Alright, I decided to post this chapter early, but the next one's going to be on the proper date.
As for how I'm going to name the chapters, I sort of merged the Half-Life style and the Touhou style. The names of the chapters are very simple, involving phrases or objects, and basically, very, basic. Though, then I'll just do some little note, like in Stage descriptions in Touhou games such as PCB and IN.
Speaking of which, about Touhou. This is my first Touhou fanfiction, so I'm trying to do my best to get all the characters right. I've only played Touhou 6-9 and I know about characters from TH10, and I know only some things about TH11, and I know pretty much nothing about every game after that except for Fairy Wars. Plus, I know nothing about the fighting spinoffs.
I was wondering how it would be possible for Japanese characters to interact with English speaking characters, so basically, I was just trying to find every available excuse, but in the end, I decided it was best if Touhou characters spoke English.
Well, on with the chapter. Also, all the disclaimers (and begs) are on the first chapter at the beginning, so I don't have to write it on every single forward.
Joshua Mitchell – Bamboo Forest of the Lost –
Dell Conagher – Human Village –
Mykeisha Bruma – Misty Lake –
Adrian Shephard – Forest of Magic –
Chell [REDACTED] – Youkai Mountain –
Rokunam – Borealis –
Chapter Two: Eastern Border
Even one who has witnessed the unimaginable, cannot believe the imagined.
"Smell that?" Josh asked the nothingness. Josh found himself stuck in what appeared to be some kind of bamboo forest. It was dark, though, there were stars shining overhead, but he couldn't see the moon through the thickets. He had just found himself there, after trying to escape the Borealis. He hadn't made it in time, he assumed, and now, he was somewhere. Was this what Xen looked like? He'd heard Xen had weird plants, but to have plants that looked like bamboo stalks, actually didn't seem that uncommon.
However, he couldn't be mistaken, this was bamboo. Josh walked through the thick 'forest' of bamboo. He was lost, no doubt, but he had to be on Earth. Of course, when was the last time he saw a healthy piece of bamboo? Or a piece of bamboo in general. He'd actually never seen a bamboo forest before, but where he was was just a little obvious. However, it smelled like bamboo nonetheless.
Maybe the Combine had been secretly growing Earth-bound products, such as bamboo, simply for their own luxuries. Well, that sounded like a very plausible theory, except for the fact that he'd yet to see a single piece of technology. No security, no harvesting, not even technology for growing.
Occasionally though, he'd see a rabbit passing by. Sometimes one would look at him for a bit with a confused look on it's face, but then it'd run off. Rabbits. Josh found it hard to believe they existed anymore. He'd sometimes see birds, and on the rare occasion, rats, and sometimes at night, he could still hear some insects, (and feel them, damn mosquitoes,) but never a rabbit. Was the world really not entirely destroyed? He was most likely in Asia, no doubt. He'd never been in another country before, not even before the Combine invaded. Perhaps the world didn't look the same as the world he was used to. Perhaps nature still thrived elsewhere, where Antlions, among other things, didn't ruin the ecosystem.
Though, there was one time, where he had sworn he heard something other than a rabbit. From so much time out fighting on the field, he knows the difference in between a human's footprints and an animal's. Josh rose his flamethrower in defense, but realizing it wouldn't be a good idea to use it in a forest of bamboo, while having no idea how deep in it he was, he reached for his Colt Python from his pocket.
Dell found himself walking among other people, humans of course. He had just woken up on the edge of some city. He kept asking where he was, and about the Combine. Though, everybody he talked to just looked at him like he was crazy, not to mention his strange attire, and the 'suspicious' tool boxes. To them, he looked like somebody on a farm in space.
"The Combine, the aliens that took over the world, doesn't anybody know about them?!" he'd ask in his frustration, but everybody tried to avoid him as if he was crazy. Certainly it was nowhere as close to being as large as a Combine controlled City, but it was too peaceful to be a Resistance base. It was simply a village, untouched and clueless. Dell thought he actually was going crazy. He popped into nowhere with people who were clueless about the Combine, or even modern technology for that matter. Was he dead? It could have been possible. The place was so old and peaceful, and though it was dark, he could see tons of green beyond. Perhaps there were different levels of heaven, and he happened to be in one that had a lot of older people in it. He certainly didn't feel dead though.
Frustrated, he didn't bother trying to ask people anymore, and simply wandered the village. Most people were asleep, but some buildings such as late-night shops still had light. He simply sat on front of a tree somewhere in the middle of the village, using one of his toolboxes as a seat, setting the other beside him. He put his his chin in his palms and his elbows on his knees, trying to sort the whole thing out.
