(guess WHAT YO… it's MATT'S PERSPECTIVE. waaaa~l!)
After some time, it appeared to have become morning.
...I crawl from the tent, as it was now day time.
I only took scattered naps throughout the night. I kept myself from getting bored by coming up with one hundred and one ways to brutalize fluffles.
"Haahh…"
Reimu yawned from inside the tent. She's up, too, apparently.
I looked around the debris of the shrine. I couldn't see very well in the morning twilight, but I could swear things were moving in that pile of rubble that shouldn't have been.
Fluffy menaces.
...Reimu poked her head out from under the tent, then brought it back inside quickly. "C-cold…"
That's what you get for wearing those sleeve… things… instead of actual, proper arm wear.
It wasn't long before her antics woke Youmu up. "...Mmmgh…"
Reimu shook her awake further. "Get up. Youmu, get up…"
"Awah…?" Youmu sat up drowsily.
"Youmu!" Reimu shook her violently by the shoulders.
"H-hey, I'm up! What's the big deal!?" Youmu broke away from Reimu.
"I'm cold." Reimu stated plainly.
Youmu blinked. "...Seriously?"
I step up next to the tent. "Are you two going to warm each other up, or what? We haven't got all day." Let's ignore the fact the day has literally just begun.
…
Reimu flips the tent up and emerges in my general direction, forcing me to step away.
"I'm gonna make you cold in a moment." Reimu glares at me.
"I'm already cold on the inside." I grin.
Reimu shakes her head. "Not cold enough, apparently."
As fun as it would be to attempt to demonstrate how cold I really was on the inside, I don't think anybody here would appreciate the gesture. Namely Yukari.
Youmu lethargically emerges from the tent, and shivers.
"Y-you're right…" She hugs herself.
"I have a brilliant plan!" I exclaim while raising my arms. "Let us warm each other up with our bodies!"
…
"On second thought, I'm not that cold." Youmu begins jogging in place to build heat.
"It's only chilly out." Reimu states plainly.
"And?" I smile at her cheesily.
Shaking her head, Reimu turns to Youmu. "...What was the reason you came here again? I kinda forgot…"
Youmu sighed. "Mistress is under attack!"
Reimu blinked. "And?"
"The entirety of the realm is being invaded!" Youmu holds her arms out as she yells to accent the point. "We need your help!"
"What's in it for me?" Reimu folds her arms.
"...I-I'll help you rebuild your shrine…" Youmu reluctantly adds.
"For free." Reimu clarifies.
"...For free."
"Deal." Reimu smiles. "Anything for a friend in need!"
She pats Youmu on the shoulder. Youmu looks vaguely distraught about the prospect of more work, but she just sighs it off. "...Right."
Comforting to be assured once again that the Hakurei miko is a nice lady.
Youmu began floating. "Let's go."
Reimu floats up with her, and they both begin flying away.
…
Well. Guess I won't-
Youmu flies back. "You're not getting out of this."
Run, quickly!
"Hey!"
I dash in the opposite direction as fast as I can. Unfortunately, Youmu's flying speed is far faster and she catches me in moments.
"Help! Ra~pe! Raa~pe!" I begin flailing my limbs.
"Do you want me to drop you or not!?" Youmu barks, beelining into the sky with me.
/ / / / HAKUMON: GOTTA CATCH EM ALL YO / / / /
Within moments of relatively uneventful flying, by which I mean thirty minutes, we close in on the staircase in the sky.
I'd like to ask who put a realm of the dead in the sky.
"Whose bright idea was it to put Ha-Hu-...The dead place in the sky?" I ask aloud.
"That's simply how the boundaries intersect." Youmu replies. "...Or something. Ask Yuyuko-sama, she'd know more…"
Unfortunately, she's being bombarded by fluffy nightmares, so that's not a very plausible option.
"From what Yukari told me, it's from a weakened border between life and death." Reimu engaged herself in the conversation. "I don't know why the border materialized itself so high up, and so far into the barrier…"
Because magic. I'm sure the explanation is so convoluted and incomprehensible that it comes out to basically the same conclusion, anyway.
We float up the steps, and before long we reach the top of them, the bit right before the gate. Not much can be seen from here, as the gate was closed.
"...Are we ready?" Youmu asks us, setting me down on the stone at the top of the stairs.
"No." I shake my head. "I require weaponry of the projectile sort."
Youmu ignores me and turns to Reimu.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's get this over with…" Reimu readies ofuda in one hand, and brings her gohei into a combat stance with the other.
Nodding, Youmu turns to the gate, and pushes it open…
The vibrations and violence seen, heard, and felt were instantaneous.
Youmu instantly began floating, but Reimu and I slid to the floor.
"H-h-h-a-a-a-a-h~!" Reimu exclaimed, trying to bounce herself from the floor of her own volition.
Youmu moves to lift me from the floor, and does so successfully, albeit clumsily, by my arms.
Reimu soon gets herself off the floor, and into the air.
On the inside of the realm of the dead, I saw bright blue lights in the air. They darted all around the interior of the gate rapidly. Large chunks of ice were visible amidst the bright lights and shards of rock flying in the air. I could also make out some of those piston things going wild on the inside.
The noise of the violence quickly drowned out everything else possible.
Relief came swiftly as one of the blue light machines paused, and it sent a blast of cold air at the gate, slamming it shut. Large snowflakes shot out like bullets, but Reimu and Youmu evaded them with ease.
The abrupt dodge left me a little whiplashed…
"...I'm gonna need a bigger gohei." Reimu shook her head in exasperation.
"And a bigger chest." I try to slip in.
"...I vote we throw him in and see how he does." Reimu snarks.
"I would, but I'd feel guilty later… and Yuyuko-sama would probably be displeased." Youmu smiled.
…
"So… what should we do, Reimu?" She asked. "I don't think we can just float in like normal…"
"Oh, no, we can." Reimu decided. "...I think. Cautionary Barrier!"
She summons a square barrier of energy in front of her.
"This better work…" Reimu takes a deep breath.
Youmu floats up to the gate, and awkwardly opens it by pushing into it because of holding me.
The deafening violence continues, and so does the blinding light show.
Reimu slowly floats forward with her barrier defensively positioned ahead of her. Once she gets inside, the barrier becomes a pure white color from the sheer amount of impacts striking it. It's slowly pushed back, Reimu physically pushing against it as a large ice crystal is formed by the cold wind on the other side. A large bomb flies in from above, and it strikes the crystal of ice.
Kaboom!
