Chapter 3: The Fall of the Moon
O' melodious moon hung upon the night so young.
Does it go without saying, that your song's been sung?
You retained your purity, though your people didn't.
Now you suffer as they do. Quite unfair, isn't it?
All feeling in her body had gone numb for a brief while. The terrifying crackle of flames dangling in the air awoke her dormant ears once again, and her eyes shot wide open with a gasp. She breathed quick and haphazardly until her heart raced no more, upon which she then laid a gentle hand against her chest, and dared to look up into the sky.
Once standing atop a building so high it could be said to reach close to the heavens, now she finds herself on the ground, surrounded by gravelly ashes and stone reeking with the smell of death. There was barely a building standing through the smoke, as far as she could tell, and the only living beings that galloped about were those accursed life-bringers, those terrible, horrible fairies.
Yorihime shifted her legs to sit atop her knees with barely the energy to stand. Her sword rested on the ground, its delicate, cold steel making her body jump as her ankle tapped it. She watched from afar with eyes as wide as dinner plates as a skyscraper collapsed into a heap of ash that quietly devoured the flames as they spread. The barrier that once kept their city safe from impure eyes was now slowly threatening to suffocate them as it contained the smoke.
This was not her home. It was a graveyard, and one that she'd soon be a part of. Her eyes were nailed to the sight of death surrounding her, and she wondered just why she was still alive to suffer this disgraceful end.
Then a sharp slapping sound followed a painful blow to the side of her face, upon which she heard a soft, worrying cry beg of her, "Yorihime, please snap out of it!"
Her eyes trembled towards the sight of her older sister, who sat there without a scratch to her name and a smile that stood as a barrier in defiance of this terrible calamity. Yorihime rubbed her eyes with her hands and looked at her again.
Surely she couldn't still be alive? This must be a ghost. A cruel, lingering phantasm of better times. That would have been the only thing keeping Yorihime sane, were her sister not so adept at seeing through her.
"I'm the real deal. There is no one more real than me, dear sister." Her loving concern and lacksy-daisy tone would be impossible for any mirage or spirit to copy. A watery sensation started to trickle down Yorihime's cheeks, and though it was bewildering she focused instead on throwing herself at her sister, and embracing her in a hug.
Her body was wet too, covered in a light sweat that touched even the hands she used to gently rub her back and tell her that everything would be ok. Yorihime pulled back and looked at her sister's eyes, which were slowly starting to shut. She then covered her wavering smile with her fan and giggled.
"Sister, what did you do?"
"After I was blown away by that lightning bolt, I so happened to land on a soft field of grass. Then I saw you summoning Amaterasu from atop the highest tower in the Capital, and instantaneously warped to your aid. Had I been a nanosecond later, I may not have been able to protect us both with a barrier..." Her brows slanted as she murmured disheartingly, "But...it took most of my energy to hold back her might."
"...Your luck has always served you well, sister," Yorihime hung her head with a long, exasperated sigh, "But not well enough this time...I-Its over. Everyone, everything...Its all gone."
As Yorihime's fingers clung tightly to her shoulders, Toyohime bopped her on the head with the tip of her fan and made her wince, "We're still here."
She closed her eyelids, which quivered as they held off the tears like floodgates, and remarked in a melancholic tone, "We have to move on...For all the others who perished here today. We can go to Master Eirin, and live out the remainder of our days at her side."
"We failed her...How could she ever forgive us?" Yorihime said in a despondent tone.
"We tried our best. But if nothing else, it appears the Butcher perished in the explosion." Toyohime's uplifting anecdote was never meant to last. When the wind coldly whisked past them from the north, parting the sea of ash and flames, Toyohime knew her luck had finally failed her.
There stood Alex, his wings painted a shade of black thanks to the hostile, ash covered atmosphere. He edged closer and closer, carefully stepping over the bones that littered his path. He was a hunter on the prowl, his eyes retaining this gruesome reddish tint similar to a demon's.
Yorihime shivered and clung closer to Toyohime, who leaned towards Alex and held her ground without a hint of wavering. He stopped five feet away and slowly raised his right hand, which was already on fire, burning louder than the embers of their dying world.
Toyohime put most of her body between him and her sister, staring at him with eyes so cold they could withstand even his boiling flames. He held his arm aloft, and was averse to showing any emotion towards them. The flames in his hand never grew bigger, or stronger. He kept looking at these two, and the more he did the more he struggled to see them as Lunarians.
