Having been exiled from their home as traitors and rabble-rousers for their efforts to save the Lunarians from the doom they had been warned of, they retreated to the only place left for them and sought sanctuary with Eientei.
While blatantly haunted by their experiences, they rallied after a short period of adjustment and joined Eirin and Kaguya in working to save what they had left. Each taking a different route towards supporting the project.
Toyohime worked to smooth out the various wrinkles between factions and forge them into a more cohesive whole, while Yorihime lent her experience and ability to summon gods to the creation of the barrier.
Though initially isolated due to their origins, over time the sisters managed to build up a small circle of acquaintances outside of Eientei. They still felt out-of-place, alien to this impure land, but, like water wearing away at rock, they were carving out a niche for themselves.
The separation had not diminished, Lunarians would always be superior to the residents of the world below, but there was a sense of acceptance. That even if they could never truly see eye-to-eye, they were still walking towards the same destination.
That distant wonderland which accepts all those willing to respect it in turn.
Of course, while the ragtag band of misfits had been busy laying the groundwork for their salvation, Salem had been equally active in spreading damnation.
A year after the sages' fateful meeting, she had established footholds on every continent. While many kingdoms still refused to commit to her ideology, one could find proponents in almost all of them.
From simple peasants championing her words
"Down with the Gods! Up with humanity! Down with the Gods! Up with humanity!" The chanting continued, as it had for the past ten minutes.
Father Isaac stood alone within the temple, all other members of the clergy having fled before the mob had blocked off all the entrances, and stared at the building's front door in mounting horror as it shuddered from the force of yet another impact. The four-hundred-year old wood already had cracks forming across its frame from the previous blows, it was unlikely that it would survive another.
Hearing the mob's cries grow in fervor, emboldened by their imminent success, the priest took the only course of action available to him; he clasped his hands tight and prayed.
"Oh, God of Light, guide my soul to paradise. Oh, God of Darkness, have mercy upon these foolish souls for they know not what they do."
No sooner had he uttered those words than the door finally broke open in a shower of splinters and dust. Revealing over half a dozen men and women standing in the doorway, and no doubt many more just out of sight.
The man at the front of the horde tossed aside the statue of the Brothers that he had been using as a battering ram, the figures atop the stone pedestal losing what was left of their heads as they crashed onto the ground.
The lone remaining member of the church stood his ground, staring into the hate-filled eyes of the mob leader for what felt like an eternity as more and more people filed past him and around the edges of the room.
The scene reminded Isaac of a moment in his youth, where he had witnessed a pack of starving wolves corner their prey, an elderly deer, against the side of a large rock. They had slowly and deliberately surrounded it, drinking in the creature's inability to escape before striking without mercy.
The priest knew that he was cornered, could feel the metaphorical wolves baying for his blood, but, to his credit, he chose to make one last attempt to talk the invaders down.
"My children, please, do not lose yourself to this madness!" He begged the crowd, his eyes desperately sweeping the room for any sign that his words had reached them. Yet he found nothing but hateful grimaces and contemptful sneers.
"Madness?" The leader asked mockingly, punctuating the question with a harsh laugh. "The only madness was waiting this long. How many loved ones have been lost in your church's endless crusades? How many have starved to death in this city alone while you preach endlessly of the need for finer adornments for your temple?!"
The crowd roared in agreement, cries for vengeance mingling with recitations of the crimes that had earned such hatred. Faced with such vitriol, Isaac recoiled in fear. He did not get far, however, his retreat carrying him into the ceremonial altar at the center of the room.
Unbalanced by the unexpected collision, he toppled onto the object and fell flat on his back. Before he could lift himself off of the altar, two pairs of hands grabbed onto his arms and forced him down.
"Unhand me you devils!" the priest cried out as he thrashed his limbs with wild abandon, now well and truly panicked. But despite his best efforts to free himself, Isaac was not exactly a young or strong man and was unable to dislodge his captor's holds on his limbs.
"No, I don't think we will," the ringleader drawled as he strode towards the altar. Reaching into his pocket, he produced a pair of metallic orbs covered in runic engravings, holding them out so that Isaac could see them. "My brother made these a few years back, part of one of his experiments with enchanting. He wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime genius or anything, but he had an eye for forging."
