Author's Note:

A quicker than normal update! And on a main chapter! If you're paying attention to the word count, you might be able to guess why.

~ STAGE 13: Falling Water, Rising Wind ~

[START]

Mountain-hiking was dangerous.

That should've gone without saying, but as Luka soon realized, it was easy to take for granted when she lived in a city for most of her life. The upward climb didn't seem all that bad at first, but the higher she went the more she started to realize she was criminally underprepared, skill-wise.

Local geopolitics didn't help matters. The closer to the main mountain she got, the more she started seeing distant white dots off in the distance, or even flying overhead. She couldn't make out any details with the shrouded treeline hiding her existence from them, only that they seemed maybe a bit bored, zipping by as if looking for something to do.

That was probably for the best, given Hiro's brief but ominous notes.

Don't peek out from the treeline. Hiro had written. 'Wolf tengu', he had called them; the 'security forces of the tengu'. They can see and smell further than you think, and one in-particular can spot even the tiniest show of movement. Be mindful and follow the path I've written.

No cheery little fun tidbits, like those of a smiling tour guide. Hiro had only left patrol routes, how to avoid the guards, and where to go to specifically avoid stepping on their turf. It was a big contrast from his usual tone; idly laughing like nothing was a big deal. On that paper, there was a tension she'd never really heard from him before.

Calm as Luka could make herself seem now, it still made her sweat a little.

According to Hiro, there was a central passageway through the mountain pass that had ended up as a middle ground for several local youkai groups. On top of that, at ground-level the dense trees provided excellent cover for someone to walk through. With flying being second-nature to everyone in Gensokyo and approaching the mountain being such a taboo, few youkai actually checked the woods beyond a cursory glance here or there. Of course, her issues still remained: with her lack of experience, walking by itself felt awkward and dangerous. There were way too many steep inclines for a clumsy city girl to nearly go tumbling back down the way she came.

(She didn't question the fact that, as close as it got, it never actually happened. Whether it was some strangely familiar instinct or sheer luck, she wasn't sure.)

Eventually though, Luka began to hear a sound like water up ahead. Reaching the edge of the forest trail, she felt the dirt beneath her feet plateauing, and then looked ahead as it dropped into a valley. At the valley's base was a deep river wrapped around the mountain. Crashing water drowned out all other noise—a small waterfall, separate from the larger main one she saw when she looked at the mountain from afar. Across it on the other side, Luka saw the beginnings of a massive rock wall that ascended higher and higher above. Tracing the waterfall up the formation, her neck craned up until it spied the overhanging rock at the top, looking like a tiny fountain all the way from the bottom.

After taking it in, Luka found a nice enclosed spot between some trees and unfurled Hiro's map once more. "What's up next, old-timer…"

Slightly-Less-Trodden Valley™. Outskirts of kappa territory. Luka skimmed past another butthole turtle warning… Ah, there.

Using your new power of flight (courtesy of being in Gensokyo), zip above and past the river before anyone sees you, stop at the mountain, and then slowly edge up, using the side of the waterfall as cover.

Luka stared at that instruction for what felt like an eternity.

(... Shit.)

She'd never explained to Hiro that she couldn't fly.

It never really came up in conversation. To be entirely honest, she'd assumed her fellow outsider was similarly cursed with being lame as hell. Yet again that was just Luka. Hiro, bless his sweet little innocent heart, was just as much of an exceptional weirdo as everyone else in Gensokyo.

So. Now what?

Narrowing her gaze, Luka glanced out at the river. She tried to vaguely measure the gap across the river to the mountain's base, though eventually she decided an exact number wasn't needed. A normal jump obviously wouldn't cut it, even if she did a full-speed sprint at it all the way from up here.

Swimming… no, she refused to find out whatever it was Hiro kept warning her about. (Seriously, did something happen?)

