Chapter 10: The Otherworldly Battle
Leaving the Youkai Mountain far behind them, the hapless duo made their way to their next destination in the center of Gensokyo, the Myouren Temple. It is a lone monk's temple where various Youkai are said to be given new purpose in life...To various degrees of success. But that is neither here nor there. All that mattered to them was hopefully finding some lead regarding the Cosmos Drive.
Well, all that mattered to Shina right now anyways. Alex, on the other hand, had his mind set on something else more personal. Once past the two had glided past the base of the mountain and wound up above the forest surrounding most of Gensokyo, Shina nuzzled up beside Alex and tried to see how he was doing.
Being silent was nothing strange for him, but his behavior after the Bamboo Forest had been particularly strange. He started to turn his head, oblivious to how close she had gotten, and his brows perked up upon being greeted by the sight of her silky blonde hair.
"S-Shina...I didn't see you." He stammered as his brain attempted to shift gears. After she gave him space he twisted his head aside and squeezed his eyes shut, taking a moment to breath in deep.
Shina treaded on eggshells to suggest to him "...Is there something you wanna talk about Alex, ooooor..."
"Yeah," He said to her surprise, then turned his head back and looked at her with saggy, flustered eyes to say, "Do you...mind if we take a detour to the forest?"
"Sure thing Alex," She brightened up with a nod and smile full of positivity, "Nothin' wrong with a quick break!"
Alex dropped straight down and she followed a second later, the two of them breaking right through the canopy and landing firmly on the grassy ground. He crossed his arms and leaned his head back, contemplating stuff while looking at the fading sunlight peeking down between the leaves.
Shina stood back and tucked her arms behind, leaning her head out just a little behind Alex's shoulders. He didn't pay her any heed until she started twirling the back of his hair around one finger and playing with it, after which he let out a groan and started to turn around. She reeled in immediately and grinned, but he didn't say anything about it.
Instead his gaze pointed downward, and his mouth began to open. Then he closed it, opened it again with a gasp of air coming out, and pursed his lips so tight that his mouth would be dry in seconds. All of a sudden he swung his head up and expressed frustration with a swift outburst, "Ok be frank with me Shina, why the hell do I suck so goddamn much at Danmaku?"
"Ah-ha! I knew it!" She proclaimed triumphantly by snapping a pair of finger right out before her waist. Alex's face froze up and he almost looked insulted by her gesture, so she quickly tried to salvage it by swinging her hands out and blabbering, "N-Nonono! I didn't mean anything bad by that Alex, i-i-its just that...ummm..."
He drooped his head and closed his eyes to sigh, then shook his head and admitted, "You knew all along...I should've figured..."
Now it was her turn to freeze up, save for her eyelashes fluttering. He straightened upright and tucked his hands into his pockets while biting his teeth down and bracing for the harsh critique he invited upon himself.
She lowered both hands and gave him her utmost attention, ncluding sprinkling in that bright smile he came to love, before saying a word.
"Hehehe, well why didn't ya just say something sooner?" She pulled up with a single jerk of the body and an energetic 'Hup!', then set her gaze to her surroundings for a bit as she tapped the side of her face to think.
"Hmmm, but wow...You asking me for help? I don't even know where ta start..."
Alex groaned and tried to rush things along with mild annoyance in his voice, "This isn't a goddamn college grade math class. Just say it like it is, that's all you have to do."
After snapping her fingers out before the face Shina gave herself a proud nod then stuck a pointer finger to give herself a more teacherly air, "Ok Alex. First off ya gotta think of Danmaku like you're performing in a ballet..."
The boy's cheeks puffed and something grimy could be heard in the back of his mouth. Shina snapped her fingers twice, slanted both brows, and said with a raised voice, "Hey hey! Ya told me to be honest so don't go givin' me any lip now, ok?"
It was disgusting, but Alex swallowed what came up and after a quick squirm sealed his lips up tight and slowly nodded. Her brows perked up along with a smile and she continued, "Great! So as I was saying...You know what the most out of place thing in a ballet is?"
Alex couldn't stop himself from kidding around, "A man?"
"No silly, an armored tank!" She said seriously.
