And here we go, we're back for another installment. Liam's journey is just beginning, and boy, it's gonna be a heck of a ride for him.
Chapter 2 - Crash Landing
I looked at the Yamaxanadu-sama and her associate as they opened up their folder and looked at whomever it was.
I suppose I'll be finding whomever I'm going to be working for mine too. I did wonder who Yamaxandu-sama might find as their replacement.
"Let's see" Komachi said "…the name is…Liam….Alibus?"
Wh-wh-wha...
That…was my name!
My jaw dropped as both women turned my way and stared at me.
"They gave us a kid?!" Said the red-head in shock.
"M-m-me!?" I said. "I'm you're replacement?"
Yamaxandu-sama answered that. "It seems quite so Alibus-san."
Yamaxandu-sama's associate placed her hand on her forehead as she slid back in her seat. "I can't believe this…" she said to herself "They gave us one of these kid-"
"Nonsense Komachi." Interrupted Yamaxandu-sama. "We did come here to get our replacement after all. And now we have one."
"Yea bu…" Said Yamaxandu-sama's associate.
I think she wanted to complain…but she cut herself off, and instead she smiled and said "You know, I think you're right."
She then hopped out of her chair. "Comeon, let's go home." She was very tall.
After Yamaxandu-sama got up, I got up as well. Yamaxandu-sama wasn't tall like her ferrywoman. She was just a little under my height, which is smaller then the average. Though, with the height of her associate it made Yamaxandu-sama (and myself) look small in comparison.
I reached under and grabbed my neatly folded up scythe, and reattached it to my lower back and secured it tightly. Nothing's going to make it fall off. That...would be a problem.
After we all got up, Yamaxandu-sama gave me back the binder of my infomation and smiled. "It seems our meeting was more then just chance." She said to me. "Welcome aboard Alibus-San."
"Th-Thank you Yamaxandu-sama" I said with a little bow.
"You don't need to be so formal all the time. You can just call me Eiki." Said Yamaxan…Eiki-sama.
"And you can just call me Komachi" Said Komachi-sempai
"O-ok." I said as I walked out the door. The outside was cloudy as always. It was strange to get use too when I first joined, I'll be glad to be back on actual floor. It's been too long since I've been on ground.
Both ladies began to talk to ask me a few questions. "So, do you know anything about where you're being sent to?"
I stopped and thought about it. "Um...A little." I answered "I was told I was being sent to a region called Gensokyo. It's human population is low, but there are plenty non-humans entities that exist there. The version of Gensokyo I'm headed to is sealed away inside an overlapping pocket dimension. They said you two would know more."
"Hmm…" Said Komachi-sempai "I think the easiest way would be to just show him Genskoyo. In the time it'd take to describe it we could already be there." She said. "I think a bird eye's view should be a nice way to introduce him."
I wasn't exactly sure if that meant it'll take very long to describe it, or very short.
Eiki-sama just shrugged. "I suppose you're right." She said.
Komachi-sempai lent her hands out to us. "You two grab hold. I'll get us there in a flash."
"Huh?" I said confused as I reached out and took Komachi-sempai's hand.
Can Komach-sempai teleport or something? I heard that some of the strongest of the shinigami and yamas can teleport across dimensions…
Komachi held onto me tight as she turned to me. "Let me show you what I can do." She said with a big smile.
"Komachi what are yo-" Eiki-sama said before Komachi cut her off and grabbing her hand too.
"Alright kid! Hold on tight and whatever you do don't let go!" Komachi shouted as she seemed to-
"WAIT! Komachi! Don't do that Now!"I heard Eiki-sama say bef-
WHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!
AHHHHHHHHHH!
WHAT THE HELL!
This was not teleportation. Kinda wish I knew that beforehand
The air had rushed all around me, and I couldn't keep my grip on Komachi-sempai and my grip slipped out of Komachi-sempai's hands. Within a moment I saw them disappear and instead I got stuck like this.
Well, I've been like this for a minute now. Or at least long enough to process the situation...
If...well, actually, what the hell is going on? My body was being rushed faster then I could remember, and probably supersonic.
I felt my whole body was nothing like a bullet being fired out of a gun. Within a blink I saw a world below me as I sped past it. There was nothing but green below me, my body rotated enough and I saw nothing but white clouds and blue sky above me. There was no sound. I couldn't hear a thing as I skyrocketed across this green below me.
Did I make it?
The air was slowly slowing me down, but that was all I had at the moment.
I couldn't even flail, attempts withstanding. Son of a-
!
"OW!" I screached as I hit something...
I hit something! Crap! All I felt was a thud against my now num body. I couldn't even see anymore, nothing but red. Whatever I hit was red.
