Meikai Square
4 : Pong
A ring of fire surrounds me
But that's not what keeps me in this prison
For it is by mine own free will that I stay
Though I be locked
Truth is, I'm free
-Unknown
She awakes to the sound of something wooden hitting against… well, she hears something wooden, but that's it. Whatever it's hitting must be quite solid as it does not make noise of its own. 'That's strange…', she thinks. She remembers that there's no such thing as loose wood in her room… or what passes for her room, at least. The strange, eerie wooden tapping persists and she decides that she'll have to repair it NOW. Else, she wouldn't be able to sleep. She can grab a small shut-eye later anyways, and so, she opens her eyes…
…and sees nothing, or at least, what would pass for nothing and then, she notices something aside from the darkness: it's wet- VERY wet. 'Is my room really this dark and damp? I never remember it to be like this… ' she groans as she rubs her eyes. The wooden tapping is still there and it's really unnerving, as there's absolutely no wind. Even if there was a loose plank in her room, it should NOT be this damp and there must be wind to at least make to wood knock against each other. However, when her eyes finally adjust to the darkness, she could be no more wrong.
She's NOT in her room.
Instead, she's wrapped up in a sleeping bag with a thin blanket that cushioned her from the rocky floor. Oh yeah, did I say that she's in a cave?
Ah yes, I didn't. Anyway, she's in a cave, and a very rocky one at that. Another thing she does not notice is how the sound of howling wind fills the air. Surprising, since this is actually creepier and louder than the wooden knocking, but then again, she may have fallen asleep to that sound and gotten used to it in the process.
Curious as to what the wooden knocking might be, she looks up and…
Windy Cave: The Underground's first entrance
"Well, this is new." Remarks a certain green-haired girl, her voice quieter than a whisper as she stares eye-to-eye with a white-haired youkai, who apparently woke up when she entered. 'Oh well, crap anyways. I wanted to at least get a shocked reaction or something!'
As stated before, her hair is green, tied into twin ponytails. Her eyes are brown and she wears…something with long white sleeves that reach her wrists. What she's wearing can't really be determined since her entire body from the shoulders down is hidden inside a large wooden bucket that somehow stays in the air (please, don't ask about how that's even possible. I can tell you, but then I'll have to kyuu you… it's not worth it.).
She is Kisume, and she's a turubi-otosi… err, tsurubi-otoshi for those who prefer that spelling.
As for Kotori, she looks up at the little bucket youkai while slowly slipping her right hand to one of her scythes in case the person above her decides to attack.
And she did… not. The little bucket youkai keeps on staring blankly at Kotori, creeping the little youkai out more than the previous knocking.
"Hmmm… she wants to eat me." Suddenly says Sayu to her side, the human sipping tea casually and somehow not bothered by what she just said.
"No, I'm not going to eat any of you!" Kisume protests, then after a few seconds, she adds "Not without Miss Yamame anyway…"
Her voice is cute, childish, soft…
"I'm here, you know" says a more mature voice from behind the bucket youkai and before she realizes what happened, Kisume is being hugged from behind –through her bucket, obviously.
"M-Miss Yamame!" squeals Kisume in surprise. "You're here!"
The new person, whose name is Kurodani Yamame, an earth-spider youkai with the power over diseases, hangs upside-down, suspended in mid-air by silk, which is not surprising, considering her nature.
She wears a long-sleeved black shirt with a brown sleeveless full-body dress over it, tied on the lower end by yellow ribbon, which is quite sensible, seeing her current position and prevents her skirt from falling to gravity. As for her hair, it's golden and tied into a bun with a brown ribbon.
The earth spider chuckles as she swings gently to and fro. "Yes, Kisu-chan~", then, still swinging, she turns her gaze to Sayu, licks her left-hand pointer finger and says "Now~ what snack do we have he~re?"
She slowly descends, keeping her eye on Sayu. when she's midway down, she casually instructs "Kisu-chan~ Deal with the youkai."
"Ha~i" replies the bubbly tsurubi-otoshi as she floats out of the spider's embrace and approaches Kotori, who takes out her twin scythes and immediately does an undeclared battle with the bucket, her attacking with slashes and basic energy shots and with Kisume using orbs of… fire. They don't look much like fire, being greenish and all, but still fire nevertheless: Hellfire.
The battle starts just as Yamame fully descends and stares eye-to-eye with Sayu, who somehow looks indifferent despite the hungry look on the spider's face.
