Chapter 3wa
Fiery Wrath of Nature
The bell that marked the end of work sounded, and most of the workers of the science lab stopped whatever work they were doing to get ready to go back home.
Akemi, however, paid no attention to it, as she busy working on something. When someone knocked on the door, she quickly put away the thing she was working on underneath her desk, sat down behind the latter, and pretended that she was working on some documents. When she told the person to come in, Nitori opened the door and poked her head in. "It's time to call it a day," Nitori said to her. "Are you still working?"
"I'm working overtime," Akemi told her without raising her head. "You can go on ahead. Plus, I live here, so it's not like I have to leave this place."
"Right… Almost forgot… Good luck to you!" Nitori said before leaving and closing the door.
After the kappa was gone, Akemi locked the door before taking out the thing she was working on to continue with it. "She'll definitely know what this is and ask a lot of questions if she sees it," she said in her head. "Must make sure that nobody sees it!"
After about forty minutes, Akemi was finally with the thing she was working on—a backpack with a gun connected to it via a tube. She carried it on her back and walked around with it to see if it was easy to move around. "The weight is perfect!" she thought. "I can't wait to get this baby to work! Always wanted to do something like this! I'm totally going to enjoy burning down the flower field of Spring Path and make people think that it was destroyed in a fire accident, and then I should be able to get the permission to build the movie theater there! Heeheehee!"
She checked the clock to see that it was about 6:10 P.M. "The time to do this looks about right," she thought. "Going out too late is dangerous, as demons tend to be more active at night."
Shizuha and Minoriko had finished eating dinner at a restaurant in the Human Village. They normally cook and eat at home, but today, they decided to eat outside instead. "That was a great meal!" Minoriko said to her older sister as they both walked down the path heading for the outside of the village. "It's been a while since we ate outside, so I wasn't aware that outside world food has become more and more common here! They sure taste great, don't they?"
"Yeah," Shizuha said with a nod.
As they were heading for the outside of the village, they saw Akemi walking ahead of them. When they finally got outside, Akemi went to a pickup truck parked nearby and then drove away. The sisters watched the truck disappear into the darkness of the night, and Shizuha said, "The direction she's heading in… Hmmm…"
"What's wrong, sis?" Minoriko asked her.
"You'd think that a person like her either lives in the village or the science lab, but the direction she's driving in, as far as I'm concerned, are not places suitable for humans to live in," Shizuha said. "Where exactly is she going?"
"Maybe her home is indeed in that direction," Minoriko said.
"Maybe, but something tells me that things are not that simple…" the older sister said.
"You're thinking too much, sis," Minoriko said to her. "Anyway, let's go home now."
The two turned to the direction of Youkai Mountain and walked in that direction, but Shizuha stopped after a few steps and then looked back at the direction Akemi headed for.
Akemi arrived at the place known as Spring Path. It was a very long path going through a massive field of pink flowers. Since it was autumn, however, there weren't many flowers.
Akemi stepped down from her truck and then went to the back of it to get the flamethrower she made. Putting it on her back, she walked in front of the flower field and said, "Heheh! It's time to start burning! Burn, baby, burn!"
She got ready to pull the trigger when she suddenly heard someone speaking to her from behind. "Did I just hear you say something about burning?" asked the voice. The voice sounded familiar to Akemi, and hearing it sent a chill down her spine. She slowly turned her head around and was horrified to realize that her fear was true.
Standing behind her were three people. The first one was a scythe-wielding blond woman wearing a dark red dress and a pink hat, the second one was a winged blond woman in black and white overalls, and the third one was a woman with long green hair dressed in red, plaid clothing. "Cripes…" Akemi said to herself while looking at the third woman.
The green-haired woman, Yuuka Kazami, walked towards the trembling Akemi and asked her, "May I ask you what you plan to do to these flowers? I believe I heard you saying that you were going to burn them, right?"
"Um… Actually… I plan to spray insecticide at these flowers to get rid of pests…" Akemi nervously lied to her. "This pesticide is very strong. Getting hit by it feels just like getting burned…"
"How can you be sure of that? Have you touched the pesticide yourself that you can tell that it feels like getting burned?" Yuuka asked her.
"No… It's just that when I was testing it on some insects, they act as if they were being burned when they came in contact with it…" Akemi told her.
"Really? You know? I find it strange… People don't spray insecticides on flowers, as they want insects to pollinate them," Yuuka said to her. "You're the first person I ever heard of who wants to spray insecticides at flowers, you know that?"