"They're frightened...like humans..." His eyes raised a bit, then dropped down all the way as he took in a deep breath and sighed. When he opened them again, he didn't see Toyohime. He saw herstaring at him and shaking her head.
"..."
Alex lowered his hand and put out the flames, then turned around and began walking away. After a few moments, he dug his feet into the ashes and spoke, "Leave this place forever. Exile yourselves to Earth and live out the rest of your days however you want as humans. Do not hurt anyone. Do not judge anyone...And you'll never see me again."
He took one more step forward, and Toyohime spoke back, "No."
"...Huh?" He peered over his left shoulder and was flabbergasted by the woman standing on her own two legs and pointing her fan at him, itching to continue an unnecessary fight.
Her left leg stumbled back as she kept her weapon of mass destruction aimed forward. She could barely keep one eye open, yet somehow made that weakness look courageous. Yorihime collapsed onto her hands and knees and stared up with her mouth hung in a dumbstruck fashion.
Alex turned all the way around, slowly blinking with a stoic expression as he told Toyohime, "I'm giving you a chance to leave this all behind."
He hung his shoulders and shook his head as he groaned, "Don't be a fool and waste it."
Toyohime grinned wide and unfurled her fan, grabbing onto the elbow that held it up while remarking, "I can't in good conscience let you go."
"Conscience? You chose a pretty stupid time to grow one of those, don't you think?" Alex dryly remarked as he slowly began to lose the patience to care.
"Perhaps," Toyohime said while softly nodding her head, "But I don't care. I would rather die to avenge my people...Than suffer a mortal life of indignity, knowing I could have tried."
Alex's fingers curled up next to his hips and he raised his head, facing her with a dull glare, "You Lunarians and your pride..."
Toyohime took a couple steps forward and raised her fan up high. Alex stood motionless, feeling that she would put everything she got into one final swing. Her arm remained still in the air, her body a beautiful statue amidst this dying land. One last time, she glanced over her shoulder, and shone her smile so bright upon her distraught little sister.
"Farewell, Yorihime..." She whispered.
Yorihime raised her head up high and screamed at the top of her lungs, "TOYOHIIIMEEE!"
Her yell was silenced by the descent of her sister's fan. The moment she swung down, an invisible hurricane purified everything standing between her and the barrier...Except Alex. His second blue shield kept him safe as he lunged straight through the turmoil and drew his sword against his right hand.
He thrust his palm against the handle, and stabbed Toyohime clean through the chest. Her arms and legs immediately limped as he suspended her a couple inches off the ground. Blood dripped from both chest and mouth, dirtying her pristine skin. With her dying breath, Toyohime leaned into Alex's ear and whispered, "My sister...had nothing to do with this..."
"...I know." Alex respectfully ripped the blade right out of her chest so she'd suffer no longer, and her body collapse flat against the floor, joining her fellow Lunarians in an untimely, welcoming demise.
Yorihime gawked at that unsightly corpse for a few seconds, then buried her face flat against the ash and pounded the ground with her coiled fists, sobbing all the while. Alex looked down at her and felt his heart come to a near stop. Yet, though he felt sympathy, he had to deliver a harsh truth upon this once proud Lunarian.
"...You could have stopped this," He whispered while lowering his head, "You knew which god you needed to channel to beat me...And you didn't. Cause you were stubborn, you were prideful. You refused to push yourself, and this wasteland is the result of that."
"...I also once failed to save someone because I decided to hold back. I watched someone very precious to me die before my very eyes, because I was weak...And afraid. Afraid that I'd lose myself to this power. But instead, I lost myself to my anger..." Alex looked down at Yorihime and only managed an "And-" before she growled at him with an intense fury, "Shut. UP."
She cupped the ashes into her fists until it was spilling out between her fingers, then raised her head until her voice could be heard clearly, "You don't feel ANY remorse, do you?! You slaughtered my people like animals with a smile on your face!"
Alex closed his eyes and grumbled, "You'd turn a blind eye if your people did the same thing to other races."
"And that makes you right?!" Yorihime swung her head up. Her eyes were wide and enflared.
"...Your sister threw her life away for the sake of her pride. Don't make the same mistake she did." Alex advised.
