A/N: Let's crank up the pacing, shall we?
Review Responses:
Sagnik Deb: Why, aren't you energetic?
Guest: Noted and fixed the previous chapter to be less obnoxious.
Guest: I don't remember ever being sober when writing this fic of mine.
tsun: I'm glad you've taken such an interest with my fic! I've also fixed the previous chapter as even I felt the memes to be grating once I reviewed it myself.
"." - normal speech
'.' - thoughts
"." - Telepathy or other thought communications
Chapter 9: First Night in Gensokyo IX
Touma did not imagined himself waking up to be chaperoned by the genderbent version of Accelerator.
And that is why we must congratulate him.
At each other's side, the boy had no choice but to follow the girl. Who, utilising her refined ability, used echolocation to locate an exit at the eastern end of the forest.
"Soooo…You were a girl this whole time, Yuriko-chan…" Touma started the conversation awkwardly. It took a lot of willpower not to call her Accelerator. He had not grown accustomed to the change in formality quite yet.
"Mmhm." Suzushina hummed in response. The girl mellowed out after their reunion. "I didn't think you were dumb enough to fall asleep in some unknown forest in the middle of rural Japan."
"That's nothing compared to sleeping in a bathtub for five months." Touma said flatly.
Suzushina turned her head towards Touma with raised eyebrows.
"The hell!? Don't you at least have a functioning apartment like every other student in Academy City? You're certainly a bit abnormal if you're able to handle that sort of situation." Touma brushed off the rude comment.
"That's a long story better saved another day. I'm more interested in your circumstance and how you got into this mess."
She snorted.
"You're lucky I'm not going to ask the same of you. I could perfectly imagine you stepping into the middle of this shithole for some nonsensical and ridiculous reason, as usual." Suzushina whipped her head back to the front.
"Yeah, well that's how the song and dance usually goes for me." Touma shrugged his strained shoulders, grimacing from the pain his muscles were experiencing.
"My situation is probably nothing as spectacular as your entrance."
Touma coughed from that comment.
"I woke up in some sunflower field and met with an exotic woman with green hair. She wore plaid clothes and appeared to be some granny tending to her flower field." Suzushina recounted the meeting between her and the Master of Four Seasons.
A thoughtful expression lit up Touma's face.
"I bet she had a really dense onee-san aura…" Touma muttered quietly to himself.
This did not go unnoticed by Suzushina, who heard it with her enhanced hearing.
"That bitch was real good at hiding her bloodlust."
A sneer marred her face.
"I had my doubts, and they were proven the moment I stepped into the forest. I let it happen because I needed directions to the nearest human settlement. Bitch pulled a fast one on me and attacked me." Suzushina clicked her tongue in annoyance.
Touma hummed for a moment before cutting in. "Did she by chance… feel somewhat inhumane to you?"
He was fully confident of her victory being well aware of her power. Otherwise, she wouldn't be by his side right now.
"Obviously. When that fucker got her arm broken by my reflection, it healed back as simply as just popping the bone in place." Suzushina folded her arms. "Then, she tried using magic, like conjuring some pretty flowers to bloom as an attack." She shook her head amused.
He nodded in understanding.
"Yeah, that's Gensokyo for you. The land of youkai."
She eyed him with a raised brow.
"You're telling me those forgotten demons of Japan still exist? How come?"
A sigh escaped his lips. He sympathised with their mutual predicament.
"I'm in the dark as much as you are on this."
"So why are you so sure that these are youkai we are dealing with?"
Now, Touma wasn't one to be distrustful of every single individual he met. But when you've got an acquaintance's alter ego acting all chummy with you, it tends to raise a few red flags. Suzushina was obscenely suspicious from the get go. Still, withholding information wasn't a viable option considering the person to his side could manhandle him until sunrise. Besides, sharing information will no doubt be mutually beneficial regardless of her intent. He just hoped the imposter would lower their guard, even for a little while.
"When I came to, I was in a rubble of junk and someone who appeared out of nowhere decided to help me settle in with this place. Rinnosuke-san didn't strike me as malicious, and he was kind enough to provide me the general outline of this place. Though he was a bit loose in the head."
Suzushina hummed in response, indicating for him to continue. It was her nature to take a stance of silence until she had enough information to contribute to the conversation.
"The big thing to know about Gensokyo is that youkai won't treat outsiders, namely humans, too kindly since the rules don't have much leeway in protecting us. I don't really need to go too deeply into what that means do I?"
Touma shuddered, feeling like he was naked, surrounded by predatory eyes watching him. Paranoia perhaps, but you can't be too careful in a lawless world.
"So that's how it is. No wonder a horde of trash tried to lunge at me and got mangled up for their trouble, the fools. What a pain in the ass." Suzushina scowled. "Those critters remind me of Qliphah."
Touma was reminded of his brief interaction with that bizarre, translucent demon that hung around Accelerator. Back when Hamazura, Accelerator, and himself were trading words in some restaurant back in Windsor. It was becoming difficult to discern whether Suzushina was the genuine Accelerator in his memories, especially when he isn't aware of the Level 5's interpersonal circle, so he couldn't disprove any of her words.
"Ah, yeah you could say that. I'm almost certain youkai are completely composed of supernatural elements. Guess I can't swing this hand of mine willy-nilly whenever I want this time." Touma's brows creased together in thought.
A faded memory came to him where Imagine Breaker failed to break apart some small bluenette girl. The pits of his stomach churned imagining the idea of touching another youkai with Imagine Breaker.
"Won't have to keep at those thoughts for long. We'll be reaching the human settlement soon, hopefully to have some questions answered. If you'd like some souvenirs before we depart, that'll be a good place to do so."
Touma lifted a finger to gesture for attention.
"Rinnosuke-san told me of a method to leave this place when we planned to go to the Hakurei Shrine near the human village. It's at the easternmost edge of Gensokyo's barrier."
"Hmph. Makes up for a lot of time searching a path."
Things flowed into a comfortable silence between the pair. They soaked up time for themselves to continue the discussion on another pressing matter.
Suzushina noticed the male's distrusting stance. His eyes glanced back at her sporadically, his fingers twitched occasionally and the constant distance at arms-length kept between them seemed to bother him. She looked forward again to hide her frown.
To distract herself, she decided to test something and pulled out her cellphone.
The action visibly startled Touma, deepening her frown from his tactless reflex.
"I'm just checking if there's any service around these parts." She spat those words at him, hoping to ease his nerves and quell her mild annoyance at his actions.
"No need. I tried it earlier with mine, didn't work… Wait, where is my phone?" Touma scrambled to his person and did an item check. He slowly lost his composure when the usual presence of a rectangular plastic item was nowhere to be found. "Ehehehe… Yuriko-chan, you don't think it's any trouble for us to turn back. I may or may not have displaced my phone." He smiled wry at her, pleading with his eyes.