It explodes into a torrent of electricity, but the blast is still powerful enough to break the crystal, Reimu's barrier, and blow Reimu back outside.
Bam. The door slams shut, Youmu being thrown back with it.
...Reimu sits up from the floor. "G-geez… What was that?"
"Violence." I provide.
Reimu glares at me before looking at Youmu. "Was it that bad last time you were here?"
Youmu shakes her head. "No… It seems to have gotten a lot worse…"
…
Reimu takes a deep breath. "Guess I'm going to have to take this a bit more seriously, then. It doesn't look like being purely defensive will work here…"
You think?
"...Open the door." Reimu commands.
"A-alright…" Youmu floats up to it, and pushes it awkwardly again.
Aaagh, that noise… Why are we even still trying?
Reimu lets out a barrage of homing amulets into the violence. They're quickly absorbed by said violence and dissipate.
Frowning, she sends a barrage of yin-yang orbs inside. I can't tell if they did anything over the noise, but the lights and mix of colors absorbed them.
"Hmph…" Reimu grunts. "Dream Sign! Evil Sealing Circle!"
A storm of amulets whirl inside, and form a glowing circle on the ground. They encapsulate a pillar of the space inside, and cleanse it of things happening. It produces a brief break in the violence, but it quickly resumes in that spot again.
...A large metal craft floats from the sky and slams into the earth in front of the gate. Quickly, the death zone ate away at the metal aircraft until it was nothing but sheets of metal on the floor.
Reimu glares. "Divine Arts! Omnidirectional Demon-binding Circle!"
Shii~ng!
A line of amulets and talismans is shot into the air around Reimu, and she dashes into the chaos. The amulets meet a standstill against the force of violence, but Reimu quickly backs them up with a wave of danmaku. The amulets, traveling in the straight lines they were, eventually pierce through sections of the explosions and elemental travesties.
The storm of blue and cyan quickly turns into an organized storm of yellow and red from the amulets and talismans.
A large section of the realm is lit alive as all the talismans and amulets stop, with only the generic danmaku fired in the storm remaining.
Everything nearby was binded.
However, it was still not quiet. The binded area only reached so far, and the pistons and whirring lights continued far outside the reach of the sphere of holy projectiles.
...Bombs flew from the sky, dropped by grey aircraft, blasting against the top of the sphere.
Kaboom!
Blaa~m!
Boom!
Electricity, water, and… what looked like healing magic slammed against the top of the barrier. I say 'healing magic' because it was a bright green with ethereal leaves emanating from it.
I could see some of the binded contraptions. A few were those piston machines, predictably.
The real kicker was the binded blue and cyan light machines, as I had dubbed them. They were actually an unrealistic mesh of blue metal rods, creating an abstract, hovering hunk of junk that had blue and cyan LEDs at the ends for whatever reason.
A fluffle in loaf form sat in the middle of each of them.
"Youmu! Now!" Reimu shouted, strained.
"Right!"
Youmu drops me to the floor.
Thanks for that.
She floats towards the machines with her sword drawn.
"Hell Realm Sword! Two hundred Yojana in One Slash!"
Shii~ng!
…
Two piston machines were cut in half, and one of the wire frame creations broke apart into a mess of metal rods, the lights flickering out and the fluffle spreading its fins and flying.
Kaboom!
A black explosion ate a large chunk of the sphere's top. I near the edge closest to the exit, for safety reasons.
The gold aura formed by the edges of the sphere began cracking.
"Hurry it up!" Reimu barked.
"I-I'm trying!"
Shii~ng!
Youmu performed a regular high-speed slash on the last binded wireframe aircraft.
Boom!
The amulets and talismans begin shaking as another healing bomb blows up, this time a little bit within the barrier's perimeter, the top now greatly weakened.
"F-fall back!" Reimu yells.
Youmu quickly zooms next to me, ready to escape from the net of soon-to-be-useless holy items.
Craaa~ck!
Reimu is knocked back as her sphere breaks from the sheer damage output of the machines. Fortunately, the efforts seem to have spared the very front of the gate from violence, although many more machines still sat outside.
We ran outside again, but the door wasn't slammed shut by wind or bombs or anything, this time.
"...Terrific." I fold my arms. "For what was seemingly powerful attacks, the two of you seem to have made less than a quarter of progress on liberating the area."
"And you can do better?" Reimu tiredly asks. "I didn't see you doing anything back there."
"What am I going to do? Stab them?" As much as I wish I could, I don't think I can leap onto machines going sixty miles per hour in the air that emit waves of cold air capable of flash freezing people. "...Maybe give them a little poke?" I take out my scissors and poke at the air.
Reimu sighed. "Just keep standing back, then…"
Reimu floats up and goes inside again, this time not immediately bombarded.
"Dream Land! Super Duplex Barrier!"
Reimu spins in the air, sending an array of needles outward. They spiral around in the air, creating pale blue squares in the air that begin glowing. A multitude of these squares are formed, and Reimu makes two boxes around herself with said needles. As a result, a wide array of reflective barriers are created around her.
Squares are left to float about and redirect violence, while Reimu's box acts as a direct counter to the violence of the outside. She proceeds to float around, even the bombs falling towards her coming out either under the box or from the sides, the resulting blast's effects being displaced to the top of the transparent blue box.
Reimu slowly floated across the battlefield. All this tactic did was defend her for the most part, as the constructs seemed immune to their own fire for the most part, although she did manage to accidentally blow up one of the blue wireframes with a redirected firebomb.
This continues for a good five minutes until Reimu's spell card runs out naturally, and she doubles back to Youmu and me who stood still at the gates.
Reimu sighed. "Look… There's just wa~y too much going on for me to really do anything here alone… and your sword can't close the distance between that." Reimu gestures to the resuming violence.
Youmu shook her head. "It's okay, Reimu… We tried our best."
We should get a medal for this. Me included, even though I just stood here.
"...There's one thing I could try." Reimu readies herself again. "If this doesn't work, you're on your own."
Youmu nods. "I understand…"
Reimu runs out, dashes into the air, and pauses, observing the oncoming violence.
"Now…" She takes a deep breath.
"Fantasy Heaven!"
A circle of ten Hakurei Yin-Yang orbs circle around her, each one lighting up a color of the rainbow.
"Haaa~h!"
Reimu glows an ethereal rainbow color, slowly hovering into the violence. Transparent orbs shoot from the Yin-Yang orbs like lightning, and before long the orbs are shooting rapid strings with a slight delay per string of orbs.
Claa~ng!
A string of orbs tore through a fluffle piston, leaving electricity marks where it tore.
