Chapter 21: Fear the Paruparu
Far below the forests and mountains of Gensokyo lies another land. A subterranean world of caves, lava and more than that, a city as well.
For this is where the district of 'Old Hell' resides.
Formerly the true hell, the actual administrative functions of the place vanished when the Supreme Judge of Paradise, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, relocated to the supposed 'New Hell' to continue her task of judging all those who passed through the gates of Death. As always, dead souls were ferried across the Sanzu river, to wait in Hakugyokuro before moving on to their final judgement at her hands, and the fate that awaited them as a result.
Now, the so-called Old Hell is merely a city in its' own right...a city built atop the most powerful furnace in existence. A residential district and power plant in one, Old Hell is watched over by the mind-reading youkai Komeiji Satori. A reclusive, withdrawn woman, on account of her special power, she is widely regarded as the unofficial governor of Old Hell, simply because she is the only one capable of administrating the chaotic town...and also partly because nobody else really wanted the job.
The haven for all the youkai hated for their powers, or who wished simply to have nothing to do with the Gensokyo being created by the sage of boundaries, Old Hell was a melting pot of creatures and beings from all kinds of mythical species. Oni, earth spiders, satori youkai, and various other denizens of hell, all calling this place home, none of whom were willing to take up the mantle.
In all fairness, neither was Satori...but then again, 'due process' had never been particularly important in Gensokyo. There was no title, but nonetheless, Satori remained the person the denizens of Old Hell generally pointed outsiders, surface-dwellers, and in general, anyone looking for information on the affairs of the city.
Since after all, if you had to ask, you probably weren't someone who lived there.
Currently the power of Old Hell's furnace was utilized for the town itself...with two connections leading towards Youkai Mountain and the Hakurei Shrine. The first connection being simply because Yasaka Kanako, the ruler of that mountain, had been the one responsible for the technological revolution still sweeping through the underground city.
That her instigation of the revolution had also very nearly led to the nuclear-powered destruction of the world above and below ground, was something that neither party preferred to talk about much...
As for the second connection...well, in short, it was a matter of accede to the Hakurei Shrine Maiden's surprisingly simple and easily accomplished demand...or else.
And considering that not only had that Shrine Maiden almost singlehandedly put paid to nuclear apocalypse with the aid of the Black-White Magician, going through some of Old Hell's most notorious inhabitants on the way...
Well, let's just say that more rational heads prevailed and leave it at that.
But it's not Old Hell that is the focus of this new tale...but rather, the bridge that leads to it.
Parsee Mizuhashi, the blonde-haired, Green-Eyed Jealousy, leaned on the wooden railings, staring moodily out over the abyss.
The sole landbound method of entering the districts of Old Hell from the surface, no-one could quite remember when the ancient bridge had been built, or who had even built it. It was, of course, possible to fly over it...but considering there was still only one passage beyond it, one way or another all would pass over the old, wooden bridge.
And it was here that Parsee waited for them.
The 'gatekeeper' of a sort, she was a 'bridge princess' youkai, the guardian of this bridge to the underworld. Centuries of jealousy towards the people crossing the bridge, back when travel between the surface and the underground was still common, had awakened in her the power to control jealousy. Ordinarily, this particular power would have been useless to anyone else, but considering the fact that she could find even the smallest things to become insanely envious of, to the extent that she was downright irrational about it, instead made Parsee a devastatingly powerful youkai.
Antisocial, bitter and petty, she knew that she was not a very popular figure among the crowded streets of Old Hell, especially now that she had gained the freedom to move from her bridge occasionally. Her green-eyed rages could poison any party, and her bitter jealousy could sour even the most cheerful of individuals.
Free to move at last...with nowhere to go.
So for the most part, she kept to her own devices, and the rest of Hell kept to theirs.
"...and so then the new Administrator girl is like 'I don't care how good it'll look, you're NOT installing a cucumber-slicer in there!'"
Parsee jumped in surprise, her heart thudding as a familiar voice echoed down the passageway leading to the surface, accompanied by raucous laughter.
