Hello, I'm still Antagonist. And this is still Gensokyo's Heart: For Want of a Nail.
In case you were confused by the name, it's named after a trope, which is in turn named after a poem. The basis is that one small change can affect an entire story. That's not at all accurate for this story, since it's completely separate from Gensokyo's Heart aside from the basic premise of "Abathur in Gensokyo," but the name sounded cool.
Anyways, yeah. The basic premise is out of the way now. Let's compare:
Gensokyo's Heart: "Abathur intentionally comes to Gensokyo to gather essence, but slowly becomes a Youkai."
For Want of a Nail: "Abathur dies, and Yukari resurrects him as a female Youkai named Abathur Yakumo."
Anyways, it's time for Chapter 2.
DISCLAIMER: Touhou Project belongs to Team Shanghai Alice, and StarCraft belongs to Blizzard Entertainment.
…
Abathur, the Evolution Master of the Swarm, was dead.
She was now Abathur Yakumo, Shikigami of Yukari Yakumo, and her personal Evolution Mistress.
However, she was still a Zerg.
As Yukari had explained it to her, Youkai are usually something else before becoming Youkai. Getting old or powerful enough changed it into a Youkai. Yukari intentionally turned Abathur into a Youkai by increasing her power.
In other words, she was a Zerg Youkai.
Yukari sent her out into The Forest of Magic with Ran to go collect the Essence of some Lesser Youkai. Lesser Youkai were practically animals; they didn't even have a humanoid form. Killing them would hurt nobody.
Of course, Abathur was having trouble locating any Lesser Youkai with useful abilities. She tracked down Essence by finding the best creatures and having Kerrigan kill them. Collecting Essence was a "keep an eye out" sort of job, not a "go looking for" job.
In any case, she soon found an interesting creature. She burrowed not far from it and watched from beneath the ground.
The creature was not unlike a Locust. One of the flying ones from the First Spawning Pool, more specifically. If she took that essence…
Well, there are a few choices that could happen. She could gain the ability to spawn locusts. She could gain an attack like the locusts.
When it got close enough, Abathur unburrowed, pulled out her sword, and slaid the creature. It fell to the ground in two equal parts. The golden strand of genetic material was still present.
The golden strand wasn't actually there, of course. It was how Zerg sensed Essence. They could 'see' it by looking out for a specific marker. It was like a natural augmented reality. It was Abathur's most proud work.
In any case, Abathur proceeded to start eating the corpse.
"Isn't there… a better way to do that?" asked Ran. "I mean, most Youkai eat living things, so it's not all that strange, but… well, it looks like a long process."
"Must get essence inside me," Abathur responded, still not used to the softness of her voice. "Am linked to your evolution as well. Could help me eat it."
"I'll… I'll pass," Ran smiled nervously. "Raw meat's never really been my thing…"
"No need to continue conversation," Abathur shrugged, returning to her work.
Once she had devoured the entire creature, and also cleaned herself up, she got to work mixing in the essence of the mysterious creature into herself.
She soon found herself also sporting a beret, and a nice pair of insectoid wings. There was also a card in her pocket.
Abathur pulled out the card and stared at it. Ran walked over.
"Ah. A spellcard, huh? I should have known," Ran smiled. "That's how all these things work in Gensokyo. I should probably explain the spellcard system to you."
"Do so," Abathur requested. Ran stretched.
"Alright, then. About… fifteen years ago, an Incident occurred. Lots of Incidents have happened, but this one was particularly brutal- it left Reimu as the only survivor of the Hakurei clan. She had to solve the incident on her own. A few incidents later, she got tired of killing everything in her path, so she invented the spellcard system, a nonlethal alternative to the fighting. Using the Spellcard system, you can prevent lethal attacks from reaching you, but you're also prevented from creating lethal attacks yourself. Instead, you and your opponent create 'Danmaku,' magical bullets used to fight each other. Danmaku is nonlethal, but it stings like hell, and leaves you weakened when the battle is over. As such, the Spellcard system can be brought out to prevent injury or death no matter who your opponent is. The system spread throughout Gensokyo very quickly, thanks to Yukari-sama."
"...Revelation. Will continue work," Abathur responded, resheathing her sword. "Must accommodate to system."
"Remember," Ran warned. "If you use Danmaku at all, you will be prevented from killing your opponent, even if you stop using the spellcard. Only use Danmaku on intelligent life. Using Danmaku on animals or monsters defeats the purpose."
"Understood," Abathur complied. Abathur and Ran shared a position, but Ran had been doing the job longer than her. If it had anything to do with stuff that wasn't related to Abathur's old job, she knew better.
"I think that's good enough for now," Ran decided. "Let's go back."
A gap opened behind Ran, and the pair entered it.
They didn't see the Ordinary Magician watching them from behind the tree.
"Who was that?" Marisa asked herself. "I mean, that was Ran, but who was the other one? She's cute, for sure, but… she's weird. She just ate that bug and got stuff from it, and she didn't know what the Spellcard system was. Not to mention her speech patterns…"
After a moment of thinking, she simply shrugged.
"Ah, well. I'll just have to figure it out later, ze. First, though, I need to tell Reimu about this..."
And so, she climbed on her broom and took off.
…
"So, why are you here?" asked Reimu.