He leaned down, pressing one of the orbs against the flesh of the priest's right arm. To the shock of captive and onlooker alike, the metal melted around the limb and secured itself to the altar. Trapping the arm in an iron shackle.
"Please, for the Gods' sake!" Isaac begged, pleading with anyone he could lock eyes with. "You don't have to do this!"
"He wanted to sell this to the guard and construction companies," the man continued, repeating the process with his left arm. "A way to instantly restrain most normal beings or fill gaps in buildings? He'd have made a fortune."
With his work done, he stepped back. The two members of the mob who had held Isaac down did the same. "Sadly, he never got the chance. Got conscripted for one of your group's crusades and died in some hellish desert in Laylah. Wasn't even a body left to return to me and the rest of his family, just a note telling us he died in service of your church. Another unwilling sacrifice out of who knows how many."
The man stared down at Isaac with cold contempt. "Not a single one more."
He looked over to where the rest of the mob had spread out throughout the temple and snapped his fingers.
And every last one of them immediately produced some form of igniter from their person.
Watching all this unfold, Isaac suddenly realized exactly where this situation was going and resumed his pleas for mercy with renewed fervor. Unfortunately, his cries fell on deaf ears. Of the assembled mob, not a single one spared him more than a disgusted glance.
"Down with the Gods!" Whatever flammable materials the mob had brought were set alight. "Down with the Church!" They held their torches aloft as if to welcome what came next. "And up with humanity!" And with that, each member of the mob set fire to whichever parts of the temple were closest.
Their work done, the mob cast aside their torches, scattering them across the floor to either die out or spread the flames further and began moving out the door. Once everyone else was through, the only remaining inhabitants of the temple were the mob leader and Isaac.
"What do you hope to achieve?" The priest croaked out, his voice cracked and frayed at the edges from the past few minutes of non-stop screaming. "This death and destruction, it won't help anyone. All you're doing is taking out your misery on others."
"Maybe," the man admitted, letting out an exhausted sigh. "But we're done just letting ourselves be crushed underfoot because the Gods say so. Even if we all end up dead at the end of this, at least we can say that we died for something worthwhile."
He turned to leave, unconcerned by the sound of wood crackling as it became fuel for the flames. "Besides, what we'll be up to isn't your concern right now. Is it? He asked mockingly. "If you do end up meeting the Brothers in the afterlife, give them a 'fuck you' from me and everyone else who has to live in this shithole of a world they made."
With that said, he strode out the door without a second glance, ignoring Isaac's calls to wait. Moments later, the broken door had been shoved back into place and the sounds of people barricading it with heavy objects could be heard. Leaving the priest to burn along with his home.
To soldiers and youkai exterminators…
"My fellow hunters, huntresses, and everyone else gathered here who has devoted their lives to protecting humanity from the countless threats assailing it, lend me your ears," the brown-robed woman called out to the crowd milling around the building's auditorium. "We stand on the precipice of a change unlike any that the world has ever seen, and are faced with a simple choice: to embrace it and move forward or deny it and remain as we are."
The audience murmured uneasily, all of them had heard the rumors or seen the reclaimers in action at some point. It was why they were all here, crammed into the basement of the local hunters association and listening to the director of the establishment as she began to exposit.
"It may be presumptuous, perhaps even blasphemous, but I firmly believe that it is our duty to support the reclaimers," She waited a minute for the cries of treachery and insanity to pass before continuing, undaunted by the surge of vitriol prompted by her claim.
"It is, and always has been, our purpose to stand against the monsters of the world. The beings who prey on humanity and sow suffering and discord among us for their own gain. For centuries, people like us have fought tooth and nail to push back the myriad of threats to humanity, sometimes succeeding sometimes not. We have bled and died to preserve these fleeting pockets of peace."
"But how many have we failed to protect?" She asked. "How many villages were devastated or outright destroyed by youkai or even gods in this past year alone? How many monsters roam the world freely, secure in the knowledge that they are too powerful for us to strike against without unacceptable losses?" With each sentence her words grew louder, filling with greater and greater conviction.
Various members of the crowd, including those who had booed her shifted uneasily. Each and every one of them had watched precious things slip away, whether because there was no one there to save them or simply because their efforts hadn't been enough.
