The next chapter is here!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 7: Khalamari Ahoy!
[BGM: Strange World – Dragon Quest VIII]
"That Jessica said she wanted to say sorry to us, but then she went an' done a runner!" Yangus exclaimed as we walked down the road.
"I know, right? She didn't even bat an eye at us!" Remilia threw in, rolling her eyes.
"To be fair, she just got into a fight with her mother, so I don't really blame her for storming out like that." Alice stated.
"Still, she's a bit wild, that one." Yangus said. "More trouble than she's worth if you ask me."
I can see where my companions were going with. "Even so, let's not judge her too harshly." I spoke up. "She was just doing things her own way. It's not something too extreme."
"Wotever ya say, guv."
"Well, I'm more concerned about that diabolical Dhoulmagus!" Trode growled. "He's a cold-blooded killer! A soulless savage! A vile villain of the highest order! We haven't a moment to lose! We must catch that rogue if it's the last thing we do! He'll soon feel the crushing blow of my wrath!"
Oh, there he goes again… "You keep telling yourself that, but again, I'm the one doing all the work…" I thought with a sweatdrop.
Soon, as we traveled along the other path that we haven't taken previously, we could catch a glimpse of a beach down below the rocky cliffs we were walking on, with the massive and vast sea slowly drifting along the sand.
"Wow! Is that a sea down there?!" Cirno exclaimed excitedly with gleaming eyes. "I've always wanted to see one with my very own eyes!" and then she flew off to the beach.
"Oooh, now that's what I call front-page scoop material!" Aya chimed in with the same level of excitement, and also flew off.
"I've seen pictures of a sea before, but I never imagined it would be that massive…" Youmu breathed in awe.
"…You girls are acting as if you've never seen a sea before." I tilted my head.
"And it's true." Reimu replied. "There are no seas in Gensokyo."
"Oh…"
"There are several seas on the moon's surface, though." Reisen said. "One of the most known ones is called the Sea of Prosperity."
"Ah, yes…" Remilia smiled pleasantly. "I still remember that time when I traveled to the moon, and then I and Sakuya walked along that sea's shores together. Good times…"
"Yeah, but you did that right after that Moon Princess easily curbstomped me and Marisa before sending all of us back to Earth…" Reimu muttered.
"Eh, I wasn't bothered by that. Plus, I did find another way to pass time by having Pache build my own indoor sea, right?"
"Sure, we did had fun on it…but did you seriously have to invite me and Reimu in the middle of winter!?" Marisa argued. "We both nearly became living popsicles after we got out of the water!"
"Hey, I was too impatient to wait until summer! And besides, remember that this was meant as a repayment after you two helped me get to the moon in the first place!"
And their conversation kept on going, as I and Yangus exchanged confused glances before I said to him, "Let's just go check on Cirno and Aya."
"Sounds good, guv." Yangus nodded as we carefully made our way down the rocky cliff, where we soon spotted Cirno standing right in front of the sea with her arms spread out while Aya was flying around and snapping photos of the area.
[BGM End]
However, due to both being distracted with what they were doing, they didn't notice that two different monsters were heading towards them: with a Jailcat going for Cirno, and a Man o' War going for Aya. I and Yangus gasped as we saw that both monsters were ready to attack them, prompting us to quickly act as I shouted:
"Watch out!" and as I did, I threw my boomerang at the Man o' War while Yangus rushed at the Jailcat and smacked it away.
Our actions caught both Cirno and Aya's attention as they turned around to us. "What's wrong?" Aya asked as she landed next to me, and at this very moment, we all looked over to see more Man o' Wars and Jailcats appearing before us, along with some See Urchins and Yabbies.
"This." I said, still keeping a serious look as I immediately took a battle stance.
"Aw, there goes my fun… But I'll show them why they shouldn't mess with the strongest!" Cirno boasted and got ready as well, soon followed by Yangus and Aya.
[BGM: A Footprint in the Wet Sand – Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana]
"Take this! Frost Pillars!" Cirno called out, freezing some of the Yabbies in large ice stalagmites as the rest who managed to dodge looked at their frozen brethren in surprise before they attempted to snip at her, but she easily flew out of their attack range. "Oh, don't worry! I got a bigger one for the rest of you!" she takes a spell card. "Frost Sign: Frost Columns!" she created more powerful ice stalagmites to also freeze them, and Yangus took this advantage to go to town on them, easily shattering them to pieces by swinging his axe.