…
…and, barring the noise of danmaku in the background and the wailing of the wind, there's absolute silence. It's so deep that you can even hear the crickets buzzing, cocks crowing and… scrap that. We're underground. Anyways, that's it: silence, silence, and more silence as Yamame keeps on staring at Sayu, who stays indifferent to the spider, watching Kotori's battle instead.
…
…and it was Yamame who broke the silence. "Hey!" she says a little loudly, hoping to catch Sayu's attention. "I said that I'm going to eat you, didn't I? Why in the world aren't you concerned?"
The spider's mouth curls up into a grin at that, revealing her teeth and impressive canines.
…
…but Sayu remains nonresponsive to Yamame's pearls. Hmm… nonresponsive to Yamame's pearls. That's a good rhyme with highly responsive to prayers!
Ah, wait. That's right! I meant Yamame's pearly, gleaming, sharp and god-knows-how-sharp teeth.
A vein pops in the spider's head (took it long enough. With how she's upside-down and all, I would have expected veins to appear earlier) as she shouts "HEY! HUMAN! I'M TALKING TO YOU HERE!" straight into Sayu's ear and then blocking her view of the battle.
And she finally gets a reaction. Not the one she was expecting, however- as a response to Yamame's being in her way, Sayu casually swats the spider away and continues watching the battle with some sort of interest.
Yamame falls over at how the human seems to be more concerned about seeing the battle than actually worrying about her safety. Or… well, she would have fallen over if only she was not face-down with a mouth full of moist dirt anyway. Speaking of moist dirt, as soon as she notices it, she spits all of them out with visible disgust. "Ugh… bat guano. Why did that become my breakfast?" she groans as she pulls a bar of cheap blue soap out of nowhere, shoves it into her mouth (don't ask. ever.) and spits it back out when she was sure that nothing remains of the guano she had a while ago; taste and texture included.
Her face still shows disgust as she runs towards the human, her mouth and mind full of an entire speech readied just for the human. However, as soon as she's within arm's reach, Sayu somehow thought it convenient to stretch her arms a bit.
And that she did. Of course, Yamame gets hit and kisses dirt. Again.
The spider youkai recovers faster than before, but now her lips are bleached perfectly white and so is her entire mouth; probably an effect of the bathroom acid that she took to rinse her mouth this time. Anyways, just as she recovers, she looks up and the first thing she notices was the hungry look on Sayu's face. Not just hungry, she's outright drooling! What she says next does not really comfort Yamame either….
"Hmmm~ that little bucket youkai sure looks delicious~ hmm… should I have her cooked on a spit or on a…" Sayu casually says –or more like, sings- while observing the battle. Kotori's on the winning side now, having used and still using a combination of agility, blasts and slashes to get at the little bucket youkai, who keeps on throwing fireballs.
As for the spider youkai, upon hearing those words coming from Sayu, she realises that they're not the predators this time- they're the prey.
"Oh Shi*!" screams Yamame as she grabs Kisume, who was about to receive another slash from Kotori and runs out of the cave, but apparently, they are too careless and hit a stalactite, falling down on the ground not a second later.
At that, Sayu lazily stands up and walks over to Yamame who realises who is approaching, whines and desperately reasons out. "P-please! It was just a prank! W-we didn't really mean to eat you- please spare Kisume!"
"Hmm~?"
はくれい神社
"Urrrrcgh…." groans one still-groggy Aya Shameimaru as she hammers another board into the supposed-to-be floor. Reimu said that it was supposed to be a reinforcing layer and that the original shrine –that is, before Tenshi rebuilt it with slightly harder wood- had it, but the tengu could swear that the Miko's just doing it to give her a hard time. The fact that she left with the witch earlier seems to support that idea.
"WHY IS SHE DOING THIS TO MEEE?" she cries out in pain and in response, lightning suddenly flashes, wind howls and a deluge falls upon Gensokyo… or so she'd like to think. It's actually still sunny and hot as heck, but the tengu certainly feels like it inside.
"Please don't be so miserable, Miss Aya. I'm helping you anyways." Replies a gentle, soft-spoken voice that she has gotten used to in her erm… temporary work in the shrine, and that's not because the owner of the voice treats her like a dog, oh no. not like that- the owner of the voice is actually helping her out in the repairs, volunteering to do it too.
"Meibilin", Aya says, a gentle smile appearing on her face as she turns to look at the shrine's temporary miko. "I thought you left with Reimu… you know, to wherever they are."