They came to a stop now that the male member decided it was a good time to have their priorities screwed.
"Look, dumbass. We're almost near the human settlement." She gave him a pointed look, which he squirmed under. "Once we get out of this shithole, we can go back to Academy City and buy you a new one."
He tilted his head cutely.
"Together? Like a date?"
Suzushina flushed pink and turned her head away from him with an annoyed expression.
"Can you not insinuate disgusting shit from some harmless gesture!? We aren't wasting more time to look for a cheap device you can easily replace! And that is final!"
The harmless spiky-haired boy grew indignant in opposition.
"It's not something to be replaced so easily! Do you not realize how difficult it is for a normal high school boy living in poverty like me to find the money for another one!?"
That comment somehow elicited something from Suzushina's mind.
"Not this shit again...There he goes calling himself a normal high school boy… I'm stuck over here with miss depressing, and Yuriko gets to have all the fun…"
The voice disappeared from Suzushina's memory as quickly as it appeared. She was left with a lingering discomfort but ignored it as if it were a benefit to her.
"Also, all my contacts were on that phone, including yours!"
"Hah? Did you think I would care about you treasuring my contact information in your personal phone? Get real." Suzushina smirked, even though she found a bit of joy in her heart knowing he had her number.
She and Touma were quick to notice that the rain above turned quiet all of a sudden. The former extended her senses towards the air and scanned above.
"The rain suddenly receded for some odd reason."
The idiot decided it was a good opportunity to cut in his earlier request.
"But isn't that good? That means the trek back to search for my phone won't be too much of a hassle for us."
Suzushina had her eyebrows arched at him. "Dude, If that phone holds so much importance for you, you can go back on your own." She half-heartedly told him, thinking he wasn't going to take the advice so serious.
She was proven wrong by him contemplating her words, and a bit of regret invaded her conscious.
"Hmm…" Touma mused her words in sincere consideration, which ticked her off. "Well, I can't exactly force you to follow me. For now, I guess this is where we depart huh?" Touma stated rather than questioned.
Truthfully, he still couldn't trust nor feel secure around Suzushina. He wasn't familiar with Gensokyo, so she was likely to be some apparition taking the form of someone he was familiar with to whittle his guard down and lay a trap down in advance. He felt such a tactic wasn't out of tune with his impression of Gensokyo. This person did a rather poor job since they got the gender wrong to begin with.
"Is my company that undesirable?" Suzushina frowned.
It was difficult to come up with a response. There was almost no uncertainty that she was on to him. He also wished for them to split apart so that he could get away from whatever potential danger that was going to crawl out from Suzushina.
Bearing Suzushina acknowledging his suspicions for her, Touma replied. "No, it's nothing like that. I feel a lot more safe with you by my side no doubt. I just feel certain there's no immediate danger in going back to look for my phone. Isn't it strange that we haven't been attacked by any youkai during the entire time we walked?"
Suzushina was about to reply to that with a comment about being lucky, but soon shut up knowing that this was the very unlucky Kamijou Touma in front of her. She tapped a foot to the ground and checked the layout of the forest a couple of square kilometers and met with no results indicating a living soul.
Seeing her grunt and nod in acceptance to his words, Touma crossed his arms. "Look, I'll make sure to catch up really soon. I can work on getting back here using our footprints now that the rain has stopped." Touma cupped his chin. "I also need a favor from you. Could I borrow your phone? Just so that I can have a light source on me and use the ringtone of my phone to guide me."
Suzushina and Touma gazed into each other for some time until she opened her mouth to rebuttal him.
"No. I'll make sure you don't get into more trouble then you've already been through. Knowing you, you'll probably be drafted in even more stupid shit without someone to steer that empty level 0 head of yours. It's literally been an entire week since that imposter stole your right hand."
Suzushina pulled out her flip phone and flung it at him which he caught. "That's why you aren't going to be kept away from my eyesight for the sake of my precious time."
"What? Don't you trust me?" Touma smiled graciously, feeling satisfied that things were moving towards his way somewhat. It unnerved him a little that she complied to give her phone even though he no longer had an excuse for it. "It's not like I'm some precious metal that needs to be locked in a treasure chest."
He flipped her phone open with a satisfying creak and peered into Suzushina's contact info. What was found left him even more confused. His supposed phone number inside perfectly matched his actual one. If Suzushina's words about watching him sleep were to be trusted, she could've snatched his phone and inputted the sequence of numbers in hers. He glanced at the other contacts on the phone to make sure he memorized them into being a non-issue in the future.
'Eh? Why is Komoe-sensei's number here? There's also Hamazura's here too. She also just admitted to knowing about everything that happened in Windsor recently, including that pink and emerald bastard…'
The deeper he dug, the more unimpressed he became.
Then, all of a sudden, he saw it.
"Alright, hold it." Touma stated with a flat tone. "Why do you have several photos of me sleeping on the spot where you found me?"
Touma shoved the screen into her face, showing one of the aforementioned photos he stumbled upon.
Impressively, Suzushina did not flinch from having such shameful contents exposed.
"My, my. First you wanted to get rid of me, and now you're breaching the privacy of my personal property? That's pretty dirty for a hero y'know." Suzushina ribbed at him with a smug smile.
Shivers ran up his arms. His eyes widened in horror.
"No, no matter what angle you look at it, isn't this really creepy!? And I'm the one having his personal privacy breached. I could sue you for this!" He exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Suzushina looked to be pretty proud of herself.
"Not like a level 0 such as you can get any leverage on a level 5 like me within court." She aimed her thumb at herself. "I simply had the great idea to embed your stupid face on my door, and whenever I wake up, I would get a good cackle out of looking at it."
Touma gasped. The normally passive boy was willing to protest aggressively at the felony.
"This is pure tyranny! W-Where is the justice!? De-delete this! I'm going to delete this right now!" Touma stumbled in his words.
"Let's not waste anymore time and get to it." Suzushina stated as she strode forward and snatched her phone back, turning on her heel, and departing without letting Touma compose himself.
"A-ah! Wait! Don't leave me behind!" Touma trotted over to keep up with her pace, having already forgotten the crime committed against him.
The pair resumed their rather strange and undefined relationship. Neither of them wanted to be responsible enough to break the ice surrounding their unspoken partnership.
Their conflicted hearts were ignored in favor of maintaining this flawed rapport. They would trade intermittent small talk to stave off the uncomfortable silence.
"So...what have you been up to after coming back to Academy City?"
Suzushina feigned interest.
"Hoh? What, you wanna be friends or some shit now? Keep in mind that no matter how much you butter me up, I'm not going to play favorites with my students." The suspicious girl wore a smug look.
