Ah, dawn is breaking, human. It looks like we've survived the night. Ah, stay your hand. Don't put out that fire just yet. We may still chance upon something to roast over the fire for breakfast.
...Please, this is getting rather old. The night has passed, human, and you might be surprised to find your backside is whole, ungobbled, and still in possession of all your limbs. You're going to need them, after all. I'm taking you home now.
Yes, yes, alright, I'm done giggling. But you should have seen your face. Come, come, I meant I'm walking you back home to the human village. Yes, walk. I'm not carrying you back. I know firsthand how horrid it is to be carried around through the air like an oversized pinata, especially when your pinata players are passing youkai, so I'll spare you the experience and have you walk your way back. Worry not, I will walk with you. I need to walk off this meal after all. Hmmm? Oh? Nothing, nothing, shall we see if there is anything we can find for you to eat, human?
What was that? You don't wish to go home? You wish to...? Become a youkai like me, you say? Why didn't you say so? You know all humans who are eaten by youkai become youkai themselves, right? Right?
Apologies, apologies, human. I did not mean to giggle so, and it was not you I was giggling at. More at myself. I'm taking you very seriously. I of all people should know better. But no, it's not quite so easy, human. My becoming a youkai was an unorthodox affair. I've come to understand that it is normally a slower, more subtle process. A rare occurrence at that.
Now come, I will take you home, human. Hmm? Help you become a youkai, you say? Sure, would you mind showering in some barbecue sauce while I put more firewood in? No? Well, maybe a little salt and pepper at least? Even steak tartar needs that little bit of spice, no? Oh come now, you're sweet, human, but not that sweet. Even youkai have standards.
Alright? Enough jokes, you say? Well then, the answer is no, human. Why, you ask? Even after everything I've gone through I'd deny another human the same opportunity? Because I can tell you that becoming a youkai isn't the happily-ever-after. It's not even the once-upon-a-time. Now come, you are going home.
You wish to hear what really follows becoming a youkai? Hmm...well...I suppose it is a ways to the human village, and there may be merit in telling you, that you may appreciate your lot in life more. Very well then, see that stream over yonder? Just beyond the woods? That stream is where I was baptised as a youkai. What sort of baptism do youkai receive, you ask? I suppose you can call it a baptism of fire. In my case, it was both figurative and literal. Such is Gensokyo's way of welcoming all newborn.
Chapter 4 Part 1
OST - Krone - www . youtube . com (slash) watch?v=-kBAgTL2H_s&feature=related
"KYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" The cry reverberated through the night. A trail of broken trees and smashed rocks ended in a shallow stream by theGreatYoukaiForest, where a figure lay on her hands and knees in the shallows.
The figure looked down at the shallows beneath her. A young, purplish silver-haired girl sporting a pair of flaming horns and fluffy ears peered back at her through glowing tearful red eyes. "KYUUUUUUUUH! KYUU KYUUU KYUUUUUUUH!" She flew into another fit of cries, driving herself hoarse, as she pounded the water with her little fists, sending water and broken river stones flying. Her little fists erupted into crimson flames, wrapped in flaming scarlet mist, letting off fiery steam with each bit of water she pounded.
"...Kirrin-chan?" Rin began, hesitantly testing the waters, "...are you...okay?" before realizing that was about as stupid as dunking her head in a hell reactor's heat exchanger.
"Okay? Eheehee...Ehehehehehe...Nyahah...Hahah...NYAHAHAHAH!" The little youkai's cries suddenly gave way to hysterical laughter. "I...hahahah...I don't...nyahahahah...don't even know what...kyahahahahah...'okay' is anymore! KYAHAHAHAHAH!"
"Okaaaay...good, you're...err...laughing...that's...a good start..." Rin murmured, before finally deciding this might be a good point to stop digging the hole. Figuratively, at least. Akyuu was already doing a good literal job pounding a hole through the riverbed.
"I-I k-k-killed her!" The little youkai laughed bitterly, plunging her burning hands into the river one last time. Crimson steam erupted forth, filling the air with more scarlet mist. "I-I...I k-killed Hieda no Akyuu! I laughed in her mother's face! Ahahahah! Keine, you...you..." The laughter slowly dissolved into feeble sobs and pitiful sniffles, "What...what have I done, Rin...?" She wept, "Why...why did I do such a thing...I...I hurt her...I hurt Keine more..."