The boy's head tilted and his jaw slacked to let out a quick 'Eh?', so she playfully commented, "Geez Alex, I'dve thunk you'd get the big picture right off the bat."
"Is she REALLY accusing ME of being oblivious?" He thought with an unamused squint of the eyes.
"Ok ok, lets get away from Danmaku for a sec..." Shina closed her eyes and created a riding crop, causing Alex's eyes to widen until her unflinching innocence ruined any concern he might have.
"Soooo, ya ever sit down and think about how ya fight Alex?"
"Uhhh, can't say I have, why?"
"Ah..." She ominously nodded her head a couple times then smiled, "Well don't fret, yer teacher's here ta help!"
"...H-Has she been repressing these desires forever or is this just her being her...?" Alex started to get a little worried, but couldn't exactly ignore that he was also blushing.
She waved the riding crop in circles in front of her and spoke clearly, "Yer always just going right in and throwing everything you've got at your opponent in hopes that'll be good enough. I...don't really think you've ever tried to consider the possibility that people aren't just gonna let themselves get fried crispier than a serving of KFC chicken breasts."
"So...what I'm missing is-"
"Lemme finish," She whipped the crop playfully before his face and then continued, "Ya also tend to just barrel through your opponent's attacks with no sense of self-preservation. I know ya told me that you're refreshed whenever you change forms, but that ain't really a boon with Danmaku now is it?"
"Hrrmmm..." He crossed his arms and was a little peeved at her for being so right. Though he hadn't received permission he tried to defend his actions, "Look, those patterns of theirs are ridiculous. You can't seriously be expecting me to dodge hundreds of bullets a second."
Shina smiled and gave a slow, supportive response, "Well...yeah, I think ya can do it Alex."
He blinked a couple times and got even more embarrassed, causing him to turn his head away and sweat a little. With a pleasant giggle she continued to teach, "That's why I used ballets for my comparison to Danmaku, cause the way I fight requires me to quick, nimble and adaptive like a ballerina. You're almost required to turn your body into a noodle and let it twirl around in the breeze if ya wanna have any chance of dodging all those bullets."
Rolling his eyes up with a scowl, Alex spat in Shina's general direction, "Easy for you to say, you've been trained to fight that way since you were born."
Shina blinked a few times then lifted her head back to murmur, "Huh, hadn't thought of it like that..."
He shook his head and waved a hand up next to it, ending up in a bit of a slump, "Guess it can't be helped. At least you tried."
"Nuh-uh!" She whipped the crop against her hand and it snapped in two, leading to her then grabbing Alex's shoulders in both hands to force him to look at her fiery glare, "I ain't letting ya give up like that!"
"I-Its just Danmaku, who'll give a shit once we leave...?" Alex dryly commented.
"Not the point!" She was suddenly yelling, shutting him up immediately. With a firm pout a loud hum came from within her as her eyes began to squint shut, and the grip on his shoulders tightened. Her fingers scrunched up like she was trying to break bricks, and her humming just got loud to the point of being worrisome.
"...A-Are you ok Shina?"
"Wow, you are REALLY tense Alex..." She pleasantly noted while retaining that intense focus.
"No shit, you just now noticed?"
"...Oh!" Her eyes widened and she backed off with a resounding clap before the chest, "I got it!"
He didn't even get a chance to ask questions before she was waving a finger in circles over his head and barking orders, "Alright Alex, turn around! I'm gonna fix your predicament in minutes or you'll get your money back!"
Skeptical to say the least, he shrugged his shoulders and slowly turned around. With his arms down at the hips and a lofty wiggle of the body he closed his eyes. Shina licked her lips and started rubbing her palms together, raising them up like a predatorial animal ready to pounce.
She swung her palms down against Alex's shoulders blades and filled her hands with aura. Immediately his eyelids swung wide open while a rush of energy radiated across every muscle in his body. His legs shook out of alignment for a second and he felt like he was standing in the middle of a warm waterfall.
Shina closed her eyes and nestled her fingertips into his skin. Her touch was soft, like she was kneading his muscles like bread dough. She slowly made her way down his back, undoing every twist and knot that had bound his muscles together like a messed up bundle of christmas lights.
"Oooooh yeah..." He moaned through tightly puckered lips while Shina continued down to the bottom of his spine. His body wanted to melt into water and become one with the ground, and he wasn't about to disagree.
