This one really took me a while to finish it... but here it is!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 3: The Waterfall Cave
The next day…
[BGM: Chatting – Dragon Quest VIII]
"Mmm!" Marisa did a stretch as we all came out of the inn we slept in. "Those beds in there sure were comfy!"
"They sure were." Reimu agreed. "Feels very different than sleeping on a tatami."
"Not to mention how warm they were!" Cirno threw in. "I didn't even have to use my powers to keep myself warm!"
And as the conversations between the girls went on, I cracked a smile at all their positive comments… until my smile faded to a mixture of bewilderment and worry once I looked at Remilia, who was now carrying a lavender parasol to shield herself from the sun. "Um, are you going to be okay with just a parasol, Remilia?" I addressed her. "Because from what I read, vampires don't do well in the morning sunlight."
"Oh, you don't have to worry." Remilia replied nonchalantly. "The sunlight only weakens me, but it doesn't actually come close to killing me. All I need is some shade and I'll be fine."
"Well… Alright." I guess vampires in Gensokyo are different than the classic ones in literature. "Okay, listen up, everyone…" I got everyone's attention as they all turned to me. "Before we set out, I think we should get some supplies first since we never know what we might encounter in our path, after all. Then, once we're all done, we'll meet back again at the square's gates."
"Ya said it, guv!" Yangus exclaimed, and then turned around to face a stall. "I'll go check out this armor shop stall 'ere." he said as he walked over to it. By the way, I made sure to distribute my total money to each of us yesterday so that way, everyone should have an equal amount that's enough for them to buy something useful if they want to.
"I'll head to the weapon shop." I said to the girls. "So that leaves you girls with the item shop over there." I pointed over to it, which was a stall at the square. "That shop offers many medicinal herbs and antidotal herbs, so make sure to get a bunch of them in case we get severely injured or get poisoned."
"Ah, got it!" Reisen exclaimed excitedly while the other girls merely nodded before they took off. Huh, I wonder why Reisen was so excited… Well, I'll find out later. I need to head to the weapon shop to hopefully get a better sword for me (because with the so little amount of money I had with me, it was not enough to buy more than one weapon), so I went to the town's upper level and entered the shop.
A large, muscle-bounded man with his face covered by a yellow helmet with horns was the runner of this shop. I went on ahead and started browsing the shop's weapon choices: a Cypress Stick, an Oaken Club (which, amusingly, is the very same one Yangus currently has), a Giant Mallet, a Copper Sword, and a Boomerang. Good! There's a new sword I can buy. I immediately purchased it with the money I had and proceeded to equip it while placing my old Soldier's Sword into my bag, which is apparently bottomless just like Link's pockets. I don't think I'll ever understand this hammerspace logic…
Anyhow, I left the weapon shop and headed over to the square, leaning on the wall next to the gates to wait for the others. Not too long after, I saw the girls running back to me. "We're back!" Aya said.
I smiled. "So, did you get enough herbs?"
"I think we got plenty enough." Reisen replied. "And by the way, I decided to myself that I'll be the one carrying them!"
"Is that so? How come you're so into healing herbs anyway, Reisen?"
"I work as a medicine seller back in our world."
"Ah. That's nice." I said kindly. "Then I'll make sure to let you know if any of us need those herbs." Reisen couldn't help but giggle shyly in response.
"And what did you get from the weapon shop, Eight?" Youmu asked.
"Oh, I got this new sword for me." I replied, tapping its handle. "If I had more money, I could've bought some more additional weapons… but alas, I didn't have enough."
"Oy!" then we heard Yangus' shout as he came running over to us. "Check it out, guv! I got ourselves two shields fer us!" he held out two Leather Shields in front of him.
"Hey, this is great!" I beamed as I took one of the Leather Shields and strapped it onto my back, as Yangus did the same with the other one. "This should provide some decent additional defense for us."
"So, I guess we should be all set." Alice said.