"We have a chance to break the cycle, to usher in a brighter era for everyone. No more desperately holding out against an endless tide of monsters, no more watching those we are meant to oppose trample over those we protect, no more endlessly warring for the amusement of a God!"
"I understand that I ask many of you to turn your backs on what you believe, to face a foe who, by all accounts, cannot be beaten," the woman admitted. "But before all else, before our faiths, our convictions, and our purposes, we are champions of humanity. We are the ones who stand against beings who bend reality itself to their will and drive them back into the abyss, who unravel schemes the work of centuries."
She took a deep breath, calming and bracing herself for the next step. Her knuckles white as she gripped the podium before her. "The Gods are not faultless, as we know from the God of Darkness' perpetual enjoyment in toying with us. The Gods are not a part of the world, for they watch and choose to do nothing beyond send their toys among us. The Gods are not unbeatable, if they were then Salem would never have stolen her prize."
Her gaze swept the crowd, cooly taking in their reactions to her words. "They are impossibly powerful, but they are not perfect. They can be tricked and, if they can be outwitted, they can be beaten."
The atmosphere within the auditorium was tense enough that, for those in attendance, it felt as though they were standing within a bubble of immeasurable pressure. One ready to pop with the right prodding.
And what she said next certainly qualified.
"I've given my speech, explained my reasons," the huntress stated calmly. "Now, I ask of everyone here: what is your answer? Will you stand by me and countless others so that we might reclaim the world that has been taken from us?"
For a moment, there was silence, the listeners, from humble hunters to nascent legends, contemplating their responses. What they believed, what they would do, and if they truly could voice their thoughts. But before long, the dam burst, and responses began pouring in.
There was dissent and arguments, but the result was clear: those who remained were going to war.
To even respected leaders. No group could be discounted as potential members.
The palace of the Peacock Emperor was a busy place, where people of all standings were constantly embroiled in work and moving from task to task. As such, the sight of the Emperor's right hand and the general who commanded the whole of the empire's armies sitting on the roof would most certainly be a surprise to anyone who came across it.
"So, I understand why I advocated for his majesty to side with the Reclaimers," Hagen began, looking over at the man who had thrown his not inconsiderable weight behind his proposal. "But why did you agree with me?"
Copen looked up at the sky, the second-most powerful man in the empire carefully gathering his thoughts before answering. "Because I think that we can be more," he ultimately admitted. "That the Brothers, for all of their blessings and curses, have shackled us to an existence so much lesser than what we are capable of."
Hagen shot his associate a confused look. "Because we're not all immortal super-beings?" He asked uncertainly. "Because I feel like, despite the many things you can blame them for, that one doesn't make sense."
The emperor's right hand shook his head in denial. "No, our weakness and flaws only serve to drive us onward in search of ways of surpassing them. Rather, I am referring to how each of the Gods has trapped humanity within a status quo of their liking: the God of Light does nothing as the church his words inspired cripples progress in their bid for control, while the God of Darkness actively seeds the world with malevolent beings for us to battle without end."
He let out a weary sigh, staring up at the moon. His eyes tracing the ominous purplish-black spider webs crisscrossing the satellite. "Perhaps one is better than the other, but neither had truly been good to us since the days of creation. Much like how the children must one day leave behind their parents and strike out on their own, so must humanity move beyond its creators."
"That was… surprisingly deep," Hagen commented in an approving tone. "Makes my motive sound downright pitiful," he admitted sheepishly. "I just don't want to live in a world where something can come out of nowhere and pass judgment on me and mine," he looked up at the moon as well. "Mand, god, or youkai, I can fight for what I believe in. But if it came down to me versus the Gods? I would be gone in an instant, and what's worse, plenty of people would just write it off as justified because it was the Gods."
Copen tore his gaze away from the heavenly orb and glanced sympathetically at the general. "I would not call such a motivation pitiful," he stated authoritatively. "You want the same thing for yourself and those you care for as I do: to be free to carve your own path in life. And one way or another, we will be free."
Hagen looked out over the capital city. At the tens of thousands of lives bustling through its street even at this late hour, at the wondrous architecture that symbolized the empire's legacy, and the sheer scope of it all. A fraction of what his people might one day achieve, should they succeed. And what will be lost if they fail.
