Touhou Gensokyo Girls
Episode 56: Trial of despair (Remote Youkai Girl)
UNKNOWN DIMENSION: looks to be midday
In a world where everything was made of crystals, she found crystallized trees fascinating, she even found some apples-shaped rubies hanging from the branches of a tree, she nabbed one just to see if it was edible, to her surprise it smelled and felt just like a normal red apple from a regular tree, she then carefully took a bite of it, while the consistency felt like she was chewing soft rocks, the taste was surprisingly pleasant, not the best apple she had ever tried in her life, but for a ruby… it was really tasty, she plucked off two more and continued her tour of this strange world, hours passed without meeting anyone, she was beginning to wonder if this place had been abandoned long time ago by some unknown species.
She then entered through a hole in the thin air and now she was out on a warm beach, she looked around to see a volcano, she flew upwards to get a better idea of her surroundings, it was a small volcanic island with an ocean as far as the eye could see, "This world is weird, and I think I'm terribly lost..." She spoke out loud, she landed back on the surface, "Where was the entrance again?" She puzzled as she looked around, she could have sworn it was right here, then a tsunami came out of nowhere, literally nowhere, so large it threatened to swallow the island itself, she didn't have the time to get away before she was under the water, but by some miracle, she could still breathe air in her lungs, "Wow! This is fun, I can breathe underwater!" She took a glance around to notice that she was swimming in a coral reef, plants in various colors and a billion small fish swimming, she began to swim around in this new world of color, "Even if I never escape from here, I can atleast say it has been exciting."
After she had gotten over her share of diving fever, she began swimming up to the surface, she now couldn't see the island, but she could see what looked to be some kind of tunnel in the sky, she decided to follow it, when she entered it, she felt like the gravity constantly switched poles, which meant that she never knew if she was pulled up or down, in the end she had no idea what was up or down, after what felt like hours, even if it was only half an hour, the tunnel ended in what looked to be some kind of hall in a building, she could see a number of doors both left and right, she walked a bit before she spotted a huge red door a few meters down the corridor, she even felt something highly unusual, "That one looks promising, maybe there is someone alive I can talk to." She eagerly muttered to herself as she opened the door to a place where it looked to be night time, it was filled with trees scattered randomly, with hills to overlook, but the most noticeable of all was a beautiful starlit sky and with a red scarlet glowing moon in the middle to make the whole scene a marvel to behold.
She wandered around for a time, looking for the abnormally huge power she felt, the closer she got, her feeling of dread increased, but this was also extremely exciting at the same time, her curiosity was piqued as she noticed trees ripped up from the ground with roots and everything, large part of the area looked to be bombarded repeatedly over and over until it was a wasteland, which was in strong contrast to the part she entered through, she concluded that whatever had done all this, had done it all recently, "Maybe it's a giant, maybe something very strong, an oni perhaps?" She muttered to herself.
Once she finally tracked the abnormality down… what she saw was not what she had expected at all, she looked to be some kind of small youkai with jewelry decorated wings, her unconscious third eye could detect something terribly dark and angry, but also sadness and loneliness. "Could it be it? I wonder what it is thinking?" despite being a bit nervous, she decided to go and have a chat, "hi there friend, I'm a bit lost, do you know where this is?"
Flandre gave a huge jolt out of shock, she quickly sprang to her feet and looked right at newcomer with awe and confusion, "Did Ran send you?!" Completely forgetting the question she was being asked.
"Ran?! I know no one named Ran," She told Flandre a bit confused, so she decided to explain her being here instead, "I just entered this world through some kind of gate and then I got lost, I'm Koishi Komeiji by the way, what's your name friend?"
"Flandre… Scarlet." she muttered, not really knowing what else to say.
Hoping for a new discovery to add to today's long list, Koishi asked very directly, "Are you an alien?"
"Alien? What's that?" Flandre replied with a puzzled expression.