"How cruel! Can't I ever visit you without some kind of ulterior motive?" asked Yukari. "I'm hurt, Reimu!"
"Seeing as how that's never once happened, I've got very good reason not to trust you," Reimu snapped. "Enough with the chatter, just tell me."
Yukari sighed.
"Oh, fine. I just wanted to tell you that the Yakumo family just adopted," she admitted. "Or, that's one way to explain it."
"Just adopted?" Reimu asked. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, why don't you see for yourself?" Yukari asked cheerily, doing a complete 180. "Meet my newest Shikigami, Abathur Yakumo!"
Behind Yukai, a gap opened, and out stepped a girl. Her eyes and hair were the exact same shade of bright green, a fact that mildly creeped Reimu out. She wore an all-black outfit. Quite honestly, she completely contrasted with the rest of the Yakumos. She also sported insect wings and a sword that seemed to be… almost organic. It looked like an organ or something.
"Abathur, this is Reimu Hakurei!" Yukari announced. "Introduce yourself!"
"...Really?" the girl, Abathur, asked. "Fascinating. Meeting creator of spellcard system."
"Eh?" asked Reimu. "You know about that? Most people have forgotten that by now."
"Only learned recently," Abathur explained. "Was… elsewhere. For a long time."
"So that's why I haven't seen you around," Reimu realized. "That's… good to know, I guess."
"REIIIMU!" shouted an all-too familiar voice, and Reimu brought her hand to her face.
"Marisa," she sighed. "What do you need?"
Marisa landed right between Reimu and the Yakumos.
"Reimu, I saw this weird girl in the Forest of Magic!" Marisa yelled. "She was with Ran and-"
Marisa froze, and turned a couple shades paler.
"She's… right behind me, isn't she?"
"Hell if I know," Reimu grimaced. "Is she green-haired with a strange black outfit and a weird sword?"
"...Yes?" asked Marisa.
"Then yes, she is," Reimu answered. "Say hello to miss Abathur Yakumo, Yukari's new Shikigami."
"Evolution Master, more specific title," Abathur responded.
"...Eheh," Marisa laughed nervously as she turned around. "Uh, sorry for callin' ya weird…"
"No offense taken," Abathur responded. "Not used to body."
"She wasn't a Youkai until recently," Yukari answered. "She's only recently gotten her body. Well, a humanoid one, anyways. She's not used to it."
"Yeah, she said as much," Reimu sighed. "Is there anything else you need, or can I get back inside?"
"I've got a question!" Marisa piped up, thrusting her hand into the air.
"What do you think this is, a classroom?" grumbled Reimu.
"Whaddaya mean by 'Evolution Master'?" asked Marisa.
"...Collect essence," Abathur answered. "Eat flesh, splinter bone. Inside me, can… make it great. Spin strands and sequences. Improve Yakumo efficiency."
"What she means," Yukari explained. "Is that if she eats something organic, she gets access to its genetic code. She can use any genetic codes that she's collected to make alterations to… well, anyone with the Yakumo surname. Not without their permission, of course. That was part of our contract."
"Wait," Reimu sighed, putting her hand on her temple. "What did she do before she met you guys?"
"Very much the same thing," Yukari answered, spinning her parasol. "Except for different people. Instead of using essence to make improvements to the Yakumos, she used essence to make improvements to something called the Zerg Swarm."
"That doesn't sound like a friendly name, ze," Marisa crossed her arms.
"They weren't friendly creatures," Yukari answered. "I won't go into more detail than that."
"You're not usually this open, Yukari," Reimu noted. "What's so special about now?"
"I actually have a favor to ask of you," Yukari answered. "Abathur's new. She doesn't know anybody in Gensokyo other than us, Ran, and Chen… So, I want you two to show her around Gensokyo."
"Like hell," answered Reimu. "I've got better things to do than show a Yakumo around Gensokyo, especially since you can, you know, generate gaps."
"I never!" Yukari grinned, hiding her face behind her fan. "I have important things to do, too."
"You're grinning, ze. That's never good."
"Don't you want to make friends?" Yukari asked.
"No," Reimu grumbled. "Not when I have stuff to do."
Marisa glanced between Reimu and the Yakumos, becoming increasingly nervous.
"...I'll do it," she volunteered. "I needed something to do, anyways."
"Thank you, Marisa!" Yukari cheered. "I'll send Abathur with you!"
And, as if on cue, a gap appeared beneath Yukari, and she fell in. Knowing Yukari, it probably was on cue.
Marisa hopped back onto her broom, motioning Abathur to come join her.
Abathur walked over, but only stared at the broom.
"...Reminiscent of Vulture Hoverbike…" she muttered.
"What's that?" asked Marisa.
"Nothing," Abathur answered, sitting on it from one side.
"This thing is fast," Marisa warned. "You might want to hold on tight."
Abathur sighed, and wrapped her arms around Marisa's waist.
And with that, they took off.
Reimu stared after them, before realizing something.
"Can't Abathur fly?"
…
And there we have it, the second chapter of For Want of a Nail! This chapter was a little lighter, and I admit, the whole story will have lighter moments dispersed throughout, but on the whole, I plan for this story to be darker than Gensokyo's Heart.
Anyways, remember to review.