Wrreee~nch!
A string of orbs latched onto a blue wireframe aircraft, crunching it together with a stone vice.
Blam!
A string of orbs spiraled into the air to meet a bomber, exploding in a ball of fire.
With each encounter, one of the Hakurei Yin-Yang orbs orbiting Reimu lit up pure white.
Before long, they were all ignited.
"Fantasy Nature!"
Youmu reacted quickly, and started pulling the gate closed.
Thwoom. It closed.
…
"Trust me… you don't want to be in the open when-"
Youmu was cut-off.
VvrreeaaaAAAA-
…
My ears rang from the loud noise, even if I didn't see anything from here.
All in all, I'm not sure how to feel about the vast display of bullshit anime powers going on here.
…
Youmu slowly slid open the door.
On the inside was nothing but dirt, seared metal, and fluffles.
Holy shit there was fluffles.
"Waaa~l!"
They were running around, panicked.
…
Bam!
A healing bomb fell from the sky and landed on the blown away, charred statue of what was probably once a cherry blossom tree. The blast shattered the top branches, but rapidly healed it too, resulting in a deformed tree with a large chunk of blossoms missing.
...Reimu tiredly floated up to us.
"There."
Thud. She fell to the floor, unconscious.
...
"...Well… It's time to start… rebuilding." Youmu nodded warily at the barren landscape.
There was nothing left. Just black, grey, and the carbon figures of a few trees… and the slightly charred bigger tree.
...and that one tree that just got revived. It's a bit misshapen, unfortunately.
Another healing bomb fell from the sky, striking an empty patch of land.
Boom!
It became a different shade of grey.
...Also, I had absolutely no clue where the shrine was supposed to be other than its position relative to that big ass cherry blossom that somehow survived the genocide crusade of the fluffles.
"Nice place you got here." I comment. It's about as empty as Yuyuko's head, I'm sure.
Youmu kneeled down at the desolation. "...Hey…"
Hello.
"...Do you know anyone I could hire to help rebuild this?" Youmu asked quietly.
My thoughts drift to a certain lunatic, but chances are whatever he'd make would probably be an even worse example of destruction than the current situation.
…I'm out of ideas. "No clue."
"O-oh…" Youmu nods. "I guess… I'll get started, then…"
She stands…
"...Where do I even begin?"
Blam!
A holy bomb explodes somewhere in the distance, a single chunk of some large hedge being produced by the blast. It's very green in comparison to everything else.
I hear another voice from behind us. "Oh, my! What happened here…?"
I turn to see Yuyuko floating in, a fan over her mouth. Yukari pops out from a gap beside her.
"It seems as if the situation has resolved itself." Yukari comments.
"Y-Yuyuko-sama…!" Youmu freezes up.
"Hello!" Yuyuko waves at her with her open hand. "Where'd you go when the earthquakes started?"
Youmu blinked. "E-earthquakes? Yuyuko-sama, we were under siege!"
Yuyuko blinked back. "We were?"
…
"Yes. Mother Nature wanted to kill us for being undead freaks of nature." I tell her.
"Oh, my~..." Yuyuko appears to exemplify awe of some sort, but I've got a strong feeling it's as fake as my explanation.
"...It seems like this place has seen better days." Yukari observes.
"Mmm…" Yuyuko looks a little crestfallen. "I'm sure it can be rebuilt. What's good is that we have each other!"
Splendid. Truly.
"Right…" Youmu looks intimidated.
Yuyuko notices Youmu's dismay. "...It looks like my assistant could use some assistance."
Yukari grins. "My shinigami need some exercise, anyway…"
A gap opens, and two figures walk out. One is a fox-tailed woman with nine tails, and the other's a far smaller cat girl with two tails.
"It is your bidding, mistress." The fox girl bows.
Yukari rolls her eyes. "Oh, knock off the formalities, would you? We're all friends here!"
"...Right." She gives a lopsided smile.
"Nyahaha!" The cat girl seems to be the opposite of formal. "Hello everyone! Let's build a house!"
The fox girl leans over to her. "...We're building a shrine."
"Let's build a shrine!"
I wonder if she has a thing for catnip…
"...Ran Yakumo." The fox girl introduces herself to me. "...This is Chen."
"Nyaa~!" Chen meows.
Cuddly.
Bam!
Youmu jumps as a large stack of wooden planks land behind her, embedding themselves in the soot.
...Moments later, a healing bomb lands on them.
Boom!
Some of them grow bark, while others merge together. A few have twigs sprouting from them, sporting tiny leaves.
"...Didn't see that coming." Yukari pouts.
A fluffle caked in soot raises its face from the dirty floor for the first time, as it had just spawned moments ago.
"hello friend"
Please, no.
"i love you"
…
"Can I go home, now?" I ask Yukari.
"No." She states simply.
Well, I tried.
...Yukari looks to the unconscious form of Reimu. "You are to aid the Hakurei shrine maiden in the reconstruction of her shrine."
She can say that all she wants, but I'm not going to do it, not even if she gaps me there.
"Understood?" Yukari smirks at me.
I fold my arms and look at her impatiently.
"Good."
A gap opens up under me.
/ / / / DARK LORD STURM / / / /
Reimu and I sat at a kotatsu at the demolished Hakurei Shrine on a brisk day.
"Build." Reimu commanded, lying on the ground with her lower half in the kotatsu.
"No."
"Create."
"No."
"Construct."
"No."
"Make."
"No."
"Devise."
"Your demise?"
…
"Build."
It was a productive day so far.
Reimu sat up. "I was thinking that Youmu was going to be the one to actually work on the shrine…"
Me too. That's why I'm not.
There's also the fact I haven't nailed a piece of wood in my life.
"Look, just round up some fairies or something. I don't care how you do it." Reimu flops on the floor again. "If you don't, I'll get Yukari, or something. Actually, I'll probably just beat you up myself, but there's really not much difference."
Easier said than done… in addition to the fact that I'll just slink away when given an opportunity. It's daylight now, so I'd be fine.
Before I saw that light show, I was somewhat willing to jest that I'd be able to take her in direct combat. After seeing it, I've remembered that I have severe allergies to excessive pain.
"Don't even think of getting out of it, by the way." Reimu added. "I'll find you."
Sure you would.
"While you do that… I'll just be taking a nap…" Reimu yawned.
…
Fluffles emerged from nearby rubble, and began surrounding the miko.
Reimu took notice, looking around. "Hey, hey. Shoo." She waved her gohei around like a flyswatter.