Thinking that her lie wasn't working, Akemi became even more nervous. "What do I do…?" she said in her head. "Even if I managed to burn the flowers and then get out of here, these witnesses will tell everyone the truth, and then I'll never be able to build the movie theater…"
Yuuka stepped up closer to her and said in a voice that seemed threatening, "What exactly are you doing? Are you telling me that you plan to burn these flowers? These flowers may not belong to me, but I will not accept flowers of any kind being harmed right before my eyes, whether or not they belong to me. Exactly what do you have in your mind?"
"Um… Will you let me go if I tell you the truth…?" Akemi asked her.
Yuuka thought for a while and then said, "If I feel like it… It all depends on my mood."
"Okay… Well… Um… You see… These flowers… They have been confirmed to be poisonous…" Akemi told her. "Their pollens get spread all over the place by the wind easily, and one can get poisoned because of this, so I am sent to burn them all in order to prevent such a thing from…" Before she could finish speaking, Yuuka suddenly picked her up by the neck using only one hand. "Ack!
"Don't lie to a flower expert like me!" Yuuka said to her. "I know more about flowers more than you ever will! These kinds of flowers are in no way poisonous at all! You're just trying to come up with an excuse to hide your true intentions! You can't possibly have a good intention for wanting to burn these flowers! I might as well break your neck right here and now for even thinking of doing something like this!"
Seeing that there was no way out of this using reasoning, Akemi, without any hesitation, pulled the trigger of the gun and shot a stream of fire at Yuuka's feet. The demon screamed as she let go of Akemi and tried to put out the flames by hitting it with her parasol. Yuuka's two servants quickly ran up to their mistress in panic to help her, while Akemi made a run for her pickup truck.
The winged girl, Kurumi, turned to look at Akemi and said, "How dare you harm our mistress?! You won't get away with this!" Spreading out her wings, the vampire flew at Akemi very fast and caught her by the shoulders.
"Hey! Let go of me!" Akemi shouted as she tried to break free from Kurumi's grasp, but to no avail. The vampire brought her back to Yuuka, who had the lower right part of her pants torn off in order to avoid letting the fire spread all over her body.
The vampire dropped Akemi in front of Yuuka, who furiously picked her up by the hair and said, "You'll pay with your life for this!"
All of a sudden, Shizuha flew in from the side, hitting Yuuka in the side of the waist with a flying kick that made the latter drop Akemi and fly into the flower field.
"MISTRESS YUUKA!" gasped Yuuka's servants upon seeing this.
Shizuha picked up Akemi and said to her, "Get out of here quick!" Akemi nodded, and then they both ran for the pickup truck.
The scythe-wielding woman, Elly, turned to them and said, "You're not getting away!" Then she threw her scythe at them. Realizing that this was coming, Shizuha quickly pushed Akemi to the ground and ducked herself as well. The scythe spun through the air like a boomerang and then returned to its owner.
"You get away first! I'll keep them busy!" Shizuha told Akemi.
"Why are you helping me? How do you know that I'm here, too?" Akemi asked her.
"Do you need a reason for helping someone? I saw you heading in a direction where humans usually don't go, so I decided to follow you and see what you're up to," Shizuha told her. Shortly after saying this, Elly ran at Shizuha and brought down her scythe at her, but the goddess swiftly jumped to the side.
After landing, Shizuha swung her leg at Elly, but the latter blocked the kick with the handle of her scythe. She tried to hit her with the blade afterwards, but the goddess leaped up high into the air and landed behind her. Elly continued to try to hit her, but Shizuha kept on jumping around. "Stand still and let me hit you!" Elly said in frustration. Suddenly, the goddess attacked her with a flying kick to the back and knocked her forward. "OOF!"
Meanwhile, Akemi made it back to her pickup truck. After quickly putting her flamethrower onto the back of the truck, she climbed inside the latter and started the engines.
Suddenly, a hand smashed through the window next to her, causing her to scream. Kurumi pulled out the screaming Akemi out through the window and flung her onto the ground. "Just because someone came to help you doesn't mean you can get away so easily!" the vampire said to her in a threatening tone.
Akemi crawled back slowly while trembling in fear, and then she quickly got up and reached for the flamethrower, but Kurumi charged forward and pushed her onto the ground. "I'm going to suck your blood dry!" the vampire said to her before baring her fangs.
Akemi felt a stone next to her hand, and out of desperation, she picked it up and smashed it against the side of Kurumi's head, causing her to fall to the side and cry in pain. Akemi used this opportunity to get up and go for the flamethrower. However, while she was still carrying it in front of herself, Kurumi had already recovered from the hit and was glaring and growling at her, so she quickly ran from her without bothering to put it onto her back first.
