Don't Own Touhou, or Dxd, Only The Oc
'thought'
"Speech"
"Powerful Creatures Speaking, like a dragon or a god"
System Text
"Text/speech via book, Tv, or newspaper... when those are around..."
"Miss Yukari-"
"I told you to call me onee-chan." The incredibly powerful woman smiles menacingly.
"Right... Err... Onee-chan... I wanted to ask how my progress was coming along?"
"It's decent enough." She waves off. "Frankly, you are picking it up scarily quickly."
I have been here for about six months.
She hasn't forced me to do anything quite yet. Our relationship is mostly that of a 'son. Go get me a beer' sort of thing.
She is INCREDIBLY lazy I've come to find.
I expected her to tell me to breed her like... maybe a week or two into my training, but it seems like she just has no sex drive. Or maybe she's just too lazy. Or possibly she wants it to be 'good' and an inexperienced brat isn't worth the effort.
Anyways, I feel like I've more or less got the hang of my powers.
Yukari taught me how to turn off my boundary sight, at least. after that, I managed to reach a 'Friend Bonus' with her and it rose to 'apprentice' understanding.
A rip in reality opens beside the blonde woman as she gazes outside, a low hum escaping her lips. "oooh. I see."
The rip seals shut as she looks back to me. "Hn. You are at a level where I don't fear you could destroy Gensokyo at every waking moment... plus I no longer need to keep your headaches at bay."
"Coincidentally... there just so happens to be an incident happening over within Gensokyo. Could you be a dear and solve it for me?"
I am taken off my feet as Yukari opens a gap beneath me. I fall through it and land roughly in the grass.
"…" the gap closes behind me as I let out a long sigh, looking around my new surroundings, a thick rolling red fog obscures my vision.
'oh- son of a-'
I might not know much about this world, but I do know what this is at the very least.
I reach up, grabbing seemingly nothing, then pull downwards, and with a satisfying 'zmmmn', the world unzips before me.
I step through the portal I had created and gaze around slowly as I float above a large lake.
The fog has obscured basically everything, so walking around via sight is probably not the best idea... however.
I can see things beyond normal human comprehension.
The flow of energy. The boundaries of the spell that is filling the sky with blotting scarlet mist.
With another portal, I appear in front of a gate. Beyond it sits a Victorian style manor that is a deep scarlet red. A large clock tower sits slightly off center of the large building... from here I can see a luxurious garden that seems to house a fountain, but it is sealed off beyond a large metal fence with spikes along the top.
Standing before me is a woman, her arms are crossed under a sizable bust, she wears green chinese style clothing and a beret. She has long red hair and pale skin, she seems fairly well muscled, not to a ridiculous degree, but its fairly apparent, from the way her clothes clings to her stomach and her toned leg that is exposed from the slit on the side of her dress.
Her eyes are closed as she seems to be napping.
"…"
"Oi." I call out blandly.
She doesn't wake up.
"Red haired woman." I state slightly louder.
"SLEEPING WOMAN!" I shout.
"…"
Suddenly a woman appears atop the metal gate, she hurls a knife downwards only for it to stop abruptly.
'huh?'
The new woman has snow white hair and red eyes, she wears a simple French maid uniform, and from the way it slightly lifts from her movements- and the fact that she is above me, I am shown a lot of creamy skin, plus a little knife sheath snuggly wrapped around her thigh.
She looks over to me then hurls a knife, not at me, but down below me, it appears to be a warning shot.
The knife duplicates abruptly, fanning in a wave pattern.
The knives slide forwards through the air before abruptly pausing.
'wait... is this... timestop?'
Suddenly everything moves, the knife she had thrown at the redhead crashes downwards, piercing through her beret and smacking against her skull, it lets out a quiet 'ting' sound as it makes contact with her head directly and deflects.
It flips through the air haphazardly as the white haired maid snags it from the air, halting its tumble.
"OWOWOWOW!" The chinese-style girl shouts as she crouches, covering her head with a whimper.
A line of daggers dig into the path just in front of me, my eyes flick downwards before returning to the maid.
"Leave now." She orders. "I will not ask again."
"I'm here to speak with your boss." I frown, glaring up at her.
"You know what? I think I'll just go inside." I announce blandly as I turn around, a portal opening in front of me with the sound of a zipper.
