Touhou Gensokyo Girls
Episode 14: A band of poltergeists (Ghostly Flowers)
THE PRISMRIVER POLTERGEISTS' MANSION: morning
The three sister awoke from their sleep when they heard loud knocks on the door,
Lyrica was really groggy when she awoke, "What is that?"
"Who the hell dare to come this early?" Merlin muttered irritated, she hated it when someone disturbed her beauty sleep.
"I'll get it." Lunasa got up on her own since she knew nothing good would happen if either of those got up this early.
Lunasa opened the door to find a white maid outside on their doorstep, "Forgive me for disturbing you so early miss Prismriver, but my Mistress Remilia Scarlet wishes to inform you and your band, that a party is being held in her honor," Sakuya informed the older poltergeist with a polite bow.
Lunasa had more or less expected the vampire's maid to come by one of these days, so she asked politely, "When will this party take place?"
"Tonight at the Scarlet mansion." Sakuya told her flat out, in a monotone voice.
"TONIGHT!?" Lunasa was shocked beyond her wits' end when she heard that.
"Is the time not appropriate." No matter how it was phrased, Sakuya did not make it sound like a question.
"NO-NO!" Lunasa's hands were waving around frantically, "we will be there."
A court but self-satisfied smile arose on Sakuya's lips, "Excellent, I will inform my mistress of your arrival." Sakuya then turned around and left, Lunasa closed the door and walked back to her sisters.
Lyrica had a frown upon her face when her sister came closer, "Let me guess, we've been hired."
"And it's tonight.." Lunasa's voice was drily.
Lyrica raised an eyebrow, "Seriously?!" normally they were informed weeks if not mounths before a concert or party, but then again, Remilia Scarlet was not... everybody.
"And there goes our day off." Today was not starting out well for Merlin, she was already on the verge of screaming all sorts of curses.
Taking a deep breath and then sighing, Lunasa thought that nothing good would come out of sitting around, "Come on sisters, we have to prepare everything before night time."
Lyrica's body shuddered slightly, "I seriously have a bad feeling about this."
Merlin was not looking forward to this, "The stories of vampires are grim at best and those Scarlet sisters have a terrifying reputation in an entirely different league than most vampires." The thought of her alone was making her flinch.
"I understand you are all worried, and so am I, but I know enough about this vampire, Remilia Scarlet, not to take any chances and stay on her good side, at all costs, so please, help me make this night, one to remember, and do not make this into a more serious issue than it is." Lunasa knew that, as long as they kept their end of the deal, and did it well, no harm would befall them.
Merlin sighed deeply and nodded in agreement, "Okay, you convinced me."
"With you all the way sis, this may even be fun." Lyrica was trying to convince herself of that, and it did help… a little bit.
They started preparing and packing for tonight. They even did a few rehearsals to make sure they did it well.
HAKUREI SHRINE: midday
In a hot summer day, Reimu had completely given up any hope of making the shrine somewhat cleaner, it was simply too hot in the sun. Reimu just sat inside doing as little as possible, when she noticed something or rather someone outside, she decided to see who it was, she got up when she heard.
"Good day miss Hakurei, I hope I am not interrupting anything." Reimu walked outside to find Patchouli and a large amount of books hovering after her.
Reimu was a bit surprised to find the scarlet librarian on her doorstep, "Oh, its you Patchouli, for a moment, I thought Remilia had come to tell another one of her scary stories."
"I did come with an invitation to her summer night party, tonight." Patchouli told her calmly as she held forward the invitation.
Reimu refused it as fast as humanly possible, "I-am-not-going."
That was the exact reaction Patchouli had expected, "I thought as much." but Remilia made her promise that she did give the invite, so she retracted it again, her promise fulfilled.
Reimu gave the youkai a curious look, "I am a little surprised that its you who came bringing the information."
"I volunteered to do so, because I have a request." Patchouli was really hoping for this to go smoothly.