"To hell with pride! This fight's no longer about that..." Yorihime reached for her sword and dragged it off the ground as she started to stand. Her staggering stance hardened at the legs as she grabbed her sword in both hands and steadied it before the waist.
"I fought my whole life to protect our way of life from impurity...But now, its all gone. You burned it all away!" Yorihime planted two fingers firmly against the edge of her blade and closed her eyes, "So forget pride! Forget honor! This blade of mine shall be wielded in the name of vengeance! My sister, my people...I will avenge every last one of them!"
"Almighty Dread Star of Heaven, I invoke your name. Your rage. Your darkness! Give me the power, the strength, to remove this Butcher's existence from this world!" A maelstrom of putrid black erupted around Yorihime's body, distilling the flames and ash from the immediate vicinity until only the blank surface of the moon rested around her feet for a couple hundred feet. Her eyes thrust wide open, glistening yellow like the core of the sun, and her rage bellowing as strongly from her mouth, "AMATSU-MIKABOSHI!"
Alex's body sweated while he grinned from ear-to-ear. With a careless embrace of the darkness surrounding him, he set his body ablaze to meet Yorihime's renewed determination.
An unheavenly growl tempered the darkness, embracing her body with a pair of dimly lit skeletal arms from beyond the void. And upon that moment the whirlwind of malice collapsed into her body, creating a second layer of skin as black as a starless night sky.
Alex swung his right arm down and drew his sword, then held up and waved his left fingers at himself while saying, "Bring it."
"Ok..." Yorihime tightly wrapped her fingers around her blade's handle and leapt straight for her enemy, "Let's dance!"
THE LAST LUNARIAN: WATATSUKI NO YORIHIME
Their blades collided in mid-air, releasing a number of sparks that'd make those coming off a god's forging hammer look pathetic. Black winds screamed past Alex's ears, forcing two of his shields off and making him grin. Yorihime dropped to the ground and struck fast with a flurry of broad cuts. Alex blocked each and every one, matching vertical with horizontal, horizontal with vertical, etc.
After fending off twenty or so of these strikes, he spun around and raised his blade up high. Yorihime cut towards his back, which he narrowly evaded by leaning backward in an uncomfortable manner.
He then swung his sword down like a club, and she blocked it with her blade in the nick of time. Fire spurted from his blade into her eyes, forcing them shut. She tugged her blade back and cut through another shield, then found its tip poking into Alex's stomach.
Before he could blink the rest of the blade was forced through his back to send him flying off his feet. Yorihime picked up her legs and sprinted like a bullet. Alex rammed through the shambles of two buildings before she caught up and punched her sword's handle to pin him down.
Alex felt his inside getting roughed up like they'd been exposed to sandpaper. Though after focusing for a bit, he was able to pop the blade right out. Yorihime snatched and tried to force it back in, only for Alex to glide right back up onto his feet.
Alex swung his sword straight up to clash with Yorihime's and sever the closeness between them. She lashed her blade out as quick as a whip to send more black wind howling his way. Alex stood still as they blew off his remaining shields. This sense of vulnerability...It just felt right.
Alex grinned and charged straight ahead, ramming his blade's tip into her blunt edge. She reinforced it with both her hands until the two stopped completely. Alex then tried to pry her blade free by putting his underneath it and tugging up as hard as he could.
Yorihime leaned back so when she moved her blade, his would fly right past her face. She then reversed his maneuver on him, aiming right for below his fingers. Biting his teeth, Alex punched his other hand up and knocked both blades skyward.
The two looked each other in the eyes and, for a brief moment, their minds were in perfect sync. They threw their right fists past each other and struck their faces, blowing them both right off their feet. After stumbling a couple steps back they dug their feet three inches into the ground and threw themselves at each other with growling scowls.
He rammed his right knuckles into her left, then enveloped his left fingers between her right ones. They pulled in close and rammed their foreheads together, their dirtied blood trickling thick down their noses. After being locked in furious combat for god knows how long, the glint of their falling blades forced their attention away.
They snatched their blades up and back away as they swing. Yorihime's may have been faster, but Alex's was stronger. Upon forcing her to stagger Alex was able to quickly cut her across the gut, coldly holding his blade up beside his shoulder.
