you really think something's not going to blow? Hell, if I didn't think anything would go wrong, I've jumped straight to full scale."
"And I'm here in the middle while you're safe over there."
"There won't be any big blows; generator doesn't produce enough energy for that. Don't worry; you're safe."
"That's not very reassur-" Liora's response was cut off as the control panel blew, knocking Nitori to the ground. "-never mind, I'm fine here."
The control panel wasn't the only thing that blew. One of the camera pods was nothing more than junk now, and the same was true of the projector next to it. But the failsafes kicked in quickly enough to prevent any additional damage, and shut the system down.
Nitori was silent for a minute, and when she did speak, it was only a single word. "...Huh."
"I'm gonna go waaaaaaaaaay out on a limb here and assume that wasn't supposed to happen," Liora said.
"No, I expected that. Didn't think the control panel would blow, though." Nitori went back to the circle and started examining the connections as she muttered to herself. "Gotta be a fault in the routing circuit somewhere, something that put more power in my direction than it was supposed to. Hmm..."
"...Right," Liora said. "I'm heading back to the village to get some extra pods and projectors." But there was no response from Nitori. Typical. She barely notices anything else at all when she's in this mode. Right, well, whatever. "Be right back." And you're lucky the shrine is backing this, or else I wouldn't be so generous with them.
Liora took off for the village, leaving Nitori tinkering with her devices.
"See?" Tilea said as she and the other two landed in the woods near the Misty Lake.
"...It's a cave in the woods," Enkara said. "What's so interesting about that?"
"It wasn't here yesterday, that's what."
"...Oh. Yeah, that's not normal."
"I wouldn't say it's all that hard to explain, though," Liri said. "I could easily make a cave like this in that time. The magic wouldn't be all that difficult."
"Can't you two sense it?" Tilea said. "There's something really weird in there."
"Hmm..." Liri focused, extending her senses towards the cave. And then she jerked back in shock. "What... what is that?"
"How should I know? I can't get in."
"I see." Liri walked up to the entrance. "Yes, there's a seal here. It's really weak, though. I couldn't even sense it until getting right next to it here, although I think that's partially because whatever's inside has a stronger presence that's overcoming the seal's."
"Can you get rid of it?"
"Easily. In fact, with one this weak, I'm surprised you couldn't do it."
"I don't know how to break a seal," Tilea said.
"One this weak, all it would take is a slight burst of power. Clearly you didn't even try."
"Hold up," Enkara said. "I'm not normally the voice of caution, but shouldn't we, you know, not break in? Someone made this deliberately, that much is obvious. Maybe we shouldn't force our way in."
"Ordinarily I'd agree," Liri said, "but there's only one way a seal this weak could possibly exist. Even the weakest of seals anyone can place is stronger than this one. The only way a seal could be this weak is a combination of age and lack of attention. Even the strongest of seals decays over time if it's not maintained. I don't know why this place wasn't here until today, but it-or the seal, at least-has been abandoned for quite some time."
"I guess that makes sense. We going in, then?"
Tilea walked up to the entrance. She pushed against it with her power, and there was a sort of shimmering effect that solidified into... well, into something, something like a thin sheet of clear glass, which then shattered. "Huh. Guess you were right, Liri. All right, come on! Let's go in!"
"Let's be cautious," Liri said. "Stay with me, Tilea, and don't do anything, or even just touch anything, I don't tell you to. And that goes for you, too, Enkara. We don't know what's in there, but it's certainly a magic object of some kind, or else we wouldn't be able to sense it. I know how to safely handle unknown magic objects; you don't. So follow instructions exactly, all right?"
"Fine," Tilea said.
"Okay, then," Enkara said. "I guess you're in the lead, then, Li. So, well, lead the way."
Akora saw the other youkai approaching and flew down to meet her. This particular youkai, after all, was one she knew. It had been Liri, another acquaintance of hers, who'd introduced her to the plant youkai Alraune.
Akora and Alraune provided a significant contrast. Akora was every bit as large as one would expect from a youkai born of an eagle, and was also every bit as fast and strong. She did have some degree of power over the wind, an ability common among avian youkai, but it was fairly limited; her strength was almost all physical.
Alraune was different. She wasn't small by any means; although she did look small next to Akora, this was true for most. And while Akora appeared every bit the hunter she was, Alraune was much less of an intimidating physical presence. But this didn't mean she wasn't capable; her physical strength may not have been a match for Akora's, but she had a much greater level of power. She wielded control over plants, and over the years had developed this ability to a significant degree. Despite Akora's physical strength, Alraune was easily the more dangerous of the two in a fight.
