(in which you were killed by the planet.)
Nuggettein, nuggettein. Yeah, man.
I sense a presence. Pursing my lips, I anticipate it!
"Brad." Genkan gets my attention all of a sudden, just sneakin' around my side to speak into my face!
"What. You're snug." She's close, and that makes her snug.
We're coastin' on down to the coast. But, y'might be thinkin' that Gensokyo doesn't have coasts!
...It has a lake, so I can pretend!
We're walkin' away from the Human Village, en route to the lakeside. Lakeside: king of the hill! King of the kill...
"You've been strangely quiet." Genkan notes.
I'm busy playing the Gensokyo RPG in my head. "Oh, yeah?"
"Normally you'd be saying you want to do something at the lake. Not just… go there."
It's snowing super hard. The world around us is grey. Maria's Iron Beacon staff shines with heat within the lantern tip, helping us see in the blurry grey and white.
Well, if we wanted to explore the lake itself, we'd need some scuba gear and water resistance, and that's not happening any time soon, unfortunately. Maybe sooner than we think, since it's something cool to do…!
Y'know, that should be a focus at some point! Plus, having gear to not drown sounds cool. Underwater sections usually always suck, so making them suck less would be nice!
"We're takin' the BONER on a maiden voyage today!" I remind Genkan!
"Oh. Right." Genkan lets her eyes drift to the sky, lookin' a little sarcastic! "Even though we just visited the garage, I… may have wiped it from my memory." Wiped out, man…
"Ehe…" Maria giggles a little! "I- I think it'll be nice. Flying through the air, in the snow, but we're able to just- ack." Oh no. The fierce wind whipping around made her eat her words, literally! "-relax, instead of- clumsily um, zipping around."
"Ack." I voice her 'ack' because it was cute. I don't think anyone noticed why I did this, or maybe they thought I also started choking on air.
When Genkan considers this, she's more onboard with the idea. "Yeah. That will be nice. I'm just hoping it doesn't explode or fall apart. Or something."
"I would be sad, and also mad, and I'd also want my money back!" Not that I care about money, but if the kappa sucked at their jobs they wouldn't deserve any…!
Nah, it felt pretty sturdy to walk on. As long as we don't try and cut down the entire magic forest with the hull like a buncha jackasses. Also as long as we don't try and 9/11 anything that isn't a village building!
"It'll be fine. Probably." Maria assumes so too! "Probably. Don't blame me if it somehow isn't…"
Genkan looks spacey. "We'll see." Hoh.
Wonder if Shimokoa will be brave enough to come out and play now that I've got my party. She should be.
Earlier today, she freakin' chased me all over the eastern half of the entire goddamn forest. She very stupidly ransacked Marisa's house too, I bet she'll be really pissed about that!
We continue until we reach the end of the Hakurei trail. The lake's just ahead, in the freakin'... snowy-ass day.
I'm gonna be real: I got no idea where the sun is in the sky. It's so dark!
We arrive at the lake's shore.
Aw. There's ice cubes in the water, dude. By which I mean, glacial islands!
Gravity boots? Check. This carrot medal's not gonna be too useful. But… otherwise, I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
As for how we can hurt Shimokoa… I need to see if I can distract her. She's angry at me, and you take one look at Maria and tell me if she can take a bone scrunching. Genkan'll probably be a decent tank… not that I want her to be!
How long we survive is fully dependent on how many blows I can negate, or how long I can keep Shimokoa off everyone else.
"Water." Genkan commentates on the cold, navy-tinted water before us. "The lake is beautiful, on a dark day like this."
"It really is." Maria stands at our side, smiling out at the waves. "...These pretty sights always make me feel funny."
Genkan leans her head up a little. "Funny?"
"It's so different from the village. Always. It just… makes the problems there seem so silly. It makes me wonder why some people would be so angry, or so annoying. Petty, yeah that's… what I was looking for."
Genkan considered her thoughts, before smiling. "I think that's just… an individual thing. Perhaps not a human thing… but if youkai have such a problem, it's humans they inherit the behavior from."
"Heh." Maria grins. "I don't doubt that."
Ha-chan speaks up, lowering down from the frosty aether. She's all suited up in her coat and mittens, dude, with my ice crown on her head. "That's funny, Maria…"
"...Why?" Maria gives her a slightly more whimsical smile!
"I dunno. I just… I just feel like it." Ha-chan tries to find what she's trying to say.
Wait. "Y'know, Maria, don't ya have a dark side of your own, a little?" I have noticed your penchant for vengeance, and I can't really entirely blame you!
Maria nods, as if agreeing to a compromise more than just passively accepting. "Aah. Well. Yeah… yeah. I do have… my own reasons, for being mad or scared. In the face of those, a sight like this is beautiful… but it doesn't mean a lot. The fact that the people who make me mad could never realize it exists, even so close to the village… it's so weird."
"That is… very weird to think about." Genkan's quite passive towards the idea.
Maria takes in a deep breath. "We only took a break a couple days ago, but already I wanna go see more sights. I don't care what we do, I just wanna go somewhere."
"...Yeah." Genkan can agree, apparently! "I'd be fine with that." She looks at me, sorta expectantly!
"Well…" I crack my neck. "I was thinkin'... what if-"
SKRIISH. Behind us, loudly, I hear someone dragging something heavy through the snow.
Is that the guest of the hour? Ooh, it might just be. I'm a little anxious.
Twisting around, I stare into the cold. In the snowy mist, I see the mint-green glare of Shimokoa's wrath beyond the dark.
I grin at 'er.
"What if, what?" Genkan still has a lazy, easy demeanor.
"Brad's brain stopped!" Ha-chan announces.
WOOSH. From the mist, Shimokoa leaps out like an oncoming freight train. Winter light glimmers off her huge steel weapon.
"FOUND YOU!"
Oh me oh my, she has found me! Now it's time for us to die very rough…!
Her eyes burn with mint-green heat, her maw beastial and wild. She's smiling so wide it ain't just ear-to-ear, it's more!
I run towards her. Leaping, I kick my body forward, so I land and slide on my ass and legs.
Skriish! Like this, I pass under her sandal-clad feet as she tries to kick them out, trying to impede me as I elude her from below.
THOOM. She touches down in the snow behind me. A ground-shuddering impact unleashes snow.
KRING- KRING- KRING- KRING! A quadruple eruption of icy crags and spikes erupts from the snow all around her.
"YOU FOOL." Her voice projects in stereo, bouncing all around the ice and snow.
"Wh- gahn!?" Genkan gets flung away-
"Aaaa~!" Maria goes flying in another direction!
"Wha- aah!?" Ha-chan goes hurtling through the air, cyan hair flailing all around.
'Cause of my bullshit, I was just outta range of her big radial ice assfuck ground attack. Y'know, maybe Genkan should take a note or two!
crack. All of the ice Shimokoa summoned shattered instantly, and nearly silently. Hoh, shit.
She's facing me as I get back up onto my legs.
Mint-green energy burns from her glaring eyes, and along the corners of her green energy lips. Her hair bristled, her body shook, full of energy, excitement, and anxious fear. Burning hate!
woosh, woosh, woosh. Twirling her giant steel paddle bigger than she is overhead, she beams with zealous joy.
Genkan's the first to reconvene, floating back. "Shi-... Shimokoa?"
Shimokoa's beaming, vicious and predatory leer soothes just a little. "Genkan."
"That-... I mean, what?" Genkan has no words! "You're...?"
"I've come back for you. Just like I said I would." Shimokoa held an arm up, as if beckoning her.
"What- do you mean?" Genkan is really awkward about this. "Why-"
"I love you, Genkan. I've loved my siblings. My sisters, my friends… everyone."
Shink. Shimokoa planted her big steel weapon into the powdered snow beside herself, as if it were a big popsicle stick. "Come on." She gestures for Genkan. "Let me get you away from here."
Genkan hesitates to even talk back at all. Shimokoa's not givin' off good vibes! "Shimokoa..."
For a while, we're all just quiet.
Maria shuffles in the snow nearby, scrambling to obtain some slightly high ground, without getting too close.
Ha-chan hovers up behind me and Genkan, eyes wide, wings and limbs shaky. Dunno if she's cold or scared!
"When I lost you, the other day…" Shimokoa hung her head forward. "It was with such heavy sorrow in my chest. I had failed again, despite being so close. You would be raped or killed for your lovely naivety. In the face of that, I couldn't even kill one, simple human."
Genkan furrowed her brows. "Shimokoa… you're not-... Brad wouldn't-"
She raises her voice to interrupt Genkan's stammering. "After that day, an evil shadow followed me on every adventure.
"Never to feel joy again was our fate. Every turn wrought with murder and death. Fear and burning hate."
Shimokoa laid her fingers gently, daintily onto the hilt of her giant paddle-like broadsword. "No more."
Genkan spoke up. "Shimokoa- what happened to you?"
Shimokoa's mask of energy and dark magic held.
"I love Brad. I wish you'd love him too." Genkan's request was simple.
Shimokoa's posture visibly sank.
"You're… you're taking this so far out of what it really is." Genkan shook her head. "Shimokoa. I-... I don't know what to say. Our world we share isn't what you think it is."
SHUNK. Shimokoa drew her broadsword.
She pointed it at us with one arm. Genkan flinched from the sheer air unleashed from the motion. It was so abrupt and effortless visually, but in reality the force exerted, force more than wasted for such an awkward motion, was huge.
"I know you're confused." Shimokoa nodded slowly. "...I would be too, at your age."
"I'm not confused. Stop assuming I'm so dumb." Genkan bit back. "You're the dumb one. You won't listen. Not at all."
Shimokoa's features burned brighter. "You wouldn't say that- if you weren't a bitch to his perverse will."
"Shi- Shimokoa…?" Genkan was shocked! "What? How-... how dare you?" Yeah man, don't fucking swear!
"How dare I?" Shimokoa's adrenaline visibly flared. Her features burned brighter than the glare of light on snow around her. "How DARE?"
Takin' in a breath, I prop my arms on my hips.
Shimokoa tenses at my posture, as if half-ready to fight, but not ready to change the fact she's pointin' her sword at us with one arm.
"Shimokoa." My outside voice is like a whisper to hers. "Genkan's not some animal who submits to power. She's a beautiful woman. And- she's intelligent enough to… bear to see so much wonderful shit."
I point right back at her. "In fact, she's stronger than you'll ever be. Sword or no sword."
Shimokoa's features nearly blend together, her face blazing with mint-green magic. "And yet- you manipulate her so freely. You don't speak with the humility of prey. You overstep your bounds, HUMAN."
I take a deep breath.
"Shimokoa…" Genkan spoke out. "If this is how you're going to be… I don't want to see you again. I want you to leave me alone. Get out of my life."
