This was a long time coming.
I'll go ahead and start with explaining how the ending of this fanfiction would've played out first, as i'm sure this is what most of you all clicked for.
It was originally going to be split across three more chapters, following the plotlines of:
The fight between the mages and Hiroko continues, as Reimu Hakurei challenges Kaiya to a fight. After Reimu mentions the spell card rules, Kaiya's interest piques, and she inquires more into it, eventually deciding she wishes to explore this method of fighting more. She agrees to the rules, and they duel, with Kaiya being the loser. Kasen joins the battle against Hiroko, eventually calling for Gensokyo's last stand against the God.
After her defeat, Kaiya teleports back to Mars, where she would overhear Yukari and Eirin exploring the capital. She'd closely follow behind the two, as they reach the heart of the Capital, Nuwa's Cell. Out of her interest to learn the secrets of what's behind the door, as well as Hiroko's past, she approaches the two, offering to help them get past Hiroko's magic barrier by teleporting over it. After natural initial skepticism, Yukari and Eirin agree, and they are teleported into Nuwa's room.
Eirin, with her knowledge of Nuwa's existence, is unsurprised by what she saw, while Kaiya is taken greatly aback by Hiroko's sister. After some discussion between the three and Nuwa, they learn the truth of the history, of how Nuwa was a God from before time as they knew it who's powers over Creation and Destruction were prohibited out of being too dangerous. She'd feel isolated, and that isolation would drive her to rage, which would drive her to erase the universe before this one. She created a new universe, with new life, and a new person to be with, Hiroko, her sister. And, as explained in the flashback in chapter 7, she grew dissatisfied with the life she had created, eventually ticking off the Gods, and her own sister, to imprison her in this cell.
Nuwa would learn from Eirin that it was Hiroko who imprisoned her, to somewhat, though not immense, surprise from Nuwa. The group, with the information from Nuwa of what Hiroko had said across millenia, come to the conclusion that Hiroko started the war with Lunarians, and subsequently Gensokyo, in order to find a new home for Nuwa to live, where she'd be hidden from the God's ire and could live her life in normalcy. Nuwa apologizes on Hiroko's behalf for what she had done, prompting Yukari to make her final decision.
Understanding the true power of Hiroko would cause great casualties and injuries should the war continue, Yukari uses her gaps to bring her, Kasen, and a now awake Okina to the Border of Gensokyo, along with Hiroko, where she revealed to Hiroko everything they had learnt, and what they knew. Hiroko naturally readied herself for a battle, as she believed that she cannot allow anyone who knew the truth of Nuwa's past actions to live, lest they threaten her safety. On the contrary, though, Yukari offered a proposition.
Since Hiroko would have no reason to fight if Nuwa found a home, she offered them both to become residents of Gensokyo, along with the other Martian Ministers. Kasen resisted the idea, while Okina remained impartial. After a long discussion, Hiroko eventually agreed to the terms Yukari laid out. Yukari would allow them to stay and socialize in Gensokyo, while she and Eirin specifically would keep a close eye on them, ready for if they would start an attack.
Afterwards, the Lunarians say their goodbyes to Eirin, and the Lunarian Capital is restored to how it once was. Hiroko, Nuwa, Kaiya, and the other Martian Ministers go down to Gensokyo, as a party is held at Hakurei Shrine, due to Yukari's orders and against Reimu's will. The group socialize with some of their former enemies, with some people from Gensokyo being naturally distrusting of others, while some welcome them, and others welcome them under the condition of them being a challenge. Kaiya chastises Hiroko for keeping Nuwa a secret from everyone, and the two make amends over it. Everyone lives happily ever after, yada yada yada.
That's the plot synopsis of what the final 3 chapters would've contained, and how the fanfiction would've ended. The next section will aim to answer the question of what exactly happened.
Though I believe I could still write it better, I was happy with how the story began. Up until around chapter 4, I still maintain a positive view on how it was set up, despite there being things I would change (such as making Chen's exploration longer and more in depth and setting her up more as something of a central character in a theoretical re-write). It began to go down hill once the battling and the war sections started, in my eyes.
I deviated away from what I originally planned to explore in this fanfiction, that being my interpretation of the universe of Touhou before Gensokyo, and how it would tie together and integrate into Gensokyo society. This was picked back up on in chapter 7, another chapter I am still genuinely happy with, for the most part. With my own OCs, I wished to explore a headcanon world outside of Gensokyo, with the Gods and what not. However, this got distracted from in favour of action.
I do wish and do also believe I would've had more fun writing a story focused on those elements over the action, but that's neither here nor there. I was 15 when I first originally started writing this fanfiction, and my brain went towards action over anything else, which is what my other fanfictions (not on this nor A Resident No-Life account) were also focused on. But in my eyes, that's where and why the fiction became a mess after the initial chapters. Not any kind of excuse, just explanation.
I'd also like to use this moment to highlight the criticism of characters not being included. As it stands, there were an immense number of characters in the fanfiction. Far, far too many to properly write around, which is why, as some eagle eyed readers may notice, some arcs were entirely left out of the final few chapter synopsis. What happened with Tenshi and Iku? What happened to Yuyuko and Youmu? To be honest, at the time, I didn't and still don't have any idea how those plot threads would've tied up. I put too many characters in, which was very much to the detriment of the narrative. It was my fault that I was put into that situation in the first place, yes, though in a fiction including so many characters while trying to make a proper story within ~25 chapters, I believe it unreasonable, or at the very least far outside my skill level (and definitely outside it at the time), to expect every single character included, especially characters like Flandre, who wouldn't serve to advance the plot in any meaningful way that would lead to a satisfying plot conclusion. That said, there were still way too many characters that shouldn't have been, which was another drawback to the fanfiction in how things fell apart.
Eventually, I simply lost interest in my own fanfiction. As I matured, I realized things didn't go the way I wanted them to go in my own fanfiction, and I was mostly writing just what came to my head at that very moment. Improvisation, so to speak. That, coupled with the negative reviews I read, stuck in my mind that this was more effort to finish than it was worth. Perhaps the ending could've been interesting, and tie everything together in a nice bow, though with how things were going, I didn't expect that to be the case. Between that and losing faith in myself to be able to finish an ambitious story, including OCs, universe development while bringing back other characters from the source material, I ended up abandoning the fanfiction and turning my head to doing other things.
That's about all I mean to say here. I am doing well, and nothing bad has fallen upon me. I just felt I should leave my past work "finished", rather than in the state it currently is. Thank you everyone who supported me while I was writing, and thank you everyone who rightfully criticized the narrative. If I were to delve back into creating fiction, those criticisms will prove very useful. That said, should you expect a "Defense Against the Unseen World Requiem"? No, probably not. But who knows what the future has in store.
Thank you for reading.
Another Resident No-Life.