I then felt it again, a second thud. I had no clue what in the world this was either.
I just felt myself going further and further, nothing in the world to stop us, now without anything but what seems like red blocking my vision.
Until I felt a loud, hard crack. The moment I felt it, I felt all the force in my body disappear. I then heard something loud screech off in the distance, a massive and powerful boom erupting above me and heading into the sky above, popping my ear drums in the process. I felt air finally returning inside my throat, and my body able to move, whatever rush my body was in now seemed over...
Oh crap I'm falling!
"AHHHHHHHH!" I and two other voices screamed
Oooohhhh Crrraaa-
uurrgghh...
...oooh...
...ow...
...oh geeze...what was the name on that truck?
"Sigh, You three are still breathing. That's good."
Huh? Is...someone speaking to me?
"oooooooooohhhhh..."
I probably oughta open my eyes...
"Don't worry. I'll fix you three up in a minute. HEAL!"
With a jolt, my brain suddenly recovering from the massive rattling it had just received.
Huh...someone healed me. Unnecessary, but cool.
While I may be a shinigami and a shinigami's body can heal itself, but I still have to be careful. The graver the injury the longer it takes to heal.
"Oh goodness...you three are awake" I heard a soft voice say. "Are you three ok?"
"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow" I heard another voice say to my side.
A third voice just groaned.
Did I really crash into two people in the sky?
My eyes stopped spinning and I saw a lady looking down at me. She had soft red eyes and long green hair tied together with a black and red bow, she wore a red dress that got brighter as it went down her body, and a white kerchief tied around her neck. She looked down at me with worry.
She reminded me of the way a doll looks. She's quite pretty.
"Are you ok?" she asked me.
"Kinda…" I muttered as I felt my body pull itself back together. I think my organs are back in the right place by now.
She then turned to my left, and as I looked I saw another person there.
A blue haired woman with an elaborate and beautiful cloth around her. The woman had a white and red shirt with a shawl attached to it. She turned, began to move a little, and proved she was still alive and in one piece.
"This is what I get for flying below the clouds…geeze…" I heard her mumble to herself.
She cocked her head up and saw the figure standing infront of the three of us.
"Iku, are you ok?" Said the green haired woman.
"Yea…I'm ok. Thanks for the save Hina-san." Said the woman.
"My pleasure." Said the woman known as Hina-san.
We looked to my other side and I saw a younger girl in a black dress she had white hair with a few purple and blue strands. The girl was cradling a forehead that was throbbing in pain.
"ow-ow-ow-ow"
"I'm very sorry about that bump to the head Tokiko. I had to find a way to stop you all before you crashed into the boundary…I hope you don't mind…" Hina-san told her.
"Ooowwww…." Muttered the girl, before finally stopping her mantra. She leaned up and sat on her rear. "Thank you Hina-kami…"
"Anytime." Said Hina-sa, -kami,
Wait, did she say ka-
"After all Tokiko, we have a guest."
"Huh?" said the bird girl. She then turned to her side. She saw the one woman on her side, and me on the other.
Though…when she saw me she knew exactly what was.
"Shinigami!" She said in terror.
The bird girl crawled backwards away from me the moment she heard the word shinigami.
"Oh-no oh-no did I die he's gonna take my soul!" Tokiko said in a panic.
Hina-san on the other hand had no worry.
"You have nothing to worry about Tokiko. He's not here for you." She told the winged girl.
"He's…He's not?" This bird girl said.
"If my guess is correct, he's here to work under Yama Shiki. With what happened last month, I was expecting someone to be coming to Gensokyo." She said, before looking at me. "I assume that's why you're here?"
uh... yes, she's talking about Eiki-sama.
"I…I think so…but…Is this Gensokyo?" I asked.
The woman next to me and the bird girl had a little giggle. "Of course it is." She said. "How can you go supersonic inside Gensokyo without knowing you're in it?"
I gave a sigh of relief. I made it after all…
"Actually, I'm quite curious about that myself." said the finely dressed woman. "What the heck happened? I was just flying below the clouds and next thing I know I'm on the ground here."
Umm...well...
"Well, I'm not sure how I got here. I think someone tried to teleport me or something to get me here really fast, but it messed up and shot me across the sky." I said, trying to answer her as well as I could.
Hina-san put her hands together "That would explain why you were flying faster then the speed of sound." she said making a elegant smile about such a subject. "I'm just lucky I felt the surge of misfortune in time and managed to stop it. If you three kept on going on like that you would have hit the boundary."
"Ah!" Ahhed the bird girl. "I would have died!"
"Yes. Despite you two being Youkai, you were both going fast enough that you and Miss Nagae would have been killed instantly. The boundary was made to withstand anything and everything that goes against it."
