I want to apologize for this being so late. Along with general laziness, I wanted to get more of the next chapter done. Didn't go as well as I wanted, so I'm posting this now. Enjoy.
Chapter 7: Rising Darkness
A loud clang echoed through the trees.
Skidding to a stop, the metal clad figure reeled back and swung her fist at the target approaching from behind. Another clang rang out as her fist connected with flesh and bone. Wide brown eyes watched in horror as a head rolled into one of the trees, the body fell seconds after.
With a guttural scream, the warrior slammed her fist into another body. Black blood stained silver armor and brown skin, eliciting another scream from the woman's already dry throat.
Countless bodies flew through the air, as the warrior struck at anything that moved. Only stopping when a certain sight caught her eyes. A small body flew into a tree. She could hear bones crack on impact.
Four. She didn't want to think about it. Didn't realize she was counting. That's the fourth child I've…
"Nala!" The voice sounded distant, faded. Through tearing eyes, she spotted him. Wearing a light blue cloak, her partner was running up to her. Blue chains emerged from the ground behind him, ensnaring the creatures that had been pursuing them for the past thirty minutes. "Nala! Come on. We have to go."
She couldn't think straight. Her entire body shaking, she looked down at her arms. Pristine silver armor was stained with a black ichor. The very sight caused her to shake even harder than before as she let out a strangled scream.
A gloved hand grabbed her shaking arm. "Nala. We have to go. My chains won't hold them for long and I can't get out of here without you." She could barely register the sound of creaking chains behind the young mage.
"B-but I…"
"They're not human, Nala! They haven't been for a long time." He was panicking. The blue binds behind him were starting to break. The creatures started moving towards them. "Listen to me, something is blocking our communications. I can try and call for help but we need to run and get somewhere else. We have to find someplace safe."
"Safe? There is no safer place than at the side of my Goddess!" A loud voice echoed through the forest, halting everyone and everything that heard it.
Shaking slightly at the loud voice, Nala turned towards the source. The source turning out to be a tall man in black robe didn't' surprise her. Every one of the undead creatures staring up at the man did.
Every single pair of eyes was drawn to the strange man in black. She had to admit that his appearance would be enough to draw a few stares. The man's pale body was gaunt from lack of food, with black veins clearly visible under his skin. The stringy hair and jagged teeth not doing much to differentiate him from the mindless horde surrounding him. Unlike the other beings however, his eyes shone with life.
"Why do you struggle? Why do you fight? Submit yourselves to my Goddess and you will know the truth." The man spoke like a pastor in front of a church. His voice claiming control over the mindless beings standing before him.
Every word this thing spoke was in praise to its god. How it had saved him from the grave. How it had given him power. And how it had allowed him to save these people.
She felt disgusted. She wanted to run. No, that wasn't right. She wanted to run straight at him and destroy him. There was only one problem. Even if he was still caught up in praising his god, there was still the issue of those zombies near him.
"What say you?" The creature turned towards the pair, his hand placed on one of the zombie's shoulders. "Will you not give yourselves to the true bliss that can be found with my Goddess?"
Too far away. He was out of range. As a Neo-Belkan knight she excelled in close range combat. Sure she knew spells that could allow her to attack at a distance, but her range with them was admittedly pretty pitiful.
She took a step forward. "And allow ya to kill us? Like ya killed all these people." Just a little closer.
The creature frowned. "You are incorrect. I do not kill." He waved his hand over the beings surrounding him. "I have saved these souls from their faithless lives. I have given them power." A wide toothy grin spread across his face. "Just as my Goddess has granted me power."
Another step. "Saved them? Do these people look saved? They're corpses. None of them can even think for themselves." Almost there. One more step.
A hand on her shoulder stopped her from taking another step. "Nala, stop." She could hear the terror in his voice. Breaking out from her tunneled vision she could see why.
Every eye was on her. During her tirade the creatures had started slowly moving towards her again. She was so close.
