It's now time for the prequel story! An adaptation of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, featuring characters from the Touhou Project franchise thrown into the mix! Why Touhou, you may ask? Well, both it and Dragon Quest use a similar feudal-themed setting (with Dragon Quest's theme being European, and Touhou's being Japanese) so that way, none of the Touhou characters would feel like fishes out of temporal water.
Because of this, I'll be introducing two new franchises at once in this saga! Two franchises that have a very obscure popularity so not a lot of people know much about them, but for those who do... I need to let you know that I'm still very new to both Dragon Quest and Touhou, so I hope I can portray their characters right based on a lot of research I did on them. In fact, due to still being new to them... I'm honestly feeling a little nervous in doing this story as a result.
To try to compensate myself for this, however, I'm presenting something in this story that it'll make it even more special: the fact that it'll be told entirely with a first-person narrator for the very first time! As said in the summary, everything will be told through Eight's point of view. And obviously, unless he's a psychic, this story won't feature thoughts from other characters, only his. The way a first-person narrator story is told is far more different than a third-person one, you know? Similarly, events from the original game where Eight wasn't present in the scene also won't appear in... unless a character who was present in the scene tells him about it, and so I might have to do some small modifications to some scenes.
Well, anyway... *takes a deep breath* without further ado, here it is!
Chapter 1: The Quest has Begun!
[BGM: Stalked by Fear – Dragon Quest VIII]
A sceptre spoken of in lore…
And sealed away since days of yore,
Unleashes its forbidden power,
And heralds Trodain's darkest hour.
[BGM End]
…Oh, it's already starting?
Ahem… Hi there, fellow readers! You all know me as Eight, the half-Dragovian prince of Trodain, one of the members of the Loyal Bodyguards, and Jewel's best friend. That's right; I'm taking the role of narrator here instead of Fairy herself (she's still the story's writer, though. I'm just narrating what she wrote). I have to say… ever since I finished up my quest, I never knew I would come this far to where I am today. Meeting new people from different universes, getting to know brand new places, and my absolute favorite, experiencing all the unique things each universe offers. All those adventures I've been to in all those universes so far were just the cherry on top!
But all this talk is not exactly why I'm here for, right? No, I'm here to tell you all the tale about my quest. Yes, from start to finish. And let me tell you, before my quest began, I didn't even start off as a prince like I am today. In the beginning, I was working as a low-ranking royal guard of Trodain ever since I was 10, and continued this way until I grew up to my actual age of 18 as of today. I'm sure you're wondering why I started off like that, huh? See, I had my memories of early childhood wiped out somehow. I couldn't remember who my parents were, where I was born, or anything I did before I turned 8 years old, as that was my age when I was taken to Castle Trodain as an orphan. Because of this, I had no idea I was a hybrid, but most importantly, I didn't know I had royal blood, and so I thought I was just an ordinary commoner who had a pet pig-rat, Munchie himself, who was able to live longer than any other pig-rats out there for some reason.
Anyway, I guess that's enough initial info about me before my quest started. Much like all the other adventures I joined in while in different worlds, I had help from people that came from a different world too. They were…quite a special bunch, I have to say. But just like my three companions (whom you all know are Yangus, Jessica and Angelo), they proved to be a big help for me in my quest. So yeah, you could say that I already had universal help even before I heard about the multiverse, heh heh…
Well, enough waiting around! Let's get right on to it!
[BGM: Go Topo Go! – Dragon Quest VIII]
We're starting off in the region of Farebury, and evening was approaching. I had sent Munchie to scout the area in search of the town since I didn't have a map of the region. Fortunately, it didn't take too long as I saw him running back to the grove where I currently was resting in after a long and tiring walk. As Munchie scurried into the clearing, he skidded to a stop right in front of a sleeping green troll-like creature wearing orange robes. Hold up! No need to question why I had a green troll accompanying me. Long story short, he used to be a king before being cursed into this troll you're seeing here.
Anyways… the troll king, whose name was Trode, snapped awake and glanced down at Munchie, shooting him a cruel look with an angry leer. In response, Munchie let out a surprised squeak and immediately hightailed away from him, jumping back into his favorite hiding place: my jacket's pocket.
