Touhou-related Rambling: Touhou 14 is out! Let's welcome Benben, Yatsuhashi, Seija, Shinmyoumaru, and Raiko to the cast! Welcome, girls!

Chapter 4
War in Gensokyo

The appearance of the spaceships frightened those who were evacuating into Yukari's gap, so they started pushing each other to get in there as fast as they could. As a result, the scene became chaotic. People were getting pushed onto the ground and then getting trampled on.

"Everyone! Please calm down!" Keine shouted to the panicking crowd. "It'll be all right! We'll definitely protect all of you!"

"There's one heading this way!" someone shouted in horror. Everyone looked at the sky and saw a spaceship heading in their direction. When the spaceship fired a pair of missiles at the crowd, they panicked like crazy.

Acting fast, Yukari opened a gap to let the missiles fly into. Another gap appeared above the spaceship, and the missiles came out of it and struck it from above, causing it to fall towards the Human Village in flames. Seeing the spaceship falling towards them, the crowd quickly scattered in various directions. The spaceship hit the road and slid across it, and Yukari had to move both herself and the gap backwards to avoid getting hit by it. She stopped when the spaceship stopped moving.

"This is bad…" she said to herself while looking at the scattered and panicking villagers. "We can't evacuate everyone easily with them attacking the village directly…" She suddenly heard a sound coming from behind, so she turned around to see a spaceship descending towards the ground. It eventually stopped descending and allowed three Cybroxes to come out from the bottom of it via traction beams.

The Cybroxes turned their hands into arm cannons and then pointed them at Yukari while approaching her. "Raise your hands!" one of them said to her in his own language.

Ran suddenly leaped down from the roof of a nearby house and at that Cybrox, slashing him across the face with her claws before sending him flying backwards with a powerful palm thrust. The other two Cybroxes fired energy blasts at her, but she swiftly dodged them and then closed in on one to slash him in the throat before dashing at the other to do the same thing. The nine-tailed fox demon then turned to Yukari and said, "Don't worry, Mistress Yukari! I'll hold back those invaders! You focus on getting the villagers to safety!"

"I'll leave the fighting to you!" Yukari told her. "I'll lend a hand when I'm done! And behind you!"

Ran turned around and saw the Cybrox she knocked away earlier readying to fire at her, but Chen suddenly leaped down from the roof of a nearby house and slashed him across the face to knock him out. The nekomata gave her master a thumb up afterwards, to which Ran responded in the same way.

The residents of Eientei came out of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and ran down the road as fast as they could. Kaguya was still unconscious from being put to sleep by Eirin and was inside an ox cart. Tewi was riding the ox and hitting his back with a stick while telling him to move faster.

Running alongside the ox, Eirin said to Reisen, Tewi, and the rabbit demons following them, "We have to get the princess to the Human Village first! We may get attacked on the way there, so get ready to defend her at all cost!"

"Yes, master!" Reisen said with a nod.

"Look out in front!" a rabbit demon shouted while pointing to a tank that was approaching from the aforementioned direction. Eirin quickly readied an arrow, while the rabbit demons ran behind the ox cart in fear.

A computerized voice was broadcasted loudly from the tank. "Surrender at once if you do not wish to be harmed!"

"And what are you going to do to us after we surrender?" Eirin asked while pointing her arrow at the tank.

"We will allow you to become more powerful than you currently are by converting you into cyborgs," the voice replied.

"Become cyborgs…?" Reisen said in disbelief.

"Is that your definition of power?" Eirin asked. "Sorry, but we're not interested in your offer! We prefer our current bodies!" Then she let go of the bowstring to make the arrow fly at the tank. As the arrow soared through the air, red and blue energy appeared in a swirling formation around it. The arrow went into the tank's turret, causing the latter to explode.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

"Nice shot!" Tewi commented.

The hatch at the top of the tank opened, and two Cybroxes came out one after another. "How dare you?!" the first one who came out angrily said. "You must die if you don't want to be converted into cyborgs! We have no use for beings of pure flesh!" He changed his hand into an arm cannon and was about to fire, only to get shot in the face by a projectile fired from Reisen's finger. The other Cybrox quickly aimed at the lunar rabbit, but he got shot in the face by her before he had the chance to do so.

