HOLA, COMO ESTAS?
...what? Oh, right. I haven't touched this story in... what, 7 months? I really need to stop being such a lazyass. :|
Regardless, I am here with a new chapter of UaUD, typed in the middle of the night on my new tablet because why not! And this time for real. I hope.
The sun was just rising, shining an orange light on the Hakurei Shrine. It was the morning following Remilia's summoning of Reimu, and said shrine maiden...
Well. Let's see for ourselves, shall we?
Just inside the shrine, making a right halfway in from the front door, then another right at the last door, is the room housing the Gensokyian records- more specifically, an enormous pile of them in the center of the room. The resident shrine maiden was nowhere to be seen, despite having been in the room the night before.
"Oi, Reimu, ze~"
Hold that thought. We have a visitor.
Looking out front, a certain witch can be seen descending from the sky, heading straight for the shrine. Touching down, the black-white magician headed up the steps and, since the door was wide open, right into the shrine. Looking around, she notices a distinct lack of black-haired shrine maidens. "Oi, are you really asleep, ze?"
Peeking inside the bedroom, Marisa notices the empty futon, and proceeds to wander around the shrine looking for it's currently-MIA maiden.
Pausing briefly to snag a couple snacks from the kitchen, Marisa lets out an annoyed sigh. "Where is that lazy maiden, ze? Did she leave to go youkai-hunting or so-"
She was cut off by a loud crash, and nearly jumped ten feet in the air. Whipping out her mini-hakkero, which immediately starts humming with energy, the witch makes her way to the source of the sound, finding a mountain of scrolls, books, papers, plus one shelf, in the center of the room. Sighing with relief, she starts to put her mini-hakkero back in it's place under her hat, but immediately jumps when the pile of various textual items starts to move. Watching carefully, Marisa readies her hakkero to blast whatever comes out...
...And is greeted by a certain shrine maiden pulling herself out of the unholy pile of paper, holding her head. Stretching, Reimu stands up, shaking off all the scrolls. Noticing Marisa, she grunts. "What are you doing here?"
She didn't get an answer, as Marisa proceeded to burst out into laughter. The shrine maiden simply glared at the witch, who seemed to find her friend's position absolutely hilarious.
"I didn't know you liked history so much you buried yourself in it, ze! Maybe you should consider becoming a teacher," Marisa managed to say amid her hysterical laughter. "I'm sure Keine would appreciate a companion historian, daze!"
Reimu's only response was a facepalm, followed by a loud WHACK! as her gohei, having appeared seemingly from thin air, connected with the top of the witch's head, though she didn't appear fazed.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Gensokyo…
High in the skies above the Forest of Magic (also known as the Forest Maze), a couple fairies fly by, playfully firing danmaku at each other, clearly not having a care in the world.
Higher up above them, a gentle ripple appears in the Hakurei Barrier, as a man appears from seemingly nowhere. Though just a silhouette against the bright sun, a wide grin can be seen on his face, and not the kind you might be thinking of. Closer to the kind Flandre has when she's about to destroy something. Yeah.
"It's been a long time, Gensokyo. How have you been?"
Back at the shrine, we find Reimu and Marisa out front, the latter having apparently had her hat confiscated, with a large bump on her head (probably from Reimu bashing her multiple times). Said shrine maiden was standing on the steps of the shrine, evidently mad at the witch for the humiliation, considering in the entire process Aya had briefly shown up to snap a picture, and she had tripped over Marisa (who was still laughing at that point) while trying to give chase. Reimu was fully intent on strangling that crow the next time she saw her, hopefully BEFORE she put that image in her newspaper with the headline of "Shrine maiden confirmed to be bookworm" or something equally annoying/humiliating.
Sighing, Reimu sits down on the steps, yawning loudly. "So next time that happens you're catching that crow. Got it?"
Marisa, currently pouting, simply nods, knowing better than to argue with Reimu. (That didn't stop her sometimes, though.)
They are both startled when a sudden explosion is heard from the direction of the Forest of Magic. Facepalming, Reimu sighes in irritance. "You left another one of your experiments going, didn't you?"
Marisa simply stares in the direction of the forest, thoroughly confused. "Uh, I haven't done any recently. I decided I'd like to keep my house for right now, ze. So, I don't think that was me."
Reimu deadpans, clearly not buying it. "Are you making up excuses now? Who else makes big explosions in the Forest of Magic?"
Marisa facepalms with a sigh. "You don't trust me, do you Reimu, ze?"
"Nope" was the immediate response, causing the witch to fall on her face with a hopeless sigh. Reimu then paused, thinking for a moment. "Actually, come to think of it, it COULD be another interdimensional meddler. Last time we had them my face was sore for a week. Damn that bitch slapped hard*."
Getting back up, Marisa simply chuckled at the memory. "The funny thing was she wasn't very threatening, until she start bitchslapping everyone, ze. As a matter of fact, I was the only one who made it out unslapped, daze."
Grumbling, Reimu whacks Marisa upside the head with her gohei again, then proceeds to head in the general direction of the forest. "Enough of this, regardless of what caused that explosion, we should be investigating it. Last thing we need is another incident. I'd like to avoid a repeat of that youkai wave."
Shrugging, Marisa simply follows the red-white shrine maiden, her hat spontaneously appearing on her head. She proceeds to hop on her broom and fly off towards the forest.
*If you can guess who this is correctly, you'll get a cookie. And maybe a free story request.