Her chest pounding, she swallowed, absent-mindedly brushing down her outfit.
...at least, she wished it was that easy to remain so distant.
There were few, very few who could punch a hole in her constant clouds of gloom and envy...and chief among them was the woman that voice belonged to.
Red horn flashing in the dim light of the underground, Hoshiguuma Yuugi, one of the four Devas of the Mountain, strode into sight around the bend, her long blue and red skirt dancing around her hips as she walked.
"Oh, Parsee, that you?" The gold-haired oni grinned. "Sorry I'm late! We got held up a bit longer than expected."
"Th-that's not a problem." Parsee replied stiffly, struggling to maintain her cool facade. "I-it's not as though I was...waiting here for you or anything."
"Of course you weren't~" Yuugi grinned, leaning down to ruffle Parsee's hair. "Just doing your job as our brave bridge guard again, same as always, right?"
"I'm not...I mean...There was...!" The green-eyed girl stammered incoherently for a moment, scrabbling for an answer, before a light chuckle sounded and a figure materialized in a cloud of dust.
"Ease off, Yuugi, it's no fun teasing her that much."
Parsee's shoulders slumped as she regarded the figure of Suika Ibuki.
"Oh...it's you." She said flatly.
"Guh...wow, that was cold." Suika winced, Yuugi chuckling nearby. "Really feeling the warmth of good Old Hell hospitality here, thanks..."
"I only extend a proper welcome to worthwhile people." Parsee sniffed. 'And you don't count, not since you've been monopolizing my Yuugi for the last two days on some wild chase aboveground why are you two so familiar I want to be able to go on dates with her dammit stop keeping her to yourself paruparuparuparuparu~'
Suika felt a bead of sweat slide down her neck at the ominous, shadowy miasma of doom emanating from Parsee...which quickly disappeared as Yuugi whacked the smaller bridge guardian lightly on the head.
"Parsee, what've I told you about that again...?"
"Ah. Um...don't...?"
"...nah, I'm just messing with you, go nuts." Yuugi grinned, ruffling her hair again. "I know I probably kept you waiting a while, so think of it as an apology."
"Not cool, Yuugi..." Suika groaned, before Parsee split into two copies, one immediately lunging after the smaller oni in a wave of danmaku.
As the air lit up above them, Yuugi leaned back on the railing with a sigh.
"So...how's it been?"
Parsee, the real Parsee, fidgeted with her hands uncomfortably.
"It's been...quiet." She said finally. "I went into town once or twice to see if you were back yet, but..."
The oni sighed.
"Yeah, I know...I said I'd be back in only a day or so, but some really crazy stuff happened upstairs. Me and Suika got shanghaied into helping out the old lady of the mountain, so we stuck around for a while..."
Parsee looked troubled, resting her forearms on the bridge.
"...I've heard...well, some of what happened up there."
Yuugi's ears perked up, as far overhead, the second Parsee cut loose with a barrage of brilliant green rings, Suika diving underneath before retaliating with a few shots of her own.
"Oh? The rumors've reached down here already?"
An annoyed look on her face, the bridge princess reached into her shirt and pulled out an all-too familiar, rolled up newspaper.
Yuugi stared at it for a moment.
"...Bunbunmaru? Really?"
"...I don't get out much." Parsee replied defensively. "And at least she updates quickly..."
Leafing through the sheets of paper, Yuugi grimaced.
"...though not with anything useful, I can say that much." The oni muttered disdainfully. "Still, at least she hasn't figured out how to make her pictures lie yet."
With a sigh, she tossed the newspaper back onto the railing, the pages opened to an easily identifiable image of the battered hulk of Nineball Seraph, the damaged helm looking on in puzzlement at the sight of Cirno and Sanae beating each other up. Yuugi herself was easily visible in the background as well, with a piece of metal three times her size slung over one shoulder and Suika tripping over a stray cable nearby.