Since it would take a bit of time for Shina to work her magic, Alex saw fit to strike up a conversation, "Sooo...your mother taught you how to do this?"
"Actually no! Gabriel did. He even taught me how to massage my own muscles!" As she started to get down to his thighs Alex's whole body went numb, consumed by immeasurible pleasure. His eyes were starting to glaze over, but his fiery spunk remained.
"G-Goddamn...I'd almost consider trading all my powers just to have mastery over aura..."
"Hehehe, yeah, its pretty versatile ain't it?" She said with boisterous self-praise while grinning from cheek-to-cheek.
Finishing with a tap against his heels, Shina sprung right up and held her hands back, "Weeell? How ya feel?"
Alex trembled and felt like he had already collapsed on the ground at least once. He could hear the blood in his veins flowing like a river, the sound crystal clear and devoid of obstacles.
"I-I don't even know the last time I felt like this..." He stretched his arms and wiggled them out with incredible fluidity, then turned around and remarked with flushed red cheeks, "T-Thank you."
"No problemo Alex!"
Though he was experiencing physical Nirvana, his realistic, pessimistic way of thinking proved to be an irritating obstacle that forced its way through his mouth, "...But I doubt this feeling will last long."
Shina flicked a finger up from her clenched fists and had a wiggly smile on her face, "Well...that's fine! This gets you into the proper state of mind for the next step!"
"There's more?" He replied with both suspicion and surprise.
"Yeah...yeah!" Her pause only raised more alarms, but she did the same circular finger swirl above his head and he obeyed without hesitation.
"Next up I want you to try and think of something comforting in your life. Like for example..." She started tapping the side of her face, then slanted her head and squeezed her eyes and lips shut to get deep in thought.
Then with a snap of the fingers she proclaimed, "Oh! Like the first time you flew!"
Alex squirmed, and after biting her lip she hastily said, "O-Outside! The first time you flew outside! Just...try and remember the feeling of the wind against your body."
He closed his eyes and shook his head before telling her, "That's easy, but I don't think that's good enough."
"But you get what I'm saying, yeah? Ya need to think of something that'd make you feel as relaxed as you were after that massage. THEN ya'll be in the proper mindset to better dodge Danmaku."
Alex concentrated deep down to think of something relevant to Shina's advice, and the relaxation from her massage was starting to fade away. The left of his lip quivered, and through it came a subtle groan. Shina walked up beside him and twirled around with a leg hung back, then leaned in close to his face.
"Ya mind if I go on ahead to the Myouren Temple while you work this out?"
"Huh? Yeah sure whatever, you don't need my help there." Alex said without opening his eyes a peep. She turned around and broke into a sprint, only to nearly trip up when he coughed 'Ahem!' very loudly.
"...Shina, the temple's to the west of here."
"Oh, my bad! Thanks!" She then zoomed right off in the appropriate direction, leaving Alex behind to sigh at her strange ability to be both bright and ditzy.
With only the cold gentle breeze flowing around the trees and quiet thoughts to keep him company, Alex tucked his hands into both pockets. His ears were open to all the sounds around him. Even the slightest movement of a Youkai wouldn't go undetected, and he kept his fists clenched so if they were foolish enough to try regardless he'd be able to act in the blink of an eye. Thus, he was free to work on Shina's advice unperturbed.
"A pleasant, relaxing thought...Do I even have any of those?"
He first drifted to the memories of his parents, but that was swiftly drowned out by a falling white light as his face scrunched up in anger.
"No...!" He moved on to the next best thing, and that was leaving the prison of his home behind to begin his journey to become an Elemental Overlord.
"I...guess?" The memory wasn't even worth the pitter of rain on the surface of a lake of tranquility, so he shook his head and tried elsewhere. Just a little bit further into the future, he remembered the first time he got the Elemental Overlord power.
The warmth of fire, the crackling unbelieveable power of electricity, the chilling fervor of ice...the splash of blood spilling forth from corpses sacrificing themselves for his sake. He grit his teeth and shook his head, and didn't even put a thought into words. Easing his head back into place, he tried to go further. But the few years after that are so devoid of even the slightest glimmer of happiness that his muscles started to tense right back up.