Luka absentmindedly flipped her phone open, then closed. "Maybe I can call Reimu and have her pick me up." She deadpanned, knowing well Reimu didn't even have a phone to call. 'I got lost on my errand run. Yeah, all the way in the Youkai Mountain. Yes, I am crying.'

A sigh. Well, there was one option left. She didn't like the odds, but she hated the idea of quitting at this point even more.

Shifting her gaze from the river, she eyed the rock wall. Measuring its height relative to where she was standing, she squinted, just barely managing to make out what looked like some grip-worthy spots along its surface.

Seeing that, she made her choice. Luka couldn't properly fly, that much was true. But she hadn't spent the last two years learning nothing.

Dragging her foot against the ground, Luka drew a mental line. Right at the point where the grassy path she'd taken to get here would reach its highest point. She looked back, identifying the path where she could get the fastest run to that spot, then traced a line with her finger to the rock wall.

"Should be high enough…" She mumbled, tightly knotting her bag to her back, shaking it a little to make sure it wouldn't fall off. Satisfied, Luka paced back and turned to face her challenge.

"Okay. Just like Reimu said. Like you practiced." Luka quietly hyped herself, bounding in-place and counting in-between each motion…

One. Two. Three—!

Crunching grass and stray branches underfoot, Luka broke into a run. Building speed as she pushed against the uphill climb, it turned into a barreling sprint. She eyed the invisible line like a take-off point, an impromptu long-jump.

Faster. She needed to hit that jump as hard as she could…!

She crossed the line, and slammed both feet into the ground. Pushing against it with all the force her leg muscles could muster, Luka launched herself into the air and towards the mountain.

'Free yourself from the confines of gravity and weight'. That was the thought which went through her mind. Her understanding of Reimu's advice.

Spreading her arms like a bird taking flight, Luka's jump continued. And didn't hit the ground.

It wasn't flight. She wasn't ascending. Rather, it was closer to gliding; a severely slowed descent, like she'd become a feather in the wind. She wasn't completely freed from either gravity or weight. But she was rebelling against it, fighting against her own common sense.

If flight was, in Reimu's words, 'mankind's first fantasy', then this was the daydream preceding it. It hardly felt so majestic; Luka felt like a stunt double clumsily dangling from a wire.

Below, the chaotic, crashing water suddenly felt a lot louder. And closer. Luka couldn't shake the image of being a worm on a fishing line, a bunch of snapping turtles nipping at her flopping noodle body.

"—" Luka held her breath. Easy girl, you're gonna make it. Focus…

She ignored her dropping altitude and the sensation of her thin jacket whipping in the wind. Aiming herself at the spot she'd seen earlier, she braced herself—

"Oof—!" A harsh grunt, as she hit it a little harder than she meant to, and then scrambled, just barely snatching hold.

Just for a few seconds she hung there, feet and hands braced and steady. Her own breathing and pounding heart the only sounds in her ears. She could almost forget she was high enough that if she fell, she'd probably die.

"Ha… haha!" She laughed. Why wouldn't she? If she wasn't trying to be sneaky, she might've shouted 'Hell yeah!' at the top of her lungs and struck some stupid pose. So what if it wasn't even all that impressive compared to Reimu or Marisa? To Luka, that little glide, against the laws of gravity… She might as well have taken flight. "Hahaha—aahp?!"

Crackle. Her grip started to give way, her weight pulling her back down to reality. Realizing, she instinctively hit the 'no-gravity-please' button. Crack…le. … And it settled.

Another quiet few seconds, Luka's heart pounding a little faster. (Yeah, screw you too, wall.) Hesitant, Luka reached for another hold a little further up. Her weight didn't resist, with her actively floating as she climbed. She gripped it, pulled up, and made progress.

Again, with a bit less hesitation. Then again. And again. Slowly, she was making her way up, like a rock-climber tied with an invisible harness and safety rope.

"This works." Luka muttered excitedly. It was kind of an on-the-spot idea, but it did the trick. "Yeah. It totally works."