"How disappointing." Her head snapped back towards the pale man, his face a mixture between disappointed and annoyed. "I had hoped you would be able to see the truth as you do seem to be Magi. However, it seems you are the same as all the rest. Ignorant of the true power of my Goddess." The man's raised an arm towards the pair. "It seems I must show you and make you a believer."
He took a step forward.
Nala's eyes snapped open. In an instant, rings of silver magic appeared over her wrists, and she began gathering magic in front of her. Truthfully, she was in range for her spell already, but only the very end of the blast would have hit her target. She wanted to hit him with the full force of her spell, and for that he needed to be closer.
[Impact-]
With a guttural yell, she stepped forward and brought her arms forward. From behind the ball of mana in front of her, she could see the creature's eyes widen in terror. Whatever that thing had been expecting, it obviously hadn't expected her to be able to cast a large spell so quickly.
One of the advantages of having intelligent devices to help with spell casting.
[-Cannon!]
She could barely distinguish the creature's scream of pain from the echo of her blast. But at this point it didn't matter to her. It's not dead. She wasn't sure how she knew, she simply did. Then again, she had no intention of sitting around to see if she was right.
Turning around, she quickly fired off another blast at the still zombies behind her. Silently thankful that they were too mindless to act without orders, she grabbed her partner's hand and ran as fast as she could towards the city.
The goddess sighed to herself as she floated lazily in the air, her black barrier just inches above her. Tilting her head to look below her, she felt, more than watched, as two humans ran through a forest.
Placing a hand on the barrier, she could feel the smallest of holes. She begrudgingly had to admit that she was impressed that humans had even managed to make a hole that small in her barrier. Sure she wasn't as good at barrier creation as the Hakurei family or that old gap Youkai, but she thought she did rather well with it.
In the end, it didn't matter. The two humans had been chased off before they could do anything else, and from what she knew, they didn't have the kind of power necessary to break through.
Folding her arms behind her head, Suwako Moriya closed her eyes and extended her consciousness over the city. In that moment, she could see everything that was happening.
The Dead were coming out to feed, by order of their master. Said master was slowly shambling after the two humans from earlier. A large group of humans were hiding out in one of the buildings near the edge of town. Sanae… Suwako clicked her tongue. Sanae had met up with the large group. She could hear pieces of their conversation if she concentrated hard enough, but decided it wasn't worth the strain.
She would let the girl do what she wanted for now. It wouldn't matter anyways since they were almost done.
Spreading her consciousness out further, she could see the human that Sanae had been traveling with still in the town. She hadn't moved for a while, which concerned her. However, before she could investigate, something else caught her attention.
Something below her.
Turning over in the air, the blonde scanned the tops of the buildings below her. It only took her a few seconds before she noticed a strange distortion above one of the buildings. Someone or something was trying to hide from her.
A playful smile crept onto the girl's face as she floated down to the roof. She was slightly confused when she entered the distortion though. Rather than being a magical shield, it seemed more like a simple optical illusion.
Landing on the doorway to the roof she blinked curiously at the sight before her. Standing at the fence that surrounded the roof was a lone woman. She had long teal hair, and was wearing a white long coat and what looked like a blue body suit.
Curious, Suwako jumped to the fence in front of the woman. Now that she was in front of her, she could see that the woman was wearing a strange metal visor over her eyes that blocked them from view, as well as another piece of metal around her neck with the symbols "IV" engraved in it. Peeking her curiosity further was a set of mint green holo-screens floating in front of the woman. On them she could see various images from around the city.
"Hum? Well this is interesting. I don't remember letting someone like you in."
The strange woman tilted her head upwards slightly, as though she hadn't noticed the smaller girl until now. Without a word, she looked back down at one of the screens and pressed a button twice, seemingly annoyed at something.
"So? Just who are you?" She floated next to the woman in question. "Something about you seems… off."
The stoic woman uttered a single word. "Defend."
Suwako didn't have time to register what was happening before she reacted. She flipped in the air as something slashed through the air where her stomach was seconds ago. Locks of blonde hair entered her vision before she had to twist her body away from another slash.