"I did not", answers Meibilin with a soft smile of her own. "I can't leave when I know I have work to be done. Besides, thou will be left alone here… and that will just be sad."
The crow tengu responds by blushing while saying "Thanks, Meibilin. You are the first person to be that concerned for me." 'This girl… she really cares, doesn't she?'
And so, they return to repairing the shrine with smiles on her faces.
Meanwhile, at the magic library…
Sakuya stands sheepishly in front of Patchouli, who, strangely, is wearing a slightly different outfit. Well, how would I describe it? Lessee, it's got the same build as her normal dress, but is indigo instead of purple. It does not seem to bother the magician though.
"Sakuya? Why is this one a different colour?"
…or maybe not.
The perfect and elegant maid curtsies… well, flawlessly and elegantly. How else would you describe a curtsy from the "perfect and elegant maid"? It has to be perfect and elegant as well, right?
Never mind that. Anyways, our time-stopping maid, as she finishes her time-stopping bow, in a time-stopping voice, says "My apologies, lady Patchouli. All others are still torn from your earlier battles with the black-and-white rat and are in the process of being repaired. The only ones available would be the ones that were stained with blue ink when the little sister ran rampant on the laundry room with her sister's inks."
Our asthmatic magician makes an asthmatic sigh as she says "If it can't be helped…"
Sakuya makes another bow and is about to pause time when Patchouli suddenly calls her name.
"Yes?" she responds, her face as solid and emotionless as ever; not even as the librarian's lips curve up slightly in a playful grin.
"If I remember it right, Remi came down here earlier, crying about a vampirivorous monster and a perverted maid."
"…ah… well, that la-"
"That vampirivorous part I can make out –the human that came by earlier looked like she was repressing hunger-, but care to elaborate on the 'perverted maid' part?"
"..ah"
The maid could not say any more, even as a wave of emotions and excuses reflect themselves in her eyes, which somehow belongs to a blushing face that really does not fit its stern expression. Seriously, it does not fit. Even a Stalinist-statue Hitler-head on a pink roman-style statue of cupid spearing a headless horseman built in Maori style wearing Chinese clothes fit better than that expression and her face! (And that's considering that the statue's Hitler-head has its hair painted pink, face black and eyes gold.)
Windy Cave: The Underground's first entrance (inside a windless mini-cave)
Sayu and Kotori have seated themselves on a small mat that the human somehow carried with her (what…?) and are drinking red (black) tea quite peacefully along with the tsurubi-otoshi and the earth spider that have also seated themselves on the mat- though in the case of the tsurubi-otoshi, it would be more like hanging on a friend's silken thread.
Now that I think of it, HOW DID SHE BRING THAT TEA SET ALL THE WAY HERE?
…I'd better not give it too much thought; I'm a narrator after all and dee author ees een dee woiks! I've seen the previous narrator go Marisa-mad trying to understand the workings of the author's mind, but I digress.
"Hmm… you two are actually nice people!" says the tsurubi-otoshi –Kisume- as she takes a sip from her cup.
"Sou desu ka?"
…there's no need to tell who said that because it's FREAKING OBVIOUS!
"Yes yes!" Kisume adds, speaking quite enthusiastically and happily. Not to mention in a childish manner. "No-one who attacked me before gave me tea after my defeat!"
"…sou desu ka?"
… fast forward a few minutes through their quite boring teatime and pointless chattering, we arrive here…
~Entrance to the Blowhole~
Kotori takes a look down at the massive hole in the ground. She could feel the wind and its strength, and not only that, but she could not at all see the bottom. The little youkai figures that it must not only be a trick of the humidity –there's certainly no lack of it-, but also evidence of the blowhole's depth.
"A-are you sure about this, Sayu-sama? I don't think I can fly too well with a weight on my back in these winds." Says Kotori as she gazes downwards in wonder. It must be like, a hundred? No, maybe a thousand feet?
"…"
There's absolutely no response whatsoever from Sayu, and even as she turns to look at her, the human merely stands there, looking downwards as Kotori was doing. That… and holding her open fan against her mouth.
Kotori glances down once again at the blowhole "Sayu-sama, I really don't think I can carry you on my back this- eh?"
There was a slight sound of footwear scraping the soft ground and when Kotori's head jerks to Sayu, she's no longer there.
"Wheeee~"
Well, that certainly stated where Sayu was.
And with a sigh, Kotori follows.