[BGM End]
And… well, there I am. Comparing me to how I was back then to now, I didn't look any different. Really, the only thing different about me was my weapon: instead of the flashy and noble Dragovian King Sword that I currently carry now, I only had a plain and simple Soldier's Sword strapped to my back into a not-so fancy sheath. That's it. No spear, no boomerang, not even a shield (at least not for now). Now before you judge me with my choices, I basically had no time to head out and get more weapons for me: for one, because I lacked enough money, and two, Trode constantly urging me to get a move on.
As I looked down at Munchie tucking cutely in my pocket, I cracked a smile before gently petting the top of his head. He sure was quite a strange mouse, if you ask me. Not only has he lived way longer as I mentioned before, but as far as I'm concerned, any other pet mouse would run for mousy freedom if left outside. But Munchie would always return to me. It had been like that ever since I could remember having him, despite not even knowing how I got him in the first place. Despite that, I let it slide. I always liked having some company with me, after all.
"Oy! Guv!" a voice with a thick Cockney accent called out to me, bringing me out of my thoughts. That voice belonged to Yangus himself, and 'guv' is just a nickname that he likes to refer me as (which is short for "guv'nor", by the way).
I lifted myself off the tree stump I was sitting on. "Yes, Yangus?" I replied to him.
"It's gonna get dark if we 'ang about 'ere much longer." Yangus said. "Let's 'ead inta town. There's better places than this to spend an evenin'!"
"You're right." I nodded, then I looked over at the wooden bridge leading out of the grove. "I think we should be minutes away to Farebury Town from here. We should be able to make it there in time before night falls."
"Got it." Yangus nodded. "Ya know, I've prob'ly said it before, but it beats me 'ow you ended up workin' for an old codger like 'im!" he directed to Trode, who went back to sleeping again, at the last sentence. "Not that I can talk, though, eh?! Guess people say the same thing about me workin' for you."
I couldn't help but chuckle lightly in agreement by that. At first glance, Yangus didn't really look to be the type of person you'd want to be friends with due to his strong, tough guy looks. Not gonna lie; when I first met him, I thought he was a scary-looking and intimidating individual, but as we traveled together, he proved himself to me to be a trust-worthy companion.
"Hm? Old codger!? I do hope you're not referring to me!" Trode's high-strung, kingly voice spoke offendedly, as he had woken up from his nap and now had his eyes fixed at Yangus. "What would you know!? A lowlife like you wouldn't recognize nobility if it came up and bit you on the…arrrgh!" he growled, not wanting to finish what he was going to say… and then he and Yangus proceeded to glare daggers at each other while trembling in anger, while I just stood there helplessly in front of them.
"There they go again…" I thought while sighing. Ever since Yangus joined up, he and Trode didn't start off on good terms and would constantly snap at each other whenever they have the chance to do so. Even if I tried to stop them, they would just ignore me and still keep at it.
Thankfully, Trode soon broke off from the glaring fit and addressed me, "Enough dilly-dallying! Eight! Where's the Princess? I can't see her anywhere…"
I blinked. "What do you mean? She's right over-…" I turned around to where our carriage stood, which is usually where the Princess would always stand by… but found no sign of her. "…-there?"
"She's not there anymore!" Trode snapped.
I sighed. "Alright, let's look for her." And thus began our search, with Trode and Yangus running around the grove while I stood in place and looked to the other direction, where I could see a small pond with flowing water. But, the moment I locked eyes with it… I saw something appearing in front of it: some sort of beacon of light or something. "Huh?" my eyes widened.
Apparently, this also caught Trode and Yangus' attention as they ran over to me and eyed at the beacon, which was glowing even brighter now. "Wh-what is this?!" Trode asked.
"I…I don't know…" I breathed, as that's all I could say. I mean, what other words can I say about what's happening in front of us?
Just then, the beacon disappeared with a flash… and eight young girls stood in its place frozen in midair, all of them sporting wide eyes.
"Aah!" it wasn't long until gravity kicked in and they all fell to the ground with a yelp, resulting in them ending up on top of each other in a pile.