"Yes, he muttered absentmindedly. "One way or the other…"
Those few willing to openly denounce Salem faced harsh opposition. Sanctions, covert sabotage, even a handful of outright declarations of war. It was quickly becoming clear that what many had dismissed as grandstanding and foolishness was, in actuality, a highly dangerous cult.
Even gods and youkai had been seduced by the witch's words. Jo'on and Shion Yorigami, the goddesses of pestilence and poverty, ran rampant through Salem's most prominent detractors, leaving destitution and crumbling realms in their wake.
Packs of amanojaku could be found inciting crowds against their leaders and each other, spreading chaos without rhyme or reason while the defenders are occupied with the more immediate threats.
And those were only the tip of the iceberg. The 'reclaimers,' as they were called, had countless supporters from all walks of life working towards Salem's goals. By this time, her ideology had become an infectious thing, burrowing inside people's minds and twisting their thoughts.
It did not matter if few were loyal to her personally, that many under the banner she created only cared for their own goals. She had made her hatred of the God's into a philosophy, one that made her end-goal into her followers'.
Even if they turned against her the next day and locked her away, they would still follow the path to her desires because they were just that entangled with their own.
Against such a foe, it was all the unconverted kingdoms could do to hold out against the aggressive rhetoric. Barely a quarter of the world could be said to have been converted to Salem's cause, yet that quarter was waging war on the other three-fourths and making progress.
Knowing that it was only a matter of time before the reclaimers made their way to the site of Gensokyos construction, the Sages and various leaders came together to devise a solution...
"I say we hit them hard and fast, drive the vultures back before they can figure anything out!" Yuugi Hoshiguma declared. Her fist slamming into the table with enough force to crack the wood had preparations not been made for this sort of situation.
"It wouldn't be difficult to make the attacks look like they were just some random raiders," Tenma mused. The Tengu boss stroked his beard in thought. "With all the chaos going on, it's not like anyone would find the idea of a bunch of youkai attacking some grunts odd so long as we're careful about who goes..."
"Yeah, but you're forgetting something," Tewi pointed out from atop her high chair. "Whoever's in charge of these chumps can just send more. We wreck one batch and they'll just send tougher ones."
"Tewi is correct," Eirin stated. "The Reclaimers are a global power at this point. Whether to save face, seek revenge, or simply out of greed, they would almost certainly retaliate or investigate if we thwarted their expedition."
"So, what? We just wait and hope none of them ever decide to pay attention to us?" Yuugi demanded furiously."The hell kind of plan is that?!
"Cool it Yuugi." Suika stepped in, seamlessly drawing the other Deva's attention away from the brewing argument. "That's not what they're saying."
"Correct," Yukari chimed in. "We can't solve our little pest problem with force, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing to be done about it." She smiled darkly. "Just that we get a little creative."
For the next few seconds, the room was silent. Then Tenma spoke up, his tone conveying exasperation and a hint of curiosity.
"Care to clarify that? None of us happen to be Satori and I very much doubt that everyone else's idea of 'creative' matches yours."
"Fine," she whined, rolling her eyes. "No sense of drama, any of you."
With a snap of her fingers, a model of Gensokyo and the surrounding landscape appeared in the middle of the table. A red circle denoting the point where reclaimers could not be allowed to reach, lest they learn things they shouldn't.
"If we can't crush or block future incursions without attracting more attention from their patrons, then the simplest course of action is to just ensure they don't find anything."
"And how might we do that?" Okina snapped. "I can hardly relocate the project every time someone comes knocking."
"I'd say something like the Bamboo Forest of The Lost. Make it so they can't find their own asses with a map." Tewi stated, glancing over at Yukari. "But I'm pretty sure that's not the sort of thing you're thinking of here."
"Seriously Yukari," Suika groused, face meeting palm. "Can you just skip the theatrics for once?"
The Gap Youkai rolled her eyes at the request, but as she opened her mouth to further explain her plan another voice spoke up.
"She wants to use the barrier to ape the relationship between the fantastic and scientific sides of the moon," Eirin interrupted. "The land would be in the same location, but anyone who lacks the appropriate understanding and keys would only be able to view or interact with the mundane side rather than the fantastical side where Gensokyo would reside."
She dispassionately glanced over to Yukari. Meeting her irritated glare without the slightest bit of concern. "I suppose you're planning to involve Toyohime? Using her expertise and ability in conjunction with your own, and potentially a barrier from the Hakurei, such a goal could be reached within our timeframe."
