AN: The story from here on will be in third-person. Also, on an unrelated note, I just got Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. I give it a 8.523/10. Yes, I have a complex raring system involving random numbers. What of it?
Oh, and a call-out to whoever finds the indie game title reference!
Chapter 1: The Village
Saigyou Ayakashi had walked for nearly five hours, and the sun was beginning to set. In the time he traveled, he had nearly perfected his abilities. He could make trees move in any way he wished, from causing a single cherry blossom to fall, to making a tree walk on it's roots. He could also control the cherry blossoms themselves in the form of danmaku. However, he had gotten rather hungry from practicing, and the berries he came across during his travel only made him hungrier.
Suddenly, he caught the scent of something delicious, and began to follow the smell. He did not know what the smell was, but it made his stomach growl loudly with anticipation. Saigyou also predicted that the smell would lead him to civilization, giving him a chance to make a living. In his opinion, he might as well try, since his new body could be killed easier.
By the time Saigyou reached the source, it was near midnight. The moon was nearly full, illuminating the town in front of him. As he entered the town, he saw multiple stores, most of them closed. Some still had their light on, taking the nightly youkai customers. He noticed one the few stores remaining open had what appeared to be loaves of different breads. There was a lone man handing them out to the youkai in exchange for yen. Saigyou knew he had nothing to buy it with, but he was hungry, so he decided to try a different method: bargaining.
He walked towards the man, who had just finished handing a loaf to a young girl. She had long silver hair with blue highlights. She wore a strange blue hat that looked like a house, a red ribbon attached to the roof. She also had on a dark blue dress, adorning a similar red ribbon, over a white short-sleeved shirt. Saigyou stepped out of her way as she walked past him. As he continued towards the bread vendor, the girl stopped and turned around, looking at him more closely, before resuming her walking. This went unnoticed by Saigyou, as his only focus was food.
He approached the man calmly. "Excuse me, sir?" he said, getting the man's attention.
"I haven't seen you in the village before, sir." He said, still conducting business with other customers. "What can I get for you today, newcomer?"
"I was wondering..." He paused, thinking of the best way to say it. "... I do not have anything to give, but if you can give me some food, I could keep thieves from stealing from you."
The man's interest piqued. "Actually, I do lose bread quite often since I pay little attention to it. I find that if I focus on the customer, they feel confident with my abilities, therefore giving me more customers."
Saigyou's goal was within reach. "So if I guard your bread, I can have some, correct?"
"Yes, help yourself to a loaf." The man said happily. "Thank you, mister..."
It took Saigyou a second to realize that the man wished to know his name. His previous form, the true Saigyou Ayakashi, was bound to be known by at least a handful of people. If knowledge got out that he was back, he would be pursued. Unwilling to use his real name, he thought of something different, but not to different so that he wouldn't be comfortable being called it.
"It's Ayouka, Sagi Ayouka. Just Sagi is fine though," he said, hoping the name wouldn't be made fun of in the near future.
"Okay then, Sagi. Stand by the bread, just don't get too close. You might make the bread soggy." The man laughed for a bit. "I'm sorry, you must get that a lot."
"Just do your job, and I'll do mine," Saigyou replied through clenched teeth. If he ever had to kill, he hoped that the man would be close enough to get 'accidentally' impaled by a rouge tree branch. He stood by the bread, grabbing a loaf and taking bites occasionally.
When the youkai left, it was near daybreak, the sky already losing stars in the increasingly-visible blue color. Saigyou didn't think he'd be here this long. He left without giving the man any warning, having wasted more time than he wished. He walked around the village, looking for a place to rest. He hated the limitations of his body. It needed specific nutrients to survive, and even then, it still had to rest. His old body could just stay still, and gain nutrients from the soil and sun, with a human here and there. The only plus his new body had was the increased mobility. He found a comfortable spot under a tree, and fell asleep, his back on the trunk.