"You know what? Time to call in for some help!" Aya said. "Crow Sign: Daymare in the Dark Night!" she called out, and suddenly a swarm of crows came from out of nowhere and divebombed towards the See Urchins, wiping them out in an instant. "Easy!" she exclaimed… but then the Jailcats, who watched the crows while licking their mouths mischievously, proceeded to cast Crack on the crows, freezing them. "Oh… Hmph." Aya looked at the Jailcats disapprovingly as they sweatdropped sheepishly, but then she took out another spell card. "Squall: Sarutahiko's Guidance!" she said, using wind to charge into the Jailcats and instantly blast them all away into the sky.
"Crosscutter Throw!" I called out, tossing my boomerang at the Man o' Wars and defeating a few of them while the others floated up to avoid the attack. One of them swooped down on me in order to ram into me, but I quickly brought out my shield to make it slam into it before I shield-bashed it in the head to knock it out… but I didn't notice that another one had snuck up behind me and hit me on the back, leaving me paralyzed in place as a result. Darn it! I couldn't move!
"Oy! Get away from guv!" Yangus shouted as he quickly moved to help me, running up to the Man o' War that paralyzed me and delivering a Helm Splitter to kill it, then he swung his axe at two of the Man o' Wars as they flew out of reach of his weapon. Thankfully, at this moment the paralysis effect on me was gone and I tossed my boomerang just in time to hit these incoming jellyfishes in the face. Both fell to the ground and disappeared, leading the rest of the Man o' Wars to sweat nervously and escape due to not being keen on ending up like their friends did.
[BGM End]
"Yeah, good riddance to ya!" Yangus yelled at them.
"Whew, thanks for helping me out, Yangus." I thanked him. "Being paralyzed in place is no fun."
"No problem, guv."
"And thank you girls for the help, too." I addressed Cirno and Aya.
"You're welcome!" Aya smiled.
It was then that the rest of the girls came running down to us. "What just happened down here?" Youmu asked. "Was there a monster attack judging from all those loud noises we heard?"
"Yep." I nodded.
"And these guys just ruined my fun…" Cirno added with a pout.
"So, are ya done wiv that conversation that I and the guv didn't get most o' the time?" Yangus asked.
"Yes, we are." Reimu replied. "We're ready to move on."
And so we did, by going back up the cliff to meet with Trode and Medea before going on our merry way. Luckily, no more monsters attacked us from that point, and thus we eventually reached a new town at the end: Port Prospect.
[BGM: Peaceful Town – Dragon Quest VIII]
As its name suggests, this town featured a port on the far right with a lighthouse, and a large ferry at the distance that seemed already set to depart at the sea. The main square itself, while not as big and elaborate as the square in Farebury, was still pretty lively: featuring a circular fountain in the middle surrounded by plants, a small hut with many piled-up crates having the word 'fish' complete with a simple drawing of a fish inscribed on them (which suggests that the town's residents must do a lot of fishing in here), and of course the local inn, church and stalls. Finally, due to being a town near the sea, a few seagulls were flying around nearby.
"Well, we arrived in another town." Reisen said. "Do you think we'll find Jessica in here?"
"Maybe so, but I'm not sure either." I replied as we began to walk around.
"Oh, hey! Is that a ship over there?" Aya asked, looking at the ferry in the distance.
"Actually, I think it's more of a ferry to me." Marisa corrected.
"Say, if ya go on that ferry from 'ere, ya get to the Southern Cont'nent. Heh heh heh! I know me stuff, eh!?" Yangus chuckled.
"Heh, you sure do." I chuckled back.
"So we get to explore more of this world by taking that ferry, huh? You know I'm down for it." Remilia smiled.
"Oh! Then maybe Jessica is at the ferry!" Cirno exclaimed.
"Hmm, probably…" I mused, then I looked at the lighthouse. "But I think we should go check that lighthouse first. I dunno, it just piqued my interest."
"Alright, whatever you say." Alice simply said, and we all headed to it.