(~*The Blowhole*~)
Sayu rockets downward, her limbs held close to her sides, giving her minimum drag and allowing her to reach insanely high speeds despite the powerful updraft. She enjoys the sensation of the wind on her skin, the sound of her clothes fluttering in the wind and the sheer sense of speed. Not wanting to end it a bit too soon, she stretches her arms, then her legs away from her body, slowing her down and quite effectively so, considering the blowhole's updraft.
After thirty or so seconds, she slows down from no slower than 60 feet per second to no faster than ten feet per second and even so, she keeps on slowing until she finally reaches the speeds where she would appear to by flying instead of gliding.
This loss of speed allows Kotori to finally catch up with her companion. And, as soon as she's right beside the pink-haired human, she calls out "A-ah… Miss Sayu!"
However, for reasons untold, Sayu tucks in her limbs again and it did not take long before the human is once again shooting down the windy shaft of the blowhole at breakneck speeds, leaving one bewildered youkai behind.
At one point, the shaft narrows and the wind receives a massive boost in pressure and speed. Despite this, Sayu keeps on shooting downwards and, at her speed, somehow manages to create an airless void behind her- a sonic boom in a narrow enclosure.
Sayu slows down again, her deceleration faster due to the higher velocity winds and as before, the more careful Kotori catches up after a short while.
"Miss Sayu! What were you thinking!" Kotori asks, but unfortunately for her, the wind drowns out her voice.
Sayu, meanwhile, notices a dense cluster of fairies up ahead (or should it be lower down?). The fairies, upon noticing Sayu, immediately open fire and the human, unable to fight while gliding on the risk of spinning out of control, speeds up again and shoots through the cluster like a knife through butter. (Oh wait, that rhymed!)
The terrified fairies try to make way while cursing at Sayu. Nevertheless, the human manages to tackle quite a lot out of the sky and by the time she reaches fairy-free air and slows down, she has brought down at least twenty of them to their temporary deaths.
And when she finally slows down, she does so in the nick of time; the ground is already visible from her location. Still, she's moving a bit too fast to properly position her feet for landing and in a bid to slow her descent, she fires a concentrated energy blast downwards, allowing her to point her feet downwards towards the ground in addition to slowing her down enough for a graceful landing.
On touchdown, the first thing she notices would be the heat, followed by the much denser air and the slightly different feel of the place's magic.
Sayu walks around, spots a hanging bridge and slowly walks over to it. However, just as she puts her foot on the bridge's wood, a large energy blast flies her way. Sensing it, she draws her sword and, with a lazy, graceful swing, reflects it to its owner.
Whoever must have sent the blast must have not expected it to be reflected and a loud boom graces Sayu's ears along with a surprised shriek.
Sayu takes a look at her attacker and, in her own words; her attacker is "A young lass with hair like a field of ripe wheat, eyes of grass, wearing a Persian dress of brown and purple."
She is Mizuhashi Parsee, a very jealous hashihime or 'bridge princess'. Of course, Sayu does not know this.
"Thou there, keeper of this bridge that I stand upon. I humbly wish to pass. May I?" asks the pink-haired human in the most polite tone she could muster.
Unfortunately for her, the hashihime fails to hear her and instead grumbles. "The human deflected my attack…."
"Hmmm?"
"…I'M SO JEALOUS!" the hashihime screams audibly, and right after hearing that, Sayu quickly identifies Parsee as a 'spirit of jealousy', which holds some truth since Hashihime, the namesake of the species, was a human turned youkai due to jealousy.
"Thou there! I ask thee again; I kindly wish to pass over thine bridge. May I?" asks Sayu for a second time, still keeping her polite tone.
"NO!" comes another scream from the hashihime, which makes Sayu wonder why the bridge princess has to scream all the time; can't she talk normally? "YOU CAN'T PASS BECAUSE I'M SO JEALOUS."
Sayu stays still for a few seconds. Behind her, Kotori is apparently still fighting her way down –explosions and wee fairy screams say so- and the bridge princess in front of her seems to be quite unreasonable. There's only one way, it seems…
"Fine! If to let me cross thou desirest not, then we shall decide this over a duel!" Sayu declares. "Two Cards for this battle, lady of the bridge."
"FIIINEEE!" the bridge's keeper screams. "YOU'RE CHALLENGING ME. I'M. SO. JEALOUS!"
Parsee sends several more of those large energy blasts –green sphere danmaku- towards Sayu. who does not bother to evade and merely deflects them back to Parsee with her sword in the same lazy, graceful manner as before, forcing the hashihime to dodge her own shots.