"So that's your plan?" Yuugi asked incredulously. "Make a fake copy and hope they don't care enough to come back?"
"A bit more than that," Okina's mouth twisted into a smug grin. "If Yagokoro is correct, we could ensure that it's all but impossible for anyone not on the guest list to even perceive Gensokyo. We'd be effectively untouchable to those idiot cultists, no extra effort required."
"Sounds good to me," Suika declared. The pint-sized Oni throwing her support behind the plan without a second thought.
"Suika?" Yuugi gaped incredulously. "The hell are you saying? You just want to hide away from these jackasses?!"
"Nope," Suika answered, popping the p. "What I'm saying is that I'm not interested in dealing with the dumbasses who joined up with miss Witchy's suicide mission. I won't run from a good fight if one comes, but I'm not gonna cause everyone a shit-ton of problems by bringing it here."
She took a swig from her jug before continuing her explanation. "We're tougher than those reclaimer idiots, no doubts about it. But if they come here, it won't be a fight, it'll be a war." She stared back at her fellow Deva. "And people besides us would be paying the price."
"Tch!" Yuugi clicked her tongue, unable to refute the claim. "Still, that doesn't mean we can just sit around and let those bastards screw over the world even more. Letting them keep causing trouble is more than I can take."
"Whoever said anything about that?" Yukari interjected, an amused smile on her face as Yuugi turned towards her in shock. "If you'll recall, what we were discussing was how to keep our little wonderland safe from incursions. Nowhere did we argue against some volunteers going out to keep our mutual problem occupied."
"You didn't notice?" Eirin asked. "Leaving a hostile force unopposed, let alone one whose end-goal threatens the world and everything in it, would be the height of foolishness."
"It's fine, took me a long time and a lot of exposure to wrap my head around how those schemer-types think," Suika reassured Yuugi. "Just imagine they'll plan for pulling off everything and pick the bits that help them and hurt their enemies the most."
"I assume that you mean for us to take advantage of the barrier to complement raiding parties?" Tenma asked. "Using the ability to access a private sliver of reality to strike out against Salem's holdings before vanishing without a trace?"
"Exactly," Yukari nodded, her smile having evolved into a smug grin. "The witch's minions may be united under her banner, but they're far from harmonious. There were to be some damage to a few of their holdings, and the culprits could not be found, it wouldn't be a stretch for certain fingers to be pointed at their so-called 'comrades.'"
"It'll have to be believable. No weird team-ups if we want to sell the idea," Tewi pointed out. "The sort of thing that could have been done by some random youkai out for a score or a good time. No big names unless you're willing to keep em away from what's happening here until the last minute."
Suika let out an amused snort. "Isn't like there's any shortage of Oni wanting to go kick some ass." She looked over to Tenma. "And I'm pretty sure that a lot of Tengu feel the same way."
The Boss Tengu nodded back at her. "I can confirm that. Aya's practically rounded up a small army of volunteers and keeps dumping war plans on my desk. The brat doesn't know when to lay off." Despite the critical words, his fond smile told his true thoughts on the matter.
"So it's agreed?" Eirin asked. The Brain of The Moon evidently having grown bored of listening to the other speakers try to catch up. "Raiding parties will be sent out, using only deniable assets, and work to destabilize Salem's power structure in ways that cannot be traced back to Gensokyo."
Murmurs of agreement were exchanged among those present, and it seemed as though the meeting was ready to come to an end. Only for the sound of an ear-splitting clap to ring out across the room.
"Hold up a minute," Yuugi lowered her hands back to her sides. "If we're going to be sending people out to cause a little trouble, I'm going too."
Yukari frowned at the Oni's last-minute comment. "If a Deva is seen attacking the Reclaimers, and sooner or later you will be seen, people will start asking what the other ones are thinking," She stated bluntly. "And then they'll decide that if they aren't opposing you, then they must be with you. And just like that, what were unrelated and inconspicuous attacks start to look like an organized resistance."
"Then I'll just tell them that Suika's putting together a party and Kasen ran off to do whatever," Yuugi retorted, arms folded across her ample chest. "It's not like that's not what's going on, and everyone knows Oni don't lie."
Those present took a moment to recover from the sight of Yuugi Hoshiguma engaging in technicalities.