She bonked one on the head. "Waaaa~l!"
"Waaa~l!" Its friends agreed.
They began running around on all four limbs, one running into the kotatsu with its head and tipping it over.
"Hey!"
They fled into the rubble, where they stuck their tiny eyes out from.
Reimu sighed. "...Go." Reimu shook her head at me, flopping back onto the floor. "Stupid dust mites…"
…
She sat up and stretched to use her gohei to try and tip the kotatsu back up, to little avail. She gave up, and just scooted near it to set it back up right, and then flopped.
"Ugh…"
…
All things considered, if she actually bothered with Yukari, I might just keep getting pulled back here until the job is done. She did suggest using the natural fairies of the land.
Making my way to the bottom of the hill, I linger along the edges of the hillside and the forests. There was no need for me to charge into the depths of the woods only to find unspeakable perils.
I hear some voices coming from the upper portion of the back hillside.
"The shrine's still broke!?"
I follow the yelling of some girl. Upon reaching the hillside proper, three fairies are observable on the hillside.
A black-haired fairy folded her arms. "The shrine was always in a state of poor funding, were it not?"
The orange-haired fairy frowns. "That's not it! I mean it's still broken apart into pieces and stuff!"
A blonde-haired fairy stares into the distance, as she had moments prior. "Maybe the shrine maiden moved…"
Irritated, the orange-haired fairy turns to her. "What!? Reimu'd never do something like that! Never ever ever!"
I begin to approach them like the neighborhood pedophile.
The black-haired fairy is unpersuaded. "Sunny-chan, I don't think she'd have any compulsion to-"
"I didn't ask you!"
Said black-haired fairy sighs.
It is time to announce my presence! "Hello, fairies."
The three lock their eyes on me.
'Sunny-chan' glares me down. "Who are you and what'd you do with-"
"Shh~ush!" The black-haired fairy gets up next to her. "Let me handle this! I'm better with humans!"
The blonde fairy floats towards me slowly. "Hey…"
She reaches her hand out to her blonde friend. "L-Luna-chan! Don't!"
…
The blonde fairy floats past me idly.
"Yes, well…" Quite dependable laborers, if I do say so myself. "I would like the three of you to aid in the reconstruction of… a shrine." I don't think they'd agree to help a Hakurei shrine in particular.
'Sunny-chan' eyes me suspiciously. "What's in it for us? It's not every day we help stinky humans like you."
The dark-haired fairy sighs, again. "You guys…"
"I propose bags of candy and treats for the three of you."
…
"Deal! Deal deal deal!" 'Sunny-chan' flies up to me to shake my hand. "Free candy!"
"S-Sunny-chan!" The dark-haired fairy floats up and smacks her hand away. "What are you doing!? What if he's tricking us?"
'Sunny-chan' glares at her. "Then we just prank 'em like we always do and get our candy the hard way!"
'Luna-chan' floats back to us. "I'd like some candy…"
…
"I mean, c'mon, Star-chan…" 'Sunny-chan' shakes her head. "It's candy. Candy! We can always promise some of it to other fairies if we need them!"
"You know we won't have enough to share. All we're going to do is end up making everyone angry again…" 'Star-chan' looks crestfallen.
"So?" 'Sunny-chan' retorts. "It's a deal, mister!"
We shake hands. "Very well."
/ / / / A FAIRLY FAIRY AFFAIR / / / /
Within moments we reach the front gate of the demolished Hakurei Shrine.
"W-wha~t!?" Sunny flails her extremities. "We're rebuilding this!?"
"How convenient…" Star rolls her eyes.
"..." Luna gazes at the desolation.
"Indeed. Get it as done as soon as you can." I move over to the odd box with a grate over it and sit on it. "I will oversee your operations. I would like to see it done as quick as possible, to give you the maximum payoff."
…
"...In Japanese, please?" Sunny is unamused. "I don't speak nerd!"
"He means we need to get this done really quick so we can get the most candy." Star explains tiredly.
"...Oh." Sunny scratches her head. "I knew that!"
Luna floats over to the shrine, and looks down stoically. "...I see Reimu."
Sunny shoots her gaze over there with a jolt. "R-Reimu!?"
She rockets over there, and dive bombs to the figure of the dozing Miko.
"Rei~mu~!"
Glomp.
"H-hey!"
…
Thwack!
"O-oowch! What was that-"
Whack!
...
Sunny is thrown out onto the pavement through the only standing door.
"Uhf…" The fairy lands in a crumpled pile, her outfit all ruffled.
"I'm sleeping." Reimu drones.
She slides the door shut, because that works well without walls. She then goes back to the kotatsu, slides under it, and presumably falls asleep.
…
"...Are you okay, Sunny-chan?" Star floats down to her friend.
"Rafu~hh…" Sunny exclaims from the stone.
Luna drifts up to them, finished with her apparent scouting. "I can make it so she doesn't hear us work…"
Star nods. "That would be best. We don't need to lose half of the fairies we gather, do we?"
I think they can handle this on their own from here. I get up off the box, and while they're busy doing their thing, I walk down the grass beside the staircase to quietly flee the scene...
/ / / / MAKE GENSOKYO GREAT AGAIN / / / /
Moving across the lakeside, I begin making my way towards the manor once more. I should be able to be free to properly explore it, this time around…
Along the lake I pass a youkai-looking woman with red clothing and wolf ears. She's not paying attention to her surroundings, it seems, staring into the lake.
I wonder if…
I slow down, and walk more pronounced, attempting to sneak. It gets even better when I step into the sand nearby…
She instantly turns and looks at me when I've reached twenty feet.
"...Can I help you?" Her voice makes it clear she knew exactly what my intent was.
"...No, I just came to take in the sights, is all."
"Right." Her eyes don't remove themselves from me. "...Let's suppose you didn't smell of blood. You're still human, and I can smell that, too. Judging by your clothing… youkai exterminator? You're not the typical villager, I hope you realize…"
Damn. That's kind of hard to lie around… "...You got me. I only hunt the bad ones, though, just so you know…"
She snorts. "...The only blood I smell on you… is human blood."
Well, shit.
"...It's not my place to do anything about those such as you. You're the village's problem." She yawns. "...Speaking of problems, where is she…?"
...I step towards her.
She snaps back to alert. "I said you're not my problem. I could become your problem very easily." Her fingernails extend. "If I were you, I'd go back to cutting up your fellow man, and keep your blades away from any respectable youkai, if you know what's good for you."
Intimidation doesn't work very well, apparently.