Once inside, we went around the stairs in front of us and much to our surprise, we found Jessica standing by a counter talking to a burly man.
"I don't have time to argue! I want you to put out to sea NOW!" Jessica demanded angrily to the man.
"My apologies, Miss Jessica, but the waters are simply too dangerous at the moment…" he trailed off.
"Haven't you been listening? I TOLD you I'd take care of that!"
At this, the man began to make erratic hand waves in front of him nervously. "Please forgive me, Lady Jessica! There'd be hell to pay from the Albert family if we put you in danger!"
"Is there ANYONE around here with half a brain!?" Jessica groaned in exasperation and looked around her, until she spotted us as her face immediately brightened. "Ah! Speak of the devil!" she rushed over to us. "You're the travelers from the tower! Didn't I tell you to wait for me in Alexandria!? I wanted to properly apologize to you!" and just when I rose my hand to tell her, she cut me off and continued, "Well, whatever. I'm glad you're here now. Actually, I have a favour to ask. Would you mind coming over here for a minute?"
We all briefly exchanged glances before nodding back to Jessica, and then she led us back to the burly man. "So you're saying you won't let me fight the sea monster?" she spoke to him.
The man nodded. "Well, yes, but… But, I mean…"
"Fine, fine. Not to worry. I've asked these sturdy men and these not-at-first-glance powerful girls to take care of it for me. Okay?"
"Er… Oh, well… Actually, we've been looking for someone to take on that very job ourselves!" …Huh, how convenient.
Jessica turned back to us. "Well, there you have it. Everyone's happy. Can I count on you guys?"
We all smirked confidently. "Oh, ya bet!" Yangus grinned.
"Taking down a sea monster should be no problem for us!" Remilia smirked.
"Yeah!" the rest of the girls exclaimed. Meanwhile, I just did a simple nod.
"I knew I could count on you." Jessica smiled. Then, she began to ponder, "I still can't get what we saw in the tower out of my mind. Who is this Dhoulmagus, and what does he want? And why did he murder my brother?" Good questions, Jessica…because we don't know either. "Whatever the reason, I'll track him to the ends of the earth." she said with a determined expression. "But first, we've got to make the waters safe for ships to sail. The sea monster that's standing in our way is supposed to be pretty strong. You'd better be prepared."
"Heh, we're armed and ready!" Marisa grinned, stretching her arm.
"Okay, then!" Jessica then addresses the burly man again, "Quartermaster, prepare the ship!"
"Aye aye, sir!" the Quartermaster saluted.
[BGM End]
Later…
All of us were aboard the ferry, standing at its stern. Sounds of gongs from the ship soon filled the air as the Quartermaster gave his order, "Prepare to set sail! Weigh anchor!"
[BGM: Overture – Dragon Quest VIII]
And with that, the anchor was pulled up from the bottom of the ocean and the ship started to slowly drift off into the open ocean. While I, Yangus and Jessica stood on the alert as we scouted the area around us for any signs of the sea monster, the girls were instead admiring the vast ocean in awe (and in excitement in Cirno's case), which is justified since as I was informed, seas are very minimal in their home world.
But just then, not too long after…
[BGM End]
"Hmm? Everyone, I think I heard something!" Aya suddenly exclaimed as she turned her head around.
"What did you hear?" Youmu asked.
"Sounds like bubbles in the water… Oh! They're right there!" she pointed to the portion of the sea from right behind us, and so we rushed to the back and checked it. Sure enough; the water in that portion was bubbling, which could mean…
"It must be the sea monster!" Jessica exclaimed, and then she turned around. "Quartermaster! Stop the ship!"
"Affirmative!" the Quartermaster replied and gave the order to lower the anchor, making the ferry immediately come to a halt.
Meanwhile, I, Yangus and the Gensokyo girls kept staring down at the bubbles… where a pair of massive red tentacles suddenly emerged out, followed up by the main body of an equally-massive red and purple squid monster.
"I-It's… a giant squid!" Reisen exclaimed.
"Ooh, I hates this, Tenta!" the squid spoke with a gruffy tone.