Seeing her gambit pay off, Luka continued up. She didn't get off that easy, though. All she'd done was lessen her own weight. She still had to actually do the rest of the work.

Despite mankind's best efforts, nature did not give a single damn about OSHA guidelines. It wasn't inclined to give you stable spots to grip—you just had to find your own. If you started reciting regulations 1926.20 and then 1926.50 to a mountain, the big rock would just stare silently at your broken body until you passed on to the great beyond.

(... Would that technically make it a shortcut?)

As she thought that, her hand brushed an edge that suddenly shifted dangerously, as if to say 'Wanna bet?'.

"..." Luka cautiously retreated, going for another, slightly further edge. (Let's not.)

Taking a deep breath to collect herself and regain energy, Luka continued on her way.

…

From the forest Luka had just come, a lone crow, as dark as the night sky, perched atop a tree. It watched the girl as she ascended the mountain, too occupied with her climbing to realize it had been observing her for a while now. It tilted its head, as if asking someone if it should peck at her hands until she fell to her death.

After a brief pause, it seemed to get an answer. Looking a bit disappointed, the bird flapped its wings, kicking up a steel-colored cloud around it. Its form was shrouded, and the mass swirled, condensed, before eventually dissipating. As though nothing had ever been there.

'Criminally underprepared'. For hiking. She wanted to kick the Luka from an hour ago in the shins for that stupid thought. Mountain-climbing was so much worse, even with her cheating.

"Just a bit… Come on…!"

With a forceful wheeze, Luka pulled herself up to the next hold. It wasn't like she'd assumed this would be easy. She wasn't that optimistic. But by now her arms and legs felt like they had been burning for 30 minutes straight. Even in the brief moments she found a spot to brace herself and rest, it all came flooding back in the moment she continued. She just didn't have the muscles for this sort of thing.

It was a miracle that she was almost there. Back at the bottom, the sound of flowing water had served as a reminder of where she'd fall if she slipped. But as she got closer to the top, the more she could hear sounds of the river flowing into the waterfall. It drowned out the searing sensation in her limbs, cool water dousing the fire. Ah, man. Water. That sounded good…

Luka looked directly up, trying to measure the remaining distance to the top. Maybe 10 yards or so? If she could cross that distance, she'd be home-free. She could already see her reward, to stick her head in a river and just rest for a second.

Cra…ckle…

A quick, featherlight hop to another ledge, before the one she was on gave out. Remembering how exhausted she felt made it harder to maintain her floating. She didn't really understand what muscles or energy the effort was spending, but it felt like something was going. She couldn't keep this up forever.

"Ggh…" Luka strained, forcing her way to the 5 yards mark. 4 yards. 2 yards. Slowly… "Almost…"

The top was right there. Right where she could reach up. She stretched her arm up, pushing right at her limit…!

"Ayayayaya!"

Something shot past Luka from behind, screeching like a broken Furby as it flew skyward. The force itself nearly knocked Luka from where she was hanging, earning a reasonable yelp from her. As if that wasn't bad enough, something followed it. A breeze—no, a tempest. It slapped Luka from the mountain like a bug, and the world suddenly turned into a spiraling blur.

What direction was she falling? Was she going up or down? Luka wouldn't get her answer until the world suddenly settled, her ragdolling body briefly stilled in midair, and she realized she'd been flung upwards. Yet again 10 yards from the cliff she'd been aiming for, this time horizontally too.

—She had enough airtime and gall in her to quip a smart-mouthed 'What the HELL—' before gravity yanked her back down.

'FLOAT FLOAT FLOAT!' Was the only signal her brain transmitted to her body. It miraculously received it, and Luka shot her arms to her sides like a flying squirrel as she pulled her magical parachute. Snapping back to an upright position, her momentum dulled slightly but didn't stop. Thinking fast, she aimed her hurtling body at the clifftop—

WHOMPF! Luka hit the ground leg-first in what was originally an improvised roll so she wouldn't break something, but had quickly morphed into an impromptu tumbleweed impression. Tumbling, fumbling, bumbling, and splat. Face-first into the dirt.