Reimu was getting a bit curious, "a request for what?"
"To stay here for the time being." Patchouli requested hopefully.
"And why is that!?" Reimu asked, firmly awaiting a good reason, she wasn't going to just led youkai's go in and out of her home as they please, even though she didn't personally have anything against Patchouli.
"Because I do not have anything to block ghost sounds with, yet, and Remilia hired those poltergeists to play all night and this time she decided to magically enhance the volume twelve times more, so it could be heard all over Gensokyo, which she more or less *convinced* Koakuma and I to make." Patchouli was inwardly cursing herself for actually making it.
Reimu frowned ever so slightly at hearing that, "You know, we are still in Gensokyo and I can not allow you to pass beyond the borders."
"I am well aware of that, the idea is to use the shrine's own divine defense magic, to block the sound waves." Patchouli tried to simplify what she was about to do as much as she could.
A tiny drop of optimism could be heard in Reimu's voice when she spoke, "You say that my shrine could repel the ghost noise somehow, is that why you took half of the library with you?"
Patchouli made a short nod, "That's correct; I took only the books necessary to make it work, so what I propose is this, you let me stay until the concert is over, and in return, you will be spared from the ghost sound all night and have a quiet evening." She, like the Shrine Maiden, was not inclined to a whole evening of terrible noise coursing through her head.
"Sound reasonable, okay you can stay over for the night." Reimu was more than happy to accommodate a house guest under these terms.
"Thank you for having me, if you don't mind I will prepare the spell immediately." Patchouli didn't waste a minute before she started with the making of the spell.
"Please do." Reimu then walked out into the kitchen to make tea for both of them, "I wonder how the human village is going to tackle this."
SCARLET MANSION: evening
Everyone were working hard to get it done and ready, before all the youkai guests had arrived.
From the morning where Remilia decided to make the largest concert ever held in Gensokyo, orders were given, first, to get the word out as quick enough for everyone to get the message, second to make everything as close to perfect as Youkaingly possible, Because they quickly realized that they simply did not have enough manpower to make it work, even with Sakuya's time control ability, it would still take forever to make it all ready, or as Ran said it, it would take 2 years, 3 months and 17 days to complete, luckily for the Scarlet family, was that the Yakumo family, the forces of the netherworld and many others all came to help, even Marisa was asked to help not by Remilia of course, but most of the millions of Prismriver fans were very quick to get the message and were eager to help make it all happen, and with a promise of an autograph for everyone, only encouraged fans to do their absolute best.
So when the Prismriver sisters arrived an hour early, they could see what most of all looked to be a huge construction yard, it was a jaw-dropping sight to be seen.
Merlin's eyes were bulging out of their sockets, "UN-HOLY SHIT!"
"Is this really happening!?" Lyrica too had problems believing what she was seeing.
Lunasa was speechless for a moment or two, "...I think this is going to be our biggest show EVER!"
Merlin had begun to laugh hysterically, "I knew the Vampire woman was crazy, BUT THIS IS INSANE!"
"Everyone looks like ants building a full-sized castle!" Lyrica pointed out in awe.
Lunasa had decided that, that was enough gawking and they'd better get a move on, if they were to get there in time, "Merlin, Lyrica, come on."
Wiping a tear off of her eye Merlin made one last snarky comeback, "Good thing none of us has stage fright, or this would have been a killer experience."
But before they even came close to the mansion, something came flying toward them, "Good you all came; I must say it's an honor to meet all of you in person." Koakuma had folded her hands and was staring at them in pure adoration.
Lunasa was used to dealing with fans of theirs, so she just replied calmly and politely with a question, "You are one of the Lady Scarlet's servants I take it?"
Koakuma was very eager to talk with them, "Yes I am, my name is Koakuma but enough about me, if you will please follow me, I will take you all safely around the crowds." she took them through an underground tunnel right under the crowds and under the backstage part of the concert floor.