"Excuse me sir," a woman asked. Dell looked up to see a woman in a blue dress with short white sleeves, and a red ribbon tied to the bottom of her collar. She was wearing some weird sort of blue hat with a red ribbon on top. She had brown eyes and her hair was certainly not normal color. It was mostly silver or white, but with blue highlights. Her voice sounded formal, and wasn't to worried, nor was it too stern. "Is anything wrong?" she asked.
"...Am I dead?" Dell decided to ask. The woman looked at him as if he was crazy. "Take that as a no then, huh?" Dell concluded, then asked, "So if I'm not dead, where in Sam Hill am I?"
"It's nowhere near Sam Hill, wherever that is. You are in the Human Village." she responded, as if humans needed to be identified. Though, it didn't bother Dell too much, considering humans were no longer the dominant species on the planet, nevermind the only intelligent species.
"I suppose humans aren't so common 'round this part of the planet," Dell concluded and continued to asked, "So what about the Combine, have they not taken over some parts of the world? Please don't think I'm crazy, miss, I just got myself teleported just outside of 'ere, long story, and people are actin' like there wasn't a Seven Hour War or even a Resonance Cascade to begin with!"
The woman examined Dell for a bit, trying to make out his attire and what he was saying, and his strange accent. Then, she asked, "Sir, are you from the outside world?" Dell paused for a second, then answered, "I suppose, I've never seen or even heard of 'the Human Village' before. I'm from City 13, but then I ended up with my pals in Borealis Base once I joined the Resistance. And now, I'm here."
"Sir," she said, "You are not in the world you are familiar with. You are in Gensokyo."
Josh followed a smell that was bothering him. It wasn't a smell that he had smelled recently. It smelled like, fish. No, it was freedom, and money. And it was fish.
Movie references aside, Josh was really smelling carrot-something. Whatever it was, it smelled good, and he was getting hungry. He hadn't eaten anything since he had woken up. Plus, it also meant somebody was near. Whatever he thought he'd seen earlier didn't matter, or maybe it did. Or perhaps the person who he could of though he heard earlier is the one with the carrots. Why there'd be carrots in a supposedly bamboo forest didn't matter. All that mattered was that, well, nothing really mattered to Josh. He just let his worn-out instincts carry him wherever was most convenient, even while hauling a huge flamethrower.
Sure enough, passing through a couple thickets, he found a bundle of carrots on the ground. Just normal carrots. Where the smell was actually coming from, who knows. If it was a trap, it couldn't have been a Combine trap. Not even the most juvenile of Units or Soldiers would come up with a trap as this. So, there is nothing totally wrong about a batch of carrots on the ground in a bamboo forest.
He placed his flamethrower on the ground, and walked towards the carrots, pretty much mindlessly. Next thing he knew, however, was that he was dropping two meters into the ground.
"JESUS!" he cried, pretty much being his favorite phrase. He fell on his butt, which was now pretty sore. Who the hell makes pitfall traps in the middle of a bamboo forest. Perhaps the Combine had gotten smart and had started using less obvious traps like landmines, and used simpler ones. Josh stood up, pulled out his Colt Python back out of his pocket, and start pointing it above the hole, which was just above his vision, turning frantically, for possibly any threat. If somebody threw a grenade into the three meter wide hole, Josh could have become nothing more than, he couldn't even picture it.
"Holy crap, holy Jesus, oh God, oh man, oh God, oh man, oh God," he 'prayed'. Though, what he did not hear was the clicking of a grenade or the ring of gunfire, or the moaning, beeping, or whatever, of a Combine device or Synth. What he heard was the giggling of a young girl.
"You completely fell for it!" she laughed. It was a short girl, very young, it seemed, though Josh couldn't tell her age. She was wearing some sort of pink dress, maybe a nightgown, and was wearing white stockings. She was wearing some sort of necklace with a carrot on it. Her hair was black shoulder-length, however, her eyes were red. And that wasn't what freaked Josh out the most. She had a large pair of fluffy white rabbit ears coming out of her head.
Josh was lost for words for a second, but only a second, but then he shouted, "What the hell, I thought you were the Combine!" In his frustration, he kicked the side of the pitfall hole, some dust being thrown into the air.
"Need help?" the girl teased. Though that was a bit irritating, Josh had regained his cool, but refused her offer. He through his gun over the side first and with some difficulty, he hauled himself out. He turned to the girl to find her checking out his fallen weapon, his Flamethrower.
"Um, you really shouldn't get near that thing, it's, um, dangerous," Josh warned. "What's it do?" She asked, heaving the tool into her arms. Josh ran over to her and took the heavy weapon away. He sighed and pointed the weapon into the air.