Shimokoa's arm weakens, her broadsword dipping lower. Ouch.
"We're not friends. It's over." Genkan frowned. "...I- I'm sorry. I don't want this."
Shimokoa stared at the floor.
Then, she grasped her broadsword with both arms.
"As sure as hell's your final fate." She spoke in stereo. "YOU'LL ALL SOON DIE, OR WORSE."
Genkan leapt back at the volume, eyes wide.
"Uum-" Ha-chan grabbed my back! "Brad- we um-"
Shimokoa hoist her greatsword overhead.
WOOSH! Snow fanned out from where she was. She leapt straight at me.
"As- the shadow!" Shimokoa yelled semi-incomprehensibly among the wind and ensuing chaos.
Click! Gravity boots: engaged!
KABOOM- KIFWIISH! Where I was a second ago, a tree-height geyser of dirt and snow erupts, the absolute blast disrupting the falling snowflakes all around us.
KRING! KRING! KRING! KRING! The earth and snow all around us churns. Four massive ice blades erupt from the ground, all accurately aimed.
"Aaah!" Maria yells, rolling away from one-
"Nngh-" Genkan takes the impact of one, brushing it off.
"Aaaa~!" Ha-chan ascends out of the way of one, and off into the blizzard somewhere.
The last one's somewhere beneath me, but as I bob around in the air, it plainly fails to reach me.
Shimokoa is in the air before me, shield raised high. Oh, right, you had that. I forgot again.
Fwish! Dispelling her shield, she clutches the broadsword with both arms. What a tell!
WHIRR! By the time her whining swing begins, I swim up an' over her. Since it's snowing, pretty heavily too, I can ascend amidst it! Daily reminder: the gravity boots treat heavy snow as a platform!
WOOSH! She swung- and a miss! There is one drawback- the snow doesn't push me up nearly as fast as the floor itself does.
How the fuck am I gonna hurt her? Well…
Fwi- Click! Drawing One Million Revenants, I hold both the holy end and the hilt end!
VHIRR! "Hah!" Shimokoa ascends towards me with a fuckin' upward crescent slash oh fuck-
WOOSH- OOSH! Tilting onto my side in the air, I jump off nothing to get out of there before I fucking die or get sent like a mile into the air. "Rrgh-" When she missed, she flipped herself!
Jump two spent. Alright-
WHIRR! She appears sideways with me, us both in the air. "DIE OFF!"
WOOSH! Rotating again, now upside-down I descend to the earth.
I rotate around mid 'jump' to touch my heels against the snowy earth.
Jump three ends in me landing against the earth.
WHIRR! The moment my heels meet the ground, Shimokoa forward flips in the air over me. "HAHA~!"
Wind whips around me as I slide aside her bullshit-
WOOSH! She cleaves down a little too late-
KABOOM! The snow where I was explodes. This time, not just from sheer force. It's a napalm-like explosion! "The fuck!?" I chuckle at it!
KABOOM! Oh- shit. That wasn't the only blast! One goes off randomly somewhere- underneath where Ha-chan floats.
KABOOM! "Uhf!" Genkan's wrapped up in an explosion, sent hurtling in a random direction.
KABOOM! "Aah-" Maria evades her explosion by rolling around in the snow.
Okay, so whenever Shimokoa hits the floor itself she can just attack my entire party at once. That's so broken!
"Ba-... Barrier!" When Maria stands up, she thrusts her staff into the air, and it glows bright amidst the dim winter day.
Klack- klack- klack- klack! A pane of hexagonal, sci-fi tech barriers lights up the air ahead. Shimokoa briefly pauses, dazzled by the synthetic light.
Klackackackackackack! The hexagons append to me, Genkan, Maria and Ha-chan within moments, snapping around the battlefield to assist us. Probably a good call, if we're all gonna be exploding for no fucking reason!
Shimokoa focuses on Maria, alerted by her magic. Oh shit.
Immediately, I spring into the air from where I am, and jump towards the snow where Maria is, many meters away.
Shimokoa appears next to her. Maria doesn't notice.
"Hey- Maria~!" I yell-
KA- BANG! Shimokoa brandishes her shotgun of ice, and shoots Maria right in the side as she twists.
FWISH! Maria's barrier lights up. Ooh- that's a magical attack?
"Ngh- aah!" Maria still goes fucking flying. "Nnh!" She rolls around in the snow, which gets in her hair and clothes.
KA- BANG- FWISH! Maria's barrier buffers more icy shells, as Maria herself's sent rolling further.
I just- land on my ass in front of Maria to shield her!
KABANGBANG! Fwoash- fwoash! Shimokoa fires from both barrels at once, and the countless icy scattershots simultaneously cut the front of my body, as well as heal me. Okay, they're partially magical. Mostly magical, because they hardly actually fucked me.
"Shimokoa!"
Genkan leaps past us, right at Shimokoa.
CLOONG. Shimokoa whips her broadsword around, swatting Genkan away like a fly. "Sit down, sister."
"Uhf- unh!" Genkan was sent tumbling like a fucking fairy. "Uuh…"
WHIRR! Then, Shimokoa leaps at me and Maria, sword overhead again.
If I evade, she'll crush- even kill- Maria. If I don't, she'll kill both of us.
Fwi- Click! Summoning the Bawmber into my offhand, Red Scare into the other, I thrust myself into Shimokoa's face.
That's right- her body's tough but not deadly. It's the sword that's deadly. I can just bully her!
I thrust both hangers I have into her ribs as she cleaves her weapon down.
KABOOM! Flame and bombastic orange light explodes between us, drawn from the hangers.
"Uhu- rrgh!" Wait… that was Shimokoa whining.
The explosion sent me crumpling back. I slid down a snowy slope into Maria's legs. This gives me an accidental, non-sexy and totally out of place upskirt shot.
Shimokoa was forced to stagger back a step or two, fire licking along her whole body.
Oh. I know. It just clicked. If Shimokoa can just make a shotgun of ice…
WHIRR! Oh shit crazy-onna's back at it again! She followed up with the same goddamn overhead swing but we're not ready this time.
THOOM- KABOOM! Maria leaps away, and I roll outta the way. We both get sent even further by the bomb blast that results!
I'm rolling through the air off some launched snow holy shit! "Waa-" Maria's doing a backflip she didn't bargain for!
KABOOM! KABOOM! Two more explosions rock the lakeside-
Genkan leaps out of the snow, onto Shimokoa. "Sister! Stop!"
"Genkan- nngh!"
I look up at them. Shimokoa has a decided advantage in strength. Genkan keeps getting thrown off her- but she's still pretty good at keeping behind Shimokoa and harassing her.
My plan? I gotta convince Genkan to rip a shotgun from Shimokoa's angry hands.
Jumping up from the floor, I run up next to their scuffle. "Genkan! Make her stop shooting me! It fuckin' hurts!"
Shimokoa jerks her head to look at me.
"Nngh- aah!" Genkan half-roars, half-groans as she takes an elbow to the gut.
KA- BANG! Shimokoa fires her shotgun at me.
Fwish! Oh, right, my magic barrier eats some of the volley. Well, getting hit still fuckin' pushes me a little, so I can use that to look believable anyway.
"Ow! Aaa!" Recoiling around, I do my best to act in pain. "Fuck!"
She walks towards me slowly, obviously satisfied.
KA- BANGBANG! Fwish! She unleashes two more spreads. I keep my eyes defended, staggering back as she marches towards me.
"Suffer." Shimokoa's shade parted briefly, revealing a disgusted sneer.
"Rrrgh!" Zipping in from the side, Genkan tackles her gun arm!
Shimokoa just lets go of her gun.
Fwish! Creating another shotgun from ice, Shimokoa aims it down at me.
KA- BANG! "Aaagh!" Using one of my jumps, I let myself get thrown way back from this way closer shot!
"Aah." Genkan looks a little haunted, as she's just left with an abandoned shotgun. "Brad-"
Shimokoa aims her new shotgun at Genkan's face.
Genkan stares down the barrel, frowning fierce. After a few seconds, she glares. I'd say it's a cute glare, but I'm biased.
Shimokoa's mint-green eyes pulse with light again, the solid lights holding true in winter's mist.
They have a staredown, with Genkan at gunpoint.
Considering me and Maria didn't immediately die from getting shotgun volleys to the gut, I think it's pretty safe to say that Shimokoa's only pretending to use a shotgun. She's shooting ice magic from the barrel of a pretend ice-forged gun.
That means Genkan's in no danger! ...But the image of their staredown along the side of the Misty Lake is still powerful!
Maria's standing at an angle in some snow. Ha-chan's in the air over us, zipping around excitedly.
Since my gravity boots are… off, yeah, just making sure- I climb out of the snow.
When I meander on up to them-
Shink. Shimokoa planted her big ass steel sword in the ground.
Fwish. She conjures a second shotgun, aiming it under her other arm, at me.
"Genkan." Shimokoa's maw of energy shimmered as she spoke. "If they submit to me- I won't kill them ALL."
"What…?" I'd like to imagine Genkan just didn't hear her over her winded rasp and the wind.
I keep strollin' closer.
KA- BANG! Shimokoa fires at me without remorse, still staring Genkan in the eyes.
Fwish! My shield eats the bullets. "Uuu-"
crunch. Stiffening myself up like I died in Skyrim, I collapse into the snow. Oh no, man.
Snapping to look at me, Shimokoa glares. She knows I was pretending.
"Brad! No!" Genkan snaps to help me. She doesn't know I was pretending!
Wham! She punches Shimokoa in the face, and zips over to me! "Aah!?" Shimokoa reels from the suckerpunch!
While Shimokoa knew what death looks like, Genkan didn't quite have the same experience. Shimokoa was about to call my bluff, but Genkan had nothing to gain from not helpin' me.
KA- BANG! Shimokoa fires at her while she moves.
Fwoash! Genkan heals from the ice, unfazed. Her ice resistance is natively even higher than mine, so the partially physical pellets affect her even less.
When she reaches me, she shakily picks me up by my side and one arm. "Brad, are- are you okay? Why did you-"
Putting away Red Scare, I steal the shotgun she has in her left arm! "Thanks, Genkan!"
"You're fine…!?" Her face's pretty rich!
"Yo ho ho~!" I do a retarded jaunt across the lakeside, towards Maria! She's the next helpin' hand I need!
WHIRR! "Shut UP!" Shimokoa leaps straight at me, greatsword slung overhead. Shit- wait my boots aren't on!
I turn and leap-
Boof! "Uhn!" Genkan rams herself into Shimokoa at full speed to displace her!
fwoof. Shimokoa gently flops over into the snow.