Much to the confusion of the Imagine Breaker.
"I don't understand? You teach? Never really thought a student would be allowed such a position in the world of adults in Academy City."
Suzushina placed a hand to her neck and cracked it.
"It's only a step towards attaining my true goal. It's a precarious world and the one asset that can ensure your survival in it is power. The higher you go up the ladder, the more secure you are."
Touma didn't fully agree to such a viewpoint and was ready to point it out.
"But power itself isn't enough to sustain your life in such a world. You've got something worth fighting for, right?" He cast a worried glance at her. "And I imagine with more power at your disposal, more enemies will crawl up from under the shadow it casts."
She looked none too worried about potential enemies.
"Naturally. However." Suzushina grinned in a fitting ferocity belonging only to her. "Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the number one ranked Level 5."
"Hahahaha." The spiky-haired boy's chuckle seemed to lighten the mood in the forest ever so faintly, the same way a match somberly brightens when lit. "Then, you have more people important to you other than the tiny Misaka sister, right?"
Suzushina looked thoughtful and a funny thought popped to mind.
"Yeah, you." She proclaimed.
Eyes shot up from those two daring words.
"Eh!?" He wasn't sure if he heard correctly.
"Yeah, you?"
A relieved sigh was his only response.
"Oh, you were just asking me." The dense Kamijou Touma looked forward again just in time to miss Susushina lifting her collar to hide her flushed face behind the fur.
"Learn to keep your oscillating ovaries in check, Yuriko! And you're taking him in the wrong direction! WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME!?"
There was an unnoticed and camouflaged mop of green hair somewhere nearby watching them.
"People that are important to me, huh…" Touma trailed off somberly with his hands in his pocket. A certain constriction lumped his parched throat for some reason.
Suzushina found this attitude to be somewhat out of place from him.
"The guy who yaps about the corniest crap with a straight face all the time is now embarrassed when it comes to his most important people. Unexpected." Suzushina snidely giggled.
Touma directed one pointed look to the amused girl before composing himself.
"I...I'm unsure if I even have the right to be the one to protect them, not only after Windsor, but the countless other times I've brought them pain."
She sighed in an exasperated manner.
"I can already tell where this is going. Next, you're going to beat yourself up for all of those failures, and because the person who hurt them had your face, so it was no different from you doing it." Suzushina sarcastically remarked.
She had a point, and Touma was aware of it himself.
"True, but that's not the point I was getting at." He tried to argue.
"Then what exactly were you going to say?" She frowned, clearly disappointed about his misguided self-worth.
To his credit, Touma did not avert his gaze from her even if it was a sensitive topic to him - something she recognized from their interactions.
"During that whole debacle between me and my other, a tragedy was brought upon by me. Even so, I didn't give a crap about who was in the wrong and simply finished the battle so I could assert my position and returned to my life with those who are important to me."
A wistful look plastered his face that could be openly read by anyone. It might have been due to how abrupt it was for him to wake up feeling pain all over his body and a hangup in his head. Otherwise, Touma would not have been so ready to open his heart the slightest bit under normal circumstances.
"So what?" Suzushina interjected. Her abrupt comment caused the two to linger their gazes to each other. "Quit making that mopey face of yours, it's pissing me off. So you've done something horrible to them and are in doubt about your position in their world. Stop being foolish and return to them with your head held high. I mean, who the hell are you telling this to? Have you forgotten what I've done? I killed over 10,000 sisters and yet I'm acting as their guardian. If someone as low as me can find a place that I don't deserve, then you have even less of a good reason to doubt yours."
There was no way the hero in her eyes was going to fall down the wrong path under her sight as her discontent expression told.
Such a response had Touma smiling wryly. "Normally, this sort of thing is something I usually wouldn't dwell on much. I came back and made an apology, but...that other me had said something I couldn't ignore. Lately, I've been too complacent, I haven't been up to speed on many things, nor have I followed up on the scattered treasures that slipped from my grasp." Touma looked down to his hand and softly clenched it. "I would go back to my normal life and unintentionally forget the larger battle that still clouded my life, all so I could enjoy the small amount of peace I worked so hard to obtain."
Suzushina kept quiet to perceive the conflicting emotions on his face.
"So you're worried about how you could've done things better? That you could've saved everyone had you chose to do things more wisely? That, if you worked harder and chased after all of your problems, things would be more relaxing for you?" She placed a hand to her neck and cracked it. "Stop trying to be a saint with a chronic yes-man symptom. I know at least that much that you aren't a lowlife who'd look down on the people he couldn't save."
Touma quietly shook his head. Slowly, but surely he felt comfort in hearing her words.
"I'm not worried about saving everyone or achieving world peace. I know that no matter what, being able to save even one life that could've been lost among the dozens in danger is still something worth celebrating. It just feels like...like I've forgotten something really important." Touma had his eyes closed in thought. "And a thought lingered in my mind after Windsor...what if it isn't over? If Windsor was nothing but an opening act and that this was the aftermath." The idea of the continuation of Windsor painted a distraught image in his head.
"You're suggesting that the reason why you're here is to continue whatever the hell happened in Windsor? Under what grounds are you talking here? If you don't have a firm base to speak of, then that's no different from baseless paranoia."
He opened his eyes, ready to disclose a part of his current situation.
"My right hand was detached from me when I got here. And now there are ten dragons on the loose as a result of that." Touma's clenched fist tightened to the point his knuckles were turning white . "I don't have many connections in this place, and I only have this to rely on." He indicated with his raised arm.
But Suzushina didn't bat an eye to this.
"If that's all you have, then that's all you need." This was supplemented by an unconcerned shrug.
A trance-like stare was all that Touma could respond with. After a few moments, a tiny smile crawled to his face, as he shook his head softly.
"Heh...haha...hahahah!" What began as a few chuckles turned into pure joyous laughter and gratitude. He wiped an eye of its tears before continuing. "I'm really blessed aren't I? After I lost Imagine Breaker, I couldn't do anything by myself or even knew where to go. If it wasn't for my pillar of support, I don't think my world would still remain." Unconsciously, his hand clasped his shoulder like there was someone meant to be. "And...I feel the exact same now."
Their steps halted again, only this time, Touma beamed with a huge smile plastered on his face.
"That's why, I want to thank you, Yuriko-chan. For simply being here."
She hid her embarrassment rather well for the perceptive Touma to not notice. Scratch that, it was his own fault.
"Sheesh, leave out the mushy speeches after we get back home. Don't get too familiar with me. And don't get too ahead of yourself."
Suzushina returned that smile with a grin. And in silent agreement, the two slowly resumed their trek with positive improvements to their dynamic. It took them several minutes to find the spot where Suzushina found him.