"...Very well." I shake my head. "...I do need to get past you, however. Don't mind me." I walk around her perimeter, her gaze following every fragment of an inch of my movement until I'm well out of range.
Here I was thinking I could hold her up for money, or something. Would a youkai even be carrying money? Hmmm…
In any case, I'm nearing the manor, now.
/ / / / NAILED IT / / / /
I walk up to the gate, and see the fluffy menace to society has once again manned its station.
"hello"
"You're an abomination."
…
It looks over to Meiling. "hello again, friend!"
Meiling groans. "I take back all those times I said I wanted company at the gate…"
"Try killing it." I advise her. "It's the only way."
"Been there, done that." She sighs. "Sakuya's assassinated it numerous times only for it to be fine even up to thirty minutes later. We've burnt the stand, but it comes right back. I just don't know what to do about it…"
Hmm. That's unfortunate.
…
"So, are you going to tell me why you're here, or~..." She stares at me awkwardly.
"No." I shake my head. "We shall stand here and admire the scenery." I proceed to stare into the brick wall.
…
"...Okay, I guess." She gets comfy up against the wall again.
…
"did i ever tell you about the time i ate a big waffle" The fluffle breaks the ice.
"I would appreciate it if you were to perish, and take the rest of your kin with you." I inform it.
"it was really really really big" It raises its fins into the air. "like this big"
…
"it was cuddly"
"Know my pain." Meiling mutters, eyes closed as she leans against the wall.
I walk up to the fluffle stand.
"Shall we do this the easy way, or the hard way?"
It opens its shell nose in surprise. My next question is if it will actually reply.
…
It closes its shell nose. "im dusty"
I grab it by the back of the head, and attempt to slam it against the counter so that the neck collides with the edge. Unfortunately, fluffles have very, very small necks that are more fittingly describable as 'that place between their head and their upper torso', so I ended up awkwardly brushing its chest against the counter instead.
No noise is produced by the transgression, because fluffles are soft. Ech.
Once I'm through with it, it looks back up at me.
"that wasnt very nice you know"
"That was the point..." I lean against the counter, feeling tired.
…
"oh"
I turn to Meiling. "Can I just go inside already?"
She shakes her head. "The mistress is… overlooking reparations, at the moment, and would very much not appreciate being disturbed."
I shake my head. "No, you don't understand… I will go inside."
"Look, last time I let a human in without proper procedure, the roof exploded, and that was today." She shook her head. "If they see you in there, I'm going to be tucking in fairies for the next six months."
"Sounds like fun." I grin.
"...I never said I'd let you in." Meiling sighs.
...This is the part where I'd try to threaten her, but I actually know who Meiling is, and I know enough about her to say that that would go terrifically horribly, possibly resulting in delimbing or death… of myself, that is.
"...Alright. Sure." I nod, looking away. "I'll just go, then."
…
I begin walking along the wall. Meiling watches me go.
I continue to the corner of the wall, and round it.
After rounding the corner, I stop abruptly and turn back to it, then look around it. Meiling has mysteriously vanished.
"As anticipated." I shake my head, then walk back to the front gate. I'm willing to bet she's tracking my position in some manner...
...I reach it, and she doesn't show herself. I try pushing open the gate, but as expected, it's locked.
"im stuffed" Does this thing ever shut up?
I take the fluffle, and lob it over the gate. It's an easy endeavor because they're lighter than even throw pillows.
…
I walk down the path leading away for a bit. Before I reach the lake, I turn back around…
…
Meiling is back at the gate, staring at me as I walk back towards the gate.
I wave at her. "Hello."
"...I hope you realize by now that it's pointless." She stares at me neutrally. "There's no way you're getting in here without beating me in combat."
Hmm…
I turn and walk away.
I hear Meiling sigh as I walk off.
…
I reach the lake, then turn back around, grinning. This should be relatively simple...
I judge the path I should take. If I walk to the left a bit, and go around that one corner, I should get behind the manor without any hassle.
I begin walking to the left.
…
A few fairies fly overhead, giggling, but none of them notice me. I can't get a good look of them as they fly by, but it probably doesn't matter.
This walk is pleasantly uneventful so far.
The temperature drops unexpectedly. Hmm.
Through the trees, I can see the relative position of the manor, so I keep going around the general corner in the woods.
The fairies from before come back, and dive under the roots of a tree, revealing a conveniently hidden chasm under said tree. It's probably their 'house'... or cave. Living space.
The temperature keeps dropping, even though the day is… partly cloudy at the moment. Hmm.
Looking back to the manor, I see that I've passed the corner. I begin slowly moving towards the wall…
A fairy flies into a tree.
Thud!
"Prank failed! Prank fai~led!"
The brown and green fairy flies off awkwardly, her wing bent from the collision.
A chilling wind pierces my clothing, forcing me to shiver. I'd better not catch one of those colds you get from subtle winds…
After a bit of walking, I reach the wall. Along with that, I can audibly hear wind howling, now. I exhale, and see my own breath.
Not liking the looks of that.
Taking out my pink scissorang or whatever it was I called it, I lob it up towards the spikes on the top of the gate.
It sticks, and I begin climbing…
"Hhh, hngh…" Stress on the arms is not fun. "Hahh…"
Reaching the top, I precariously free my scissors from the spikes. Then, I carefully get my legs to the other side.
Atop the wall, I look over the yard. Some flowers, some bushes, some fancy hedges and trees…
I step over near a large bush of some description. It looks uncomfortable to land in, so I-
Woosh!
A harsh winter wind slams into me, causing me to lose my balance.
"Ah…"
I dive into the bush. My landing causes it to shimmer and shake as I get caught on numerous thick branches on my pachinko-esque descent to the ground.
Thud. I finally land.
...Climbing to my knees, I dust myself off.
Not as bad as I had anticipated, but I probably had some unfun bruises… and the temperature seemed to be back to normal on this side of the wall. Probably good that I climbed just then.
I have no idea what caused it, and I'm not sure if I would have liked to find out, either.
Now that I am over the wall, I can proceed to the structure before me…
/ / / / WHO TURNED ON THE AC / / / /
Now in the halls, I should probably maintain-
"Who's that…?"
"I dunno, Yellow-chan…"
"It's a human!"
-stealth…
…
Yeah.
Even in a hall as isolated as this one, fairy maids pass me left and right, some giving curious stares, and others being oblivious.
I have a few goals, here…
One is to set up a fluffle dungeon in the manor's depths, if I can properly access them.
The next…
…
Hmm. I only really have that one. The rest is just for funsies, I suppose.