"Tsk...this is pointless..." He grumbled as though complaining would suddenly make things better.
"...Maybe I missed something..." Instead of trying hard to find happiness, he let his mind flow on its own through all his memories and emotions. There was plenty of time to waste, after all.
There was a dreadfully boring period of nothing where only frustration festered and grew inside the mind. The increasing pointlessness of trying to find peace just to get better at some silly card game invented by a bunch of crazy people was making him what to just surrender on the spot and go after Shina.
But right before his brittle patience could snap in two, he felt something riding up the sides of his legs. His muscles became relaxed, a feeling so real that it couldn't possibly have been a dream. So he opened his eyes up wide and standing in front of him was Shina, who rose up after giving his legs a massage.
She was smiling, and her eyelids were relaxed into this longing stare. The boy's heart started thumping, but it felt wonderful. He looked into her eyes and ignored the void-like sea surrounding them. In his mind she was all that mattered now, because she made him feel safe and relaxed.
Yet...there was something more to this vision. The area around his eyes began to glaze over, amplifying her look more womanly. The blood in his veins pumped at an increased pace, and it became harder to think. There were no words in his mind, no consciousness in his movements. His head leaned forward, and his eyes began to close.
His body sans the lips became numb as he grew closer and closer to this unforgettable experience. A dream so perfect it was real, a dream so lucid it was intoxicating, a dream so important it couldn't be forgotten...
"Hey Alex! How's it going?!"
And in the span of a second, it was gone, leaving Alex drenched in a cold sweat, gasping for air while his mind became scrambled. He collapsed forward and laid his hands atop his knees to keep himself from ending up on the ground. His vision was blurry and dizzy, without any way for him to explain why.
His only guidance was the familiar sound of Shina's voice that snuck up behind him, so he lifted his head back to see her. She approached with her usual smile, tilted just a little to suggest embarrassment towards herself. Alex was thankful that she could not read minds, for there was certainly, positively, ab-so-lutely no way he could ever bring MENTION to her about what he just dreamt off. He'd sooner die than let that happen.
Before she laid eyes on his disheveled self he stood right and crossed his arms against the chest, feeling the rapid heartbeat that stubbornly worked against him. He slowly took breaths in while his face turned beet red and gleamed back. As he looked Shina in the eyes, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He gulped and looked ahead, chalking this sensation to him being so damn nervous.
"B-Back already...? D-Did you forget something?"
Shina walked up from behind and bonked the side of her head with a fist and the tip of her tongue stuck out, "I...got a teeny bit ahead of myself. Sooooo I thought it'd be better if I waited for you first."
"...Y-You'd be fine by yourself. But whatever...its your call." As Alex finished speaking she stopped right behind him and pressed the edge of her chest against his neck, worsening the sweat ouput from his face and making him twist up and grimace.
"A-And could you please gimme some privacy? I'm...I'm trying to concentrate..."
With respect for how hard he was trying, Shina only giggled and took a couple steps back. Alex could still feel the hairs on his neck rising, and increased the pace of his breathing to try and regain some semblance of control over his emotions.
"Sooo...have ya had any luck?" Even the simplest inquiry got him to squirm.
"Mrrghh...no, no I haven't."
"Aww, that's a bummer. Do ya want me to try and give ya some suggestions?"
"I doubt I can relate to those happy memories of your sister, Shina..."
"...Heheh, yeah, guess you never had a little sister like mine," She nervously scratched the side of her face for a few seconds before coming up with another idea, "Well take your time! We've got plenty of hours to spare!"
"We're not saving Myouren Temple for tomorrow Shina. I just..." He grit his teeth and growled loudly in frustration, "REALLY can't shake this annoying itch in the back of my neck. Its like something's watching us from the shadows."
Shina scanned the trees for a few seconds then shrugged, "I dunno what's got yer britches in a bunch. There's nothing up there but a buncha birds."
"...You sure? Try using your aura."
She squinted her eyes shut and insisted, "Nope, nothin' but birds!"
"That's odd...that's really really odd...Am I just...screwed up in the head after that dream or something?" He thought about it for a second, but then an echo triggered something suspect in his head.