"Fine, just once," he said, hoping he didn't set the whole place on fire. Pressing down the trigger, flames burst into the air of the little clearing. Josh held it down for about three seconds before stopping and pointing it back down to the ground. The girl looked at it amazed. "Don't try that at home, kid," Josh told her.
"And what gives you the right to call me a kid?" she asked, "You're the lost human, right? I'm the one that's gotta guide you out." Josh looked over her for a bit. "How old are you?" he asked, "Because I haven't seen a child like you in a long time." The girl just ignored her and started heading through the bamboo forest, signaling Josh to follow.
As they walked,many things went through Josh's mind. Such as how this kid possibly exists, what's with the ears (which after staring down at her head for a while, he determined couldn't be fake), what's with the creepy red eyes, and why was she the only one out here?
"So, you said you guide lost humans? I suppose that means your part of the Resistance, right?" Josh asked. The girl paused for a bit but then answered, "Whenever a human gets lost, I guide them out, 'cause I know this entire forest up and down. But, mind if I take you somewhere first?"
"Is there a Resistance base around here somewhere?" Josh asked, "I suppose Combine scouting parties might easily get lost around here, plus I suppose it's not that obvious either, right?" The girl paused once more, because of all the strange words being used, as if they were talking about two different things. Josh realized that she was only a child, so he corrected himself; "I meant the aliens, it would be hard to find us here." She perked up at the word 'aliens'.
"Oh, I know some aliens, from the moon," she told him, "And we're headed to Master's place." Josh guess when she meant 'from the moon', she really didn't have much understanding about the Combine at all, except for the fact that they were 'evil aliens'. He also assumed by 'Master's place', she meant some sort of Resistance base. Josh hoped he didn't have to meet up with anybody extremely bossy, but hey, maybe he or she knows Gordon Freeman, or maybe he'd find somebody he knows there.
"What's your name," Josh asked, "Mine's Josh, I prefer it to 'Mr. Mitchell'." "Tewi Inaba," the rabbit-eared girl responded, "But you can call me Tei."
"So what your sayin' is, that somehow I ended up in some secret place that's filled with magic and a bunch 'a fairy tail creatures includin' demons that one to eat me limb from limb? Is that right?" Dell asked, trying to get his loose facts strait. "Pretty much," The woman responded. She had been busy trying to tell him about what Gensokyo was, where it was, how it came to be, and pretty much the entire history of Gensokyo, but tried shortening up a bit. This man was probably smart, but it was going to take a bit for him to register all of this.
"Ma'am," he explained, "I've seen and heard many crazy things in my lifetime. Some you will not believe unless you lived a good portion of your life in it, and still not believe, and some that will haunt 'ya for the rest of 'yer damn life, I've known many who've been through that. However, this, is kinda a bit much. I've seen things quite damn close to witchcraft and supernatural powers, but, I still don't believe in magical."
"Sounds like the world out there isn't as simple it probably once was," the woman noted, "However, even so. Here, you are going to have to believe everything everybody tells you. Well, except for some of the more mischievous fairies and youkai. I've heard some very rare stories of people from the outside world appearing in Gensokyo, but that is very rare. Though, they mostly decide to live here in the Human Village."
"Are you one of these Yo-ka-y?" Dell said, trying to pronounce the foreign word. "No, I'm human, my name is Keine Kamishirasawa." Dell didn't bother trying to pronounce the name and just stood up and held his hand out. "Pleasure to meet 'ya Miss Kamis... Miss Keine, name's Dell Conagher," he introduced himself. Keine looked at his hand, trying to figure out what he was signaling. "It's a handshake, a very old, but still popular, type of greeting, mostly in western culture," Dell explained, but then gave up, knowing she was clueless.
"Well, I suppose I should find some way to stay for the rest of the night, and then I guess I gotta go see if I can find my teammates 'round 'ere," Dell announced, adjourning the conversation. "Oh, you can-" she was about to offer, but then something zoomed over passed them in the sky. It was place, but still noticeable, catching both their attention.
"What the hell was that?" Dell asked, hoping that it wasn't some sort of Combine attack, or possibly a 'youkai attack'. "The Tengu," Keine answered, "Most likely Aya." "Who's A-" though, he was interrupted by some girl just almost appearing out of nowhere, as if she'd just zoomed in there.
"Aya Shameimaru, reporter and writer of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper," she announced herself as, obviously very proud of her position. She was shorter then both Dell and Keine, and had black semi-long hair, and red eyes (which creeped Dell out a bit). She wore a white blouse with brown leaf prints on the sides, a black short skirt with some of the same leaf prints, and a strange red hat, a type that Dell couldn't name, but was obviously something Japanese.