I continue down the hall.
"I heard it's gonna rain in a few days!"
"Really? Who told you!?"
"Mistress!"
"Wo~w!"
The density of fairy maids in this one hallway gives it a muggy atmosphere, one of which is awkwardly accented by the fact they all smell like perfume and various elements of nature.
Both pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. Ech.
...I wonder… how much manor workers get paid.
I pass a cream-colored maid. I tap her on the shoulder.
"Hey, how's it going?" I give her a casual smile.
"Oh, great! My friend just got her replacement shoes! I'm really happy for her!"
That's nice. "Mind if we go somewhere private? The mistress told me I had to deliver an important message to you."
She gasped. "An important message…?"
I nod.
"Somewhere private…" She put on her thinking cap for this one. "Hmmm…!"
…
Surely there's somewhere that would work easily.
…
"I got it!"
About time…
"...No, wait…"
…
Time's up. "Alright, just follow me…"
She claps. "Ya~y!"
I open a random door in the hallway, cutting through maid traffic to reach it.
Inside is a long room, various fairy maids resting in beds along the wall. To the far side of the room was a dresser.
"Welcome to the fairy barracks!" She announces. "...This place is not private!"
I can see that…
"Fairy barracks?" I question.
"Uhm… We call it that 'cause it's all… eco-nom-ick or something. I forget why, actually!" She smiles.
Good job.
I exit the room, and head down a few doors.
I open the door, and find myself on the long end of the fairy barracks. A cyan-haired fairy maid was lying in the second bed from the wall awkwardly, as if she were thrown there.
I notice a rather peculiar window. Could this be the front of the manor already? Hmm…
"Welcome to the fairy barracks!" the cream-haired fairy maid tells me again.
"Be quiet. I did not ask for a tour." I impatiently tell her
…
Closing said door, I proceed to the next.
It swings open to reveal an empty guest room.
"Welcome to guest room number… uhm…" She pouts. "I don't really memorize the numbers…"
I close the door, and draw my scissors.
She doesn't get the memo, though. "So, what's the message!?" She beams at me, excited.
I lunge for her throat with the scissors, opening them.
Snip!
I cut into her throat.
Her eyes widen. She slowly reaches her hands to her throat, fingers trembling. "Uu-uuu-guhug…"
Her face makes a strained expression, and I make another incision to the throat.
Pi~chun!
She explodes into magic, leaving me slightly glittery…
…
There's not even any clothes or valuables left behind. She just exploded into thin air. Not only are fairies very easy to deceive and kill, but doing so is also a very worthless endeavor.
Get what you pay for, I suppose.
...Before I leave, though, I should take a look around…
Opening drawers just reveals uniforms, undergarments, and the likes. Just some fairy maid things…
I exit the room alone.
The chatter resumes the moment I open the door.
"Did you hear about the explosion?"
"Yeah! They say the heavens smited the mistress for digging too deep!"
"...What?"
Fun times.
I hide my scissors while walking the halls, and none of the fairies bat an eye at that. Some are still giving me weird glances just because I exist.
I eventually eye a cellar door.
Bingo.
I open it, and descend the stairs…
/ / / / NANOFLUFFLES, SON / / / /
After ten minutes of traversing this typical 'intersection maze', I solve it by trial-and-error. I'm not entirely certain why it was there, but it gave me a good nostalgic moment. By that, I mean it reminded me of some video games I had played at home.
I come to a door in the darkness with light leaking from within at the edges.
Waltzing up to it, I'm intrigued. I had thought this basement a little more deserted than this, but I already knew Flandre'd be down here… just not somewhere this easily accessible.
Knock, knock.
…
It opens.
"Hello…?"
I smile down at her. "Greetings."
…
"Who are you?" I'm asked.
"A man."
"Human?"
"That's what I said." I nod.
"...Okay."
…
"...Where'd you come from?" She asks.
"Home."
"Oh."
…
This discussion has been nothing short of awkward.
Staring into her room, I see another door. I point to it.
"Where does that door lead?"
Flandre turns to look at it… "Somewhere."
Is this discussion really that…
I look at her and see she's grinning.
As fun as it would be to get daft with her, I'm afraid that wouldn't go well since I do, in fact, know who she is, and I also know that she could kill me in an instant with the will and concentration. Not only that, but I'm sure stabbing is just outright useless against her, eliminating all my options.
Sad day.
"...May I use said door?"
She shrugs. "I dunno. Maybe."
Hmmm…
"May I not use said door?" Reverse psychology?
"Alright." Flandre nods in agreeance. Well, shit.
"... By that, I mean let me use the door."
"No." Flandre shakes her head.
…
"Please." I add.
"Alright… Just this once." Flandre sticks up her index finger. "Okay?"
I nod. "Sure."
She leads me through her rather decorated room to the other door, and opens it for me.
"Go ahead."
I go ahead.
She closes the door behind me.
…
That was weird.
Looking around, I take a right. Down this path is many aged articles of furniture, and some very antique bits as well. The Scarlets seem to be collectors of some sort… or were, anyway.
I ascend a staircase and open another cellar door…
/ / / / BRIGHT BLUE SKY YO / / / /
It happens to lead outside. The cellar door is surrounded by fresh grass and small charred patches.
I have unfinished business inside, however.
/ / / / FUCK THAT SHIT / / / /
I descend and continue down the hallway.
I pass Flandre's door, not bothering with that funny business again.
I continue down the dark hall.
…
The furniture ends before long, and the hall becomes pure darkness and carpen- nevermind, the carpentry stops too, the floor becoming old wooden planks. The fancy but dated walls stop, and instead the walls turn out to be stone underneath the decorated wood bits.
I eventually come to a shoddy metal door.
Why had nobody told me this place had something this fancy?
I open it, and a very curious odor hits me instantly. Hallway stretches from left to right, still dark. Empty torch holsters line the walls, along with metal protrusions of various kinds, including hooks and chains. Flowing water is heard and I look down. Grates periodically replace the now stone, and sometimes tiled, floor.
Water comes loudest from the grates. I have no idea where this water is coming from, or where it's going, however.
I look along the wall, and see brown and black stains that reach down to the floor and into the drainage grates. Despite the darkness of the place, a pale, ambient glow keeps everything barely visible.
I step through the hallway, my footsteps alternating between clicking and clacking on the varied floor materials.
I jump as a pastel-blue light flickers on to my left. It's situated in the upper edge between the wall and the ceiling, showing me the tiled pattern on the ceiling which is very much cracked and likely dilapidated. The unearthly glow of this light probably lends to the ambient blue in the tunnel. This, however, implies more are on elsewhere.
