Entry 1: Long, Long Ago, In a Time Highly Responsive to Prayers
This is a story from a long, long time ago. A story from long before the Spell Card Rules were implemented into the mystical land of Gensokyo.
On the edge of the Great Barrier of Hakurei, there existed a shrine made in honour of the god of Hakurei. So, appropriately, it was called the Hakurei Shrine.
The Hakurei Shrine exists on the top of a small hill, surrounded by trees, and far from any kind of civilisation. The life of the Hakurei Shrine Maiden was a lonely one, to say the least.
As the shrine exists on the edge of the barrier, it had a place on both sides; within Gensokyo, and in the Outside World.
So too, did the Shrine Maiden; a young girl by the name of Hakurei Reimu.
It was often a flip of the coin, which side of the barrier young Reimu would spend the day on. Some days, she was learning the ways of the job in Gensokyo. Other days, she had to put up with the lonely tedium of the Outside World.
Such was the life of the youngest Hakurei Shrine Maiden in history.
Reimu looked up at the clouded, grey sky, and brushed a strand of purple hair from over her eyes. The air stank with smoke and pollution, and she hated every minute of it.
Reimu was never quite sure why her hair was this colour. One day, when she had officially become the Shrine Maiden, it just... happened.
She hated it, really.
The Hakurei Shrine sat high up on a hill, a good two hours away from Tokyo city by public transport. Worse still, there were many other shrine closer to the city, so visitors were a rare commodity.
Those that did visit, rarely ever left donations. Unfortunately for her, the amount of people that visited that even considered that was about 10% of the total sum. The other 90%...
'Whap'.
Tended to be children that threw stones at her.
Reimu winced slightly, pressing her hand against her forehead to stem the slight bleeding. She looked around, before noticing a group of five children bolting from one of the bushes to the side, laughing all the while.
This was just how it was. A shrine ignored by the adults, and a shrine maiden taunted by the children.
Within moments, there was once again nobody else but her.
Reimu sighed dejectedly, and headed inside the shrine to get something to patch the wound. The moment she closed the door behind her, something in the feel of the world shifted.
She sighed again, this time in relief, and opened the door once more. The air, suddenly, was cleaner. The sky, clearer. The shrine was in a far better state, and something in the very fabric of existence buzzed with magical energy.
This was Gensokyo. Her true home.
After patching her wound, Reimu calmly swept the shrine grounds. Things in Gensokyo were simpler; nicer. People that came here weren't the sort that harassed senselessly.
Although, there was that one hermit... But, then again, Reimu knew she didn't mean harm; just that she was strict and thorough in her training.
But darn if it wasn't exhausting. Between the hermit and that one blonde lady with the umbrella, added on top of having a dull, sad life on the other side, gave Reimu little time to appreciate the quiet tranquillity of life.
As her gazed wandered lazily, Reimu saw one of the shrines treasures; the Yin-Yang Orb. According to the hermit, the Orb was a very powerful and sacred artefact, that only a Hakurei could properly draw the power out of. Reimu didn't really understand it. To her, the Yin-Yang Orb was just a remarkably heavy ball that, somehow, managed to bounce really well.
Reimu gave the Orb a tap on the top, and it sprang up half a foot before landing back on its cushion. Such a strange thing, that Orb.
A faint rumbling was heard in the distance. Reimu looked around in panic, yet saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just a small, passing earthquake? Japan was a place that got those.
The suspicion that it was just a natural occurrence passed quickly, however, when a pillar of light shot out from behind the shrine. The rippling magical energy toppled the tori gate out front, and caused general havoc to the shrine at large.
Panicking, Reimu grabbed the Yin-Yang Orb, and ran to the scene of the incident.
As it turned out, a large hole had opened up in her backyard. For the first time in a long while, Reimu felt indignant, or dare she say, angry. Before she even had a chance to realise what she was doing...
Reimu had leapt down the hole, to find the scoundrel responsible for this.