"Shit…" Scrambling from the snow, I wave an arm in passing at Genkan. "Thanks!" That might've hit me if she didn't help out- and I would've been kerscrunched!
Coming up to Maria, I hold up the shotgun. "Maria. This gun- some fire. Load it up with fire. While I'm holdin' it and moving. Think you can do that?"
"Umm! Yeah!" Maria nods quickly! "Got it!"
How the fuck do you snap the barrel open? Uuh-
"Give me a moment to stare at it!" Maria yells at me before I move! She lays her hands on it, feels the barrel at the tip, and looks all around the gun in a frenzied haste.
Brief recap: I got just the Bawmber in my right hand. In my left, I have the shotgun that Maria's hovering around.
Shimokoa pushes up out of the snow.
Genkan stands between her and us. "Sister…"
"Okay- alright. The inside's hollow, with two cylinders of air…" Maria nods. "Um. How do you want it shot?"
"Can I signal it to shoot somehow? With my own magic?"
After a moment of thought, Maria nods. "Okay- yeah, um… I'll put the fire in there. You channel it if you wanna shoot. I'll make it shoot."
"Cool."
This gives me another idea. I need Genkan to be free, however…
Fwoom. Fire visibly rolls up the unthawing barrels of the transparent ice shotgun. It has no trigger to pull. I'll have to trust my brain to pull it instead a' my hand.
THOOM- CRACK! Oh- what the fuck.
WOOSH. Genkan sails far away. Like, she's sent rocketing into the lake, struck so hard by Shimokoa's steel greatsword that it made a sound similar to a ball on a bat.
I snort. "I- I thought ya loved her. The hell was that?"
"Necessary evil." Shimokoa strolled closer, monolithic steel hunk held like it were a parasol.
"Tough love?" I smile.
"Only the toughest."
"Or…" My nose is runny. I have cold resistance, why's it runny? "Is it abuse?"
Shimokoa doesn't immediately react to the accusation. I had kinda expected her to.
"You would know." She nods at me. "Oh, you would know."
"Heh." That's funny.
I'd know, but it's not 'cause it was first hand or my guilt or anything. It's 'cause I've seen, or at least heard enough to know what it looks like. Looks like I'm guilty by association here…
"I'm going to make good use of that spine you have." Shimokoa informs me! "Maria's too. Little human bitch. What kind of drugs do you have her on?"
"Fluffles." I couldn't resist…!
Shimokoa quirks her head a little. "...Fluffles."
Yeah, man! "Tell me again. What are we?"
"In my fucking way."
Shimokoa cracks her neck a little, and hoists the giant fuckoff greatsword off her left shoulder. "Just another barricade. Another piece of shit animal. Another failure, on my way to prosperity."
"I'll tell ya what." I take a deep breath. "You leave Maria alone for now. You can kill me first."
"Hah?" Shimokoa's maw grins strangely at that.
"C'mon, girl! I'll play wit'cha!" I use my new ice shotgun to beckon her! "Wanna play fetch?" Oh boy.
Shimokoa's posture subtly ticks a little. She took offense to that one.
WHIRR! She leaps straight at me, both arms overhead, ready to blow me into next week.
"Maria!" Flicking my boots, I strafe to the left, shotgun aimed, Bawmber held parallel.
KA- FWOOM- BOOM! Twin streams of flame and one explosive dart roar out to meet Shimokoa right in the ribs before she can bring down the proverbial hammer.
"Aah-" The combined elements are too much. Even though nothing solid ever met her, the force of the magic was enough to outright undo her striking posture.
Fwoom. In the quiet after she staggers backwards, I see my shotgun begin to glow orange again.
Shimokoa's magic mask slowly overtakes her face again. It briefly broke when she was surprised.
WHIRR! "DIE!" Snapping straight towards me, she spins on a heel, ready to cleave my head off.
Standing right where I am, I prepare to duck as I fire from all three barrels.
KA- FWOOM- BOOM! "Nhah…" Shimokoa's swing loses all its power upon the magic's impact, and she weakly fans the giant fucking metal paddle in the air between us. As if she was tryina' attack the fire hitting her, instead a' me.
Y'know, why don't I just-
KA- Fwoom- BOOM! I fire at her again! It's not as strong. I should've waited. Gotta play by real shotgun rules almost… takes Maria time to charge.
...Oh. Shimmy's summoned her ice shield. Even took her a moment to remember she had that!
"Of course." Shimokoa seethed. "You'd burn beauty…"
"I'd burn a fluffle!"
Shimokoa is gone in an instant.
"Brad! Left!" Maria yells!
When I twist- Shimokoa's there to attack me!
Fwi- Click! Crouching, I desummon Bawmber, and aim my shotgun up with both arms.
WHIRR! Her eyes flash green, and she spins on her heel again, this time with her shield held close to her blade arm.
Except it didn't shield her while she spun, because her side was facing me. Freakin', brain genius over here.
KA- FWOOM! I fire the shotgun up along her legs and stomach while she swings over my head.
"Nnh- anh!" Flames lick up Shimokoa's kimono, as she leaps back.
Fwi- Click! Yeah dude! I summon Revenants into my right hand, and just fuckin' leap at her!
"Hoi~ heeyaw!" Snapping into a barrel roll in the air, I sling Revenants overhead, the holy hanger flail snapping forward with clobbering potential!
Shimokoa sees me coming, brings her steel paddle back overhead, and braces her teeth as she flicks it down, as if flinching.
KRAKLAAANG! We parry. I'm sent rolling in the air, as her arm and paddle bounce back off the blow of my flail hanger.
whish. In a blur amidst the snow, Shimokoa vanishes before my eyes.
WHIRR! "Bra- Brad- no!"Maria yells. "Braaad!"
Shoof! Landing on my ass- I just roll in a direction fuck-
KATHOOM! Shimokoa cleaves her big ass paddle down into the ground beside me.
Riding the geyser of snow and dirt that resulted from the frenzied impact, I aim my shotgun.
KA- FWOOM! The flames unleashed from me and Maria's joint technique blast Shimokoa's eyes.
"Nnha! No!" Shimokoa's hair and kimono is now on fire.
Revenants is wrapped all around my stomach, 'cause of my rolling. Stepping near her as she recoils, I unleash it!
WHACK! The hanger slaps her in her burning face, as she clutches it.
"Crazy!" Leaping into the air on my boots, I let my telekinesis do the talking!
Whack- ack- ack- ack- ack- ack! Orbiting around me with crazy velocity, I just slap the entirety of One Million Revenants around Shimokoa's face!
"Oouh!" Eventually, Shimokoa crumples, rolling away from me.
She seemingly just- sinks into the snow, disappearing entirely.
Me and Maria both look around. ...You know- Shimokoa's previous plan of stabbing my guts out with a gauntlet would've worked a lot better in a moment like this.
...Did I jinx it!? Hoo!? Hah!? ...Nothin'.
We find her. Shimokoa drifts over the Misty Lake before us.
"You-... weak-hearted fools." Her entire body burns green as hell. "Witness… real power."
Pap! I shoot a single fire-accented NERF dart over the lake ta fuck with her.
fwoof. It meets a rippling, purple barrier that protects her. Oh.
"I…" Shimokoa's eyes become brighter than stars. "AM THE HAND OF THE GODS!"
FWWR! Something fucking bright as hell ignites in the palm of an open hand.
She's meters over the lake. The hell could she-
"Brad! Move! Now~!" Maria yells as high as her lungs let her!
Flicking on my boots, I take off to the right-
VRRRRRR~! Oh- shit.
Shimokoa unleashes a purple-white master spark, dragging it up the coast.
Me and Maria are separated. Maria remains on the blind spot, the laser trailing towards me.
The cosmic spark is immune to the winter's flakes and mist, depicting a portal to the shimmering cosmos within. It's a beam of star-stuff. Real stars, and outer space.
VRRRRRR~! The ear-shattering laser parts practically all the snow around the goddamn lake… as it tracks behind me holy fuck-
"I am the dark messiah!" Shimokoa's voice blares in stereo! Or- is it two voices…!? "The vengeful sister!" Twisted sister!?
KRACK! The laser stops, as if crackling out.
Green lightning flares from Shimokoa's form, and she flares all her limbs out.
She vanishes. Oh boy, oh boy-
WHIRR! She appears before me, shield abandoned.
KA- FWOOM! I shot her. Maria's still channeling magic to me!? Damn!
Despite the blow landing, she powers through it.
I'm just, in the air. I can't really dodge as fast as she comes at me.
So I don't!
WHOOM- CRACK! I would've moved if I could've… and I also wish that I did!
Good news, everybody! She didn't hit my head, and she didn't hit me towards the floor! I wasn't killed in one hit!
However, my whole body is numb. I feel the tingles all over me. My mouth hangs open half-incredulously, and half in pants-shitting fear.
Thump! Ow. I hit a tree.
Oh- man, these gravity boots-
WHOOSH! She's still fuckin' swinging oh shit-
WHOOM- KRACK!She- cut that fuckin' tree in half with a horizontal slice that missed me! Holy craaap!
WOOSH! Using one of my jumps, I zip right towards the ground.
Shoof! Bouncing off the snow, hopefully restoring my jumps in the process, I keep jumpin' with no fuckin' limits-
WHOOM! WOOSH! WOOSH- WOOSH! In just a couple seconds, she kicks the air all around with a combo of mighty, retardedly powerful slashes.
KA- BANG! She fires her shotgun again-
ZA- ZAP! Ow- Ow! Fuck! What the fuck!? Lightning!? "Gack-" Lightning bullets!
KA- BANG! ZAZAP! "Aagh!" That- hurts a little more than the ice, yeah…!
WOOSHWOOSHWOOSH! She spins towards me with a series of slashes that have no hope of hitting me, but…
She stops on the ground, on both legs.
"There will be a tombstone-..."
kri- krack, krack, krack! Ice combines around the icy greatsword. It just keeps collecting. Snow from all around us is combined into the blade.
How much? Well-...
SHUUF- SPLOOOSH. One of the glaciers in the lake leaves the lake.
"With the planet Earth-..."
Genkan comes out of nowhere. "Nnh-" Bouncing off the ground next to me on her knees, she embraces me, and starts to pull me. "Co- come…"
Ooh- woah! Ha-chan swoops down, and starts to pull me along. Even she feels-... a lot stronger than I do, 'cause I'm getting pulled around like I'm a freakin' ragdoll…
Ten story tall ice blade? Ten story tall ice blade. Eclipsing Shimokoa, and the sun.
"ENGRAVED ON IT!"
WOOOOSH. The giant ice blade slowly descends towards the ground.
Whump! Ha-chan guides us so we all clothesline Maria. "Uuh!" Maria grabs onto us clumsily, for dear life!