Righting herself in midair she looked at her assailant and let out a small laugh. She certainly hadn't expected to see her again. She inwardly cursed as a jagged black sword slashed at her again, shearing through the top of the fence she had landed on.
Once safely in the air again, she looked over her attacker. Her blonde hair was longer than she remembered, now reaching down to the middle of her back, and she was taller than she was back then. And she certainly didn't remember the black sword or mist of red circling her head. The only thing that looked the same was the black dress and white, long-sleeved undershirt she wore, though they were extremely worn. The red and white ribbon she had previously wore in her hair was now suspiciously absent.
"Well, this certainly is a surprise. I didn't expect to see-" The blonde goddess was cut off by large sword being stabbed at her. She landed on the edge only to have to jump away as the Youkai brought the sword upward in another attempt to cut her.
"Enough."
The Youkai stopped mid-swing, a small flash of pain appearing in her dull, red eyes. Looking at the woman's neck, Suwako saw a black and blue collar. The occasional spark jumped from the collar, causing the tall blonde to wince at each occurrence.
Suwako sat down in midair, her hands behind her head, and looked back and forth between the two woman. If she wasn't curious before, she certainly was now.
The first question she had she didn't even need to ask. Any Youkai worth their salt knew how to extend their life. It was a rather simple process if she thought about it. Just like Magicians were able to survive through consumption of mana alone, Youkai could supplement their natural needs with mana as well. They would have to make some sacrifices however.
The next question she had was how someone like her, with no noticeable magical presence, was able to control such a powerful Youkai so easily.
"Who are you?"
She looked over at the teal-haired woman. She hadn't even looked up from the screens she was watching.
She laughed. "My, my. Aren't you presumptuous." The woman tilted her head slightly in Suwako's direction. "You sneak into my barrier, hide from me, and attack me. Then you have the nerve to ask me for my name." Her smile turned into a wicked grin. "I should kill you for your insolence."
The woman, to her credit, didn't flinch under the God's evil grin and simply looked back at the screens in front of her. "Quatro."
Suwako frowned. "And just what are you doing here, Quatro?"
"Research."
Suwako suppressed a groan at the woman's monotone. Apparently the woman still heard her as she spoke again.
"I have orders to research the TSAB." Quatro shifted uncomfortably. "My master wants to know how the TSF compares to the TSAB of old."
Suwako raised an eyebrow at the strange wording. "Of old? What are you some kind of time traveler or something?" While the idea wasn't unheard of from animes and things like that, as long as her memory wasn't failing her, actual application of time travel was extremely risky.
Quatro shook her head with a stutter. "No. Another universe."
The God blinked rapidly. This just became interesting. Gensokyo itself existed in another universe, at least she thought it did, so the idea of crossing over into another universe wasn't a foreign idea to her. To meet someone else who had managed to do what she had been able to with the help of the gap Youkai was more than enough to peek her interest.
Her eyes drifted over to the flesh eater. "And what about her? What did you do to make her so cooperative? Deprive her of food?"
"Nothing." Quatro shifted again. "Found her like that."
It's just one surprise after another with these two. Now she understood. Looking closely, she could see dark bags under the Youkai's eyes. In other words, she had refused to go into hibernation and had gone insane as a result.
All Youkai, Faries and Magicians naturally absorbed mana as a way to sustain their lives, and just as naturally, they were able to cut the flow whenever they decide enough is enough. Most Youkai, obviously, chose to continue their lives as long as they could. The only problem was that absorbing too much mana over a prolonged period of time came with a few drawbacks.
Golden eyes flashed within pools of pure black as she looked over the Flesh Eater. Insanity. That was how they had always described it since every Youkai was affected differently. Before she had left Gensokyo, she had seen several of the older Youkai enter this state. Ranging from the Pheonix to the Kappa, all Youkai would eventually fall insane.
The only solution they had come up with was a form of hibernation where the affected Youkai would purge excess mana and "decompress", as the Doctor had put it.
Suwako clicked her tongue and turned away from the tall woman. Apparently, this "decompressing" did more than just letting the Youkai rest. Several Youkai, including the Gap Youkai, had mentioned that they had inconsistancies in their memories upon waking up. While this wasn't debilitating, many saw the loss of memories as a great sin and refused to hibernate.