"I'm being crushed!"
"Someone get off of me!"
"Someone's pulling on my skirt!"
"Ayayayaya! I can't feel my wings!"
These were some of the main complaints we could hear from them as they were trying to get off the pile all at once.
"Oh… It's just a bunch o' girls." Yangus said, sounding surprisingly casual about this even though these girls came from absolutely out of nowhere. Did I even mention that some of them are a bit funny-looking? For instance, three of them were sporting wings (one's being made out of icicles, another's were resembling a crow's, while the other's are like those of a bat), one had bunny ears and tail (although I just assumed those were accessories), and another had a strange large white…thing floating next to her.
"It's…not that common to see girls popping out from lights out of nowhere…" I sweatdropped.
Eventually, the girls shuffled around on the pile and managed to stand back up on their feet directly in front of us. Then, we and the girls would stare in awe at each other silently for a few seconds… until the girl that was mostly wearing red broke the silence.
"So… do any of you know where the heck are we?" she asked the rest of the girls.
"Umm… no?" the girl with the white floating thing replied.
"You know, I don't think this is anywhere near the Hakurei Shrine…" the girl with crow wings pointed out, looking around.
"I don't even think this is Gensokyo anymore…" the girl with bat wings added.
"Hakurei Shrine? Gensokyo? What are they talking about?" I thought, my eyebrow raised in confusion.
"Hey, maybe one of these guys can answer us!" the girl with icicle wings said while directing to us… before suddenly flying over to my face, as I instinctively backed up slightly. Has she not ever heard of personal space before? "So? Tell us! Where are we?" she asked me.
"U-um…" I stuttered awkwardly, unable to get my gaze away from her blue innocent eyes. Trying to compose myself, I began, "Well, you are in-…"
*RUSTLE…*
But I cut myself off when we suddenly heard the noise of rustling bushes, and so we looked around for the source. When we heard the noise again, we would all look back at the bushes on the pond behind the girls… and just then, three Slimes jumped out of the bushes.
"Oh, snap!" I shouted in surprise.
"Uh-oh! Here comes trouble, guv!" Yangus exclaimed, pulling out a crude spiked club from his back. I nodded in response with a determined expression and drew my sword, then I stood in front of the girls as Yangus did the same and joined alongside me.
"What are these things?!" the bunny girl asked.
"Slimes." I replied seriously. "Stand back, girls! We'll handle them!" and with that, I and Yangus got ready to battle.
[BGM: War Cry – Dragon Quest VIII]
I quickly started off by making a step towards the closest Slime and slashed it in the middle, cleaving it in half and bringing it to its demise instantly. Yangus followed up, bludgeoning the second Slime flat with one whack. The last remaining Slime attempted to attack me but I simply jumped to the side as Yangus bashed it, but missed as it taunted him… only to get sliced in half by me, and it was history.
[BGM End]
"That takes care of them." I said, putting my sword away before folding my arms across my chest looking defiant and proud, even if I knew that the monsters I defeated were weak and harmless.
"…Wow, that was it?" the girl dressed like a witch questioned. "Talk about anti-climatic…"
"Well, Slimes are practically the weakest of all monsters, so they're killed off easily." I explained. And, now that I think about it, perhaps the Slimes might be weaker than the Goombas from Mario's universe, or even the Waddle Dees from Kirby's universe.
"Oh."
Trode then walked up to us. "Well…they certainly took us by surprise. But nothing we couldn't handle, eh!?"
"Um, you didn't actually do anything…" I thought, shooting Trode a weird look.
He began freaking out again. "Now, where's the Princess!? Where's my Medea!? My precious one and only daughter!?" Luckily, it wasn't too long until she finally showed up from the bridge, gracefully trotting her way into the grove. Yes, you read that right: trotting. Even Medea wasn't free from the curse, as she was turned into a beautiful white horse. So, good news: her cursed transformation wasn't into something hideous. Bad news: she's unable to speak in this form.
"Ah! There you are!" Trode's face lit up with relief. "Thank goodness you're safe, Medea!" he immediately ran over to her and hugged as much of her as he could. I watched their reunion with a slight smile crossing my face.