"Is that all that thou hast with thee?" Sayu asks with a giggle and, as soon as Parsee's first barrage ends, the human retaliates by firing her own danmaku storm. Standard-strength shots by her own standards, but to the hashihime, they are way powerful and the pattern by which Sayu attacked with (two interlocking helixes of black butterfly danmaku moving towards Parsee, a ring of scarlet danmaku moving outwards counter-clockwise above a layer of black danmaku moving outwards clockwise and two clockwise and counter-clockwise rings of purple danmaku moving inwards towards Sayu) too difficult to dodge.
Parsee tries to weave through the pattern, but fails and goes down in one hit from one of the black butterflies. At the same time, Kotori finally comes flying out of the shaft and floats over to Sayu's side without a scratch.
"S-so… Miss Sayu, where do we go from here?" Kotori asks with a level tone, making her question sound like a statement. Sayu taught her that, of course.
"We cross over."
The two of course, cross over the bridge, making sure not to step on Parsee, who lies on her back with dizzy eyes and as soon as they reach the other side, what greets their eyes is not The Netherworld, which they were expecting, but a large and noisy city.
"M-miss Sayu. I think we came to the wrong place…" says Kotori with a shaky voice.
Distracted by a mansion she sees in the distance, Sayu does not seem to hear Kotori and instead grabs her and flies off at full speed towards it, passing through the city before its inhabitants could even yell a curse their way as they pass through a party, knock a table over and spill a cauldron full of lava. Heck. None of the citizens even caught sight of their faces. That is, except one…
It did not take long before Sayu arrives in front of the tall mansion, which seems to be made of wood and well-polished stone. It reminds Sayu of the mansion she was in a while ago, of which name she forgot.
Spotting the door, she slowly walks over to it. Strangely, however, just as she puts her hand on the door, it opens on its own, as if inviting the two. This scares Kotori, who immediately thinks of horror stories, but on the other hand, prompts Sayu to go in, who has seen greater horrors in her past… but of course, we are not really going to touch on that.
Sayu lets go of Kotori, walks inside, and after only a few paces, is greeted by a young lady cradling and petting a two-tailed cat.
She has purple eyes and matching shoulder-length hair, a third eye held by a red rob connected by nerve or artery-like tubes to the rest of her body, and wears a blue long-sleeved shirt with a frilly pink collar and matching cuffs. She also wears a pink short skirt, a black headband and matching shoes with frilly pink socks.
Satori Komeiji, the girl the spirits feared. She's a Satori, as her name implies and that means she can read people's minds.
ashdie
"Good to see you, Sayundobiigafujan Ginsapamatoshin and Shimada Kotori. I am Komeiji Satori of Palace of the Earth Spirits and no, The Netherworld is not here." Satori says in monotone, a light, barely-hidden grimace on her face.
Actually, Satori got that information from Kotori, who stands beside Satori, as she receives nothing but the mental equivalent of static from Sayu. to be specific, what she gets from Sayu would be like what one would get from putting four television screens showing different channels on top of one another in addition to a dull pain like wet gloves touching her brain. That would explain her grimace.
"My~? Thou knowest mine name already? You must be a mind reader then! Convenient!" says one bubbly Sayu.
"Ugh… convenient? Th-that's a nice change of pace if only I can actually read your mind." Groans Satori with a pained tone, making the two-tailed cat between her arms look up to her worriedly.
After a few seconds, Satori collapses from the intensifying mental pain she keeps receiving from both reading and trying not to read Sayu's mind. Finally, she can no longer bear it and screams "Get the heavens out of here! Go and find a white-haired knife maid and ask her. She knows where to find The Netherworld… just… get… out of here… please."
Before another word is spoken, Sayu turns around and walks out of the mansion. Kotori, dumbstruck at the sudden outburst of Satori –who she thought was a scary person, from the rumours above-ground-, blinks twice before going after Sayu. "A-ah! Miss Sayu, wait for me. Waaaait!"
Sayu is already three buildings away by the time Kotori catches up to her companion.
"S-Sayu sama! What was with the Satori?" asks Kotori. She has good reason, since no-one collapses like that for no reason.
"I don't know~" hums Sayu as she plays with her black fan. Does she really not know?
"Hey, you two!" calls a third voice and immediately Kotori's face snaps upwards to glance at the source of the voice: Yuugi Hoshiguma.
"Hey, lookie what tha cat brought in~ You a new face down here, aren't you, mates?" the oni asks. On one hand, she holds a red dish containing what must have been alcohol and drinks from it right after asking.