Meanwhile, Shizuha and Elly were still fighting each other. The goddess kept on jumping around to avoid the gatekeeper's scythe swings and would throw leaves at her in a manner like throwing shurikens once in a while, but Elly either avoided or blocked them with her scythe.
"You really like to move around, don't you?" Elly said after blocking another set of leaves.
"Give me a good reason for standing still that doesn't have anything to do with letting you hit me," Shizuha told her.
"I've got one, and that's Mistress Yuuka's patience will grow thin if this fight goes nowhere!" Elly said before charging at the goddess with her scythe raised over her right shoulder.
"Fine, I'll make this fight progress, then," Shizuha told her. When Elly closed in on her and swung down her scythe, Shizuha swiftly stepped to the side and then kneed her in the abdomen hard, so hard that the former lost her grip on the scythe and was sent slightly into the air. Shizuha quickly followed up with a powerful kick that shot her diagonally into the sky.
Running after the airborne gatekeeper, the goddess performed an amazing leap at her and kicked her in the chin, which was then followed by an axe kick to the head that sent Elly shooting back to the ground.
SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!
Shizuha landed in front of Elly, who was out cold on her front, and then she turned to look at Yuuka, who had a somewhat impressed of look on her face. "Not bad!" the demon commented. "I've never seen this side of you, goddess of red leaves. I didn't know you were this skilled in physical combats!"
"Let's just say that kicking trees every autumn isn't something that can be easily done without proper workout," Shizuha told her.
Yuuka then raised her hand and moved and bent her fingers in a manner that implied she was ready to use force. "Well, then let's see if you're up to the challenge of facing me! By the way, why are you helping that person? Do you or do you not realize that she wants to burn this flower field?"
"I heard it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to sit back and let you kill or mangle her," Shizuha said as she got into fighting stance.
"You sure have a heart of gold for wanting to help someone, but you should also know that people who get themselves involved in other people's businesses usually don't live long," Yuuka said as she slowly approached the goddess.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" screamed Akemi all of a sudden. Shizuha and Yuuka turned to her and saw her running like crazy from Kurumi, who was flying after her.
"Get back here and let me suck your blood!" Kurumi shouted at her, and then she fired a pair of blood red beams at Akemi, but the latter managed to dodge them by moving side to side.
"I better help her first!" Shizuha thought, and then she ran in Kurumi's direction.
"Are you forgetting that you're supposed to be facing me?" Yuuka said before stomping the ground. Suddenly, a vine shot up from the part of the ground in front of her, went after Shizuha at a fast speed, and caught her by the right foot. The goddess fell to the ground and looked at her bounded foot while tugging it to try to free it from the vine.
Akemi's foot hit a rock and fell forward. Instead of falling down, however, she hopped forward a few steps using her other foot in an attempt to keep herself from falling, and after managing to plant that foot against the ground, she spun around and faced Kurumi in an attempt to balance herself. The vampire fired another pair of beams at her, hitting the flamethrower.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion set Akemi on fire and propelled her backwards, and despite being a bit of a distance away from the explosion, the force of it still sent Kurumi flying back. When she came to a stop, she looked at the fire left behind and said, "Haha! And this is why you don't play with fire! Too bad I probably won't be able to suck her blood anymore…"
"Oh no!" Shizuha gasped upon seeing the sight.
"That's one pest out of the way," Yuuka said. "A pest to those flowers, that is. Now let this be a lesson to you for sticking your nose into other people's matters!" With a flick of her finger in her own direction, the vine pulled Shizuha to the demon at a fast speed.
Yuuka caught Shizuha by the hair, and when the vine let go of her leg, she slammed the latter against the ground over and over violently back and forth before flinging her forward. The goddess tumbled against the ground violently before coming to a stop. When she got up and looked at Yuuka, the latter made a pair of vines grow out from the ground and swing at her, but she quickly took out and threw a pair of leaves at them to slice them.
After that, Shizuha stood up and threw a large amount of leaves at Yuuka, but the demon stood still and did nothing but let the vines do the job of deflecting them. The vines then went after the goddess, deflecting the leaves while doing so. Shizuha quickly created a large amount of leaves that covered her entirely, and when the vines pierced through the "wall of leaves", she was nowhere to be found.
Yuuka was surprised by this, and she was even more surprised when a large amount of leaves suddenly appeared and spun around her. "Whatever trick you're going to pull off, it won't work against me!" Yuuka said to her. "The power of nature is also on my side! Having command over leaves doesn't make you superior to someone who has command over plan…" Before she could finish speaking, Shizuha shot through the leaves from behind and kicked her in the back of the head, sending her out of the leaves and falling face first onto the ground.