Sparing the Flesh Eater one last thought, she wondered if her memories were truly that precious to her. Either that or she was still as stupid as she remembered. She sincerely hoped it was the latter.
"And you?" Suwako tilted her head at the tall woman. "Your name?"
She suppressed a small groan of embarrassment. "Suwako Moriya. I'm the God that created this space." She couldn't help but let a bit of pride creep into her voice.
"I see." That pride was quickly deflated at the woman's monotone.
She watched as Quatro continued to shift uncomfortably. "You don't talk much do you?"
Quatro shook her head. "Uno… sister says I should… talk more." A small smile graced her lips. "She seems happy when we talk."
Suwako didn't have time to ask anything else as one of the screens began beeping. Quatro poked one of the screens briefly before turning to the tall blonde.
"Intruders. Find them." Looking over her shoulder, Suwako saw an image of the two humans from before hiding in some building. Judging by Quatro's reaction, she guessed this one.
The blonde Flesh Eater shuddered once from the collar and turned towards the door. The black sword in her hand evaporating into a pitch-black mist that proceeded to surround her.
Loud coughing and sputtering filled the small room. Looking down he could barely see the small pool of vomit underneath his partner. Without a word, he offered his canteen of water to her. She drank half of it before spitting it back out and falling backwards against the wall.
Confident that she could get her breathing back under control, Michael took a quick glance around the room. Judging by the long table and white board he assumed they had taken refuge in an office of some sort. Either that or classrooms were changing quite a bit. To one side of the room, he could see the unchanging black sky through a set of long windows. The other side however, may as well have been windows to outside, as it was impossible to see anything but indistinct shapes in the neighboring rooms.
Michael sighed as he leaned back. A flash of silver caused him to jump before he realized it was simply Nala finishing off the water in the canteen. He knew he should be worried, but it would take a while for the horde of creatures to climb up seven stories to them.
"The captain's not going to be too happy."
"Why?" The strangled question caught him off guard. He looked over to see a pair of brown eyes looking at him, but at the same time, not seeing him.
"Well, I mean, we had to fly to get up here right. And…" He stopped himself as he considered their predicament. "Ah, then again… nevermind." He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall.
"If we didn't fly we would still be dealing with those things down there. And I… I don't think I would have been able to do that again." Metal clanked against the floor as Nala shifted to hand back the canteen. "Thank you."
He felt his cheeks burn. "Oh. No problem. Well, I guess I shouldn't really be saying that. I didn't do much."
Nala laughed slightly. "Really? If ya hadn't stopped me I would still be fighting those things. Heck, I'd probably be dead."
Michael looked over at her. With her short blonde hair matted to her face, she looked like a complete wreck. Honestly, he was more surprised that she was still standing at this point. He was sure that even in this darkness he must look like a ghost.
"I doubt that. In fact, it's probably the other way around. If I didn't have someone like you protecting me, I would probably be just another one of them."
He looked down at his gloved hands. "You're strong. I always had to rely on Tom or Roland to help me."
"Strong, huh?"
He nodded.
"Thanks. I know it doesn't mean much, but it feels good to hear that." Metal shifted as Nala brought her legs into her chest. "I was the runt of the litter, so to speak. Our family was pretty big. I have five older brothers, and all of them were strong enough to pick me up over their heads and throw me wherever they liked." She laughed. "They were only about two heads taller than me back then."
Michael gave her an inquisitive look. Truthfully, he didn't know much about the members of his unit other than Roland or his brother, but he couldn't help but wonder what brought this on.
"When I learned about the existence of magic, you'd have no idea how happy I was. It was the first thing I could do that my big, strong older brothers couldn't. They tried, but none of them could understand the calculations necessary."
"So you were from an Unadministrated Planet?"
Nala nodded. "Number 62. It's pretty out of the way, and I only found out because I saw a rookie mage cast magic. I tried to copy it, and made a spark. That mage's commanding officer found me the next day."
