Chapter 6
The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.
If everyone was appalled before, they're blood was freezing now. They knew Reisen's injuries were bad, but to be outright tortured like that was disgusting, and showed once and for all that if Xhi was willing to cause greater harm, she would be doing it.
Yukari had been observing these conversations, and knew her only option was to manipulate a boundary, either between life and death, or existence and nonexistance. And even then it was risky, not because of any connections, but because Xhi was incredibly good at observing a situation, and it was going to be hard to sneak one of those under the rug.
Still, it was their only option to deal with this, so while the others were talking amongst themselves, Yukari, as quietly as possible, opened up a gap to Xhi's house and snuck through it, with no one being any the wiser.
Yukari had stepped out of the gap and as soon as she did, predictably, Xhi opened the door. She had to admit, her face did look familiar. 'Though I think all of us are accepting the fact that Xhi's psychic somehow.'
"Ah, so the Youkai Sage arrives at my door. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Xhi accompanies this with a bow so low Yukari was sure she was deriding her. She wasn't going to let a little mockery stop her though. So her reply was, "Simple. I'm here for buisness."
She then manipulates the boundary of life and death... only to find Xhi still standing there, looking no worse for wear. 'Ok, let's try existence and nonexistence then.' She does so, and despite all expectations, Xhi is still standing there. 'Alright, what in the world is going on?' Xhi tilts her head while garnering a curious look on her face before saying, "Well, what's your business?" 'Oh you master of feigning ignorance!'
Yukari knew there was little chance of her winning at this point with how durable Xhi was, but she could still measure her capabilities. Yukari soon smirks, a plan formulating in her head. "Well, it seems I actually have to try."
With that, Yukari opens up several gaps behind herself and fires snakelike streams of magic out of each of them. Xhi immediately crafts a blood shield in response and, before Yukari could realize what was going on, rushes to her position and starts rearing back a punch. Yukari soon crafted a barrier of her own before retreating through a gap, knowing it wouldn't hold. What she hadn't expected was the punch to go through said barrier with practically zero resistance, almost like she was punching a vacuum. Yukari then unleashed an explosion from her umbrella, which Xhi, with an almost unnatural effortlessness, literally swatted aside, as if the explosion was a fly. However while the smoke was up, Yukari had launched an ambulance through one of her gaps, hoping to pin Xhi. She proceeded to punch said ambulane so hard, it crumbled before flying in Yukari's direction before exploding, forcing her to go in another of her gaps.
As it turns out, Yukari's destination of choice was Xhi's roof, which she proceeded to jump off before opening more gaps under Xhi which were thrusting out stop signs. Xhi jumped over the gaps when the signs were thrust out, only to be met with Yukari charging another explosion from her umbrella, causing her to gain a look of mild surprise before quickly casting another blood shield to absorb the blow, knocking her into a gap that Yukari had erected behind Xhi, before said gap closed on her waist, getting stuck. It didn't kill her like Yukari had hoped, but it at least pinned her.
At least, before Xhi did something Yukari had to resist the urge to rub her eyes at. She put her hands on each side of the gap, and tore it apart before vanishing. Yukari stood shocked for a moment, before quickly looking around the area, hoping to find and stop Xhi ambushing her. She then felt a tap on her shoulder.
Yukari quickly turned around, only to get punched in the face. Hard. Surprisingly, despite the force, Yukari didn't move an inch, other than falling on the ground. She turned around again... and proceeded to actually rub her eyes. Not only was half of Xhi's body in her back, but the rest was in the process of stepping out of it. And as soon as she did, Yukari gapped back to the Hakurei Shrine. She'd had enough mind screw for one session.
Xhi was actually rather proud of herself. Considering the crazy stuff in Gensokyo, it wasn't easy to make Yukari rub her eyes in confusion. She couldn't help but smirk at the prospect.
Now's not the time to celebrate though. The biggest fight, she can tell, is soon to come. And the others will soon be ensnared.
When Yukari came back, it was to the sight of Reimu pacing continually back and forth around the main room of the shrine, muttering random nonsense. Yukari could tell she was worried about her, which she would tease her on, but there were more important matters right now. Still, she noted the irony for later.
After putting her hand through a gap and grabbing another healing potion, she decided to interrupt her musing. "Reimu." She called out to her, but she didn't reply. 'She must be pretty deep in her thoughts.' "Reimu." She said her name louder, but still got no response. "Reimu!" That got her attention. "What, Yuka-" She promptly stopped herself. "Wait... Yukari!" She spouted before turning to her direction. While she had a brief look of relief on her face, it was quickly replaced with a scowl. "Give us a warning before you ditch us next time okay!" Yukari knew at that moment she was in for a long talk.
Reimu was, well, confused was an understatement. The story was normal at first, but it did suggest that Xhi had some sort of secret counterplay to at the very least Yukari's abilities, with the same sentiment possibly extending to all of them. The story then, again, played like everyone expected. At least until the very end, which once she heard, made her convinced she lost her brain.
She looked at the others' reactions, which made it clear she wasn't the only one who thought that. Everyone was looking at Yukari like she had more screws loose than normal in her head. She eventually asked the question on everyone's mind. "Are you sure you're not pulling our legs here?" To which Yukari replied, "Believe me, I was just as confused as you are."
Reimu then sighs heavily and says, "Well, I think the only way we have any shot is if we all worked together to take her down." Marisa then looks at her with an even more stupefied expression than before, which at this point, Reimu doubted was possible. "You do realize how unrealistic that sounds right?" Reimu immediately retorted with, "Well you should also realize how unrealistic it is to beat Xhi in a one-on-one fight. As crazy as it seems, it's our only option."
Yukari immediately stood from her seat. "Reimu's right. Unusual or no, we don't stand a chance against Xhi alone. I'll open up one final gap to her house. There's no turning back now. We need everyone's cooperation for this final clash. Any objections?" Everyone shook their heads. "Good." She opened up said gap. "Then, let's get going." Everyone soon stepped inside. However, Reimu hesitated a bit, having one final thought. 'Why was Reisen the only one who experienced that other side?' After thinking for a bit, she got the thought out of her head and followed everyone else.
While she was trying to deny it, she couldn't avoid one thing. For the first time since creating the Hakurei Barrier, and possibly ever, she was genuinely scared. She didn't need to sum up the situation in her head, but who wouldn't be scared given the context.
Still, Gensokyo was a place she had protected for 1500 years, and she wasn't about to just let it fall. If she was to go down, she would go down fighting for something worth guarding.
They soon stepped in front of the titular house, however unlike every other time they'd Gone here, Xhi was already outside waiting. 'Seems she saw this coming.' With that thought, Yukari stepped forward. "Listen, I don't care what you're reasons for doing this are, or if it's just because you're bored, but I've protected this land for most of my life, and I'm not just going to watch as you tear it apart. This is the end of the-" She wen't to grab her umbrella, only to find she couldn't. "Wait, why can't I move?" She looked around and quickly realized she wasn't alone. Every single one of them was stock still. Or more accurately, paralyzed in place.
Then she heard a laugh, and if there was any semblance of idiocy left in their impressions of the woman they were facing, they were washed away then and there. She knew that wasn't a laugh of someone joking around, nor was it a laugh of a sadistic monster. This was the laugh of someone who had set a successful trap.
If I didn't establish Xhi as a threat before, I definitely have now. Admittedly, this chapter had a lot of hurdles to clear, chief among them being making this chapter's fight scene convincing(which I'm not sure I did a good job at) and giving Yukari emotions other than a mixture of smugness and whimsy. Those combined with, quite frankly, me being lazy, are what caused this chapter to take so long to come out, and for that I'm sorry.