From a small pond on the shrine grounds, an aged turtle woke up, and noticed everything that had happened.
"Oh, bugger."
Reimu may not have achieved flight, but she was at least adept at 'falling very slowly'. Floating, as some might call it.
As she descended, though, thoughts started to race through her head. Namely, that what she was about to do was incredibly stupid.
She wasn't a fully trained shrine maiden. She had a blessed stick, some sacred bits of paper, and a holy ball, for crying out loud. What was she suppose to do?
Before she could mull it over any further, she landed. The cave, if it could even be called that, was decently illuminated, revealing a heavily damaged... door, she wanted to say? It seemed far too large to be practical, and she had seen pictures of the sorts of doors that palace throne rooms had. That, and this one was made of stone. Personally, she thought that was just impractical.
Despite her general inexperience, Reimu could still feel a great deal of magic concentrated on this door. Was something trying to break out of it? If so, what should she do? Should she climb back up, and wait for Kasen and Yukari to get here?
… No. If she did, she imagined they'd just get on her case for not taking action. She had to resolve this herself.
But, how should she do it? She wasn't practised enough to unseal this, so what should she...
Actually, now that she concentrated on it, there were some very... distinct points on this door that were the source of its sealing power. Maybe...
Reimu looked between her gohei and the Yin-Yang Orb. What if... she hit the Orb with the gohei like she was playing baseball? She gave the Orb a tentative bounce. It sprang up with quite a bit of gusto, as if it was saying 'launch me, Reimu'.
So, Reimu threw the Orb up high, squared her posture, gripped the gohei with both hands... and swung with all her might.
The Yin-Yang Orb shot forth with magnificent speed, and upon striking the door... caused the door to shatter into rubble. Reimu was left dumbfounded, so much so, that she wasn't prepared to catch the Orb as it came back to her, striking her on the forehead.
It hurt, but not as much as she had expected. It wasn't going to leave a bruise, at any rate.
Reimu looked in awe at the destruction she had just caused. This was the power of the Yin-Yang Orb? When it was distinctly not being used properly?
For the first time in a while, Reimu felt the drive to train.
But, that could wait. She now had a job to do.
Further down the path, Reimu froze. For the past hour or so, she had been fighting off what could be best described as rampant sealing energy. Nothing a good whack from the Orb couldn't fix.
Then, she came upon the thing that filled her with fear.
Its form changed when looked at from different angles. From straight on, it was the form of a cracked Yin-Yang. From the left, a priestess in red, and from the right, a priest in blue. And between all three forms, she could see that whatever it was, was corrupted and fell of being.
"_..."
What was that? Was it... trying to speak to her?
"H_ur_... K_... _... plea_..."
"It's... suffering..." Reimu muttered. "Was it... trying to keep whatever's down here back for so long?"
Before Reimu could ponder it any longer, the Thing let out a voiceless shout, and a rain of magical bullets shot out. Reimu quickly ran, dodging the shots as they came, before dropping the Yin-Yang Orb and swinging the gohei like a golf club.
The Orb shot forth, tearing through the onslaught of bullets, and striking the mysterious form with an amount of force that, frankly, should not have been possible with the strength Reimu put into the strike. The image of the Yin-Yang shattered, and the two figures split apart, and began to fade, smiling all the while.
Reimu wasn't sure why, but she felt a pang of sadness for them. All she could do right now, as the Orb returned to her, was offer a silent prayer to them.
Further up ahead, the path seemed to split. One to the left, and one to the right. An ominous wind blew in from both sides.
Reimu weighed her options. The path on the right seemed to have the most evil feeling to it, and her gut was telling her to follow it. But, what if it was too much for her? This was her first Incident, after all, and she could barely even fight.
In the end, she placed her gohei upright on the ground, and let the direction it fell decide.
… 'tock'.
Right it was.
Right led her to Hell.
How was that even possible? Reimu knew that the way to Hell was across the Sanzu River. So, why was there a way there underneath her shrine?