Kotori nods as a response. However, Sayu says something completely off-topic. "What about thee, Kotori? What dost thou think happened back there?"
Both Yuugi and Kotori turn to look at Sayu, who simply smiles with her face turned to Kotori's.
"Err… I don't know either." Answers Kotori with obvious unease in her voice as she answers her companion's question.
"It sure is strange… ah, an oni!"
A massive sweat-drop rolls down Kotori's face as she exclaims "You've noticed just now, Miss Sayu?"
"Hey, now that you two are lookin' at me, let me introduce me-self. I am Yuugi Hoshiguma, one of the four devas of the mountain, and I want to battle ya! But first, introduce ya-selves!"
"I am Kotori Shimada." Kotori says with a bow. Turning to Sayu, she asks, "Miss Eru…?"
"Hmm~?"
"Introduce yourself."
"To whom?"
"To that oni in front of us. And don't use your alias. Oni hate lies."
"Oh!" Sayu gasps, then, turning to Yuugi, she bows and says "I am Sayundobiigafujan Ginsapamatoshin."
"Good sport! You seem strong, so I'll battle you." Yuugi says as she draws two cards; [Oni Sign: Anomalies, Strength, Disorder, and Spirits] and [Mysterious Ring: Hell's Wheel of Pain]. "Two cards!"
In response, Sayu draws her own cards; [Hikari: Makai Spark」] and [Yakumo: Rain, Rain Come Again].
The oni kneels down, punches the ground and says "I'll state the rules. We battle, you using your cards and me with none. If I win, well, you lose. If you win, I'll escort you to wherever you want."
"Isn't that a bit unfair to you?" asks Kotori, who could not help but notice the big handicap the oni imposed on herself.
"Well, ya see, I love challenges and no-one can stand up against me in a fair one-on-one fight." Proudly declares the oni as she pockets the two cards she brought out.
"BEGIN!" shouts Yuugi as she rushes forward to meet Sayu, who draws Yukizakura and jumps out of the way just as the oni slams a foot into the ground, creating a crater and making Kotori jump back to avoid being collateral damage.
The oni turns around to Sayu, sees the blade and comments, "That blade you have there. I take it that it has not yet slashed an oni, has it?"
The strange human covers her mouth with her black fan while shutting one eye as she hums "Maybe~?"
Yuugi charges again, doing a left hook which Sayu blocks, only to have her thrown several feet up in the air due to the oni's pure strength. Despite that, she does not seem concerned and starts firing powerful blasts towards the oni, slowing her fall in addition to giving Yuugi something to evade.
In a few seconds, Sayu lands on top of a roof of one of the city's numerous residential houses. Gambling on her unpredictable flight abilities, Sayu jumps off the roof and, using her flight abilities to push herself, shoots downwards with the sharp side of her blade facing the oni.
Sayu's high-speed air-tackle is easily blocked by the left arm of Yuugi, who grabs Sayu's left arm and sends her flying against a building. The human twists her body accordingly so that her feet and not her back will be the ones to hit the hard surface.
BOOM!
Sayu succeeds in the nick of time and her back is spared. Strangely, the wall she hit does not seem the least bit damaged and Kotori, who is watching the battle from a safe spot on top of a roof, could not help but wonder as to what could have been used to make it so durable.
The human uses the inertia to launch herself into the air and once again using her not-so trusty flight abilities, she flies above Yuugi and once in position, points her sword downwards and declares "Hikari [Makai Spark]"
Voile the Magic Library
Patchouli perks up all of a sudden, taking her eyes off the 'laser' how-to book she was reading since the two left, feels a powerful magical shockwave echo throughout voile, making her frown and then growl not a little bit angrily. "Darn it all to hell! That human did get that far in that damned book!"
She gently puts down her book on the shelf and, as she slams the table, she calls out "KOAKUMA!"
A fluttering of wings can be heard and in a short while, the red-haired devil lands just beside Patchouli.
Koakuma bows politely and listens to Patchouli as she says, "Koakuma. Do you remember that book containing Gensokyo's most forbidden spells?"
The devil nods, wondering where her master could be going with this.
Patchouli produces the book in question and shows it to Koakuma, who gasps upon seeing the lack of its seal. "L-Lady Patchouli! It has been opened!"
The great librarian charges her left hand with power as she says, "That's why we must re-seal it and with stronger wards this time."
Koakuma mumbles something, and Patchouli, curious, asks ,"Please say that again, Koakuma."