"It is very useful to have tunnels like this, I wish all of our concerts had those." Lyrica was looking around the tunnel.
"It was made 2 hours ago so you all could make it without any problems, if I may be so frank, I was the one who came up with the idea." Koakuma felt like looking cool in front of her idols.
"2 hours ago! Nice!" Merlin was getting even more impressed by the minute.
Lunasa decided to pop the big question, "How many people are we going to entertain tonight?"
"We do not have an exact number, as guests are rapidly coming in, last time it was counted, it was well over 23 million creatures." Koakuma was just shrugging off that number so casually.
"OVER... 23 MILLION!" Merlin burst out loudly, those numbers were mind blowing.
Lyrica had a hard time comprehending that number, "...that's by far the biggest to date."
Lunasa was more interested in the last part, "Creatures?"
"Various inhabitants of Gensokyo have come to your concert, Humans, Youkais, Ghosts, even a few fairies have turned up." Koakuma explained it to them, again in that exaggerated casual tone.
"Even humans! Wow~" Merlin was so impressed that she made a whistle.
They arrived behind the newly made stage where Remilia was about to test the sound enhancing magic, but when she was about to say something, Marisa jumped in front of her, and yelled with all she could muster, like an idol, "WHAAAAAAAT'S UUUUUP, *ZEEE*"
Marisa's yelling could be heard all over Gensokyo. Fairies' all over the place were terrified by it and many others just looked in total confusion to locate the one who yelled that loud.
HAKUREI SHRINE: same time
Reimu looked up when her eyes picked up that sound, "Was that, who I think it was?"
"Marisa is playing with our magic again, but it also means that the concert will start soon." An annoyed tone came from Patchouli.
Reimu was not looking forward to that, "...please get the shield up in time."
Patchouli's forehead was starting to get soggy as she was concentrating immensely, "Working on it."
SCARLET MANSION: Back at the stage
"It works fine" Marisa stated, grinning from ear to ear.
Remilia's eyes were twitching, "How. Dare you. Ruin. my CONCERT!"
"Ruin? I am just helping *ZE*" Marisa failed to see how that could have ruined it.
Flandre was laughing a bit, "I want to try too~"
"Both of you... GET OUT!" Remilia commanded with a sharp crack of her voice.
That wasn't enough to turn down Flandre's mood, "Okay sis~ come Marisa, lets see what they are doing outside."
"Sure, let's get to it." Marisa's eternal exploration thirst made it easy for her to head off in a new direction… And so they continued their rampage through the crowd of people.
LATER THAT NIGHT
Everyone were ready to begin preparing themselves for what was one of the biggest events ever in Gensokyo's history.
At the outdoor tables Yukari, Ran and Chen sat on one side and on the opposite side sat Alice humming one of River's many singles.
Chen was brimming with excitement. "this is exciting, my very first concert ever." the Nekomata was jumping up and down.
"I too feel very excited about it, this will definitely be big." Though Alice seemed more composed, she too was more eager than normal.
"This is by far the largest I have ever been to, it is 237% larger than the one they held in the Netherworld last year." Ran seemed even more composed, but there was no denying that she looked forward to it too.
Alice quickly made a few calculations in her head, "Sounds about right."
Then all of the lights were pointing at Remilia as she walked upon the stage, "Hello everyone I am your host Remilia scarlet and I'm the manager of the concert, I, am here to tell that... due to unforeseen circumstances, the Prismriver Sisters... will not perform tonight."
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The crowd shouted angrily in perfect sync.
Remilia was grinning broadly and then she chuckled, "Just kidding, here they are, the legendary musical poltergeists, THE PRISMRIVER SISTEEEEEEEEEEEEEERS!"
Then the Prismriver sisters walked onto the stage and the crowd became wild, "well, let's do this!" Lunasa smiled to her sisters, as she took in the intensely heavy atmosphere from the surroundings.
"Ready sis." Lyrica was in a state of excited glee, so happy to finally go on stage.