"Indeed." I nodded. "Time to leave!" and with that, we walked out of town.
[BGM: Strange World – Dragon Quest VIII]
Immediately, we all met up with Trode and Medea on the southern bridge. "Ah, Eight. I was starting to think you'd got lost!" Trode spoke to me.
"Sorry I took too long, Your Majesty." I replied in apology. "It's just that I and the others here went around to get some supplies."
Trode nodded in understanding. "Right, let's go to the waterfall cave and see if we can find that crystal ball. Medea and I will be right behind you. Away we go!"
"Hooray!" Cirno happily beamed while throwing her arms into the air, and instantly rushed on ahead.
"Hey, hold up!" Reimu exclaimed as she and the rest of the girls went after Cirno. "We're supposed to stay close together!" Meanwhile, the rest of us exchanged surprised glances at that before I and Yangus ran off to catch up with the girls, and then Trode hit the rains to make Medea gallop after us.
Once I and Yangus caught up to them, I quickly reminded them that our destination is to the south and they nodded, and thus began our walk down the dirt road that we followed. While the only things we could see around us were just many trees and small terrain elevations, the world itself was pretty big. And that's just for one region; just so you wait for what you'll see until we set foot on the other regions!
"Well, this place seems pretty peaceful." Marisa said, with her arms casually folded behind her neck.
"Yeah, but there might be a few monsters 'round." Yangus warned. "They love to 'ide from any travelers out 'ere, so keep yer eyes an' ears open."
"Ayayayaya! This is so awesome!" Aya exclaimed, flying around in the air near us while snapping pictures with her camera. "Oh, I can't wait to write an article about this foreign land once we find a way to return home! Heh heh! Eat your heart out, Hatate!"
I sweatdropped playfully. "She sure is enjoying this world, isn't she?" I thought.
"Say, guv…" Yangus got my attention. "Did ya find a new sword to replace that old an' boring one Granddad gave ya?"
"Hey!" Trode exclaimed offendedly. "I'll have you know that it was the only weapon in good condition in the castle before Dhoulmagus ruined it! All the remaining weapons were destroyed by the thorns and rubble, so be grateful!" But Yangus just ignored him and instead waited for my answer, as I sighed and addressed Trode:
"I know that, Trode… but as much as I appreciate the weapon you gave me, Yangus is right. I do need a new sword, and maybe some new weapons, to fight stronger monsters with. That Soldier's Sword is the one low-ranking guards like me use for training only, so it's not really that strong. Besides, who knows when the sword's gonna break on me during one of these battles?" then I smirked. "And that's why I bought this new Copper Sword for me in the weapon shop. Of course, copper still isn't a very strong material, but it should be decent enough for now."
"Aye, yer right, guv." Yangus smirked back, before sighing, "But it seems like we're still on a tight budget, though."
True… because as far as I'm concerned, Trode didn't bring any money from Trodain before we left. I guess now I know how it's like to live as an almost poor commoner, huh? I sure did not want that for myself, obviously, so I couldn't wait to break the curse so that everything would go back to normal the way it was. Soon, we approached a branching path with a sign in the middle that said "Checkpoint to the left, Waterfall to the right", and knowing this we instantly took the right path, as we could see a tall mountain with many waterfalls gushing out from its sides, thus indicating that we were going the right way.
[BGM End]
"Wait… I just heard something!" Reisen suddenly spoke up, making us stop in our tracks alarmed.
"Where did the sound come from, Reisen?" Youmu asked, reaching for the handle of her katana on her back.
"Right there!" Reisen pointed over to some tall tufts of grass as we all glared at them… and a Slime and two Bunicorns jumped out.
"Oh, it's just another Slime… and two Bunicorns." I said.
Cue I and Yangus easily taking them down. However, right after both monsters' defeat, I could feel something coursing through my veins… I must have gained enough experience to learn my first ever spell out of all the ones I know now. But here's the thing: when anyone in this universe gains experience to learn a new spell, they never know which spell is it that they just learned, so how do they get to know it? They just have to guess. Yes, guess. So you could imagine how I reacted when I got to learn incredibly powerful spells I have now, such as Magic Burst.