Yorihime coughed blood yet never lost her fire. She attacked, attacked, and attacked some more. Her arms sped like lightning, her blade ringing like thunder. Even with this unholy matrimony with darkness, she didn't lose that spark, that peerless swordsmanship that had defined her life from the start.
Alex found himself purely on the defensive, his feet dragged through the ashen lands. Though he couldn't fight off this relentless assault, not yet anyways, he had to feel a degree of respect for his foe for forcing him back this much. Had she chosen to fight this way from the start, he knew deep, deep down in his heart that things would have gone differently.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then swung once with all his might as the opening revealed itself. Yorihime's body trembled as it fell back a bit, her arm swung up high into the air. Alex slowly opened his eyes, and the way he quietly stared at her re-ignited her spirit to attack again.
She swung and he blocked, so she then stabbed him in the thigh. She swung again so he blocked again, and then she stabbed his waist. One more swing, one more block, and she went straight for his heart. He grabbed the blade in his hand and squeezed it in place. Even as he bled profusely, he didn't let go.
"Too little, too late..." Alex whispered before a sharp metallic ping rang through Yorihime's ears, echoing from her now broken blade, which he cut through like rice paper.
Her sword now reflective of her hope, Yorihime's arms fall to her sides and she begins to cry. Alex brings his left arm around to her back and pulls her in closer with no resistance. As she cried into his shirt, he stared as far away from her as physically possible.
She punched him, but her fists might as well have been pebbles. He closed his eyes and smelled the fire, the blood, the ashes...Killing the Lunarians was the right call, that's what a hero would've done.
"...But only a monster would separate a girl from her loving older sister..." Alex sighed, and said with a heavy heart, "I hope that someday, you and your sister will be reincarnated. And that the people you become will live and love life to the fullest."
After a heartfelt soliloquy, he thrust his sword into Yorihime's chest and opened his eyes, which were cold and motionless. Then he whispered softly into her ear, "You may have tried your best...But in the end, you were always only going to be my Stage 1 boss..."
He ripped the blade free to let her endure the pain no longer. Upon stepping aside she collapsed to the ground, and as lucky would have it she wound next to the corpse of her sister. Perhaps, one last time, Toyohime's good luck favored her...
"..." Alex closed his eyes and put away his sword and wings, and stood alone amidst the ruins of the Lunar Capital.
'Alone' in relative terms, anyways. The Fairies still flocked the skies doing whatever they please. They may as well. This land is now there's to inherit.
"...Except..." Alex hadn't forgotten. There was something, someone, he was curious to check on. Now that the battle for the moon was over, he was free to take his time looking for them. Though perhaps, if his suspicions were correct, it might already have been too late for one of the two.
The Moon Palace was due east, and thus east he walked, alone. He kept walking over ash and bone without ever looking down, and closed his ears to the sound of embers. After five minutes of walking, he found Hecatia sitting criss-cross atop a small hill of skeletons. Sagume's single, featherless wing stuck out from the top. The Goddess hadn't a scar to her name, and was whistling cheerfully by her lonesome.
At least, until Alex entered the picture. Then she winked at him and tilted her head back with a smile, "That was pretty fun! Like, it got really explosive near the end there, but nothing like a little fireworks to top off a party am I right?"
Alex hung his head away from her and looked around. Hecatia pouted at him and mumbled, "I totally thought you'd be more into this. What's gotten under your skin?"
"...None of your business Hecatia," He was dismissive in a somewhat respectful manner as to not earn the goddess' ire, "Are you sure we got all the Lunarians?"
"A few of the bunnies might've turned tail and run, but I didn't feel like hunting them down. I mean like, what'd they even do to deserve genocide, right?" Alex barely mustered a nod at that.
Hecatia levitated and leaned back while dangling her planetary accessories beside her face. Gently folding her arms in place, she piqued Alex's interest with a few words, "You're worried about her, aren't you?"
Hecatia laid flat on her back, closed her eyes, and waved a couple fingers around in front of her, "She's over there. But be careful. She's kinda feeling...off."
Alex walked over to the left and bit and pushed through the smoke that remained of the Moon Palace. He eventually heard some sniffling and picked up the pace a bit. He saw a curtain of golden hair draping a crying woman who sat blissfully in a pool of blood an inch thick and twenty feet wide. There were guts strewn amongs the blood like pieces of meat in some ghastly soup...But they weren't a human's.