A small smile graced her lips. "I thought I would finally be able to become stronger. Someone like my brothers. I was actually surprised to find out that other people from my planet were active mages, but that just pushed me to become stronger." She turned to face Michael. "It feels kind of good to know that my hard work hasn't been for nothin'. Thanks."
He whipped his head away from the woman next to him as he felt his face begin to burn. A small chuckle made his face burn again with embarrassment. So that's it. I guess this is her way of relieving the tension. He sighed to himself.
"What about you?" He tilted his head back to look at her. "Why did ya join the TSAB?"
He considered telling her the normal story he told everyone who asked, which admittedly wasn't very many people, but figured telling a bit more wouldn't hurt. "You know Tom and I are twins right?" At her nod, he continued. "Our family has a strong military background, so our parents were rather adamant about us joining up and continuing the tradition. I guess."
"You probably won't believe this, but Tom actually didn't want to join the Army at first. He didn't think he had any talent as a mage or a soldier. Well, I didn't either, but that's besides the point." Michael held out his hand, palm up, and began to concentrate. A light blue circle materialized above his hand, and seconds later a small orb of blue material appeared. Picking up his canteen with his free hand, he tipped the material over and it dripped into the canteen.
"Water?" He had heard the surprise before the few time he had shown his ability before, and like those other times, he had a hard time keeping a smile from forming on his face. After all, being able to create water through magic without the extra calculations was pretty rare.
"Yeah. Turns out I have a Mana Conversion Affinity for water of all things. I found a book explaining it and just decided to try it out. Shocked just about everyone in our family."
He put down the canteen. "After that, our parents practically forced us to join the Army. I'm still not sure why, but Tom became a lot more interested in military stuff after that point. I want to think that I maybe inspired him, but I seriously doubt it."
He turned back to see Nala eyeing the canteen next to him. "Oh. I-I didn't do that. The water I create is saturated with mana, so it would have to be filtered first." Nala let out a sigh of relief. "I'm not good enough to do something like that yet."
"But that's really impressive. Isn't natural mana conversion a really rare technique? Especially for an element like this." She picked up the canteen and swished the water around a few times.
He laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. I mean it's not as impressive as fire or lightning, or as neat as ice, but it's still pretty handy though."
"Yeah, defiant-" In an instant, Nala was on her feet and turned towards the hallway behind her.
Michael slowly got to his feet and tried to peer through the windows. Instead of the shuffling of many pairs of feet and the smell of rotting meat, he heard the soft click of a single pair of shoes and felt a massive pressure surround him.
The clicking came closer, until a massive blob of darkness appeared at the edge of the window. The blue mage suppressed a shudder at what that meant. Something even darker than a complete blackout was passing in front of him at that moment. He didn't even think that was possible until tendrils of black mist started to slide under the door.
Nala took a step away from the door. Her metal boots clinked, and the door burst apart.
White sparks lit up the room as metal screeched against metal. Michael fell back as a long black sword stopped inches from his face. Recovering quickly, he looked up in time to see a red-eyed woman with long blonde hair forcefully shove Nala onto the long table with her sword.
Without a second glance at the fallen boy, the woman jumped on the table and slashed at her armored opponent. Michael could do nothing but stare as his partner was pushed into the air and thrown through the back wall with a single sword swing.
"Nala!"
The figure froze at the end of the table. Michael quickly readied himself for a shield spell as the figure turned to look at him.
And then continued to look around the room.
What the? Blood red eyes continued to scan the room. The soft click of her shoes signified her moving slightly. Is it possible she… can't see?
Before he could ponder that question anymore, a loud crack resounded through the room. Nala had just sucker punched her assailant. The next sounds to follow were those of cracking wood, as the large sword cut into the table, followed by another crash of metal.
Even if he could only see thanks to the sparks, he knew she wouldn't be able to block the follow up.
"Ha!" He didn't think. He simply yelled at the top of his lungs.
It was enough. The woman hesitated and looked back towards him as though trying to determine his position. That was just enough time for a metal fist to slam into her face again, spinning her around and hopefully knocking her out.