Suika was, fittingly, the first to come to her senses, letting out an approving snort at her fellow Deva's words. "Well, can't argue with that can we?" She laughed, raising her gourd in a salute.
Mutters of approval broke out among the rest of the group, starting small and quickly growing in number and volume. Seeing this, Yukari let out a sigh and relented.
"Well, you've neatly resolved our main concern and there don't appear to be any further objections… Yukari trailed off, giving anyone who had arguments against Yuugi's plan to speak up. When none did, she continued. "Then it's settled. We can begin planning the offensive next meeting, by then there might be an estimate for how long the defensive barrier will need to be ready."
With all parties in agreement, the meeting adjourned.
As predicted, Yukari, Toyohime, and the Hakurei were able to put together a rough time frame for the alteration and implementation of the barrier: if they deployed in in layers, merging them together at the end, the process would take roughly five months before the protections could be invoked
Over the course of the next few weeks, the various leaders involved in the project planned out their offensive in exacting detail. Every member of the assault team was organized into groups that minimized the oddity of their actions while maximizing their potential impact.
Supply lines were outlined, relationships charted, and goals determined. Bit by bit, a map of the Reclaimers would-be empire was formed.
Within three months of the decision, their strategy was ready and those involved could begin moving into place. Yuugi and her gang of Oni would launch a direct assault on the King of Beast's forces in the hopes of disrupting their march towards Camelot, Aya and the Tengu horde would work to pillage Briar Rose's operations, and a strike team of Rabbit Youkai, led by Tewi since they couldn't be trusted on their own, was tasked with destabilizing the Red Queen's domain and driving her to turn on her allies.
With the relevant territories having been surveilled extensively through the use of long-range scrying during the last few months, all that remained was to deploy Gensokyo 's forces to carry out the operations.
Tewi and her minions were the first to depart, leaving a month before the barrier's deployment to have more time to worm their way into Wonderland's workings before they had to start sabotaging them.
Next were the Tengu, who left two weeks before the barrier. While they could arrive at their destination in a matter of days, they needed to spread out and have all of their targets covered by the time the operation began.
The Oni were set to leave a week later, with the intention being for Yukari to warp them to the same area as their target. As Oni waiting around when they want to rampage would be just a bit unbelievable and walking straight there would be too noticeable, they were to hit hard and fast. Conveying the impression of a horde slamming into their target rather than a coordinated and prepared strike.
However, two days before they were to head out, Kasen came to Okina with a message: that Satori Komeji, newly-crowned ruler of Former Hell, wanted to meet with the Gensokyo's leaders to discuss joining.
It was a surprising turn of events, to say the least. Satori had never been one for social interaction, a trait shared with most of her species, so for her to take the step of reaching out to them and proposing a meeting showed how seriously she was taking the idea.
There was some brief concern over whether or not Yuugi, who had not-insignificant influence among the residents of Former Hell, should be involved with the process. But the Deva in question aggressively vetoed any proposal that would keep her from her promised rampage.
Ultimately, it was decided that Satori would meet with Yukari and Suika once the Oni squad had been deployed. Yukari to represent the sages and Suika to keep the meeting from going sour when Yukari and Satori inevitably began taking verbal jabs at one another.
As a show of good faith, the two would travel to The Palace of The Earth Spirits for the meeting. This was also due to the fact that Satori held a well-known aversion to people, and thus refused to leave her home unless absolutely necessary.
The details decided upon, a letter was sent to Satori informing her of the meeting time and place, as well as who would be involved.
And so, after sending off Yuugi's group, Yukari and Suika departed for Former Hell via gap.
Wanting to avoid being mistaken for invaders and attacked, the two opted to reappear outside the mansion's front entrance rather than within the structure.
"Well, someone hasn't bothered to redecorate," Yukari noted.
"Eh, not like there's much need to," Suika replied. "Last I heard, it was just her, her sister, and their pets down here. And I don't think any of em care much about that sort of thing."
"True," the Border Youkai admitted. "Though it doesn't speak well of her priorities, especially given why we're here."
The Oni shrugged off her friend's criticism with practiced ease. Yukari had always been the sort to read into every little detail. As far as Suika was concerned, stuff like this just meant that Satori was one of those people who mainly cared about a few things and just put in as much effort as needed for the rest. Those could be a problem, but so long as you respected their boundaries there wasn't likely to be an issue.