The lesser devil nods and says "Lady Remilia told me on her way here that the human who brought the book used Laevetein."
Patchouli's eyes turn huge at that information. "She got that far? We MUST seal this book before someone else learns these spells."
The succubus nods and without ado, starts the two!
Hakurei Shrine
Marisa and Reimu look up and scowl at the sudden, but distinctive and overwhelming magical shockwave that just passed between them.
The shrine maiden, carrying a bag full of provisions for at least a month, having bought them somewhere friendlier than the Human Village, turns to her black-and-white youkai magician friend, who gets the gist of the maiden's thoughts and says. "Yes. I feel it too- The grandmother of all sparks- Makai Spark; Mima-sama's prototype of the Twilight Spark. "
The red-and-white, still serious, says "But that was sealed and declared unfit for the danmaku system, right? Mima herself knows that and besides, if someone else somehow learned the spell, how would he or she cast that spell here? This is Gensokyo, not Makai."
The black-and-white shrugs and says, "Beats me. Oh, and Makai Spark was supposed to be only as strong as the Final Spark, if I heard it right. Why is it outlawed?"
"Because," the Hakurei miko answers. "It absorbs the magical energies of those nearby to power the attack. That way, you can fire it as often and as long as you want without worrying about burning up and weakens the opponent as a bonus. It may even permanently kill youkai and fairies."
"…ah… w-wha…"
Nameless Hill
Nameless hill; a place long-abandoned because of a toxic mist that never seems to thin or leave the place… it's a beautiful place, carpeted with blossom upon blossoms of deadly, but beautiful poisonous flowers.
A long time ago, this was a place where unwanted children are left behind to die along with their beloved possessions. One of these items is a doll that after a hundred years, became a sentient being; a youkai that has been scourging the place ever since then, keeping the place to itself. However, unbeknownst to the youkai, among the blossoms lies an unspoilt, untouched corpse of a long-dead toxin mage.
Finally, after five hundred years after heart cancer laid her to rest, the energy overcharge of the Makai spark finally wakes the purple mist, the master of poison, ultimate toxin magus. Yukari Kasumi.
Yuugi's eyes widen in surprise and anticipation as a core of massive energy gathers in between the human's palms, which she holds together and pointed towards the oni, who is set on taking the full brunt of the spell. Well, she can't be helped; the last time she heard "Spark" in a spell card, she received a blast worth her battle.
"BRING IT ON!" Screams Yuugi as the core explodes into a gigantic beam of pure energy coloured black with scarlet outlines and hits her dead-on. Meanwhile, the nearby citizens of the underground city start screaming in terror as they feel their energy being drained- Kotori and Yuugi included, not that the latter is screaming as much as she is cackling in excitement.
After around a minute of firing the steady, deadly beam, Sayu cancels it, the black-and-red pillar slowly getting smaller until it becomes completely nonexistent. The force of the attack no longer keeping her up in the air, Sayu falls down, managing to land on a roof feet-first then jumps down to the ground, where the Oni stands, panting slightly and grinning at the same time. Several metres away, Kotori lies sprawled on the ground in a daze, partially knocked out by the drain.
Before the still-strong oni could resume the fight, Sayu grabs Kotori and runs all the way to the exit at full speed. That is, her full speed on foot and without aid from her perfectly reliable flight. It's that fast, but she manages to outrun the oni with it anyway and shoots right past the bridge and into the blowhole, where, for once, her unstable flight gives an advantage as she shoots straight upwards without the requirement of a command and once at top, rushes outside the windy cave and to the slope of the mountain, all in a matter of ten minutes.
Black Screen
By the time Kotori recovers, the first thing she notices is that she's being bear-hugged by Sayu, who is somehow using her flight at maximum speed and managed to stay stable.
She could see that they are somewhere in the Forest of Magic and up ahead, she could see the Scarlet Devil Mansion rapidly approaching and considering their current speed, it's very likely that they'll get there in thirty seco-
!Whoosh!
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
…or maybe I was wrong on that stable part since Sayu just rocketed upwards like Apollo 13, bringing the teary little youkai with her on a perfect 90-degree trajectory at speeds around mach two.
And then they stop. All of a sudden Sayu stops, only to shoot downwards again at twice her heaven-bound speed.
"!"
Kotori's eyesight blacks out –surprising, considering her youkai nature- for a few seconds after the sudden shift in G-force and the later violent braking… which was not so violent, since the human somehow managed to control her flight enough to crawl to ten feet per second.