...the accuracy of this was somewhat damaged by the somewhat...closeup images of Lana Nielsen and Sakuya Izayoi grappling with each other, and the fact that not only had Aya managed to snap a few very...misleading moments of their fighting, but she'd also thoughtfully added the title 'A steamy encounter?! Sakuya Izayoi's passionate struggle with the strange new Administrator!'.
That the picture appeared to have several bloodstains in one corner, was a fact that neither of them bothered to comment on.
"...is it true they're outsiders?"
"I don't see why they wouldn't be." Yuugi shrugged. "That big metal bastard alone is enough to tell me that wherever they're from, it's definitely not here. Not to mention that little battleaxe of an Administrator, Nielsen, has some moves I've never seen before. She's new here, all right, but she's learning fast."
"..." Parsee bit her lip in annoyance. "...I don't like her already."
Yuugi's chuckle was barely audible over the sound of Suika's Pandemonium card activating, hundreds of tiny copies of herself charging at the fleeing Parsee copy.
"No worries...though, I am kinda interested in the big machine. He seems like one cool customer." She flexed her fingers thoughtfully. "Wouldn't mind taking him on for a couple rounds, once he's back up to full power, honestly..."
"Back up...?" Parsee turned, surprised. "You mean they're rebuilding him?"
"Yep." The oni leaned back. "That's part of what kept me busy up there for so long...that faithmonger's got it into her head to put the thing back together as part of some new plan of hers. Either that, or she's just letting her inner scientist run wild for a bit."
She shrugged.
"Regardless of which it was, she needed some extra muscle to move the heavier stuff around."
"And nobody's got more muscle than us!" A tiny Suika whooped, sitting on the rail next to them.
Without even looking, Parsee grabbed it and flung the mini-Suika up into the fight, where it exploded in a puff of smoke.
"What she said." Yuugi gave a sheepish look. "Also, I kinda wanted to duke it out with the Chinese guard again...she's not half bad as a fighter!"
"AUGH."
Loud crashing sounds came from above.
"YUUGI!"
CRUNCH!
"STOP!"
WHAM!
"ENCOURAGING!"
PAIN!
"HER!"
The Rumored Unnatural Phenomenon looked up, surprised, before Suika hurtled past into a crater on the far wall of the chasm, pursued by a figure radiating brilliant green light.
"Oooooh right..." She winced, before yelling after the cloud of smoke. "SORRY 'BOUT THAT ONE, MY BAD!"
Ignoring the faint sounds of 'paruparuparuparuparu' coming from next to her, Yuugi leaned out, shielding her eyes with one hand as she peered into the smoke.
"Huh...not bad, looks like you've learned a few new tricks yourself..." She hummed. "I always wondered if that jealousy schtick of yours worked for physical power as well."
Parsee gave a squeak, lighting up a brilliant shade of red, the brilliant green of her eyes dimming slightly as the glow faded.
"I mean...I...Um...y-yes, I thought I'd try doing something um, different. And, I...er...you..."
The green aura fading amidst Parsee's embarrassment, Suika reached out of the smoke, seizing her double by the collar, before smashing her head into it with enough force to make the second Parsee explode into danmaku.
Grumbling, she brushed herself off, looking no worse for wear
"Figures...powered by jealousy, she's no pushover...but one sweet word from Yuugi and she goes all to pieces." Resting her hands on her hips, she looked down in mock annoyance at where the older oni had Parsee in a playful headlock, laughing as the still flustered bridge princess struggled futilely.
And that's when she felt it.
"...?!"
A dull, slow pulse...a faint, nearly undetectable throbbing deep within the walls.
Down on the bridge, Yuugi felt it too, stopping in mid-noogie, a wary look on her face.
"L-let go of me, I said-!" With a final push, Parsee managed to get free, stumbling away a step, gingerly reaching up to her sore head. "Uu...you know I hate it when you..."
She trailed off, seeing the uncharacteristically edgy look on her friend's face.
"...Yuugi?"
"...Parsee, don't you feel that?"