"I hates it too, Tickles!" but then he suddenly spoke…with a different tone and personality? "These nasty humans and their ships, always sailin' over poor Khalamari's head!" So this squid's name is Khalamari… who apparently has a case of split-personality disorder. Geez, all these monsters I'm meeting are just getting wackier and wackier…
"Yeah, Tenta, yeah! Humans don't have no manners!" Khalamari said, back in his gruffy personality… You know what? I'm just going to refer his separate personalities as Tenta and Tickles, as he had called them.
"That's right, Tickles, they don't have none at all, they don't! No!" Tenta chimed in.
"That's why Khalamari's gonna stand up for all the poor creatures of the sea! Starting by eatin' these here humans!" Tickles proclaimed.
"Yeah, Tickles! He'll eat 'em! Eat 'em right up!"
And then… Khalamari suddenly leapt up towards us as we screamed, having no time to run back without getting knocked away by its massive body, when suddenly…
"HIYAH!" Aya yelled, lunging in and delivering a hard kick onto Khalamari's face.
"OW!" Khalamari yelled in pain and fell back into the sea with a huge splash.
I, Yangus and Jessica stood in total shock. "W…WOT!?" Yangus shouted, his mouth completely agape.
"A-Amazing!" Jessica exclaimed in amazement. "She just kicked him back into the sea with no effort!"
"Well, it's no surprise since Aya is a tengu." Reimu said, as she and the rest of the Gensokyo girls weren't looking shocked at all. "Tengus aren't just incredibly fast; they also have very strong physical strength compared to that of a human's."
"Yeah, I noted…" I slowly nodded while looking back at Aya, still very shocked out of my mind.
Khalamari emerged right back out. "Ow, that hurts, Tickles!" Tenta exclaimed.
"Yeah, you said it, Tenta!" Tickles threw in. "How!? A mere human isn't supposed to have that much strength!"
"That's because I'm not a human! I'm a crow demon!" Aya proclaimed.
"A demon!? But she doesn't look like one, right, Tickles!?" Tenta asked.
"Yeah, Tenta!" Tickles replied. "No matter! There's no way Khalamari shall lose to this girl who claims she's a demon! No way!"
"Oi, she's not alone!" Marisa exclaimed. "You also have us to deal with, oversized squid!"
"Oh…" Tenta blinked, but then an idea came to him, "Ooh, Tickles! You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Indeed, Tenta!" Tickles laughed mischievously. "Our children! Come out and attack!"
And all of a sudden, a massive horde of Khalamari Kids leapt onto the ferry's main deck, scaring off the nearby sailors as I watched them quickly retreating to the cabin.
"Oh, great…" Jessica muttered.
"Don't worry! The rest of you can deal with those little squids!" Aya said. "I can take on this bigger one!"
The rest of the girls – Jessica included – nodded and rushed down to the deck, and then I and Yangus exchanged glances and nodded before we both walked up to Aya. "Mind if we join in too?" I asked with a smirk, already pulling out my spear while Yangus took out his axe.
"Ah, sure thing!" Aya nodded and readied her fan. "Let's do this!"
[BGM: Wind God Girl – Touhou: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody]
Khalamari reared up and spewed fire from his snout at us, but Aya just blew a gust of wind to fan the flames away from me and Yangus, so Khalamari next attempted to slam his tentacles down at us as we quickly dodged them.
"Wind God: Wind God's Leaf-Veiling!" Aya called out, and a massive number of green danmaku leaves suddenly surrounded her before hitting Khalamari.
"Ow! Ouchies!" Khalamari yelled as he got pelted by the danmaku.
Yangus quickly rushed at him and smacked him with a Helm Splitter, only for Khalamari to snap out of it and whack him away with one of his tentacles and then he used his other tentacle to sweep at me, making me lose my footing and fall to the ground on my rear as Khalamari proceeded to do the same thing he did on Yangus at me, but I managed to roll out of the way.
Meanwhile, Aya took out another spell card. "Headwind: Route Forbidden to Man!" she said as a strong headwind blew across while flying debris came and pelted Khalamari in the face, dealing some more damage to him but he didn't seem completely fazed. That said, this did give out a good distraction for him since I was able to get back up and use a Psyche Up, while Yangus proceeded to heal himself up.