I get three knives in the back before I can complete my step.
"…"
I stare at a small blue haired girl who looks genuinely surprised at my sudden appearance.
She wears a white-ish pink dress and a mob cap atop her head. Two bat like wings rest freely on her back.
The gap behind me seals and I let out a small scoff and brush my hand across the three silvery points extending from my chest.
I lock eyes with the vampire who seems cautious, gazing from the boundary to my face. She seems genuinely confused.
"Gap woman... you are... wearing a different face? And... gender?"
"I'm not Yukari." I blandly deny.
The knives clatter to the floor as I manipulate the boundary of my injuries, one of the first things Yukari taught me how to do.
I tilt my head to the right, earning a cascade of pops and cracks.
"So." I abruptly continue. "I am here to speak with you, Scarlet Devil."
"Oh?" She questions, getting over her brief moment of being entirely off guard and gaining a reserved and arrogant expression. "And what are you here to speak with me about?"
"I-"
Time stops, the white haired maid rushing into the room after around ten seconds, she hurls another knife, this time aiming for my head.
She takes a single breath, fixing her hair from her brief jog, she walks forwards slowly and calculatingly, pausing being me and picking up her discarded knives muttering under her breath. "An impressive regenerative factor... I doubt this will finish it either."
I abruptly whirl around and grab her by the throat, she lets out a gasp of surprise as I lift her off the ground.
I take a single step forwards, making it so my head is out of the line of fire, I give her a disapproving frown as I place her back on the ground and release her. "Hi. Not a fan of your time stopping bullshit. Throw another knife at me and we will have a prob-"
My body freezes.
Ah...
Shit.
It seems like I got a benefit from meeting her... and it was to move in stopped time... it appears that it wasn't a 'you can always move in stopped time' and it had a limit... that sucks.
Her eyes narrow, she looks as if she is about to utterly eviscerate me, but her gaze flicks to the vampire behind me.
She lets out a single sigh, then a knife abruptly sails past my head, sinking into the wall.
I turn to Remilia, her eyes wide as she seems to piece together that I have 'fought off' her time stopping maid. "As I was saying before I was oh so rudely interrupted. I am here to ask you if you would put a stop to the red mist."
Remilia recovers instantly. "You walk into my home... and demand I do something? I do not even know your name, Boundary youkai."
"I am Suzutsu Hyoudou." I introduce myself, crossing my arms slightly.
"To be so arrogant before me." The girl frowns. "It is clear that you do not know who I am. I am Remilia Scarlet. A noble vampire of the Scarlet family. Descendent of the strongest vampire Vlad Tepes Dracul."
"Neat. I'm nobody special. Yukari Yakumo thought my ability was dangerous for Gensokyo, so she promptly sealed it and kidnapped me."
Her hands twitch slightly, red eyes cautiously narrowing ever so slightly. What I said is extremely high praise, and I casually announced it so frivolously. It's making her consider her next choice very carefully. "Why is it that you care that my red mist is blotting out the sun? I wish to make Gensokyo more comfortable to myself. Shouldn't a youkai like yourself be pleased that the pesky sun is hidden away?!"
"I will admit," I begin slowly. "I do like shade more than blistering heat. However. You seem to have miscalculated one thing when you did this."
"And that is?" She asks.
"Plants need sunlight to grow. If they do not have sunlight, they die." I state with a small frown, glancing briefly to the white haired maid who is silently standing behind me, hands folded in her lap.
"I see." The blue haired girl snorts with an eye roll. "Please explain to me why I should care about a bunch of silly plants? If you are here to warn me about that simpleminded sunflower youkai, I have already taken measures for her inevitable arrival. She will not defeat me."
"You should care." I continue. "Because killing all of the plant life will assuredly kill you as well. And no, I am not talking about the sunflower youkai. Though, that is a fairly decent additional point."
"Is that a threat?" Remilia frowns, a dangerous tone to her voice.
"No of course not. I would not threaten you. Merely a passing observation. As a vampire, you like blood, right?"
"Of course." She scoffs, seemingly annoyed and my obvious question.
"And you know where it comes from, right?" I continue.
"I am not stupid. Of course, I know where blood comes from- ah. I see. Hn." The girl frowns abruptly, cupping her chin as she instantly catches onto what I was leading up to. "I see. A slight oversight."
