"So why am I doing this?"
Luigi asked as he got into a racing stance.
"Because, if you beat me in a race I'll let you pass" Aya Shameimaru replied.
"But why you? Didn't the kappas say something about you being REALLY fast?" Luigi asked.
Luigi suddenly flashes back to Nitori the night before,
"Blah, blah, blah, smart stuff, blah, blah, blah, Hina is annoying, blah blah, blah, I like cucumbers, blah blah, blah. Also, the tengu are VERY quick, so watch out for their quickness." Nitori said.
Luigi comes back to reality.
"Yeah, I kinda zoned out.." Luigi admitted. Aya only rolls her eyes in response.
"Oh well. You should've trained, you ready?" Aya asked.
"Oh wait! I've got to-"
Luigi has interrupted by Hatate Himekidou, who was already counting down.
"3..."
Luigi starts to shake as he gets in his racing position again.
"2..."
Aya smirks with confidence.
"1..."
Chen yawns with boredom.
"GO!!!"
After the 'GO!!' it was all a blur for Luigi as he takes off running as fast as he can. The plumber started to sweat a little bit, even though it was pretty cool outside, he feels the blood in his mouth, because he bit his tongue when he took off. Oops.
Unfortunately, as fast as Luigi was running, he was nowhere near Aya, in fact, Aya was farther up ahead, casually flying, she also takes in her surroundings.
"Wow, I never really get to look at all of these trees..."
The trees varied in height, some were short and young, and some were old and tall. It was early fall, the leaves were turning brown, orange and red, as they were falling off the young and old trees, the leaves made a little path for Aya, as if they were guiding her somewhere. It was truly a sight to behold.
"What a view! I hope I can get these shots for my next scoop! I can see it now, 'Swift and graceful tengu outruns tall and lanky human!' I can see that selling wel-"
BONK!
Something just hit Aya, and it hit her hard.
Ok, well, it was more like 'Aya wasn't paying attention and ran into a tree and probably has a severe concussion and is unconscious ' but what's the difference?
An actual hour later. We are not joking.
Aya finally comes to, she's confused, cold and has a throbbing headache,
"Ugh... how in the world did I go out like that? Do I have narcolepsy or something?" Aya asked herself. "And where is that damn human?" Aya asked again, slightly annoyed.
Aya suddenly hears cheering, as Luigi is just about to cross the finish line.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!!!!!!!" Aya yells, as she suddenly takes off flying at top speed.
ZOOM!
Past the trees...
ZOOM!
Past the forest critters...
ZOOOOOOOOOM!
And almost past the finish line. Then Aya and Luigi suddenly cross the finish line.
AT THE SAME TIME.
Hatate snaps the photo finish with her phone.
"Who won? Who won?" Chen asks Hatate excitedly.
"Hold on! Don't get your danmaku in a swirl!" Hatate replies.
Hatate looks back to her photos, Luigi, Chen and some other fellow tengu look over Hatate in suspense.
Aya smiles with her hands crossed, she has never, ever, EVER lost a race, what makes Luigi think he can beat her-
"THE HUMAN IS THE WINNER!!!"
Oh, well never mind then.
All of the tengu crowd around Luigi asking for his autograph, name, favorite things.
"Hey, Mister human! What's your name?" a tengu asks.
"Ummmmm... it's Luigi."
"THREE CHEERS FOR LUIGI!!!!!!!"
"HIP HIP HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY!" all of the tengu cheered for Luigi. And for once, Luigi felt what it was like to be in the spotlight.
"I don't understand, Master, why are they making a big fuss?" Ran asked.
"Why would they not make a big fuss? Aya was undefeated in racing, no one could beat her, no youkai, not me, and especially not a HUMAN of all things." Yukari replied.
"I see... but Master, should we be hiding in a better spot? These branches are getting annoying..." Ran asked.
"Nonsense Ran! Hiding in a bush is a perfect place to spectate!" Yukari said.
An unhappy and annoyed Aya flies off, her tengu pride in pieces, that's the only thing she felt like doing right now.
"WAIT JUST A MINUTE!"
A slightly smaller female tengu, with a white robe, black hair, black wings, and no shoes suddenly spoke up.
"I've been watching this race since the moment it started, and guess what?!" the tengu shouted out.
The other tengu, including Chen, started to mumble among themselves.
"What? What did the human do?"
"Did he cheat?"
"Can we not trust him?"
"I'm mumbling because they are."
The tengu spoke up again.
"Well, Aya bumped her head on a tree and was knocked out! So the human got to finish the race while Aya was unconscious!"
There were gasps heard all around the forest, even Yukari was surprised.
"I knew it was too good to be true.." Ran said.
Aya suddenly descends from the air.
"Am I correct, Aya Shameimaru?" the tengu asked confidently.
"Why yes! Yes, you are! The human took advantage of me being unconscious, and finished the race!" Aya confirmed.