But then, before I could do anything, Khalamari suddenly lunged a tentacle at me and grabbed me by the waist. While I struggled to break myself free, I heard Yangus crying out my name (and I mean by the 'guv' nickname) as he tried to rush in to help me, but Khalamari wasn't letting him until Aya flew over and stomped the tentacle, causing Khalamari to cry in pain and let go of me.
"Thanks, Aya." I thanked her with a smile.
"No problem!" Aya nodded, already taking out a spell card. "Blockade Sign: Terukuni Shining Through Heaven and Earth!"
Khalamari got hit by more danmaku and was left dazed, so I ran over and stabbed him several times and then Yangus used a powerful Hatchet Man to knock him back, and this resulted in him literally teetering on the edge of the ferry's stern.
"Time to finish this!" Aya declared and flew towards Khalamari. "Illusionary Dominance!" she yelled as she suddenly dashed left and right across Khalamari's face at an incredible ultra-high speed (so fast that all I could see were just blurs running at milliseconds) while smacking his face repeatedly as she did so, and then she finished it off with a powerful danmaku-powered kick in his forehead.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Khalamari screamed in defeat, and fell on his back onto the ocean.
[BGM End]
"Now that's how you take out a giant squid!" Aya smirked as she landed next to me and Yangus.
"You did great there, Aya!" I complimented, earning a giggle from her in response.
"Say, 'ow are the others doin'?" Yangus wondered, and so we looked back to see that the deck was no longer filled with Khalamari Kids, as the others who went to take care of them had just finished defeating them and were right now running up to us.
"Did you get him?" Reisen asked.
"We did." I nodded.
"Oog, they was stronger than we thought. We give up, we give up!" we suddenly heard Khalamari speaking from behind and we looked over, seeing him dazed on the water's surface. "It wasn't our fault, though! It was HIS! That's right, it was!" 'His'? His who? "That jester, he came walkin' on top of the water to us! Just walked over us, he did!" A jester…? Dhoulmagus! "Pretty cheeky of a human to pull that little trick off, we thought, so we talked to him, we did! But when he talked, our head got all cloudy-like and we started attackin' ships, we did, we did!"
Ah, now I get it; Dhoulmagus must've brainwashed Khalamari into attacking any ships that passed by. No wonder ships stopped sailing the waters as of now and why the Quartermaster was so frightened.
"It wasn't us, it was that jester, it was!" Khalamari babbled on. "Here's this by way of an apology, like. Ooh…" he stretches out one of his tentacles to me, as I instinctively recoiled a bit. "We found it in the ocean, we did. Go on, take it, mate! It's the least we can do, it is, it is." Cautiously, I reached out my hand to the tentacle and took a small gold bracelet: a Gold Bracer! This is a pretty useful accessory that provides a decent amount of defense to its wearer, even though it's not much but it'll do for now.
After I took the Bracer and put it in my knapsack, Khalamari retracts his tentacle back. "Well, that is all from us. We are leavin' now, we are. Have a pleasant trip! So long!" Khalamari waved in a friendly manner, and dove back into the water for good now.
We stood quiet for a bit. "So this was another one of Dhoulmagus's antics…" I thought while furrowing my eyebrows. "We really must stop him before he does even worse things to more innocents out there…"
"Not bad, guys! Especially you, girls!" Jessica praised, referring to the Gensokyo girls at the last sentence. "You sure are a lot stronger than you look!"
"Heh, I know!" Cirno proudly exclaimed, hands on her hips.
"You know, we've never properly introduced ourselves. I'm Jessica. Jessica Albert. And who might you be?"
"I'm Reimu Hakurei."
"My name is Marisa Kirisame!"
"Alice Margatroid." and then she directed to Shanghai who waved her arm. "And this is Shanghai."
"I'm Cirno, and I'm the strongest!" again, the rest of the girls stared at Cirno with disapproving looks.
"Remilia Scarlet."
"My name is Youmu Konpaku."
"I'm Reisen Udongein Inaba."
"I'm Aya Shameimaru, the news reporter you can trust!" aaaand she also got the same treatment as Cirno did.
"Welp, she now has a long way to go in order to make her friends trust her…" I thought with a playful sweatdrop.
"I'm Yangus." Yangus introduced himself. "And Eight 'ere's the guv!" he directed to me.