...Wow. That giant fuck-off sword sure falls slowly. Holy crap. Holy crap. Dude…
Exhaling, I huff. At least all this snow is passively healing me…
The big dumb ice blade hits the side of the Misty Lake.
bwoom. The impact is fiercely magical. It's disgustingly magical.
The snowflakes from above stop. The area around the lake brightens, the mist dispelled for a moment.
Beautiful sunshine lights up the water, as the massive, glistening icy chonk meets the shore.
Snowflakes come from the sword.
FWOOOOOOOM! Oh shit oh fuck fuck fiddly motherfuck-
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
We're on a plane of ice. Just ice. The magical shockwave that came from the sword was fucktackular.
Maria is frozen. Ha-chan is frozen. I'm partially frozen.
...fwish, fwish. Thanks to our mixed ice resistances, this doesn't last long! "I- I- I should've- worn-... the boots…" Maria doesn't have the gaudy gold boots I gave her on! Y'know- that would have really helped you for this fight!
"Wo- wow…" Ha-chan is half-dead. She's so pale! An' that's saying something, 'cause she's usually really pale! "Gh-... aa…" I think her vocal cords are frozen!
"Well…" I mean, as far as limit break-type attacks go, that one was perhaps the one we wanted to bait the most, honestly!
Genkan puts me down. I stretch my limbs!
Yeah. Not… good as new, but this is a lot more workable. Wait- fuck-
thud. I slip and fall on my ass. Fuckin', boss fights with ice physics. Ah yes…
"Could've been worse!" I admit! "We could've all died!"
"Don't say that." Genkan grabs my hair- ow! "You'll tempt fate. At this point, it really couldn't use more."
Yeah. Goddamn…
"Y'think she'll get sick of this shit?" I can't help but wonder. "We've been fighting for like, thirty goddamn minutes."
"No." Genkan votes against her friend, this time! "No… we might be sick of this already, but this isn't something stupid we started that we can run from."
Genkan stares into the distance. Does she see her? "Shimokoa isn't stopping. If… we ran away today, I don't think, with conviction like this… that she would simply cool off. No, if we ran, she'd simply strike down harder."
"What do we do?" Maria asked. "Should we-...?"
Genkan sighed. "I don't want her to die. We don't have to kill her. But…"
She looks at me. "If we have to… but only if we have to. We have to bring her to her knees, but nothing more."
Genkan placed an arm on me. "I know you don't want this, Brad. Just… survive. For all of us, including you. Okay?"
I inhale. "Gotcha."
"Barrier." Maria casts. "Bless…"
Ha-chan hangs near me. "I- I'm not letting you get hurt, Brad."
Genkan moves before us. "She's coming. Brad, get ready."
I hold up my shotgun and my Bawmber. "Hey, Genkan, do me a fave."
"A fave?"
"A favor."
Fwi- Click! For a moment, I replace my shotgun with Red Scare. "Tape my hangers together-... with ice."
Fwish! Once I hold 'em together, she does so. Alright…
Fwi- Click! Bringing the shotgun back out, I hold it up in my left arm, with my two hangers fused together on my right. "Hell yeah. Now we got business!"
Ding, Ding! Maria chooses to buff my magic attack. Well-... that's not entirely useless, but for what purpose? Actually, considering-
BOOM. Something booms. What the fuck was that.
...Anyway, I'm the one person who can harass relentlessly. Maria's probably assuming she's gonna just be focusing on dodging. Honestly, fair enough.
Klackackackackackack. Our magic barriers are reinforced by the techy hexagons.
"All shall be lost to you!" Uh oh. Someone's got gas, dude…
KAFWOOM! In the distance, a massive plume of ethereal, teal hellfire blooms in the sunny mist. Right on cue with my joke about gas too…!
We all tense up. Ha-chan puts her arms on my back.
Shimokoa leaps from the mist, this time without her eyes flashing as a tell.
She's using no retarded overhead slash either. She's plummeting towards the ground on her side, flicking the giant steel paddle down with one arm.
KABOOM- KAFWOOM! When her blade meets the ground, a huuuge pool of teal, flaming energy burns out across the icy floor.
KRACK! The ice beneath us is all distilled into rocks, throwing anyone standing off balance.
Me, Genkan and Ha-chan all float into the air. Me unevenly, with my boots!
"Nnh- ah!" Maria, however, isn't so lucky! Immediately, Ha-chan darts to help her.
THOOM- THOOM- THOOM- THOOM- THOOM! Shimokoa becomes a self-propelling drill with her blade, tilling the fucking icy lake's surface beneath us as she spins.
Each individual impact is seismic as it is magical. Icy chunks bounce and get tossed, rolling through the air around us, burning with teal magic.
"Lunar magic!" Maria yells. "Don't get hit!" Uh huh.
In this moment, sun shines through the misty aether above, prisms drawn in the space all around us.
I flail past Genkan, as she weaves through the rolling, crystalline rocks. The teal flames wither under the sun when they reach it, but they don't die out.
So… we're just gonna be doin' this, huh? Just, hangin' out, havin' a good ol' time? Shootin' the shit by the rocks, yeah man.
From the whacky ball pit that the icy hell beneath us has become, Shimokoa floats up.
"Haaa- Aaaa- AAAAA!" She yells so loud my ears ring, and the ice pushes away from her. Aw, hell yeah! Yelling magic indeed!
Shimokoa has a blue pope hat on now, and- her hair flares partially green. Holy shit!
She blurs towards me, icy paddle drawn. Her image dances between the rocks and prisms, hidden by the cosmic mixtures of light.
"Brad!" Genkan pulls me.
WOOSH! KRACK- KRACK! Two huge chunks explode, a slice I didn't see coming nearly killing me instantly. Genkan kept me from the knife's edge!
WOOSH! Genkan pushes me away, a cleave dropping down between us.
KA- FwaFWOOM- KABOOM! I float past Shimokoa, exploding her face with fire magic. I fire both Bawmber and Red Scare, as well as my frozen shotgun that Maria is powering.
WOOSHWOOSH! Shimokoa spins around, while I fall down beneath her.
Genkan meets me again, and pulls me. Shimokoa stops on a dime, cleaving her blade down.
WOOSH! Genkan gets me out by the skin of my dick, keeping me from losing a leg, or one a' my boots. Sparks shoot from the tip a' one of my toes and the length of her blade.
WOOSH! THUNK- THUNK! "BLAST." Shimokoa carves her blade upward, and awkwardly clips both me and Genkan.
We awkwardly get displaced upward.
Shimokoa appears over us. "CUT YOU IN HALF."
WOOSH! I jump against the air- pulling me and Genkan up and away from the swing-
WOOOOSH! Shimokoa commits to this downward cleave so hard she just fuckin' plummets. For stories.
Shimokoa appears overhead again. "FUCK OFF!"
Fwi- Click! Exchanging both my weapons for Fallen Comrade, I guard since we can't really evade from this awkward spot we're in-
"Brad-" Genkan hugs me as hard as she can from behind. "Sorry-"
Shimokoa cleaves down.
SHI- Krack! One universe of light and sparks explodes between the two of us. Shimokoa's paddle's blade-like edge met the Swordbreaker component of Fallen Comrade.
WOOSHWOOSHWOOSH. Shimokoa's paddle rockets back into the air, straight out of her hands.
I flip Shimokoa a middle finger! "Yeah- you're not the only edgy one, bitch!" Wahaha~!
She vanishes. Well, good!
Genkan lets go of me. I descend, 'cause she didn't let go of me over one of the slowly ascending ice rocks. "Br- Brad- you-"
Shimokoa appears!
KA- BANG! Shimokoa fires the shotgun she just now has into Genkan's stomach.
ZAZAZAP! "Ehen- ee- eeh!" Genkan seizes up, falling away from me, stiff as a board.
Shimokoa holds up a second shotgun, dual-wielding. Y'know- that's a good idea!
Fwi- Click! Summoning both my Red Scare- Bawmber combo and my shotgun, I steal her idea!
She aims at me. I kiss my shotgun against the tip of hers.
KABANGBANG! We both fire. Flames meet sparks!
KABOOM! Shimokoa's shotgun explodes into a fiery electrical storm in her hand. "Egahk!" She makes a familiar throaty yell of surprise, when it just fuckin' breaks on her.
I aim my fused hangers at her face.
FWOOM- KABOOM! Flames and force roll through her silly edgy mask.
When the darkness and energy parts, I see her face.
Her cheeks have melted away, her left eye so burnt that I can see bone. Her bangs are straw-like and frayed like flapping ash, near unrecognizable. Her right eye is just a rock of ice, frozen for protection.
She vanishes again.
When she appears, she has her paddle again. She must've instantly reclaimed it. "DIE!"
We have nothing else to say to each other. She's run through all her dialogue. In fact, it's not like there was even a point in arguing anyway.
My boots push against a rock behind me. Jumping off it, I flip forward so that I'm upside-down over her.
She always saw this as a fight of force. Of hunter versus prey. That's what she always thought it was. She just, knew too little to even think of something different, to not jump to that conclusion.
She might be hundreds of years old… but she's barely lived eighteen of those years. That's stupidly obvious. Her brain age is… somewhat disappointing!
WOOSH! When she cleaves her blade down, it brushes past my flailing, wild hair.
BOOM!A great, green streak followed the stroke, cutting an unknown depth into the lake. That shit woulda killed the fuck outta me, woah!
Shimokoa thinks… like an animal. She only thinks about herself. She thinks of others as it suits her view of the world. Genkan was never her friend. Genkan was hers. I don't know if she's made other friends that were real friends… but I honestly don't know how she could.
An animal who lives in the moment. To something so old, one year, hundred years, it don't make a difference.
Papapapapap- Fwoom- BOOM! Spinning around overhead, I rain darts down, and I keep my shotgun at the epicenter of my twirl.
Shimokoa is covered in fire and blasts. Prisms and rainbow dance around the ascending, shattered rocks of lake ice. The sun is reflected from the icy plain below, blinding, raw and fuckin' gorgeous.
The worst part? Shimokoa will never know what she's lookin' for. She's created this tragedy herself, in her own unknowing.
It must be a sure tragedy to her. To us? It's just annoying. We already know the answer. She's just too in her own head...
That aside… you know the problem of living by instinct, in self-interest?
"DIE!" Shimokoa's voice has become a burning growl.
WOOSH! She flails her paddle overhead, and I snap into a ball to avoid it. Fuck…
You want to know the big problem?
She snarls. "Just-"
WOOSH! "Fucking-"
WOOSH! "DIE!"
Shimokoa's swings burn with green magic, lightning, with lunar magic… but she can't hit shit if her life depended on it; and to her, right now, it actually does!
That's not the big problem I wanted to talk about! Well, it's similar, but only symbolically, maybe.