After a moment of scouring the place for his phone, they didn't find anything.
"Looks like it's not around here." Touma said in disappointment.
He paced around the area to find the same several marks around the area indicating an outbreak of a huge fight. Skid marks stained the soil, knuckle imprints were left on wood, trees were knocked over, naked shrubberies were dotted about, and lastly splinters on a certain tree trunk where someone seemingly, crudely ripped it apart with their bare hands.
He did not wish to meet whoever did that.
"What a waste of time." Suzushina grumbled with a huff. Even so, she continued to assist the search by pressing the call button to elicit a return signal. With her ability she manipulated the air to send out specific soundwaves which functioned as a sonar, so it became possible to detect sounds and objects from a long distance.
"You got anything?" Called Touma a few feet from her.
"Let me concentrate in peace." She demanded for a silence.
Taking his eyes off her, Touma stood still to recollect his thoughts. He began to dive within his mind after covering the right side of his face with his hand.
'Green...blue...and blonde. If I'm guessing correctly, green isn't in much danger since I was careful to not touch her. Blue wasn't very bright when she tried to catch Imagine Breaker, but she wasn't affected by it. That only leaves…'
"Hey, Hero, I picked up a signal." Suzushina's sharp words cut the air.
Touma was forced out from his thoughts thanks to her call.
"Did you find where my phone i-?" He asked before his voice hitched.
What stopped him from finishing was the solemn expression and agitated body posture of Suzushina entering his peripheral vision when he turned.
"More than that. It's over the distance a little more than a kilometer away. You should get your guard up instead." A grave warning alerted Touma on edge.
He focused all his awareness away from the search and straightened his body to be ready for anything.
"What's the situation?" Touma hardened his features.
"There's an oddity closing in on us, and fast. I'm sure they noticed us too. Look." Suzushina gestured with her eyes directed to the side.
Touma followed her line of sight and held his breath.
Silence prevailed around the two.
Touma clenched his fists.
Suzushina narrowed her eyes.
The former listened to the rising wind and watched the leaves rustle faintly.
The latter dug her left foot deeper into the ground.
A powerful presence emerged from the darkness. Its entrance was neither abrupt nor perfect. It was no different from expecting someone to open the door when your eyes was bored at it.
What exactly was it that graced their eyes?
She was beautiful, yet her aura was dreadful - so baleful.
Suspended in the air was a pale body, that didn't look any older than ten, covered in the colors of noble blood red. She belonged to the realm of the inhumane solely thanks to the notice of those crystals in the colors of the rainbow hanging limp from the two branch-like limbs outstretched from her back. The darkness complimented her and seemed to desperately want to embrace the light that was her blonde hair tied into a sidetail to her left beneath the mob cap.
An unreadable expression was stationed on her pale face as she watched the agitated duo reflected on her crimson, vertical-slitted eyes. The spiky-haired boy made a confused face, but expressed a torn look of remorse. The albino girl was agitated in her guarded and unfriendly face, snarling at the blonde girl in the air.
"A-...ah…"
"Psh…!"
"Tch! So that's who the neophyte is…!"
Those crimson eyes looked to be in conflict on who to commit their full attention to, swerving back and forth between them.
"Y-you're…!"
The blonde girl proceeded in her own pace, ignoring the desperate voice of Touma. She lifted a palm and an eye rolled out of her mob cap to answer. The eye danced under her touch and laid still. She trembled in vigor eagerness when it seemed to twitch to the left, towards the spiky-haired boy.
"Heh...I've been really patient for a while." A smile broke on her face. Her soft and child-like voice was deceptively innocent, since it entered the pair's ears like sandpaper.
Suzushina's existence seemed to no longer register to the blonde girl. She dropped down to ground level gracefully and lifted her skirt for a small bow only for Touma.
She rose. The dainty pale hands were tucked behind her. Slowly did her body approach Touma in small even step. All the while was her smile still in place and her eyes expressed exaltation.
Her legs halted a few paces from him so that she could lean forward and tilt her head cutely to the left, looking up to address him.
"You're Kamijou Touma." Her words were more of a statement than a question. That thrill behind it spoke of how much she wanted to meet him up close.
The optimistic side of Touma wished that no harm had befallen his most likely victim for whatever reason his drunken stupor thought appropriate. However, his cynical side leaned towards the possibility of her craving revenge.
"Are you okay?" Touma broke the unbreachable wall between them in an instant with his question full of concern.
"Hmm?" The blonde girl frowned in confusion. She did not expect such genuine concern.
"I didn't hurt you, did I?" He pushed further. His mind swam under the notion that she was the one whose body was touched by Imagine Breaker in his hazy memory.
She made an 'o' face like a child having their curiosity piqued.
"You were expecting me? I'm so happy!" She stood upright, clapped her hands together to her mouth, and giggled melodically. They did not have the expected effect one might think with how ominous they sound. "It's like someone had a hand in our meeting."
Chills ran up the spine from those dangerous words. The blonde girl in noble blood red clasped her fingers. Her upper body swayed side to side with her hip following in reverse. She was clearly happy from their meeting if that face-splitting, bright smile and starry eyes were any indication.
There was something distorted about her that he couldn't quite put it to tongue. But that could be left alone for now.
"What is your name?" Touma asked in a polite tone.
"Flandre! Flandre Scarlet! Don't forget it, okay!?" The named Flandre eagerly identified herself.
He softly said to her. "You're not feeling any pain, are you? I was worried that-"
That was clearly the wrong decision when he tried to take a step towards Flandre with an outstretched hand. She assumed a cowering position with her hands pulling down her mob cap.
"Hii! Please don't be angry with me!" She cried as she shed motes of tears at the edge of her eye. The graceful image was lost within that crouching figure writhing in fear.
Touma was utterly flabbergasted by her reaction. The guilt in his heart spiked and threatened to tear itself out.
"You made a little girl cry, you heartless bastard." Suzushina dryly scolded, a disdained expression draped her face.
"H-hey! I'll make sure to fix this!" Touma cried indignantly at her.
He turned forward to Flandre again before consoling her. "Hey, I'm not gonna get angry at you or anything." He tried to quell her down with a friendly smile.
"Y-you won't? *sniff* That's good, I was really worried…" Wiping the tears away, Flandre calmed down to gaze into his eyes.
Hers were a lustrous crimson red that couldn't be described as a ruby or garnet while Touma's were a common blue you can find gazing at the ocean.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I only have myself to blame." A sad smile followed his face.
Flandre had a finger to her tilted chin. "What do you mean?"
"I was expecting the worst should my Imagine Breaker destroyed you…" He belatedly answered when staring at his raised hand.
"I don't really get it, but you feel guilt, don't you?" Flandre rubbed her forearm behind her back.