Clothing provided another contrast between the two. Akora's outfit was very simple, and almost always with at least some tears in it. She didn't particularly care how she looked; her only concern was practicality. Alraune, on the other hand, preferred a much more complicated outfit that seemed to be made entirely from plants. Her skirt was composed entirely of leaves of various colors, and her top piece was an intricately-woven pattern of vines, leaves, and flower petals. She wasn't worried about damage to it, though; it being made from plant materials meant that she could easily repair it.
Akora didn't spend any time on pleasantries. "Alraune. Why are you here?"
"Well, 'hi' to you, too," Alraune said with a chuckle. "What, I can't just stop by because I feel like it?"
"If you did, then that would be the answer to my question."
"...I suppose that's true. I do have a specific reason for stopping by today, though."
"And what would that reason be?"
"Well, it seems Tilea's roped Liri and Enkara into another of her 'adventures', but there's a chance this one actually has something to it. Some cave just showed up overnight, with some kind of magic object inside."
"They are not here, though," Akora said. "If they told you of this, then where are they?"
"They didn't come to tell me about anything."
"Then how do you know of this?"
"Tilea's flower ornament. You do remember that, right? The one she always wears in her hair? The one I made for her? The one I, um, 'modified' such that I can extend my senses through it?"
"I do not know that you have mentioned such a thing before."
"I have. You probably just didn't care about it enough to bother remembering it. Anyways, that's how I know what they're doing. I'm going to go join them, and I thought I'd bring you, too."
"I have no interest in such things."
Alraune sighed. "Akora, I know you haven't been a youkai for all that long, but you really should have figured out by now that there's more to the life of a youkai than the life of an animal. There's no need for you to be so serious all the time."
"There is little else I have any interest in."
"Well, I don't care. I say you're coming with me, so you're coming with me."
"I have no desire to accompany you."
"Good for you," Alraune said. "Now come on, let's get- oh, shit! Come on, we have to go!"
Akora wasn't used to Alraune sounding so urgent. "Why? What is it?"
"They're in danger!"
"Who is in danger?"
"Tilea's group, obviously. Now come on already! Let's go!"
Liri, Tilea, and Enkara emerged from the smaller passageway into a larger cavern. "Okay," Tilea said, "that ceiling is way higher up than the cave was on the outside, and we've only gone down a little bit. No way are we that far underground."
"Indeed," Liri said. "This cavern would seem to be magically enlarged."
"Yeah, but it looks like a dead end," Enkara said. "I don't see any other paths, so whatever object we're looking for has to be in here, right? I do see something on the far wall, some design of some sort or something, and then there's that big complicated symbol on the ground. They're obviously important, but I don't know how. I'd say that's your field, Li."
The symbol on the ground began to glow. "It's reacting to our presence," Liri said.
The symbol flashed, and a creature appeared seemingly from nowhere in the middle of it. It was a very distinctive creature, with two heads resembling a lion and a goat respectively and a tail that seemed to be a snake. "That doesn't look normal," Enkara said.
[BGM = /watch?v=K6KqB3DPhG0]
"A Greek chimera?" Liri said. "How did that get here?"
"You know what this thing is?"
"Only that it's a creature out of outside-world mythology."
"But why's it here?" Tilea asked. "And how'd it just appear like that?"
"That looked like no summoning I know of," Liri said, "but that has to be what it was. This creature was called here to defend this place from intruders."
"Um... maybe we should leave, then?"
The creature charged. "Too late for that!" Enkara shouted as she met its charge. The lion head opened its mouth to bite down, but Enkara redirected her charge into the goat head, slamming into it and knocking the chimera back. The creature's tail responded by spitting out globules of some green substance, which Enkara evaded.
"Don't let that substance touch you!" Liri called out. "It's probably extremely toxic!" She turned towards Tilea. "Til, drop a chunk of the ceiling on it."
"I'm trying," Tilea said, "but the earth here's all weird-feeling and it's hard to get a grip on it!"
"Keep trying," Liri said. She called to her staff, which promptly appeared in her waiting hand. She placed her other hand on the jewel at the top of the staff and prompted it magically, and the top of the staff changed, shifted into a blade. Her weapon ready, she ran at the creature.