"Aye-aye, the 'orse-princess is back…" Yangus said to me. "That's a relief."
"Hold up…" one of the girls spoke up from behind us as I and Yangus looked back at them. "The princess…is a horse?" the one who spoke to us; a girl with a doll floating next to her, questioned while tilting her head with an expression clearly showing that she thinks we're delusional.
"Oh, it's…kind of a long story." I replied, turning around completely to face the girls along with Yangus. "But before I get to that point… Maybe it's best if you introduce yourselves to us first."
"Yeah, I guess that's fair enough." the girl in red agreed. "Well, I'm Reimu Hakurei and I'm a shrine maiden."
The witch girl stepped forth cheerfully. "I'm Marisa Kirisame, and I'm just an ordinary witch!"
"Remilia Scarlet." the girl with bat wings said. "And I'm a vampire, enough said."
"Wait, you're a vampire?" I asked in surprise.
"Yeah. What, never seen one before?"
"No… I read about them in a book. I just never thought I would see one with my own eyes one day."
"Ah." she simply replied. Despite her seemingly young appearance, I could tell that she has a flair of charisma on her, which I guess it's a fitting personality for a vampire like her.
"Me next!" the girl with icicle wings exclaimed while raising an arm and saying out loud, "I'm Cirno the ice fairy, and I'm the strongest from Gensokyo!"
"Yeah, right…" I heard Marisa mutter under her breath, so maybe what Cirno said was a lie?
"Say, wot's this 'Gensokyo' y'all talkin' about?" Yangus asked.
"It's the name of the world we came from." Reimu answered.
"Oh…" When I thought about it, that name did sound other worldly… and judging by their different clothing, these girls did seem to be from another world. I was already surprised to hear that another world exists, and that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg for me since I only got there once I knew that there were more different worlds out there!
Anyway… Next, the girl with the white thing approached. "I'm Youmu Konpaku. Nice to meet you!"
"Same, but what's with that white thing floating around next to you?" I asked. I've been dying to ask that to her since that's what caught my attention the most.
"This is my phantom half." Youmu answered while directing to it. "You see, I'm half-human and half-phantom, so I exist with a human body and a phantom body at the same time. Despite this, we both act as one person and share what we experience together."
"Interesting…" By her explanation, it looks like that she is a literal hybrid, existing as what both of her species represent at the same time. Quite astonishing, if you ask me.
"I'm Reisen Udongein Inaba!" the bunny girl said next. "But just call me Reisen!" and then… Yangus would lean in closer to her with a very analytic stare. "Uh… What are you looking at…?" she asked nervously.
"Oh, nothin'…" Yangus replied, stepping back. "I just thought ya were a Bunny Girl fer a sec." Oh, of course he would think about those Bunny Girls…
"What's a…bunny girl?"
"It's best if you don't know." I said with an unpleasant look on my face.
"Okay…"
"Anyways, are those bunny ears your actual ears or just an accessory?"
"They're my real ears. I'm a moon rabbit, see."
"Huh…" Then I guess that confirms that the silhouette seen on the moon really is that of a rabbit. Who would've thought?
Then, the girl with crow wings suddenly walked up to me and Yangus. "I'm Aya Shameimaru! I'm a tengu crow, and I work as a news reporter!" she took out a camera. "Hey, may I take a picture of you?" and before we could even reply, she immediately flashed the camera on us as our eyes involuntarily squinted by the flash. "Thank you!" she thanked cheerfully before walking back.
"Yeesh, ya didn't even let us speak fer permission…" Yangus muttered as he and I were rubbing our eyes.
Lastly, the girl with the doll introduced herself. "I am Alice Margatroid." she simply said. "I'm a magician and my hobby is making dolls." she then directs to the doll next to her. "This here is Shanghai, a doll that I made and animated using magic." I watched in awe as Shanghai floated over to me to greet me with a bow.
"Wow…" I breathed in amazement. "You animate dolls without the use of strings? That's insane!"
"Actually, I do control them via strings of magic. But these are so transparent that you almost can't see them."
"I see." So she's pretty much like an illusionary puppeteer, I assumed.
