Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Touhou characters, settings or any other original material created by ZUN or any other affiliates. All Touhou copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Ch. 40: Revolution! !
Immediately, Suika and Yuugi were on their feet, ready to defend Okuu and Orin as a tall and imposing figure, the source of the stranger's voice, came strutting over to them.
It was an odd figure. The person, for one, was completely covered from head to toe. Dressed in alien, non-revealing clothing that nonetheless did nothing to hide her gender, the woman sported a svelte and fashionable trench coat. Her hair was pulled back and completely hidden in a mob cap and her face spotted a mask and lab glasses. Her feet were encased in brown, slender boots and her hands sported white industrial gloves.
"… Who are you? And what's with the funny get up?" Suika demanded.
"Science requires proper gear," the lady said, "It would be bad if the entire experiment was botched up due to a problem with hygiene or safety…"
"Experiment…?" Yuugi was confused.
"Hmmm… Don't you know?" the lady asked. "This was no sabotage attempt. This was an innovative, revolutionary experiment, to which your most obliging and supportive friend volunteered for," the lady proclaimed.
Suika, Yuugi and Orin immediately stared at Okuu wide eyed. S-She wasn't attacked? She was… experimented on? !
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO OKUU? !" Orin shouted furiously at the lady, but she remained knelt on the ground, paralyzed by fear. Fear not for herself but for Okuu. Fear that something could happen at any time to her dearest friend should she leave her side.
"Well, as I mentioned earlier, she did volunteer," the lady defended.
"DON'T LIE! ! !" Orin roared.
"It's true," the lady reinforced her plea of innocence. "Ah… You misunderstand so many things… But you got one thing right though," the lady suddenly sounded menacing as she gave the two Oni, who were in a battle ready stance, a haughty glance.
"You were right to think that I should be strong."
"…" Kogasa paced up and down worriedly. The resort had largely settled down by now, but Satori was still busy getting the resort back to as normal a condition as possible. The hot springs were, of course, no longer usable, and since the indoor baths and saunas largely relied on the spring water as well, they too were out of order. Satori's temporary solution for now was to provide firewood heated baths for anyone who wanted to use one, not that there were many guests that were in a festive mood at the moment.
This was evident to Parsee, as she and Kogasa were the few guests that were at the eateries. The two were, in fact, at the very café Kogasa had so desperately wanted to take Suika to just a couple of hours ago.
"Relax Kogasa," Parsee, seated at the table, gently urged, "Suika's fine. It'll take an army to stop her."
"They say that it'll take an army to stop Okuu as well," Kogasa looked at Parsee anxiously, "And she's not fine."
"… C-Come drink this tea with me, Kogasa," Parsee weakly offered, "It's delicious and it's going to become cold if we don't-"
"No thanks," Kogasa refused, and resumed her pacing, her white hands shakily clutching her umbrella, which was trembling in her grip.
"… Kogasa," Parsee said softly, "You know very well that we-"
"I know we won't be of any help!" Kogasa shouted, and Parsee jumped. "I just… I just want to be there in case… in case-" Kogasa choked up as her anxiety was getting the better of her.
"Don't think like that, Kogasa!" Parsee rushed to Kogasa's side and hugged the trembling karakasa, "Yuugi's with her too, so they'll be fine! They'll be fine…" Parsee repeated to herself quietly.
God knows how much she herself wanted to go after the Oni.
With a casual flick of the trench coat lady's hand, a heavy bombardment of danmaku came blitzing its way towards the two Oni.
"Hah! Get the others out of the way!" Suika cried out to Yuugi.
With a nod, Yuugi kicked back on one foot, scooping Orin and Okuu up in her arms on her way as she vaulted a hundred metres back. Suika charged forth and stuck out a finger. Immediately, all the danmaku started to home towards her.
"Suika! ! !" Orin cried out in warning, but there was nothing to worry about. Before the bullets hit Suika, she had transformed herself into a puff of smoke, and the danmaku passed through her harmlessly.
"… Hmmm… I forgot how difficult you devas are…" the trench coat lady remarked impassively. "Nonetheless," she raised her hand again, readying another attack, "I cannot have you interfere," she pointed directly at Yuugi who had Orin and Okuu in her arms and this time fired an extremely quick and dense array of lasers.