Another flash of light quickly dashed that hope. Nala had just enough time to block the blade from cutting her in half before she was flung into the air again. This time through the window into the hall.
This is bad. That was all he could think. A few clicks told him the woman was still staggering from the blows to her head, but with how powerful she was all it would take was one sloppy swing anyways. We have to get out of here.
The woman got her bearings and started after her fallen opponent. Blonde hair swayed slightly as she hit the median separating the rooms. If he was careful he could probably sneak out the open door while she tried to work out the layout.
No, that won't work. She may be blind, but someone that powerful should be able to sense me even if I fly. He needed a distraction.
The canteen of water caught his eye. He threw it.
The canteen bounced off the wall and further down the hallway. As he hoped, the woman took off after the foreign sound, her sword tearing up the ground below her.
Not wasting any time, Michael jumped through the already destroyed glass and grabbed Nala, who was just getting to her feet. The canteen was sliced in half, and a loud click told him she had turned around. He had no time left.
Not knowing what else to do, he formed a ball of water in his hands and fired it backwards just as his partner fired a small bullet. The two spells collided and pellets of water and mana struck their opponent.
All he heard was a roar of rage as he kept running. One of the pellets might have hit her eye or she could be confused by the sounds around her, he didn't know. Didn't care. As long as he could get to the wall without any trouble they could blast through it.
Two seconds later, the wall exploded in a shower of stone and the two mages jumped out into the black sky. Michael made an important discovery at that moment. The communications jamming had weakened for a moment.
He screamed to everyone on the other line.
Emergency SOS! Emergency SOS! Somebody please respond! We were attacked at the meeting point. Currently finding somewhere to hide. Someone is jamming our communications. Location unknown. The zombies are moving with their leader and there is a third Youkai signal. I repeat, there is a third Youkai signal. Possible AA rank. Requesting assistance.
The signal cut out, and the two mages flew out into the black sky.
The briefest glimmers of light started to filter over the trees before finally making its way into the top window of the Moriya Shrine. The birds began to tweet as they started to wake up, and the crickets started to die down as the forest surrounding the shrine came back to life.
At least that was what should be happening.
Kanako Yasaka sighed to herself as she stared out the window over the front of the shrine. The inky, black dome blocking any possible sunlight from coming through.
Morning was coming and, in her mind, the end of this incident was coming to an end as well. With a groan she did have to concede that this was an incident worthy of the red-white. Only this time, it looked like the resolver would be blue-white.
She looked down at her hand. Or maybe even blue-green.
She looked down at the pale wisp in her hand.
Tilting her head up, Kanako pulled her head backwards and a flash of silver cut across her vision.
Normally relaxed red eyes bore into hers. The being in front of her twisted the scythe in her hands and slashed at her again, forcing the Goddess of Harvest to jump back or risk decapitation. Without a hint of hesitation or mercy, the redheaded shinigami jumped after the source of her anger.
Another jump backwards, and another slash barely dodged. The sand around the river faded away into grassland. It was another step closer. Another step away from the edge of the Sanzu River and another step closer to the opening in the ceiling.
Kanako stumbled as the scythe blade flew upward, missing her head by inches. With a small smile she thrust her free hand into the ground. From beneath her opponent rose a large wooden column. Despite the speed at which it appeared, it only managed to graze the woman.
That was enough. She turned and jumped into the air. She heard the familiar slice of wind from the scythe cutting through her onbashira, but she was already flying towards the opening above her. Just a little further and she would be able to escape.
A flash of silver crossed her vision.
The red Goddess flipped backwards as the scythe skimmed the air in front of her face. She had forgotten. This woman wasn't simply a shinigami; she was responsible for ferrying souls across the Sanzu River. How far away she was meant nothing to someone who was capable of manipulating distance with just a thought. She felt her face contort into a grimace as the blade was twirled into a position better suited to cutting her down.
The blade fell, only to collide with a metal ring. The resulting clash was enough to distract the woman long enough for a second ring to bite into her shoulder, sending her tumbling through the air.