"Rin doesn't know, little Kirrin. But you are not without wisdom. You did what you thought was best at the time." Rin said, reassuringly.
"I-I've become a youkai...just like those who hurt Keine...who kidnapped the children...w-who...who attack and eat humans... She'd...she'd never forgive me...nobody at the village would ever forgive me." She murmured, hot tears dripping into the cold stream. "I-its always just been a whim...an idea...I-I n-never r-really intended...n-never really thought...i-it w-was j-just to s-save t-the children! I...I never...never...N-no...T-they c-can't see me like this...n-not like this...i-it'd break t-their hearts...i-it's worse than d-death." The little youkai rambled on under her breath.
"If what you say is true, then it was for the best, little Kirrin." Rin said, soothingly.
"...Maybe...I...I really am...better of dead after all..." The rambling trailed off into silence.
"...Kirrin-chan..." Before Rin could even begin to reply, reality interrupted quite abruptly, in the form of an enormous ball. A black and white one, straight to the face.
"Kyuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" The little youkai cried as she was sent flying off across the stream, trailing water. "Kyuh!" She cried, as she bounced off the surface of the stream, "Kyuh!", another bounce sent her twirling erratically through the air before, "Kyu-blrblrbrlublublub" she was cut off quite abruptly by a mouthful of water as she came to a violent halt in a massive splash.
Naught but a few feeble bubbles filled the silence as a pair of boots touched down on the water's surface, barely raising a ripple.
OST - Krone 03.00 Mark - www . youtube . com (slash) watch?v=-kBAgTL2H_s&feature=related
"Kyuuuuuh!" The little youkai gasped for air as she broke the surface, balancing herself in the shallows on her hands and knees, coughing and spluttering. Through the water cascading down her wet hair she just about managed to make out a figure in red and white stepping across the water's surface, barely touching it. Horror struck her as familiarity dawned - it was the Hakurei Shrinemaiden, in all her terrifying youkai-exterminating glory.
"Oh, it really is the little newborn youkai that gap hag spoke of. For a moment I thought you might be some lost girl...but the yin yang orb is never wrong." The shrinemaiden said, tossing her orb up in one hand. "That's good, otherwise I'd have thrown that orb at you for nothing. I charge by the bullet you know."
"Kyuuuuh...!" Akyuu gasped, wincing in pain as she raised a hand up to the burn on her cheek where the yinyang orb had hit her. "Th-that hurts...!"
"Feel the burn of the yin yang orb? It only burns youkai flesh, you see. Better get used to it, youkai-chan." The shrinemaiden said, stepping closer, until she was looming above the little youkai's kneeling form. "Cause this is the way things will be for the rest of your life, however short it may be."
"R-Reimu-san!" Akyuu said, panting, looking up imploringly at the shrinemaiden. "P-please, i-it's m-me, I..."
"Hmmm? You act as if you know me, little newborn youkai. Well, I'm afraid you must have me confused with someone who actually cares." the shrinemaiden said, indifferently, kicking the little youkai further into the stream. "Well, allow me to correct you." She said, kicking the little youkai once more, "I am Hakurei Reimu, shrinemaiden of the Hakurei Shrine," She declared, leaning in close as Akyuu just about managed to break the surface once more, fighting to catch her breath, "...and I don't care who you are, where you came from, who or what you were before you became a youkai. You are a youkai now and I exterminate youkai." She said, coldly, brandishing a paper talisman before Akyuu's shocked, tearful eyes, "Like this." She said, sticking the talisman to the little youkai's head.
"KYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" The newborn youkai screamed as pure, searing agony pierced her very being. Smoke rose up as the talisman smouldered away in a fiery scarlet flame before hissing in a cloud of vapour as the little youkai fell headfirst into the stream.
"Hmph, what a powerful youkai aura for a newborn, to consume my prized amulet so quickly. Maybe I should finish you off here before you become a real threat?" The shrinemaiden muttered, pulling the youkai up out of the water by her collar. "Feel that, youkai? That pain means you're still alive. But did I hear you say you are better off dead, little youkai? Well, I guess that's more air for the rest of us."