"Well that was…underwhelming." Remilia remarked, and then we continued on… only to be stopped again by a single Bunicorn this time in the middle of the road. "Oh, what now!?"
"Just a single Bunicorn, this time? This should be easy." Yangus said, he and I getting ready… but then the Bunicorn whistled loudly, and all of a sudden… a huge mob of different monsters jumped out of the trees and bushes nearby to confront us. The monsters contained in that mob consisted of Slimes, Bunicorns, Candy Cats, Lipses, Firespirits, Bubble Slimes, Capsichums and Satyrs.
[BGM: Apprehension – Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMIX]
"Uh-oh…" Yangus paled up.
"Darn it, we're severely outnumbered now…" I growled under my breath. How in the world are we both going to take down a whole mob?! And just before I and Yangus could ponder about what to do… the girls suddenly stood in front of us, much to our surprise. "Girls?" I blinked. "What are you…"
"Leave the questions for later." Reimu cut me off, as she took out what appears to be a purification rod and some needles. "Let us handle these guys."
"But…"
"Heh, now it's you guys' turn to stand back!" Marisa smirked, cutting me off again. "Let's do this!"
[BGM: The Ground's Color is Yellow ~ Primrose – Touhou: Antinomy of Common Flowers]
And just then… I watched in astonishment as the girls who didn't have wings suddenly started floating in the air (Marisa's case was different, as she was riding on a flying broom instead), surprising even the enemy mob but they shook it off and rushed towards the girls to attack them.
"Hah!" Reimu yelled while throwing the needles at the Slimes that tried to tackle her, but she had flown out of the way as the Slimes were pierced by the needles and disappeared. But then, one of the Capsichums managed to reduce Reimu's defense with a Sap spell (I knew that because of the aura surrounding her) before they all proceeded to attack her from behind, only to instead get stabbed repeatedly by spears coming from dolls being controlled by Alice via her near-invisible strings. As Alice turned to the remaining Capsichums who managed to escape the previous attack, I watched as she pulled out some sort of card.
"War Sign: Little Legion!" she said, and then her dolls lunged towards the Capsichums while spinning around, slicing and dicing them into pieces that was enough to defeat them.
"Bad kitties! Get lost!" Marisa yelled, firing a stream of colorful star-shaped bullets from her palm at the Candy Cats that attacked her by scratching her, knocking them away. "Now take this! Stardust Reverie!" she called out as she followed up with a spiraling headfirst charge using her broom reinforced with magic at them, sending them into the air where they were defeated.
Youmu clashed her katana with the Bunicorns that were leaping at her hornfirst, until her phantom half charged into the Bunicorns while releasing a blast to knock them away from her human body. "Human Sign: Slash of the Present World!" Youmu called out as she suddenly dashed incredibly fast through all the Bunicorns in the blink of an eye while doing a single slash, and the moment she stopped and sheathed her katana… all the Bunicorns were history.
Meanwhile, the Firespirits proceeded to cast Frizz to attack Aya with fireballs, but she swiftly flew away from them. "You guys can't possibly beat the fastest!" Aya teased, readying her hauchiwa fan. "Whirl Sign: Autumn Leaf Fan's Wind!" she called out, swinging her fan to launch out a tornado that caught all of the Firespirits in it and they were immediately blown out like candles in mere seconds.
"Blegh! You guys are disgusting!" Cirno cringed after she got licked by multiple Lipses. "Get a load of this!" she yelled and spread out her arms to release cold air all around her body, freezing all of the Lipses instantly that came into contact with the cold air before they all shattered into pieces. Next to Cirno, the Satyrs had Remilia surrounded and attempted to put her to sleep by blowing on their horns, but the vampire was having none of it.