"Wait a minute...what did she just say?" He glanced back at Shina and saw her apologizing with a shrug. So he shook his head and started to turn back, only for that echo to nag at him some more.
"No no no, I wasn't imagining it...she DID say that." His eyes narrowed and he glanced over the shoulder.
"...It couldn't hurt to try..." He gestured his left hand up and said, "Hey Shina, about your sister. Have you given any thought to what you're going to say to her when you get back?"
"What I'd say? Ummmm, golly, I don't know..." Her cheeks grew rosy and radiant as she was embarrassed to admit, "But my little sister's probably gonna be too teary for me to a get word in edgewise."
Alex's eyes flared and he swung his arm up to draw his sword at her. She flinched and raised her hands up, blabbing in confusion, "W-What's wrong Alex?! Is there something hiding behind me?!"
"The only thing being hidden here is your true identity, whoever you are!" He yelled with clear and focused disdain.
"A-Alex...its me...Shina!" She backed off and began to shake in the kneecaps, looking ready to cry. Without hesitation Alex lunged forward and laid the tip of his blade under Shina's chin, lining the rest of his before his face and chest.
"The Shina I know...would always refer to the one she loves the most as her 'little sis'" His confidence returned in the blink of an eye, he flashed a smug grin at his adversary and continued to make sense of the situation, "No wonder I was having that lucid dream...You were trying to mesmerize me so my guard would be lowered!"
The impostor's eyes widened and blinked a few times while Alex proclaimed with the utmost certainty, "Ha! Nice try punk, but ya blew your attempt at an ambush!"
"...What are ya talking about? I didn't do anything to your mind..." The impostor stood genuinely perplexed for a good few seconds, leaving Alex to gawk with his mouth wide open. His cheeks reddened and his eyes looked blank and emotionless, both things the impostor derived laughter from.
"Hehehe, I knew I made the right call going after you. You're a funny little guy. Too bad my disguise didn't last a little longer..." Her face scrunched up in frustration, but got all giddy when Alex set his blade ablaze with a dull glow.
"Take it from someone experienced with clones...There's no such thing as a perfect copy," Alex declared with an intensity in his eyes that lasted a moment before the gaze shifted to the left, "Wait...haven't I said that already?"
With a quick shake of the head he pushed the blade up against the fake's skin and exclaimed, "Anyways...! Now shed your skin you dirty snake, or I'll rip it off myself!"
Her smile creased unnaturally across the span of her face as her body was filled with distortions resembling multiple squares of static. As the echoes of giggles filled the forest the impostor flipped back. A three-pronged black trident impaled the ground, with a green snake curling up the back of the rod as an adolescent girl perched atop it in a gargoyle-like slouch.
This girl with short black hair dark red eyes and pointy ears wore three red metallic wings that curved at differing angles and had tips shaped like arrowheads. On the left side of their back were three blue wiggling tails with the density of ribbons, and wrapped around their right arm was a light blue snake with beady red eyes. Her dress was all black save for the black and blue trim near the neck, and the red bow attached to it. Topping her bizarre appearance off was the boringly plain black thigh-high stockings and red bow topped shoes on the legs.
She waved her left hand right up and had a genuinely pleasant air surrounding her otherwise enigmatic frame as she spoke up with a rough and rowdy tone, "Sup Elemental Overlord! The name's Nue Houjuu! I hope I filled your heart with plenty of dread!"
Nue Houjuu ~ The Mystery Wrapped in an Enigma
"Can it!" Alex proclaimed as he swung aside and freed his hand to viciously point at the girl, "What have you done with Shina?!"
Nue rolled her shoulders and loosely admitted, "Beats me, its not my job to care about her."
The snake on her arm crawled down to the trident and bit into the other one, hoisting the weapon into her hand's as a sleek mischievous grin stretched across both cheeks and her eyes projected a more hostile glimmer of light, "Besides you oughta be more concerned about yourself, seeing how you're the one getting pranked!"
A Spell Card spawned a few feet away from the feisty nue, who sliced right through it with her trident and then zipped over the boy's head like a bolt of lightning. He turned around but she had vanished into the shadows of the forest, taunting him with the playful echoes of her voice.