"...Yeah." Touma's face fell into a neutral expression with his eyes softening.
Flandre mulled over into searching for a way to relieve the tension in the person she wanted to meet the most. A face of realization crossed her countenance.
"There's a way you can make it up to me." That mysterious suggestion left him spellbound. An unknown charm laced her voice.
"And what would that be?"
After hearing his confirmation, a broad smile adorned the pale face of Flandre. It was a face of pure innocence.
Innocence that bordered on the deranged.
No words were uttered when an arm was held against the sky.
"Be my toy." She declared in the calmest voice imaginable. The world seemed to drop several degrees and hell would follow the same by that absolute decree.
Fire. An oversized sword doused in flames erupted from her palms. The thicket singed from the heat radiated by the pillar.
"Tch!" Touma saw that a mile away. He readied his hand to crush it.
In an instant, the slim arm brought down the roaring Lavatein. A loud shockwave vibrated in all directions. Dust picked up everywhere from the thunderous impact.
"Huh? Where'd he go?" Flandre muttered in an emotionless tone.
This deterrent of dust meant nothing to her vampiric eyes. Where the ground the spiky-haired boy used to occupy was nothing but a crater in the shape of her sword.
It was her own fault for forgetting the other person in the area.
From a distance…
"Woah!" Touma gave a surprised cry.
"Hold still and cling on tight." Suzushina assured Touma.
The panicked voice of Touma was due to the sudden force of air resistance pressing his face. His position brought shame to his masculinity.
Currently, he was being princess carried by Suzushina.
"Not that tightly I meant!" Suzushina scowled.
Within the arms of Suzushina, the spiky-haired boy was careful to not touch her with Imagine Breaker, less he disrupted their flight. So he pocketed the hand in his pocket with his left arm stationed over her shoulders. The result was for him to dig deeper into the chest of his savior.
"That smooth skin! This unexpected softness…!"
Suzushina gave a surprised yelp.
"Try anything funny and I'll grind your face to the ground like a whetstone!" She warned with a face full of resentment.
"It's not me who's doing it! Why are your arms pulling me closer to you!?" Touma was quick to rebuff her threat.
"You're delusional! Who the hell would want to get closer to your smelly ass!?" She vehemently denied the accusation.
"Then don't grip my back and thigh so hard!" He told her.
"It's not like I want to know the shape of your dorsal fin muscles or the fat in your thighs! Your fucking skinny, malnourished, skeleton ass body might slip!" She exploded into crying a stream of insults towards him. She did enjoy the close proximity however.
"Don't speak with that increasing blush on your face!" He pointed out.
"Why the hell aren't you blushing!?" She redirected the question back at him to calm her beating heart.
"This isn't my first time!" He proclaimed.
"What was that!?" Suzushina gnawed her teeth.
Her words fell on deaf ears.
Their flight covered enough distance for Touma to not see Flandre behind Suzushina. She was considerate enough to maintain an appropriate speed that wouldn't bear a burden to Touma's body that couldn't ignore G-force and air resistance.
"That girl, I don't know if that was my fault or not…" Touma quietly muttered to himself, still feeling mildly concerned about the girl they ditched.
"Mind telling me what the hell that was about? That brat was clearly mentally ill from my perspective." Suzushina said. "Just what was your involvement with her?"
Touma paused for a moment.
"...My Imagine Breaker. My memory is still hazy, but I do recall forcing my right hand on some lock of blonde hair."
"Oh I'm so impressed by your deductive skills to perceive that she was blonde." Suzushina quipped sarcastically, which earned her a glare from Touma. Her face turned serious again to take back the conversation back on track. "Her mind is destabilized and the only way to cope for her is to hound your ass." That was the simple deduction she gathered.
"No, I don't think she's the one." He rejected the notion.
"Ah? She scowled in annoyance.
"I'm still trying to piece things together, but the girl I intentionally hurt was plain compared to Flandre-chan. Their youkai heritage aside, she was utterly unremarkable right down to her toes. And Flandre-chan exudes a regal aura, don't you think?"
Suzushina weaved across the hazardous trees, taking extra care not to disturb the boy in her arms.
"Then why the hell did she react like that? She almost pissed her panties from the thought of you being angry with her." Suzushina deduced that this matter was not as simple as it first seemed.
"I'm not sure. Although, I'm certain I haven't integrated myself to this place so soon that people know me well enough. Trying to wrap my head around the logic that's at play here in Gensokyo won't get me anywhere without a lead."
Sounds of abrupt carnage could be heard from behind them. Flandre pieced together what happened and is tailing them mad.
The forest ruptured at the hands of multiple lasers sweeping the domain for what was stolen. More scars piled up and the evergreen Forest of Magic was losing more of its splendour.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
What came next was a high-pitched scream which blasted massive shockwaves, leaving nearby groves rattling for dear life.
"Yuriko-chan, whatever happens, under no circumstances should you leave me behind with her." Touma pleaded with a disturbed expression.
"So you can come up with great ideas sometimes. It's only you she wants, so I'll just drop you off and be on my way. You better treat her well the same way she would treat you." Suzushina smiled as she winked at him, scaring him even further by relaxing her grip on him.
"Stop! This isn't how you should treat people in danger! My savior is too sadistic!" Touma hurried and clutched onto Suzushina with a deathly grip.
This only stimulated Suzushina even further in bliss.
"It's like Niagra Falls with this horny bitch. Enjoy the slapstick later, crosses coming at you 7 and 5 o'clock from behind!"
Almost as if she possessed a sixth sense, Suzushina dropped in elevation to avoid buzzing crosses made up of bright mana.
A whistle escaped her lips. "I can feel the heat of her seething from behind on my skin."
"No time to relax! She is literally right behind us!" Touma reported with anxiety in his voice.
The lithe form of Flandre's was barely a few tens of meters apart from them. Slowly, she was gaining as the distance acting as their lifeline was being stripped. Her speed was marginally faster than Suzushina's as she had to compensate for the safety of the passenger in her arms.
Flandre's cold, still body hovered in the air like a doll that moved the way someone were to grip her icon on the desktop with their mouse and dragged her. In short, it was fucking creepy.
"She's just staring at us with a really lifeless look in her eye!" Touma almost wanted to screech from meeting her gaze.
Suzushina ignored his concerns. Funnels of wind were constructed behind her as they whipped furiously towards Flandre.
They cut through the air to match with the wild barrage of bullets employed by the vampire. The funnels clashed with the bullets, dispersing each other, but recovering their numbers without end. Moreover, Flandre surrounded herself in smoke and transformed into a bat to weave through the unending battlefield with precision in her tiny form.
"Shapeshifting!? And a bat no less… Could she be a vampire!?" Touma was thoroughly shocked by the revelation, but not enough to give him any lasting despair with the current situation.