I'm not alone in these tunnels. What could walk through them, though? Nothing pleasant, I'm sure, but certainly not something unsafe for the mansion if it were kept in such an easily accessible location. Provided, it is out of the way, but still.
I continue to a split three-way, where I have two options.
I look down the right hall and see pale darkness.
I look down the left, and a light is on. I can't tell what's down there with my crappy eyesight, though…
Brandishing my scissors, I slowly step towards the lit portion of hallway.
There is no figure there, and when I get there, I realize there's a body there, mounted onto some of the recurring metal protrusions on the wall. Crimson blood of debatably healthy colors flowed from the bald man, the most bleeding seeming to come from the stomach, where incisions appear to have been made. The blood lightly flowed down his body to the edges of his toes, where it dripped. Blood flowed down the back wall, hinting at other incisions.
Not a happy day to be that guy, I'm sure.
I continue down this hall, and end up bumping into a black cart.
Some lights flicker on, and I get to look at it properly…
...it's an empty, black cart with an economical design.
I push it away for fun.
I continue down the hall, some lights flickering on while others fail to start at all. More bodies of bald men decorate the walls in places. One thing of note is how they're all still bleeding, seemingly none of them totally dry. They've all got at least one drop every couple minutes at the very least. Water was muffled over the grates near those that bled, implying those grates were sealed in some manner, but still captured the blood.
The place is still a bit messy, to be honest, but I suppose that's what you get for working with humans.
I continue until I reach a large room. This room has bottles upon bottles lined upon the shelves, various carts sitting unorganized and strewn about the room with myriads of filled and unfilled bottles upon them. Other shelves held barrels.
Lights flicker on.
This was an underground brewery.
This has to have been where the vampires got their blood from- for their pastries, for their tea, and for their wine.
I hope they do something to clean it up, though. These cellar floors are nasty, and I bet those grates have something repulsive festering in them, with all the blood that flows through them…
...I see a bottle of refined Scarlet Wine on the shelves, and snatch it, placing it into my bag.
No one needs to know.
I hear clattering, and the sound of a bottle smashing makes my reflexes kick in. Jumping, I look around, drawing my scissors.
I see movement near a smashed bottle, the wine flowing on the floor.
...I crouch, looking under some shelves.
I see something that should never have been seen. A horror unspeakable. A true nightmare…
"hi friend"
It's a motherfucking fluffle. What the fuck are they doing down here?
"You things are like rats, except with phenomenal cosmic powers." I complain.
It scurries under the shelves to somewhere where I can't see it.
I was slightly tense earlier, but knowing that all that was down here was dust mites and dying bodies relaxed me.
If this was all there was to see, I suppose I should head back. No use in traversing the underground complex of dead people and wine… and dust bunnies.
I still want that fluffle dungeon, though, and it's going to start with the first hallway and just go down.
I start leaving for the previous hall…
...when I hear a click against the stone floor of a shoe that is distinctly not my own.
Right behind me.
…
I step forward again.
I hear that click.
I turn around… and before me is a monster that transcends the meaning of the word 'nightmare'.
It is an upset maid!
She has her knives ready, apparently. "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here."
"Why," I begin, "I'm simply taking a sightseeing tour, you see. This manor has some quite exquisite scenery, if I do say so myself."
…
"By the way," I add, "you have a dust mite infestation. Might wanna fumigate, or something."
…
"I had noticed."
In the corner of my vision, I saw a knife fly along the floor, under the shelf.
Thunk.
"They persist even after extermination."
I shrug. "Might wanna get that checked out by a professional, then, you know."
"How did you get here?" She teleports in front of me, blocking the way.
I grin. "I used my limbs to mobilize myself, as bipedal beings are known for doing."
Knives freeze in the air around me.
"Any last words?"
I hold up my index finger.
"Yukari Yakumo."
…
The knives are put away. "My mistress will have words with her, then."
"You see, I am quite an important pawn in the Yakumo's endeavors." I tell her. "It simply would not do if I were to be injured, would it?"
Sakuya sighs. "I'll make sure that my mistress confers with the Yakumo… and we'll be certain to remind them where their boundaries lie."
I'm pretty sure Yukari can step on anything in Gensokyo as much as she wants and that Sakuya's just trying to be imposing. I mean, it's working, but for the wrong reasons. That's probably because I'm pulling so much shit out of my ass that I'm not going to have a rectum anymore.
Figuratively for now, and perhaps literally later!
"I will now escort you out."
Oh, that's going to be-
/ / / / WHO PUT THAT WALL THERE / / / /
-fun.
Oh.
I'm outside the gate now.
"Have a nice day."
Sakuya's gone.
I turn around to see Meiling with a knife in her forehead, glaring at me.
…
"Look." I hold up my arms. "On the upside… you can pretend to be an oni now!"
If steam could come out of her ears, it would.
She's about to obliterate me, but Sakuya pops back out.
"This matter will be solved diplomatically with the Yakumo."
She's gone, and Meiling had received additional knives.
She sulks against the brick wall. "You asshole…"
I point at her. "And now you're a porcupine! Hahaha~!"
…
"When Yukari gives me the go ahead, I'm going to find you, and I'm going to kill you." Meiling's just staring. No glare, no yelling, just absolution.
I smile and wave to her. "Make sure not to have your eyes poked out before then. Happy trails, laborer!"
/ / / / HAHAHA, YOU LIVE IN A VAN! / / / /
On my way back to the Hakurei Shrine in the early dusk, I see that it has been fully erected. I wonder if the fairies are still angry about their payment…
Regardless, I'm pretty sure things there are smooth enough.
Progressing up the steps, I reach the Hakurei Shrine.
This place… doesn't look half bad, actually.
I head for the door, and slide it open.
Reimu is snoring peacefully under the kotatsu.
Well, that's one person I've pleased today… as opposed to the literal 'nearly everybody and their mother' I probably pissed off back there. The fun part is that all I did was go places and see things.
Giving myself a brief tour of the newly constructed shrine, there seems to be little here of value, unless I wanted to nab some dresser drawers… which I don't.
Before I know it, the sky outside the shrine is black, and the shrine's interior darkens with it. I have no idea how this place got illuminated before, so I'm forced to wallow around in the darkness once light totally leaves the shrine.
…
Well, this is inconvenient. I appear to be unable to see much of anything.
A gap opens in front of me, the glow of the eyes sticking out like a sore thumb in the darkness. The shady figure of the gap youkai emerges.