"…! Shit! Lasers!" Suika panicked as she was unable to react fast enough. But Yuugi simply stomped on the ground before her, large chunks of frozen rock to break up and rise before her as a shield, stopping the lasers cold in their tracks and even reflecting a few back towards the trench coat lady. The lady gave another flick of her hand, and her own danmaku hurtling towards her was immediately dispersed.
"… Hmmm…" the lady visibly breathed out deeply, apparently getting a little impatient. "Would you kindly put the raven down?" the lady requested of Yuugi." The procedure concluded just a moment ago, and despite the most incredible of preliminary results obtained, I would prefer to observe whether the modifications have become stable. So please, release the girl. Do not disturb her rest," she said.
"You were the one that disturbed her!" Orin exclaimed as she struggled out of Yuugi's grip. Landing on her feet, she growled furiously at the trench coat lady. "Why are you doing this to her? ! Why are you doing this to us?! We were getting on fine! The resort was a success! And you… you had to come and interrupt our peace… To harm my best friend? !" Orin's face was twisted with rage and wet with tears, and her claws were completely free of their sheathes in her fingers. Next to her, Okuu still in arm, Yuugi placed a hand on Orin's shoulder to calm her down and restrain her should she do anything foolish.
"… Pathetic…"
"... H-Huh?" Orin went, confusion mixed in with her fury.
"… I said… PATHETHIC!" the trench coat lady spat.
"P-Pathetic…?" Orin's face was ludicrous. "H-How can you say-"
"You have the entire power of the sun!" the trench coat lady shouted. "Thesun! All of it! Stored in the tiny package of a girl! And what do you use her for? Heh…" the lady sneered viciously, "You use her to heat bathingwater!" Her eyes narrowed piercingly, "You ambitionless lowlife…"
Orin's fangs bared, "Why you-"
"Stuff your trap!" Suika beat her to the chase however, and the little Oni rocketed forward like a meteor. The trench coat lady however merely side stepped so swiftly that she appeared to have teleported, and Suika and her fist missed their mark by several metres.
"Uh uh! Spell card rules, remember?" the trench coat lady wagged a finger at Suika.
"Spell card rules…" Suika hissed, "If it were a realfight, an Oni would always win!"
"And then civilization would go downhill, yeah?" the lady retorted.
"What's up with you and your obsession about furthering society?" Yuugi asked, "Isn't it fine the way it is?"
The trench coat lady sadly shook her head. "Hah… And that is why it lies with gods like us to help elevate society to a higher existence," she solemnly declared.
"Gods…?" Orin's eyes widened with sudden realization.
"What is it?" Yuugi next to her asked.
"Wait… There was someone who gave Okuu her power in the first place… Don't tell me…" Orin crouched with her claws readied once more, "You're…!"
The lady laughed from afar, "Haha… Does it matter who I am? But still, something incomplete does require perfecting, does it not? I… I came here, to finish… what was started back then in this very place…" she looked Suika steadily in the eye. "I came to complete that hell raven," her eyes narrowed.
Suika had a stunned expression on her face, "K-Kanako…?" she tentatively asked.
"Nnngh…" Everyone turned around to the quiet groan issuing from under Yuugi's arm. Reiuji Utsuho stirred, before slowly opening her eyes.
"… Hah…! Okuu!" Orin rushed to Utsuho's side, all the while calling out her nickname. "Okuu! Okuu! Are you alright?" she braced Okuu up with both arms with some effort as the raven groggily got up to her feet. Okuu was of average height and slim build, but she felt heavy as her great black wings remained slumped towards the ground, her cloak trailing them leadenly.
"I'm… fine…" Okuu barely breathed out, her lips slightly parted, her legs bending at the knees, barely supporting her own weight as she clutched heavily onto lithe Orin, who was doing the best she could to support Okuu.
"Hmmm… You've recovered…" Kanako observed.
"R-Recovered!" Orin glowered at Kanako, "You call this recovered? ! She can barely stand! ! Okuu… Okuu…!" Orin tried her best to support Okuu by the shoulders, only to have her slump back down to her knees. Okuu's shallow breaths came out in cold puffs of vapour, and her heavy black wings were shuddering. "Okuu… Okuu…!" Orin cried out desperately, but was stopped by a raised hand from Okuu.
"O-Okuu…?" Okuu, ignoring Orin by her side, raised herself up onto one knee. Looking straight at the masked Kanako before her, she weakly said, "I'm ready for the next phase."