The big problem of her living like an animal, is that she can be worn out like one too.
I realize now, the problem some youkai face. They fight like animals, for shit they want right away.
Lemme pose the question: what does a human fight for?
Shimokoa flares her arms out. "I have you! Stop running! Die!"
ZAP- ZAP- ZAPZAP! Oh- woohoo, sith lightning. Ow, ow, ow-
Fwi- Click! Been there, done that. I switch to my spaceman outfit while I'm bouncin' around in the air around her.
Fwoash- Fwoash- Fwoash! While I do so, I just, regain vitality.
"HAHAHA!" Shimokoa spreads her limbs out, the electrical storm rotating some of the icy rocks around us, as if magnetizing them.
This's actually very convenient, 'cause now I can just stick with one rock and not have to look for more to gravitate near! "FRY!" Ouh-
ZAPZAPZAPZAPZAP! FWOASH! Jesus, she really went all out with that! Electricity flares around us, flooding the air itself.
KRAKOOM- FWOASH! I just got struck by lightning, my man. Woah! Oh, man, my eyes just-... ooh god that was weird. My eyes went LCD screen, before healing back to normal. I think they just broke and got healed back to not being broke. That's a novel experience that I could have gone without…!
Where was I? Oh, right.
Shimokoa huffs. "You-..."
Fwi- Click! I change back to my camou-mono.
FWISH! She tries to freeze me in that instant, but instead the otherwise harmless white wave of air passes through me.
PAPAPAP- BOOM- BOOM! FWABOOM! With both dart barrels and my shotgun barrels, I fire a bunch. Slowly, I sear away at her, eroding her.
The thing about a human, ideally, is that they've got stamina. Now, I know youkai can run further, jump higher, fuckin' fly and shoots lasers from their eyeballs…
The human beings that're good at their jobs fight for their futures. Of course, still within their personal interests. But if you could make the world better for everyone else… would you? At the expense of your own toys or assets?
You might know a few politicians who might need a moment to think about it. See, I said human beings that're good at their jobs. Some of us really are still more animal than man. It's good to remember that…
An' you know what pisses people off? When an animal does something stupid. It can't even understand what it just did. That's what makes it so infuriating!
Fwi- Click! I put away my guns.
Shimokoa drearily drifts towards me in the air. "Dh- die…!"
Fwi- Click! I summon Fallen Comrade.
"Gaia Seed!" As she reels her sword back, I thrust an open palm down at her.
The earthy magic blooms in her form as she puts her whole body into swinging.
SHI- Krack! Upside-down in mid-air, I brace the wimpy impact by thrusting myself into it, hanger-metal first. Didn't even need Genkan holding me now.
Shimokoa lets out a sigh.
woosh. When she swings, it's a lot weaker, and I part from her without really needing to focus on dodging.
WHAM! Genkan ascends, returning to the fight by tacklin' Shimokoa. She stops her, gripping the paddle sword with both arms by the hilt and near the base.
Bouncing from a rock, I leap up to them, and move to help Genkan with her little tussle.
Fwi- Click! Summoning just the ice shotgun, I anticipate impact!
whap. Weakly clutchin' onto Genkan like a monkey, I aim the frozen shotgun at Shimokoa's face, from over Genkan's shoulder.
KA- FWOOM! The dual streams of fire fight with the shimmering, weak lights from Shimokoa's glare.
"Nngh!" Genkan succeeds in ripping the paddle from Shimokoa's grasp.
We twirl through the air twice, before I lay a hand on Shimokoa's broadsword myself, hugged around Genkan's back to do so.
Fwi- Click! De-summoning my shotgun, I embrace Genkan from behind, just sorta hangin' in there!
woosh. Oh- shit. Genkan just disappears!
Then, she embraces me from behind.
We catch the steel paddle together, all four of our shared hands grasping random places along the hilt.
"Yh- gh-" Shimokoa manages to scrape the fire and blood from her face, her wartorn features gazing up at us in indignation and primal fear. "Come here! Brad-"
WHIRR! Me and Genkan spin around, in the same brutal way Shimokoa would.
WHAKRACK- CRACK! We clobber Shimokoa right in the ribs, with a certain steel impact. Paddle on ribs.
"Huuoh!" Shimokoa goes fuckin' flying, her body smashing aside tumbling, house-sized lakewater ice rocks.
"Genkan-" I twist to look at her steely expression. "Toss the sword. Somewhere where- it'll take her time to catch up with it."
"Aah… are you sure?"
"Peachy!" That wasn't necessarily a reply that worked- but I think I can be forgived if I'm a little spacey!
Genkan twirls us around one more time.
WOOOSH! Genkan and me let go of it at the same time, sending it twirling on off into the abyss.
Oh. Genkan threw it right at Shimokoa.
Shimokoa does a flip in the air to right herself- only to see the paddle whirling towards her as a blade of death.
Shimokoa gasps, flinches violently, shielding herself with her arms.
BOONG! Or, uh, I guess it wasn't that deadly, 'cause it fuckin' clonks her across the head, and she's just sent twirling in pain in mid-air. "Nnn…!"
"Genkan-" I, uh- "Maria and Ha-chan. Float us back towards 'em. I got an idea."
Genkan nods. She pans us around, and picks a direction. Between the prisms and lights and shit, I can't see much of anything… so I hope she can!
In a few seconds, we find Maria and Ha-chan. "What next, Brad?" Genkan asks me, since I'm still in her arms!
"You, Hana, Maria- open my bag fer me. Spread it wide as it'll let'cha. I'm goin' in. I'll be back in a few minutes. Just keep it open, keep moving- I shouldn't be long."
Genkan nods, twice, and I feel it along my own neck. "Okay. I hope you know what you're doing…"
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
Clack, clack, clack! Running on my gravity boots inside the garage dimension, I leap right the fuck off the floor.
"Are you sure he didn't just forget?" I hear Remilia on deck before I've even cleared the railing.
"...He might have, but I don't think so anymore!" Flandre notices I'm here! "Hey Brad!"
Woosh! Ascending past the deck's rail, I fuckin'- lose my balance and roll through the air-
Thump, thump! Flicking my boots off, I roll around twice, before stopping on my knees. "Fu- fuck…" Holy shit! Yeah, totally meant to do that! "He- hehe!"
"Wow!" Flandre looks like she's about to clap, but doesn't! "You got screwed up! What happened?"
"Flandre! You must man the engine!" I start walkin' for the wheel deck or whatever it's called! Starboard!? "Hey, Remi, what's the cockpit of a ship called?"
"...It's the helm, you dolt." Wahaha! "You do look like you got mugged. What-"
"We gotta go now!" I announce! "We'll have time ta relax in five! Let's just say- I'm fucked if we don't go right now!"
"Yeah! Finally!" Flandre doesn't care that I yelled! "Let's go!" She runs for the inner hull a' the ship!
"Don't raise your voice at me." Remi, however, is somewhat indignant!
She grabs me by the back a' my collar, while just standin' behind me. Must've happened so fast, holy shit…
"Explain." Remi demanded! "Calmly."
Twisting around- I fall onto a knee to level with her, not entirely on purpose. "Remi. If this ship don't get goin' A.S.A- now, me and the ones I love could die. Please, gimme a moment."
Remi's brows just raise! "...What." She lets go!
"Cool!" Alright!
Clack! Leapin' off the deck on my boots, I uneasily brace for my landing atop the helm. I'm glad I spaced the jump correctly.
Thud! Landing on my stomach, I scramble on up for the wheel.
FWRAASH! FWRAASH! Flandre's massive, crystalline wings emerge from either hole on the sides of the hull which allow for them.
FWRRROOOAR! They emit jet-engine like energy. The solid, colorful beams thrust against the floor, searing the stone beneath us.
I start working the control panel- I never got a tutorial on this thing! ...Eeh, it looks like it was made idiot-proof. It uses a single touchscreen display with GUI. Bet Stormy worked with the kappa on it-... and I bet he had experience. Had his own ship before, didn't he?
SHOOOF! The water thrusters are engaged briefly, for a pulse or two, helpin' the ship bob higher into the air!
FRRRRRR~! Then, Flandre's wings tilt so that it moves forward- oh my god we're moving quick holy shit-
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
FWOOSH, WOOSH WOOSH! Wind roars over the hull. The windshield established in front a' the helm here helps me out a lot.
From the massive, spread-out gap in space that was my bag, held open by all three party members, the S.S. BONER emerges on her maiden voyage, out into the icy arctic sea!
The S.S. BONER is two stories high, thrice as big as any human village house. Pro'lly thrice as long, too. Thrice as thick at that!
FRRRR. The mast pokes from the hull, having compacted as part a' the launch sequence, since the 'garage door' only goes so high.
From behind the windshield, I see Shimokoa and her big 'ol fuck-off steel paddle. She stands with her grip on it firm, beholding the big ass airship that we just summoned out of literally fucking nowhere.
Parting from the helm, I move around the shield before it, and stand at the edge of the deck.
"All~ aboard!" I call out to the party! "Get your little asses onta the deck!"
BAM- BOOM- BAM! Airborne icy chucks are parted and smashed aside by the ship's rugged hull.
Moving forward- I leap off the upper deck to get on the lower one- oh shit-
BAM! Hitting the floor with my face, fallin' a meter or two, I practically bounce off the floor as I shamble past Remilia, scramblin' across the already building snow to get onto the main parts a' the deck.
My heart jumps as the ship bobs around, and thankfully the bobbing helps me do that bounce onto my feet I mentioned!
Remilia just kinda stands in sensory overload as she watches me move!
CLACK! Shimokoa lands on the deck. "I'll-... fucking- kill you!"
Her blue hat-like accessory with a crescent moon on it has mostly burned away. Her hair's no longer partially green.
"Avast!" I point at her! "Scurvy dog!"
Shimokoa's offhand shakes violently, a white light building in her palm. "Hehehe-..."
Ooh, shit.
Fwi- Click! I draw Fallen Comrade- and defend!
Shimokoa thrusts her palm up. "I'm the HAND OF GOD!"
"Barrier!"
Maria lands on the deck on her knees, skidding to stop before me.
"Glacier!" Genkan skids to a stop next to me, casting an arm up.
"Yah!" Ha-chan chucks a big rock!
Klack- klack, klack, klack! The technological barrier is made in the air before us-
KRING! One of Genkan's ice blades emerges from the deck, before us all.
Thunk! Ha-chan's rock bounces off the tip of the ice blade.
"HAAAAH!" Shimokoa shoots her bullshit!
VRRRRRRR! The cosmic spark is fired, shot straight into the barrier-blade mixture, eating into it.
