The energy spire- a column of energy of unknown origin that looked similar to a laser shooting out from the centre of the power plant to the receiver placed on the absurdly high ceiling of the enormous underground cave formation that was Former Hell (now called the Underground). Like moths hovering a bright light at night, floating grotesque blobs of one-eyed flesh and jetpack-wearing giant skeletons circle the spire accompanied by flying burning skulls as though they were the spire's guardians.
At the base of the spire, the shiny metallic finish of the panels and walls of the observation deck and main control room was now tarnished by a horrid layer of writhing flesh. Demons of all kinds roamed the floors and hallways where scientists and engineers once dwelled. One demon in particular was headed for the CEO's office. Its two tails swished side by side as it strolled along towards a map of the facility that was on display in the middle of the observation deck.
"Oh my, I knew this place was big but really?", it muttered in playful disbelief. It reached into its lab pocket and brought out a device resembling a smartphone. It then placed the device on the side of the projector displaying the map for a few seconds before leaving the area.
It checked the screen of the device. Map download complete. With a smirk, it strolled along the bloodied hallway that connected the observation deck to the rest of the facility. Ground zero, as it liked to call it. Reaching an elevator, it pressed the button that would take it to the 4th floor.
As it exited the elevator, it heard a wail of agony followed by the familiar sound of crunching bone. 'Survivors?', it thought. 'Makes sense, given the size of this place. This was even larger than the last place I worked at.'
Its heart now filled with a pleasant feeling after it had come across some unexpected entertainment, it was not long before it found itself in front of the door to the CEO's office. It took a moment to appreciate the material the door was made of. Giving the door a few light knocks, it could discern that it was not made of mahogany despite its similar texture. However, it was a type of wood it had not come across before as the door was incredibly dense, which meant that it could withstand even a direct hit with a rocket launcher.
Its eyes perked up with slight interest but the muffled sound of chains rattling on the inside won it over and it opened the door with a slow long creak.
The office within was dark but the light seeping in from the opening door showed a hectic mess. Signs of struggle, evidence of the resistance of the occupant within before it was eventually subdued by its captors were everywhere. Files and folders were strewn about on the floor of the wrecked office adorned by shrapnel from the work desk that was smashed in two in the centre.
As the door opened wider and as the light swallowed more of the darkness, a limp figure with dishevelled short hair could be seen with both her hands chained to the wall behind the broken table. A plate of uneaten stale bread and a glass of murky water lay by her bruised feet. Sensing that the light was bothering her eyes, the figure winced in discomfort as she slowly looked up to see her visitor. A red tennis-ball sized eyeball that hung over her breast-pocket attached by two tendrils that connected into her body and head squinted as well. Due to being confined to the dark for a week, it took a while for the figure to recognise the demon that stood in front of her.
When the blurriness in her eyes gave way, her expression immediately grew dark in anger and disgust. "You!"
The demon cackled in response. "Yes, it is I."
Its two tails wiggling with glee, the demon crossed its arms and loomed over her.
"You seem to be tired. How can I help you, Master Satori?"
"Don't you dare refer to me by that name and title!", Satori snapped. Her purple eyes glared straight into demon's own with seething anger.
"Aw, but isn't that what that sweet little kitty always calls you?", it taunted. "Besides, the cat that you see before you is no longer your beloved Orin."
Then, the demon's expression softened, its' eyes changing into that of a familiar shade of red and gleam of innocence.
"N-n-no…!", stammered Satori. Her eyes and mouth wide open upon seeing Orin, the true Orin, before her.
"M-m-master?", she asked meekly, on the verge of breaking to tears. "I'm s-s-s-sorry for this. It's not my fault, I swear! I never wanted to chain you to the wall or murder Parsee but I cannot do anything about it. I see everything I do, feel everything I do, but I cannot control my body! It's like I'm trapped in my own head and someone else is using my voice."
"Orin!", cried Satori barely registering what she said, her tears flowing into her smile. "I knew it! I knew you were still in there somewhere! Everyone kept telling me that working in the Hell Energy core had driven you to madness but I knew it wasn't true!"