The creature lunged at Enkara, who dodged to the side, but then the snake was there, striking at her. She barely managed to duck under its bite, then spun around and kicked the chimera in the side of the lion head. The chimera jumped back and quickly lunged forward again, this time slashing with its claws. Enkara leapt around the attack and tried to land a blow of her own, but the snake was spitting more of its gunk, forcing here to back off and evade.
Liri felt her weapon's essence and shifted it, adding to it the essence of flame. As the chimera lunged at Enkara again, Liri struck from the side, slashing down its flank as the essence of fire scorched its hide around the wound. The snake head tried to bite her, but she ducked under the strike. She slashed at the snake, but it pulled back quickly, denying her a hit.
The chimera jumped back, facing its assailants, and both heads opened their mouths, spewing forth energy blasts, fiery blasts from the lion head and spheres of electrical magic from the goat head. "Shit!" Enkara said as she and Liri leaped in opposite directions. "I guess this thing still had a trick or two up its sleve."
"We don't know what it can do," Liri said, "so be careful."
The chimera advanced toward Liri, only to come to a sudden stop as a large chunk of stone hit the ground in front of it, breaking into pieces upon contact. "Crap, I missed!"
"You were close, Tilea," Liri said. "Keep trying. Enkara! Flank it!"
Liri fired a blast of her own magic, but the chimera barely seemed to notice the hit. Damn. I guess physical strikes work best here. The creature belched out more magic blasts, which Liri was able to evade, but then the snake began spewing its toxic... whatever the stuff was randomly in front of it. Liri knew she could evade the normal globules, but now the stuff was being sprayed all over, and not knowing how deadly it was, she didn't want even a single drop to touch her. Wait. It has to act on contact with the skin, or spitting it out like this would do almost nothing. So...
Liri focused again, but rather than her weapon's essence she found her own. She wasn't about to try to truly change it, but she was fairly sure what she did have in mind would work. She added the essence of earth into herself, and felt the effects immediately as she stumbled forward and fell to the ground. She was heavier now, not by too much to move but by enough that it completely threw off her sense of balance. I can't fight like this, not until I get used to it. But the change served its purpose, the earthen essence acting as a barrier to toxins, which affected only living things, preventing the beast's toxic spray from penetrating into her skin. The normal globules could probably overcome this effect-she'd deliberately limited how much earthen essence she added to herself-but she was safe against the spray. And though she couldn't move effectively, she didn't have to. After all, she was just the distraction.
More blasts of fire and electricity came at Liri. Feeling that she would be unable to evade as she was now, Liri directed her magic at the blasts, countering them with her own. The chimera then attempted to leap at her, only for Enkara to grab it by the snake-tail, spin it around, and throw it into the wall. And then a large piece of the ceiling fell and hit it, courtesy of Tilea.
The creature fell to the ground, but then got back on its feet. "Damn," Enkara said. "This thing just doesn't know when to quit."
"It's a guardian," Liri said as she removed the earthen essence from herself. "It will keep attacking until either we die or it does."
"Then we'll just have to take it out!"
They charged.
[end BGM]
"I'm back!" Sanae said as she entered the Moriya Shrine. Unnecessarily, yes-a shrine's god, or gods in this case, had complete awareness of its grounds-but she still preferred to say something when she entered.
Kanako Yasaka, goddess of the Moriya Shrine, appeared seemingly from nowhere. "Welcome home, Sanae. How was it?"
"The tengu's training regimen seems to be as effective as always. The warriors are quite capable in combat, and their teams in the exercises I observed performed very well."
"But you still have concerns."
"Of course I do. I've voiced them before. They fight well, individually and as a team, but we still don't have any good ways to train them tactically. Victory takes more than just ability in combat. I just worry that what they're doing won't be enough without a proper sense for tactics."
"Well," Kanako said, "as it happens, I've been looking into that, and I think Suwako and I have come up with a solution."
"You have?!"
"We have. You remember those 'tabletop RPGs' they had in the outside world, right?"
The seemingly irrelevant question confused Sanae, but she did indeed remember such things. It had been decades since she'd left the outside world, but she still remembered it, and though she had never been too interested in such pastimes, she knew what they were. "I do, yes."
"How much do you know of their origins?"
"Um... I think the first one was called... Dungeons and Dragons, wasn't it?"
"True," Kanako said, "but that's not quite what I meant. Dungeons and Dragons wasn't made up from scratch; the ideas came over time as changes to what were once games with a military focus. Where players controlled soldiers on a battlefield rather than heroes on a quest. And those games evolved from something else. Their origins, and thus the origins of tabletop RPGs, can be traced back to something called Kriegspiel."
"Called what?" Sanae said. "What's... krig-whatever?"
"Kriegspiel. I believe the name translates as 'war game', although I'm not certain. It was developed in... Prussia, I think? It was a war exercise, meant to allow players to train themselves tactically. I've been thinking of ways to address your concerns, and eventually, I remembered Kriegspiel. Suwako and I have been working on a version for Gensokyo for some time now. Come, over here."
Kanako let Sanae to a table. From seemingly nowhere, she produced a large sheet of paper and rolled it out on the tabletop. "This is a sample terrain map. The actual 'game' would be played on a to-scale field, complete with terrain features such as forestation and varying heights. Each player starts the game with their respective forces in their initial positions and a summary of the scenario as commanders in an actual battle would know it. But here we get to the key mechanic of Kriegspiel, the reason why it succeeded where other attempts at making 'war games' failed: incomplete information.
"I don't actually know how it was done with Kriegspiel, but in our version, there will be multiple fields, separate from each other. Each player has a field, and another is used by the 'umpire'. The umpire is the only one who knows the positions of all players' forces; no player can see another's field, and the umpire's field is available only to the umpire.
"So, onto the flow of the game. Each player starts with whatever information she would have in the scenario being played. The players decide what orders to give their 'troops', and relay those orders to the umpire. The umpire then puts these orders into play, informing each player of the results. Anything found by scouts, results of combat, whatever might have happened. Of course, again, each player learns only those things her forces would know. They don't know the positions of enemy soldiers, for example, until their own have 'discovered' them."
"Interesting," Sanae said. "I think I like it. How are the results of combat determined?"
"The umpire evaluates a variety of factors relating to the troops encountering each other, including number, composition of forces, whether one group surprised the other, and many others. These are compared according to a very comprehensive set of rules, and the result determines the results: how many of each side were injured, how many were killed, how many retreated, how many were captured, and anything else that might happen as an outcome of the encounter. These results are then given to the players-although again, each player learns only what her forces know and would be able to tell her. It's quite possible for a player to hear nothing of her troops' fate, if all involved in the encounter were captured or killed."
"You've been thorough, then."
"We have," Kanako said. "There's a reason it took a couple months for us to work everything out. We borrowed the basic idea from Kriegspiel, but adapting it for Gensokyo was... complicated."
"I can imagine," Sanae said. "Magic does complicate things, doesn't it? I would never choose the outside world over Gensokyo, but sometimes I do miss its relative simplicity. It's been over half a century since we came here, and I'm still confused most of the time."
"I don't think anyone truly understands Gensokyo," Kanako said, "not even Yukari herself. You're used to it by now, though, right?"
Sanae nodded. "Doesn't mean I don't miss the outside world's simplicity from time to time. But you're right; I am used to it. I couldn't live here without that being the case. And I do live here, and mean to continue doing so. That's what this is about."
"I know," Kanako said. "I'm not sure how much longer we can keep this up, though. Sooner or later, the tengu and kappa will begin to questions us. Question you, rather; Suwako and I have made our support known, but the entire mountain knows you're the one behind this. Your divinity is still young, Sanae; if you lose what faith you have, your divinity may well vanish with it."
"If our people question me," Sanae said, "I'll find some way to keep them on their current track. I don't care what it takes. Anything is preferable to what will happen if I fail. I may not have realized the threat until last year's 'wicked moon' incident', but now I have, and fortunately it didn't happen too late. I will protect us, Kanako. I will keep us, keep our lives here, safe. Whatever it takes."
It took a while longer, but eventually, finally, the beast fell and didn't get up. "Damn, that thing could take a beating," Enkara said. "What the hell is it?"
"I'm afraid I don't truly know," Liri said. "It looks like a creature from outside-world mythology, but not one that was ever confirmed to exist. Nobody's seen one before."
"Huh?" Tilea said. "Then how do they know what it looks like? And how do you know?"
"I can think of a few possible origins. Perhaps a shapeshifter took on such a form, or it was an illusion. Or maybe a storyteller wanted a strange creature and made it up. I don't know. As to how I know of the creature, I simply came across a depiction of one in a book. You browse the shelves in Voile enough, you find all manner of random pieces of information."
"Voile?" Enkara said. "That library at the vampire's mansion? I've heard about that. Doesn't the magician there hate it when people take books? I thought she used to try to chase the black-white out all the time. Even the underground hears those stories."
"I borrow books properly, and always return them by the agreed date. Marisa, the 'black-white', never did either. Always said Patchouli could have them back when she died. And it was quite literally the exact day she died, too. Patchouli went out to reclaim them as soon as she heard the news. The first time she'd left the mansion in centuries, apparently."
"She never goes outside?" Tilea said. "Jeez, she must be boring. I'd go nuts after even just one day what's happening to the monster?"
"Hm?" Liri looked over at the dead chimera, and saw its form seem to... melt away, almost, until it was completely gone. "That was... interesting. Another sign this wasn't a summoning."
"So, what," Enkara said, "it was just conjured from thin air or something?"
"No. Not possible. Living beings, even the simplest of beasts, cannot simply be made from nothing. Even those youkai born from immaterial concepts such as emotions are born from something."
"What about taking something and making life out of it?"
"Also not possible. Oh, you can make a body, but actually giving it life is another matter entirely. Look at Alice Margetroid, the dollmaker. She can make dolls easily, but she's been trying for decades without success to give one life. A biological body like that chimera's is far, far harder to make-you can count the number of magicians who've tried and succeeded on one hand-and every bit as hard to actually bring life to. Although... such a construct could be animated magically. If there were anyone around to do so, of course. I wonder if... well, no, this isn't the place for this. I can think of a few possibilities, but I'll have to do some research before I can draw any conclusions. For now..." She inspected the symbol on the ground. "This does bear some resemblance to a summoning circle, but there are significant differences. I'm not sure what these elements do, but what I can say is that it's inert, inactive. It's of no further danger."
"Then come on," Tilea said, "let's see what the thing on the wall over there is."
Liora was exiting her workshop when the small device pinned to her shirt beeped. That'll be Nitori. Guess she finally noticed I was gone. She pressed a finger against it to activate it, and Nitori's voice came from it. "Liara, are you there?"
Liora hadn't expected the urgency she'd just heard in Nitori's voice. "I'm here. What is it?"
"I'm being attacked!"
"What?!"
"Liora, get to my workshop, grab a Binder, and then get over here!"
"I'll be there as soon as I can!" Liora pressed on the device again to deactivate it, then took off through the village. Fortunately, Nitori's workshop was close to hers, and she was there in less than a minute. She ran in, grabbed one of the cylindrical Binder devices from its shelf, and ran back out, slowing only to close the door behind herself. Then she took off again, heading back to the test site as quickly as she could.
Alraune slowed her pace as Akora flew up beside her. "Why are you slowing down?"
"They just won," Alraune said, "killed the thing that attacked them. I guess I underestimated them."
"That is no surprise. You are poor at gauging threats to others. Just because you can defeat the three of them, or even the three of them and me, doesn't mean others can. They are, after all, quite capable. I, however, realized that they would likely not need assistance. And even if they did, you could easily have provided said assistance on your own."
"And yet, you came anyways."
"You were insistent."
"You know very well I was about to rush off with or without you. You easily could have stayed behind."
"...I suppose you are correct. Strange that this did not occur to me."
"That's not strange at all. Your friends were in danger-and whether you realize it or not, you definitely think of them as friends; that's been clear for a while now. It's normal to feel an urge to help your friends when they're in danger."
"I see. Well, if nothing else, I suppose I do not find their presence particularly unpleasant."
Alraune chuckled. "Right. Well, anyways, I'm gonna keep going, join up with them. You coming?"
"...I suppose I might as well."
"Good. Okay, then, let's go." Their pace was slower now that the danger had passed, but the two of them resumed flight towards their destination, Alraune being sure to keep watch in case a new danger appeared.
Liora arrived to see Nitori fending off two attackers. A blast of water knocked one into a tree, but it recovered quickly. Nitori hit the second one with another blast, with the same result.
Liora landed next to Nitori. "I'm here!"
"Good! You know how to use that thing?"
"Yeah."
"Then grab one of these things, and I'll take out the other!"