"Good job, Reisen!" Eirin said to her. "Quick! We must keep on moving if we want to get the princess to safety!"

The group quickly moved past the Cybroxes, but one of them, the first one who got shot, got back up while growling. He looked at the back of the ox cart and fired a rocket at it.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The residents of Eientei and the ox were thrown in various directions by the explosion, while Kaguya flew out of it and into the distance. Eirin looked in horror at the airborne princess as the latter flew towards the horizon and shouted, "PRINCESS!"

Kaguya, still asleep, flew through the air quite a bit of a distance before finally falling, hitting her forehead against a rock hard when she landed.

BANG!

In an instant, the princess woke up and cried in pain with her hands over her forehead. "Ow!"

While the princess was down on her knees in pain, a tank approached her from the front, and when it was close to her, it stopped. "Surrender at once! Obey us, and we will refrain from harming you!" said a computerized voice that came from the tank.

"You… You must be one of the people invading Gensokyo!" Kaguya said to the tank. "You dare tell a princess to surrender?! I will never take orders from villains!"

"Do you not want to obtain power by becoming a cyborg? Allow us to change you into one, and you will be able to enjoy its benefits!" the voice said. "We will kill you if you refuse to cooperate!"

"What? You're now demanding me to listen to you, and you're not taking no for an answer?! Your attitude is a disgrace to a princess!" Kaguya angrily said. "I'll never listen to anyone who threatens me!"

"Then we'll take that as a no! Die!" the voice said, and then the tank moved forward to run over her.

Instead of running, Kaguya pressed her hands against the tank, and amazingly enough, it stopped moving.

"Hey! Why isn't it moving forward?" one of the two Cybroxes inside asked.

"I don't know! That girl didn't move away at all. Did she stop it from moving?!" the other one replied.

Kaguya then bent down and put her fingers underneath the tank. Taking a deep breath, she stood back up, lifting the front part of the tank into the air, much to the surprise of the Cybroxes inside. "What's happening?!" one of them cried.

After making her way to the center of the bottom of the tank, Kaguya lifted the entire vehicle over her head. "Heave ho!" she shouted before flinging the whole thing forward, and the tank landed upside-down.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The Lunarian princess dusted her hands while looking at the tank and said, "This is what happens to people who don't speak to a princess properly! Let this be a lesson to you!" Then she looked around the place. "Where are Eirin and the others? And why am I outside the bamboo forest?"

The front yard of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was anything but peaceful, as it had become a battlefield. Sakuya, Meiling, and a group of fairy maids strong enough to defend themselves were doing their best to fend off the approaching Cybroxes.

A Cybrox fired energy shots at Meiling, who moved left and right to avoid them while approaching him. When the gatekeeper was close to him, the Cybrox quickly changed his hand into a sword to slash her with, but she ducked really fast to avoid it and then attacked him in the chin with an uppercut.

Another Cybrox tried to shoot her from the side immediately after that, but with fast reaction, she bent her body backwards to avoid the shot, and then she turned to the Cybrox and jumped towards him. The Cybrox tried to shoot her out of the air, but each of the shots missed. Meiling landed on her hands behind the Cybrox, grabbed him by the neck using her legs, picked him up with them, and then threw him at another Cybrox that was standing in front of her. She got back on her feet after that.

Suddenly, a large shot flew over her at a blinding speed and blasted away a part of the mansion.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

"Oh no!" the gatekeeper gasped as she and the residents of the mansion turned to look at the hole created.

"How dare they?!" Sakuya angrily said as she turned to the tank that had entered the front yard through a broken portion of the wall surrounding the mansion.

The turret aimed at another part of the mansion and readied to fire again, but suddenly, a large spear made of red energy was thrown at it from the balcony it was aiming at. The spear collided with the turret and blew away a large portion of the tank.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Pretty much all that was left of the tank was its gear threads. The Cybroxes piloting it were seen charred inside the remains.