"Hey." I smiled, doing a small wave.
Jessica nodded. "Right. Thanks again for your help with the sea monster. Now, let's find Dhoulmagus!"
"Oh, yeah!" Marisa fist-pumped.
"But before that, I'm sure you need to get ready first, so let's head back to Port Prospect. I'll tell the captain to weight anchor." Jessica then walked down the stairs, only to stop once she stepped on the deck below and turned back to us. "Oh! I almost forgot! I called you all thieves back at the tower, and I never formally apologized. So…" she bowed down. "Forgive me!"
We smiled. "Oh, you're already forgiven. It was just a misunderstanding." I said.
Jessica looked back up at us. "Anyway. I'll talk to the captain!" she walks away.
And not too long after, we heard the Quartermaster shouting, "All hands on deck! Weigh anchor and prepare to come about! We're heading back to Port Prospect!" Eventually, the ferry started to change its course back to Port Prospect and drifted off to it.
Once the ferry stopped, we all walked off of it to the port side and then we saw Jessica running along. "We took care of the sea monster, so I got them to agree to wait for us." she informed. "I figured you'd like to rest and buy provisions before we set sail again." True… and not to mention to let Trode and Medea know about this so they could come along too. "I'll be waiting for you here. Don't take too long, now! We've got work to do!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Cirno exclaimed, and we took off back to the square.
Soon…
After we got everything we needed, we made our way back to Jessica. In case you're wondering, we had gotten an Iron Lance for me and a Farmer's Scythe for Yangus, with Youmu even commenting that seeing him carrying it reminded her of a fellow shinigami from their world called…Komachi, was it? Huh, I guess Gensokyo must have a lot of interesting people, no? Anyway… Oh, and one more thing: Reisen was currently standing a couple of feet behind us; the reason being that she's with Trode and Medea while using her illusionary abilities on all the nearby residents she came by to make them see the royal duo as two ordinary people instead of their cursed forms, and I did think that was a genius idea. That way, they could freely travel through the town without being looked on weirdly.
"Hey! That was quick! Are you all okay to set sail already?" Jessica asked.
"Yes, we are." I answered.
"Good! Come on, then! Let's get going! We have to hurry and catch up with Dhoulmagus!" then, she paused for a moment. "Hmm… Actually, before we go, I have another favour to ask."
"What is it?" Reimu wondered.
"You're all after Dhoulmagus just like I am, right? We're fighting for the same reasons. So I was thinking, why don't we do this together? I haven't been studying magic for long, but I still have a lot to offer. What do you say?"
"Well, you did show us some of your magic while we were fending off those little squids." Alice said. "And being a more advanced magician myself, I believe you can improve if you stick around with us." a smile formed on her face. "So for me, you're in." we decided to agree with Alice on that, and nodded in approval.
Jessica's smile grew wider. "I've got a great feeling about this. Thanks, guys." and now she was part of my already big party! "Well, now that that's taken care of, let's go!" and with that, we all – Trode and Medea included – boarded the ferry again.
"All hands on deck! Weigh anchor! Prepare to set sail for Peregrin Quay!" the Quartermaster ordered, and thus the ferry sailed off to the southern continent.
To be continued…
So, one thing I planned for this story is making sure all eight Touhou girls get a spotlight in certain boss fights (or other certain fights) like you all saw with Aya here. However, this will only happen after a what I call "private talk with Eight" moment (you know, back at chapter 5 where Aya interacted with Eight while they were the only ones present in the scene), as a meaning of character development for each of them.
Eight: Now that's an interesting idea! But...why is it that only by having the girls speaking with me specifically would improve their character?
Ah, now that I will only explain in the next chapter, which will have two certain scenes that are what inspired me to come up with your personality traits for my own interpretation of you!
Eight: Oh, okay then! Looking forward to that!
Oh, and finally... We now have Jessica joining the party! Yay! Until next time!
Trivia for this chapter:
1. The chapter title is named after the subtitle of Super Paper Mario's Chapter 3-2, Bloops Ahoy.
2. The part during Remilia, Reimu and Marisa's talk about the moon travel and the 'indoors sea' is a reference to the events from the Touhou manga: Silent Sinner in Blue.