Youkai? They're Youkai? I've heard of those in the academy.
Hina-san turned to me next. "If you don't mind, whatever sent you flying like that, may I ask that you would refrain from using that method of travel again? Flight is very common here in Gensokyo, and super sonic travel is quite dangerous to everyone in the sky."
"I promise." I never, ever want to move that fast again.
The three of us were getting off our rears and got back up. I helped the bird gir-Tokiko off her feet, while Hina-san helped the other youkai off her rear.
The thought just popped back in my head. My death vision. I need to make sure it's sure working. The fates department told me it should be working now.
My eyes shined a moment. My vision began to shade like sunglasses, the world had a darker tint upon them. As I looked at the Bird Youkai her death clock, the time she has left to live before dying, along with her true name began to appear above her head in bright yellow words.
Tokiko, Zero days
I focused my eyesight on her, and more clear information about her life and future death came to me. I skipped over the name and processed the rest.
Ibis youkai, 15 years aged, never mated, zero offspring, lifespan negative 5 minutes…
At that point I stopped my staring at her. I saw what I was looking for and didn't need any more. Her clock was now in the negatives? She should be dead…did I almost kill her?
Hmmm…
I turned to the other person I almost killed. The Nagae lady. At my first look I saw basic information.
Iku, zero days.
Looking closer, her death clock came to the exact same time.
Iku Nagae, Oarfish Youkai, Dragon vassal, 467 years aged, mated, zero offspring, multiple siblings, lifespan negative 5 minutes.
huh…I almost did.
I'm glad fate isn't absolute. Thank god…I don't even wanna think about what would have happened.
I turned to Hina-san, seeing if I could identify her as well. As-
!
As soon as I saw her name begin to appear I felt her hand on my shoulder as she make eye contact with me, her giving nothing but another pretty smile. As I began to see her information she took a step to my side, making the information that I was about to see fade away.
"If you wish to look with your vision, you can look later after they leave." She spoke softly
I double blinked, and my vision returned to normal.
"How did yo-" I began to say, before another voice unknowingly interrupted
"Well, thanks for everything, but I need to get going." Said the blue haired Oarfish Youkai. "My boss actually is working today, so I can't be seen slacking off."
Hina-san frowned. "Your boss is busy?" she said followed by giving a sigh. "Oh well. I was hoping the three of us could all sit down for some tea. It's been so long since I visited the dragon palace. Some other time I suppose."
"Sounds good to me. I'll pass that message along." She said.
Iku Nagae's feet floated off the ground.
"You three have a good day! Bye!" Iku Nagae said to us before making a hop off the ground and speeding away.
"Have a pleasant day Iku!" Hina-san kindly shouted to Iku Nagae as she flew away. "I know you'll have plenty more ahead of you."
The way she said that…I felt a little unsettled. Who is this Hina-san?
How did she know about my coming, or about my shinigami vision?
I reactivated my shinagmi vision. I looked at Tokiko's lifespan again, and I saw a relieving sight. Her death clock began to rise. From one minute to one hour, one hour to one day, one day to two week, and it kept on rising until It stopped around five to six weeks or so.
The fates department must be readjusting. Seems like her next potential death might happen around then.
"So…umm…with her gone, umm... why is there a shinigami in gensokyo? I thought we had enough shinigami?" Tokiko asked her, my eyes blinking and my vision returning to normal. I guess I got a little sucked up in looking with my death vision.
"One was injured some time ago." Hina answered. "He's here to help with that injured shinigami."
"Oooohhhh" Tokiko spoke.
Tokiko turned to me and gave a bow.
"Welcome to Gensokyo Reaper-San"
I turned around and similar bow.
"It's a pleasure to be here." I said.
"Tokiko, would you like me to walk you home? It's dangerous here in the mountains." Hina-san asked Tokiko.
She liked that.
"Ok, thank you Hina-kami!" She said with a simle.
wait, kami...what does that mean aga-
My inner process was immediately silenced as I watched a duplicate of Hina walk out of Hina's body…what?
"What the..?" I muttered to myself. What in the world?
The duplicate stepped out of Lady Hina's body, the original giving a helping hand, one then saying "thank you", and the other Lady Hina saying "you're welcome me"
What the heck am I looking at?
"Come along child, the feral youkai here haven't been acting like themselves and have been quite wild these past few days. Let us make a move on" Said the second Hina.
How in the world did she?
"Bye Reaper-San!" Tokiko said.
I didn't say anything.
I can't tell the difference between them. Both Hinas are the exact same…
"Mr. Reaper?"
Just….