"H-Huh?" Orin, whose expression was swiftly turning from confusion back to anxiety, asked worriedly, "H-Hey… What do you mean by ready…?"
"Hmph…" A distance away, a triumphant smile could be observed under Kanako's mask. "Told you," she smirked towards Orin and the Oni, "She came aboard voluntarily."
"What? !" Yuugi and Suika startled as Orin stared at Okuu in disbelief. "N-No way…"
"O-Okuu…" Orin implored the unresponsive hell raven next to her, "Hey… Why did you go along with this woman…? Hey… Hey…!" grabbing Okuu by the shoulders, she spun the raven around to force Okuu to face her, but as soon as their eyes met, Orin jumped back with a yelp.
Okuu's eyes were an unnatural, icy shade of blue.
"Wh-What's going on? !" Orin cried out as she looked around desperately, Yuugi and Suika similarly at a lost of what to make of the situation. "Something's… something's wrong with Okuu…!"
Okuu continued to ignore Orin's cries however. Turning her eyes about the cave completely frozen over, she observed with a tone of satisfaction, "So… I did all this… huh? I'm not sure what I did, but it looks powerful…"
"Yes! Yes you did!" Kanako proudly proclaimed. "All of this! It was a great success, our experiment!"
"And what's this supposed to be?" Okuu traced a hand on the frozen floor inquisitively, "Ice?"
"I-Ice- Oh goodness me! Haha… No, silly!" Kanako walked up to the raven and squatted down next to her, a proud gleam in her eye as she stroked the impassive Okuu's head fondly. "That! Well… That's perfectly solidified energy!" she explained excitedly.
"WHAT! ! !" Yuugi, Suika and Orin glanced around the cave in shock. All this was… energy? !
"Er… Kanako…" Suika nervously started, "if all of this that we're standing on is energy- You know, the explosive kind…"
"Sigh…" Kanako stood up and stared dryly at Suika while Okuu kept stroking her work on the ground. "Do you understand what I was trying to accomplish here?" her lips curled under her mask.
"Well… Actually, no but-"
"I was trying to make nuclear fusion safer, more controllable!" Kanako started pacing around impatiently. "In short, a revolution! !"
"Re… volution…?"
"Think about it!" Kanako whirled around and jabbed a finger in Suika's direction. "Nuclear fusion has so much potential, and yet it is dangerous precisely because it is volatile, right?"
"I think 'volatile' is an understatement…"
"Exactly! Which is why to properly harness and perfect nuclear fusion, one just has to remove the 'volatile' aspect of it!"
"C-Can you really just remove-"
"Imagine! What if the energy you produce is in a stable, solid state instead of dangerous, explosive energy? What if you could somehow trap the process of converting matter to energy somewhere in between, so what you get is a near 100% capturing of the potential energy output from nuclear fusion! Can you imagine the potential? !"
"Er… Sorry, you lost me at the first line, could you repeat it again-"
"It would be tremendous! It would mean cutting back wastage, since little energy is lost as heat or light! It would mean greatly improved energy storage! I mean, just look at that solidified energy under your feet! It could be kept like that for eons and not one bit would be lost! Perfect efficiency! Perfect utility! Breaking the boundaries of the greatest technologies ever achieved! And the best part is-"
"H-hang on! Hang on!" Yuugi interrupted Kanako's rant. "I think we all just want you to answer Suika's question, and that is: IS IT SAFE IN HERE, DAMMIT? !"
Kanako blinked at Yuugi several times, before breaking out into laughter, "Haha! Of course it's safe! Weren't you listening? The best part of it all is the perfect control we have over the energy! It won't explode in your face unless the girl wants it to!" Kanako gestured at Okuu. "Right Okuu?" she asked Okuu, who was now standing and smiling brightly, a glowing finger extended towards the group.
… Hang on… "Okuu!" Kanako and the rest jumped back, their faces horrified. Suddenly, it dawned upon everyone that this revolutionary power Okuu wielded or whatever Kanako claimed it was had just one small problem.
Okuu herself.
"So… basically…" Okuu wondered out loud whimsically, "I'm a lot more powerful than before, right?" Her cheery smile brightened.
"That makes me so happy!"
Giving off vibes of Flandre there Okuu… I like it!