The Reaper of Gensokyo

[Nicktendonick]

This isn't the end of this story. If you want updates, you can find them on my Fanfiction.net profile.  https://www.fanfiction.net/u/831924/Nicktendonick

With that out of the way, let the story being!
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Prologue- The Nightmare, the angel, and death.

I ran.
I ran as hard as I could.

I had never been this scared in my entire life. All the beatings, punishments, the bullying?nothing. Nothing compared to the fear I feel right now.

I feared death. And mine was chasing behind me.

The world in which I lived in was dangerous. We lived in a never ending state of war. That was life. I lived in a orphanage like so many others. Scrapping by with bare minimums of food and water.

Life was bad, but passable.

I would say it was my home, yet, whatever you call home in my world has a tendency to be burnt down. My new home was no different.

It happened when the men wearing red came. They burned down the orphanage and took the boys, taking the girls to some other place. They put guns to our heads and told us that their enemy, the men wearing blue were evil. And we had to kill them. They gave us guns, and told us to kill every last one of them.

Anyone who showed any resistance to the notion was shot.
Out of fear I didn?t.

They marched us to the lair of the people wearing blue and we were told by the men wearing red to go attack. We waited in a ditch with the men in red behind us. We were to be the bait, the first ones killed as the people in blue would attack us children, and then the people in red would surprise them and kill them.

That was the goal.

A goal which never came to pass.

Before the order was given, the people in blue screamed as their lair set itself on fire. We herd the sound of gunshots and destruction. Screams and screams being cut off. At first the men in red where happy, laughing while thinking their allies had begun their attack prematurely.

It was upon discovery that all their allies were dead was when they became silent. Something had killed all of them, and now was making quick work of the people in blue.

After a few minutes, all of it stopped. All the screaming, all the gunfire, everything. Nothing but silence; pure, dead silence amongst their complex burning itself down.

The people in blue were now dead too.

The men wearing red knew they were next. Something terrible was coming, and that was when the men wearing red turned and fled. They jumped in their vehicles and took off, abandoning us and leaving us at the mercy of this unknown force, hoping our deaths would do nothing more then buy them a few more minutes of life.

We were alone after that.

The boys next to me all began to shiver.  In a moment I did too. We all felt something course through us. 

Something?

A presence. Something that we had never felt before, something that we could never be prepared for. And it filled us with a terror that made each of us quiver.

The men wearing red were right to flee.

Out of the ruined, burning complex something walked towards us. We needed no explanation that this something is what had murdered the people in blue.

Something?.

Something?.

Something is a very good term, because I do not know how to put a description on the being that was walking towards us. I do not believe any linguist could describe it.
This thing?this something? was?unnatural. Something not normal, not human, not of this world had attacked.

It walked like us, but it was not us.
It?s shape was like us, but was not us.
It talked like we did, but in a tongue not even the devil could understand.

But it?s eyes. That?s what got me. It?s eyes. Big, yellow, glowing, beating, staring eyes. It?It was staring right at us. My mind was consumed with terror...that....

It was obvious that was true. The moment we felt it?s ungodly presence, we knew?yes?we knew that this?something?was going to murder each and every one of us. And it knew that too.

When it got close, backwards knees bent as it seemed to gather it?s breath. It screamed at us, the something?s eyes blaring a maddening yellow light as it?s hallowing bellow reverbed between all of us. Body, mind and soul all felt its might.

Within a second, this living nightmare closed the gap between us. It?s movements were beyond anything a human? anything a mortal could ever achieve.

I could now see how tall it truly was. It was far taller then us, taller then vehicles were long. The nightmare stood several feet tall, it towered over all of us. 

Its hand slashed at the child that stood next to me. What?what would be a decapitating blow did not. The Nightmare?s hand merely phased through my fellow child soldier?s body. The Nightmare looked at its hand, acting like it was grasping something that we could not see. The Nightmare then jammed his hand to his mouth, as if the nightmare was stuffing it?s face with pure air.

All our eyes turned to the boy it had attacked. The boy showed no response, no movement. He did nothing but stand still, as if he went from a filled bottle of lifewater to a empty one. Upon closer look, we saw something we did not want to see. Through the boy's eyes, blood began to leak. We all took a step back from this seemingly plague-ridden boy as he fell to the ground.

The blood began to leak from more then his eyes, but out of every pore of his body. Eyes, mouth, fingers, everything. It was as if his body was coming apart at the seams, devolving more as his body began to boil with a black liquid replacing the flesh. We all stood and watched in horror as his body...came apart?slowly, surly, decomposing right before our eyes into a pile of black goo, like a picture show on fast foreword.

Each of our worlds went silent as the grim realization that we knew was coming had finally come. The boy was dead, the nightmare had killed him. And it was about to do the exact same to each and every one of us.

The nightmare only looked upon us, now seeing our impending method of execution, seeing our reaction. As we screamed, it only grinned.

That was when we all ran.

We all ran in opposite directions screaming at the top of our lungs. Hoping that we would not be the next one that it picked.

Not that it mattered. It could catch all of us, and it did with a horrifying speed. With a single step of it?s distorted self the nightmare reached each of his victims, and the nightmare slashed it?s hand through them. Each child falling to the ground, immediately beginning to rot before our eyes. It attacked the boys to the left of me, it attacked the boys to the right of me. One by one it picked us off. One by one a group of child soldiers became nothing but puddles of black goo. One by one, it killed us all?

?All until I was the last one left. 

I was running for my life when I herd it bellow once more. It then just?appeared?right infront of me. The nightmarish abomination stared in my eyes, stared down to the deepest part of my soul.

Every part of me froze as we stared deep into eachother?s eyes.

I saw madness?death?despair, twisted contortion of insanity spiraling deeper and deeper into the pits of a hellish never-ending abyss. I could not move as by breath became faster and faster. I felt my body shake violently out of control, it felt like my mind was breaking my heart was exploding my lunging were bursting and each of every one of my nerves were screaming louder then they ever could!

I could beg, I could plead, I could act, I could do something. I could think about things, things that I felt slipping out of my head.

I wanted to move, But I could not! My body obeyed the will of the nightmare, and it gave up the ghost. I saw the end of all life, and the end of mine.

This was it. I was about to die. This thing was about to kill me.

I screamed one final time as I felt a pop.

Suddenly, all the pain in my body released from me. Pain I had felt all my life went away as It finally broke eye contact with me and raised it?s claw. The nightmare made his swing at me, to take me like the others.

But?my body finally did act. My body fell backwards, avoiding it?s grasp, barely being spared the tip of it?s claw.

I felt nothing as I hit the ground.

I finally regained my movement. I finally regained my ability to think once more. The nightmare began to step towards me, to finish what it had started.

Before the living nightmare could make another swipe, The nightmare stopped. It looked, and with the corner of my eye I tried to look as well. I saw a glimpse of a boy to the left of me. He looked pale, his body?unnatural. I did not know why I couldn?t see him before.

?Seems like I missed one?? it said in a twisted, demonic, and echoing voice. The Nightmare?s words stopped sounding like the devil?s tongue, and finally made perfect sense to me.

I felt light, and even though I could move I couldn?t push myself off the ground. Each of my attempts seemed to be in vain. With a second attempt at turning my head, I saw this pale boy again?but the pale boy was without legs?he had a wispy tail instead.

The nightmare decided to attack him first instead of me. Within a second he reached the boy. The creature grabbed the floating legless boy right out of the air. The boy didn?t move at all. The pale boy was just?in shock. With the nightmare?s grip he shoved the pale boy in it?s mouth. He was slurped down like a wet noodle, fully enjoyed by the monster.

Did it just?eat the boy? But?it wasn?t earlier?none of this made sense?what was going on? What was going on?

I couldn?t understand any of this. My mind kept racing, and my breath speed up, yet unlike before I felt no pain as I did. I kept asking myself what I was seeing as the thing turned towards me. Whatever was about to happen, I was next.

My life did not flash before my eyes as I expected it to.
As a matter of fact, the opposite happened.

I couldn?t remember.

I couldn?t remember anything outside from five minutes ago.

Anything about me, who I was, how I got here, I could only remember two things, two things that rattled in my brain.

My name, and a single sentence spoken to me. ?Liam Alibus, what do you want to be when you grow up??, and that I, the asked had no answer, and as of right now I still don?t. It's not like it was going to matter much anyway...

Through sheer force of will my body had turned itself upright, defying the laws of whatever physics I was bound by.

But it was too late. The nightmare grabbed me with what could only be described as claws.

As it eyed it?s food, it spoke to itself.

?more?.more?MORE! MORE!? the nightmare spoke in a lust, it's distorted voice breaking into madness.

The living nightmare made a snarl of happiness, like a hungry person about to feast.

I was about to die again. I was about to be eaten. The nightmarish abomination opened it?s mouth, ready to shove me in.

As I screamed for the last time, a light suddenly consumed my vision.

I saw a flash of light between me and the nightmare?s mouth. I felt the nightmare?s grasp release itself and I began to float in the middle of the air as the nightmare completely let go. My eyes trailed down and could see the nightmare?s arm fall and hit the ground, oozing a blackness.

There was something between the nightmare and I. Something that had just cut off the arm of the nightmare. A figure, a fully human shaped figure was now between me and the nightmare, floating like I was.

The figure gave a battlecry before unleashing another flashing strike of a weapon and knocked the nightmare back. The nightmare felt the pain of losing its arm, and being slashed along what we would call a chest. It breathed heavier, and became enraged, its fury focused on the figure. The wounded nightmare blared at the figure and made a hallowing bellow. I could feel the nightmare's anger through it?s scream, but the figure stood unphased. She did not fear this monster.

Yes, I could see what this figure looked like now.

She, the figure, looked like an adult in a beautiful brown one piece flowing dress. A little white hat with a red bow tied around it ontop of it, resting on beautiful curled golden hair. A simple white was stitched onto the dress?s neck area, to give it extra flare.

This woman, this savior?she looked perfect? she looked like an angel. Saving my from death?s grasp, she definitely had to be one.

This woman, this angel carried a scythe in her hands. The silver blade of the weapon was covered in the black goo blood of the nightmare for only a few more moments, the black goo eroded off the blade within seconds of me noticing it. The body seemed like a standard red pole, but?it was no ordinary weapon. The scythe itself seemed alive, I noticed a life-like movement of the weapon slowly, as if it was in sync with the angel, moving to my angel?s desire.

?This ends here? she said calmly, getting ready to attack the nightmare again. I did nothing but watch.

The enraged wounded nightmare charged at my angel, unafraid of her. She too was not afraid of the nightmare either. The charging nightmare roared at my angel as it raised it?s claw, but instead of getting out of the way, my angel stood her ground. The blade of the scythe began to bend, as did the pole. The blade turned to a upward angle, and the pole began to grow and curve, as if it too was preparing to attack the nightmare as well.

The Angel held her scythe with both hands. Her scythe began to shine with a bright light as my angel swung her shining scythe downards at the nightmare, perfectly slashing through the nightmare vertically.

The nightmare froze in it?s tracks. A wave of shining light continued to go past the nightmare, leaving destruction in it?s wake.

Just one, single attack was all it took to make the nightmare stop running and freeze in his tracks.

It stood there, shaking as light slowly lit on his body, showing where my angel had slashed him. The light grew stronger and stronger, separating the two halves of it?s body?or there rather showing the damage my angel did to the nightmare.

The angel returned to her combat position, her scythe?s pole returning to a normal straight position, the blade of the scythe bending back to horizontal position as per how I imagine scythes to be. The black goo blood of the nightmare was shook off with a simple flick.

Looking, she was confident this fight was over.

The light shined at it?s brightest, the damage finally showed. With one final splattering of black blood and goo, The Great and Terrible Nightmare who had terrified me, split in half. The left half fell backwards, the right half fell to the right. When both halves hit the ground the Nightmare exploded into light.

The light was blinding.

I covered my eyes, but it was of no use. The light shined through my transparent hands, and filling my world with light once again.

As the light cleared and my eyesight returned, I saw that the nightmare was no more.

I was stunned. The thing that nearly killed me and ate that one boy, was destroyed by my Angel with the least of effort?

In place of the nightmare I saw a series of floating purple orbs. They were all floating around, listlessly in whatever direction.

But below them, was another person. A person with long orange hair, wearing what seemed to be wearing a blue pants and a unfamiliar white shirt. This person too had a scythe, but it was not like my angel?s. It looked plain, and unlike my angel?s, it showed no signs of life.

The person was down on the ground on his knees, breathing heavy, as if was tired. My angel was floating down to the figure. I didn?t want to leave my angel, and I did what I could to move myself closer to her.

When she landed, both figures finally exchanged eye contact. The one in white had trouble looking at my angel?s eyes.

Finally, the one in white spoke.

?Thank you?for freeing me? He said.

?You?re welcome.? My angel said back. ?Are you injured??

?

?she has a beautiful voice.

?No Ma?am, I?m fine thanks to you.? He said, his breath finally caught.

?I assume you?re the one who contacted the elite corps in need of aid?.? She then asked him.

Elite?

?Yes I am Ma?am. As soon as I noticed the wrath I sent out the distress signal.? The person in white went from being on all fours to a bowing position on one knee.

His tone became grim.  ?I then attempted to slay it before it began attacking this planet, and failed. Please forgive my failure Ma?am? Said the man ?I was not strong enough to stop it.?

My angel did not show any signs of being annoyed whatsoever.

?Strength and power is not where your talents lie. That is why you were assigned as a ferryman shingami to guide souls to the next life, not to reap souls like myself.? Spoke the angel. ?I should be the one apologizing for dragging you into this. We believed we had eliminated the rest of the wraiths that had fled to this dimension, I did not think one evaded detection like this.?

She placed her hand on one of the man?s shoulders.

?Yet?when danger arose and a threat came a mere ferryman went above and beyond the call of duty and took to action and stood in a monster?s path. You risked true death to fight it and slowed it?s advance. If that is anything, it?s bravery. It?s what we look for in the Shinigami corps.?

I?I didn?t understand anything they were talking about. I moved myself and floated to my angel. She took her scythe and put the butt of the pole in the ground.

Following, she pulled out a strange device that looked like a foldable rectangular block and put it to her ear.

?This is captain Elly. Do you copy Lieutenant?? said my angel.

?Loud and clear.? Said the block.

?Stray Wraith Neturalized. Mission accomplished.? Spoke my angel.

?Good work captain. With that taken care of the Mop-up operation is now complete and done.?

I sensed a tone of worry in her words. ?No. We?re not done yet Lieutenant. We need to do a few more scans and see if anything else is out there and I need you to do a report on the detection system itself. We need to know why one evaded our detection while others didn?t. When you?re finished send the report to me.?

 ?Yes Ma?am. Mission control out.?

Again, I don?t understand at all what they?re talking about.  It seems like it went over the man in white?s head too. He seemed to just look around, gazing at the soft purple lights floating above us.

My angel put away her strange device, and took a look above as well.

?Six hundred and twenty two. Damn it? Said the man ?All these souls. It got this many??

From behind, my angel put her hand on the man?s shoulder. ?It would have been much more if you did not intervene.? Said my angel.

I had now moved myself right behind her. I suppose a little too close, as my angel finally noticed me. Turning around, I saw her face for the first time.
 
?Oh my?? she said as she took notice.

 I could finally see my angel?s face for the first time. She was beautiful. She truly was an angel. An angel sent just for me?

She seemed a bit uncertain how to approach me ?Don?t worry?? She told me. ?I?m not here to hurt you. You?re safe now?

?I?I am?? I asked my angel.

The man seemed a bit taken back I could talk.

?Yes, yes you?re safe now?noone?s going to hurt you.? Said my angel as she smiled at me. A perfect, flawless, heavenly smile.

?O..okay? I said.

?It seems I should get to work. If you wish Ma?am. I?ll ferry these souls.? Said the man with orange hair ?Come alone little o-?

I ignored what he said and clamped onto the angel?s leg, she giving out a little ?oh!? as I held onto her leg and hid behind her, shaking my head violently to the man?s question.

I couldn?t see it, but I could tell she was smiling. ?It seems he wants to go with me.? Said my angel ?You don?t need to worry. I?ll take care of him. Can you ferry these other souls??

?Absolutely, without fail Ma?am.? He replied.

?Good.? Said my angel. ?I?ll make a note about that in my report?

Again, she gave a heavenly smile.

I floated around my Angel as the two of us watched the man raise his scythe and began to chant an incantation. 


?Come along lost souls. I, the ferryman shall grant you all safe passage??


The blade of his scythe began to glow. The glowing purple orbs of light all gathered to him.

?Come along lost souls. Come with me to the last river, passageway to the afterlife, to cleanse you of all things mortal.?

The souls all came upon the man?s scythe, circling the man as lights began to appear below him. I felt drawn too, but I clinged once again to my angel and refused to let go of her.

?Come along lost souls. I shall take you to the end, where your final judgment awaits.?

The glowing purple orbs swirled around him faster and faster, till I could no longer see the man with the scythe. If I wasn't holding onto my angel, I would have been drawn too.

?Come along lost souls. With me?you ride tonight!?

A bright flash enveloped the man and the floating purple orbs. Within a single flash, everything disappeared. All the purple orbs vanished along with the man.

All that left was the Angel who saved my life. And me.

I finally let go of her, now with them all gone. I floated to where he stood, and I saw nothing there. I turned around to my angel.

?What?just happened?? I asked my angel.

She wasn?t happy as she looked at me. It seemed like something was weighing her down. ?This must all be new to you.?

?You must have lots of questions?Ask, and I?ll give you an answer the best as I can. But first, can you tell me your name??

My angel asked, and I gave a immediate response.

?I?m?Liam.?

?Liam. That?s a very nice name. My name is Elly.? Said my angel ?Now Liam, what do you want to know??

?What?what happened to me?? I asked Elly the angel. ?What did that thing do to me??

?You?you don?t? Oh god?." My angel began to say, before looking past me. Her eyes widened behind me, and then turned downward the moment she saw me looking at them.

 I didn?t know what she wanted to tell me, but she seemed to have trouble saying it. I interrupted her internal thoughts

"Is something wrong?" I asked my angel.

Whatever she had to say, she didn?t like it very much. There was some pain in her eyes.

?I?m very sorry to say this??

My angel took a moment and tried to convey her message

?That creature, when that creature attacked you?what it did was?it killed you.?

?I?m sorry.?

That made no sense to me. ?What?? I said. Again I saw her look past me, something clearly was behind me.

?What are you talking ab-?

As I turned around, and I saw my answer.

I saw me. My body.

?That?s?that?s??

I saw me. I was frozen as I stared at it. It was where I had fallen when the nightmare attacked me. My mouth was open, my face was frozen, and blood leaked from my head... My own blood.

??me??

That?s when it hit me. All of this added up, and finally made sense.

Why I couldn?t see that child next to me, and then I could.
Why I at first couldn?t understand the nightmare words, and then I could.
How I?ve been floating, why I couldn?t feel my body anymore.
Why I'm no longer hungry, ill, or cold as I always have,
Why the pains I?ve always felt in my body all my life are all now gone,
And why my feet are gone and replaced by a wispy tail?






I died.
 




Oh god....oh god....oh god....


I'm dead?

I'm dead?

Oh god I'm dead!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Oh no! Liam!"

OhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGoOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGod

?Liam!"

I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead

?Stay with me! You must calm down!?

OhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGoOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOh-MFFF

"I got you! I'm not gonna let you corrupt. Liam!"

I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead

"Liam, please, calm down!"

OhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGoOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOh

"Stay with me..."

I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead..I'm dead...

"...that's right Liam...calm down...don't lose yourself..."

I'm dead...I'm dead...I'm dead...I'm dead...I'm dead...I'm.....

"keep yourself together...listen to my voice..."

I'm...I'm....I'm....I'm....

"You're going to be ok...you're going to be ok..."

I'm...I'm...I'm...I'm going to be ok...

I'll be ok....

....I'll be ok....

Yea...I will be...

.....

.......my frenzy stopped.

I felt...I felt like I had pulled myself back together. My mind began to think again.

I guess...even in this ghostly form...I still had a mind...

I see Elly, holding me tight. With all her strength, she had grabbed me and held me against her large chest in a hold with all her strength. I seemingly had struggled, but it did there would be no breaking free from her arms. She was stronger then she looked.

As she felt my body no longer struggling against hers, I felt her fierce grip release itself. I moved up and immediately hugged Elly, holding onto this woman...

We stayed like this for minutes...I slowly felt the maddening energy that was pulsing through me go. When it was all gone, I just held onto her.

Her grasp was warm. Her arms, her body...all of it was warm...a soothing warm bringing peace to me...
I felt...safe as she held me.

"So...I'm, um....really dead? I really died..."

?You did. I?m very sorry Liam.? She said.

"Am I, going to stay dead?" I asked her

?No." She said solemnly "You cannot go back into it anymore. I?m sorry Liam. Despite all I can do, I cannot bring you back to life.?

I?didn?t feel regret.
I actually felt relief.
I felt like a load was off my shoulders. I didn?t understand why.

?It?s?ok?

Elly looked confused.

I then began to think back to my life.

Once again, nothing came. Instead of remembering of this life I seem to have had, virtually nothing came. Nothing at all.

?My life alive?I?I don?t remember any of it?nothing.? I admitted.

My memory was blank. Just two simple sentences, and the last five minutes of my supposed life I remembered.

I remember being scared hiding in a ditch with a bunch of other boys.
I remembered people in red bullying us and then fleeing.
I remember seeing the nightmare, running, then dying.
I remember someone asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up.
And I remembered my name, Liam Alibus

That?s it. That?s all I could remember of my life.
That?s all I was now. My mortal existence was nothing more then a single paragraph?

?Is?that?normal?? I asked Elly.

I could see Elly look down, recalling, and thinking. ?For some." She said. "Death is different on us all. How much one?s memories fade varies upon person to person. Their desire to stay, their desire not to forget is what keeps these memories. You may regain them one day Liam, but only if you truly wish to remember them.?

"Well, if I didn't remember them, then I didn't want to remember them?" I asked Elly.

"You can think of it like that" She told me.

I was happy. If I forgot all these memories, then I didn?t want to keep those memories. I didn?t need them. It brought me some relief.

?Thank you?? I said, giving the proper courtesy to her.

We stayed there for a few more minutes. After, we finally let go of eachother.

?What?s going to happen to me?? I asked Elly.

Wait, what if I turned into nothing? What is next?

Elly took my me by suprisied and Elly placed one hand on my shoulder. ?You have nothing to worry about.? Elly told me.

?I don?t? Will you be able to take care of me?? I asked Elly.

I think I saw my answer in her eyes. Love to, but can?t. Have I seen that look before? No...I don't remember...

?You are a very good boy Liam and you have pure hearted soul?but it?s not my place to become your mother.? She said.

?But, I can help you Liam. I can take you away from all this.? Elly told me.

She hugged me tight. I looked up to Elly and saw her near tears.

?Liam, I?m going to take you to some place wonderful. It?s a place where noone?s going to hurt you, a place where you?ll never go hungry, a place where you?ll always be at peace. It?s a place where you?ll never have to worry about anything ever again.?

?You?ll? you'll take me there?? I said.

Elly?s answer was absolute. ?Yes, I will. It?s what I do.?

I asked the question I should have asked far earlier. ?What do you do??

Elly looked at me and smiled. ?I protect and guide lost souls to the next life. Souls like you Liam.?  She told me.

?I am a Shinigami.?



It was that moment I knew.
The last question that was ever asked to me, the only one I knew.

I decided, I knew exactly what I wanted to be. 


I, Liam Alibus, wanted to be exactly like her.

The Reaper of Gensokyo

By Nicktendonick

...chapter 1 coming soon.

[Failure McFailFace]

Too lazy to find the exact words, but here we go:

They gave us guns... The men in red.... Men wearing blue.... Lieutenant Elly

Hmm...

Spoiler:

A TF2 and Touhou crossover?

Seems interesting....

[Nicktendonick]

Too lazy to find the exact words, but here we go:

Hmm...

Spoiler:

A TF2 and Touhou crossover?

Seems interesting....

Sadly,

Spoiler:

no. it's not TF2. If I had to take a crack at where Liam came from, it'd probably be either "Now and Then, Here and There" or planet Sera from the Gears of war series, or just a plain crapsack desert world.

It's a good call though. I just choose those red and blue colored people, mostly to show that Liam had no clue who these people were.

Anyway, there are some crossover elements (you'll hear of it), and the afterlife is somewhat different then canon, just enough to make it more compatible with all the other fictional afterlifes out there. This story is suppose to be the beginning of something much bigger. This well, is just the starting point.

One example, is that chief Suiki from WAHH is a part of the "Elite Shingami corps", which contain some of the strongest shingami around, and mostly used to take out specific and/or dangerous targets. The normal reapers get the rest. I'll explain when I get to it.

Anyway, on with the show.

-----------------------------

Chapter 1- Replacement

"Oh you've got to be kidding me."

mmmfff...

is...is some....som...

"Comeon, Eiki-sama you gotta get up"

...eone...one trying to.........wake me up?

yes...they were...

I feel another gentle push.

"There we go"

Gently, was I rocked left and right.

?Hey, you still sleeping??

My bed was so inviting. Sleep?yes?I?d rather sleep?
I grabbed my blanket and pulled it back over my body.

?Out of all the days for you to do this??

I recognized the voice, my mind finally made sense and told me who it was.

Komachi Onozuka. My Subordinate.
 
?Eiki-Sama?? I herd Komachi with a sigh. My eyes were closed but my ears were open.

Why can't she leave me alone? That lazy shingami...

....Wait?.

Komachi? Komachi is?waking me up?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

?Komachi?!? I shouted in shock.

Oh god I?m late!

Komachi is always late to everything she ever does! Which means I'm later then she is!

I know what today is. I knew it I knew it I knew it I should have rested earlier?
Eiki what were you thinking!?

?Oh no?? I, the super late woman said with a groan.

 A Yama such as myself just IS not late to her appointments. Especially one as important as today. I can?t set a bad example like this?

I pushed the covers off me and sat on the edge of my bed, turned Komachi?s way to see her fully dressed in what she usually wears. She was wearing a white dress with a blue vest, her red hair with two ponytails on the sides of her head. Holding together her clothes was a large belt with a large yen coin as the belt buckle.

As for me, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, I was still in my dark green matching pajamas, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

As I looked around, I took a good look out the window and tried to catch the time. Here in Gensokyo, it was the easiest way to tell the time without help. I couldn?t see anything but black. It might just be me?

?It is dawn?? I mumbled.

?Not yet. 'Bout 5 in the morning I?d say.? She told me.

Huh?

wait...

 ?Wait?you?re up early?? I groaned. ?You never get up early?never...? I complained to her.

I sat there on my bed for a minute, completely dumbfounded at what I just herd.

...

?Well, I?m not missing something like this. I wanna know who?s filling in for Fuka-chan.?

...

?Um?Eiki?? I herd Komachi said to me.
 
My sleepy eyes blinked twice, my body and mind frozen, processing the words I had just herd. That, or I was falling asleep again.

My brain finally spoke. ?You?re?early??

?Yep." Komachi said with a shameless smile on her face and as she crossed her arms "Just said it a second ago Eiki-sama.? Komachi answered me back.

"...."

...After all these hundreds of years, Komachi never ceases to surprise me.

Ahhhh, well, the shock did wake me up a bit, at least for the moment. I actually feel attentive right now.

And so, awake, I complained. ?So why can?t you get up like this for work normally?? I groaned, with said groan evolving into a yawn.

Komachi took a step back and dodged looking at my eyes. ?That?s a?.um?.Hey let me fetch you some coffee.? She said walking away from my bed.

Slowly and reluctantly, I slid myself out of bed and shuffled towards the shingami.
?Coffee?would be very good.?

---------------------------------



I was...practically braindead until I got caffeine, nothing but a semi-aware blur of me moving to my shingami as she made me some coffee. Coffee which finally woke the rest of me up...

Well...the second cup of coffee, which I just downed. With her primary objective accomplished, Komachi decided to be a good subbornate and she helped herself to my food storage.
As she raided what food I had, I made myself coffee cup number 3.

Ahhh...

I?m glad I picked up that magic-powered coffee maker from Pandemonium.
I don?t think I would have made my long nights without it. Especially now with Fukakusa?s absence and inability to work.

Finding a cookie and gulping it down, Komachi took a look at me. ?You look terrible Eiki-sama. How much sleep have you been getting?? Komachi asked me.

?Enough.? I answered, taking a sip of coffee number 3.

My eyes glance at Komachi's and seeing hers...I doubt Komachi liked that answer. ?And how much is that?? she asked back

Instinctively I hesitated to answer her, and Komachi easily noticed the body language. Which pretty much gave away everything she needed to know. She's good at reading people, especially those she's known for so long, like myself.

I'd groan if I could, I know where this is going.

?Eiki, how much?? She pressed again.

I caved ?One?two hours every week or so?? I answered. ?As long as I can function and as long as I have that coffee machine, I?ll be fine.? I grudgingly said as bluntly as possible to her.

My friend crossed her arms and gave me a glare. ?No, you won?t. You?re running yourself ragged Eiki-Sama. Look what just happened. You need to sleep and you need to rest. You?ve been working non-stop morning noon and night since Fuka-chan got hurt. I told you I?ll help pull Fuka-chan?s weight with the reaping until the sub gets here. But instead you try doing everything yourself and you wear yourself out worse then a bad joke. Geeze, if you were still human you?d be dead by now.?

....

"But I?m not human. I?m a Yama. And speaking of the dead, the dead don?t rest until we?ve taken care of them." I said back.

Someone has to do it and I won?t let a buildup happen. We've gotten by sofar haven't we?

Komachi took a moment to try to come up with a response, raised her hands up a bit and turned around away from me and sighed.

?This is all soo wrong. You?re the one who?s suppose to be lecturing me. That just proves how messed up this is.? Komachi sighed again. ?I?ll be glad when today?s over. Fuka-chan?s sub is coming today.?

It?s been the two of us who have had to fill in for Fukakusa, the resident soul reaper shingami of Genskoyo, ever since Fukakusa got hurt and was made unable to perform a soul reaper?s duties.  Soul Reaper Shingami are suppose to reap any souls who refuse to cross over to the sanzu river, those who begin causing trouble, or anything on the verge of becoming a truly evil spirit. Souls who let their own darkness corrupt them become fearsome spirits, which can even become dangerous creatures that cause untold destruction and can perform the ultimate evil, corrupting innocent souls and turn them to evil as well.

We?ve been lucky things have been peaceful here recently or we might have had a major incident happen, such as with souls flooding into Gensokyo. Which is something I?m prided as to say has never happened once under all my tenure as a Yama, and I intend to keep it that way.

?That's good." I said with a yawn "It?ll be nice to get back on my old schedule.?

As soon as I said that Komachi turned to me and wagged her finger at me ?Oh no-no-no. You?re taking time off.? She said ending with her pointing her finger at me.

What!?!

?What?! No! I can still work.? While I know how to reap souls like Fukakusa and ferry them along the Sanzu river like Komachi can, only I can judge them. "I have to do my duty."

Komachi shrugged ?It isn?t my order. The head Yama told me himself that you?re taking time off. That Buddhist Yama guy from around here is gonna take your spot while you?re off.?

Him? Well, if it?s him I wouldn?t mind?and if it?s the head Yama asking I don?t think I could say no anyway. I could live with taking another forced vacation again?somehow.

Before I knew it, she already had walked past me and placed her arm on my shoulder

?Comeon, you can worry about that later Eiki-sama. Get that green head of your dressed and let?s head to the Ministry. Our sub should be getting there soon.? Said Komachi in a much softer voice.

She?s right. I can worry about that when I get to it.

Komachi waited outside while I changed clothes. I donned my Yama?s uniform and hat, dressed myself properly outside of my house.

While I had originally planned to live where I worked normally, this small simple home was given to me as a welcoming gift to Gensokyo. It?s been quite useful, and it?s nice to live amongst the people here. Especially here in Gensokyo. I must admit, it is quite a pleasant and peaceful place to live.

Now dressed and ready, I walked out of my house and closed the door to my house and rejoined Komachi.

?No lock, no nothing? Aren?t you afraid of thieves?? Komachi asked me.

The response was simple ?My home is open to all who need my help and advice..."

"...And also because people know better then to steal from the Yama who will judge their soul.?

Granted, I won?t allow a personal bias to get in the way, but stealing is stealing and it?s still a sin.

?Hmm, good point. So, you ready Eiki-sama?? Komachi asked me and held out her hand.

That way? Well, I suppose it?ll get us there fast.
I nodded yes and took my friend?s hand.

?Alright!? She said ?One quick trip to the afterlife coming up!?

Komachi took a single step and I felt my whole body whooshed away. I felt a rush of air flow past me. I held onto Komachi?s hand tight as she pulled me along with her.

I landed back on my feet, at a completely different place. A land with a cloud like floor, a series of complexs, buildings, and a few trees that originated from different dimensions line up after eachother, as if to show the path that lead to a even larger building that every other single building was built around.

?And here we are!? Komachi said on cue. She let go of my hand and we floated up into the air.

One step and one second after we departed, we arrived at our location.

Komachi?s ability to manipulate distance is an amazing power. She can change the distance between any two things whether they be physical, magical, or even conceptual.
This can range from crossing a mile in a single step, the distance of duration of something, or even the distance between life and death. It also makes her a beast in combat. Changing the distance between her scythe and whatever she?s striking can ensure she?ll never miss, or lose for that matter.

We were in the afterlife now, specifically at the Ministry Of What?s Right And Wrong, where our head Yama resides managing the thousands of Yamas and Shingami who work under him and dealing with the hundreds of thousands of problems that occur everyday.

And inside this massive series of complexs that stood ahead of us, our new replacement awaits.

?So the replacement?s inside?? I asked Komachi.

?Yep. I already came here earlier and took care of the paperwork? She told me. ?All we have to do and pick up our replacement.?

wait....

Something didn?t add up. And I think I knew what.

?You didn?t sleep last night, did you?? I said accusing the hypocrite.

That hypocrite! She didn't sleep last night and she's lecturing me on not sleeping enough?

?I suppose I can?t hide it huh?? Komachi then laughed. ?Yeep. Woke up at sunset and decided I?ll take care of this overnight while you were busy judging souls. I?ll get yesterday?s and today?s ferrying done after all this.?

??

.............

?That woman never ceases to surprise me.

---------------------------------

We flew through the massive entrance gate entering into this afterlife that was bustling with life. Our first destination was the directory lobby building, usually the waiting room for the thousands who come here to get in touch with the top brass in charge, put in a request, or looking to be pointed in the right direction, like we are right now. Komachi had to spend a whole weekend waiting in the proper line here just to throw our request in with the twenty four thousand others. Fun memories.

We made our way to the redirectory section. ?Geeze. Took them long enough to get someone to fill in for Fuka-chan.?  She said.

I agree. We?ve been down Fukakusa, the resident Soul Reaper Shingami of Gensokyo for about a whole month and a half now. We would have had a replacement by now, but since Gensokyo is a smaller region and the death count is very low compared to other regions on this planet it means Gensokyo is a low priority area. As a matter of fact there's a gensokyo branch only because of the extremely powerful beings that have settled down here, both before and after the border came up.

And since it?s a lower priority area it has taken a very long time for the request for a substitute reaper shingami to be fulfilled while Fukakusa is out of commission. Replacements are quite common in the more dangerous worlds, planets, and more dangerous universes. Sometimes even us Yama?s get injured and are no longer able to perform their duties. I suppose that?s what happens when you try to judge the souls of evil gods and demon overlords, they do not want to go quietly.

But this isn?t anything new. This has always been the situation. That?s why there?s so many of us.

I do wonder if Fukakusa will actually return. Usually they replace reapers when these things happen to them with stronger reapers. I?ll be sad if he does, Fukakusa?s been with us for quite some time.

As we walked towards one of the receptionists a winged fellow came up to us and stopped us. He must be one of the messengers and assistants here at the Ministry.

?Yamaxanadu?? I herd the fellow say.

My title. I bowed to him. ?Yes, it is I.?

?Welcome back Yamaxanadu.? He said to me.

?They sent someone to help us? How kind.? Komachi commented.

?They didn?t.? He said. ?Right now I?m busy on another errand. I just helped your replacement a few minutes ago.?

?Your replacement should be at left lobby 23.? The winged fellow said ?I told your replacement that you two were to meet there. The receptionist at that lobby should give you their file and tell you who you?re looking for.?

?Much appreciated", "Thank you? Komachi and I said.

?Anytime.? Said the winged fellow as he took off. We continued on our way.

We exited the redirectory lobby and flew towards the correct lobby.

Looking above we saw a handful of Shingami being lead by a single Shingami. A small squadron all flying in formation. They whooshed by us, presumably in a hurry.

Hmm?

?Seems like something?s up.? I commented. ?I suppose the Elite Shingami corps must be getting ready to take out a big target again.? 

?They are. I herd them saying they were planning on going after that planet killer or something that passed it's threat threshhold or something. Or at least that?s what I overheard when I was here earlier.? Komachi told me. "From what I was hearing, it's not as strong as the one that went on a rampage last month, so they shouldn't be needing you this time."

"That's good." I said crossing my arms. "I'm always more then happy to help when the elite corps are in need, I just wish they could send my souls elsewhere instead of making them wait until I return."

"Eiki, you were gone just three hours, it's not that big of a deal. Anyway, here we are at left lobby 23.? Komachi then said.

We both placed a hand each on the double doors leading to the lobby.  I took a deep breath and we both pushed opened the door.

The lobby had a few people inside it, waiting in line for a receptionist that wasn?t there. I scanned the room and saw twenty-six people waiting inside the room including us.

?This might take a while so you go take a seat and chill Eiki-sama, I?ll wait in line.? Komachi said as she did me a favor and got in the line.

Taking my looks around, I decided to take next to an open chair that had a binder and an bag on it.

We both knew this was going to take some time. I scanned the room again, noticing the different people. The majority were of former humans such as myself and Komachi, but the rest were of alien creeds. Some looked like us humans with slight changes like darker skin and rigid foreheads or other changes such as sharper eyes, longer ears and tails. There were also some that didn?t even look remotely human, such as a reptilian reaper shingami, a judicial clerk whom was a gas based lifeform, and another that looked like a jellyfish.

If we were mortal, each of these would be major differences between us, but to us these physical changes no longer matter. We are the assistants, soul reapers, ferrymen, clerks and administrators of the afterlife, and nomatter how different we may look our souls are all the same, as we have all taken up the pledge and duty to ensure that our fellow souls can find safe passage to what lies next for th-

"Yaaaaawwwwwnnnnn"

I yawned, and I noticed my eyes shut and reopen without me thinking about it.

And my eyes... my eyes were getting heavy.

Did Komachi let me sit so I could get some sleep?

...

She's avoiding my eyes...

dang it...I think she did?and the coffee?s fading off too...

hmm...well...A nap, a little five minute nap?may not be that bad. It?d feel really good to sleep right now? ?really?really wants to?

Those humans call it...power-napping right?

Yea?

I yawned again

yea?that?might?.

?be?..

?

NO!

I jolted to the edge of my seat in defiance of my sleepy instincts

I am a Yama! I am the Yamaxanadu!

As long as I bear the title of Judge of Paradise, as long as I don these clothes of the Yama, I represent all Yamas with my words and actions. I will not sleep and dishonor the name of the Yamas.

Even if noone cares if a Yama takes a nap, I do! And I must care!

I must always hold myself to a higher standard and strive for my greatest self. It is us Yamas who show the way of enlightenment to others though our own example, teaching those who watch us that the way of good and righteousness is superior to the ways of evil and the lure of sin.

I leaned myself against the back of my seat, dedicated not to falling asleep.

It does not matter that I have had less then two hours sleep in the past ten days. I can rest when all this is over. And I will Never?.never?.

?.nev?..r?.


?..r?..



?You can do this ?get it together?.?


"Don't chicken out here, I'm going to be ok, I'm going to be ok..."



?Never fall asleep. I, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu shall not?..


?Oh no?


?Oh no?


did I just?
Ugghhh I did didn't I...damn it.

I double blinked. My mood changed to self-disgust as I looked to my side, and nolonger was the seat empty, but filled with a blond youth who seems to be worried. Looking at the line, Komachi was now one blob-type shingami away from reaching the receptionist. Looking at the clock above the receptionist?s desk, time had jumped 20 minutes.

But no, it didn?t. I fell asleep for twenty minutes.

I lowered my head and held my forehead in shame.

Eiki, you know this is not how a Yama is suppose to act

Get it together girl. Sleeping on the job is a terrible example to set for others, especially Komachi. She'll never let me live it down?

Though?I do feel much better now?my mind feels refreshed, and my equilibrium seems to be more balanced, and eyes aren?t as heavy anymore. Maybe Komachi was right after all with me needing to rest more. They say, how can one help others if they themselves is helpless?

hmm?

Komachi probably is right. I shouldn?t have even let it come to this in the first place.
On the other hand, I couldn?t let anything bad happen, I had to do what I had to do to make sure everything ran as they were suppose to when we were lacking the 1/3 of our team...

Bah, don't think about it.

This, this whole thing was an unfortunate circumstance and situation I?ve been in; a situation that is now coming to its end. I?ll have to remember this and prevent it from happening again. If this happens again, some of the shingami from tokyo should be willing to sub for one of us.

....

Just a little longer now.

I sat around and looked more around to the room to pass the time.

With another glance, there were a few more shingami in the room now. I suppose we?re not the only one?s here looking for a replacement. Definitely one of these shingami will be the one we?re looking for. I wonder who it will be?

Looking to my left, I see that the blond youth that was sitting next to me is a shingami as well. He was dressed in a variation of the shingami uniform. He was wearing light-yellow Hakama, white short sleeved shirt with a vest that matched the color of his hakama in comparison to Komachi's blue. His yellow hair was neatly combed over to his left, and his eyes were a deep blood red. A trait many inherit upon their transformation from ordinary souls into shingami.

Looking, I could see his shingami scythe seemed folded up into three parts. Two halfs of the staff and the blade, which seemed to have been folded inwards. The whole thing was held by a strand that would be hung near his rear...or it would be if he didn't take it off and slide it under the chair he was sitting in. The staff was a eerie pure white, only the blade was black. 

Hm, strange. Haven't seen those lately. Must be one of those newer shingami scythes.

And he looks quite young too. I?d gauge that he looked like he was in his early teens. He must have died when he was young?I only hope it was painless...

I?d take a guess and assume that he wasn?t that old mentally either. The boy was fidgeting with his thumbs with worry on his mind. Unlike many Shingami that looked his age, he actually seemed to act like a budding teenager.

I should try to help calm his worry. And so I did.

?Is something the matter?? I asked him

The boy noticed
The boy?s cheeks turned a little red and he shook his head.

?It?s nothing Yama-sama.? He said. ?It?s a-a trivial thing. Nothing a Yama should worry themselves about.?

?Yamas are suppose to be there to help people in need. Or at least, that?s what I believe.? I told him.

I saw a slight smile of happiness. I think he did want to talk about it, just not knowing who to talk to. He wanted to get something off his chest.

?You can tell me your problem.? I said. ?I?m always willing to help as much as I can.?

Looking at his body language, I seemed to break through, making him feel comfortable enough to talk. ?Well?it?s that I?m?I?m nervous.?

?What about?? I inquired.

 ?Well?I just graduated from the Shingami training academy a few days ago and I?m being assigned to my first position today. I?m just really nervous of if I?m going to do ok. There?s so many other shingami here waiting like me?they all seem so?strong.?

Ahhh?so that?s it. I remember this feeling when I first starting working for the ministry. I had so much to prove back then, and especially if I wanted to get to my life's goal of becoming a Yama. I did everything that I could to impress the Head Yama and prove that his decision about me was right. That first year was one of the toughest years of my entire life.

In the end it all had paid off. I had surpassed the Head Yama and everyone?s expectations. Within a century of joining I had achieved my life?s dream and became a Yama. Something unheard of back then, and something that hasn't been topped since.

?It?s always rough in the beginning. I've been through it myself but I assure you don?t need to worry like that. If you believe in yourself and give it your all, I?m sure you?ll pull through. That?s how I pulled through when I first joined.?

I put my hand on his armrest. ?I know you?ll do fine.?

His worry seemed to have cleared up. I think all he needed was a little pep talk.

?Th-thank you Yama-Sama? He said to me, giving me a little quick bow from the edge of his seat. ?I appreciate it.?

?It?s what I do? I said back to him.

Indeed. It is-

-oh! I almost forgot, I need to introduce myself to him. ?Oh yes, allow me to introduce myself.? I said to the boy. ?I am ShikiEiki, the Yamaxanadu.?

?My name is Liam Alibus? He said.

?It?s a pleasure to meet you Alibus-san? I said to him.

?The honor is all mine.? He said to me.

Taking a look at Komachi, she was at the receptionist now. She was either chatting up a storm or with the receptionist or Komachi was figuring out what the receptionist is telling her. At least one of the two, I can never be certain with that Komachi.

?It seems I won?t be here much longer. My associate seems to have made it to the receptionist.? I said to him.

I saw him look away for a moment, thinking of what to say and then asking me a question. ?Umm, Yamaxanadu-sama, if I may ask, what brings you here today??

I see no reason not to say the truth.

?Our resident soul reaper shingami was injured as of late. We?ve sent in for a substitute while our friend heals.? I said to him.

We both looked around. ?I?m guessing our sub is somewhere in this room.? I commented about it.

?-And we?re gonna have to figure out who our lucky winner is all by ourselves? I herd Komachi?s voice say walking past me and taking the empty seat to my right.

?So, who?s your new friend Eiki-sama?? Komachi asked me as she leaned back on the seat and stretched her arms up with a little yawn of her own.

Ahh yes, introductions all around.

?Alibus-san, this is my subbornate and my ferryman shingami, Komachi Onozuka.? I said introducing the two to eachother. ?Komachi, this is Liam Alibus.?

Liam leaned to get in Komachi?s eyesight and gave a little head bow. ?Hello? and ?Nice to meet you? they said to eachother.

?Alibus-san is a new recruit.? I told her. ?He?s being sent out on his first assignment today.?

?Ooohhh, a newbie.? Komachi said reminiscing. ?Ahhh, I remember those days when I was new meat?good times?good times.?

Liam's face glimmered at that response, confirmation that the road ahead wasn't pain and suffering, but actually something to look foreword to. ?Really?? Liam asked Komachi with a hopeful voice.

Sadly, I should kn-

?Oh hell no." she said with a chuckle. "I got mauled, eaten, and slaughtered constantly for like a year straight? Komachi said bluntly with a strange tone of happiness and a little laugh.

Dear lord Komachi.
Liam?s expression froze in terror.

She then elaborated on how terrible how it was. ?Well, back then it was terrible for me. Now it?s hilarious whenever I look back on it. Ohhh, the ways I managed to get myself killed?? Komachi blissfully said, having a little chuckle reminiscing on these memories?

Mr. Alibus wasn?t sharing the feeling, to say it lightly. And neither was I.
I glared at my redheaded slacker for inspiring ?confidence? Komachi in our new friend, and I placed my arm on her shoulder, my hand clamping "gently".

I spoke. ?That just happens when you don?t learn to dodge.? I said turning from Liam to Komachi with a another glare the moment she was about to open her mouth again, then back to Liam with a pleasant look.

?You?ll be fine Mr. Alibus,? I told him. "As long as you can keep up with the work, you'll be ok. There's more then enough people here willing to help you when you're having trouble, like I said, as long as you can dodge, you'll be fine. I got through relatively unscaved."

Granted, I was stronger then my own mentors all combined, but still he shouldn?t be too bad.

?Anyway?? I said boldly to force the subject change...?Komachi, did you find out who?s replacing Fukakusa??

Komachi got the point, and took out a folder she brought with her.

?Uh-huh, the receptionist gave me this. She said we?d have to find our new reaper by ourselves though. Shouldn?t be too hard.? She said. "Let me see who it is..."

We opened the folder and took a look at the file they had for us.

?Let?s see? Komachi said ??the name is?Liam?.Alibus??

We didn?t need to look. Our new shingami was right next to us.

We turned to the left and looked at Liam?Liam Alibus, the new substitute soul reaper of Gensokyo.

Komachi?s jaw dropped. ?They gave us a kid?!?

Chapter 1 ? End.

AN- And it?s not a girl!

Yes, a male Touhou OC. Heaven help me.

Anyway ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to protagonist Liam Alibus, Substitute Soul Reaper of Gensokyo. I hope ?the young and innocent starting shingami? makes a good surrogate for you, the audience as he gets casted into that insane world known as Genskoyo.
Will he come out in one piece? I?d say the chances aren?t good?and I?m the author, I should know.
 
And as you can see from the prologue, Elly's not as you know her from the PC-98 games, and instead I've given her a promotion to a full-blow (and pretty badass) Shingami.
She might eventually reappear in this story, maybe.

What do you guys think? I hope you all liked it.

I'll see you next chapter!

[MaJO]

Komachi not being lazy? I dont know... that doesnt seem feasible.

[Nicktendonick]

Here's the next update. So, why not ride on Rou's coattails and post on sunday too. Maybe we all can get a thing going and we all start updating sunday. XD

I'll be getting on a schedule of updating once a week, and I'll try that when I've written that far enough ahead instead of leaving everyone hanging (AKA, what Rou is doing, because he's got a good plan on updating, getting arcs done and posting reliably. Do what works. Much better idea then doing what I normally do, because that doesn't work)

Anyway Chocolate , to the question you asked, I honestly don't feel Komachi's as one-dimensional as that. She strikes me as the type who cares deeply about what she cares about and is proactive about those things. (like in this case, making sure Eiki's ok and making sure things go well for Fuka's sub, or in SWR, how she tries to ferry those stuck child souls across the river and her reaction to seeing Tenshi doing what she was doing. She didn't need to do either of them but did because she cared about it).

A woman who takes things at her own place her own way. she does thinks at the pace she thinks they need to be done, hence why she's slow even though she could do her workload 1000x time faster then a normal ferryman. Kameron's (end of the maiden's illusion) and Giselebon's takes on Komachi are some of my favorites (as well as Rou's komachi is a honorable mention too.)

Honestly, Suwako and Komachi are my favorite characters in Touhou. To me, they're deep interesting characters. (and if they were flat one dimensional gag girls, I'd find it much harder to write them)
 
But I do say, it is a funny gag. I just need the proper situation to milk it.
I can't wait till I get to her chapter. But until her chapter comes, I'll have to settle with the next one.

Enjoy.

-------------

Chapter 2 ? Crash landing

I looked at the Yamaxanadu-sama and her associate as they opened up their folder and looked at whomever it was.

I suppose I?ll be finding whomever I?m going to be working for mine too. I did wonder who Yamaxandu-sama might find as their replacement.

 ?Let?s see? Komachi said ??the name is?Liam?.Alibus??

Wh-wh-wha...

That?was my name!

My jaw dropped as both women turned my way and stared at me.

?They gave us a kid?!? Said the red-head in shock.

?M-m-me!?? I said. ?I?m you?re replacement??

Yamaxandu-sama answered that. ?It seems quite so Alibus-san.?

Yamaxandu-sama?s associate placed her hand on her forehead as she slid back in her seat. ?I can?t believe this?? she said to herself "They gave us one of these kid-"

?Nonsense Komachi." Interrupted Yamaxandu-sama. "We did come here to get our replacement after all. And now we have one.?

?Yea bu?? Said Yamaxandu-sama?s associate.

I think she wanted to complain?but she cut herself off, and instead she smiled and said ?You know, I think you?re right.?

She then hopped out of her chair. ?Comeon, let?s go home.? She was very tall.

After Yamaxandu-sama got up, I got up as well. Yamaxandu-sama wasn?t tall like her ferrywoman. She was just a little under my height, which is smaller then the average. Though, with the height of her associate it made Yamaxandu-sama (and myself) look small in comparison.

I reached under and grabbed my neatly folded up scythe, and reattached it to my lower back and secured it tightly. Nothing's going to make it fall off. That...would be a problem.

After we all got up, Yamaxandu-sama gave me back the binder of my infomation and smiled. ?It seems our meeting was more then just chance.? She said to me. ?Welcome aboard Alibus-San.?

?Th-Thank you Yamaxandu-sama? I said with a little bow.

?You don?t need to be so formal all the time. You can just call me Eiki.? Said Yamaxan?Eiki-sama.

?And you can just call me Komachi? Said Komachi-sempai

?O-ok.? I said as I walked out the door.  The outside was cloudy as always. It was strange to get use too when I first joined, I?ll be glad to be back on actual floor. It's been too long since I've been on ground.

Both ladies began to talk to ask me a few questions. ?So, do you know anything about where you?re being sent to??

I stopped and thought about it. ?Um...A little.? I answered ?I was told I was being sent to a region called Gensokyo. It?s human population is low, but there are plenty non-humans entities that exist there. The version of Gensokyo I'm headed to is sealed away inside an overlapping pocket dimension. They said you two would know more.?

?Hmm?? Said Komachi-sempai ?I think the easiest way would be to just show him Genskoyo. In the time it?d take to describe it we could already be there.? She said. ?I think a bird eye?s view should be a nice way to introduce him.?

I wasn?t exactly sure if that meant it?ll take very long to describe it, or very short.

Eiki-sama just shrugged. ?I suppose you?re right.? She said.

Komachi-sempai lent her hands out to us. ?You two grab hold. I?ll get us there in a flash.?

?Huh?? I said confused as I reached out and took Komachi-sempai?s hand.

Can Komach-sempai teleport or something? I heard that some of the strongest of the shingami and yamas can teleport across dimensions?

Komachi held onto me tight as she turned to me. ?Let me show you what I can do.? She said with a big smile.

?Komachi what are yo-? Eiki-sama said before Komachi cut her off and grabbing her hand too.

?Alright kid! Hold on tight and whatever you do don?t let go!? Komachi shouted as she seemed to-

"WAIT! Komachi! Don't do that Now!"I herd Eiki-sama say bef-

WHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!!!!!


AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!


WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!

---------------------

This was not teleportation. Kinda wish I knew that beforehand

The air had rushed all around me, and I couldn?t keep my grip on Komachi-sempai and my grip slipped out of Komachi-sempai?s hands. Within a moment I saw them disappear and instead I got stuck like this.

Well, I've been like this for a minute now. Or at least long enough to process the situation...

If...well, actually, what the hell is going on? My body was being rushed faster then I could remember, and probably supersonic.

I felt my whole body was nothing like a bullet being fired out of a gun. Within a blink I saw a world below me as I sped past it. There was nothing but green below me, my body rotated enough and I saw nothing but white clouds and blue sky above me. There was no sound. I couldn?t hear a thing as I skyrocketed across this green below me.

Did I make it?

The air was slowly slowing me down, but that was all I had at the moment.

I couldn't even flail, attempts withstanding. Son of a-

!!!!!

"OW!!!!!!!" I screached as I hit something...

I hit something! Crap! All I felt was a thud against my now num body. I couldn?t even see anymore, nothing but red. Whatever I hit was red.

I then felt it again, a second thud. I had no clue what in the world this was either.

I just felt myself going further and further, nothing in the world to stop us, now without anything but what seems like red blocking my vision.

Until I felt a loud, hard crack. The moment I felt it, I felt all the force in my body disappear. I then heard something loud screech off in the distance, a massive and powerful boom erupting above me and heading into the sky above, popping my ear drums in the process. I felt air finally returning inside my throat, and my body able to move, whatever rush my body was in now seemed over...

Oh crap I'm falling.

Oooohhhh Crrraaa-

-----------------------------

oooh....oh geeze...what was the name on that truck...

"sigh, You three are still breathing. That's good."

Huh? Is...someone speaking to me?

"oooooooooohhhhh....."

I probably oughta open my eyes...

"Don't worry. I'll fix you three up in a minute. HEAL!"

With a jolt, my brain suddenly recovering from the massive rattling it had just received.

Huh....someone healed me. Unnecessary, but cool.

While I may be a shingami and a shingami?s body can heal itself, but I still have to be careful. The graver the injury the longer it takes to heal.

?Oh goodness...you three are awake? I heard a soft voice say. "Are you three ok?"

?Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow? I heard another voice say to my side.

A third voice just groaned.

Did I really crash into two people in the sky?

My eyes stopped spinning and I saw a lady looking down at me. She had soft red eyes and long green hair tied together with a black and red bow, she wore a red dress that got brighter as it went down her body, and a white kerchief tied around her neck. She looked down at me with worry.

She reminded me of the way a doll looks. She's quite pretty.

?Are you ok?? she asked me.

?Kinda?? I muttered as I felt my body pull itself back together. I think my organs are back in the right place by now.

She then turned to my left, and as I looked I saw another person there.

A blue haired woman with an elaborate and beautiful cloth around her. The woman had a white and red shirt with a shawl attached to it. She turned, began to move a little, and proved she was still alive and in one piece.

?This is what I get for flying below the clouds?geeze?? I heard her mumble to herself.

She cocked her head up and saw the figure standing infront of the three of us.

?Iku, are you ok?? Said the green haired woman.

?Yea?I?m ok. Thanks for the save Hina-san.? Said the woman.

?My pleasure.? Said the woman known as Hina-san.

We looked to my other side and I saw a younger girl in a black dress she had white hair with a few purple and blue strands. The girl was cradling a forehead that was throbbing in pain.

?ow-ow-ow-ow?

?I?m very sorry about that bump to the head Tokiko. I had to find a way to stop you all before you crashed into the boundary?I hope you don?t mind?? Hina-san told her.

?Ooowwww?.? Muttered the girl, before finally stopping her mantra. She leaned up and sat on her rear. ?Thank you Hina-kami??

?Anytime.? Said Hina-sa, -kami,

Wait, did she say ka-
?After all Tokiko, we have a guest.?

?Huh?? said the bird girl. She then turned to her side. She saw the one woman on her side, and me on the other.

Though?when she saw me she knew exactly what was.

?Shingami!? She said in terror.