For someone so cunning, Yukari could be awfully narrow-minded sometimes…
Rather than voice that thought, Suika started walking towards the entrance before looking over her shoulder at Yukari. "You coming?"
Taking the hint, she moved to catch up with her friend. They had work to do, and Satori wasn't likely to grow easier to deal with the longer they waited.
In the back of her head, Yukari contemplated how the sabotage teams must be doing...
Whew, just barely made it.
Something that's always bugged me about Salem in canon, among my many other issues with her, is that she's made out to be this really dangerous corrupting force yet consistently picks the stupid option. So, I wanted to show her rallying the Old World to her cause in a way that actually does that reputation credit. At the core, Salem is espousing the idea of Freedom. That the world can be better than it is, and that the Brothers are responsible for it being such a flawed and dangerous place. And despite her being a lying borderline-sociopath, she does have a point. Not enough to justify the actions she took, but enough to give her words weight.
There are a lot of things the Brothers can be blamed for *cough*Grimm, youkai, and gods*cough*, and some things they arguably didn't mean to go as badly as they did, but did nothing to stop (the church of the Brothers, which is based off of ye olde Christian tales, and thus not exactly the most popular outside of their adherents. No offense to any actual Christians, but a lot of the stories I read from the middle ages were a bit quick to jump to righteous purging and that era's mentality comes into play here.) That's what I feel like Salem should be: someone who can make you genuinely believe that you're on the right side, regardless of how absurd your goals/actions are or how sketchy she is. Because at the core of her argument is an undeniable truth twisted into a web of manipulation.
If you're wondering why this update took a while, there's a pretty simple explanation: I recently was hired for a full-time position, which has drastically cut down on my available hours for writing. As such, I can't guarantee any regular updates at this time, though I'll still try and shoot for one every two weeks.
Now, before I go, there's a matter I feel the need to address: recently, a reviewer expressed their opinion that the Touhou cast should be so utterly powerful that nothing whatsoever should be able to remotely threaten them beyond other Touhou characters. I disagree, but you have the right to your own opinion and it's not like the series' power levels aren't incredibly vague and open to interpretation.
The issue comes from the fact that they followed this up by claiming that, in the PM I sent them regarding their previous claim on the matter, I'd attempted to justify my opinion purely with spellcard rules examples. And proceeded to rip into the, honestly ridiculous, idea. Since people making things up to make themselves sound better irritates me, especially when they put words in my mouth to do so, I'm just going to lay out my stance on the whole Touhou vs. RWBY matter here and now and be done with it.
First and foremost: this isn't a vs match! I am not required to have both sides battling for dominance at every turn. Worldbuilding and characterization are my priorities, not gratuitous fighting.
Second: The Touhou cast will not be unstoppable uber-beings who can casually solo Remnant. They're definitely more powerful than most of RWBY on average, to say nothing of the heavy-hitters like Yukari or Yuuka, but they are not invincible. They're a bunch of refugees fleeing the destruction of their home. Of course, they're not going to be at 100%. Even if they were, Manipulation of X or whatever other power they may have doesn't mean that they can freely do absolutely anything involving it. It's a skill that requires time and practice to hone and effort to use.
Third: Youkai are not invulnerable to physical force, let alone actual magic like Aura and Dust. Not sure why this one had to be explained, but it did. They aren't top-quality tools by any means, but they can do the job.
Fourth: Gensokyo has plenty of reasons not to go picking fights. Such as, say, the not-unjustified fear that the Brothers will notice they survived if they cause enough of a mess. And come back to correct their mistake...
Finally, point the fifth: Humans beat youkai before the spellcard rules ever existed, see PC-98 era in general and Nue in particular for canonical evidence. Remnant's inhabitants aren't quite up to par with those people, but it's not such a disparity that the gap can't be overcome under the right circumstances.
In short, Gensokyo is a powerhouse and qualitatively superior to Remnant's inhabitants, but not unbeatable, and would prefer to avoid such a confrontation if at all possible.
Sorry if this disappoints any of you, but "lol Touhou wins" kind of murders any actual plot in its crib and that's a problem for me. Hopefully, you'll consider my attempts at actually writing interesting and complex relationships and interactions between the two sides of the cross fair compensation.