"Geez, Aya, do you ever go to sleep?" Keine asked her. "News never sleeps," She responded, "As for the latest news, somebody had the nerve to leave their ship in the middle of the Forest of Magic, disturbing many of the residents. Murasa says she's got nothing to do with it, though it's not like anybody else has anything to do with boats. However, though it had just appeared tonight, rumor has it it's from the Outside World, and it'll probably have some really cool things in it. Everyone for themselves!"
"Hold on there for a second missy!" Dell called, "What do 'ya mean by 'boat'?" "A boat randomly appearing certainly is strange," Keine added. "Read about it yourself!" she said, tossing them a newspaper. "Hot off the press!" she added, before disappearing in a gust of wind the moment their gazes were off of her.
"She's a youkai," Keine decided to add. "She didn't seem that bad," Dell noted. "It's very rare you can walk around, especially at night, and find a friendly youkai like her," Keine explained, "Though I suppose there are notable ones out there that aren't as hostile."
Dell examined the front page of the newspaper. "The Bunbunmaru paper isn't exactly the most factual," Keine told him, "It's more about Aya's opinions than actual facts." On the front page of the paper read; BOAT APPEARS IN FOREST OF MAGIC; CULPRIT NOT FOUND. Below it, was a grand picture of the Borealis itself. It's hull was still painted with frost, rusted in many spots. The word BOREALIS was still visible on it's hull, along with the Aperture logo in various places. It had been tipped on it's side. It was far higher than the trees, and apparently it brought some of it's broken drydock with it, chunks of metal resting not far from the ship, and even brought some ice with it, littered around it and the forest. It looked mostly undamaged, aside from the drydock now being entirely in pieces.
Dell read through what he thought was probably the most self-centered newspaper article he'd ever read. Apparently, it had only appeared there about twenty minutes ago, not too much earlier from when Dell found himself in this place, Xen-Tokyo, or rather, Gensokyo.
"I need to get to that ship," Dell said, passing the paper to Keine. Keine analyzed the paper and asked, "Do you know that ship? Must had come here with you" she concluded. "Oh yeah, I'm assumin' that's the thing that brought me 'ere, and most likely my teammates are 'ere as well," Dell explained, "If I at least get to that thing, I might get some sort of clue as to where the rest of 'em are."
Hello again. This chapter is short, mostly because this is where I ran into writer's block.
Originally, when I was planning and writing this chapter, I had realized that I had coincidentally only had IN characters in it. It's not even my favorite game, but somehow, it happened. Though, somehow, I managed to squeeze characters out and put Aya in. I tend to make plans for chapters, but then as I write, just as I'm pondering what to write next (because I forgot to plan it) some random idea pops into my head. Aya is one of the many cases in this chapter. Then again, I don't see what's wrong with having only characters form a certain game in one chapter, even if it's the beginning chapter. I guess from me being an experienced roleplayer, it's sort of a writing instinct of mine. I always plan an idea of what I want to do with my character in the future, and then, something slightly or completely different from my original planning sequence happens, and I just come up with an even better idea than my original idea.
(Some next chapter spoilers in here) I already know what I'm going to do with Dell and Rokunam. I'm not too sure exactly what Tewi is going to do with Josh, but I am in the process of brainstorming a rather comic sequence. Adrian Shephard's going to have an epic (yet silly) fight with Rumia, just need to plan it out more (he's got nightvision, right?). I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with Mykeisha, but she's probably going to end up in some kind of reckless fighting, and vaporizing, I was thinking maybe something involving Cirno, but I already have Shephard fighting Rumia so, it'd be kind of weird to do it twice. I was thinking about exactly how Chell would enter, and I just thought, "What the heck, let's just have her fall out of the sky." And I was thinking she'd be falling toward the Misty Lake, and having her panic, 'cause of one of GlaDOS's words of advice (possibly a blatant lie) stating to 'not submerge the device in water, even partially', though, I don't see how you can portal away from a lake. Either way, I'm open to all ideas.
I might even add Gordon Freeman and the main characters into the story at some point, but probably much later in the storyline. Though, I don't think I'm going to put the Freeman in Gensokyo.
Will Shephard, Chell, and the rest of the rebels get back to Earth? Will they be accepted in Gensokyo without causing a commotion? Will the Combine invade Gensokyo? Will the Borealis technology be safe? Will Letty lose weight? Will John Freeman become 'Saver of Humens'? Who knows, but find out when the Space Core gets tired of SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!