"I'M THE DARK- MESSIAH!" Shimokoa growls, her partially-skeletonized face lighting up with purple magic. "I AM- YOUR SAVIOR…!"
THUNK. The bouncing rock clunks her in the skull! "Egh- ahk!"
The cosmic spark trickles out.
Genkan runs around the nearly entirely vaporized ice blade. I scramble around, running in place for a second, before running around the opposite side!
Woosh! Woosh! Shimokoa flares her big ass sword in the air, to defend herself! "You- awful- fucking-"
Genkan grabs it by the business-end, 'cause Shimokoa's lost that much stamina.
Here's the thing: I might not have much strength to begin with, but by the end a' the fight, I still have all of it! It's so little I hardly have to keep track of it! I'm always knackered!
Wham! Genkan knees Shimokoa, stealing the big sword away again.
"Nh- no! Genkan!" Shimokoa barks at her, spitting her protest.
Fwi- Click! Summoning One Million Revenants, I just- throw it at her! Man- s'been a while since I resorted to that!
Wham! The hangers bounce off her face! "Aagh!"
Fwi- Click! Summoning Lion's Lindwurm- I chuck that too!
Bonk- twaang! A harp cord echoes as the thing twirls offa' her skull, drawing a line of blood through the air. "Ouu-"
"Shimo- koa~!" I yell her name, and run up ta her!
Where Shimokoa went wrong? She approached this as an animal-against-animal bout. Where two forces meet, and one swallows the other.
But when a human plans for the future, they come with a plan. That's why I nearly lost to Koakuma. I planned just enough to win- but hardly enough to cover my bases.
That's why the game of power itself doesn't impress me. It's all planning. Physical mastery is only a fraction of the real battle.
Even then, sometimes, you gotta fight, even if you don't like it.
This struggle may've been a mess. It might be stupid, it might've taken forever, it might've wasted everyone's time… but it was necessary. An investment for the future.
SKRIIIISH! Flandre's just kinda randomly turning the ship while I'm not at the helm, having a good time driving it around the big-ass frozen lake!
Shimokoa sees me running up to her.
WHIRR! "HAH! GOT YOU!" Shimokoa cleaves her steel paddle up, and swings it down with crazy force.
THOOM! The entire ship shudders when her steel paddle cleaves down into the deck.
"Brad!" Genkan yells!
"Braad!" Maria thought I was just standin' there to take it.
Shimokoa thought I was gonna run into her. She got her paddle stuck in the deck just a meter before me.
Her eyes widen.
Running forward, I run onto her paddle.
Fwi- Click! Summoning my frozen shotgun and dual-bomb-flame hanger combo, I aim them forward, parallel to one another.
Ruby red fire flares past my face, the combination of force and flames washing over the entirety of Shimokoa's form.
Her limbs jerk- the paddle I'm standing on destabilizing- but she doesn't reclaim it.
Leaping off, I yell! "Genkan! Knock her overboard!"
Genkan runs at Shimokoa. Shimokoa struggles, pushing against the flames.
Thunk! Shimokoa shudders when her spine meets the rail.
SHUNK! Tearing the paddle from the deck, Genkan runs up to Shimokoa.
Shimokoa braces her arms.
BAAM! Genkan thrusts the paddle's hilt grip thing tip-first right into Shimokoa's gut, right between her guarding arms.
"Uugh!" Shimokoa staggers back-
WHIRR- WHAKRACK! Whipping around, Genkan smacks Shimokoa across the face with the giant paddle.
Shimokoa twirls around. "Ugh!"
She soars forward, off the front of the portside of the deck. She tilts backward, as she goes past the rail, falling down.
Then, we hear it.
KRACK- SPLAAASH! The ship touches down on the icy lake, smashing through the solid ice and finding water beneath the frosty shelf.
BAAM- CRACK- KRUNCH- BAM- CRUNCH- CRACK! Shimokoa meets the interaction between the very front a' the hull, and the sheer physical ice shelf.
Keelhauled.
woosh. The ship bobs outta the Misty Lake-on-the-rocks, and back into the air.
My leap off of the paddle earlier-... left me to just- fall off the ship. Oh, woohoo.
The ship continues, Flandre's wings flaring with unbelievable magical power as the thing just takes off along the lakeside.
Me though, I fall into the icy mixture below!
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
Falling head-first towards the icy hell, I curl up into a ball.
Hoop! Jumping again, I save myself before I hit anything. Hooh...
Goddamn. Damn… that was… some shit.
Is that it? Has Shimokoa had enough shit today?
Where is she?
With my gravity boots, I drift through the mist.
Tracing the icy skid mark left by my ship as Flandre had dragged it across this barren icy plain, I get an instinct for where Shimokoa might be…
Ah. There.
It's a bloody mess.
Shimokoa's limbs are twisted up. Her once-snow pale skin is brown and bloody with abrasion, her kimono tattered and burnt beyond recognition.
Her legs and arms are broken. One eyeball is blown out, the other an icy rock that glitters with violent light.
"Nn-..." She's still alive. Youkai really are some shit.
Coming up to the bloody skidmark she now was, I huff. She's not in fightin' order, at all.
"Shimokoa…" Genkan speaks, down here with me.
She swings down from above, carrying Maria in her arms. Ha-chan hovers down around them.
"Aah." Maria's let go, and she lands easily enough amidst the uneven ice, just staring down with her brows furrowed.
Ha-chan observes with a fully neutral expression, brows raised. It's an awfully serene and calm face for her to have.
...So, here we are.
I kneel down next to Shimokoa.
Fwii~sh. Genkan starts to heal her.
Fwii~sh! I apply what ice magic I can to heal her, from Fallen Comrade.
Maria protests. "Wha-... guys, hold on. Why-"
Genkan barked back. "Heal her, damn it."
Fwii~sh! Maria complies, aiming down frost from her staff!
Eventually, we've formed frost along most of Shimokoa's burnt-black kimono.
Her body glows a little from the healing, but we hardly even hear the sounds of magic absorption. Man, she's fucked up.
...Eventually, Shimokoa coughs.
"Khk- kak, kah!" They're fairly dry coughs, with no blood. That's good!
Alright…
"But…" Maria speaks up again. "Why? She tried to kill us."
Genkan faces her. "She's still my friend. I want to believe-... that there's someone still in there. Someone who can see compassion. Someone who can see the love me and Brad share. Maybe even… one day, find the same peace herself."
...Maria swallowed, uncertain.
"I can see the potential in her." I announce.
When I've got their attention, I elaborate. "As I can in anyone. There's no truly bad person or character- no truly disinteresting tale. Everything that ain't some fleeting thought has soul to it. Even animals, some might say especially animals."
Standing up, I walk to stand between Shimokoa's fucked up legs, in her crystalizing blood.
"The whole reason I humored and suffered through that big dumb long battle was so Shimokoa here can have another shot. Not at my life- I mean, at life itself!"
"But-..." Maria speaks up!
I look at Maria. "Wouldn't you want the same? For whoever was beatin' you up to think about the kinda person you could be?"
She's got nothin' to say to that.
...For awhile, we just stand like this, in the ice, slush and crystal blood.
The lake around us slowly, ever so slowly thaws. Shimokoa's now lying in a cold puddle.
...She looks up at me, with her one crystal eye.
"Shimokoa." I speak to her. "Can we just stop fightin'?" I hold out a hand.
She begins to hold out her own hand. There's lightning sparking along her fingertips.
Fwi- Click. I change into the spaceman suit's body piece.
After the flash of light of my gear changing, Shimokoa holds my hand.
ZAPZAPZAPZAPZAP! FWOASH- FWOASH! She tries to fry me but I receive big healing from the space suit.
Aah. The ol' ten million volt joybuzzer trick. Yeah, I had a feeling. Thanks for the pick-me-up!
My spaceman glove hand tightens around Shimokoa's bony, burnt hand. "Heheheh. You can stop. I'm not gonna do anything to ya. We just wanted to make ya stop attacking."
Shimokoa lets go of my hand, and splays out.
"Kill me..." Ahah. I knew she'd ask.
"No." Genkan interjects! "No, Shimokoa. We want you to live."
"Stop fucking around and kill me."
Maria comes around our left! "You wouldn't want to die-... if you actually knew what to live for." Holy shit, that's actually a good one!
Shimokoa can't even argue with it either!
"Shit." I step back, putin' my arms on my hips! "That's actually pretty good!"
"Wa-... was it?" Maria's even surprised!
Shimokoa anxiously shifts on the floor, changing her wipeout posture. Probably more out of pain than anything else! "How-... nngh." She looks at me. "How the hell-... did Genkan- give herself to you?"
"'Cause I'm gay." I just say the first thing that comes to mind! I'm honestly kinda done with arguing!
...Genkan gives me a cute li'l spooky look, before shaking her head! "Because he's fun. He's also honest, or, tries to be. He's nice, and he's actually…" Genkan braces herself as if taking physical damage. "He's kind of… smart."
"Gimme a chance. For Genkan, for yourself. For all a' these people I don't think you even began to think existed."
Our hands part.
"Animal versus animal ain't the law of Gensokyo. It's a law of nature, but Gensokyo's more complicated than just nature. It's like… fantasy nature. Darwin ain't got shit on this." I don't think Shimokoa knows who Darwin is but y'know…!
Shimokoa wearily stares up at me, half-glaring, half just… shell-shocked.
"...Fa- fine." Shimokoa sighed in aching pain. "Fine."
...Fwi- Click! After a moment, I desummon the spaceman outfit.
I hold out my hand again. "It's okay to not know things. I mean, look at me! My ability to accept that is part a' why Genkan likes me. If I couldn't, I'd just be another run a' the mill shithead."
If Shimokoa still wants to kill me, she can go ahead.
"Brad-" Maria tenses up! "You- id- idiot- don't let her-"
za- zap, zap. Shimokoa's hand burns with electricity for a moment. But...
She grabs my bare hand again. She doesn't shock me.
I can feel her raw flesh. Her serrations, leather-like scars and burns, and her blood. It's so… surreal. So raw. She must hurt like hell.
Even still, she doesn't shock me.
Her bloody teeth are exposed, her mouth hanging open, air so much more vacantly than any of us.
"Then…" Shimokoa's single, bloodshot, weary eye glares up at me in primal fear. "Sho- show me."
Shimokoa finally, finally, after the giga mega super assfuck chad-virgin wojack rage comic we-live-in-a-society shakespearian extravaganza war… finally… finally fucking gives up. All it took was literally taking the jaws of life to her fuckin' preconceptions.
"Alright." Wait- ah…
woash. Oh. Oh. What the fuck.
Mima slips out the back of Shimokoa's form, half-embedded in the floor. "Peace, loser." She spoke quietly, but quite audibly.