"Nah, I already had my beauty sleep, fellas." she smirked. "And now… you're all fated to fall." she takes out another one of those cards (must be spell cards, I assume). "Nether Sign: Scarlet Netherworld." and with that, she fired a ridiculous number of red bullets at the Satyrs. Needless to say, none of them survived the onslaught.
Finally, the Bubble Slimes proceeded to launch poisonous slime bubbles at Reisen, but she had surrounded herself with some sort of ultrared field to block the bubbles, as well as making some of the Bubble Slimes that were inside the field very disoriented. With a smirk, Reisen took out a spell card. "Shortsight: X-Wave." then… I had no idea what was going on, but it appeared that the Bubble Slimes were not just taking hits from bullets coming out of her bunny-themed handgun only, but also from additional bullets out of nowhere on both her sides as well. Either way, they were all killed.
[BGM End]
"And that's that!" Marisa exclaimed, she and the rest of the girls standing in front of us proudly looking at the field ahead that was completely wiped out of enemies. Meanwhile, I, Yangus, Trode and Medea all had our mouths hung open, being too shocked out of our minds.
"…'oly… Goddess…" Yangus breathed.
"B…B-But wh-… WHAT!?" Trode yelled.
"I-Incredible…" I awed. "All this flying, those bullets and spells… How did you girls do all that?!"
"It's all part of our natural abilities." Remilia casually replied.
"Basically, everyone in Gensokyo has the ability to fly, with or without wings." Reimu explained. "The bullets are called danmaku, and while those can be shiny and have pretty patterns… these can seriously hurt you, as you clearly saw with the monsters getting hit by them."
I gulped. "Noted…"
"As for our spells… well, each of us have spell cards that we can unleash based on our unique abilities. In my case, I have spell cards all related to abilities of a shrine maiden. Marisa's spell cards all correspond to magic, since her ability is using light and heat magic."
"That's right!" Marisa grinned.
"Alice's you might know, which is handling dolls. Cirno's is pretty obvious; she's an ice fairy, so she manipulates cold."
"Yep, and my ability is the strongest out of all of us!" Cirno boasted.
Reimu sweatdropped. "Right…" she muttered. "Anyways… Remilia's is manipulating fate, Youmu's is handling diverse sword techniques, Reisen's is manipulation of wavelengths and inducing insanity, and Aya's is manipulating wind."
"I see…" I mused; those were some pretty amazing abilities if I say so myself, but some of them sounded a bit scary too (especially Remilia's and Reisen's… *shudder*).
"Dang… I never knew these girls could pack a punch…" Yangus said.
"You're telling me…" I threw in. "But on the bright side… We now have more people who can fight alongside us, so it won't be just the two of us anymore!"
"Ya said it, guv!"
"Glad we could be of help!" Reisen smiled.
"For now on, we'll assist in every battle we stumble upon." Alice said.
"We'd appreciate it!" I nodded. "All right, now let's keep moving!"
Fortunately, we didn't have to walk that much from here since after exactly 30 seconds, we finally reached our destination: the mountain that had the entrance to the Waterfall Cave. However, as we approached the wooden bridge leading to the entrance, I did catch a glimpse of a shack on top of the mountain; it was small, but I wondered who could possibly live up there and I felt inclined to investigate it. But right now, we have a crystal ball to find, so maybe after we do find it, I could convince Yangus and the girls to go up there once we leave.
"Is this the place?" Youmu asked as we stopped.
"Yes, it looks like we've found it." Trode confirmed. "Naturally I'd love to come with you all, but I couldn't possibly put Medea in danger. I'm sure you'll do a fine job of finding the crystal ball without us. We'll be waiting here. You be careful in there!"
"We will." I nodded firmly, then turned to my companions. "Let's go." they all nodded in response and we walked in.
[BGM: A Waterdrop in the Dark – Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana]
This place was dark, very dark. I guess no one lighted the place that much, since the only light sources we found were the two lit torches on both sides of the entrance. Just great…
"Whoa… This place is really dark…" Marisa breathed.