"Anyways, that's all of us." Reimu said. "And what about you?"
"Oh, right." I cleaned my throat. "Call me Eight. I'm a guardsman of Trodain Castle, but I now became a refugee due to the recent fiasco that happened back then."
"Wait a minute… You're seriously named after the number 8?" Cirno questioned with a raised eyebrow, and I nodded in response.
"That's a…pretty uncreative name." Remilia commented. "No offense."
"None taken." I replied. "Honestly, I also thought the same thing… but as I grew up, I started to grow attached to this name. I don't know, I think it has a nice ring to it." I shrugged. "But, anyway…" I directed over to Yangus. "This is my travelling companion, Yangus."
"Sup, ladies?"
Next, I directed to Munchie in my pocket. "This is my pet mouse, Munchie." Munchie would then greet the girls by waving a tiny paw at them.
"Aw! It's so cute!" Aya cooed, immediately snapping a photo of him.
"Heh, thanks…" I replied sheepishly, before directing over to Trode and Medea. "The troll over there is Trode, while the horse is Medea. And that's it."
"Okay, got it." Reimu said with a nod. "Hey, Eight?" she addressed me.
"Yes?"
"Since our introductions are done, how about we go back to you answering what we've been wondering this whole time?"
"Sure." …I paused. "Um… what was I answering to you again?"
"About the place we're in."
"Ah, this is the region of Farebury. It's one of the many different regions of this world. And speaking of which… How exactly did you girls end up here anyways?"
"We…have no idea, actually." Reimu shrugged. "We were all just peacefully enjoying a flower-viewing party at the shrine along with all our other friends, until Marisa came over to us with a book that she got from Kosuzu titled 'The Sky, the Ocean, the Earth, and the Cursed Princess'. And the moment after she read the first paragraphs of the book… it suddenly started glowing on us, and the next thing we knew, we just found ourselves in this place, and the rest is history."
I cupped my chin in thought. "Well, based on what you're saying… Then I guess that book might've been a magical book, which transported you all here."
"That's probably it." Alice agreed.
"Yeah, but problem is…I don't see any way we can get back home from here." Youmu said uneasily. "So we might be stuck here…"
"Hey, that doesn't sound so bad if ya think about it." Marisa said. "Because we now get the rare opportunity to see new places!"
"Exactly!" Aya threw in. "I am going to have so much fun taking pictures and writing articles about this new world!"
"While that sounds exciting… What if we cannot go back to our world anymore?!" Reimu questioned worriedly.
I sighed sadly. "Gee, I'm really sorry for what happened to you, and I'm afraid I won't be of much help either…"
Then, Yangus patted my shoulder to get my attention. "Guv, I 'ate to interrupt a conversation like this, but I say we make a move now, before it gets dark." And by his statement, I looked up at the sky and I could see that it was already evening. Man, time sure flies when you're interacting with others a lot, huh? We both started to walk over to Trode and Medea…
"Hey, if we may ask…" but then Reisen spoke up, stopping me and Yangus on our tracks as we looked back at the girls. "Can we also come along with you guys? We don't really have anywhere else to go, so…"
I already had a clear answer for that, and for a good reason. Since these girls came from another world, obviously they don't know anything about my world and will likely get lost and be attacked by monsters, in which I heard that when night falls, more dangerous monsters tend to appear. There was no way I was going to let some little, innocent girls get into danger. With a sweet smile, I replied to them, "Very well. You girls can come along."
[BGM: Travelling with Wagon – Dragon Quest VIII]
Later, we were all walking down the road leading to Farebury Town. Trode was driving the carriage that was being pulled by Medea, while I was walking beside it on one side and Yangus on the other. Meanwhile, the girls walked next to me… well, all except for Cirno, who was just running around the field with her arms spread out like a cheerful child. I didn't mind that, though. Little kids like her tend to be energetic while exploring new places, after all.