The remaining fragments of unnatural magic shade leave Shimokoa's singed black bangs. Shimokoa's mint-green kimono becomes black and brown, as if revealing all the damage it sustained during the fight that it seemingly had ignored.
"Gh-" Blood flows down Shimokoa's mouth, and she chokes on it. "Ghahk-"
"Shi- Shimokoa…"Genkan kneels next to her, and channels ice magic onto her. "Don't die!"
"Aahk-... ghb- rrk-" Shimokoa suddenly just- has a massive puddle of fresh blood beneath herself. Holy shit.
"Come on…" Genkan looks up at us. "Help me!"
Maria and me just kinda- do as she says.
woaash. We all channel ice magic- me from Fallen Comrade, some from Maria's staff, some from Genkan's hands...
"Aah-..." Shimokoa gasps once she's spat out a bucket of blood. "Gha- aanh…"
"I love you, Shimokoa." Genkan tells her. "I love you as my sister. We may not be the closest… but that doesn't mean I can't teach you what I have learned either. We can show you more of the world."
Shimokoa has hardly anything to say. She doesn't so much as reply. Guess she's just in that much pain.
Putin' up with shitty days like this is all part a' being human. No-... it's part a' being a person. Human or youkai. Person or monster. Yeah. Hopefully, down the line, we have less shitty days like this one!
I gotta say…
"You know, Shimokoa." Still holding onto her hand, I smile wide. "Shitty days like these are all part of being people. You might be fightin' to make sure no day's shitty again. But…"
I take a breath. "I'll go through as many shitty days as it takes. I'll go through as many as it takes- for you to realize the difference you can make."
Eventually, after a few moments… her skin regenerates enough. I can no longer see the bones of her forearms, just raw, irritated skin overlaying muscle. She's recuperating, but it ain't pretty.
Still…
"I can't tell you to stop being angry. I'm sure you've seen some fucked shit. Gensokyo's not all paradise."
But…
"Can you put bein' angry on vacation? Like, put a rain date on it? I know I'm bein' insensitive in asking. But, y'know what? Big fuckin' deal, right? I'm about to set aside the fact you nearly killed me, for your own ideas."
Even within the ice rock, I can see Shimokoa's single pupil dart around, scanning my body and face, and where our hands touch.
"We can talk. You just gotta learn what it means to talk. There's so much more for you to learn."
With my grip on her hand still there, I try and pull Shimokoa up-
thud. I fail, and I just collapse beside her. This blood's gonna be a fun time to clean. Aw, now both mine and hers is on this kimono, in weird places…!
"Good job." Maria has fun at my expense, man…
"Ow."
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
crreeaak. We've sustained minor hull damage from the stunt we pulled. I think it's worth it! Not like we're gonna need to genuinely float around on water or anything. Might be a problem if Flandre wasn't acting as the engine.
At the moment, however, the S.S. BONER rests in the snow along the shore of the Misty Lake. We kinda just parked it so Flandre could take a break.
"Ma- man…" Flandre's up here on the deck with us! "That, uhm, takes up way more energy… than I thought it would…"
"That's saying something." Remi has her elbows on a garden table. "Are you eating properly?"
"Wha- yeah, Remi. Of course I am. It's just this boat's a whole lot heavier than it was before! We gotta make more use of those jets, Brad."
"Oou." I groan out from a separate garden table…
We've got tables up on the ship now, dude. Genkan, Maria and Shimokoa are here. Ha-chan is busy kinda-sorta attending to the vampire sisters! I'm sure she's just as if not better at service than Sakuya, dude!
The scattered sunlight storm from the small weather event which Shimokoa created earlier has ceased- for awhile now. Now things're just overcast, and I'm sure they'll return to blizzard conditions soon.
We're just enjoying the winter sky. It's really cozy, dude.
Shimokoa sits at the table, arms together, just sort of conserving her energy. Genkan spreads ice magic onto her quietly.
Maria slouches into the table, half-dead! "I-... I don't wanna fight again for a while." She's recovering her will…!
"Mood!" Big mood!
"I- I think… we can all agree, on that." Genkan agrees! "That was… one of the more harrowing encounters. Um." She looks at Shimokoa, who is in fact directly responsible!
Shimokoa just has her eyes closed. Her right eye is still just a rock of ice. Her whole body is deathly thin, skin and muscle seared down to the bone in some places. She shivers as if cold, and her one good eye is somewhat glossy. She's pretty definitively half-dead.
Remilia ogles us from her nearby seat!
...Lookin' at her, I grin airily!
"So?" She smiles! "How'd it go?"
Man. "I'm glad we had Mario Judah on our side."
"Okay." Remilia has no actual reply to that response…!
"Yeah!" Flandre wants to know too! "What was with the pirate battle!? I didn't think we'd be getting raided by pirates! Not on our maiden voyage!" She puts her chin on the table and talks diabolically... "You know that doesn't spell good omens at sea…" Why's Flandre so smug. That's cuddly!
Well, basically, it's like! "Shimokoa over here wanted to rip our heads off. 'Cause she's mad she couldn't hang out with Genkan, basically."
...Shimokoa says nothing. Her brows furrow, but she remains quiet.
While I'm starin' at her, her skin also regenerates, covering the exposed bone around her left eye. Woah!
"That-... that isn't it." She contests my definition. "But…"
She sighs. "It… doesn't matter…"
...In the quiet, Genkan speaks up. "Are… you okay?" She asks Shimokoa.
"No." Ouh.
Genkan's stare flattens out. "Emotionally, I mean."
"No." Yeah, yeehaw!
Remilia grins at me. "You've been making a name for yourself, haven't you?"
Aw. "Whaddaya mean?"
"You've been getting rowdy." Remilia points at me! "Making enemies too. To the surprise of no one, perhaps."
"I didn't expect to make the enemies I did!" I admit!
"Mmm. Sometimes, it's like that." Remilia stared into the winter aether. Really do be like that, huh.
Wait. Right. Hold on, that reminds me!
Reaching into my pockets, I take out the Staples gift card she gave me! "Remi why'd you give me a freakin' Staples gift card when you could've just given me money…!? I don't think Gensokyo even has a Staples!"
Remilia has this easy smile which hits different. "Yukari left that behind. It was because of that Mario guy. I'm not sure if you should consider it payment or a gift."
Hooh. Well…
"What's a Staples, and why does it need gift cards?" I- I like how Remilia doesn't know. "Is it a store? Is it a stapler…? Just a clip of staples?"
"It's an office supply store on the outside!"
"Oh? ...Well, that would make sense."
Yeehaw. Well…
So! I sit up, an' look over the party!
"So, guys…" I rub my hands together! "What should we get to doin'...!?"
"I wanna sleep." Maria is dead, man.
"...I, too, want to sleep." Genkan suggests!
Suddenly, Shimokoa speaks up! "Do not sleep. You will be vulnerable." Woah no!
"We need your info for the machine." I inform them…!
Shimokoa looks at me like I'm a meal she doesn't wanna eat. "What machine?"
Oh, damn, I didn't think anyone would ask that. "The machine…!"
"Brad is joking." Genkan puts it plainly! "...He does that."
"Joking…?" Shimokoa frowns at me! "Don't make fun of me. I- I may rescind this truce." Ah yes, the war. Rescind the truce by doin' what, bleedin' all over me…!?
Y'know, if most of her power was Mima being inside her, the hell can she do now-...
Oh. Fuck, no. Goddamnit! Shit! Egg fuck ass fuck!
"He's not making fun of you. I think." I- I like how even Genkan isn't sure. "He's just being himself."
I was mentally swearing- 'cause I just realized, if Mima was Shimokoa's boss energy juice, then she really did get nerfed just to change teams! Aaaah!
Specifically, "I was making fun of your inflection a little!" I note! "Or, like, not your inflection, just how it sounded. It was so serious that it was dissonant! In a funny way!"
"...I'm surprised you know a word like 'dissonant'." Shimokoa makes fun of me in turn! "Genkan. What is the latest injury you've sustained from him?"
"None?" Genkan looks encumbered. "He's my beloved boyfriend."
"This is Genkan." I will introduce Genkan. "She is the beloved girlfriend. If you treat her well, she may bring you good fortune."
"I know she is Genkan. How the hell would I not know?" Shimokoa is both slightly incredulous and annoyed! "I'm smarter than you think..."
Genkan interjects. "That was a joke, Shimokoa."
"...How?" Shimokoa just doesn't know!
"I'm sure Brad found his inflection funny. It was awkward and weirdly… um…" Genkan can't even describe it!
"I don't know why he is like he is." Maria also admits! "But… he is."
...Shimokoa looks worried!
"Good fortune…" Genkan echoes the last part of that thing I said about her earlier!
I know what we must do.
"Genkan, Maria, do not worry." I inform them. "You two can rest easy. Shimokoa will faithfully defend me throughout the evening."
"Brad, she literally tried to kill you for two hours, just now." Maria firmly disagrees! "I'm-... I'm not gonna let you do that."
"Oh, don't worry! I'll have my good friends Remi, Flandre, and-..." Shit, I need a fourth party member.
I turn to Shimokoa. Wait, I need a fifth party member! "Aw. Do you know any friends? We can have the next adventure quest party!"
"No." Shimokoa frowns hard. "I have no friends." Wow.
"No one?" I wonder.
...Shimokoa narrows her eyes. Er, well, eye. The one that ain't fossilized!
"I- I'm still not okay with this." Maria is really adamant that Shimokoa remains evil!
"Don't you worry your head off, Yamada." Remilia stands from her seat, saunterin' over. "I won't let even fate interrupt our second camping excursion. Come high snow or blazing hell, we're roasting marshmallows tonight."
"What about high water?" Flandre questions impassively behind us…
"Shush." Remilia holds a hand up, facin' it towards Flandre!
Ye. "Genkan, Maria, I'm tellin' ya guys, you can have a nice night snoozin' man! ...Where're ya gonna sleep, actually? I'll retire with you later on, I'm not actually going to sleep in the wild!"
Maria and Genkan share a look. "Where're you guys gonna be going?" Maria asks the next question!
Hell. Home. "I think we'll stop by the human village first, again…!"
Shimokoa nods. "I have a friend who can come with us there."
What. "I thought you just said you had no friends."
"I lied." Shimokoa frowns harder at me!
...Well, alright then!
Flandre gets up too! "We're gonna have to put the ship away~. So it doesn't get stolen." Stolen? An entire ship? ...Well, I guess it could get taken over or raided.
"But, I thought we were going to go sailing..." Ooh. Was Genkan looking forward to it?
Flandre nods at her! "Tomorrow morning! But tonight we wanna go camping."
Remilia contests! "Flandre- you'll ache in the sun. We'll be stuck under a parasol."