"I see that you've successfully rebuilt the shrine…"
Yeah. I success-
"Who was bribed this time?" She brings out a fan, covering a face I already can't see because of how dark it was. Good job.
"Some laborers." She'll probably infer they were fairies anyway.
"...I figured as much. At the very least, you've shown you can follow directions."
When convenient for myself. If this was obedience training of any sort, then she'll probably be very happy to find out that I somehow diverged wildly from the task, got into major trouble in parts unknown, and came back to still have the task done.
"...I still can't just let you run around, though. Not without proper planning…"
I'm dropped into a gap.
/ / / / COLD FLUFFS AND FLUFF FALLS / / / /
My eyes readjust to the light of Hakugyokurou…
...Looking around, I see the shrine is back to its former state. However, the surrounding greenery is still scorched badlands… except for many patches where healing bombs look like they struck.
There was also that one tall cherry blossom tree. It now was completely free of blemishes.
I proceed to the shrine proper, walking down the refurbished stone pathway.
I slide open the door…
The front room is empty, as always. I proceed to the kitchen, and see Youmu with her face resting in a bowl of dough of some description, with Yuyuko staring at her expectantly.
"...I see." I comment on the scene before me.
"Oh, hey!" Yuyuko looks up at me, smiling. "Youmu's baking us some cookies to celebrate the restoration efforts!"
"...Right." Youmu doesn't look like she's baking anything anytime soon…
I sit down at the table, watching Youmu be dead inside.
…
"How long has this been going on?" I'm curious.
Yuyuko grins. "She started an hour or so ago."
…
"It's probably going to taste like drool." Half-ghost drool. Ech.
Yuyuko pouts. "You don't need to be mean about it! Youmu's just resting her eyes for a moment, right Youmu-chan?"
She floats up to Youmu and nudges her on the shoulder. Youmu slowly slides off the table and onto the floor.
Thud.
Smash!
The bowl of dough breaks behind her.
…
"On a scale of one to ten… how bored are you?" I ask her.
"Very." Yuyuko sighs. "A lot of the stuff I was working on earlier wasn't spared from the siege, so now I've got time to kill until then…"
Stuff, huh? First I heard of her actually ever being anything but a lazy aristocrat…
Here I was again, back in the boring monotony that was Hakugyokurou. The only things vaguely interesting here are the gardener, the ghost woman, and the myriad of pissed off ghosts that persist around the outer landscape
A gap opens up beside Yuyuko. Yukari emerges, looking stern.
"...Did you happen to… visit a certain manor today?"
I nod.
"Did you see… anything?"
Descriptive. I nod.
"...Did you see anything you shouldn't have?" She glares at me.
I shrug.
"...I have words for you later."
She vanishes through her gap.
That's going to be a fun time, I'm sure.
…
Yuyuko sighs. "I won't even ask."
Good. I think I'll let the events speak for themselves…
I take out that bottle of scarlet wine. I consider drinking it, but I don't think being potentially alcohol impaired for whatever upcoming legal proceedings and/or execution proceedings would be a good idea.
Yuyuko eyes it as I put it away, but says nothing.
…
Another long period where nothing happens, I assume. Great.
I meander outside to look at the barren landscape. I considered to trying to duke it out with a ghost for a moment, but then I realized no ghosts were to be had at the moment because the land was glassed. Most unfortunate.
Walking around, there really isn't anything out here. Continuing through the barren ghostscape, I take in the sights of absolutely fucking nothing.
I might have liked this place when it had things, actually. At least I had something to look at, then.
A cold wind blows by, and I look around to make sure whirling death machines aren't descending upon us.
…
They aren't. Crisis averted...
I look up at the cloudy sky of Hakugyokurou. This place is always cloudy. When it's not, the sky is just a dull grey, so it doesn't make a difference anyway.
...I look up to see white specks falling- no, floating down from the sky.
It was snowing.
…
Just what this blasted land needed. A frost spell to seal its doom.
I think I'll just go back inside.
/ / / / THE LAND OF NOD, YO / / / /
That outdoor excursion was very much pointless.
"Was it everything you thought it would be?" Yuyuko grins.
"And more." I add. "I did indeed have low expectations of your lands."
She pouts. "It'll get better!"
"Not while it's snowing, it won't." It'll be blasted and frozen.
"Ooo~!" Yuyuko cheers, bringing her hands together. "That's great! Snow is so pretty!"
"Charming." I suppose it would look better than the hellscape the place ended up being. It still doesn't do anything for the recovery of the plants, though.
…
"Board games." I propose. "Do we have any?"
Yuyuko shakes her head. "Just the essentials, at the moment. Nothing fun…"
Twister with spirits would have been fun.
/ / / / FREAKIN HAKUGYOKUROU / / / /
CHAPTER 21.5 END
PROTAGONIST: Matthew, the Debatably Sane Outsider, Lord of Edges
PRIMARY WEAPON: Bloodied Steel Scissors - Stained lightly with fresh blood from a young human female. Sharp, shiny-ish, and to the point!
INVENTORY:
Steel scissors - Sharp, shiny, and to the point!
Quick Scissorang - Non-elemental scissors that are enchanted to return to the owner with ferocity. Not that powerful of a weapon, but combined with strong string it can be used like a powerful grappling hook. Looks like it belongs in a Barbie catalog.
Flame Scissors - Fire-elemental scissors that have an incendiary effect on strike. Boosts fire magic and abilities, as if I had any.
Steel-alloy String - An experimental item provided by Alice as part of her testing. She uses these herself to manage her dolls, or so I'm told.
A Tuft of Cloth Strings - Pink, regular cotton string. It's soft, and clean.
A Fluffy Hooligan - Soft, and warm to the touch. Ech!
Book of Rebomb - Teaches basic and advanced bomb magic. Written in some fantastical language, so I can't read it.
Scarlet Wine - A fine bottle of wine accented with a dose of drip-collected and processed blood. How much is uncertain. The bottle itself is freakin' burly.
(1 more empty space)
PARTY:
Rebomb Fluffle - Soft, and warm to the touch. Ech! Has a gag on to keep it from casting Rebomb over and over again, which would be a very bad time.
PRIMARY WEAPON: Rebomb - Advanced bomb spell that blows up the nearby vicinity with random bombs. Very random damage.
INVENTORY:
Finsticuffs.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
just realized i forgot to add an author's note
so uh
NOT MUCH TO TALK ABOUT AT THE MOMENT.
see you all next time n things, yo. i'm fluffy.