Luigi quietly tiptoes away while the tengu are still talking amongst each other until Yukari shouts from the bush:
"HEY!!! THAT HUMAN IS TRYING TO GET AWAY!!!!"
All of the tengu turn their heads to Luigi, who smiles nervously, the plumber waits for the angry mob of tengu to start chasing him...
But they don't.
"Rematch... rematch... rematch... rematch...!"
The tengu start to chant for a rematch, but Yukari suddenly joins the chanting, as the words of the tengu get louder, so does the Gap Youkai.
"REMATCH! REMATCH! REMATCH! REMATCH!" the tengu and Yukari shout.
"Master... why are we doing this?" Ran asks.
"Why?" Yukari says, "Why not!?" Yukari then goes back to chanting.
Ran rolls her eyes with a smile and joins the chanting.
"ALRIGHT! IF IT'S A REMATCH YOU WANT, IT'S A REMATCH YOU'LL GET!!!!" Aya says. The tengu roar with glee as this is being announced.
It is now nighttime on the Youkai Mountain, lanterns were set up to illuminate the path, bets were placed, and everyone was excited about this race(hey that rhymed!).
Luigi was shaking in his overalls, if he lost, he would never get past Aya, he figured he should give up now.
"I mean, what's so bad about Youkai Mountain?" Luigi thought, "I could live here, yeah, it wouldn't be so bad-"
"Hey, Luigi! You ready?" Aya asked at the starting line, getting into her racing stance. Luigi just nods as he begrudgingly walks over to the starting line and gets into his racing stance.
"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
"GOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Both Aya and Luigi take off, while Luigi was fast, Aya was in a league of her own, she had already past Luigi and was in the lead.
"I knew this would happen..." Luigi said to himself as he slowed down and started walking. Meanwhile, Aya was far ahead but instead stops to see where her opponent was at.
"Ha! Seems like we have a quitter!" Aya says to herself as she flies onward.
Luigi was now sulking, discouraged, depressed and fatigued, he might as well walk to the finish.
As Aya flies onward, she begins to think about what Hatate had told her before the race.
"You seemed pretty upset back there, all because you lost?" Hatate asked.
"Well, I have to keep my winning streak, don't I? I would've been even angrier if the tengu didn't ask for a rematch." Aya replied. Hatate scowls at Aya upon hearing this.
"Ugh, as expected. Sometimes Aya, you need to swallow your pride." Hatate said as she walked off.
Swallow your pride... swallow your pride... swallow your pride...
That phrase echoed throughout Aya's head as she started to slow down even more and think about herself actions and possible future consequences. Finally Aya backward flies to where Luigi is running.
"Hey, why are you back here?" Luigi asked the tengu. Aya looks down and smirks in response.
"I'm just losing for a change. Hurry to the finish before I change my mind." Aya replied.
Luigi takes this warning and manages to run to the finish with it, and once Luigi runs past the finish line-
ZOOM!*
Aya zips right past the plumber. In 2nd place, that is. The tengu goes nuts, the younger tengu who spoke up before was speechless.
"Ah! Well, it looks like you beat me!" Aya says, "I certainly am fast, I may have underestimated you."
Luigi just chuckles a little, as Aya pulls him in for a 'victory hug'.
"If you tell anyone I let you win, I will make your life a NIGHTMARE" Aya whispered as she pulls Luigi away from the hug, Luigi chuckles even more, though it was out of fear.
The tengu say their final goodbyes to the green-capped human who beat the fastest youkai in Gensokyo.
"Well, it looks like we'll be off!" Luigi exclaims as he starts to climb the mountain.
"Hey, Luigi wait!" Aya shouts after the human, this makes Luigi turn around in curiosity and made Chen turn around in annoyance, she just wanted to leave.
Aya manages to grab both Luigi and Chen for a final picture before the two leave. A little souvenir to remember Aya and Hatate by, Aya was also planning to publish a newspaper with the exclusive human and cat shikigami.
As Luigi and Chen continue their journey to the top of the Youkai Mountain, well... we could take a slight break from those two and talk about two other specific characters.
Until then, stay tuned!
END*
OHHHHH, MY GOD, IT'S FINALLY FINISHED, APOLOGIES FOR NOT UPLOADING.
I kinda got my phone taken.
Again.
I made this chapter on a computer.
cough*
Anyway next chapter, I'll be focusing on two other characters.
Until then, I'll catch you later!
(Epilogue)
Nighttime at the Hakurei Shrine*
Reimu looks at Aya's newspaper article.
"Hey Mario, isn't that your brother?" Reimu asks.
Mario comes over in his pajamas in looks at the newspaper.
"Hey! It's Luigi! I told you he would be fine!" Mario reassured Reimu.
"If I'm correct, then he'll be going up against the youkai next, y'know if he dies I won't weep for him," Reimu says.
"No no! He'll be fine! I swear it!"