During our journey to the town, I proceeded to tell the girls about my quest of hunting an evil jester named Dhoulmagus in order to break the curse on Trode, Medea and all of Trodain, and when I was done, they then told me about the world of Gensokyo in general. I was left fascinated by their explanation: from what they told me, Gensokyo is a hidden mystical land with a setting resembling that of feudal Japan, and is populated mainly by youkai, which are demons from Japanese folklore, but there's also a decent number of humans living there as well. In fact, out of all the girls accompanying me, only Reimu and Marisa were humans, much to my surprise since the rest of them looked very human-like for being literal demons. Reimu told me that apparently, all youkai in Gensokyo resemble young girls varying between child to mid-teens ages in terms of appearance, despite many of them being over a hundred years old. It's… quite unusual, don't you think?
Soon enough, as we were nearing our destination, I saw Yangus running up to the top of a hill and catching a glimpse of the town… but then I noticed that there was smoke rising out of it. Is someone over there starting off a fire or something? Well, we walked across the bridge, and the gates instantly opened for us to head in. The town itself was something to look at: it had neat houses and merchants' booths where lining the cobblestone street we took. There were also high walls surrounding it, which was meant to keep monsters out.
We passed by the marketplace as the residents stared at us as we went past them, but I could notice that they took double and triple takes of Trode's appearance as they stared at him with looks of wary and animosity, making me feel a bit unnerved. And at first, I was surprised that the townsfolk didn't stare at the girls the same way with Trode considering that most of them were sporting wings (though I noticed that Aya somehow made hers disappear…?) and other strange stuff on them… but then I realized that it might be because they look more human-like compared to Trode, and they probably just passed these off as mere fancy accessories on them like I assumed before.
As we left the marketplace area, we eventually passed by the source of the smoke I've seen before we entered the town: a burnt down house. Oh dear… I hope whoever owned this house wasn't killed in the fire and managed to escape safely. From the looks of it, that house appeared to be incinerated just recently. And before I could even ponder further about it, we were already at the town square, where we finally stopped.
[BGM End]
I, Yangus and the girls watched as Medea let out a loud and dulcet neigh, and then Trode jumped off the driver's seat to land directly in front of us. "Yes. Yes! Here we are. If my memory serves me correctly, this is the place." he said while taking in the sights. "This is the town where Master Rylus lives."
"Hold yer 'orses, Grandad!" Yangus perked up in confusion. "I thought it was Dhoulmagus we was after."
"I AM NOT YOUR GRANDAD!" Trode retorted. "And of course Dhoulmagus is our man! He's the one who turned Medea and I into such laughing stocks! But that dastardly magician can't hide from us forever! We must track him down and lift this confounded curse!" he then glanced sadly at Medea and grieved, "Oh! Just look at my poor Medea! And we'd only just settled on her engagement to the Prince of Argonia… Oh, that despicable Dhoulmagus!"
Oh yeah… there's also an arranged marriage involved. Basically, Trode made a marriage pact with Argonia generations ago in order to fully establish peace between the two already friendly kingdoms. Now this is just between me and all of you, but I've felt quite upset and heartbroken about this arranged marriage for Medea because… I happen to have a crush on her ever since I first met her. She and I were childhood friends, and we grew up together. I really wanted to be on her side forever. She would always made me happy whenever she's around. But… because I assumed that I was just a commoner, and you know that it's hard for one to be married into royalty, that dream of mine to be with her might possibly not happen, and having an arranged marriage only made this situation worse. But if that's what Medea wants in order to fulfill the pact… then I won't stand in her way, even if it'll hurt my feelings.
"Even so, you owe us a better explanation." Remilia interjected. "Why exactly are we locating this Master Rylus anyway?"
"You know, I'm wondering the same thing too." I chimed in. "Not even I heard of this man before."
"Ah, silly me. I should've made it more clear to you." Trode replied. "You see, Rylus is the very man who taught Dhoulmagus his meddlesome magic!"
"Oh… So he's Dhoulmagus' teacher, then." Alice concluded.
"Mmhmm. There's every chance he'll be able to give us a clue as to the whereabouts of that evil rogue. That's why you all must find him. I'll be waiting for you here."
"Alright." I nodded. "Yangus, girls, let's get going!"
And so, our quest begins…
To be continued…
Oh man, writing a first-person narrator story sure is tiring...
Eight: You feeling alright, Fairy?
Wha- Eight?! What are you doing here?!