"Vampire, huh? But is she as strong and immortal as one from the myths?" Suzushina mused to herself. Then her eyes flashed with inspiration. "I just may have an idea on how to get rid of this stupid brat."
"That sounds really assuring! So please don't make throwing me at her the priority!" Touma reminded her.
Flandre reverted back to her normal form after bypassing every wind funnel.
"Oh no, I'm still gonna throw you, but rest assured it's not at her. Right here, right now." That was the only warning she was going to give to him.
Expectedly, Touma paled and his limbs turned a bit numb.
He tried to protest as he did his best to squirm against Susuzhina shifting him over her shoulders to launch him without taking his right hand out.
"No don-HRERGH!?"
Suzushina unceremoniously threw Touma forward into the free air. A flicker of surprise sparked on Flandre's face. Her eyes traced at Touma's flying figure.
As Flandre continued to move with her eyes dead set on Touma, Suzushina turned around and lengthened an arm out.
"It's late outside. Go to sleep, shitty brat." Suzushina flicked a finger at Flandre, who was moving like a bullet, on her forehead.
It felt like an unstoppable wall had pounded against Flandre. All of her movement was restricted, and she was repelled back with a yelp. Her limbs flew detachedly and was sent hundreds of miles away, caving inside the earth where her body could no longer be seen.
"Peh." Suzushina spat. "That didn't work as intended. Her body's a bit more durable than expected from the other garbage I decommissioned. She'll wake up soon."
That tactic only worked because the vampire's attention was solely taken away from the surprise attack. She has grown a bit wiser to not underestimate the white monster, less she experienced it again.
In an instant, Suzushina burst into motion, leaving a trail of sonic booms behind. She located Touma spinning in the air frantically for support which just happened to be her.
The normal highschool boy now laid within the arms of a white maiden yet again.
"For a tough guy like you, being a bit venturous in the air should prove no problem, am I wrong?" Suzushina gifted her princess another sardonic grin.
"With how many times I've fallen from immense heights, yeah, no problem." Touma concluded with a quiet, non-committal answer. He tried his best to refrain from hurling with a queasy expression.
"That shitty brat looked down on me too much. She's got no actual experience in a real fight." She evaluated the inexperienced vampire's combat potential on the actual field. Suzushina saw a bit of how she began in Flandre. "She's not gonna give up, I'll tell you that much."
"How do you propose we lose her? From the way she held that eye in her hand, she can track us with it, I presume." Touma recovered from his unease, feeling himself becoming more comfortable lying in Suzushina's arm by the second.
"Her speed is a real pain in the ass. We'll never lose her if we keep acting as the mouse." Suzushina looked to the direction from she embedded Flandre under the ground.
Touma cupped his chin in thought.
"You didn't try knocking her out? I'm sure with her being a youkai, you can extend to be a bit more forceful."
"I redirected her entire body movement and added a bit from my own to drive her across the entire damn forest. You'd think I'd take any chance from how much danger she was emitting? She's highly resilient enough to adapt to the sudden change in direction and fix herself to a more accommodating form to reduce the distance between us." Suzushina regarded the threat level of the vampire to be much higher than expected. She was still confident that the vampire was but a mere troublesome nuisance. Alas, she was proven wrong before. Thus, the wise decision here is to be cautious.
"For now, we need to keep on moving." Touma finished grimly.
The pair remained in the air as there was no point in hiding within the thicket. They bypassed from the location where Flandre was locked in the earth.
"I'm picking up readings from her waking up. She'll be coming at us again soon." Suzushina reported neutrally.
Touma felt bad about her within good reason. He knew that an emotional disorder such as hers stemmed from something deeper than just him. He had no idea why she was so fixated on him, though. As he could recall from the psychology classes he attended, people like her having trouble with interacting with others and overlapped supposed friends with objects were developed from a number of ways. One of which would be an unhealthy, extended time of isolation.
"There has to be a way to placate her temper and be at least friendly with each other." Touma spoke with regret. His eyes were downcast as his hair obscured them from the billowing wind.
"Always the optimist, aren't you?" Suzushina did not looked down on him with the usual sarcasm and feistiness.
"I don't know how old she supposedly is, but I'm pretty confident at my shots at calming her down. Flandre-chan's got a child's mentality from the way she's acted, so I've got a lot of options at befriending her."
"And what? You think I wouldn't be as good at befriending kids like her?" Suzushina feigned being offended. She bared a cross look at him.
Touma was confused by how she associated his ability to befriend kids and comparing it with her inability to do the same.
"I know from witnessing how you interacted with Flandre-chan. Not by my perception of you." He deadpanned at her with a dull expression.
Suzushina shrugged. "It was a joke."
"... You can do jokes?" Touma was wide-eyed in surprise.
"There are better opportunities to level up your Social Link with Kamijou. I'm handing you the coordinates to the Hakurei Shrine. You know exactly what your supposed to do with this."
Once again, Suzushina was left with information she was not aware of until now. The voice too disappeared from the forefront of her mind as did her interest in questioning it.
Suzushina pulled her eyes away from the open-mouthed Touma to a more pressing matter. From her sights was the direction of the Hakurei Shrine. And within the far distance where things blurred for her was an enormous object defying gravity.
Suzushina had her eyes wide open. "...Hey, hero. What the hell do you reckon that is?" She inclined her head at him to gesture for him to look at where she was looking again.
"...What...is that?" Touma was equally in shock from the sight.
It could only be described as a giant, kilometer high, polymorphic, prismatic octahedron. Witnessed from behind it were light showers. The octahedron responded to the wave of bullets by morphing into a cube visible within another cube. It seemed to be its defense form as the bullets were repelled back. Some were even thrown over it, scattering the area with scars.
A scream burst from nowhere, and the cube within a cube morphed once again into a kite. Its offensive form presumably.
"Tell me, hero." Suzushina grabbed Touma's attention. "What was your original purpose by getting to that shrine?" She looked down to meet his eye. "If it's Windsor all over again, then you're no coward by running back home when you've got a score to settle. You wanted to be there, hypothetically, to rally some manpower just like with me and that dirty level 0, heh?"
Touma stared at her eyes for a long time. He finally responded back with a firm nod.
And she grinned back at him.
"Then that's settled. I'm getting you there no matter what - because this is your fight to see through. You'll have to settle with reaching the shrine alone. I'm sticking around so I can discipline the stupid brat." Suzushina sported a confident look, so as to soothe his worries. It was to communicate to him her determination - that she'll succeed as the distraction.
Touma could only accept her resolve with silent respect. The two had silently determined their roles to achieve.
"And... I don't care if you don't take my input to heart, but I know that you wouldn't hurt someone without good reason, so don't worry too much, okay?" Suzushina asked him firmly with the only explicit, worried expression she ever showed him thus far.