"Youkai need human belief. Some youkai eat humans. Humans eat animals and plants. Animals eat plants or other animals. You lose the plants, you lose the animals, then you lose the humans... and then all of the youkai die... oh, well, except for Yukari and myself, we can leave Gensokyo whenever we want, but the rest of you?"
"You have made your point." The girl scoffs, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking away from me. "The mansion does have a truly wonderful garden that Meiling spends so much time to tend to, and it would be a shame if it were to wither away... I shall rescind my mist... for now... at least until I can create a method to limit it from straying too far."
"Thank you. This is all I wished to ask." I smile as I clasp my hands together, the blue haired girl seeming to look over me with renewed interest. "Now that I have done the task Yukari told me to do, I can more or less wander off and see if there's anything interesting to do in this cursed pocket dimension."
With that, I turn and promptly gap away.
Now standing roughly a mile outside of the mansion, I look back over my shoulder. "Hn. I managed to solve that through peaceful negotiation... how very un-gensokyo-like. No epic battles with questionably aged little girls in funny hats, tossing around conceptual bullshit. Just a simple chat... honestly, I prefer that. Go me!"
I look forwards, idly voicing my thoughts. "Now what?"
"…"
"I wonder if I can find Rumia..."
Finding one darkness youkai in the ENTIRITY of Gensokyo is a bit difficult, so I gave up.
No skin off my back. I'm a youkai. I'll run into her eventually. Be it tomorrow, or in two hundred and fifty seven years.
And when that day comes?! Ohohoho I'm going to bully the fuck out of her.
Like, I'm fully planning on dragging her OUT of gensokyo, purely so I can shove her head in the toilet and give her a swirlie. Then I'll shove her in a locker.
Regretfully I can't beat her up for her lunch money, the equivalent of that would be me swooping in and eating the child she was about to murder before she can. And that is fucking disgusting!
I also don't think she wears any underwear- from what I saw during my numerous fights for survival. So no wedgie...
Of course, I could always put a pair of underwear ON her before giving her a wedgie, buuuut that seems like a lot of steps.
I'm definitely going to headlock her.
Oooh force her to repeatedly hit herself in the face? That'll be fun!
You know, I wouldn't be AS pissed off if she put out every few times she ate me! I would have expected her to offer it at least once considering the lack of panties. Fucking annoying little shit being all take take take.
At least bang me every few times you kill me! How inconsiderate!
Ah. I'm going incredibly off topic now. Ah well. What else can I do with my time here?
I quietly walk through the forests of this pocket dimension mish-mash of some of the strongest beings in most fiction ever, boredly looking for something to do.
'Oh! Right! I should probably check what I got from Remy and friends.'
A screen opens before me, one that only I can see.
First, our sleepy guard...
Hong Meiling:
Met Bonus: You gain a slight understanding of unarmed combat.
Impress Bonus: ?
Friend Bonus: ?
Love Bonus: ?
Lewd Bonus: ?
That sort of explains what my instincts were screaming at me to do when I was throwing down with Sakuya... and speaking of said woman...
Sakuya Izayoi:
Met Bonus: You may move within stopped time, but only for 9 seconds.
Impress Bonus: Greatly Increased Affinity with Time and Space magics
Friend Bonus: ?
Love Bonus: ?
Lewd Bonus: ?
This explains my maneuverability in time stop. That is quite useful. A single question, though... why nine seconds?
Is that a jojo reference?
My eyes flick to the final screen.
Remilia Scarlet
Met Bonus: Your fate cannot manipulated at the whims of others.
Impress Bonus: Blood Control (Self)
Friend Bonus: ?
Love Bonus: ?
Lewd Bonus: ?
Useful as hell. As a youkai- especially one of MY standing- I regenerate extremely quickly. Being able to control my own blood is an interesting ability if I do say so myself.
I should perhaps go and meet new people.
But who?
I will admit, I don't know many of the 'Touhous'.
Like, the obvious ones, sure. Yukari. The main characters. The Scarlet Devil Crew.
Basically all of the characters from the Scarlet Devil incident. So annoying shadow youkai. Cirno. Green haired fairy.
Plus there's some others I know of, like the Oni girls, ah... Nuclear Fusion bird.