She laid there for a few seconds, limbs splayed out and pinned to the ground by a mix of exhaustion and humiliation.

As if to inspect her corpse, something hit the dirt in front of her with what sounded like a mildly surprised 'Huh!'. Something wooden prodded at her head, and with that, Luka felt her patience break.

"I have a gun." Luka grumbled into the dirt. It kept prodding at her. "I have two guns and I am very tired. Please stop." She raised her voice.

"Ah, you're still alive." That voice. Luka recognized it. Thinking about it, it was also the same as the assault Furby that flew by earlier.

Prying her face from the ground, Luka looked up to see a curious-looking Aya Shameimaru studying her prone form, wind brushing her crow-colored hair around.

As always, Aya's clothing contrasted with her normally eccentric personality: a uniform-like white blouse with a flat black skirt. As if to show her true nature, a blood-red, tent-shaped hat rested on her head, with a matching-color pair of polished wooden geta sandals on her feet. (Looking at them, Luka surmised those were probably what she'd been nudging at her with.) At the girl's back, a pair of ebony wings fluttered energetically, as if ready to take flight. They matched her current energy as the tengu tapped at her chin with that familiar and always-ready pen in one hand, scribbled notepad in the other.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, before Luka could get a word in.

"What are you doing here? Were you following me or something?" A response made not because Luka had forgotten where she was, but because she wanted a second to get to her feet and dust herself off. "You almost killed me, you know!"

"Is that my problem?" Aya shrugged. "And to clarify, I was passing by here purely on a whim, wondering if I'd see that suspicious human flying up the mountain again." 'Suspicious human', did she mean Hiro? "For some reason, I'm seeing you instead. What might that be all about?"

Luka didn't like that look in Aya's eyes. Already, her wrist was a blur as her pen went to town on her notepad. She was probably fabricating some story already.

"I'm just climbing." Luka quickly lied. Aya was a headache of a person, and she'd seen firsthand how quickly word could spread if someone spoke to her carelessly. More than any logical reasoning though, Luka just didn't like talking to her. "That's all. I wanted to see if I could make it to the top of the Youkai Mountain, so I went for it."

"Without flying? That's rather adventurous of you." Aya scribbled something down, which made Luka sweat a little. Then, her pen stopped. "Hm… Is that really all there is?"

Journalist's intuition. Luka backed up defensively as Aya closed in on her, eyed eager and curious. "Yep. Adventurous soul, that's me." Luka raised her hands defensively. "On a magical journey of self-discovery via mountain-climbing."

"Self-discovery, you say?" Aya's lips upturned. "You know, I seem to recall you were looking for something like that before. A half-youkai raised as a human, suddenly investigating our mountain? Isn't that something? If you don't mind…"

Without warning, Aya suddenly pulled something from her back—wait, that was—!

"My bag?!" Luka's hands scrambled to her back, only to realize it wasn't there. "When'd you—?!"

"It flew off when you were rolling around like an idiot earlier." Aya didn't miss a beat as she shoved her hand into Luka's bag. "Oh? What's this?"

"Excuse me?! That's mine!" Luka lunged at Aya, only for the girl to suddenly dart back way faster than she expected. "H-Hey!"

Ignoring Luka, Aya extracted her object of interest from her bag. A small slip of paper—the clipping of Suika. Seeing it, Aya looked like she'd struck gold.

"Ohhhohoho?" She turned to Luka, opportunistic light in her eyes. "I see! You're looking for her, are you? I wonder what connection this implies?"

Luka felt her face getting hot. "It's not even close to that! I just thought, well, she'd. Know something." Her fire became meek as she hesitated to explain. She really didn"t want to tell Aya any more than she needed to. "Anyways, hand it over!"