When Saigyou awakened, the sun was in the sky. Judging by the shadows, it was around nine in the morning. He looked at the spectacle it front of him. People were walking all over the place. In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have slept in the area with the shops. There was also a crowd of kids in front of a building, larger than the others, cheering off in the distance. Curious, Saigyou got up and went to investigate.
He walked up to the mass of children and decided to speak to one of the older ones. He chose a young girl, around 13 years of age, out of the heads sticking out from the top of the bunch.
Saigyou asked the obvious question. "Why are all of you cheering?"
"Miss Keine isn't here today, so the school is closed! Now we get a day off!" The girl couldn't have said that any louder or happier.
Saigyou quickly left the kids before he went deaf. Awake for only five minutes, and he already had a headache. He decided he would attempt to make some money by helping out around the village. He spotted a well on the outskirts of town after a bit of looking for a shop in desperate need of assistance. Bored, he decided to look into it. There was little to no water left in it, and there were roots from various trees protruding from the worn-out stone wall. But what it lacked in appearance and water, it made up for in yen. Coins littered the bottom of the well to the extent of obscuring the view of the floor.
Saigyou realized that this was a wishing well. The wishes gave the gods and goddesses in Gensokyo power to give miracles out to those who believe. The money, however, did nothing, and was fair game to Saigyou. He controlled the roots in the well to grab the coins. After carefully extracting about 3000 yen (~$33.42) in coins, he left the well and returned to the shops. He left all the small coins in the well, so he didn't have to carry a suspicious amount of money by holding out his shirt as a makeshift bag. He spent the rest of the day sampling different foods, his favorite being lamprey from a night sparrow, who failed at conning him into buying more. As the sun set, Saigyou decided he would venture outside the village to explore. He prepared by buying a rather large sword, about eight inches wide and five feet long, from an unusual store run by an odd guy people called Kourindou. If any rogue youkai attacked him, he wouldn't hesitate to counter it.
The red full moon began to appear over the horizon as darkness took over the sky. Saigyou had just left the town. He heard various rumors about current events. He planned on checking out the closest one. Apparently a certain blue fairy is attempting to make a fortress out of ice in the lake he woke up near. He also felt he should apologize for choking her, even if he meant to do it.
About an hour into his trek, he was within a deep forest. Luckily, he knew which way to go, since the moss on the trees functioned as a impromptu compass. Soon, he came across a clearing. Thinking that now would be a good place to rest, he stabbed his sword into the ground. Suddenly, he felt something new; two things, actually.
Unbelievable heat and blinding pain.
Saigyou was launched ten feet into a nearby tree with enough force to kill a human. Luckily, he was a youkai. He fell to the ground, before pulling himself up. Dazed, he turned around to face two people. One had ankle-long violet hair, with a red and white paper charm acting as a bow in it. She wore what appeared to be red suspenders, patched up with the same paper charms, over a burnt red shirt. To her left was the same girl Saigyou met at the bread guy's place, except with a green dress, green highlights, and two horns instead of a hat. The red bow from the hat was on her left horn.
The fact that the girl on the right (Saigyou's right is the girls' left ow my head) was partially on fire, as well as the fact that they were floating in the air, told Saigyou everything he didn't want to know. The blue girl, who was a were-hakutaku, somehow knew who he was, and spent the whole day getting reinforcements. He was also outnumbered and outgunned, his BFS (Big Freaking Sword) ten feet away. Also, they could fly while he was stuck on the ground. And fire doesn't help trees any, either. No matter how he saw it, he would have to fight, and he would most likely lose and... *puts on glasses*
...kick the (well) bucket. (Insert CSI "YEAH!!" scream here)
Wow, that took about 10 hours to write. Did you find the hidden indie game reference? Post it in the review section if you did. Oh, and the end was inspired by both Kimiko Muffin's recent comic and Shagg's Let's Play Star Fox 64 series on Youtube.