"...Thanks, Yuriko-chan."
Touma withdrawn his comber tone to address a new problem.
"But this new plan of yours has a problem. I could easily get lost in this forest." Touma pointed out just one of the many flaws in their new plan.
"Heeeh." Suzushina let out an amused sound by his concern. What he should be really feeling is apprehension. "That's why we're going to cut time for you. Tell me, what do you think is the fastest method and getting across this shithole of a forest?"
Touma did not like that innocent grin on Suzushina. Not one bit.
"Ha-haha. Y-You're joking, right?" Touma nervously said. "You're not going to shift me over your head and throw me towards the shrine like you're trying to score a three-point field goal, r-right?" His unease grew, and his entire body shivered. "This Kamijou-san has already experienced enough turbulence for one night! One is enough! No more!"
His objections fell on deaf ears for the umpteenth time as of tonight. Suzushina beamed at him with a smile - impressed that he guessed correctly for once.
In perfect motion, Suzushina shifted Touma over her head as preparation to throw him over the forest and score a three-point field goal.
"Think this through carefully, Yuriko-chan! What the hell am I supposed to do with that octahedron!?" Touma cried his last before he was to be separated from Suzushina.
"Punch it." She said. "Have some more guts in you, hero. Who doesn't love witnessing a Superman raining down from the heavens as an entrance?"
"Guts my ass! That character traits doesn't belong to youuuaaaaAAAAAAHHHHH!"
"YES! YES!"
Suzushina launched him away like a cannon. His body was being carried away by the wind as his screams grew distant.
She turned around to see the crimson figure of a vampire from a few distance away. "Time to quiet this mentally ill bitch who's gone past her curfew."
Flandre dashed in spurt to catch up to the growing distant Touma, only to be intercepted by Suzushina.
"Yo, you mentally ill bitch. I've come back to properly tuck you back to sleep." She greeted with venom in her voice and a nonchalant wave.
Flandre had a deathly glare that emitted thick killing intent. Her frown lowered to its utmost. It was a wonder how she could stay so calm with her whole body being so tense.
"Sorry, but from here this is as far as you go. Don't pay any attention to the singing whale in the sky, listen to me instead."
The vampire's ire seemed to never end the more she heard the mocking voice of Suzushina.
"Where is he?" Flandre's voice was so deathly quiet, it couldn't be perceived unless you could enhance your hearing.
"I think you're mistaken. There is no guy. Hell, there isn't any in this shithole. Tell me, why is that? Why is this place so rampant of women to begin with? Was this place created as someone's sick fantasy?"
"Where. Is. He?" Flandre reiterated. Her hollow eyes promised demise if she were to be ticked even from the slightest transgression.
"And what would you do with the guy anyways?" Suzushina dropped her personable persona.
Flandre raised her hands to her center. She looked down with a faraway look, and a maniac grin sliced her face. "No matter what I do, he won't break. He can't break. He is perfect. He is the perfect toy for me. No matter how much power I use, or how much of my anger is poured into him, he will never leave this world. He is the only one who can stay by me side. Someone gifted him to me. They guided me to him. He is mine. I've been waiting for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long," Her breathing grew rapid, and her mantra expedited her spiking emotions, "long time! I can finally feel alive again! Living life alone is unbearable! Everything just dies and dies beneath me. There is nobody to share my hopes, my anger, my joy. Nobody who can listen to me without feeling fear. But as long as I have him, then my life can really begin anew. That's why everything else in my way is worthless and must be destroyed. You too are worthless to me."
Suzushina clenched her right hand.
She sneered from listening to the rabble of a delusional basement dweller who hasn't left their mother's basement for the last 495 years. "I recognize the type of fool you are. You're a spiteful creature lamenting their loneliness because they're strong. No matter who reaches out first, everything and everyone would crumble from your touch. And when you finally want something of your own, you just could not control that immense power in the wake of that narrow-minded self. You don't understand what it means to receive something so fragile in your hands and the desire to protect it. The instinct to hold back and care for it. You only know how to destroy. All you really want is to shove down all your frustrations on someone who can't go against you. I don't care if you're a victim, you will never have the things I treasure and love." She flipped her off.
Suzushina would not forgive Flandre. She could see her former self, the monster that was the #1 Level 5 who threw away everything in their path to achieve absolute strength, within the vampire. That no longer had any meaning to her. It was all worthless compared to everything else she has gained in her journey the day she decided to protect a little girl - her former enemy.
"Come, lonely creature crawling in the shadows. Allow me to teach you what absolute strength really entails as the strongest level 5 - no, as the Strongest in the World!" Suzushina beckoned with a finger to taunt Frandre to go all out.
A dark miasma permeated the air and trees below. The standoff between the two's staring were intense that the wind rocked wild and the dark clouds darkened even further.
The pressure exuded by them extended for miles, and an unlucky tree was twisted and stamped down.
A battle between those who could only destroy was about to commence.
"I WANT KAMIJOU TOUMA!"
"Those hands of yours will never grasp anything."
"Oof! Sick burn!"
A bluenette spectator watched from behind a tree. Her body was pale white from being in the vicinity of the two abnormal monsters. Her primal instincts told her to run, but she thought better to stay and witness the upcoming battle in its fullest.
Her attention was mostly invested in the white monster.
"Did she call herself the strongest?"
"Morning just can't come soon enough, can it!? This better not become a habit during my stay in Gensokyo!" Touma shouted his grievances in the roaring winds.
Alas, even he must relent to the efficiency of his ride. It was all thanks to Suzushina that he could make it this far (Discounting the other people who only seemed to veer him off course.).
"Ergh… But with this, I'm going to finally reach the Hakurei Shrine." Touma shook his head to dispel his current mood.
It was a blessing that performing barrel rolls weren't a needed supplement this time. The wind allowed him more freedom of movement too. He cried on the inside knowing that Suzushina deliberately added a spin to her first throw.
"Just wait, Yuriko-chan. I'll be back for you soon." Touma claimed, hardening his resolve to end this madness.
He set his sight forward, belatedly remembered an obstacle still in his way. The kite-shaped object resumed its former octahedron form. There was no telling which was the front or if it even had omnidirectional sight. If so, then the path to Hakurei Shrine was an arduous stage if that construct were to heed its attention to Touma.
Suddenly, his sense flared in detection of an incoming projectile. Touma hardened his features and looked over his shoulders. He found a cross sigil cutting through the air in a straight path without deviation.
"Dammit! Did Flandre-chan somehow get passed Yuriko-chan!?" Touma cursed with a foreboding emotion.
He turned around and shielded his front with his right hand in the path of the projectile. He miscalculated as the projectile wasn't intended for him. The sigil barely grazed past Touma and missed his hand.