"Lets play a deadly game of hide and seek young Overlord! Think you can survive my Endless Loop-de-Loop 'A Trial of Deadly Shapes'?"
Alex pounded his fists together and proclaimed with a scowl, "Boy you're really gonna regret choosing to screw with me! So go ahead, hit me with your best shot!"
"Heheheh! That was always our plan!"
"Our plan?" Alex mumbled with intrigue, but was forced to focus on the sights ahead as glints of light broke through the shadows. Dozens upon dozens of bright neon Danmaku meant to resemble squares, "Os", "Xs" and triangles came flying at him like a swarm of angry bees.
They were faster than the naked eye could perceive, leaving little time for Alex to leap out of the way. He skid across the ground and swung his right hand back to set it ablaze. The intensity of the lights left him squinting but focused, since Nue would be the ink blotch on this otherwise pristine display of bullets.
Yet after a few seconds her presence proved to be a no-show, and the bullets' light grew brighter because they were all getting closer. Alex leapt away and shook his hand free of the flames, but the Danmaku kept its relentless pursuit.
"The hell is this?!" He grit his teeth and looked to the right and left. To his shock the Danmaku wasn't just going after him, it had him surrounded in a perfect loop. The trees weren't an obstacle either, for each bullet phased right through.
"Do I have to count to ten before you'll try and find me? Or maybe you feel too hopeless to try..." All her taunts did was light a fire under his butt, and said fire manifested around his body as he tucked his hands in and kicked straight back twenty feet.
His back rammed into a tree but he pulled away with minimal concern and dashed around it. The Danmaku shifted course and started approaching him from behind, leading to him getting briefly consumed by the swarm. It was like getting pelted with snowballs launched from a mechanical baseball pitcher on the fritz, so Alex was damn sure to get out of there the first chance he had.
While keeping on the run he sliced the air with his legs to send waves of fire into the Danmaku, but there were no visible signs of impact on his foe.
"Tsk...!' He planted his feet and drew out his hands full of electricity, fraying the sky before him with a jagged net of lightning. Again, a waste of time.
Bolting it as the Danmaku closed in, Alex landed in the center of the loop and looked up, leaping skyward after flashing a sly grin. The moment he breached the trees the Danmaku doubled in speed and rose to smack him back down, where he tumbled back first into a thick trunked oak, splitting it down the middle.
"...O-Okay...that stung a bit..." He dragged himself back up and saw the Danmaku zipping straight down, taking that as his cue to scram.
But while on the run Nue took the time to relay a scathing critique of his performance so far, "I was expecting a lot more fighting and a lot less...fleeing."
"Hey shut up, you're breaking the rules by hiding!" Alex swung his head around but couldn't get a lock on neither her presence nor her voice, and was again backed into a tree. He rolled around it and kept on the run, refusing to waste energy on empty air.
"You can see me. That's why its called hide and seek. Oh, but don't think your little tricks will help you out. My Seeds of Unknown Form mask my presence entirely."
Alex growled through his teeth, "So, that basically makes you invisible. Great..."
But after a bit more scurrying around got his adrenaline pumping, Alex realized something crucial that the nue had accidentally let slip, "Wait, I can 'see' her?"
He stuck to the ground for a second and squinted at the Danmaku loop as a brilliant idea began to form, "She's disguised herself as one of her Danmaku?"
The bullets swung inches close to his face and he made two major leaps back, accidentally planting his feet against the side of a tree. He bent down and flung himself higher, performing a series of flips to vault over the tree before Nue could ram him to the ground.
He turned and ran for it, exclaiming with increasing fury in his head, "Easy! All I have to do is find the correct one out of a THOUSAND GODDAMN BULLETS."
He looked back and dragged his hands out for battle, setting them on fire and proclaiming with the intense face of a madman, "Fine then, I'll just smoke you out!"
He thought about that for a moment and his flames just sputtered out, along with any motivation to try other elements upon realizing that every single one would have devastating consequences on the environment. He kept leaping away, followed by the scandalous taunts of his feisty foe.
"Ooooo, so the Elemental Overlord is a tree hugger. Who would've guessed?"
"T-That has NOTHING to do with anything!" He stammered with reddish cheeks.
"I'm not too picky about the foods I eat, but the grosser the better! Moldy broccoli is the best!"