The goddess bounced back into the air, spinning once, and threw a large amount of leaves at Yuuka, striking her in the back rapidly. The demon growled in anger as she rolled out of the way and pointed her parasol at her. The tip of the parasol glowed with bright light, and then a huge bluish beam was fired at Shizuha, who quickly dropped altitude to avoid getting hit by it.
When the beam ended, Yuuka stood up and said to her, "It's been a while since I used that move, and I'm wondering if it was really worth it using that against you. Admittedly, I underestimated, but now that I know you're no pushover, I will fight you more seriously than before! You should be glad that I wasn't serious just now!"
Shizuha got into fighting stance and said in her head, "I can't waste my time fighting here! Akemi will die soon if I don't do something fast! Did she even survive that explosion?" She looked in Akemi's direction, only to find that she was no longer there. "Eh? Where'd she go?"
Yuuka suddenly heard someone calling out to her from behind. "I think this would be enough for the day, Yuuka." The demon turned around to see that it was Reimu, and Minoriko was standing not too far behind her. Kurumi was seen lying not too far away, beaten up and unconscious.
"Minoriko!" Shizuha said upon seeing her younger sister.
"Well, looks like the Hakurei shrine maiden is here to save the day," Yuuka said to Reimu.
"You better stop now, Yuuka," Reimu said to her. "I don't feel like fighting at the moment, but if you insist on keeping it up, then I have no choice but to use force. Whatever the problem is, we can settle things in a nonviolent manner."
"Well, now that the person who intends to burn this flower field has been taken care of, I suppose that what I want to do in the first place has been accomplished." Yuuka said. "While it would be fun to fight you, I'm not someone who is unreasonable and always wants to pick fights." She then turned to Shizuha. "You're lucky that the shrine maiden came to save your hide. Even though you're immortal, you still won't like the painful experience you'll get from me! Well, I had fun for the night! Looks like it was the right idea to come out for a walk after dinner after all! Flowers would be dead if it weren't for me! All right, see ya!"
Yuuka then went over to her servants and nudged them with her foot until they woke up, and then they left the scene. Minoriko ran up to Shizuha and asked her, "Are you all right, sis?"
"I'm all right," Shizuha replied. "You went to find the Hakurei shrine maiden?"
"I met her some time after you were gone," Minoriko told her. "She was with Marisa, and when I saw them passing them, I went to tell them about what happened, and after a bit of urging, they finally decided to come and check things out."
"Looks like it was the right idea to come after all," Reimu said as she walked up to Shizuha. "Things wouldn't have been pleasant here if Marisa didn't urge me to have dinner with her at the village… Now would you please tell me what happened just now?"
"Before that, where's Akemi?" Shizuha asked her.
"You mean the person that was on fire earlier?" Reimu asked. "Marisa took her to Eientei. Luckily, she picked up water from the village's well and had it in a large bucket that she carried on her back, so she used it to put out the fire on her. But as for that one…" She turned to look at the fire left behind by the explosion. "Something has to be done about that…"
Reimu approached the fire and then placed a paper amulet on the ground before performing a hand sign to make a box-shaped barrier appear around on it. "This should keep the fire from spreading. We'll just let it burn up the oxygen inside to let it put itself out."
News of what happened to Akemi quickly reached Kanako, and she wasted no time in rushing over to Eientei, where Akemi currently was, to see things for herself.
The goddess went into the building and asked one of the rabbit demons there for the direction and permission to see Akemi, but the latter told her that Akemi was being treated at the moment and that she would have to wait outside the operation room.
Kanako went over to the entrance of the operation room and saw Reimu, Marisa, and the Aki Sisters standing there, and she said to them, "I rushed here as soon as I heard what happened. What exactly happened? How did Akemi get herself into such a horrible accident?"
"I can explain to you everything," Shizuha told her, and then she told her everything that happened during the night.
"How could she think of doing such a thing…?" Kanako said in disbelief while thinking of the part where Akemi tried to burn the flower field. "What merit is there in burning the flower field?" Suddenly, something came to her, but before she could say it out loud, Eirin stepped out of the door to the operation room.
Everyone quickly gathered around her, and Kanako asked her, "Doctor, how is Akemi?"
Eirin replied after taking off her operation mask, "Third-degree burns may not be even enough to describe how terrible things are… Her skin is more or less entirely destroyed! It's a miracle that she's even alive! Luckily, I have developed a potion that is capable of regeneration damaged tissues and skin, given that the damage isn't made a long time ago. Her organs are mostly intact, but badly burned. I guess being propelled backwards by the explosion saved her from having her organs burned and blown up."
"Will she survive?" Kanako asked her.
"I have confident that I can make her live through this, but I'm afraid that she won't be able to live a normal life from now on," Eirin told her.