Luka lunged again, only for Aya to completely vanish in a blur of black feathers.

"I think I'll hold onto it for now." Now flying overhead, Luka watched as Aya pocketed the photo with a wide grin. "More importantly, you are trespassing on tengu territory. Ordinarily, I'd be inclined to expel you, by force if necessary. But… If you're willing to answer a few questions about your connections to that oni…"

"Flock off, feather-face." Luka spat. Her temper was flaring at this point, which led her to speak a lot more brashly than normal. "I couldn't answer you even if I wanted to, and I really don't want to. And honestly, a journalist is gonna expel me? What're you gonna do, file a formal complaint with your supervisor?"

Aya's smile immediately vanished. "..." Then returned, much darker. Luka had a brief thought that she might've said too much there.

At once, the wind suddenly picked up, pushing Luka back a bit. "Whoa…!"

"I think you've forgotten who you're dealing with and where you are." Aya bellowed, her voice lower and much more threatening. "It can't be helped. I don't know how you lucked your way up here, but I'll need to remedy that attitude of yours before you end up like a child that's never been scolded."

Flicking her wrists, Aya's pen and notebook vanished like a sleight-of-hand trick. In the same motion, a small hand fan shaped like an autumn leaf was suddenly in Aya's left hand. Seeing it, Luka suddenly realized the turbulent wind was coming from only one direction: from Aya.

"As a reporter, it's my job to provide news, so here's a quick extra for the fresh-faced outsider!" She raised her fan overhead, and the violent gale surged, pushing Luka back further. Howling like the wind, "Youkai are to be feared! And the tengu stand above all others!"

For some reason, that stupid haughty bragging was the last straw.

"—oh, SHUT UP ALREADY!"

Luka planted her feet, feeling her brashness kick in all over again as she shouted over everything.

"I am so, so sick of getting jerked around today!" Without hesitation, Luka flipped the back of her jacket up, and slid out both of her pistols in a graceful flourish. With an angry grunt, she stood her ground, pointing both of them at Aya. "I didn't spend two entire years twiddling my thumbs! You wanna pick this fight? Then fly as high as you want—it'll make it hurt even more when I shoot you down!"

Maybe this was reckless. Probably stupid, too. Or maybe, some tired and angry part of Luka's brain thought, it was time to do it Reimu and Marisa's way for once—a little catharsis-via-Spellcard-battle.

The two combatants locked eyes, and the duel was agreed upon.

【BORDER OF DUEL】

~ START ~

Author's Note:

A lot shorter than normal, huh? If I can ramble in my own notes for a bit…

Over the course of this going-on-three-years fanwork, I've been really dissatisfied with a few things about my writing, two aspects in particular:

1) How slowly my updates have tended to be.

2) The absurd volume of most of my chapters thus far.

To some extent, I've worn the latter as a badge of pride, but I've been wondering if that's been to my detriment or not. The pacing might be exhaustive to some readers, or maybe it's intimidating to look at such a huge word count and see how few chapters it's split into. While my intent is to finish this story no matter what, I really do want it to succeed and to reach as many people as it can.

As a result, these next few chapters will be a bit of an experiment. I'm going to see if I can crank out smaller chapters and pace things out a bit better, both to make the story more fun to read for you all and maybe more accessible to anyone looking to jump in. There's also the side objective of forcing myself to say more with less, which feels like one of my personal weaknesses I'd like to conquer.

I'd been planning to do this for a bit, but this felt like the best time in the story to give this a try. Who knows? If it works out, maybe I'll go back through prior chapters and rewrite/restructure them to fit this style. I'd need to decide if I think that's worth it or not on my own, though.

As always, please, let me know your thoughts in the reviews/comments! I'm always open to feedback and it puts a smile on my face to read it. Also, with views/stats kind of broken right now on FFN, it can't really use those as a metric either, so… Yeah. Words are appreciated if you're reading this over there!