"If this is some nutjob attempt to confuse me, cut it out!" Alex snapped his fingers out and launched a sonic boom blast of air, keeping it contained at point-blank range. He went deaf for a second and couldn't hear the birds fleeing from the now barren trees right above.
After this failed attempt to fight back he dashed away and tried to come up with another plan, "There has to be some flaw to the Seeds of Unknown Form that I can exploit. Its not a perfect disguise, there's just no way in hell!"
"I can't sense her or seek her out through sound...Smell's out of the question, I don't even know what she smells like. Probably raw sewage if that's her eating habits...Eaugh."
Then, as the sweat of running rampant through the forest started getting to him, the lightbulb of brilliance clicked itself on inside his brain and he let out a slight gasp, "Wait a minute...Back then, when she was disguised as Shina..."
He could distinctly recall Nue flinching to his sword getting up close and personal with her, and from there one thought led to another until a concrete plan was formed, "She still maintains a physical presence in this world!"
His happy smile drooped for a moment as a more cynical take on the scenario played out in his head, "...Or she could have just been screwing with me."
With a quick and firm shake of the head he pushed his left arm out against the pressure of the air and snagged a tree branch as big as his limb right off with ease, "Screw it, trying it anyways!"
Using his thumb as a makeshift lighter he set the branch's tip ablaze and threw it out. He kept on the run but stretched his hands out to hold the branch in the middle of the Danmaku swarm as it built up a plentiful cloud of smoke.
Weaving around the trees was a top priority even though it seemed he was going in circles now, but Alex also managed to keep his eyes wide open and focused for any signs of the smoke attaching to something. After a patient, silent minute of running around, the boy's eyes widened and timed seemed to freeze around him.
A single "X" flew threw the heavy smoke and got it stuck on them like glue, then kept on going to repeat the loop. But it was too late now. Alex had gotten that "X" in his sights and wasn't going to forget where it was. Playing Nue's game for this long made him privy to how many seconds it took for the loop to make a full rotation.
He began the timer in his head with scaringly perfect accuracy, then swung his right hand back to condense flames into a sphere bigger than his head. His fingers squeezed around its circumference in spite of the pressure it emitted, and collapsed it until it was no bigger than a baseball.
"Five...four...three...two..." At that crucial moment Alex's eyes widened without hesitation and he lunged straight ahead with the arm already swinging forward. The smoke drenched "X" ended up directly in the path of his fireball and was pushed out of alignment with the rest of the loop. Alex took the brunt of all the Danmaku head-on until Nue had been forced out, and then launched the fireball to send her hurtling through the forest.
The fireball expanded to the size of his body as she changed back to normal, then exploded and knocked her to the ground. Her body rolled through the grass and dirt on its side, where she was stopped by a lone tree that just happened to be in her way. Her body stuck there for a moment then fell flat on its stomach, where the little mischief maker then quickly got up with her knees pressed together and legs bent out beside the rear.
Her head wobbled and the presence of smoke lasted for a good while longer, although now with tiny scorch marks on her skin and clothes accompanying it. Alex walked up to her and looked down with a blank expression, and even in defeat her annoyance got vented regarding an unrelated topic, "Twice...twice you've exposed my true form. Couldn't my fun have lasted a little longer?"
Through a flick of the wirst and snap of the fingers Alex got roots to crawl out of the ground and bind Nue's knees and elbows in place. He was soft with the constraints, feeling it'd be cruel to inflict lasting pain to this prankster...at least for now.
He crossed his arms and gave Nue a stern glare right in the eyes as she barely put up a fight, "Alright you, no more Spell Cards. You mentioned something about 'our plan'...Who are you working with, and what do they want with me and Shina?"
"I know nothing about her, honest!" Nue proclaimed with a cheeky smile.
Laying one hand on his hip and sighing, Alex upfront told her, "Deceit's natural for your kind, so I can't blame you for not being compliant with telling the truth. But I really don't think you want to piss me off right now, cause if you've done anything to Shina..."
"Hey hey! Don't fry me up like a bad piece of tempura just cause you're not listening! I'm serious, I wasn't chosen to be part of that team!" Nue kept her cool the entire time she blabbed, but once Alex smirked she gawked and realized she had screwed up.