"Feel what...?" She answered, confused. In response, Yuugi simply lifted off the ground and flew up towards her fellow Deva, the smaller oni drifting back and forth across the walls of the cavern.
"Anything, Suika?"
Her face screwed up in concentration as she scrutinized the surface, Suika gave a grim shake of the head.
"No...but whatever it is, it's close. REAL close..." Biting her lip, she ran a hand across the stone.
"...if it's that close though, why haven't we ever felt this before...?" Yuugi growled. "I must've been over that bridge a hundred times, and I've never felt so much as a hair out of place, much less something like this!"
"Me either." Suika replied, troubled. "So then, why now...?"
Whatever Yuugi's next words were, they were cut off by a cry from behind them.
"Y-Yuugi...help...!"
Whirling, they were both confronted by the sight of Parsee in midair, clutching at her head. She'd followed the onis up, but then...
She didn't know how to explain it.
Voices, hundreds of them, cold and alien and unknown, drowning each other out in a sea of whispers.
"This...what is this...?!"
Something abnormal, stirring for the first time. Parsee didn't know what it was, but hidden somewhere deep beneath all of this dark static, there was a wild, seething sea of emotion, of desire, of FORCE.
"Hey...hey, you all right in there?"
And then Yuugi was next to her, the gold-haired deva looking strangely tense. Unnatural, unreasonable things were her forte, after all...but this feeling, a faint thrumming of power that set her teeth on edge...
Unnatural and inexplicable this might be, but Yuugi's instincts were warning her that something wasn't normal here.
"...I think she's tapping into whatever's causing that." Suika descended next to them, her eyes narrowing. "That means that whatever's causing this, it's alive...and it has emotions."
Seeing Yuugi's look, she held up her hands placatingly.
"I'm not saying it has anything to do with jealousy...at least not this time. But being able to control jealousy like that means she can at least detect other emotions as well..."
"She's...right..." Parse winced, one hand pressed to her temple. "So much emotion...this...it's all a mess...!"
"But where's it COMING from...?!" Yuugi raised her head, looking around.
Too late, she realized the answer, even as Parsee shakily raised a hand, pointing to the same thing she had just spotted herself.
There, in the wall of the underground chasm, was the impact crater that had been left by Suika when the jealousy-powered Parsee had body-slammed her.
And there, only now just becoming visible behind a few chunks of crumbling rock, lay the deep darkness of a long forgotten cavemouth.
A/N: Wait, hang on, how the hell did we get to Old Hell all of a sudden?!
Weren't we just in the middle of epic, terrifying combat between a monstrous, eldritch abomination, and two of the most ridiculous overpowered masterminds in existence?
How the hell did we get here?! And what does this have to do with anything?!
...I'm sure these are all things that you readers must be asking yourselves right now...but not to worry, I haven't lost my mind just yet! All is proceeding as planned!
After all, it wouldn't be a story involving Shu and Yukari without SOME trolling, right?
So for now, we'll be advancing a little bit forward...to go back.
:3
Don't worry, I've still got a plan!
Shit man, I've got a freaking FLOWCHART for this. 8D
But still, free internet cookies to the first people to guess where I'm going with this whole new arc before I actually reveal it. :3
I'm sure that little interlude with Shu and Yukari has at least told you who our mysterious new mecha protagonist will be...but how many of you think you can outrun my writing to predict how I'm gonna go about implementing them, and how this will tie back in to the events of the interlude?
Regarding the setting of Old Hell and the portrayals of Yuugi and ESPECIALLY Parsee, I apologize if they seem a little off. ^_^;
I've NEVER really written much regarding any of them, and as such I did a CRAPTON of research on them all...figuring out the order of Judgement, the Netherworld and Old Hell in particular was ESPECIALLY a pain, not to mention describing Old Hell itself.
But yeah, if it feels at all 'clumsy', that's my bad, sorry...with luck, I'll improve on that as I write them more and more.
Anyway, enjoy, folks! ^^