"...", Akyuu gasped, coughing and spluttering, eyes wide in shock, barely able to get a word out. "P-please...please...s-s-stop...i-it hurts..."
"What, were you expecting pity? Consolation?" The shrinemaiden demanded, looking down at the pleading eyes without even the slightest hint of sympathy. She whipped out her gohei, twirling it through the air, before pointing it at the little youkai's nose, "Sorry, not enough of that to go around in Gensokyo. In this dog-eat-dog world, you're either the survivor or the vanquished. Which are you, youkai?" She asked, touching the gohei against the little youkai's chin.
"K-Kyuuh!" The little youkai whimpered, as smoke began to rise up into the air from where the gohei pressed up against her skin.
"This is a gohei. It is divine. Everything divine burns youkai flesh. Got it memorized? Good, cause this will be the death of you, youkai. You said you want to die? Well, good timing. The human village is screaming for youkai blood right now and they want me to deliver. Guess you'll have to do for breakfast." The shrinemaiden said, raising the little youkai's chin up with the gohei. "Ready to die, youkai-chan?"
"..." Akyuu peered out through her tears. Just across the river, standing amidst the early morning mist, a figure in blue as dark as twilight, hair the red of dying soldiers, scythe gleaming in the waning starlight. She was watching, and she did not look pleased.
After all that. After everything she's gone through. After cheating death, surviving Seiga, after killing Hieda no Akyuu with her own hands, watching Keine lose her only daughter, only to die here?
The embers of her earlier resolve lit up once more. NOT here. NOT now. NOT yet. Youkai or not, she wasn't dying here.
"...No..." She breathed.
"What was that, youkai-chan?" The shrinemaiden leaned in closer.
"...I want...to live..." Small hands balled into fists, scraping up river mud.
"I can't hear you over the sound of you dying." The shrinemaiden taunted.
"I want to LIVE!" The youkai raised her face up towards the shrinemaiden, grasping the gohei with her little fist. Thick red smoke erupted from her hands as it smouldered under the gohei's power.
"Louder, Youkai. The world can't hear you!" The shrinemaiden barked, the gohei trembling as the fiery scarlet mist around the little youkai's hand began to burn more ferociously.
"I WANT TO LIVE!" Akyuu declared with a roar, pulling herself up by the gohei, just as it was consumed completely by her own scarlet flames. She rose up, her clothes smouldering, letting off hot steaming vapour, eyes glaring with re-enkindled determination.
"Oh, that's a good expression you have there, little youkai-chan. You want to live then, do you?" The shrinemaiden smirked, drawing back across the stream. "Then you'll have to fight for your life, youkai. Come, I declare a danmaku duel."
- To be Continued -
Just like before, this chapter ended up far too long according to a few proofreaders so I've again divided it up into 3 parts. Part 2 and 3 will be made available in a few hours time once proofreading and final editing is 100% complete. Thank you for your patience and please enjoy!
Now to reply to the reviews so far:
- Sonanoka21093 - Thanks once again for your kind reviews. I'm glad - hugs are exactly what I'm going for. I almost didn't have the heart to do it, but then somehow...it just made more sense to me that way. It was difficult to do that to poor little Akyuu and Keine...but... ;_;
- Captain Vulcan - Thanks once again for your kind reviews. The Kirrin is indeed a fascinating creature with interesting origins. I recall that one legend of Admiral Zhang He bringing a giraffe back to the Imperial Courts of China. The Emperor at the time used the giraffe to justify his rule and governance, as Kirrins are known to only appear during the reign of good, benevolent rulers. Prior to this the image of the kirrin was a little more lion/horse-like. Since then the giraffe's form took over the Kirrin image. However, this transition never quite reached Japan and the image of the Kirrin remained what it has always been - that of a lion-like equine creature with wings and a flaming mane. In fact, to this day, the Kirrin still remains at the top of the divine beast pantheon of Japan, above the dragon and phoenix, unlike in China where its position at the top was lost to the same. As for Seiga, we all know what she's like. She's not letting this one go that easily. And poor Keine...well, I won't say much more on that, as we're going to address that further, or so I hope... :D