Orin, unable to hold it back any longer, burst into tears as she embraced her beloved master whose torture by her own hand she had to witness.
"It's okay, Orin," Satori assured. "I understand. I have already forgiven you with all my heart."
Wiping the tears off Orin's wet eyes, she added with a gentle smile, "Now, why don't you stop crying? Tears don't suit your face much the same way a smile would."
Orin's cheeks flushed pink. Her ears burning with embarrassment by the words they heard.
Shaking her head to calm herself, she looked up towards Satori's gaze and smiled.
"Why y-yes! Of c-c-course, Master Satori!"
Suddenly, she doubled over and clutched her head in agony.
"Orin!"
"It's here!", cried Orin. "It's trying to wrestle my body back from me!"
She then snatched a nearby shard of broken wood from the wrecked table and swung it to her head. However, the invading conscience had already gained significant control over her body, forcing her to push her hand closer with her remaining one to stab herself.
"I'm sorry, Master Satori, but there's only one way for me to end this!", she declared as she struggled to bring the shard to her head.
"No!", Satori protested. "I won't let you!"
She lunged towards her but the chains on the shackles on her hands and feet were too short, thus flinging her to the floor by Orin's feet. Undeterred, she snapped back up and attempted to push forward towards her suffering pet. The chains creaked and groaned under the tension she was subjecting them to. The bolted base of those chains, however, showed no such signs. No matter how hard she strained her arms, no matter how hard she pulled her legs, the chains would not break.
"S-Satori!"
"Shut up!"
"I can no longer properly control myself," Orin stated in a sorrowful tone. As she said that, the shard that she had desperately tried to drive into her skull fell from her hand. Satori stopped struggling and stared with despair.
"See? It has wrested control over my arms and dropped the shard."
Afraid of what this sinister conscience might do to Satori, she used her remaining strength to shuffle a few steps back. Satori said nothing.
"Well, this is the least I could do to protect you."
Her eyes then lit up. She had forgotten to share something important with her.
"Satori!", she called out. "The evil possessing me is no demon! It is the vengeful soul of a human that was sealed within the tablet describing the tale of the Spider Mastermind!"
"What?!", exclaimed Satori, her chains clinking as she shot up to her feet.
"Yes, it's true!", she replied. "During my entrapment in my own mind, I saw myself examining the tablet and vowing to never fail this mission again! Whatever 'this mission' was anyway."
"So, the entity possessing you is the Spider Mastermind?"
"Yes! And this entity's true name is-ARGH!"
"Orin!", cried Satori as she watched her abruptly drop to the ground, clutch her head and convulse.
She felt powerless. Her pet, no, family was suffering before her and she could do nothing but watch Orin get replaced once more by the tormentor that kept her in this ruined office.
Then, the convulsing stopped. Orin coughed up blood and gradually got up to her feet. However, once she turned around, Satori could see that the innocent red in her eyes was no more. In its place, a bloodthirsty amber.
"Aw, did I ruin a moment you were having?", the demon gloated. "Such a shame. Oh well, it was entertaining while it lasted."
Satori dropped to her knees, looking at the ground, silent.
"What's this? Cat got your tongue?", it mocked. "Too bad! Instead of that fragile Orin, the one inhabiting the body of your precious pet is I...!"
"Olivia Pierce."
The demon, annoyed and confused, shot her a look. "Huh?"
"Olivia. Pierce. Your name, is Olivia Pierce." As she said this, Satori wished her glares could kill as her eyes never once blinked nor left the demon's own.
Then, without warning, she swung her head to the side to avoid a high velocity boot to the face. The wall behind her cracked upon impact but she never flinched: her gaze remained still but her mouth formed a smirk.
"You bitch!", the demon howled, her cheery tune all crumpled up. "How did you know?!"
A beat of silence passed. The demon was glaring with fiery amber eyes at the insolent insect beneath it. No one, not even the other demons, knew of her true identity. How can this worthless fool figure it out? It needed to know. It needed a reason to silence both her and whoever it was that leaked this information.