"Not for me." Remilia said, putting her parasol away. "I can see perfectly fine."
"Well, you ARE a vampire, so…"
"Ooh, and it's a bit spooky in here too…" Youmu said shakily. Huh… by this reaction, I do wonder if she's afraid of the dark.
"This isn't good…" Aya trailed off while looking around the place with her eyes squinted. "Even if my eyesight is really good, it's still not enough for me to see well in the dark…"
"Okay, I HAVE to find a solution for this." I thought as I looked around on the floor for anything… and as luck would have it, I found a stick next to the torch on the left. I walked over to it and picked it up, then I placed the tip of it into the torch's fire to light it up. "Ah, there we go!" I triumphantly exclaimed.
"Nice job, guv!" Yangus complimented. "Now we got a light!"
"Yeah, but make sure you all stick together to me so no one gets lost, got it?" I advised as they nodded, and so we proceeded to walk over to the walkway ahead.
The cave seemed pretty huge, with waterfalls protruding from the walls to give this place a big dampness that clung heavily to the air around us. Additionally, the cave mouth seemed to be on a platform attached to the rock face, while below that was all water… and it was quite a few ways down too. Everything seemed tranquil for us at first… but just then, the moment we were halfway across the walkway, I started hearing noises that almost sounded like bat noises coming from above us. Oh, boy… this doesn't sound good, since I knew exactly what could those noises belong to.
"Wait." I motioned everyone to stop the moment I heard the noises, and they did it so. "Do you hear something?"
Reisen's ears twitched a bit. "Yeah, I'm hearing bat-like noises… but who's making them?"
And right on cue… a massive mob of Drackies flew down from the ceiling and were viciously heading towards us, ready to suck our blood. "Blood-sucking Drackies incoming!" I shouted. "Let's take them out!" I began to reach for my sword…
"I got this!" …until Cirno suddenly flew in front of me and faced the Drackies. "PERFECT FREEZE!" she yelled, sending out a large amount of cold air at the Drackies and freezing them all instantly, and then they fell onto the ground one by one where they shattered.
"…Oooor we can just leave it to Cirno." I sweatdropped.
"Ha, piece of cake!" Cirno boasted. "And I've done it without a single scratch!"
However… not two seconds after Cirno said that, Reisen gasped, "Cirno! Your arm is bleeding!" she cried with wide eyes while pointing at Cirno's right forearm, and sure enough, that portion of her arm had two holes that almost went straight through her arm and blood was coming out of them pretty profusely. There's no doubt that these were a Dracky's bite, so I guess one of them might of have avoided her Perfect Freeze attack and bit her on the arm before fleeing.
Cirno looked at her wound, and shook her head. "Eh, it's not much. You can just heal it with one of those medicinal herbs you got, right?"
"But… I was thinking about saving them if anything worse happens."
"Then we'll just wait. Really, it's not that bad. It'll stop bleeding at some point!"
"Yeah, when you're dead!" Marisa retorted.
"But fairies like me can't even die, they just revive! Seriously, I'm perfectly fine!"
I sighed. "Look, let's just keep going. If Cirno insists she's fine, then so be it. Because starting an argument is only going to waste our time."
"He's right." Reimu chimed in. "Let's go on already."
With that, we crossed the rest of the walkway and reached the doorway that led to a branching tunnel. After some debating, we decided to head right… but as we started walking there, I heard a loud thud behind me…
"CIRNO! Are you okay?!" …along with Reisen's asking in worry, as I turned around to see that Cirno had fallen to the ground. But that wasn't what shocked me; it was her wound. Unlike what she had stated before, it wasn't bleeding any less. In fact, it seemed to have gotten worse, having its gory blood sprouting increased.