Kanako righted herself as her smaller partner laughed down at the bleeding reaper. "Whew, that was close. Guess you owe me another one Kanako."
The redhead below simply looked between the two Goddesses, the anger from before still present. "Aw, what's the matter Ferryman? Are you sad now that your precious red-white has crossed over?"
Suwako, too busy laughing at her own ill-timed joke, failed to notice the shinigami's face quickly change from one of pain and shock to one of hatred and rage.
Kanako blinked and the woman had vanished. With a speed that matched the late maid of the Scarlet Devil, the shinigami had disappeared from her sight.
A loud crack echoed through the cavern. Even as she turned to look at her partner, a flash of purple flew past her and blue and red entered her vision. Red eyes, which merely shined in anger before, now burned with a fury she had never seen before.
Silver once again streaked towards her neck.
"Komachi, enough!"
The tip of the blade was a hairs breath away from her neck.
Daring herself to look over the scythe, Kanako saw the distinctive golden headdress of the judge of the underworld.
"I said that's enough Komachi!"
The redhead grit her teeth before screaming in frustration, and disappearing from view. She appeared an instant later, kneeling, next to the Yama.
"What do you hope to accomplish?" A look of disappointment flashed across the green-haired woman's face. "She has already accepted her end. Nothing you do can change that."
She pointed the wooden rod in her hand at the pale wisp. "What you hold there is nothing more than the essence of the being Sanae Kochiya. Her soul is resting, awaiting reincarnation. You would deny her that." It wasn't a question.
A small smile played on the woman's lips. "This is what you wanted correct?" With a flick of her rod, Kanako's body began to glow white. "Very well. I judge you to now be the only one capable of reincarnating the soul of the moral Goddess, Sanae Kochiya."
She mentally cheered. The only thing better was the look of utter disbelief on the ferryman's face.
"However," the yama flicked her rod downward, and the wisp glowed black. Kanako pulled the wisp towards her own body to try and shield it, but the damage was already done. "For you arrogance in stepping into my territory, I hereby judge that you shall lose that which you hoped to obtain. With each reincarnation, all of her memories will be wiped and she will be forced to start anew. Though it is no fault of the shrine maiden, this is what must be done." Shiki Eiki stared up at the cowering Goddess. "If anyone is to blame, it is her foolish Gods, for being unable to do what she was able to."
The two Goddesses were exiting the cavern as the Yama's final words washed over them. "Will you still be able to love her as you do now when she is no longer the same?"
A loud bang echoes throughout the city. The red Goddess jumped slightly and brought a hand to her head, gritting her teeth.
"Damn it. I can't fall asleep yet."
She looked down at her hand. "Will I still be able to love her, huh?"
Yes, she was different. Every single reincarnation was completely different from the original in someway or another. And yet, every one of them had been completely devoted to the two of them. Every one of them… except for this incarnation.
An image of a thirteen-year-old Sanae holding a black leather jacket popped into her mind.
Lady Kanako, look. It looks just like a mage's jacket.
Kanako let out a heavy sigh. The incident was coming to an end, and the mage would be coming for her soon enough. She had might as well prepare.
Universal Law #1: Single Instance
There can only be one instance of any single being in any universe.
While time travel and universal travel are both possible, they are also extremely dangerous for various reasons. First being that the universe does not like having multiple instances of a single person around. As a result, if this ever occurs, it will attempt to remove one of the instances. Only problem, it doesn't know which instance to erase. So it will simply attempt to remove both instances. The instance that lasts longer stays.
There are only two exceptions to this rule: A powerful enough force must be actively allowing the second instance to exist. (Shirou and Archer as an example) Or if the two are different genetically. (A human Subaru would be able to exist in the same universe as a cyborg Subaru)
How does this relate to the story? Gensokyo is treated as its own universe. All routes into Gensokyo, no matter where they originate from, lead to the same place. Therefore, there is only one Suwako, one Reimu, and one Yukari throughout all universes. Overall, not too important, but important nonetheless.
As always, I would love to hear any thoughts. Good, bad, it doesn't matter. Thanks for reading.