Eight: You serious? You were the writer and the narrator of your previous stories, so since I'm the narrator of this story, this technically means I can be part of your Author's Note now.
I guess you do have a point... Either way, I'm honestly happy you could join me in here as well. You are one of my favorite characters, after all.
Eight: Glad to hear that. And by the way, there's something I've been wondering about...
And what is it?
Eight: Why did you make the Touhou girls come to my world via a magic book? Where did that concept came from?
Ah, glad you asked! You see, this is part of a unique concept that I created for this saga: each universe has its own version of a portal that can lead anyone out of their universe to another, and these portals can come in different shapes and appearances that match the theme of its universe. For instance, the type of portal for Mario's universe is a Warp Pipe, Pit's are doors of light, Kirby's are star-shaped rifts that are created using a Crystal Shard... and so that leads to Dragon Quest's type of portal being magic books! There you have it!
Eight: Oh! Now I get it! Very interesting!
Now finally, to end this off... since most of my FanFiction friends don't know anything about the Touhou franchise, I thought about presenting them and all the other readers also unfamiliar with the franchise with some short information about the eight Touhou characters present in the story so they could get the idea on how they are like, and the appearances I chose for them since they went through tons of redesigns.
Eight: Hey, that sounds like a great idea!
All right, then! Now, note that I took most of their info from Touhou Wiki (you can even Google it if you'd like). So... here it is!
Reimu Hakurei: Dark red eyes, long and loose black hair with a large red bow on top, and red tubes on the sidelocks. Wears an outfit akin to a shrine maiden's, being a sleeveless red top with a white collar tied with a yellow ribbon, a pair of long white detached sleeves that expose her sarashi and shoulders, a red skirt, white socks, and dark red shoes. Her possessions consist of a gohei (purification rod), Yin-Yang Orbs, various ofuda, and throwing needles hidden within her sleeves.
Bio: The main character of the Touhou franchise and protagonist, she's the sole shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine and is often called upon to investigate incidents happening in Gensokyo and exterminate youkai that commit misdeeds. She is joyful, carefree and sentimental, but has a laid-back attitude of doing things and when she does, she gets quite prideful, arrogant and impulsive. She's the type to be quite grumpy and quick to anger, but quick to forget.
Marisa Kirisame: Yellow eyes, long wavy blonde hair with a braid on the left side of her face, tied with a white bow on the end. Wears a black witch's hat with a white bow, a white short-sleeved undershirt, a black vest with yellow buttons, a black skirt with a white waist apron, and black boots. Her possessions consist of a flying bamboo broom and a small octagonal-shaped furnace known as the Mini-Hakkero.
Bio: Secondary character of the franchise and deuteragonist who lives in a house in the Forest of Magic and is a great friend of Reimu. An outgoing and informal individual, but is also inconsiderate, self-confident and quick to act if she hears or sees anything interesting, and takes pride in her magic and youkai extermination capabilities. She also has an obsession with collecting things, especially books, and always claims to be borrowing them when she really is stealing them.
Alice Margatroid: Gold eyes, short wavy blonde hair. Wears a red headband, a light blue dress with short white sleeves and a long pink ribbon tied around the waist, a white shawl with another long pink ribbon wrapped on the neck, strings on her fingers to control her dolls, and brown boots. Her possessions consist of Shanghai; a doll that frequently accompanies her, various other dolls, and a grimoire.
Bio: A magician youkai who was formely a human, and has the ability to manipulate dolls that she creates. Even though she's indifferent to other people, she can be very kind and caring sometimes. Like Marisa, she is also an avid collector and has a large number of dolls and other magic items scattered throughout her house, which is also located in the Forest of Magic.
Cirno: Blue eyes, short pale aqua hair with a blue bow on top, and icicle-shaped wings. Wears a white short-sleeved blouse with a red bowtie on the collar, a blue jumper dress that ends with white at the bottom, and white socks.
Bio: An ice fairy who lives at Misty Lake with the ability of manipulating cold. She has a mischievous, childish and confidant personality and loves to boast about being "the strongest", but she's widely considered to be idiotic by others. Despite this, she's smart enough to know when she's in deep trouble, and can read and count. She also enjoys using her abilities to freeze frogs and watching them thaw out, though in one out of three attempts, the frogs end up shattering into pieces instead.