Meanwhile, in the Forest of Magic, a clearing had just been made in the smack dab center of it, complete with a crater and smoldering trees. A couple thin columns of smoke rose up from ground zero, in the middle of which was a silhouette of a man, hidden in a thicker column of smoke.
From the sky, two dots appear, one red, one black, as the shrine maiden and magician from earlier descend into ground zero. Landing first, Reimu looks around, surveying the (admittedly somewhat minor) carnage, while Marisa floats above the ground on her broom, searching for the source of the explosion. Both of the were currently completely oblivious to the figure in the smoke, who watched them carefully.
Noticing a tree that was still on fire, Reimu walked over to it, immediately noticing the bright green tint of the flames. "Uh… Marisa? Do you know what this fire is?"
Curious, the black-white witch in question floats over to the tree, noticing the green fire. "Oi, I think I know what that is. Cursed fire, if I recall correctly, ze. Nasty stuff, doesn't even need oxygen to burn- it'll burn underwater, underground… Plus it leaves a nasty burn if it touches you, ze."
Cocking her head to the side, Reimu watches the flames closely, noticing how they seemed to be changing between lighter and darker shades of green somewhat sporadically. "Cursed fire, huh? Sounds familiar…"
Chuckling, Marisa adjusted her hat. "I'd hope it'd sound familiar. One of the major wielders of the stuff invaded Gensokyo a few decades ago, ze. Unless you've been behind on your history, of course, daze." The witch grinned at that last sentence, earning an irritated groan from the black-haired shrine maiden.
"Well, well, well. Someone actually remembers me. I'll be damned. It's a shame that your lives will be ending soon."
Marisa and Reimu immediately spun around, weapons at the ready, noticing a figure walking out of the crater (the same figure they had completely missed). He stopped right in front of them, with a large, black mace in his left hand. (Yes, he's a lefty.) His red-brown hair was shining in the sunlight, and the black shirt, jeans, and boots he wore, combined with the admittedly creepy-looking mace completed a very villainous look, especially combined with the almost psychotic grin on his face.
Reimu was the first one to speak, needles and charms already on hand. "Who the hell are you, and what do you want?"
The man simply chuckled, as he proceeded to start tossing his mace up and down as though it was made of plastic (and the thing looked pretty heavy, too). "Glad you asked. I am Seronin Yurami, master of curses. And maces. Can't forget the maces." He bowed dramatically with his introduction, earning a snicker from Marisa. He proceeded to glare at the witch as she smirked at his overly posh introduction. "Hey, if you want that head of yours to stay intact you'd better shut your trap. I can make overly ridiculous introductions whenever I damn well want to."
Marisa let out an almost girly giggle at the man's reaction to her laughter. "Well, if that's the case, then I'd be more than willing to Master Spark you all the way to the Netherworld. Honestly, you don't look all that threatening, ze."
Reimu smirked in amusement as Seronin growled at Marisa, who by this point had taken to calmly trolling him into oblivion. "You know, for someone who supposedly wants to kill us, you definitely don't look threatening at all. Are you sure you're not just another random youkai looking to get some attention? Or maybe you're just a masochist who wants to get his ass kicked."
Irritation quickly started to show in Seronin's face, as his mace proceeded to burst into green flames. "You seem to be asking for a death wish. Tell me, do you even know who I am? No, you probably don't. Considering the last time I ran into a Hakurei maiden, I shouldn't be surprised. Well then, allow me to enlighten you. The witch mentioned an incident approximately 30 years ago- an incident involving a large amount of destruction by the hands of a master of curses, stopped only by the one some consider a god. That master of curses was me. Some used to refer to me as the Cursed Harbinger, others chose to nickname me the Black Destruction. Titles do not matter, however. The point is that I have far more powerful that both of you combined, and I will not hesitate to use it."
The two women stared at Seronin for a moment as he went on his rant, taking about ten seconds afterwards to absorb all that information. The next second… they started laughing hysterically, only angering the master of curses even further.
After a couple minutes of laughing, Reimu managed to calm down (although Marisa kept on laughing), and faced the now very irritated Seronin, whose anger showed quite clearly through a pulsating vein on his forehead. He sighed in annoyance, resuming his tossing of his mace. "Are you done yet? I'd like to kill you now. Because for the record, I don't appreciate being laughed at."
Reimu simply smirked, needles and charms at the ready. "I'd like to see you try. I've taken down tougher foes than you, alone, and now I have a witch who's just as powerful as I am at my side." She paused briefly, looking over at the still laughing black-white. "…correction, a hyena, not a witch."
Regardless, the shrine maiden readied herself to fight, as did Seronin, and then…
…a big sign fell in between them labeled "cliffhangar".
I am a jackass with these cliffhangars, aren't I? :P
Yeah, it's typical that I have to end off with a cliffhangar, and a damaged fourth wall. Is anything really all that new?
So, I might end up writing another chapter for this, or I might start up the other fics I plan on writing. There's three other sets of fanfics I plan on writing, two of which intertwine with the HCS. Each of these sets of fics will correspond to a different fandom, although there'll be multiple crossovers between them. Because what fun would it be if the series was crossover-less?
The current plans are for a set for Disgaea, Hyperdimension Neptunia, and a third game I'm not going to tell you because I'm an evil jackass and that's related to a challenge earlier in this chapter. :P
Either way, R&R, people. Also, washtub starts next chapter. :)