Oooh camera bird. White haired wolf girl. the 'GET DOWN' girl.
Anyways, there's a lot of people that I don't know.
I fold my arms behind my head, continuing to walk.
It has been about a day since Yukari left me to my own devices.
She still hasn't really taught me how to leave Gensokyo yet... otherwise I absolutely would have probably gone home by now. maybe I should just fucking ask her how to do that. mostly I've been worrying about how to survive this place... but if I take a step back and look at this objectively ? I'm probably the most durable youkai in all of Dxd.
I mean, I can already regenerate entire body parts in mere seconds, I can survive my heart being crushed! the only thing I need to be mildly careful of is my noggin, but, with enough time here, I could likely find a way to regenerate even that.
Anyways, Yukari did teach me how to create a miniature pocket dimension. that's nice.
Yep. I carry around a nice soft mattress that I asked her to get me.
I'm like a snail. Carrying my own home on my back.
I turn, walking forwards-
Everything slides to a halt.
Time...
Has been stopped.
I remain frozen as a white-haired maid quickly walks out of the underbrush.
"Ah. I have finally found you." She quietly announces.
"Finally?" I echo, turning to face her.
She pauses briefly at my movement then lets out a quiet whisper. "So... it was not a fluke."
She shakes her head, time seeming to resume. "Mistress Remilia has invited you for tea."
"I was not aware that we were that close." I observe.
"You are not." She heartlessly states. "You have, however, intrigued her, and that is more than enough for an invitation to chat."
"I see. When should I be there exactly?" I question. "I have nothing better to do and I was beginning to get quite bored."
"When the sun falls below the horizon... that is when you should be there."
With that, she turns, stops time, then walks away, leaving me frozen for about... five minutes or so.
After five minutes, the time stop seems to abruptly end, which is strange, as I could have sworn that it would take her more than five minute to get back.
Actually, considering how much she manipulates time, it's kind of strange that I am not being forced to experience dozens of hours of frozen time at random intervals in the day.
Does my time stop reaction have some form of range? Does the origin of the temporal anomaly need to be close by? Or do I only react if something moving within stopped time is close by?
Honestly, I sort of prefer it that way. Much less of a headache for me.
"Let's see here..." I mutter under my breath. "What time is it?"
About... two hours till dusk? Alright. I've got time.
I run my hand through my hair, manipulating the boundary between cleanliness and dirtiness to make it as if I had just stepped out of a nice shower.
Boundary manipulation is fucking useful.
Honestly, sort of worth being kidnapped for a few months.
According to my power, I've only gained an 'apprentice' understanding of boundary manipulation, yet I can casually bend reality over and fuck it.
-in specific ways, that is. portals, personal regeneration, and some 'dismembering people without killing them' nonsense. but that's sort of just an extension of portals.
Just imagine what a master of this craft like Yukari could be capable of.
I step through a rip in reality that unzips before me.
I appear in front of the large scarlet gates I was once threatened before, a small smile on my face as I look to the gatekeeper stood there, arms crossed, seeming to be asleep.
I stride forwards. "Oi. Sleeping woman."
Her eyes snap open and she is instantly on guard, hands raised as she takes on a slight martial-arts like stance. "You?! What are you doing here?!"
"I believe Lady Scarlet is expecting me for tea." I blandly explain.
"I don't believe you." The woman growls. "You got Sakuya to throw knives at me! That's mean!"
"Then don't sleep on the job?" I question with a slightly smug expression. "look. I don't even know your name, frankly. I just figured that it is quite rude to enter someone's abode through a portal, thus I should walk from the front door. I'm going to be honest, I could totally just go through you, so are you going to open the door or not?"
Her legs tense, then with a flying jump kick she launches towards me.
"Ah. Hard way it is." I snap my fingers, her momentum abruptly stopping.
Then... she collapses.
In pieces.
There is no blood, no gore, she isn't hurt in any way, just her arms and legs have been removed from her body, they twitch and writhe beside her torso as she flops face first onto the ground, her large bust saving her from getting a bunch of dirt on her face as they prop her up like some sort of tripod.
I pick her up, then lean her against the brick column beside the gate.
Where her arms and legs once were are little jagged metal teeth like you would see on a zipper, the insides being an endless starry sky filled with red glowing eyes.