I felt a hand on my shoulder and by body gave myself a instinctive shock. "Mr. Reaper, are you ok?" I heard Hina say to me. Not in japanese as I've been hearing, but in..um..english! Yes, it's English
Luckily, death, nulls the language barrier. The language barrier is a problem for the living, not the dead. It's just tough to tell the difference between languages when they all sound the same.
My mind snapped back. Mostly. We now had our time to talk, and so I asked about the elephant in the room.
"What…did you just do?" I asked, confused at what I just saw.
"Take a look with your vision Mr. Reaper." She told me again in english. "It's much easier to explain what I am."
And so I did. My vision tinted as I focused on the mysterious Hina, as her own information began to come into view, reading it out loud.
"Hina Kagiyama, Divine being, Curse Goddess, 5251 years aged, no offspring, no sibli-"
"-Goddess!"
I took a step back…
What was infront of me was a…
"Yes, the culmination of human belief and faith, a god. I am one of the local goddess of this world. I am Hina Kagiyama, a curse god." Spoke the deity, introducing her godly self to me with a greeting bow.
"To be specific, I am the goddess of misfortune. While I have the power to give misfortune to others, it is the opposite of what I like to do. I absorb all the misfortune I can find to help others, such as I did for you three moments ago."
…I've only seen a few gods before in the academy… but to see another right infront of me like this…
"Mr Reaper?" I heard her say, my attention returning to her serene, almost doll-like face. "You do know of us gods correct?"
Oh right, I had to answer
"Ye-yes…" I answered with a slight stutter, now answering her back in english "I never thought I'd be meeting once face to face. I was told gods are somewhat rare to find in human worlds, while many live in them they don't appear very often."
Hina-sa…Hina-kami smiled, and spoke. "There's plenty of gods here Mr. Reaper. This world is just filled with them…you just need to look in the right place, such as here in Gensokyo. We're all quite friendly here, so I doubt any of us will give you any trouble."
"I see" I both said and thought.
She had a soft and kind presence to her. She felt trustworthy. And she did just save the lives of two youkai. I was usually warned curse gods weren't the kindest fellows…I wonder if…
OH!
"Oh! I'm sorry….I never introduced myself. I am Liam Alibus." I said with a bow.
I can ponder later.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Alibus." Hina-kami said back, before turning around and noticing something.
"It seems Ms. Onozuka has finally reached us." Said Hina-kami,
Huh?
My mind trailed upward, I felt like there was something there too. I was soon proven correct.
"Kiddddd! Heyyy!" I heard yelled in japanese.
Hina-kami and I looked up and at the airborne speaker, and I saw the first familiar sight of the day. Komachi-sempai was in the far distance, her voice yelling and echoing all the way to us.
"Kiddd! I finally found you!" I heard her say again as she noticed me and made her bee line towards us.
I breathed a great sigh of relief. Rescue had finally come for me, maybe Komachi-sempai can finally help me figure out all that's going on.
After getting thrown through the air, If this is how my day begins, part of me fears how it should end. I doubt I should worry about that though.
After all, how worse can it get?
Chapter 2- Crash Landing - End
AN: Kid, you have no idea.
And now chapter 2, and Liam makes his crash landing into Gensokyo and meeting three girls we probably won't be seeing much, our favorite iblis and Oarfish youkais, as well as Hina. Hina may cameo again, but I'm not all too sure. It's just if it happens or not.
I kinda like making Hina not be much of a natural Japanese speaker. The concept of misfortune is quite old. She may have theoretically been around as long as people started attributing the concept of misfortune to the supernatural (it's not my fault, the gods are angry at me)
Also, as you can tell, this story isn't a full first person narrative from Liam's point of view, but each chapter the POV will jump to another character. As you might guess, We started with Liam giving the prologue, Eiki giving chapter 1, Liam gives chapter 2, and it'll be Komachi's turn next chapter. As you can tell, this chapter is much shorter then the previous one (sans the prologue being tacked on chapter 1). I'm not sure on making a fixed chapter length. Some may not be this big, others might be 10k, others 5k, etc. Honestly, I won't know myself until I'm done myself.
Story progress, I haven't advanced much. I did start writing chapter six...and then threw the dang thing out. I liked a joke or two, and I got Eiki explaining what she can do, but thinking over the whole thing, I decided against it and threw what I wrote out.
At the least, I can use the exposition in it (in addition to more stuff I wrote in the moment for other parts) later. I have to say, real life's been...hectic lately. Big things might be coming my way and lots of things are. You'd think if you took a semester off from college you'd have more time...apparently, I do not. Might be me, or it might be good to teach myself how to get stuff done when you're busy with lots of things.
Well, thank you all for taking your time out to read, please C+C and tell me what you think, and I hope you all continue to enjoy "The Reaper of Gensokyo"