"Aah, I can take a little disintegration." Flandre waved off the concern! "As long as Brad uses the engines right, I won't have to carry too hard. And when evening comes, I can do the parking stuff without bein' all achey-breaky afterward, 'cause it'll be darker."
...Remi nods! "Hmm. I see…"
Hoh, shit. I'll keep that in mind! Hol' up wait. "Wait… ain't tomorrow new years? Aren't you gonna be having a party for that?"
Remilia shook her head. "Reimu holds New Years this year. We take Christmas because it's western." Oh. "It's also not exactly the Chinese new year… I'll be honest, I don't remember how that works. But, we'll use your vessel to navigate to the party. Perhaps not in style. We'll make a splash, yes."
A splash, huh. A splaaash. "Remilia, have you finished preparations for the baash?" I make fun of her English, which is probably actually transylvanian or romanian or I don't even know.
"...Stop that." Remilia immediately picks up what I'm putin' down!
Genkan stands up! "Brad, we're coming with you."
You know what, screw it. "Yeah man, we're gonna have an eight player party coalition and we're gonna make some random encounter really freakin' sad…!" I'm trying to divide us up so we can have coherent conversations at all!
Like, Ha-chan hasn't said anything for the past half-hour! She's just been tired…
She's face-down at the garden table Remi and Flandre are at. Okay, maybe that's half 'cause she's passed out… but maybe she wouldn't be passed out if she could get a word in edgewise or was a central character to this scene at all!
...I look at Shimokoa. She's spacing out, giving the table a disgruntled look.
You know, I have to ask! "Okay, Shimokokomo. Question-"
"Shut your filthy human mouth before I make you eat your own shit." Woah! She suddenly got really mad!
"Shimokoa!" Genkan objects! "When did you begin cursing? It doesn't suit you."
...Shimokoa gives her another big angry look! Then, she just resigns herself, looking sad.
Y'know, it's funny. "It's cute when Genkan curses because she doesn't seriously curse ever!"
"It's not cute." Genkan objects!
"It's cute as fuck." I must object in turn!
"...If you say so." Genkan concedes the point for now!
"Genkan, don't be his bitch." Shimokoa's still pretty great though…! "He just insulted you."
Genkan smiles strangely! "I, um… that-... wasn't…?"
Shimokoa looks at me! "Say sorry to her."
"I called her cute!" What do ya want from me!?
"Genkan isn't cute!" You just insulted her sayin' that! "She's not yours! She's a living person!" Whahat the hell are you saying…!?
Remilia palms her own face. "Oh my god." That's sacrilegious! Mostly 'cause you don't believe in god at all, so cursing him is really ironic- y'know, I shouldn't be one to talk-
"I- know?" I try and reason! "Yeah, she's a living person! An' I think some living people are cute and Genkan is one of them! ...I have seen many people and Genkan is one of them!"
Shimokoa bears her teeth. Uh oh. It- it's really cute instead of intimidating, when she doesn't have that stupid magic mask on her face. It made her look like the freakin' cover art of a Disturbed album.
She points at me. "You might think it's amazing that she gets your dick hard, but it's not. See outside of your own fucking head for once, human."
I wave my hands around! "Genkan is only one being and not several!"
Genkan chuckles! "Wha- wait…" Wahaha!
Shimokoa fails to suppress a single chuckle. "...That-... that was not-... what I was arguing."
I think I know what's up. "Son, things can be cute in a non-sexual way. Get yer mind outta the gutter!"
"That's not the point." What- whaddaya mean!? "Genkan is not cute." Ookay.
Alright, we need the council's opinion. "Flandre, is Genkan cute?"
"She's cute!" Flandre beams!
"Maria, is Genkan cute?" The answer is obvious!
"Yea~h." Maria agrees readily! "Genkan's really cute…"
Remilia has a more impassive look. "I'd call her sexy by default. Not the provocative kind. The cuteness would stem from the way one may see her carry herself." Didn't ask for an essay, but she's not wrong!
"You-..." Shimokoa can't really argue with this! "That's-..."
...I like how Genkan looks encumbered. She did not ask for the attention!
"See- she's being cute right now!" I gesture to 'er!
Shimokoa looks at Genkan, mouth ajar! "Ge- Genkan. What are you doing? Fight back." Fight back…!
"From- from what?" Genkan is on an entirely different page than her!
"Everyone's staring at you like prey." Shimokoa warns her! "Isn't it obvious? You're being used. They're amazed by how they feel from your fear, not you." Uuh. Isn't it the other way around? Like- what am I gonna do with fear!?
"What?" Maria objects! "No. That's not how that works. Shut up."
"Prove me wrong."
"She can only act cute if we know how she acts." Maria reasons with her. "It's literally enjoying her personality!"
"Yes." Shimokoa is chad-onna.
...Maria nods! "You- you get it, right?"
Shimokoa nods. "You see her… as naive."
Maria holds her own head! "She's three times as old as me…! If- if anyone's naive, it's me!"
"Such is why it's so satisfying for you." Shimokoa's kinda fucked up, not gonna lie!
Maria leans her head back. "You-... ugh."
Shimokoa- give us a break here! "You-... are giving us a lot more credit than we deserve! Like- we're just kinda vibin' here!"
"Vibin'?" Oh, god, Shimokoa doesn't even know what that means. She looks at Genkan.
Genkan gives her best guess. "I think it means 'hanging out'."
Shimokoa shook her head. "Because you're too blind to see even your own greed. You may not understand it, you may not be able to understand it, but I do."
Genkan interjects. "You know, I wouldn't have reciprocated his efforts if I didn't find him cute in turn."
Wa- wait, hol' up. "How am I cute." I cannot understand.
Genkan finds a dangerously easy expression. "Mmm? You act cute."
"But what do I do that's cute…!?"
"You make cute faces. You have cute mannerisms. I like making you give up." That probably sounds weird to most a' the people here, but I get what she means by that.
I point back at her! "Well- I like makin' you tip over too!"
"That can be nice too. I'm not always sure what provokes you."
"An' I dunno-..." Y'know, I just realized we sound really similar. "You know, it makes a lot of sense that we… like, dunno what about ourselves turns the other person on."
"I mean, I know visual things do it for you, generally." Genkan was able to tell the obvious! "But I can't really comprehend some of the more… mental preferences you have."
"And yours seem mostly mental, so it's hard for me!" Yeah- I dunno, sexual interest shit is hard!
...We look at Shimokoa.
She's so deeply confused.
I snap my fingers! "Y'know what's cute!? I think I know the words for it. It's when Genkan's graceful. Yeah. Whenever it looks like she's subconsciously attempting to be graceful."
...Genkan blinks. After a moment, she looks at herself, then at me! "I don't like that you're right." Wahoo! "I- I notice you getting stuck in your own head too. Just, in your own ways."
"That's true…" I can't always notice that 'cause I'm me. It'd be freaky if I did! Sometimes you gotta just forget it and live.
...We look at Shimokoa!
"So!" With everything said, I hold out a hand! "S'that confirm any of your theories? S'it everything you wanted an' more?"
"But-..." Shimokoa really wants to argue back! "Shu- shut up. This is…"
Genkan sighed. "Brad doesn't see me as naive. He might view the way I carry myself… in his own way, but he doesn't think I'm dumb. We're equals."
Shimokoa opened her mouth.
"Unlike us." Genkan destroys her. "You were always the elder. Always guiding me, and always telling me the way the world was.
"I'm sorry for all this grief I've given you, Shimokoa. However… it's not your role, to choose how I live."
Genkan nods at her. "I'm becoming my own person. On a scale someone like you seemingly cannot comprehend. I've left that old part of my life, when it was just me and you in the void, behind."
Shimokoa looks sad again. "But-... I- I gave up so much. I've done so much to save you, Genkan."
"Save me from what?" Genkan rebukes. "You don't know, do you?"
...Shimokoa is having a real brain blast, man.
"If I'm wrong, what was all that sacrifice for? Do you mean to tell me, that all of what I did was for nothing?"
Genkan nods. "Yes, Shimokoa. Well…"
Maria interjects. "Yes. It was. All you did was hurt Genkan."
I interject instead! "You can learn from yer journey. But…"
"If I won- Genkan… would have learned from me." Shimokoa is just empty. "She would have seen things my way."
"Only because you'd have forced me." Genkan argued back. "I'd be torn. I'd hate you forever. You'd forever be unable to learn of what we shared. All because you were so afraid. That's stupid, Shimokoa. I… don't want to say it, but… over the past few weeks, I've learnt that you were incredibly… incorrect, about so many things you believed so dearly.
"Your extreme views weren't always correct. Humans can be bad, yes, but this is not rule of thumb. You need to learn to recognize exceptions to truly effectively judge.
"You're not the hand of any god, Shimokoa. You're just… my friend. A wounded woman looking for peace in a hard world."
Shimokoa is just the big sad right now.
Yeah. Real vibin' moments…
Shimokoa starts to cry.
"Hh…" She exhales, and sobs. "Hic-... nnn…"
Covering her eyes, she just curls up where she sits.
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
END OF CHAPTER 117
Frozen Shotgun - Shimokoa's never-melting ice shotgun. Not a real shotgun. You can use it to shape danmaku and magic to pretend better, but it's really not meaningful on its own.
NEW SKILLS (BRAD):
Whining Whirl - Whipping around on a pivoting heel, Brad blows away a foe with one wound-up horizontal smack. Most effective with Fallen Comrade.
Crushing Cleave - Leaping straight at his foe, Brad clobbers them with the force of gravity, attempting to crush them with his hanger. Has more forward momentum and intent than his usual mid-air bonks. Most effective with Fallen Comrade.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
yeah yeah yeah yeah!
big combat; i hope the visuals, dialogue and prose keep it lively the whole way through
it was a very pivotal kinda encounter! a very FIERCE encounter…
however, it was really fun to write; i'm wondering about the momentum after the battle is over, and brad has to contend with the logistics of being around a lot of people! i think it's pretty good fun but it's also very cluttered - w -
after this chapter things should be a little more open-ended for brad again! yeehaw, yeehaw
...i don't have a lot else to say 'cause i feel like the arguments and philosophy thrown around this chapter kinda speaks for itself, and honestly the action kinda does too
shimokoa does make for an interesting multi-phase fight though! definitely only something plausible with proper build-up, and in this case it's narratively important 'cause of the whole "human endurance vs. youkai power" angle. even that'll only remain novel for so long so y'know…
post-edits: i managed to change the shimokoa to be a lot more focused, and i like it a lot better
in the first, her angriness persisted and was placed off as a continued gag, when really this is the only thing that could really mark a significant change in her character and i think the experience was 'spiritual' enough to make her… y'know, at least take pause.
as always, see you all next time!