This would call for some serious questioning.
Still, she was starting to see what was really sealed here. This place was teeming with vengeful spirits, to the point that it was nearly suffocating.
Were it not for the Yin-Yang Orb, Reimu feared that she might not have lasted long.
A chill ran down her spine, and on pure instinct, Reimu ducked, as a beam of pure magic shot over her, eradicating many of the spirits.
A primal fear wormed its way into Reimu's heart. There was something powerful, and filled with murderous intent.
Reimu hesitantly looked up, and bore witness to the source of her fear.
A vengeful spirit with enough power to maintain their physical form. This spirit, that of a woman, had green hair, dressed in blue and white, and a dark cape that seemed almost as if it were wings. Also, there was the bloodied knife in her hands. That was probably worth a mention.
"Kill..." the spirit muttered murderously. "Kill..."
That blood-lust was utterly overwhelming. What was Reimu to do about that? Running on pure instinct, she threw the Yin-Yang Orb at the spirit, which dodged easily. The Orb ricocheted off the wall, and much to Reimu's surprise, struck the spirit in the back of the head.
Reimu saw her opportunity, as the Orb began to fall between her and the dazed spirit. Brandishing her gohei like a baseball bat once more, and struck hard and true.
The Orb struck the spirit in the face, and while it didn't destroy her, the spirit did topple over backwards and hit the ground.
There was a moments pause, before Reimu, picking up the Orb, edged closer to the spirit, and giving her a tentative poke with her gohei.
"... Not moving," Reimu noted. "Is she dead? Actually, that's a stupid question. Of course she's dead; she's a ghost. Can you kill a ghost?" Reimu shook her head. "No, let's not focus on that right now. Got to deal with the rest of this nonsense."
So, Reimu pressed on, unaware that the vengeful spirit she had just defeated had regain consciousness, and was very confused.
Now, before Reimu was a large bronze... circle thing. It had the depiction of a woman in it, and emanated quite a bit of evil magic, but really, that was all she could say about it.
Reimu looked at it from as many angles as she could, and could confirm; it was, in fact, an ominous floating bronze disc.
"Is this the source of all this trouble?" Reimu asked. "It... doesn't look too threatening. Just weird."
As Reimu pondered how to go about this (that is to say, how best to throw the Yin-Yang Orb to break it), an ominous rumbling occurred. Instincts took over, as Reimu leapt out of the way, and a hail of bullets took over the space she once occupied.
"Okay! Evil circle thing is sentient!" Reimu shouted. Realising this was no longer the time to try and plan things out, she let instinct take over, and threw the Orb with as much force as she could.
The impact left a decent crack, but little more. If anything, it only served to enrage the enemy.
Then, there was pain, as a shot struck Reimu in the shoulder, and threw her to the ground.
Reimu clutched at her shoulder, and hit her head as she landed. A familiar sense of wetness trickled down her forehead and through her fingers.
Half of her vision took a red tint to it, like someone had placed the worlds worst sunglasses on her. She looked at her hand, and through her untainted eye, she saw more red.
Reimu was no stranger to blood, but this... this scenario was different. Familiar, in a way.
This... was a fight for her life.
Fear began to take hold of Reimu's mind. As another wave of bullets flew her way, she ran. The fear of death was a powerful thing, really. It had a way of robbing a person of all reason.
The last time Reimu had felt this sort of fear was a little under a year ago, but she hardly had the presence of mind to recall that day right now. On complete instinct, she scooped up the Yin-Yang Orb, and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Bullets of magic whizzed and grazed past her, leaving cuts in her skin.
By the time Reimu was out of sight, the cracks in the disc began to grow, until finally, it shattered, freeing the being that was held within.
Said being was humanoid, dressed in red and white, with long black hair and a single red horn protruding from their head. In their hand, they held a large, katana-like blade.
This being was Konngara, and they were far too dangerous for Reimu to handle at this time.