Nay, these organs could only have belonged to a toad. The toad that was once known as Chang'e. Getting into the specifics of why she was like this would take far too much time. But confirming her death left Alex with a lot of questions. From what he understood, Chang'e was yet another victim of the Hourai Elixir. By all rights, she should've have been perfectly immortal.
Was Junko's power able to purify the elixir from her body? Did so many Fairies being around negate its power? Or maybe, just maybe, Eirin's elixir was only able to ward off death for stuff that she had knowledge of...
"...Storing that in the back of my head for later..." Alex murmured grimly in his mind before steadily approaching and reaching out towards the vengeful spirit.
"Junko?" He felt...warmth, coming from her body as his fingertips got inches away from nestling her hair. She suddenly flinched and it scared him back.
"...Is someone there?" She inquired. Her voice, to his surprise, was brimming with relief, joy and sadness all at once.
She twirled her head back while slowly raising the rest of her body in a similar manner. Her arms were covered in dry and cracked blood up to the elbows, and fresh blood had been splattered all over her face. The waterfall of tears from her eyes cleaned it off, leaving her with this bright and hopeful smile.
She had just committed murder on a foe most foul to her...Yet nothing about her appearance was unnerving. In fact, Alex would go as far as to say she looked positively radiant. Her cheeks were red on their own, and her eyes bright like pearls.
"I did it..." She gasped in utter disbelief. Closing her eyes, she whispered merrily, "I killed Chang'e..."
"...I see." Was all Alex could say before Junko swept his hands up and pressed them up to her chest. Her heart was beating, steadily.
Junko's smile rose with her heartbeat. Alex blinked once...and her body was gone. Only her clothes remained, and they were carried away by a breeze that whispered one thing into his ears.
"Thank you..."
He closed his eyes, tucked his hands into his pockets, and his skin started feeling cold.
"Her grudge was satisfied. But...she was a being of pure grudge, so she had to leave."
Hecatia floated sideways a few feet behind Alex with her eyes closed and a small frown, "...But wherever she'll go next, she'll be happy. Right?"
"Getting revenge made her happy. She died wearing one of the prettiest smiles I had ever seen..." Alex looked down at his right palm. Bits of blood had been wiped onto it that he wrapped up in his fist and raised up next to his chest, "She didn't die a monster...She died as herself."
"Kinda makes you think, doesn't it?" Hecatia interjected.
"...I wonder if a smile is waiting for me at the end of the road." Alex whispered.
"Who knows? Certainly not me."
Alex raised his head and pulled the Gaia Temporis from his right pocket, immediately creating and walking towards a rift in time-space.
Hecatia poked her eyes open and commented, "So, the Fairies are stuck here then, I'm assuming?"
He stopped and hung his shoulders a bit. She then said with a little more crass in her tone, "Of course, that's totally according to plan, isn't it?"
"..." Alex remained silent. Not that that'd stop her.
She wagged a finger up beside her elbow and remarked, "You're right, you're right. None of my business."
"...You've been a great help today Hecatia. I couldn't have done this without you rallying the Fairies..." Alex leaned back and gestured towards the playful swarm, "But I just...need them out of the way for a bit. When I'm done, I'll let them come back to Gensokyo safe and sound."
"Assuming there's a Gensokyo left." Hecatia didn't soften the blow. She struck hard like a bat to the back of his head, and it made his body squirm.
"...It won't get to that point. I won't allow it. Yukari's my only target. Once I've dealt with her, I'll never come back."
"She knows you're coming. Just saying."
"Good. Then she won't run or hide. I know it."
"Though I doubt she's got to worry about a rough-'n-tough Overlord coming at her all alone."
Having heard her draw her battleline squarely at "Neutral", Alex closed his eyes and silently stepped forth into the rift where it closed up the instant afterwards. Hecatia opened her eyes and stared up at the Earth.
"Hmmm, you like, totally put me in a tough position here Yukari Yakumo." She leaned back into a slow descent towards the moon's surface.
"I could've said something, but like...Would it have made a difference? I guess like, none of this really matters to me specifically, does it? But to him..." Gently laying upon the moon like it was a grassy knoll, Hecatia closed her eyes and started to feel sleepy, "Hmmm...Guess I'll just have to hope everything works out. A pity it had to go this way..."
Next Time: Renouncing the Law