"TELL ME!"
Satori then began to giggle. It was a very soft, barely audible giggle. Then giggles became chuckles. And chuckles gave way to a manic laughing fit.
"You fool," she hissed as her laughter dissipated. "Did you really come here to this place and not know the inhabitants of this land? Here I thought you were a brilliant researcher."
"Tsk...!", it clicked, its annoyance swelling up within.
"What's the matter? Work on Mars not up for you? A real shame. Heard you caused quite a ruckus back where you worked and that got yourself killed. Why? Because you're an idiot. So idiotic you were in your thinking, that you actually thought you could bargain with the Devil or whoever it is to give you a second chance. What a joke. You should've known when you were reborn here as nothing but a spirit. One that was sealed in an ancient artefact. How cliché. Sure, that was the form that allowed you take over my beloved pet's body, but come on. What were the odds that you would even come across such an important figure in the company that you trying to infiltrate? The only thing that helped you was pure luck as you never encountered me until the week before you turned this place into another shithole like Mars. You thought that you were so clever in your ingenious schemes but the mayhem you wrought barely made it to the surface above. The least you could do was be original in your approach. The only thing you've done is destroy the city and owe billions upon billions of yen in damages both to my company and my city. I govern both, so, tough luck. I guess you were just an overambitious idiot after all."
Satori then felt herself be snagged up by the collar of her shirt towards the demon, its hot breath fuming through the gaps between its snarl.
"SHUT UP!", it screamed, spit flying all over Satori's face. "How the hell do you so much about me?! Huh?! What do you know of my plans, huh?! Hayden never understood it, everyone never understood it, so, why should you?! You think your insignificant mind can comprehend the scale, the magnitude, the importance of what I'm about to bring? What I'm doing is for the greater good of all of us! I shall be the one to usher a new age of prosperity!"
"And... what you've done so far is bring in the consequences of insanity." She wiped the spit off her face, her expression now blank. "If we want to bring in semantics, all I have to do is bring up Hayden as his work on Argent Energy and expeditions to Hell were what allowed you to even have these silly delusions to begin with. Sure, you might have taken it a step further by recruiting my workers and transforming them into abominations with those convenient orange glass orbs you keep carrying around but you cannot forget who was truly essential to this madness. That's right. This 'prosperity' you see around you? That wasn't you. That was Hayden."
"Besides, for a researcher, you haven't done much research here, haven't you?", she added snidely.
"Why you fucking bitch...!"
"Madam Orin! We have intruders in the facility!", a raspy voice called out from the hallway behind them.
"Just a moment!", it scolded. It breathed down her neck and threw her down with a thud. "We will discuss this later."
It then sped off towards the hallway to address this new problem. Satori, on the hand, stared out the open door with a smug grin. Seeing that the demon was out of sight, she cupped her hands together and brought them to her mouth like a megaphone.
She then yelled at the top of her lungs, "I CAN READ MINDS YOU UNEDUCATED FRAUD!"
Not a soul could be heard wandering the blood-stained hallway outside. She gave herself a little smirk.
"Man, that felt good."
A sigh escaped her lips as she turned to look at a broken picture on the floor. It was a picture that used to sit on her desk facing her, giving her the daily dose of motivation she needed to get through a long day at work. The picture frame was nothing fancy – just a cheap 100-yen wooden frame with a stand that could have been bought anywhere. The picture itself, however, was what made it precious. A rare moment in time when her pets, Orin and Okuu, her younger sister, Koishi and herself were present in their home, the Palace of Earth Spirits.