Sakuya turned to the balcony to see that it was Remilia who threw that red energy spear. The young vampire dusted her hand and said with a somewhat angry voice, "They dare mess with my mansion?! Don't blame me for not showing mercy, then!" Then she turned to Sakuya. "Sakuya! Let Flandre out now!"

"Is it really all right?" Sakuya loudly replied.

"Don't worry; it'll be all right!" Remilia replied. "The coat she's wearing will protect her from the sun!"

"All right, if you say so!" Sakuya said, and then she ran towards the main door of the mansion and ordered the two fairy maids standing there to open it. They did as she told them, and behind the door was a person wearing a red coat that had a hood.

"Young mistress," Sakuya said to that person, "you may go out and fight those bad people who are destroying our house now, but please make sure not to take off your hood for too long, because the sun is harm…" But that person dashed past her at a fast speed before she could finish speaking.

The hooded person dashed at a Cybrox, who didn't have time to counterattack by the time he noticed her. He was slashed across the face by her so hard that pieces of the metal covering it were sent flying. That person then dashed at another Cybrox and thrust her hand through his abdomen like it was made of paper. Another Cybrox fired rapid energy shots at her, but she leaped into the air and over him. When she landed behind him, she grabbed him by the legs and then slammed him back and forth violently. When she was done with slamming him, she flung him at a Cybrox who was standing a bit of a distance away.

The person than took her off hood to reveal herself to be a young girl with blond hair wearing a pinkish mob cap—Flandre Scarlet. "Phew! That was fun!" she said while wiping her forehead. "Can't remember the last time I did something like this! Can't even remember if I ever did anything like this…"

A shadow went over her, and when she looked up, she saw a spaceship that was slowly coming towards the ground. She pointed her hand at it and then clenched it. Just by doing that, a large potion of the spaceship exploded.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

"And then there was none!" she happily said. Suddenly, she realized that smoke was coming out of her face, so she quickly pulled her hood over her head. "Oops! Forgot about the sun!"

Remilia watched her younger sister with a smile and said, "Looks like she's having fun!"

Icicles rained down from the air and struck down some Cybroxes, but some managed to either avoid them or destroy them before they got too close. Looking at the air for the source, they saw that it was Cirno who attacked them.

With arms crossed, Cirno said in a loud voice, "You baddies should go away from this place! This place belongs to the strongest fairy that is me! Trying to take over it means coming against me, and that means digging your own graves!"

"Brat! Your arrogance will be the fall of you!" a Cybrox angrily said as he aimed his arm cannon at her, but another Cybrox told him to stop.

"She's just a kid, so there's no need to be angry with her," he told him, and then he approached the ice fairy. "I see that you believe yourself to be the strongest. What if I were to tell you that we can make you even stronger?"

Hearing this, Cirno became interested. "Oh really? You can make me stronger than I currently am?"

"Indeed!" the Cybrox replied with a nod. "Allow us to change you into a cyborg, and you will have even more power than you already have!"

"What's a cyborg?" Cirno asked.

"You are looking at them now," the Cybrox replied. "We are the combination of flesh and machine, and this is the perfect combination that results in the ultimate power! You will have power beyond your imagi…" Before he could finish speaking, he was knocked down by scale-shaped projectiles. The other Cybroxes turned to the side and got hit by them before they could react.

Cirno turned to Misty Lake and saw Wakasagihime hovering over the water. "Don't listen to them!" she told the ice fairy. "They're setting a trap for you! Don't fall for it!"

"What?! A trap?!" Cirno said in shock. "How lowly of them to lie to me?! I'll show them the consequences of doing so!" Then she formed a hammer out of ice before flying at the Cybrox who tried to convince her to become a cyborg. "Eat my hammer!"

The Cybrox fired an energy shot at the hammer and blasted it into pieces. He then changed his hand into an arm cannon that was loaded with a harpoon to fire at Cirno, impaling her through the abdomen. The harpoon was connected to the arm cannon via a metal wire, and when the Cybrox swung his arm towards the ground, the ice fairy was pulled down onto it.

CRASH!

"Cirno!" Wakasagihime gasped. That Cybrox quickly retracted his harpoon and then turned to the mermaid to fire at her, but she dodged it. When the other Cybroxes fired energy shots at her, she quickly retreated underwater.

The Cybroxes walked up to the edge of the lake and fired into the water. The Cybrox with the harpoon arm then turned to Cirno and saw her on the ground in pain. He approached her and said, "I am telling the truth when I said you will become more powerful by becoming a cyborg. Surely you can testify for yourself my power already, right?"

Cirno slowly pushed herself up and said, "The fact that I managed to strike down some of your men the first time already proves that cyborgs are not as powerful as I think they are… I should've known better than to fall for your lie…"

"You have not seen anything yet," the Cybrox said to her. "You are just a child, so you cannot understand the power of a cyborg unless you become one yourself."

Suddenly, an axe made of ice flew out of the woods in front of him while spinning and cleaved into his head, instantly killing him. Surprised, Cirno turned around and saw someone flying out of the woods at a fast speed with her hands and feet on fire. That person charged at the Cybroxes standing at the edge of the lake and knocked them all into the water one by one by hitting them in the back of their heads.

There were two more Cybroxes who weren't standing next to the lake, and they looked at the newcomer with their arm cannons pointing at her. One of them was suddenly caught by the neck by a string, and then two dolls armed with swords spun horizontally towards him from behind, cutting him in different levels of the waist.

Another Cybrox turned to look at his fallen comrade in shock before turning to the woods to fire into it. A person hiding in there swiftly dodged the shots and then closed in on him to punch him hard in the abdomen. That person then grabbed his arm and elbowed its joint from above hard to break it. After that, she lifted the person into the air by that arm and then slammed him onto the ground behind herself hard.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Cirno watched in amazement at those two Cybroxes being taken out, and then she turned to look at the people who showed up. The one with flames was a blond girl dressed in black and white, while the other one was a pink-haired girl with a short ponytail wearing a red dress, and her arms were mostly covered in bandages. There was also a band-aid taped across her nose. "You all right, kid?" the pink-haired girl—Sara—asked her.

"Wow! That was cool!" Cirno exclaimed.

"That's the power of Makai's residents to you!" said a voice coming from the woods, and then Alice, the person who spoke, and Mai stepped out.

"Alice!" Cirno said in surprise.

"News of what is happening here even reached Makai, so Mistress Shinki told us to lend this place our help," the girl who used fire—Yuki—said as she joined up with everyone else. "That's why we came!"

"We'll definitely defeat all those invaders!" Sara said while punching her palm. "They'll have to think twice if they think they can take over this place easily!"

"Looks like this place is cleared of those invaders for now," Alice said while looking around. "C'mon, let's go and look for more and see if there is anybody who needs help."

Three Cybroxes were at the cockpit of one of the rectangular spaceships. One of them noticed something approaching on the radar at a fast speed, so he warned the other two about it. He then saw the object on the radar increasing in size.

Suddenly, the entire spaceship shook violently and went off course.

Outside, it was a giant red-haired woman wearing formal-looking clothing sitting on a large drum who rammed into the spaceship. Electricity also traveled throughout the spaceship, causing the electrical appliances inside, mainly the lights, to go haywire.

The woman then shrunk until she was the size of an average adult. A very small girl only a few inches tall wearing a bowl on her head and wielding a mallet and a needle flew over to her afterwards, and the red-haired woman gave her a thumb up.

The spaceship fell into the hands of a towering Suika. The giant oni balanced it on the middle of her finger and spun it really fast. Inside, the Cybroxes were tossed all over the place, not to mention getting sick.

When she was done spinning the spaceship, she thrust her arm upwards to make it fly into the air. While it was airborne, Utsuho charged up her Third Leg and took aim at it, and then she fired a large ball of glowing energy that resembled a sun at it. The spaceship was blown into pieces by it.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The hell raven clenched her fist and triumph and said, "All right! We did it!" She looked down at Suika, the red-haired woman—Raiko, and the girl who was only a few inches tall—Shinmyoumaru—and gave them a thumb up, to which they responded by doing the same.

Spinning once with the Sword of Hisou in her hand, Tenshi managed to knock away the Cybroxes surrounding her. When the ones close to her were all down, she ran at one standing a bit of a distance away and slashed him diagonally across the chest to knock him out.

Another Cybrox appeared a few feet behind her and readied to fire from his arm cannon, but Tenshi quickly turned around and produced a pointed rock out of thin air to throw at him. The pointed end of the rock lodged itself into the arm cannon, and when the shot was fired, it resulted in the latter exploding. The Cybrox cried in pain at having his hand blown off, and then Tenshi struck him down from a close range afterwards.

The celestial spun her beam sword and then stuck it into the ground. "Is this all you've got? I was expecting more! Don't make me bored, will ya?!" she loudly said.

Tenshi suddenly felt the ground shaking, and when she turned around, she saw what appeared to be a cyborg rhinoceros charging at her, and there was a Cybrox riding him. A portion of the rhinoceros's face on the left and the eye there was made of machine, and most of his body was mechanical as well.

Tenshi quickly leaped out of the way to avoid getting hit by the incoming rhino, which turned around and roared before charging at her again.

Tenshi once again jumped out of his way and said, "You think bringing an animal against me will make things harder for me? Let's see if you're correct!" The rhino turned around to run over her again, so she plunged her sword into the ground to make a slab of rock come out in front of him, but he managed to charge through it with no effort.

Tenshi quickly got out of the way again, and when the rhino charged at her for the fourth time, she plunged the Sword of Hisou into the ground while shouting, "Earth Sign: Sword of Unletting Soil!"

Large slabs of rocks came out from the parts of the ground around her, and one of them came out from underneath the rhino, sending him high into the air back. The rhino landed with a thud on his belly, and then Tenshi charged at him and jumped at his rider to slash him. The rider then fell off the rhino's side.

Tenshi landed behind the rhino and adjusted her hat after landing. The rhino suddenly raised his hind legs and kicked her in the back. The celestial avoided falling onto the ground by pushing her hand against it to flip into the air before landing, however. "Hey! How low of you to attack me when my back is turned towards you!" she angrily said to him.

The sides of the rhino opened, and missiles launchers came out to fire a total of four missiles at her. Tenshi stabbed the ground with her beam sword to make a slab of rock appear to block the missiles. The rock was destroyed by one of the missiles, and the remaining ones continued going after her. Tenshi quickly jumped back into the air and pointed her hands diagonally downwards to fire a series of red projectiles. "Scarlet Weather Persuasion!" The missiles were all destroyed by them.

After landing, the rhino once again charged at Tenshi, who quickly jumped into the air. Taking out a spell card, she shouted, "World Creation Press!" The card transformed into a large keystone that fell on top of the rhino, crushing him.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The keystone shattered into pieces almost afterwards, and Tenshi landed next to the short-circuiting rhino and said, "You're tougher than those lackeys, but I'm still expecting something tougher than this. Nice try, though!"

She then noticed a shadow over her head, so she looked up to see a rectangular spaceship up in the sky. "Well, what do we have here?" she asked.

She watched as the spaceship flew past her, and then she noticed the hatch at the side opening. Something circular rolled out of it and fell towards the ground. As it was falling, the thing uncurled itself, revealing a large amount of legs before it landed with a loud thud. It was large cyborg resembling a spider. Only the front part of its abdomen and mouth were not mechanical, and it also had a total of four mechanical pincers.

The large cyborg, about the size of a container truck, let out a screech as it walked in Tenshi's direction.

"Oooooh, I think have arachnophobia!" Tenshi sarcastically said. The cyborg spider reached one of its pincers towards her, but she quickly moved out of its way. She did the same when another pincer tried to crush her. Another pincer was swung at her, and she avoided it by performing a back flip.