Merlin's grin went from ear to ear, "Let's give them hell."
As soon as they started to play, everyone were totally overwhelmed by the power of their music, the enhancer, not only did it increase the volume but also the feeling of the sound, the crowd became completely silent in admiration of the beauty of the play, even the Prismriver Sisters themselves had difficulty adjusting to it as well, Lunasa did her best to keep the play at work, in these new circumstances, Merlin was enjoying it with all her heart, for her it became the best time in her life, Lyrica was becoming nervous because her music had become insanely sharp compared to normal, as they played a more fast paced music, everyone started to dance and not only at the concert, but everyone in the entire Gensokyo were dancing wildly, only Reimu and Patchouli were completely saved from the awesome sound, The Prismriver were more or less hypnotized as well, as they played non stop for several hours straight into the night.
When the Prismrivers, the next day, had tired themselves out, so much that they had to stop, everyone were completely overjoyed, but only two were clapping at them, Yukari and Yuyuko, they apparently were used to this kind of power, over time others began to come back to life, but most of them had serious problems just standing up, and so many were extremely physically and mentally exhausted, even the Vampires seemed to have problems moving normally.
Remilia was tired, but very delighted, this was a perfect way to celebrate her honor. "That was amazing."
"Fantastic!" Even Flandre looked a bit ragged, but she was still going strong.
Koakuma was literally crying in joy. "...the best day in my entire life."
"That was awesome." Marisa was grinning with her hands firmly planted in her sides.
Sakuya looked to be very ill, "I feel like dying, I don't understand, how you can be fine after all this, you are human too right?" She had never felt this ill in her life.
Marisa just sent her fellow human a wide smirk and exclaimed, "it's because, I eat mushrooms."
Sakuya had a difficult time to believe that, "Really?"
"Yeah really, here take one." Marisa then picked a mushroom out of her dress pocket and handed it to Sakuya.
Sakuya looked dubious at it, "Looks like something you just pulled out of your nose."
"And it tastes similar to that, but it works." Marisa assured her with a genuine smile.
Sakuya decided to eat it, at this point even poison would make her feel better, to her surprise however, it worked, "You are right; I feel much better now, thank you miss Kirisame."
"Just Marisa, and you're welcome." Marisa wasn't big on formalities so she gave a big thumbs up and made sure that Sakuya discarded the formality.
On the stage, the Prismrivers were coming back to their senses ,"Lyrica, Merlin are you two okay?" the older sister asked them, concerned as she was.
Merlin was exhausted, but she was on a post high of the rush, "Never been better."
"I feel like I am in heaven." Lyrica was smiling a bit more blissfully.
"Good to see all of you are up again, here is your payment." Remilia gestured towards the door where Meiling and Koakuma came in with a large chest filled to the brim with gold coins.
"So, much… gold!" by now Merlin had lost track on how many times she had been wide eyed that night.
"We could retire with this much." Lyrica whispered to her sisters.
"Thank you so much Lady Scarlet, it was an honor to play at you home." Lunasa bowed before Remilia in deep appreciation.
To be so appreciated, pleased Remilia greatly, "I will send my maid, if we are in need of your band again, but before you go, I have a request to make."
"Anything for you, my Lady." Lunasa was truly willing to do that.
A smirk appeared on Remilia's face, "Excellent, all of your fans have been promised an autograph, we already have a stage ready." She was already showing where it was with her hand.
The Prismriver Sisters just looked at each other in shock and awe.
Merlin was the first to react to their new request, by shouting loudly, "WHAAAT!"
"T-There were over... 23 million!" Lyrica seemed to despair over the sheer staggering numbers.
Ran seemed to appear out of nowhere, just to give them an accurate number, "There are 26.746.832 people here."
"SHUT UP!" Merlin retorted loudly, with no thought or anything.
Lunasa tried to loosen her shoulders up in preparation for this monumental task, "...let's get this over with."