"Well… I feel a little better… All the colors are coming together in a really pretty blur and all the fun times I had playing with Dai-chan are flashing before my eyes…" Cirno spoke in a dazed and dream-like state as if she was staring at a pleasant scenery in her mind. Uh-oh… this wasn't good. She is going to pass out from all that loss of blood. I have to do something!
"Cirno!" I quickly ran over to her while dropping my torch and picked her up on my arms. "Hang in there!" I instinctively placed my left hand onto her wound, as I felt blood getting onto it but I didn't care. "Oh, please that I have the Heal spell right now, please…!" I thought as I prayed internally.
Then, all of a sudden, as if my prayers have been answered, a weak soft green glow came from my hand as a green light enveloped Cirno and pulsated faintly before dimming. Did… Did I actually do it? I pulled my hand back in wonderment… and much to my surprise, Cirno's wound had been closed up into a scar and all the blood was gone. I…actually did it! Who knew that my very first spell learned was Heal?
Yangus and the girls were also taken by surprise. "You… You actually healed her…" Alice awed. "That's amazing…"
I looked at my hand in astonishment. "Wow, my first spell… and it worked perfectly!" I said with a big smile.
"Hooray!" Cirno cheered as she flew out of my arms and began flexing her healed arm. "Check it out! It's like nothing ever-…" buuuut then the scar on her arm reopened and continued to bleed, but at the very least the leakage was minimal. "…-happened." she grimaced.
"Hey, easy there. You shouldn't overextend yourself." I said to her like a parent talking to a child as I held her shoulders. "Just because I healed you back up doesn't mean that your wound is completely closed up. Don't move your arm around too much, okay?"
"Okay…" Cirno sighed, and then I went back to get the torch again so we could continue.
The tunnel led us to an open area with lots of stalactites and stalagmites as some of them were joined together to form huge columns, as well as several large shallow pools of water that gleamed off the walls to create a shimmering effect, a narrow walkway zigzagging through the area… and more monsters, those specifically being Mischievous Moles. The moles would immediately spot us and stare for a moment, before deciding that we were a threat and stood in offensive stances. We watched as the Mischievous Moles scrunched up their faces while glowing with a purple aura. A Psyche Up!
"What's with that purple aura on them?" Youmu wondered.
"That's a Psyche Up." I replied. "It's a technique that lets you focus your inner will and spirit to build up tension, but it takes a lot of great concentration and not to mention that only people from this world are able to do it since it's considered a skill. Tension will increase a person's strength and magic for their next action, and will immediately wear off after they execute said action. The more tension built up, the more powerful they'll become."
"Hmm, I see…" but as Youmu was musing, she didn't notice that one of the more powerful Mischievous Moles was charging at her and ready to smack her with its shovel.
"Youmu, look out!" I warned.
"Huh?!" she didn't react in time and the Mischievous Mole smacked her in the gut. "Ungh!" she winced as she hunched over. "Alright… You like tension? Then I'll give you my own tension." she glared at the rest of the Mischievous Moles while taking out a spell card. "Celestial Star Sword: As the Silent Nirvana!" just then… it felt like as if time itself slowed down for me for a second and before I even knew it, Youmu had taken out all of the Mischievous Moles by apparently slashing the air in front of her and without making any sound whatsoever… somehow. "Good riddance." she said and sheathed her katana.
I blinked in total confusion. "Uh… What did you just do? I didn't even see or hear anything!"
Youmu chuckled. "That spell card I used is meant to work that way, where I take actions so fast that you can't even see or hear what happened. But if you want to know, I merely just sent incredibly high-speed danmaku at the moles. Obviously, not even them could see the danmaku before they were taken down."
"Ah…" after that, I looked around the area and found something that intrigued me: a treasure chest. I immediately ran over to it and opened it up, taking out a Chimaera Wing. Ah, perfect! Now after we find the crystal ball, I can just use this to warp us back to the town of Farebury in an instant! I put the wing into my knapsack and motioned the others to follow me into another tunnel ahead, which was lined up with lit torches on the walls.