"...But you were in contact with the ones who've targeted Shina before coming here, correct?" He crossed his arms and watched as she shook her head.
"Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you who they were! I'd rather bite my tongue off!"
"If Nue knows them, it could only mean the head monk of the Myouren Temple...But why would they go through all this trouble just for us? Something's fishy, but I know just how to get to the bottom of this..." He raised his brows to bolster the high ground he had over his captured company and told her, "I'm not worried about Shina. If you say you're part of a team, then that means there's a leader watching us right now, and I want to meet them."
"So I'll cut a deal. You call out to that head honcho of yours, and if they show up I'll let you go."
"Ok sure! I shouldn't be hogging all the fun for myself anyways!" Nue complied without giving it any thought, then took in a deep breath and let her yell echo throughout the whole forest, "HEY! HE'S ALL YOURS NOW!"
"Ho hum ho hum...A child so young and frail's the inheritor of such frightening power? The world's gotta wicked sense of humor, that be certain..." It was an elderly, down-to-earth kind of voice that emerged from the willows dangerously close by. When Alex spun around, the person the voice belonged to was just ten feet away, as though having been there all along.
She was just a few inches shorter than Alex, but with an air of wisdom far beyond what even her mature appearance would suggest. A hat shaped like a leaf covered her ruffled shoulder length brown hair and the sagging gaze of her brown eyes, which were also being protected by a set of gold-rimmed glasses. Her outfit was fairly old-fashioned, consisting of a beige ecru shirt, grey bloomers, and a short skirt with a red-grey pattern across it. Nestled at her back in full display was a bushy beige-brown raccoon tail and a white clay bottle of sake, while in her right hand was a thin, freshly burning smoke pipe which weaved around her face a most mystifying veil. Once the woman perked her head up one of her best features, a pair of fuzzy raccoon ears atop the head, made it obvious who and what she was.
Alex stood there silent at the sight of this perplexing woman, who had managed to get the jump on him without any of the tricks Nue had at her disposal. She wasn't that powerful, but what she did have was far greater. Knowledge, and plenty of it. Yet a wiggling smile suggested a more playful, wily side to her. It was only natural. After all, tanuki's love their fair share of tricks.
After flicking the used up grains of soot from her pipe, the tanuki took to puffing a bit of smoke while striking up a well-meaning conversation with the boy, "It ain't real proper to keep a buncha ladies waitin' forever ya know?"
"What?" He could only answer so simply.
With the smoke expelled from her mouth in a ring, the tanuki looked to the skies above and her voice grew a litle more ominous, "You've been a guest'a honor for a pretty good few years I reckon. The lot of us were kinda hopin' ya'd be a no show at all...Least then that mess'a trouble coulda been avoided."
Alex's eyes narrowed towards the tanuki, who showed no signs of regard for her own life as she boldly gazed out from the corner of her eye and remarked, "But hey, now'r never don't matter to me...If you are who you are, then I reckon I'll know soon enough. Ain't that right Elemental Overlord...? Or...perhaps you won't mind me callin' ya by your other psuedonym, Mr. Phoenix of Destruction?"
With those three words, the meaning behind why the boy had come to this world had been flipped entirely on its head. Once having no reason to come here for himself, now he had all the reason in the universe to stay. That was not a title that could be flung around so carelessly. Someway, somehow, this curious tanuki had caught wind of those terrible words being strung together in relation to him, and it was now up to him to get her to spill all the beans.
The tanuki couldn't back down from a challenge and her smile widened further. She was unlike anyone else Alex had met in Gensokyo so far. Even with Eirin the boy could get somewhat of a bead on what her intentions were. But this tanuki? There was nothing, not even a glimmer of possibility as to what she was planning by ambushing him out in the open with those enticing words. Truly, this woman deserved to be called what she was...
Mamizou Futatsuiwa ~ An Enigma Wrapped in a Mystery
"Hohoho...I hope yer as eager as I am to play a little game, young'un," She whispered with an unnerving gleam fogging the lens of her glasses, "I reckon I'd be a tad disappointed if ya didn't live up to our expectations of ya..."
Next Time: Gensokyo's Unstoppable Duo