Before Konngara could consider giving chase, however, a blast of magic shot forth from somewhere, and obliterated their right arm.
Konngara clutched their smoking stump of an arm, and glared at the source of the blast. There, floating off in the distance, was a green hair spirit.
The spirit looked at Konngara with the same level of spite, maybe more, than how Konngara looked at her, and fired off a Spark.
Sparks, as a magic term, were a catch-all for 'big lasers'. Now, we're not talking 'big' as in 'blow a basketball sized hole in your abdominal'. We're talking 'everything five metres to your left and right, as well as everything behind you for the next three kilometres is dust' big. Generally, a Spark was an ultimate move a magician saved for the end, considering using one without a proper catalyst was a recipe for turning your own arm into a stump.
All the more reason, then, for the spirit to have kept that knife. For a master can make a suitable catalyst out of even the most mundane of things.
Konngara barely had the time to consider cursing their luck, as the Spark struck, and reduced them to atoms.
But, there were events that Hakurei Reimu knew nothing about.
By the time Reimu stopped to catch her breath, she realised that she was once more above ground. A part of her wondered how she had managed that, but judging by the scrapes and blisters that had formed on her hands, it wasn't hard for her panic-ridden mind to connect that she had somehow managed to climb up the side of the hole, Yin-Yang Orb and all.
"Reimu-sama!" a familiar voice called out. Reimu looked towards the shrine, to see a bearded turtle floating towards her. "Oh, thanks heavens you're alright!"
"G-Gramps..." Reimu muttered out in exhaustion. Gramps -or rather, Genji-, was one of Reimu's teachers, and frankly, the closest thing she had to family. Or, at least, family that cared.
Genji was, to put it as simply as possible, a turtle with a bushy white beard and thick white eyebrows. He looked like the textbook definition of 'old man'.
Genji quickly noticed the wounds on Reimu, and more importantly, the distressed look on her face. His expression, as hard as it was to read an expression on a turtle, softened quite quickly. "Oh, dear," he muttered. "It seems you got caught up in something dangerous, right?" He floated down to ground level, next to Reimu. "Here. Climb on, Reimu-sama. Allow me to get you back to the main shrine."
Reimu slowly and shakily climbed onto the back of Genji's shell, and the turtle gently hovered back to the shrine. In an almost ironic twist, it was this that helped to ground Reimu back in reality. The feeling of Genji's shell reminded her that she was now safe. Her breathing steadied, and she was able to focus on the clean spring air of Gensokyo.
As the two went around the corner of the shrine, an ominous feeling washed over Reimu. Genji seemed to notice it, too. "Reimu-sama, why don't I prepare some tea?" Genji offered. "You look like you've had a long day."
Reimu nodded. If her hunch as to what was going to happen was right, then she knew that Genji's plan was to hopefully defuse the oncoming situation before it got too out of hand. Probably, in fact, by the time the 'expected guest' arrived.
Reimu got of Genji, and sat on the verandah as Genji disappeared into the shrine proper.
What followed was a series of events that left an emotional wound on Reimu for years to come. The arrival of one of her self-appointed mentors, Ibaraki Kasen, to said mentor figure chewing her out for not maintaining a seal she had no way of knowing even existed until the moment it broke.
That, and none were aware of the two hiding in the bushes on the shrine's perimeter, watching it all unfold.
But, those were parts of different stories, for another day.
A/N:
I LIIIIIIVEE!
Gods, writers block and less free time are such an awful combination. Really kicks ya in the productivity.
But, we're back at it with the 'To Hold You Close' series of Touhou fics, and this time, I'm adapting the PC-98 games. Why?
\(-_-)/ I dunno. Because I can?
This won't just be a simple 'Touhou 1 to Touhou 2, so on and so forth' deal, though. As you'll see with the next entry (which, let's be real, if you're reading this; why aren't you onto the next entry already?), I'll be alternating between past and present.
So, let's press on, shall we?