Exiting the tunnel, we ended up in another wide area similar to the previous one we've been, except that there's less pools of water, and there was moss growing around the columns. Oh, and of course, the monsters in this area were different too: this time there were some Mecha-Mynahs roaming about. The Mecha-Mynahs immediately noticed our presence as some of them proceeded to launch metal feathers at us, while the rest casted Acceleratle on themselves before flying towards us at a higher speed than usual.
"Wind Sign: Opening Wind of the Tengu Realm!" Aya quickly acted and launched a whirlwind projectile out of her fan at the Mecha-Mynahs, who didn't have time to flee from it and they along with the metal feather projectiles were all blown away by it while breaking apart. "Heh, they might be fast at attacking, but not at dodging!" she smirked and then we continued onwards, going down deeper into the cave via a staircase.
"So… we're just going to encounter different monsters every time we enter a new area, is that it?" Reimu asked me.
"Pretty much." I replied.
"Oh, lovely…" Reimu muttered.
"Say… I'm starting to wonder if this crystal ball is being guarded by someone who lives here in this cave." Reisen speculated.
"Probably." Remilia agreed. "I mean, with all those torches around, I doubt anybody would leave this place unguarded."
"An' if this someone does 'ave the crystal ball and doesn't wanna give it ta us, then wot do we do?" Yangus asked.
Marisa grinned a bit mischievously and clenched her fist as she said, "Then we'll just have to take it by force! We need that crystal ball no matter what!"
Yangus mirrored her expression. "Now that's wot I'm talkin' about! A good fight!" These two sure are starting to get along well, aren't they?
Arriving at the cave's lower floor, we continued along the dark tunnel while looking around for any sign of hidden monsters… and at this moment, a Dancing Devil jumped in front of us, forcing us to stop.
"What's this guy's deal?" Cirno wondered as the Dancing Devil cackled evilly before doing a Sultry Dance, and… instantly, my whole body felt the sudden urge to dance as I tried to fight it but I couldn't…and so I ended up dropping my torch again before I began busting some moves against my will. Lord, help me…
And just to rub salt in the wound, the Dancing Devil started laughing at my miserable situation as I could do nothing about it before it proceeded to fire a blast of magic at me. "Cautionary Border!" but then Reimu called out as a blue barrier appeared in front of me and blocked the attack, much to the Dancing Devil's dismay… before it would get swatted away by a Yin-Yang Orb of sorts that might've also come from Reimu. The moment the Dancing Devil was no more, I finally stopped dancing uncontrollably and could move my body again.
"Ugh, finally it stopped." I said with a groan. "I swear… if I get affected by a Sultry Dance again but from another monster, I'm going to scream."
"I dunno… I'd say ya got some slick dance moves there, guv." Yangus teased me, and he even looked like he was trying to hold his laughter.
I shot him an annoyed glare. "Very funny…" I grumbled before I knelt down to get the torch and we moved on into the tunnel, where we arrived in yet another open area where vegetation was even more apparent compared to the previous area as it was present all over the floor, while the walls were filled to the brim with waterfalls. And what about the monsters in here? Well…
"Are those monsters…moving around in boots?" Alice wondered; a bit weirded out by them.
"Yep." I nodded. "Those are Skippers, and they love to house themselves into old unwanted boots much like how hermit crabs love to house themselves into discarded shells."
"I see…" then, a smirk formed on Alice's face as she summons her dolls. "Then I hope they don't mind if I ruin their fun!" she commands her dolls to charge at the Skippers, as they immediately turned over and began to hop towards the dolls. One of the Skippers casted Deceleratle on some of Alice's dolls, lowering their speed before the other Skippers proceeded to easily kick them away. "Tch." Alice coldly glared at them and took out a spell card. "Red Sign: Doll Mira Ceti." she said and, together with her remaining dolls, they all fired red danmaku at the Skippers, defeating them all instantly. "There we go." Dang… I better keep in mind to not mess with Alice and her dolls ever.