Koishi thought for moment, but the definition of an alien was unknown to her, "I… don't know." she admitted, her cheek blushed with embarrassment, "I'm a Satori… a youkai from former hell, don't worry I can't read your mind or anything!" She added hastily her arms waving rapidly.
Flandre laughed at the satori's way of conversation, "You are funny~" She decided it was her time to be polite, "I'm a vampire, from… a… mansion." She had trouble remembering exactly where she originated, it had been so long ago...
"A vampire… I've heard vampires are really strong!" Koishi was eager with anticipation, and ignoring all reason and hesitation, she carefully asked, "Will you have a battle with me?"
These were the words Flandre had longed for, for what felt like an eternity, "REALLY! YAHOO!" She more or less screamed as she got into a fighting stand.
The ecstatic outburst from the little vampire shocked Koishi for a moment, then she got into a fighting stand of her own, and with eagerness only matched by her counterpart, she declared, "Ready when you are~"
"READY! FIGHT!" Flandre exclaimed with pure delight.
The fight was a spectacular one for sure, with raw strength and speed on Flandre's side, deception and trickery on Koishi's.
More than a dozen times, Flandre had trapped Koishi in a net of millions of colorful bullets, but Koishi seemed to just disappear from her sight and reappear in a disadvantageous position to Flandre's seemingly endless onslaught of bullets and lasers.
While Koishi knew that the rival vampire had her outclassed in the power and energy department, her third eye could see the raw emotional turmoil inside Flandre, she could draw upon it to ignite the potential power within herself previously thought impossible.
Suddenly Flandre was being hammered back with her own feelings and frustrations in a manifestation of heart-like bullets and rotating laser beams, Flandre's only feeling was elation for a surprisingly tough opponent, she gave it her all on her own, billions if not trillions of bullets and beams, in all the rainbows colors, were unleashed in all directions.
The terrain was completely destroyed, and the world itself began to waver as the foundation itself was beginning to collapse, from a constant bombardment in every corner of its structure.
Koishi and Flandre both stopped at same time when they realized that gravity was oddly enough missing, followed by small parts of the world breaking off from the remainder and disappearing into a cold void of emptiness.
"My world is falling apart!" Flandre exclaimed with clear hints of fear in her voice.
Koishi looked around and she spotted what may well be an escape route, "Follow me Flandre!"
To Flandre it looked as if Koishi had disappeared into thin air, but none the less she hurried after her, behind them, the world build specially for Flandre, evaporated into nothingness.
Both of them stood still; catching their breath, as they mentally processed what had just happened, "That… Was… close." Koishi uttered completely breathless, neither one of them checking their surroundings.
"Fla...fla…FLANDRE!?" Chen stood mouth agape and pointed before her mind kicked up in gear and she yelled, "What are you doing out of your world!?"
"We blew it up." Flandre cheerfully replied, with a very wide grin and a thumbs up.
In sheer desperation, Chen called loudly, "RAN! RAN! RAN!" repeating calling her master over and over.
"What's up with that little cat... thing?!" Koishi uttered in irritation as she covered her ears, she couldn't remember her sister's cat Rin ever acting out like this, "Does it have to be so noisy!?"
"I'll make it quiet." with lighting fast speed, Flandre hammered her fist into to the shikigami's forehead and instantly knock her out with a slam.
"That did the trick." Koishi smiled with a bit of a dark sense of humor.
Ran came to see her shikigami lying unconscious on the floor with Flandre and some stranger standing above her, she sprinted over to see if Chen was okay, she was fine, but marks on her forehead was evidence of what had happened.
"Did you do this Flandre?!" Ran stared at Flandre with a mixture of dread and anger.
Flandre just gave an annoyed look in return and replied with a straight comment, "She was noisy."
Koishi just stood, looking at the event unfolding with an anticipated smile on her face.
"You there with the hat, you shouldn't-" But then Ran realized, that she couldn't get a reading on this trespasser standing next to Flandre, actually even Flandre was difficult to sense, this being… whatever it was, felt like a big void of nothing, she began feeling very uncomfortable.
"I shouldn't… what?" Koishi looked at the nine-tailed fox with a confused expression.
