The Human Rebellion was an Incident of little subtlety.
It sought to overturn the current order of things and create a new paradigm. One where humans held the power, where they could strive to survive without chafing under the perceived tyranny of the youkai.
Though Gensokyo was a refuge for youkai, not all humans were willing to play their part. A life in Gensokyo like the ones on the Outside… It was a dream for some. An idealized fantasy.
However, the humans were sloppy, inelegant. They were messy in execution no matter how meticulous the planning may have been. Chaos was their tool, and it was their byproduct.
Fire was effective. Destructive. But it was impossible to hide.
Within the very first hours of their crusade, they had thrown away any kind of secrecy. Soot stained the sky, visible from every corner of Gensokyo. It was a beacon, an unmistakable sign that something was very very wrong.
It was a call to action, ringing out across the realm, beckoning intervention and inspiring retribution. Indeed, there were already others rushing to the scene, their opposition assured the moment that the first fires were set.
However, despite the conspicuousness of the crisis that was unfolding, there remained one key player who hadn't yet noticed.
…
…
…
At a certain shrine atop a certain hill, a certain shrine maiden was well on her way to lazing the entire day away.
Reimu Hakurei laid on her back, staring up at the plain white ceiling of the Hakurei Shrine's main room. A halo of messy brown hair fanned out around her head, and a pair of dark circles framed her lower eyelids.
She had been awake for a little while now, but she hadn't done much more than look blankly upwards. Her temples throbbed with the ache of a light hangover. It was unpleasant, but it was also familiar.
Her stiff body shifted. Reimu glanced down at herself. She'd fallen asleep wearing her shrine maiden garb again, leaving it wrinkled and creased.
She shrugged. Not that it mattered much. With such a wonderfully lazy day waiting for her, she didn't want to do much moving or thinking right now anyways.
Yes, despite it all, this was paradise.
…
*grrrrrowlllll…*
Reimu quickly sat up and peered around the room, a light flush coloring her cheeks pink. Suika and Shinmyoumaru continued their quiet snoring, sprawled out as they were across the tatami mats. The oni's gourd laid on its side, slowly dripping out its infinite sake, a reminder of last night's overindulgence.
Thankfully, her stomach's protests hadn't managed to disturb the two youkai. Had they been awake, they almost certainly would have started teasing her about it.
Reimu closed her eyes and stretched, trying to work the stiffness out of her back. She supposed that it was about time to make something for breakfast.
She yawned.
Eventually, that was. She'd have to scrape up the motivation to stand before she could do something so productive.
Maybe she should get Aunn to prepare some rice? That komainu was always looking for a way to make herself useful.
She took a deep, even breath.
Yes, that sounded nice.
…
Reimu opened her eyes again, and she nearly leapt out of her skin. Inhuman yellow eyes stared back at her, mere inches from her own. Reflexively, she lashed out, but her hand caught nothing but air as the eyes suddenly disappeared.
With a growl, the shrine maiden bolted to her feet, gohei in hand, ready to deliver righteous retribution. Though, as she looked around, she could see nothing out of place.
Until…
"Ufufufu~" A languid laugh tittered out from behind her.
Reimu spun around, teeth clenched and grip hard. Her voice dripped with danger. "Yukari. You really want me to hit you, don't you?"
"Oh my~ Now why would I ever want that?" Yukari Yakumo said. "Masochism just doesn't suit me."
Reimu's lips drew into a thin line, glaring at the one who all too frequently drew her ire. The youkai woman's top half emerged from a gap in the air, while the bottom half was nowhere to be seen. As usual, she appeared to be having just a bit too much fun.
"Come now, don't look so tense. You look like a startled cat," she teased. "I don't bite. Much…"
Reimu sighed and relaxed her stance. Though, that didn't mean she was any less annoyed.
It was true, Yukari was rarely malicious, especially with the shrine maiden who served as the watchdog of their little paradise. The gap youkai also made herself useful on occasion, but more often than not, the feeling that she inspired was deep irritation.
Something told her that today would be one of those times.
"What do you want?" Reimu finally asked.
"Want? Why do I have to want something from you? Do I need an excuse to visit my favorite shrine maiden?"
"You do if you're going to show up like that." Reimu pulled out a paper ofuda, a subtle threat behind the action.
"Mmm, what if I were to tell you that there was an Incident waiting for you?" Yukari suggested enigmatically. Try as she might, Reimu could never quite decipher just how serious Yukari was at any given moment.
Most of the time she was simply messing with her.
Though, Incidents were nothing to joke about.
"Go away." Reimu pointed to the door. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with the gap youkai's shenanigans today.
"Go away?" Yukari questioned, obviously feigning offense. "You would be so cruel as to send me away? It's quite awful out there at the moment."
"...What do you mean by that?" Reimu begrudgingly asked. Yukari didn't insinuate the same thing twice without reason.
Unbidden, the front door slid open. What lay beyond forced Reimu to gasp.
A roiling, gray cloud rose ominously in the distance, polluting Gensokyo's brilliant blue sky. A haze hung in the air, and the powerful scent of burnt wood shocked her senses with the suddenness of its intrusion. The sun shone sickly through the smoke, casting a dreadful orange pallor over the entire area.
This… This was not the Gensokyo that she knew. This was not her beautiful paradise. She would have assumed that hell itself had come to Earth, had she not seen what hell looked like personally.
Reimu froze in place, momentarily entranced by the alien scene before her. By the time she tore her eyes away, adrenaline had already begun to kick in. "Yukari! What in the world did you do!?"
Yukari fanned herself. "I can assure you that it's not me who is fooling around again. Nor is this any sort of youkai or goddess-driven conspiracy. This is an Incident, and it is your job to solve it."
An Incident. An Incident, she had called it. The word echoed in her mind, and she grit her teeth again.
Damn it! Where did my lazy morning go?
Yukari's gap began to slide upwards, steadily swallowing her up. "Because I am feeling generous, and you are falling behind, I will leave you with a hint. In Gensokyo, humans are to be held to the same standards as youkai."
As the last word left her lips, she disappeared, leaving Reimu to wrestle with the disaster presented to her.
"Tch… So much for your help." The shrine maiden grumbled. It was too much like Yukari to leave a job half-finished.
Her stomach growled again, but she shook her head. That would have to wait until later. She had another Incident to solve.
A sobered Reimu Hakurei looked once more into the distance, in the direction of the smoke shrouded Human Village. She tapped the end of her gohei against the floor and stepped her way out of the shrine.
"Humans, huh?" She mumbled aloud. Then, she sighed.
Though she spent the majority of her time fighting gods and youkai for the sake of the human villagers, the Hakurei Shrine maiden held only one loyalty. She was a balancing force, plain and simple. A protector of the delicate status quo that kept Gensokyo hospitable for all.
If one group stepped out of line, then she would beat them back into place. Just like when the SDM had shrouded the realm in scarlet mist or when Shinmy and the amanojaku had started a youkai uprising.
She'll have to hit them extra hard this time, considering how dire the situation looked.
Reimu kicked off of the ground, taking to the air. Her mind slipped into 'work mode', or 'crimson slasher' mode as Marisa had once described it.
No matter who you were, if you disturbed the balance, you were to be punished for it.
…
Yes, even if you were human.
~~~~~~Tradition's End~~~~~~
What the hell?
Moments after hearing the sudden crash, she was already on her feet.
Sekibanki stared at the brick that laid on the floor of the cafe in front of her. It had certainly done its job well, reducing the tempered glass panel of the front door to a chaotic field of granulated pieces strewn across the ground.
"What the hell?" Mystia said, echoing Sekibanki's thoughts aloud.
It was as though a switch had been flipped. The mood in the cafe immediately soured, from one of minor apprehension to one of swiftly growing alarm.
A rush of agitated whispers came from the sheltering humans.
"What was that?"
"It's… a brick?"
"Oh gods, we're under attack, aren't we?"
With Sekibanki, however, those sounds of panic fell on deaf ears.
She stepped forward, boots crunching on glass, until she was in front of the doorway. Then, she looked out through the hollow frame of the door, looking to find the perpetrators.
And find them, she did. Though, they could now see her just as clearly.
"See? I told you that there'd still be someone in there," a man said, far too nonchalantly for the situation at hand.
Sekibanki briefly studied the small crowd that had appeared in the street in front of the cafe.
There were eight of them, standing as casually as one would stroll around town with one's friends. It was a demeanor that seemed wholly inappropriate, given the implements that they had armed themselves with.
A hatchet, a spear, a pitchfork, a crude bludgeon, two torches, a bag of bricks, and… a crossbow? It wasn't the most sophisticated batch of weapons that Gensokyo had to offer, but they were certainly enough to pose some sort of threat.
She had but one question for them. "Why?"
"Why?" a different man answered. "Why do you think? Word on the street says that the guy who owns this place is all buddy-buddy with the youkai. How about you go get him for us so we can teach him a lesson?"
Sekibanki crossed her arms and stared him down. "He's not here. I'm watching after the building while he's away."
"Then we'll just torch the place!" he snapped back. "That'll be his lesson, then!"
Sekibanki did not falter. "You'd burn down a cafe because of rumors?"
"Damn right! This ain't our first rodeo. We did the exact same thing yesterday, to great success!"
"It's all about putting us humans back on top. Don't you understand?" the sole woman of the group of humans said. She appeared a bit more serious than the others, and her crossbow made her stand out even more.
"I'm not letting you burn down my place of work. Don't you understand?" If anything, it felt good to throw her words back at her. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Sekibanki remained stoic. She did not fear the recklessness of the humans before her.
A third man spoke. "I don't like bustin' up a pretty face like yours. But, if you don't like it, then why don't you just come on out here and fight us?"
Sekibanki paused. Then, she sighed. There would be no convincing them to leave with words.
She removed her apron, folded it up, and laid it on the counter behind her. It wouldn't do to ruin it in combat.
Then, wordlessly, she stepped through the metal frame of the front door and stood before the eight villagers. It was her job to keep the cafe safe. She had promised Eric as much.
Sekibanki liked to keep her promises. So, if it was a fight that they wanted, then it was a fight that they were going to get.
"Oh, wow. She's actually gonna fight," one of them said in surprise.
"Yeah," another one followed up. "But, eight on one? Doesn't that feel kind of… unfair? She's not even armed."
"Aw, do you feel bad about hitting a girl?"
"No!" he responded immediately. Then, "Well, maybe a little?"
"Hey, she's made her choice," the man who had first spoken said. "Takes a lot of guts that most humans don't have."
Sekibanki leveled a weighty glare at her opponents. It was just fine with her if they wanted to waste their time squabbling. That time had been more than enough for her to focus on her opening move.
In a flash, her head duplicated itself, sending five copies into the air above her. Each one, an asset to be independently controlled.
"What-? Oh, shit! She's a youkai!"
The mutinous villagers stepped back in momentary shock, the revelation catching them off guard.
Despite her efforts to keep it a secret, here she was, revealing her true form within the Village once more. It was… liberating, just like how she felt on the shores of Misty Lake.
And now, as she faced down those who meant to do her and the cafe harm, she could feel something else bubble up, deep from within her.
She was a youkai, after all. Though her desire was to live a simple, quiet life, nothing she did could quite snuff out that inexorable fact of nature.
By nature, youkai were capricious. They were self-serving. And they were savage.
A brutal smile crossed her face. She hadn't had a chance to fight like this in a long, long time.
~~~~~~Tradition's End~~~~~~
Mystia Lorelei peered out from behind the edge of the door frame. Unlike the rokurokubi, she approached the situation with a bit more caution.
Her style was far more rooted in surprise and confusion. And, without the cover of darkness to help her make use of her ability to inflict night blindness, she was more than fine with sitting this fight out.
Honestly, this was Sekibanki's 15-minutes of fame, and it was sure to be good entertainment.
The others were watching, too, surreptitiously peeking through the blinds at the scene. In her opinion, they were cowards, like most humans. They simply didn't have the spines to fight for their own safety.
Sekibanki and her five heads rained danmaku down upon the crowd of humans, scattering them. If the yelps of pain were of any indication, she had landed at least a few hits already.
Things seemed to have been going well for her. That was what Mystia thought, at least, until the woman with the crossbow managed to shoot one of her heads.
The crossbow bolt struck true, hitting the extra head in its right eye. The head vanished into a few small motes of light, leaving Sekibanki down slightly in firepower.
She took to the air as the man with the spear approached, threatening to utilize his extended range. Though, as soon as she did, she was forced to dodge another bolt.
Sekibanki battered the spearman with danmaku for his transgression. However, the brick thrower landed a solid blow on another one of her heads. The head did not disappear, but it now sported a bloody nose.
This fight would not be so simple, but that's what made it interesting to watch for the night sparrow. She made note of the fact that Sekibanki had chosen to respect spell card rules, despite the humans' apparent rejection of them.
"Come on! We can do it! We're doing damage!" One of the torch wielding villagers cheered.
That drew Mystia's eyes to him. She tilted her head. He… looked familiar. Too familiar…
Then, it clicked.
He was there last night. He had been the one to set fire to her cart. He was the one that had reduced her years of hard work to nothing more than smoldering embers.
And, now that she really looked at them, she was certain that the others had been there, too.
Mystia clenched her fists. Her mind went dark, and her chest burned hot.
"You'll pay," she said quietly, dangerously. Her voice trembled and her cheeks flushed.
Her next action was automatic.
Mystia slammed what remained of the cafe door open and stomped out of the building. Everything she had felt the night before came boiling up, as hot and fresh as when the fires had still been burning.
Though the battle had not been hers to fight, it certainly was now.
"You'll pay! You hear me!" Her scream caught both sides of the conflict off guard.
It wasn't long until one of the startled humans had a moment of recognition. "Oh, shit! It's that night sparrow! Why's she here?"
"I'm gonna serve you up on a skewer!" Mystia bared her fangs and brandished her talons.
She wanted to screech. She wanted to cry. She wanted to laugh, a twisted, triumphant laugh.
She simply couldn't believe that she'd be getting her revenge so soon.
~~~~~~Tradition's End~~~~~~
Eric ran.
Eric ran, with single minded intent.
Adrenaline pulsed through his veins, his heart pounding like the beat of a drum. Every breath he took was another fresh splash of fuel to the fire that was his lungs. His muscles burned with effort, and his thoughts were a tumultuous mess of hope and despair.
Sweat rolled down his forehead. Though the sun was obscured, the summer heat lingered.
Every step he took brought him closer and closer to the foreboding, dark wall that rose up from within the ancient Forest of Magic. A wall that appeared more ghastly for every passing moment with no end in sight. It simply grew, and grew, and grew as he approached, and he hadn't even seen the flames yet.
The smoke billowed up, and then out, spreading itself dominantly across the sky in a plume of aerosolized destruction. Compared to the structure fires of the Human Village, this was a genuine inferno.
As he hurried along, an icy tendril of fear weaved its way down his spine. With every stride, it slowly, deliberately reached out, tangling his heart and coiling deep down into his gut.
Somewhere in there, amidst the scorching flames and choking smog, was Alice's house.
Somewhere in there, hemmed in by danger, was the person most precious to him.
Somewhere in there, threatened by ruin, was his present and his future.
Her house lay deep within the Forest. Surely… Surely the fires couldn't have penetrated that far yet.
It was still standing. It had to be. He didn't know what he'd do with himself otherwise.
And so, all he could do was run.
…
Near the edge of the treeline, he coughed, then he sputtered. Then, he couldn't stop coughing. Despite his best efforts, he simply couldn't contain the violent hacking and wheezing that overtook his body.
His mouth was dry, his throat burned, his chest ached, and his pace slowed.
Damn it… Damn it, not now…
Now was not the time, all these years later, for his asthma to rear its ugly head.
Eric struggled to hold on to a breath, but every attempt he made was cut short by wheezing coughs and pain. He clutched at his chest, then pounded on it, fruitlessly trying to soothe the tightness that was growing with every step.
He couldn't slow down like this. He couldn't… He had to… to…
"Damn… it…" He couldn't take this anymore. The path in front of him started to spin, and his head felt unnervingly light.
He had to… He just had to breathe.
Eric came to a stop, and doubled over, hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. His only saving grace was that the air here, in between the Village and the Forest where there were no fires, was still relatively clean.
His hand reached for his side, instinctively searching for a pocket inhaler that didn't exist. When that failed, he balled up a fist in frustration.
…Asthma. The lingering specter of his younger years. He'd thought for sure that he'd grown out of it by now, that a stronger, more mature body had sorted itself out. He… He hadn't had a flare up like this since his sophomore year of high school, more than a decade ago.
So, why? Why did it have to come back now? When his efforts mattered the most. When he had to lay absolutely everything on the line?
Eric coughed again and again, trying to force his breathing back under control.
He shouldn't have run all the way out here from the Village at full speed. He'd overdone it again, simple as that. He begrudgingly accepted that reality.
He could only hope that he hadn't quite pushed hard enough for it to become a full-blown asthma attack. If his breathing improved with this short rest, then there was still hope of moving forward.
…
His weaknesses… They always caught up to him.
Perhaps, what was happening now was fitting. Despite all the growth he thought he'd managed over the years, this proved to him that he was still the same frail boy of weak constitution that he'd always been.
…
"Eric!" a man's deep voice called out.
Due to the state he was in, it took more than a moment for Eric to register who it was that had spoken to him. Not that the extra time had made it any less of a surprise.
…Rinnosuke?
Eric turned his head in the direction of the voice. An eclectic-looking store lovingly surrounded by meticulously piled mounds of junk stared back at him.
…K-kourindou?
He had come this far already? Had he been so caught up in his own scrambling thoughts that he'd failed to notice the structure that laid less than a hundred feet from him?
"Rin- *cough* Rinnosuke…?" Eric forced himself to respond. The strain brought on by the encroaching asthma attack made this an abnormally difficult task.
The half-youkai man stepped up to him quickly. "Eric, are you alright? Do you need assistance?"
The look of concern on Rinnosuke's face was an unusual sight. Eric had only ever seen him with either a look of all-consuming interest or a flat, impassive stare. Such a rare face… It wasn't something he ever thought he'd find directed towards him.
Eric made the effort to straighten himself a bit, and he waved his hands at the man. "*cough* It's… I'll be okay. *hack* I've just… I've just gotta breathe."
Oh, these coughs were really starting to hurt. His labored breathing hadn't improved very much either.
There was a small streak of panic that arced through his mind at the realization. Without some sort of treatment, if it didn't improve on its own, then it may very well be the end of the road for him.
"Trouble breathing?" Rinnosuke muttered.
"Y-yeah. Asthma- *cough*"
"Here." From one of the many hidden pockets that were almost certainly sewn into his outfit, Rinnosuke pulled out a small object and placed it into Eric's hands.
Eric turned it around between his pallid fingers, taking a good look. His eyes widened in recognition.
A familiar L-shaped piece of plastic. A cap on one end, and a small canister of albuterol on the other.
Did Rinnosuke just… give me an inhaler?
Eric shook the palm sized lifeline, and he could feel hope bloom once more at the swishing sound of the medicine inside. He couldn't believe his luck! It wasn't empty!
"Its function is to help facilitate breathing in struggling humans during an emergency. Though I've not used one myself, it seems fairly obvious that it should be administered through the nose, where one breathes." Rinnosuke explained.
Through his shallow breaths, Eric laughed. The shopkeeper's advice was always to be taken with a grain of salt. Eric knew all too well how to actually use an inhaler. "That's… Watch… It's like this."
Eric put the inhaler into his mouth and puffed, breathing as deep as he dared. The sensation of coolness working its way down his throat and into his chest was… almost nostalgic. He took a couple slow, steady breaths, and then he puffed again.
With any luck, the albuterol would do its job, relaxing the spasming of his lungs and the tightness in his chest. It had to. He didn't have any other options if it failed. But, of course, it wouldn't resolve right away.
He just needed time.
Even if time wasn't a luxury that he possessed at the moment.
"You are sure it wouldn't be more efficient the other way?" Rinnosuke asked.
"H…Ha… No, it's like this. I… used to use one myself when I was younger. Back on the Outside." Eric took one more dose for good measure.
"Hmm," the shopkeeper pondered. "I suppose it is always good to have an Outsider's perspective on items such as these."
Eric looked down at the inhaler in his hands. "Y-yeah…"
After another moment, Rinnosuke turned towards the pile of goods nearest to him. He appeared to look it over before scooping up an armful of various things and dumping them into a comically large rucksack that sat on the ground nearby.
There was a blur of movement, and then there was a figure, one he had seen before.
The young Tokiko was here, too, flitting back and forth as she gathered up objects and placed them dutifully into her own rucksack. That she hadn't even spared him a glance spoke to the urgency with which she worked.
Looking at the two of them, Eric saw that the green sacks were several times a person's size, generously filled, and, he imagined, extremely heavy.
"What…are you doing? What *cough* are these?" Eric pointed at the pair of rucksacks.
"Kappa-patented heavy load bearing material transport devices," Rinnosuke said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Capable of easing the burden of the load within by almost ninety-five percent."
Eric watched as the shopkeeper thoroughly examined a pair of gardening shears before chucking them into a pile that was a bit further away.
"To answer your other question, we're 'fleeing to higher ground', as you might call it."
That caught Eric by surprise. "You're- *cough* You're leaving?"
Rinnosuke gestured briefly at the smoke. "A bit too close for comfort, isn't it. We're packing what we can and going somewhere safer. Only the essentials, of course."
A tacklebox and a suitcase joined the rest of the menagerie within the massive packs. Of course, Rinnosuke's definition of 'essential' was quite a bit more expansive than the average person's.
Still, Eric had not expected that. "I… never thought you were the type to leave your store behind. You just… seemed like the kind of guy who'd be too stubborn and stick around 'till the end."
Evidently, not. Then again, Eric supposed that, really, Rinnosuke was more concerned about the items in his store than the building itself.
Rinnosuke looked at him sideways. "Funny. That was the same impression that I had of you and your cafe, yet here you are. You understand, though, don't you? That some things are more important?"
"Y-yeah…" Eric wheezed. "You… can't replace people."
The half-youkai nodded. "I knew you would. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here."
After a beat, Eric asked. "Where will you go?"
"The Village is right out. I can see from here that they've got their own problems to sort out." Rinnosuke took another breath. "That vampire's mansion on Misty Lake seems like the best, closest location. Realistically, they should have a way to keep the flames at bay and-" he was suddenly, unceremoniously cut off.
"And, they have a library!" Tokiko chimed in as she stored another small sack away.
Rinnosuke huffed lightly, though it was good-natured exasperation. "...Yes. That. I can only hope that they will be accommodating to us in this temporary arrangement."
Eric saw some sense in that. It was for the best that they weren't headed for the Village. They would find no more peace there than they would have found here by the burning Forest. However, that only prompted another question.
"What about Keine? You won't try to meet up with her? Aren't you… worried?"
Surely, he had to have felt the same sort of unease about Keine that Eric had felt about Alice.
"No." Rinnosuke smiled. "Because, I have no reason to worry. My wife can handle herself better than anybody else I know."
He plucked Tokiko out of the air and ruffled her hair lightly. "Besides, if I brought this one anywhere near danger, I wouldn't hear the end of it."
"Ack! Dad! Not my hair…" Tokiko whined and squirmed before Rinnosuke released her.
He put a hand on his hip as he considered Eric again. "And, what about you? Where are you heading? Who is that important to you? It's hard to imagine that you'd abandon your cafe without good reason, considering how many years it took for you to open it."
Eric shook his head. Though it had been an uncomfortable choice to make, he felt that he could trust his friends to have his back. Besides, losing his cafe would be painful, but losing Alice would be devastating.
Alice was far more important.
"I'm… I have to make sure that Alice is okay."
Rinnosuke raised an eyebrow at this. "The puppeteer, then? It's surprising that you've met. She's even more of a recluse than I can be sometimes."
Eric rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh. *cough* You could… say that. Well, 'met' might be a bit of an understatement. We're… uh… together." Though he was nothing but proud of it, it still felt awkward to share such a personal fact with others.
Rinnosuke closed his eyes and nodded. "Then, it was true. Marisa wasn't just spouting nonsense gossip again."
Oh, no. Marisa's spreading that around?
Eric didn't know how to respond properly to that.
Thankfully, he didn't have to. Rinnosuke continued. "I doubt that she needs your help. She is a clever one. Surprisingly stubborn, too. With all of those dolls, she may as well have infinite hands instead of just two. If any youkai in the Forest could put up a fight against the fire to protect her home, it might just be her."
"I… I know that she can handle herself well. But, unlike you, I can't help but worry. That's why I have to be there. I have to see her with my very own eyes, even if I have to go through hell to do it."
"I see…" Rinnosuke paused. "That's not me condoning your plan. Trying to reach that part of the forest now would be suicide, obviously. But you don't seem like I can convince you otherwise."
"No," Eric shook his head. "You can't."
Eric moved to hand the inhaler back to the shopkeeper, but a raised palm stopped him.
"Keep it. Something tells me you need it more than most."
"R-really? Thank you."
"Also…"
Rinnosuke rifled around in his pockets before tossing something small in Eric's direction. Eric caught the object, which turned out to be a small glass vial. A glossy blue liquid sloshed around within the vial. It was pleasantly cool to the touch.
Rinnosuke began his explanation before Eric could even ask. "It's a small mana potion. I don't touch the stuff myself, but Marisa will bring me a couple of her extra potions from time to time."
He brought out another one to illustrate his point.
"Use it when your mana feels depleted. It won't do anything otherwise."
Eric gripped the vial firmly, deliberately, like it was precious cargo. He… hadn't been expecting a gift on top of the help that he'd already been given.
"Th…Thank you Rinnosuke. I'll… I'll pay you back for this. The inhaler, too."
"Buy something useful from the store next time, and that'll be enough. I'm getting sick of seeing you pick out the most irrelevant objects for purchase."
Eric laughed. It was nice, considering every other feeling that was swirling around inside of him. "Count on it."
"Just don't die before then."
…
…
…
Eric took a deep, slow breath, and he managed to avoid coughing. Though the tightness and pain in his chest hadn't gone away completely, it was much, much better than before.
It gave him hope.
He could do this. He had to do this.
Standing at the edge of the treeline with the familiar forest canopy filling his vision, he could almost pretend that everything was normal.
He was just going to visit Alice, like he did all the time.
There was no way anything could stop him.
Even if what stood between him and Alice was a fire, the size of which he had only ever seen on the Outside.
This was the final leg of his journey.
He just had to stay determined.
…
…
…
It did not take long for Eric to experience the effects of a forest fire first-hand.
As he hurried along the roughly hewn trail that wound through the Forest, the atmosphere grew heavier. The smoke that pervaded the air grew thicker and uglier as the foliage grew denser. Soon, he was forced to cover his nose and mouth with the edge of his yukata, lest he inhale too much.
Smoke inhalation was a killer, after all.
He knew the path that he tread, and he was glad for it. Visibility in this smoke was such that he could scarcely make out the trees that were a mere twenty feet ahead of him, let alone discern the correct point at which the trail branched off towards Alice's house. If he hadn't walked this very same route almost each and every day, then he would have been as good as lost.
Eric coughed.
The fabric of his yukata simply wasn't cutting it. With a small amount of water magic, he soaked the fold that he was using to cover his face, but it helped little. His eyes were beginning to tear up, and he could feel the smoke begin to irritate his lungs once more.
Still, he pressed on.
…
The farther he went, the more the air warmed.
He was beginning to sweat again, and his breaths quickened. His lungs worked harder to get what oxygen they could.
He knew that he was approaching the active fire. The claustrophobic grey haze that surrounded him was beginning to glow an ominous orange color, and more and more frequently, a flickering mote of light would flutter down from up high.
These embers, too, were dangerous, as they traveled far and wide upon the wind. In conditions like this, a single one was all that was needed to spark another fire.
They also stung, he confirmed. The first ember to touch his skin did so on his face, just below his left eye. It surprised him, and he hissed at the light burn, but he did not stop. He suspected that this would not be the last time he would feel the sharp kiss of the embers.
…
Eric was well and truly in it now.
He slowed to a standstill. The air here was clearer, the smoke lighter. However, that was only because the sheer, overwhelming heat of the blaze forced the smoke to travel up and out, rather than linger near the ground.
And what a blaze it was. Despite the danger, Eric could still appreciate the breathtaking sight that lay before him.
Entire, massive trees, centuries old, were awash in nothing but fire. Flames raced up their trunks and bloomed through their crowns like a beautiful, terrible flower. Not only the trees, the dense underbrush and hardy grasses of the forest floor, too, were alight. Together, they made up a sea of fire that one couldn't so much as set foot upon.
Oxygen abandoned the air, casting itself into the flames as if overcome by wicked desire; the desire to lay waste to all the life it had once nurtured. Chaotic winds churned through the inferno, roiling the conflagration and sending cascades of embers spilling out from the immolating masses.
It was as close to hell as Eric could have imagined. His face felt as though he had just opened the oven and caught the first wave of heat that had escaped. Except, this was no temporary inconvenience. There was no relief from the heat that these fires radiated.
The path he meant to follow cut straight through this hellscape.
…Just how was he meant to proceed?
A burning branch came crashing down nearby, casting a shower of sparks and debris in every direction. Other branches and trees groaned in response, their structural integrity whittling away with every passing second.
Eric looked at this scene, awe-inspiring and dread inducing, and he knew. There was no way for him to continue on foot. A simple man could not have possibly survived such a trial.
If he was going to reach Alice's house, then he was going to have to level the playing field a little bit.
After a moment of thought, Eric doused himself with cool water. This temporary reprieve was heavenly, and as it coated his skin and soaked into his yukata, he hoped that this would provide him at least a small resistance to the heat.
Then, he summoned his defensive barrier. The translucent, amber shield glimmered in the flickering firelight. It didn't do much to keep out the heat or smoke, but it had its purpose. This would, at the very least, protect him from any sort of falling debris. The last thing he needed right now was to be struck down by a burning widowmaker.
Finally, he stepped off of the ground. If the earth was awash in flames, then he would simply fly.
He would have flown over this entire mess if he could, but with heat and smoke rising and therefore most intense above the fire, that sort of maneuver was impossible. So, he would have to settle for threading his way between the canopy and the ground.
Eric sighed.
He gave it his best shot, trying to conserve his magic. But, at this point, it was better that he arrived half-depleted than die trying.
Eric coughed again.
He had better hurry. There was no telling how much longer he could stand this.
…
Gods, does this fire ever end…?
He blinked, and it stung his eyes. He swallowed, and it burned his throat. He tried to listen, and the infernal crackling of ravenous flames assaulted his ears.
Though branches and other, recognizable pieces of falling tree matter were being kept at bay, the tiny, burning embers were still capable of infiltrating his barrier. As he flew, they peppered his skin, the layer of water he'd applied having long since dried.
Still, these transient pinpricks of white-hot torment were nothing compared to the cloying smoke and overwhelming heat that surrounded him. He began to feel as though there was no escape, that he was being consumed.
His body was not the only thing in distress. His mind, too, started to become cornered, besieged by gnarling panic, bordering on desperation.
The walls were beginning to close in. He was trapped. What if there was no way out?
What if he had missed a turn? What if he didn't make it? What if Alice's house had already been overtaken?
What if? What if? What if?
There was no going back. He wouldn't make it if he did. All he could do was move forward. Forward, in the vain hope that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel, waiting for him.
…
The orange glow around him began to fade. The ground turned black, and it was interlaced with erratic patterns of red. The smoke lessened once more, and his field of vision grew. It took him more than a moment to realize what was happening.
This part of the forest had already been burned. Where there were flames before, there were now smoldering coals and blackened ashes. The heat here was less, though it still felt like he was being cooked alive.
And, there were voices. They were faint, but they were drawing closer.
Did they need help?
…Eric shook his head. No, he couldn't. Even if the owners of the voices were in trouble, he wasn't exactly in a good state himself.
He simply didn't have the help to give.
Even so, as Eric pressed forward, he could begin to make out words. Light and squeaky, there was only one being he could attribute those sounds to.
"Waaah! We're trapped, Mist-chi!" one of them cried.
"I know Dew-chan! I feel like I'm melting!" wept the other.
"What are we gonna do!?"
Fairies. Mischievous little balls of energy and enthusiasm who were best avoided if one was short of time or patience.
At this point, Eric had little of either.
And then, there they were. Straight ahead, at the dead center of the path he tread were two panicked sprites, no larger than young children. They darted haphazardly from one point to another, going nowhere fast and fretting over their circumstances.
What do they have to worry about? Eric wondered dryly for the briefest moment.
They were functionally immortal, endlessly respawning as if they were video game characters. Even if the fires claimed them, they would be right as rain tomorrow. They always were.
They didn't feel the weight of consequence.
Common sense in Gensokyo said to ignore them. He shouldn't get involved. He should maintain his speed and fly right past them as if they were naught but leaves in the wind.
And yet…
He couldn't stop himself.
"Are you okay?" Eric asked through a hoarse voice and labored breaths. He halted a short distance away.
That question seemed to startle the fairies, but, at the very least, they appeared to have ceased with their aimless scurrying.
"Waaaah! Another person!"
"Who are you!?"
Eric put his hands up non-threateningly. "Hey, easy, easy… I'm a human villager. My name is Eric. Are you okay? Do you need help?"
Despite their panic, the fairies were not shy about sharing.
"Dew-chan and I are stuck!" the one with short, teal hair shouted.
"We came to see the fire, and now we can't get out!" the fairy with long, wavy blue hair elaborated.
…So they had gotten themselves into this mess. The same as him, then.
That small feeling called out to him again, that he should have just let them be. But, the sight of burn marks, tattered clothes, and tear streaked faces twisted his heartstrings into a painful knot. Fairies or not, they still felt pain, didn't they?
He could help. He could lead them out of here. If he was lucky.
"Come with me. I… think I might know somewhere safe. A friend… I-I'm going there now."
"How do you know it's safe? I don't think anywhere is safe anymore…" The blue haired fairy, Dew-chan, the other one had called her, asked tremulously.
He managed a strained smile as he held his hand out to the pair. "If I know her like I think I do, then she's got some kind of plan to keep her home safe. She… wouldn't let that go without a fight."
As he recognized the hope that glimmered in their eyes, Eric could only pray to whatever gods would hear him that he wasn't simply leading these two innocent beings to the slaughter.
…
Fire and smoke. Charcoal and embers. Soot and ash.
The other side of the fire was just as bad as the first.
His two new companions wasted no time in making this known.
"Ow, ow, ow! It's too hot!"
"I'm about to burn up! I'm gonna pichuun!"
"We just… have to keep… going. W-we're almost… there…" Eric called back to them.
They were almost there. They had to be.
They would make it through. They had to.
If they couldn't, then…
…
A sobering thought sat heavily in his head.
This could be it for him. This could be the end.
Perishing here, amidst the fire. His life, wasted like the fool he was. Reckless and stupid and indecisive.
His body was growing tired, his limbs heavy. He was dizzy now, and the exertion of his magic felt like it was draining the energy right out of him.
The moment that failed, he would plummet to the ground and be consumed.
He felt as though he was forgetting something, but his addled mind simply wasn't up to the task of remembering what that was. All he could think about was what he'd left unfinished. What he could never do.
The business that would shutter without him to run it... The friends that he'd no longer be able to honor… The family he'd never see again…
A hacking cough wracked his body.
He… He wished that he could have seen Alice again. Just one more time. A greedy wish, but she had captured his heart and held his soul in the palm of her hand.
All of his days spent with her… would have been paradise.
The fiery glow at the edge of his vision darkened, and the heat that assaulted his body began to fade.
Eric closed his eyes. The smoke was getting the better of him, surely.
He… was dying, wasn't he?
He gave it his best shot. He would simply keep going until he could go no further.
He'd… never died before. Almost, yes, but never actually. This seemed a much more peaceful way to go than bleeding out on the Forest floor.
…
A minute passed, then two. The heat continued to draw back, and breathing felt less difficult than before.
Loss of sensation? Dying hallucination?
He opened his eyes once more, and there was light. It was far in the distance and framed by trees, but it was there.
A… light? At the end of the tunnel?
It… drew him in. And, as he approached, he could see it.
He could see Alice's house, free of smoke, bathed in a shower of sunlight. Nowhere else was the sun shining, only there.
A flurry of activity was happening within the clearing. Dolls danced back and forth from one task to the next like a swarm of bees busying themselves or a troupe of performers putting on a show. And at the center of it all, conducting the entire operation like the masterful puppeteer she was, was Alice.
It was all too perfect to be real, he knew that.
Still…
The butterfly brooch glittered in the precarious sunlight, calling him forward. Calling him home.
Dying hallucination or not, he would not let this chance pass him by.
Eric dashed forward, unleashing new speed as he closed the distance with urgency. "Alice!" he called, moments before slamming into her side and engulfing her in a tight hug.
Alice's body stiffened, and she nearly tumbled over from his momentum. He looked up to see her face just as she turned her head, eyes wide in surprise as if she simply couldn't believe that he was here.
Gods, it all felt so real.
"Eric!?" She cried. "What the hell are you doing here!?"
It sounded real, too.
Maybe… Maybe it was real. Everything was alright now. He could see it with his own eyes and feel it with his own hands. Alice was safe and sound.
He had made it.
Pure elation flooded his exhausted body.
Eric stared back at her, and her expression made him want to laugh.
She had every right to be shocked. Dirtied by soot, singed by the flames, and peppered in little burns, he must have looked like a total mess.
Despite this, he lifted his head high, and he wore his most relieved smile. Though his body still trembled and his eyes watered, he'd show her that he was doing just fine.
"I… I came to visit, Alice."
~~~~~~Author's Notes~~~~~~
Hello again! This turned into quite the long chunk of a chapter at over 8k words.
I wanted to give a bit of Reimu's perspective this time. She's the main character of Gensokyo, after all. Just not the main character of this story.
I don't think that she's a total, absolute lazybones, nor do I agree that she's totally the 'crimson slasher' (though I do love that interpretation of her character xD). I think this Reimu sits somewhere in the middle. Where she loves the paradise she's living in and indulges in its idyllic nature, but she also has a 'go mode' where she's gonna get the job done.
As you can see, the people participating in the 'Human Rebellion' are quite the eclectic bunch. The vast majority of them really have no true fighting experience, but they're willing to swing a weapon anyways. The ones that are good at combat are the 'real threats.'
Also, I hope I made it apparent that not all of them are as fanatical as the 'core believers.' Some of them are only loosely concerned with the guiding purpose of the revolt. In fact, there are quite a few that are simply using the chaos as a chance to settle their own scores or satisfy their own desires for mischief and vandalism.
I liked the idea of Sekibanki and Mystia teaming up in a fight. :)
Forest fires are rough, man. Have you ever seen those videos where people are driving through a forest fire trying to get out? Even with magic on his side, Eric still has a hell of a time trying to get through it.
But, he doesn't give up.
And, hey, what can I say? Man's still a bleeding heart. Fairies or not, he couldn't just leave them be.
Even if he thought he might die.
Luckily for him, he made it! Alice ended up being fine! Expect a lot of Alice next chapter, as we haven't seen her in a couple chapters.
What has she been doing in the meantime? What kind of preparations has she made for the encircling fire? How does she feel about a half-cooked Eric showing up so suddenly?
We shall see next chapter.
Thanks for reading! Comment or review if you want! Have a nice day!