"Hey… I think I can see a weird short hooded guy holding a mallet over there!" Aya spoke up while pointing up ahead, and when I decided to approach a bit, I indeed saw said creature that Aya described (that was a Hammerhood, by the way) standing in front of another doorway, but this one had a large wooden door that was partially broken. No idea what caused it, but the damage was pretty massive.
"Who goes there?" …Wait. Was the Hammerhood…talking? This definitely caught me by surprise, since monsters usually just attack without saying anything… but I guess some of them do stop and talk, it seems. Looking back at the others, I saw that they were as equally as surprised as well. Taking up all the courage I could muster, I approached the Hammerhood and talked to it:
"Um, hi?"
By the Hammerhood's reaction, I could tell that it was taken aback by me, a human, just casually walking up to a monster and talking to it. "Well, well! You must be really brave to come up and talk to me like this!" it exclaimed. "A man that looked like a peddler came along earlier, but when he saw me he ran away without saying a word!" I mean… who could blame him? Everyone in my world think that monsters are always aggressive and will attack sometimes for no reason. "Anyway… As you've probably realized, you'll have to fight me if you want to go any further!" its voice now sounded threatening. Oh, now things are getting interesting. "What do you think? Brave enough for that, are you!?"
To be honest, up until now, I never actually considered myself brave and courageous before just like my three comrades. I guess maybe I had finally gotten the courage to really begin this journey and let fate make me become a true Hero, after all (don't tell that to Remilia). Flashing a smirk, I replied, "Why, of course! Otherwise, I wouldn't have come all this way over here!"
"R-Really!?" the Hammerhood stuttered. "Y-You really are brave. That means you must be a good fighter…" then it began musing a bit before speaking up again, "I know! In recognition of your bravery, I'm going to let you through!" …Are…Are you serious right now? I looked back and saw that even Yangus and the girls couldn't believe it. I then looked back at the Hammerhood just in time as it moved aside. "Off you go. Be careful now!"
"Well… Thanks." I awkwardly thanked it since I didn't know what to think about that, really. Either way, I once again motioned the others to follow me through the doorway and venture into one last tunnel. As we got to the end of it, we came upon a wooden sign next to the stairs that would lead even further down the cave, and out of curiosity, I walked over to the sign and looked at it, seeing that the lettering on it seemed to be scratched roughly.
"WATERFALL AHEAD. NO LITTERING!" the sign read. Wow, whoever lives in this cave sure is stingy about keeping the water clean. Anyways, after reading the sign, I turned around to face the others as I said, "You know… I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the crystal ball should be just down there." I directed to the stairs.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Marisa said, and thus we headed down the stairs.
To be continued…
Nothing like having an action-themed chapter focusing more on the Touhou girls, right?
Eight: You said it!
So yeah, I just discovered that it's a little bit harder to write some of their attacks with a first-person narrator due to how most spell cards work. Out of all the girls, Reisen's attacks are going to be the toughest ones to write due to her ability to create illusions that only affect her attackers, and so Eight won't be seeing these illusions since they're not affecting him (thus I highly suggest you use Touhou Wiki for reference so that you'll know what her attacks actually do). Oh, and changing the subject a little bit... Can I ask something to you, Eight?
Eight: Sure, what is it?
How come you know about every monster that you and the others will be encountering throughout this story?
Eight: Oh, that's simple. I had once read a bestiary book that showed every monster in my world back at the castle's library, so there you have it!
Ah, makes sense. Now, I was originally going to include the Waterfall Cave's boss battle here as well but I was like, "Nah, I already wrote enough, so I'll leave it for the next chapter."
Eight: Sounds fair.
And besides, I'm actually looking forward to writing the next chapter, only because of how funny the boss' way of speaking is! And that's all I can give it out here, so how about you end this off this time, Eight?
Eight: Ah, sure thing! See you all next time, readers!