She glares at me as I pat her head, so I simply tilt her hat down over her eyes. "I'll fix you later. I've got a tea party to attend."
"Stop right there!" She growls as I stand up, turning towards the door and offering her a small wave- not that she can see it with her hat over her eyes.
The gate creaks open-
Time stops.
"..."
I can see the white haired maid fly out of the mansion, she quickly approaches me, slowing to a halt a short distance away. "Ah, it is you, you are right on time."
"Oh, good. I was worried that your guard would have made me late. That is goo-"
"..."
"..."
Time resumes. "-d."
"I would also like to apologize, but I have temporarily... disarmed your gatekeeper as she didn't want to let me inside."
Sakuya peers around me, spying the strew limbs, there is a slight twitch to her expression. "Fix her."
"Fine, Fine. There was no permanent damage anyway." I sigh dramatically.
I pick up her arms with flail at my touch, then her legs, then I walk over to the propped up torso, laying her legs before her little stump limbs and tossing her arms to her sides.
The severed bits seem to gravitate to each other, then with a quiet 'Ziiiiip' her limbs are reconnected.
The gatekeeper rockets to her feet, fixing her hat. She looks like she is about to try and punch me again, but stops completely as she sees Sakuya standing nearby.
"Keep up the good work~" I hum as I turn and begin to walk towards said white haired maid. She turns and begins to lead me through the estate.
"Now... there has been something on my mind, Maid... what exactly is your name? I don't believe it was ever mentioned the last time I was here and constantly referring to you as 'White Haired Woman' and 'Maid' seems a bit disrespectful."
"You may refer to me as Sakuya... Sakuya Izayoi. I am the head maid here at the scarlet devil mansion. You have already met the gatekeeper and gardener, Hong Meiling. You have not yet met our librarian and her assistant, however. But. They typically refrain from leaving the library, so it is unlikely that you ever will." The woman informs.
"I see." I note with a small hum.
The white haired woman leads me through the manor, eventually taking me to an elaborate garden.
Carefully pruned flowers line numerous arches that follow a curving path. Flowers- some of which I have never seen before- neatly sit, framing the walkway.
Whoever tends to this place is quite skilled, clearly. Straight hedges, each a perfect rectangular shape, the blushes of flowers are well maintained, the thorny rose bushes are full and vibrant.
It appears that Remilia likes roses, as that is the most... numerous... of the only flowers I see around here.
Must be the color. She seems to really like theatrics.
Scarlet Devil Mansion, gothic, red roses, blood, it's like she has is trying to own every single vampiric cliché all at once. I bet she even sleeps in a coffin.
Sakuya leads me to a fancy gazebo, two comfortable looking chairs have been set out, an expensive looking table placed between them.
Already sitting there in the darkness is the blue-haired girl whom I had met yesterday.
Her outfit has changed drastically from our last meeting.
What was once pinkish with simple red accents has seemingly gotten far more complex.
The dress is primarily black in color and low-cut. It clings to her body like a corset, showing off her bare shoulders. She has black high-heels on, numerous expensive looking pieces of jewelry on her neck. A lacy black choker with a pearl necklace atop, below that, a row of beads in a very tear drop-like aesthetic.
She appears to have lace gloves on, ones that go just past her wrists, which also hold some fairly expensive looking jewelry on them.
Damn. I guess that's what a good change of clothes can do to a person.
She looks up as we approach, her red eyes glowing in the darkness, a lightly fanged smirk appears on her face, her exposed wings idly flapping once. "Ah. So you have arrived. You are quite punctual, Boundary youkai."
"It is a pleasure to see you again, Scarlet Devil." I reply. "I am glad that we are meeting under much better terms."
She brushes a strand of her blue-ish white hair behind a pointed ear she lets out a small hum. "As am I."
Time slides to a halt as Sakuya walks forwards.
I watch as she ignites a set of candles between Remilia and myself then walk away.
'Is there a way to get her to stop triggering that?'
If not, holding a conversation with Remilia is going to be quite difficult with her maid constantly stopping time like this.
There could be a good five minutes or more of pause between sentences. My god that's going to be awkward!
My eyes flick to the candles.
Wait... isn't this more of a candle-lit dinner than a tea party?
"..."
Huh. I am wary... but tentatively hopeful!
And thus, the finished chapter! I hope you enjoy!