Touma came to an understanding of who its target was as he trailed his head after it.
The cross sigil landed on the octahedron and branded itself on the surface. A transformation was immediate. The colorful polygon's unknown material became that of pure, white salt.
For the umpteenth time, Touma could hardly contain his astonishment. From one thing to another, reality carved into him that he knew absolutely nothing about the current situation.
"That was too close for comfort. The culprit probably gambled for either me or the octahedron to be hit!"
His assessment was correct. Sharp sounds of wind departed and Touma threw his head back to witness eight more cross sigils fired towards the heavens.
Each one embedded themselves on a cloud and branded their existence to be subservient. Their new allegiance shifted from that of nature to the sigil's wielder. As proof, the dark clouds transformed into salt as well.
Gravity should've punished them by stamping its hand down as they fell. But that is not what happened. The salt clouds seemingly earned new life as they bent and twisted into new forms to accommodate their new existence.
12 angel wings.
Feathers composed of pure salt grouped together to band into angel wings. The wings themselves positioned themselves as a pair of six emitting from a center. Within that center, an eyeball was constructed out of thin air. Completed, light surged from above their heads within the clouds, heralding the gates of heaven open.
12 angel wings for each sigil meant a total of 96 angel wings.
The wings of each member twitched and operated like fingers. They laced themselves like they were gripping the handle of a sword. Sounds of static came from within, and light spilled and arised from the center. Pillars of light extended to the high heavens. Each pillar of light formed giant, 50-kilometer long crosses.
The culprit for putting an end to the rain slowly commanded each pillar of light to be swung downwards in succession.
Their common target was the flying Kamijou Touma in the sky just below them. His course was still moving upwards high enough as planned to descend towards the Hakurei Shrine.
The image one could only gaze upon is a single boy flying towards the heavens as eight swords of light attempted to strike him down to the Earth.
The heroic boy grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes fiercely.
"BRING IT ON!" He roared to the heavens as his right fist countered the pillars of light.
Air weaved and screeched from the descending swords wielded by the 96 wings.
He jammed his palm forward to grip the first light and crushed it. There was little room to breathe as the next sword dropped in a split-second.
Barely made it in time, the fist swung to the right to intercept a sword directed to his side. The second was disintegrated by the touch of his bare knuckles.
Touma channeled immense effort to right his position from leaving a giant opening the next incoming sword. The third collapsed from a punch that was reared back.
His time to react against the swords were nicked down the faster they were drawn. The fourth swept across the upper-right of his center, only to be made a feint as it returned instantly with greater speed to his lower left. Touma pulled his upper body back to flip in order to grasp a bit of space. He narrowly dodged the sword and chopped it down, breaking it in half.
The fifth performed its attack as a thrust. Touma snatched it by the upper section of the cross, snapping another sword in half with a push. He continued his momentum without waiting for the other end to react. He rotated just in time to disarm the other lunging half from the pair of wings with the broken half he stole. The fifth shattered into pieces.
A pair of swords descended simultaneously to stamp him down. Touma momentarily panicked, but turned more rigid once he noticed a starch difference between the two. The left was much thicker than the other. He stopped the left sword in place with his palm, disrupting it and redirecting its great size to the right sword for a direct counter. The collision produced astronomic inertia, and the pair crumbled down beneath him. The sixth and seventh crumbled.
Touma, suspended in midair, watched the last sword plunge slower than the rest in a poised manner.
"I don't suppose you have anymore tricks left?"
As if it were an answer, the sword split into three. The extensions dispersed into raining arrows, all homing at Touma.
The calm expression on Touma's face was not disturbed by the herd of arrows firing at him every angle.
"Seen it once, seen it all."
A shard that broke off from the thick sword he disrupted earlier was wielded in his right hand. It was slowly being negated by Imagine Breaker, so Touma pitched it at the homing arrows. In precise accuracy and precision, he hit his target. A chain reaction followed. Like arcs of electricity being attracted to one another, the arrows burst into hundreds of explosions. The eight and final one was obliterated.
The remnants of those swords fractured into harmless sparks that rained down in defeat by the hands of a human defying gravity.
The sky looked beautiful. Fireworks or raining stars impacted the Earth gently. The light of heaven was stolen.
Nobody in Gensokyo could take their eyes away from the sight. Many could not find the figure of a human boy within the center of the falling sparks. Only those with relevance to the defense and struggle of power within Gensokyo witnessed that splendour.
"You won't fool me! There's still one more in front of me!"
As the sparks dissipated from his sights, the octahedron, turned salt, churned from the center. Ripples pulsated from the center and a roaring cannon expelled from within, aiming upwards.
Courageously, Touma dived down and stuck his right forward as a spike to pierce the center of the beam.
"UUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!"
The initial clash favored Touma. He pierced through a fourth of the beam, splitting the beam apart. But his descent gradually slowed down from within the beam.
"Nnngh!"
It took him a while to reach half the beam's length. The wind which aided him was slowly losing momentum. At this rate, he won't be able to make it to the shrine.
Touma braced himself for the worst as he shut his eyes. His fist was beginning to have its angle slowly bent, and the pain now rushed in. Soon, it was becoming unbearable.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Something unnatural occurred. An aberration declared its existence known.
Where did it come from?
What was its shape?
The only detail that came to light was the bright colors.
Sky-blue and Lemon-yellow.
Muscle fibers of the two bright colors danced and extended from the human's right shoulder. They elongated and mass-produced more of itself to fill up a room.
The mass of muscle fibers wreathed around the exterior of the beam like a serpent. Its purpose was not to overpower the attack with overwhelming force.
The administrator performed absorption.
The mass of sky-blue and lemon-yellow did not go as far to the base of the beam. Nonetheless, the beam, including the salt-turned octahedron, was absorbed inside the mass of muscle fibers.
When Kamijou Touma opened his eyes, the sky-blue and lemon-yellow had already vanished into thin air.
He failed to comprehend what had just occurred. But that was not his highest concern. He was now stuck in the air and lost most of the wind meant to carry him to the shrine.
The plan ended in failure. He was stalled from reaching the Hakurei Shrine.
Somewhere, a certain Blind Dragon (who was occupying a Demon of Dusk) screamed.
Promptly, Touma fell from the sky to return into the accursed forest. He covered his face with his raised arms to brace for the painful impact.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!"
Suddenly, a weight pulled from above and his voice was caught in his throat.
"Hoopf!"
Touma adjusted to the sudden inertia and limped his head. He slowly regained his bearings to look over his shoulder lethargically.
"Koishi!?" Touma exclaimed the name of his savior.
"It's so good to see you again, Touma onii-chan!"
Please review and point out any spelling and grammar mistakes; they are very much appreciated!