"Flandre! Go back to your world, I'll fix it soon, when I've taken care of Chen." Ran demanded outright.
"No… I will not be put into a prison by myself ANY! MORE!" Flandre exploded in fury with a huge amount of power channeling through her body.
Ran had seen Flandre pissed off before on several occasions, even very angry at times, but this was way beyond what she had expected of the little vampire, In pure desperation she split the hallway in two, cutting her and Chen from the livid vampire and the unknown stranger.
Flandre, in pure frustration, broke down the wall in front of her, thinking that it would open up the other part of the hallway that Ran separated, but inside she broke a hole into their current path which meant, that now the hallway too, was collapsing into nothingness.
Koishi just barely registered what had just happened and what was going to happen, she felt a sudden urge to scream, "RUN!"
Flandre snapped out of her trance quickly enough to avoid disappearing into nothingness.
Koishi just chose another door at random and dived in head first, with Flandre right behind her.
"Puh… So far… I can't say my day has been a boring one." Koishi heaved once again trying to catch her breath.
Flandre felt all of a sudden that everything began heating up, dangerously high, "Ouch, Ow, the heat, I hate this feeling!"
With the hallway gone, all the dimensions had been severed from the rest, and with the separation they were now stuck in this warm dessert-like world, "Let's see if we can get out of here before our skin will look like raisins." Koishi remarked as she scouted around for a possible exit.
Even still in her hate-fueled mindset, Flandre still appreciated Yukari for using artificial sunlight, or she would have burned to ashes by now.
Koishi looked around for another way out, she had, after all, gone through a multitude of worlds before entering the hallway, "Exit… where are you?~" She called, as if she expected the exit to answer her in some way, but alas it was to no avail.
They wandered for a bit as they searched for some clue, to where an exit could be hidden, Koishi had been scouting around the sandsea, with nothing in sight... until she looked down at her feet, she could sense there was something right under them, "Flandre! There is something right under us." She shouted in excitement.
Flandre glanced down for a moment, then looked puzzled over at Koishi, "I don't see anything." She commented in a sad tone.
"Something massive is right under us." Koishi assured the vampire, then she began to use the force of each bullet of her danmaku to shove the sand in one direction, like a makeshift shovel.'
Flandre looked oddly at Koishi's digging, and decided to help, at first her help only undid Koishi's work but after a few tries and a little explanation of physics, they managed to clear what looked to be the top of a pyramid.
On one side there was a way in, and upon a closer gaze it seemed to be a portal, "Flandre, I see a way out." Koishi exclaimed in happiness and pointed to the gateway.
Flandre who felt dry and withered, sprang in the direction of the portal, Koishi quickly followed.
Flandre and Koishi found themselves in the crystal garden, that Koishi had ventured into earlier this very day.
"Where are we?" Flandre asked, more to herself than anyone in particular, the look of the place stunned her for a second.
"I don't where this is, but I know the way home!" Koishi smirked with joy, "This way." She uttered and grabbed Flandre's left hand.
Flandre's heart surged at this new feeling, this was different than a battle, different than pure adrenaline rush, it was calmer, it filled her with unyielding trust, which was very much needed, as they jumped together, into a portal that Flandre could not see.
GENSOKYO YOUKAI FOREST: night
Koishi followed, by Flandre, felt the soft grass beneath their feet, they could see the snow still lying everywhere in the dark forest,
"I'm back." Koishi uttered in relief, "I thought I would never escape this maze of worlds."
Flandre suddenly noticed a grim realisation, "So where do we go? I can't stay out here, sun will come up and I'll burn up."
"You can come home to my place, I live under ground, so sunlight would be the least of your problems." Koishi grinned widely.
"Really!" Flandre embraced Koishi in a fierce hug, "Thank you so much!" She almost cried.
Koishi had trouble getting out of Flandre's iron grip, "Let's go, my new vampiric friend." She smiled merrily, and together with Flandre they headed for the nearest tunnel and straight for the Earth Palace.