Still, it's not enough and the force of the impact is still enough to create a small dent that barely passes for a crater.
Hakurei Shrine
"Lunchtime!" declares Meibilin, leaving a platter with a peach-pie on a table she has set up behind the donation box, which is halfway between the under-repair shrine and the torii gate before returning to hammering more wooden planks onto the floor, having eaten already.
This calls the attention of Aya, Marisa and Reimu, who are resting under a small shack by the shrine, sitting on top of a tree and bathing in the shrine's hot springs, respectively.
Aya cautiously walks towards the platter, then hides behind a support pillar as Marisa jumps off from her perch and, probably having broken a hip, stumbles towards the platter, only to hide behind a bush herself when Reimu, having changed, walks over boldly, then stops when the other two leave their hiding places and walks –or in Marisa's case, stumbles- towards the platter.
They approach it some more and then stop when each of the three of them are three metres away from the prize. At this, Reimu glances at both Aya and Marisa and then asks "So you two are pie eaters?"
Marisa shakily stands up as Aya says "In this world, there is only one peach pie… and there's no way am I going to let you beauties take it!"
"No way!" objects Marisa. "I'm the one that's going to have it!"
Reimu raises a cocky eyebrow then the three of them back off slowly a few paces. The next minute is spent by them eyeing each other warily as a tense atmosphere hangs over them.
Marisa cautiously raises her right hand, followed by Aya, who does the same. Reimu raises her hand last, more careful than the other two.
Then…
Reimu "JA!"
Aya "KEN!"
Marisa "PON!"
The three of them lower their hands at the same time, Aya and Marisa having drawn rocks and Reimu, paper. Noticing her loss, the tengu falls over on her back from sheer surprise while Marisa frantically raises and lowers her fist again and again, but for some reason, she fails in opening it. The miko, smiling, walks over to the peach pie and carries it away, eating casually.
"H-hey!" Marisa calls out, to which Reimu responds by saying, "In this world, there are two kinds of people; those that eat pies and those that don't."
The black-and-white tries to run after Reimu, but trips over Aya and Reimu, just before she returns to the hot spring with meal in tow, grins and makes a shooting motion with her free hand to Marisa.
Scarlet Devil Mansion
Meiling opens the mansion's grand doors carefully and then steps inside, motioning for the two visitors to follow her. It sure is curious, having these two come back all of a sudden. It seems, however, that the only thing they need this time around was her, and so she calls for her. "Sakuya-sama! Those two people from yesterday want something from you!"
The silver-haired maid materialises right in front of the scarlet-haired gatekeeper, who then returns to her guard duty. Turning to the duo, she asks "You again. What do you want?"
Sayu does not seem to notice, so Kotori asks in her stead. "Miss Sakuya of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It seems like we asked for the wrong directions. What we wish to know is the directions to The Netherworld, and not to The Underground, it seems."
"Fine." Says the perfect and elegant time-stopping maid and, for one time-stopping moment, her frame fizzles. When her form stabilises, she now holds a white roll of paper and, passing it to Kotori, says, "Take this."
The little youkai bows and, after a polite thank you, exits the mansion with Sayu, who seems to be unmindful of everything around her—aloof.
Characters, spell cards and scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice
Meibilin, Sayu and Kotori belong to Zurocha
Updated 2012:06:24;日曜日;UTC+8
Written by: Zurocha, the Blood-Tea-Lovin' Vampire of Ragnarök
Assists: None
Special Credits: None
Author Notes
This fic takes place approx. TEN years after TD, BTW. Marisa is already a Youkai here.
Oh, and many thanks for allowing me to use thy Disclaimer Format, Willie G.R.-sama. Many thanks for thy reviews, as well as those of Sorrow. Greetings to thee too, Sweetbation. It's a nice feeling having two authors you admire and one other you are silently watching read and comment on your work. It really gives a lot of drive and well… you know, fuel.
Say, that reminds me, now that I mentioned it. I can no longer be called someone who is 'Silently Watching' "An Epic Failure of Touhou Project" , huh?
Oh, and did I say this already, because I really do NOT remember saying this. Many thanks to ye, Willie-G.R.-sama, the great Flandre of the forums, SorrowfulReincarnation, the great Mima and Sweetbation, the Cyber-Youkai.
…and here comes a gappy~ a gappy~ a guppy~
The next chapter will be –you guessed it- IN DI NEDAHWELD!
Footnotes, etc.