The picture being the day when Former Hell Solutions was first formed, she was seen giving a small smile dressed in a sharp business suit complete with a brand-new suitcase to go with it. The red necktie she wore matched well with her black blazer and polished leather shoes. Her red third eye blended well with the colour scheme. The backdrop of her entrance hall and wide carpet-covered staircase added a flair of class and grandiose to the photo. Koishi, who found a job befitting her ability to manipulate the subconscious (street magician), did a double-V sign in mid-air beside Satori wearing a baggy shirt and tight-fit jeans with her eyes and mouth wide open. Last, but not least, standing and smiling on either side of the Komeiji siblings were Okuu and Orin. The former, being the nuclear core operator before they made the switch to Argent Energy, sported a shiny orange helmet and a matching orange jumpsuit that could barely contain her chest. The latter, the co-founder and lead researcher for the company, donned a clean white lab-coat complete with the typical pair of pens in her front pocket. Her square-rimmed spectacles highlighted the innocent shade of red of her eyes. With all members of the Komeiji family present, it was a picture that captured the innocent familial ties that they shared.
Turning back to the empty, spotless hallway, Satori thought back to the times when they were simple rookies stumbling their way through the rough terrain of business. While things were tough for the most part, they still had each other. Even after attaining the prestige and status that the fruits of their labour brought, when work consumed the time of the other, Satori, Orin and Okuu would always find the time to have a meal together. As family.
"Orin," she whispered. "Thank you for the info. Your sacrifice will not be in vain."
"Have you noticed anything different yet?"
"Gwah!", yelped Satori, startled by the sudden intrusion of her reminiscing by a soft monotonous voice. She looked around her for any changes in her environment, fearing that the voice had done something to her without her noticing.
'Huh, now that I think about it, the hallway used to be a literal bloody mess,' she thought. 'Why is it spotless? Where has the blood gone? More importantly, how did I not notice this? I should've been able to sense the presence of whoever did this...'
"Who are you?", she called out to the dark unlit corner of the office where the voice came from.
"Who I am... does not matter."
The irregular squeaking of worn-out sneakers approached closer to the light, revealing a head of pale green hair and a hand gripping a bloody mop. Her eyes could not see well in the dark but she was certain the eyes on the owner of the voice were wide open complete with a fittingly manic grin.
"More importantly," the voice added. "Would you like to see some...magic, dear sister?"
With a snap of her fingers, the chains that shackled her hands and feet snapped open followed by several loud consecutive booms that rocked the facility.
"Do not fear, child, for Salvation is near."
BOOM!
She felt the earth beneath her rumble, shaking the ceiling above causing it to trickle dust. 'The voice,' she thought. 'It spoke again. Why?'
Covering her face with one hand, she groaned as she slowly sat up. Damn Hayden. She felt surprisingly refreshed for someone who had been gassed unconscious, something which did not sit right with her. Looking around, she found herself on the floor of a locker room of some sort with rows of lockers to her left and right. Up ahead was a picture of a showerhead on the wall with an arrow pointing to the left. The locker room was connected to the showers. How convenient.
"Rise and shine~, Miss Hakurei. Rise and... shine."
"Kya!", she yelped as she jumped, surprised and terrified by the sudden low ominous whisper beside her ear. Turning around, she saw a familiar face grinning at her as though she were the Cheshire Cat.
"Good morning, Reimu! I didn't know you were so shocked to witness the awesomeness of the Great Mari-*WHAM*...ow..."
"DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!", yelled Reimu, her fist not quite sure whether it wants to leave Marisa's face just yet.
"Ok..." came Marisa's muffled reply. "Point taken. You may stop imprinting your fist on my pretty face any longer now."
"Hmph. Not funny!" she huffed.
"Geez, relax girl," exasperated Marisa. "Besides, it's a joke. Not a dick. Don't take it too hard."
ooo
Moments later, a Marisa-shaped indent in a wall of lockers was found by a newly-awoken Sanae as she walked along the locker room walkway to locate her friends. She later found a roughed-up Marisa not too far ahead. When asked on what happened, she only replied, "Worth it."
"Was it?", Sanae asked. She also noticed the sound of a running shower. She deduced that Reimu was cleaning herself up. It was the logical conclusion she came up with as Reimu was nowhere to be seen.
Marisa nodded with pride and gave her a toothy grin. Reimu, as she noticed a second too late, was seen preparing to give Marisa a karate-chop to the head after appearing like a blur. Turned out she was not in the showers after all. However, the wet tapping of multiple feet coming from the shower room prompted the girls to turn around only to see a fresh cloud of steam covering several figures within.
A sudden swish parted the steam, the purple folds of a parasol flashing through. The dissipating cloud revealed the identity of the parasol wielder: Yukari. And with her were a fully-awake Eirin, Shikieiki and Komachi. All of them, with the sole exception of Shikieiki who sported a rugged leather jacket and white denims, wore their usual day-to-day outfits: Yukari with her white mob cap and signature parasol, Eirin with her standard red-and-blue lab coat and Komachi with her oversized scythe and dress that Reimu was sure was one size too small.
"Hello, girls!", Yukari greeted cheerily. "Good to see you all fresh and ready to go for your mission! Now that we've got the whole gang together, why don't we all have a nice little briefing, eh?"
"A what now?", asked Marisa, baffled.
"It's as I said: a mission," Yukari answered. "You see, we are now in the power plant itself and you girls are instrumental in this operation."
Her eyes leered from side to side as she scanned the room. Her peers were standing by her side as though they were all part of a fabulous all-girl group. All they needed were some ridiculous poses and the group would have looked perfect. The girls in front of her appeared to be less than pleased. Sanae was simply smiling whilst staring into nothing and Marisa was scratching her head in confusion. Reimu, however…
"Firstly," she began, "I would like to apologise on Eirin's behalf for putting you to sleep. The cyborg you were talking to was just a hologram of him mimicking Eirin's movements. Same goes for the 'asleep' Eirin. The real Samuel Hayden is being held in one of the containment labs in the medical facility's underground floor for trespassing. At least, that was the story I was told anyway."
Reimu's clenched fist began to shake. She glared at Yukari with intense anger.
"Going back on track," she continued. "After you girls were knocked out, I teleported all of you to this power plant here. However, I needed to wait for the arrival of the members of the mission so we had an insider planted in there to ensure your safety. Now that we're all here, I'll tell you what this mission is about: saving the previous Hakurei miko."
Reimu's eyes snapped open along with those of her friends (and Komachi, who was actually dragged along for the whole thing). Her mother was alive? How? How did she not know of this? Why did they not share it with her all these years?
Did they know what happened to her the entire time?
The silence in the room was deafening. The air was beginning to feel tense. It was awkward. Uncomfortable even. For anyone in there.
Swinging her parasol to her shoulder she broke the silence.
"I hope that we can answer any questions that you have so far. I'd imagine that you have so many right now."
Twirling her parasol around and setting it down on its tip, she pointed at the red-and-white shrine maiden with her ring finger. "Reimu, would you like to go first?"
WHAP!
"My, my~ such violence," she chided. Her previously free hand shook slightly from catching Reimu's fist lunging straight towards her face. She could feel the rage burning within the shrine maiden from the intensity of the punch she caught.
"Mission?! What mission? Have you any idea just how much trouble we had to get through just to get to safety?!", Reimu yelled. "We were close to dying down here looking for a way to get out of this mess. We even hoped that you would show up and get us out of here. But what did you do? You threw us straight into the heart of it. This isn't jumping out of frying pan and into the fire, this is jumping from said pan and into the damn gas regulator!"
She pushed her fist with more force into Yukari's hand, causing her hand to shake even more. But it would not budge even an inch.
"Knowing you, you and Eirin over there must have planned this whole thing all along! Heck, I wouldn't even be surprised if you knew everything this whole time! That this entire scenario was just one huge contrived plan to eliminate some greater evil and we're just the pawns in this messed up game!"
Yukari said nothing. The expressions of everyone within the room varied from shock to shame. The ones who displayed feelings of shame or a sympathetic understanding were those who conspired with her. Her face, however, told nothing. Her eyes simply narrowed at the fuming girl whose fist was still in her hand.
Marisa, who had been stunned by the sudden outburst, approached her carefully.
"Hey, come on now," she said feebly. "I know that everything is a bit hard to swallow and I understand if you're upset about it. So, why don't we calm down and let her…"
"Shut up."
The command was uttered with blunt force. The tone it carried was not cold nor filled with spite. Instead, it was one of pure fury. And it broke Marisa's heart and the hearts of those who heard it. The sage youkai, however, remained stoic.
"What do you know about me?", she snapped. "Maybe to you this is a mission that is all-important as it involves protecting the very ground we stand on. I also know that you know that I understand that better than anyone else does. It's in my job description, dammit! But you also need to understand that I have lived twenty years of my life believing that my mother was dead. When I asked that woman right there about it, the one who should know better than anyone what happened to her, she simply said she disappeared. Vanished. Spirited away due to unforeseen circumstances in her line of work."
She let out a heavy sigh. Her face was downcast. The strength in her fist began to wane.
"I know. I know. That all you did, you did for the prosperity of Gensokyo. I get it, I respect that. You care for everyone and everything that is under the skies of this world and that is why you do what you do. And as a Hakurei miko, the keeper of peace and protector of the innocent, I will serve you regardless like generations before me. Even when my friends must be involved, I will do it. Because this place is the place where all things dear and horrid to me is born."
She let her fist down, slumping gently to her side.
"To think that all I wanted to do was celebrate a meaningful event with a bunch of friends."
"Well, you still are," a voice reassured.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Marisa and Sanae smiling.
"If you want, once this is all over, why don't we all gather around your place and have a grand ol' time, ze?", said Marisa.
Her lips formed a small smirk. Her head never turned to face them but they knew she was listening. With narrowed eyes, she answered, "Yeah."
Marisa lit up in elation upon hearing her response. "Yeah! That's what I wanted to hear! Now, why don't we solve this problem the good old-fashioned way like we always do. You and me kicking…!"
"Even so…"
She froze still. The joy she had was pulled back into herself. "...Huh?"
"But even so, no matter how much respect I have for you…"
Marisa noticed that Reimu's hands were clenched again. Her eyes then went wide as she saw a crimson aura manifesting itself around the shrine maiden.
"No matter how long I let my emotions fester to do my job…"
Sanae and Marisa turned around when they heard a familiar voice calling out to Yukari coming from the locker room entrance. There must have been a corridor connecting the locker room to the voice's location as it sounded distant yet close enough to be audible. The voice seemed to be warning Yukari about a someone coming their way.
"No matter how valid how your reasons are…"
Heavy footsteps could now be heard storming towards the locker room. A set of metallic boots approaching at breakneck speed.
"It does not excuse keeping me away from my mother!"
The stoic Yukari jumped back in fear when the shrine maiden lunged towards her. In the blink of an eye, Reimu was already right in front of her. Her heart raced as the look on Reimu's face resembled the one a certain woman wore whenever she teased her a bit too much. The sharp wild eyes, the menacing crimson aura, everything about her was too similar to that woman. She then saw a fist coming her way. She instinctively swung her parasol to block the incoming attack. Time seemed to slow down as she saw the punch reach her before her parasol could.
POW!
She could feel the rush of air that accompanied the loud impact. It was over. She was done for. The moment she opened her eyes, she would see herself be ferried away.
Except she was still there, face unpunched.
She then looked in front of her and knew immediately why her face remained unharmed.
Stopping the furious shrine maiden's fist dead in its tracks was a large, gloved hand that caught it. Unlike Yukari's, the hand never trembled, let alone budge. Reimu, now snapped out of her rage, turned to look at the owner of said hand.
A million memories that she never remembered swarmed her head. Missing pieces of her childhood began to reconstruct themselves. Memories of a stranger who arrived in her life when she was four. Memories of an armoured man who rivalled her mother in strength and ferocity whenever she saw them spar. Memories of a person who left her just when she was about to warm up to him. Those memories all came back like a tidal wave but surprisingly her head felt no pain- they healed it.
Clad in an ancient futuristic metal suit stained with the blood of countless foes, the man who caught her fist with ease was none other than the mythical legend that she thought she only heard in passing.
"Do not fear the blood, child, for the pain will be over.
Rejoice. The Slayer he cometh.
And he is never one."