Remilia Scarlet: Scarlet eyes, short wavy lavender hair, and a pair of large black bat-like wings. Wears a pale pink mob cap with a red ribbon and red trimming, a pale pink buttoned up dress with a red bow on both sleeves and red trimming near the bottom of the dress, a white Caduceus-like piece under the collar, a large red bow with white stripes behind her waist, a pale pink and red frilly bracelet on her left wrist, and short pale pink boots with a red bow in the middle.
Bio: A 500 years old vampire who is the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and has the ability to manipulate fate. While she tries to cultivate the image of a mysterious and frightening vampire aristocrat by acting superior and charismatic, she's actually as childish as her appearance suggests, thus she has the wisdom of a 500 year old being with the personality of a bratty child. Being a vampire, she's highly sensitive to sunlight, but she remains fine as long as she doesn't spend a long amount of time under it.
Youmu Konpaku: For her human half, she has silver eyes and short white hair. Wears a black headband with a black ribbon tied off-center on her hair, a white short-sleeved undershirt, a green buttoned up vest with a ghost insignia on the left breast pocket and a black bowtie on the collar, a green skirt with several ghost insignias along its edges, white socks, and black Mary Jane shoes. Meanwhile, her phantom half is a formless white phantom as large as her human self (sometimes referred as "Myon" by the fandom, but it's not considered canon), and both halves are always seen together. Her possessions consist of the Roukanken; a long katana with a white tassel on the handle, and the Hakurouken; a wakizashi (short Japanese sword).
Bio: A half-human, half-phantom hybrid from the Netherworld who's an earnest dual-wielding swordswoman working as the gardener and guardian of the Ghost Princess Yuyuko Saigyouji. Due to having a straightforward diligent personality, she tends to get picked on a lot by her friends. Ironically enough, considering her species, she is deathly afraid of ghost stories (and ghosts in general), dares and darkness, yet isn't afraid of her mistress who is a ghost herself.
Reisen Udongein Inaba: Red eyes, long light purple hair that reaches past her waist, long white rumpled bunny ears, and a gray fluffy bunny tail. Wears a white shirt, a black blazer with a crescent moon lapel and a pocket square on the left, a long red necktie with a carrot-shaped clip, a pinkish-white skirt, ankle-height white socks, and reddish-brown loafers. Her possession consists of a white bunny-themed handgun that is able to transform into several different variants, those including an automatic rifle and shotgun.
Bio: A moon rabbit who escaped from the moon to Gensokyo in order to seek refugee from a Lunar War and now currently lives in a building known as Eientei, located within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She is a rather carefree and thoughtful individual who highly desires to make herself useful to others as much as possible, but has a high level of generalized anxiety. She has the ability to manipulate all kinds of wavelengths, and driving people insane with her red eyes.
Aya Shameimaru: Red eyes, semi-long black hair, and a pair of crow wings that she can make them appear and disappear at will. Wears a red tokin (cup-shaped hat), a white short-sleeved buttoned up blouse with a black bowtie on the collar and a black belt around the waist, a black buttoned up skirt, knee-high black socks, and red tengu geta (shoes with one tall slat on the bottom). Her possessions consist of a hauchiwa fan, a notebook, and a camera.
Bio: A crow tengu with wind-manipulating abilities and is the fastest flyer of Gensokyo. She works as a news reporter, although she tends to twist the truth in her articles to her own advantage, having often going as far as writing blatant lies. However, she can be serious sometimes and be thoughtful about the effects her stories will have on those who read them. And despite being very intelligent, honest, courteous and polite, it's all due to her exaggerated articles that she's doesn't get a good impression from others as a result.
Phew... and that's all of them!
Eight: Wow! Great job, Fairy! I can see that you put a lot of effort on it!
Yeah, I sure did. Well, then... until next time!
Trivia for this chapter:
1. The title of the magic book that transported the Touhou characters to the Dragon Quest world is directly named after the original Japanese title of Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi.