I've got nothing much to say this time, other than I am deeply sorry tha this update had been postponed as well... the technical difficulties are getting more and more, but I do my best to write in between having problems with my computer and spending time at school.
No real actions this time either, it is more of a secondary introduction chapter to the MoF arc...to be honest, I had no real idea for this chapter... I mean, Stage 1 = Shizuha and Minoriko Aki, the two characters no fan seemingly pays respect to... to be honest, I myself do not know much of them. This is why I kept it short.
Let's keep this annotation short as well and start the chapter, shall we?
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Touhou, Team Shanghai Alice / ZUN does. Chôzen Gekido, Ryoko Jigoku, Sly and Nanatsu no Taizai belong to me.
Chapter 2: Harvest Festival Preparations
With the forest of magic once again behind us, we stood at the foot of Youkai Mountain. Gazing across the mountain, I noticed several noticeable spots. For once, there was this cave to our left. Immeadiately, I was reminded of Yuugi Hoshiguma, but I put it aside. This incident was far more important.
If Yukari was serious and the newcomer wants to steal all the faith from Gensokyo for her own good, the Hakurei Border would collapse... Because the Hakurei Family still maintained it. That means, if there isn´t enough fate anymore... goodbye, Gensokyo!
Luckily, I heard from Marisa, who we had encountered in the forest, that the people with the most faith in Gensokyo still believed in the Hakurei goddess. This means, Rinnosuke Morichika, Akyu no Hieda, Keine Kamishirasawa, most of the villagers, Kaguya Houraisan, Mima, Yuuka Kazami, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, Komachi Onozuka, myself, Nanatsu, Alice Margatroid and several more, surprisingly even Fujiwara no Mokou (who´d thought she does believe in the great Hakurei so strongly?).
As long as most of these don´t turn their back on the great Hakurei goddess, everything´ll be alright. And even though Reimu believes she doesn´t need help, I´ll bet she will. A goddess is no-one a mere human should encounter on his own, may he be as powerful as he wants. Besides, if Reimu dies, all the faith we have is for nothing... Reimu is the connection to the goddess, the catalyst.
But we have strong opponents... I heard from some bypassing faries the folk of the Kappa, the tengu, the harvest spirits and several more have already sworn loyality ot the new Shrine... And if more are to come, I honestly don´t know how to survive this. As long as the Hakurei Shrine has most of the faith in Gensokyo, the land is safe... but the second it turns the other way... the barrier will start to break, if I am right.
Luckily the oni and other species who live underground are not in this! Marisa said that Suika announced that the beings from underground, like oni and earth spiders, will stay out of this... they do believe in gods, but they give no faith to any god as long as this incident isn´t cleared. But back to the locations on Youkai Mountain!
Maybe an hour of walk from us is a forest, it´s leaves already brown and falling. As I thought about the locations, we´re already moving towards the forest. A little behind the forest is a river, the home of the Kappa probably inside it, and there is also a large waterfall, and, somehow, I knew that the tengu village is behind the large waterfall.. Maybe I was once there? Don´t remember!
Well, and behind the waterfall, maybe four hours from the waterfall, far in the distance from what we are now, is a shinto gate visible. There has to be the shrine! Behind the gate, a lake is visible, but Youkai Mountain is now far larger... it seems that the lake had an own mountain next to it, because Youkai Mountains tip is hidden behind the clouds now... It had always been close to heaven, but now, the tip is finally above the clouds!
"We´re not gonna make it!" I stopped, as did Nanatsu. Around us was the orange and brown-colored forest of the Youkai Mountain in the late evening, meaning the sky was already orange coloured as well. "Did ya hear that?", I asked her. She nodded, then pointed over to a few trees to our left. I nodded, and we began slowly to approach the trees. Maybe some mountain residents?
I pressed my back against the tree, then looked carefully around it. I truly wanted to resolve this incident without fighting... I wasn´t in the mood for adrenaline rushes. Well, on a clearing not all too far from us, at which we looked through the trees, were two youkai.
But not only that... seeing how the world around them behaved, how the leaves danced around them and the ground turned orange... I guess these two are two beings that Hieda no Akyu had managed to me... Shizuha and Minoriko Aki, if I remember right. These two would be the autumn of Gensokyo, harvest goddesses.
"It´s the harvest goddesses.", muttered Nanatsu, confirming my guess. I nodded. "Shizuha and Minoriko Aki, if I´m right...", I added. Nanatsu nodded. "I have interacted with them quite often during my years in Gensokyo... Shikieki often send me to interact with the season gods, Lily White, Yuuka Kazami, Shizuha and Minoriko Aki, and Letty Whiterock, just to make sure they were ready to trigger their responsible season.", informed Nanantsu me, and I nodded.
"I see.", I muttered. It was then that I noticed in what rush the two harvest goddesses rushed over to the clearing, carrying all kinds of stuff one would find in autumn. "They look troubled.", I told Nanatsu. "Let´s ask them what´s wrong.", she suggested, and though I wanted to object at first, I nodded. Maybe that helped me forgetting Rumia for a while... "oh Rumia... why... Just why...?"
"Something wrong?", I asked out loud as I stepped onto the clearing. The two harvest goddesses, both carrying boxes, flinched and looked over to us, but forgot to look where they´re running... and ran into each other. They fell onto their rears, and the boxes fell to the ground and spilled their contents: chestnuts.
I flinched and Nanatsu gasped, and we quickly began to collect and put them back into the boxes. The Aki sisters sat up, then quickly put them back into the boxes as well. Eventually, as all of them were back inside, we all sat onto our rears and let out sighs, whipping the sweat off our foreheads. "Sorry.", I muttered uneasily. "It´s alright.", sighed Shizuha.
"We just wanted to offer our help, but I guess we did more problems than good.", I chuckled. "Nah, it´s alright. But you can still help us... we are running late, the harvest festival is tomorrow evening and we haven´t even built the stage yet!", groaned Minoriko. I shared a glance with Nanatsu, and she nodded.
Finally, the last beam was set up, and we all let out reliefed sighs. The boxes were in place, the stage was set up and the fireplace was set up as well. "We did it.", sighed Minoriko. "And together, we just needed two hours!", exclaimed Shizuha excited. Indeed she was right, it was still late evening and the sun hadn´t completely vanished yet.
"Thank you! We possibly wouldn´t have made it without you.. the beams would´ve been way too heavy for us alone... last year, we had the tengu helping us, but they´re occupied since the new goddess wanted to talk with a few of them.", explained Shizuha, making me listen up. "That so?", I asked.
And the moment I said it, I regretted it. Immeadiately, the face of a certain angel of death, her sad face as she told me she was going to leave, appeared in front of my inner eye. I lowered my head. Apparently, Nanatsu noticed, because she spoke up.
"The goddess? We´d like to meet her as well... can one just go and meet her?", asked Nanatsu. "No, I don´t think so. We ourselves needed to wait a long time, because she was talking with the eldest kappas. Ever since she appeared here a week ago, she had a full schedule, talking with her followers.", explained Minoriko.
"If you want to meet her, you have to make an appointment by her miko.", added Shizuha. "Interesting. We´ll go and make an appointment then.", smiled Nanatsu, then touched my shoulder. I looked up at her. "You wanna go on?"
Just as we were leaving the forest, she suddenly appeared from behind a tree, her expression of utter shock. "SO MUCH MISFORTUNE!", she exclaimed in shock, then rushed forwards and grabbed me by the shoulders. "You need my help!"
"Oh, it´s the leader of the nagashi-bina doll army... the yakugami.", I heard Nanatsu. The greenhaired woman that had grabbed me by the shoulders looked at Nanatsu. "Please, I need some misfortune...!", she whined. "Sure. Take some. He´s way to misfortunate at the moment." The yakugami turned back to me and... did she begin to drool?
Suddenly, I found myself in aqua, almost teal-colored aura that went over onto the yakugami. She let out a pleased sigh, then let go of me, and made some spins as she flew backwards. "Hina Kagiyama.", she introduced herself, and I nodded. "Chôzen Gekido.", I replied. "And you know me already.", Nanatsu smiled. Hina nodded.
"What´s going on, why are you on Youkai Mountain?", she asked Nanatsu. "We were going to welcome to the new goddess.", I replied, and it seemed that Hina didn´t get the real meaning behind my statement. "The new goddess, eh? Hey, have you heard of the rumor?", asked Hina, looking left and right, as if she was searching for someone who could eavesdrop.
"Which one?", I asked, feeling somewhat better. I somehow didn't feel all depressive anymore... and I could think of Rumia without feeling all down... whew. Not that I felt better about causing her suffering.
"They say that there lives a second goddess at the shrine... It was a rumor until now, but I was there and talked with the new goddess... And on the way outside, I met her! She appeared from a doorway, then quickly vanished again as she noticed me.", whispered Hina.
I frowned. "There is a second goddess at the new shrine?", asked Nanatsu, asking the question I ment to ask Hina. "Yes... she was the original goddess, but was defeated in a long war. For some reason, the new goddess let her stay at the shrine. The old goddess once controlled the mishaguji, curse gods of enormous faith which cursed birth, harvest and several other things...", continued Hina.
"Only she, the goddess of earth, which is now only the ex-goddess of her shrine, was able to tame them. They only listen to her…", finished the greenhaired yakugami. "Really?", I asked. "And you say the former goddess has been defeated, but still lives at the shrine?", asked Nanatsu. Hina nodded.
"You think the same as me, my other part, right? If we manage to get to the old goddess, we could convince her to fight the new goddess... she probably won´t do it because she is weak without faith, but if we tell her we would assist her in the fight..." An evil grin came to my face as I glanced at my flame and nodded. "I thought exactly the same...", I whispered.
"Ah, I´ll have to go and meet the Aki-sisters! I´m coming to their harvest festival... You should come along as well!", exclaimed Hina all of sudden, and began to spin on the spot. Nanatsu nodded.
"We come as well. Please tell them that.", she smiled. Hina nodded. "Of course! And thank you for the meal." The last part was apparently adressed to me, but before I could respond, Hina was already spinning away.
"Spin, Spin, Hina likes to spin...!", sung the curse goddess all excited, before she vanished behind trees. "Ah damn it! Now I have an earworm... what a damn catchy melody!" I sweatdropped at my flame-souls curse.
That's it. Just introducing three characters. Yep, I didn't know what to do with Hina as well, and before there are two chapters which contain next to nothing... why not throw them together?
I know, you won't like it. I myself do neither. I promise, though, that the next chapters are going to be better again. I already planned.
Yeah, that's it. See you next update!
See ya!