"Got it." The Binder was an open cylinder, and Liora reached inside it, extending a small tube. It was an aiming sight, connected to the machinery at the device's center, and Liora aimed it at one of the attackers, then pushed the button on the side of the sight. A small, dart-like object shot out from the other end of the Binder, sticking itself into the target. And then the Binder went to work. The cylinder flew towards the target, leaving Liora holding only the central part of the device. The seemingly solid cylinder separated into several rings, which further split into halves. Then the central device shot out of Liora's hand and flew over to the target. It shot out a connecting cord to one end of each of the half-rings, which swung around the target before each half-ring attached at its free end to another half-ring. Then the device charged the cords with energy, hardening them and preventing the target from moving.
With one of the attackers captured, Nitori ceased holding back against the other. She withdrew a weapon from her pack and fired repeatedly, hitting it repeatedly with magically-charged blasts. Then she launched missiles and bombs at it from her pack, then finished it off with another magic-charged blast. But rather than its dead body collapsing to the ground as one would expect, it simply... fell apart. And then each piece burst into what appeared to be some sort of mist, which quickly faded, leaving no trace of the attacker behind.
"...Well," Liora said. "Now I know why you needed the Binder."
"Yeah," Nitori said. "There were three of them, and the first one did that when I killed it. So I had you get the Binder so we could capture one to show the shrine."
"You think this is what Lady Kochiya's been telling us to look for, then? Those things?"
"They meet enough of the criteria. Humanoid, but misshapen. Mindlessly aggressive. A dark color. The lack of any sort of indication of life-they have no lifesigns I could detect. And she said what we were looking for might not leave bodies behind; that's why I came up with the Binder in the first place, remember? To capture one if we couldn't present an intact dead body."
"Yeah. So then... if this is what she wanted us to watch for, then..."
"Then we need to show it to her. We'll have to postpone the testing. You gather up the equipment, all right? I've got a monster to take to the shrine."
"Sure thing," Liora said.
Nitori placed her hand on the central device of the Binder, then withdrew it. Her hand remained connected to the device by a magic tether, and as she rose into the air, the tether pulled the bound creature after her. "Be careful, Liora. There may be more of those things around."
"You, too, Nitori," Liora said as Nitori took off up the mountain. "You, too."
Well, looks like things are getting interesting right out of the gate.
Anyways, welcome to my latest Touhou fic, End Fantasy. I hope you enjoy it.
Now, a few notes:
1: As usual, this story in no way shares continuity with any other of my stories. Some elements may reappear (readers of Radiant Decay will recognize the Keine/Tenshi pairing, for example. I'm really not sure why that pairing appeals to me, but it does), but the stories are completely separate from each other.
2: Yes, several OCs featured prominently in this chapter, and yes, they will continue to have a major role. I know Touhou OCs have a bad reputation, so I'd like to clarify that there will be no so-called 'Gappy Stu's here. They're terrible, and I would never write one, so don't worry. In fact, nobody from the outside world will be coming to Gensokyo in this story. If, however, you object to Touhou OCs in general, it may interest you to know that I generally prefer to use canon characters myself. Radiant Decay had only one OC among the main characters and a couple minor ones, and the fic before it, Orphan, had no OC main characters (a couple appeared briefly as minor characters, but that was it). So why, then, am I using OCs here? Simple: there aren't any canon characters that would work in their roles. There will also be quite a few minor OCs, simply because they're going to be needed (and because Gensokyo has a larger population than just the canon characters, as many of those as there are, and I want that to come across clearly).
3: I do not intend to limit myself to only those locations seen in canon. I feel that Gensokyo would have more cities/towns/villages/whatever than the few seen in canon, and more other locations as well, so don't be surprised if unfamiliar places show up. Also, I don't know if Gensokyo canonically has a size, so it's quite possible that my version is larger than canon Gensokyo.
4: I'm aware that some of the real-world things I mention (which in this chapter were Kriegspiel and the chimera) may not be portrayed 100% accurately. I'm not concerned with 100% accuracy, though. Besides, since when have Gensokyo's creatures been accurate to their historical portrayals?
5: I know a lot of authors don't like getting negative feedback, don't like hearing people say they dislike parts of a story. I am not one of those authors. I want to hear whatever you have to say, good or bad. Hearing only positive feedback doesn't help me improve as a writer nearly as much as hearing both positive and negative feedback does. That said, I don't want to be insulted. I want to hear about things you dislike in the story, yes; just don't be rude about it.
And that's all for now, I think. I hope you enjoy the story, and I encourage everyone to give reviews and tell me what you think.