The spider screeched as it moved forward, trying constantly to hit her with its pincers, but she either avoided them or deflected them with the Sword of Hisou. "C'mon! Is that all you've got? Try something that should be expected from a size like yours!" the celestial taunted.

As if responding to what she said, all eight of the spider's eyes fired energy shots at her. Tenshi quickly stabbed her beam sword against the ground to bring up a stone wall from it. The shots pelted the wall rapidly, slowly destroying it. When the wall was destroyed, the spider did not see Tenshi standing behind it. Suddenly, a giant keystone fell onto the spider's head.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The keystone shattered into pieces almost afterwards, and then Tenshi, who was on top of it, jumped down in front of the spider and walked forward. "Geez… Too easy… Is this really the best these guys can offer?" she said in disappointment. "So big, but so easy to take down…"

Suddenly, she was caught by one of the spider's pincer. The spider got back up and screeched as if it was glad to finally have caught her. The celestial tried to pry open the pincer, but she wasn't strong enough to do so. She felt the pincer gripping her very hard in an attempt to cut her in two. This would normally spell doom for everyone else, but due to celestials having nearly impenetrable skin, she was fine. It still hurt for one's body to be crushed, however.

A lightning bolt suddenly dropped down from the sky and zapped the spider, causing it to let go of the celestial. Tenshi fell down and then quickly backed away from the spider, and when she looked up, she saw Iku floating in the sky. "Iku! I knew you would show up sooner or later!" she said.

The oarfish demon landed in front of Tenshi and said to her with a serious expression. "Don't misunderstand me, Eldest Daughter," she said to the celestial, "I didn't specifically come back to help you. I'm simply not the kind of person to do nothing when help is needed. I helped you because you were in danger and in need of help, not because I'm your guardian."

"Eh, whatever…" Tenshi said with a shrug.

"Don't think that I'm no longer angry with you," Iku said before turning to the spider. "Until you apologize for what you've done, our relationship is still broken!"

"Leave that for some other time," Tenshi said as she looked at the spider, which was still up and ready to come after them. "Does that thing look like it wants us to sit down and chat properly? Let's take it down first before talking about that!"

TO BE CONTINUED

Normally, I won't shoehorn new stuff from new games into stories that are already in production. However, since I have in mind to use Touhou 14 characters before I started working on this story and that fact that I didn't intend for them to have major roles, this is an exception. They will, however, have bigger roles in Universes' Finest, and speaking of that story…

On the side note, Sara's design, like Mai and Yuki, is based off the artist Hemogurobin A1C's design for her.

After the villain was taken away by the police, a large amount of people immediately gathered around Reimu and Kaguya, all of them amazed at their feats earlier. However, they spoke in a language that sounded unfamiliar to the former.

"What… What are they saying?" the shrine maiden asked. "I think I heard their language before, but I can't remember what it is and who said it to me…"

"I know this language!" Kaguya said. "It's English! Eirin knows how to speak it. I also know how to speak this language!"

"Then what are they saying?" Reimu asked her.

"Hold on a second…" Kaguya said to her, and then she tried to figure out what the crowd was saying to them. "I think they're praising us for taking out that giant robot earlier. They're also amazed at our powers."

"Powers?" Reimu curiously said. "Oh, yeah… This is the outside world after all, so they shouldn't have seen anything like this in their lives before…"

Suddenly, someone pointed at the sky and shouted out something, and this caused everyone to look at what he was pointing to. It was a man slowly floating towards the street, and everyone was pretty excited to see him. Reimu and Kaguya, being unfamiliar with that person, watched in awe at that person touching his feet against the street. "I didn't know people in the outside world can also fly!" Reimu said.

"Me too…" Kaguya said.

The man was wearing a bodysuit that was blue all over, and there was an emblem that resembled a red diamond containing the letter "S" on his chest. He also sported a red cape.

Judging by the reaction of the crowd, Reimu and Kaguya assumed that he must be a celebrity. They could also hear them constantly saying this one term that might be his name—Superman.