"Why?" Marisa asked.
Eirin lowered her face slightly and then lifted it back up. "Both her arms were gone. The explosion must've taken them away. As advanced as my medical skills are, I cannot regenerate lost body parts, and I do not have spare body parts to replace the missing arms either."
"This is horrible…!" Minoriko said as tears slowly flowed down the corner of her eyes.
"In the very least, I can restore her appearance back to normal," Eirin said. "I'm also an expert in cosmetic and plastic surgeries. Why else do you think I look so young and attractive?" She delivered the last line while smiling, winking, and tilting her head at the same time.
"Yeah, I can see that…" Reimu commented.
"So she will survive, right?" Kanako asked her.
Eirin nodded. "Yes, I'm sure she will survive, but like I said, she won't be able to live a normal life without her arms. I hope she'll be able to cope with this…"
Now that everything was settled for the meantime, the girls left Eientei and then went their own ways.
As the Aki Sisters were flying through the air, Minoriko talked about what happened. "I really do hope that she'll be all right. I can't believe that such a horrible thing happened to her… I wonder if she'll be able to cope with the lack of arms after she is conscious…"
"That's what she deserves for trying to burn a flower field, but I do pity her as well," Shizuha said. "Still, you can't deny the fact that trying to burn a flower field in front of a flower-loving demon is a dumb idea."
"She wasn't expecting Yuuka to show up at all, so you can't blame her," Minoriko said. "However, you're right; she really shouldn't have thought of wanting to burn a flower field. I wonder why she would even think of doing that in the first place.
Shizuha remained silent when her sister mentioned the last line, as she actually had an idea on why Akemi would want to do that.
Eirin and her assistants worked hard nonstop to help Akemi recover. After an entire week, their hard work finally paid off, and then the Lunarian doctor contacted Kanako, telling her that Akemi had pretty much recovered and that she could come and see her the next day.
The goddess wasted no time in rushing over to Eientei the next day with Nitori, Suwako, and Sanae. They went into the sickroom and saw Reisen standing in front of a curtain. The lunar rabbit pushed aside the curtain to reveal Eirin standing next to a bed with Akemi on it. Her appearance was restored, though a rough, imperfect spot could be seen on the left side of her face. The most notable thing about her is that she lacked arms.
"Thanks goodness you're all right!" Nitori said as she walked up to her with the other three. "I thought you were done for! You really had me worried!"
"It's great to see you conscious again, Akemi!" Kanako told her. "Let's hope you return to top condition soon!"
"Top condition? Without my arms?" Akemi said in a somewhat sad tone with her face lowered. "Is that supposed to be some kind of an insult?"
"Please don't say that! Mistress Kanako would never insult you!" Sanae said to her.
"I guess my choice of words just now wasn't exactly the best… Sorry about that…" Kanako apologized to Akemi. "Anyway, it's good to know that you're awake! You should be glad that you got to live to see another day!"
"She should stay until tomorrow to make sure that everything is all right first," Eirin told Kanako and the other three.
"Thank you so much for saving her life!" Kanako said to her. "I'm really in your debt!"
"I'm a doctor, so it is my responsibility to save people's life," Eirin told her.
Nitori patted Akemi on the shoulder. "Don't worry; I'm sure we can make you live a normal life without your arms! I'll try to come up with a way to make up for your lack of arms!"
Hearing the last line, something came to Akemi, so she raised her head and looked at her. "You can come up with a replacement for my arms?"
"I can't really promise that, but at least I'll try to make it so that your life isn't so tough without arms," Nitori replied.
"Then if it isn't too hard for you, can you please create cybernetic arms for me?" Akemi asked her.
TO BE CONTINUED
I believe I started thinking Shizuha as a skilled martial artist when I saw a fan art of her in a fighting stance. I eventually saw a MUGEN video of her on Youtube that had her fight like a martial artist. When Symposium of Post-mysticism was released, it said that she kicks trees to make leaves fall, so I imagined her to be very skilled with kicking techniques and that she is quite strong in order to make leaves fall just by kicking the trees.
I'm using Yuuka's PC-98 design here. While I like short-haired girls more, I think long hair suits Yuuka more, though depending on the artist drawing her, she also looks good with short hair.
People who played Touhou 4 might feel like pointing out to me that Kurumi's attacks are colored white. She actually has that beam attack in the game, and it makes bullets fly out afterwards. I intentionally made the beam red, because as far as I remember, most or all enemy projectiles in the PC-98 series are either pure white or have colored linings around them. Because of this, I decided to take some creative approach to make the PC-98 characters and their attacks stand out more.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
God bless you all!