The bird girl crawled backwards away from me the moment she heard the word shingami.

?Oh-no oh-no did I die he's gonna take my soul!? Tokiko said in a panic.

Hina-san on the other hand had no worry.

?You have nothing to worry about Tokiko. He?s not here for you.? She told the winged girl.

?He?s?He?s not?? This bird girl said.

?If my guess is correct, he?s here to work under Yama Shiki. With what happened last month, I was expecting someone to be coming to Gensokyo.? She said, before looking at me. ?I assume that?s why you?re here??

uh.... yes, he's talking about Eiki-sama.

?I?I think so?but?Is this Gensokyo?? I asked.

The woman next to me and the bird girl had a little giggle. ?Of course it is.? She said. ?How can you go supersonic inside Gensokyo without knowing you?re in it??

I gave a sigh of relief. I made it after all?

"Actually, I'm quite curious about that myself." said the finely dressed woman. "What the heck happened? I was just flying below the clouds and next thing I know I'm on the ground here."

Umm...well...

?Well, I?m not sure how I got here. I think someone tried to teleport me or something to get me here really fast, but it messed up and shot me across the sky.? I said, trying to answer her as well as I could.

Hina-san put her hands together ?That would explain why you were flying faster then the speed of sound." she said making a elegant smile about such a subject. "I?m just lucky I felt the surge of misfortune in time and managed to stop it. If you three kept on going on like that you would have hit the boundary.?

?Ah!? Ahhed the bird girl. ?I would have died!?

?Yes. Despite you two being Youkai, you were both going fast enough that you and Miss Nagae would have been killed instantly. The boundary was made to withstand anything and everything that goes against it.?

Youkai? They?re Youkai? I?ve heard of those in the academy.

Hina-san turned to me next. ?If you don't mind, whatever sent you flying like that, may I ask that you would refrain from using that method of travel again? Flight is very common here in Gensokyo, and super sonic travel is quite dangerous to everyone in the sky.?

?I promise.? I never, ever want to move that fast again.

The three of us were getting off our rears and got back up. I helped the bird gir-Tokiko off her feet, while Hina-san helped the other youkai off her rear.

The thought just popped back in my head. My death vision. I need to make sure it?s sure working. The fates department told me it should be working now.

My eyes shined a moment. My vision began to shade like sunglasses, the world had a darker tint upon them. As I looked at the Bird Youkai her death clock, the time she has left to live before dying, along with her true name began to appear above her head in bright yellow words.

Tokiko, Zero days

I focused my eyesight on her, and more clear information about her life and future death came to me. I skipped over the name and processed the rest.

Ibis youkai, 15 years aged, never mated, zero offspring, lifespan negative 5 minutes?

At that point I stopped my staring at her. I saw what I was looking for and didn?t need any more. Her clock was now in the negatives? She should be dead?did I almost kill her?

Hmmm?

I turned to the other person I almost killed. The Nagae lady. At my first look I saw basic information.

Iku, zero days.

Looking closer, her death clock came to the exact same time.

Iku Nagae, Oarfish Youkai, Dragon vassal, 467 years aged, mated, zero offspring, multiple siblings, lifespan negative 5 minutes.

huh?I almost did.
I?m glad fate isn?t absolute. Thank god?I don?t even wanna think about what would have happened.

I turned to Hina-san, seeing if I could identify her as well. As-

!

As soon as I saw her name begin to appear I felt her hand on my shoulder as she make eye contact with me, her giving nothing but another pretty smile. As I began to see her information she took a step to my side, making the information that I was about to see fade away.

?If you wish to look with your vision, you can look later after they leave.? She softly

I double blinked, and my vision returned to normal.

?How did yo-? I began to say, before another voice unknowingly interrupted

?Well, thanks for everything, but I need to get going.? Said the blue haired Oarfish Youkai. ?My boss actually is working today, so I can?t be seen slacking off.?

Hina-san frowned. ?Your boss is busy?? she said followed by giving a sigh. ?Oh well. I was hoping the three of us could all sit down for some tea. It?s been so long since I visited the dragon palace. Some other time I suppose.?

?Sounds good to me. I?ll pass that message along.? She said.

Iku Nagae?s feet floated off the ground.

?You three have a good day! Bye!? Iku Nagae said to us before making a hop off the ground and speeding away.

?Have a pleasant day Iku!? Hina-san kindly shouted to Iku Nagae as she flew away. ?I know you?ll have plenty more ahead of you.?

The way she said that?I felt a little unsettled. Who is this Hina-san?
How did she know about my coming, or about my shingami vision?

I reactivated my shinagmi vision. I looked at Tokiko?s lifespan again, and I saw a relieving sight. Her death clock began to rise. From one minute to one hour, one hour to one day, one day to two week, and it kept on rising until It stopped around five to six weeks or so.

The fates department must be readjusting. Seems like her next potential death might happen around then.

?So?umm?with her gone, umm... why is there a shingami in gensokyo? I thought we had enough shingami?? Tokiko asked her, my eyes blinking and my vision returning to normal. I guess I got a little sucked up in looking with my death vision.

?One was injured some time ago.? Hina answered. ?He?s here to help with that injured shingami."

?Oooohhhh? Tokiko spoke.

Tokiko turned to me and gave a bow.

?Welcome to Gensokyo Reaper-San?

I turned around and similar bow.

?It?s a pleasure to be here.? I said.

?Tokiko, would you like me to walk you home? It?s dangerous here in the mountains.? Hina-san asked Tokiko.

She liked that.

?Ok, thank you Hina-kami!? She said with a simle.

wait, ka-...

"uh...what that?" I muttered to myself, as I watched a duplicate of Hina walk out of Hina?s body?what?

What? What in the world?

The duplicate stepped out of Hina?s body, the original giving a helping hand, one then saying ?thank you?, and the other Lady Hina saying ?you?re welcome me?

What the heck am I looking at?

?Come along child, the feral youkai here haven?t been acting like themselves and have been quite wild these past few days. Let us make a move on? Said the second Hina.

How in the world did she?

?Bye Reaper-San!? Tokiko said.

I didn?t say anything.

I can?t tell the difference between them. Both Hinas are the exact same?

?Mr. Reaper??

Just?.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and by body gave myself a instinctive shock. ?Mr. Reaper, are you ok?? I heard Hina say to me. Not in japanese as I've been hearing, but in..um..english! Yes, it's English

Luckily, death, nulls the language barrier. The language barrier is a problem for the living, not the dead. It's just tough to tell the difference between languages when they all sound the same.

My mind snapped back. Mostly.

?What?did you just do?? I asked, confused at what I just saw.

?Take a look with your vision Mr. Reaper.? She told me again in english. ?It?s much easier to explain what I am.?

And so I did. My vision tinted as I focused on the mysterious Hina, as her own information began to come into view, reading it out loud.

?Hina Kagiyama, Divine being, Curse Goddess, 5251 years aged, no offspring, no sibli-?

?-Goddess!?

I took a step back?

What was infront of me was a?

?Yes, the culmination of human belief and faith, a god. I am one of the local goddess of this world. I am Hina Kagiyama, a curse god." Spoke the deity, introducing her godly self to me with a greeting bow.

"To be specific, I am the goddess of misfortune. While I have the power to give misfortune to others, it is the opposite of what I like to do. I absorb all the misfortune I can find to help others, such as I did for you three moments ago.?

?I?ve only seen a few gods before in the academy? but to see another right infront of me like this?

?Mr Reaper?? I heard her say, my attention returning to her serene, almost doll-like face. ?You do know of us gods correct??

Oh right, I had to answer
?Ye-yes?? I answered with a slight stutter, now answering her back in english ?I never thought I?d be meeting once face to face. I was told gods are somewhat rare to find in human worlds, while many live in them they don?t appear very often.?

Hina-sa?Hina-kami smiled, and spoke. ?There?s plenty of gods here Mr. Reaper. This world is just filled with them?you just need to look in the right place, such as here in Gensokyo. We?re all quite friendly here, so I doubt any of us will give you any trouble.?

?I see? I both said and thought.

She had a soft and kind presence to her. She felt trustworthy. And she did just save the lives of two youkai. I was usually warned curse gods weren?t the kindest fellows?I wonder if?

OH!

?Oh! I?m sorry?.I never introduced myself.  I am Liam Alibus.? I said with a bow.

I can ponder later.

?It?s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Alibus.? Hina-kami said back, before turning around and noticing something.

?It seems Ms. Onozuka has finally reached us.? Said Hina-kami,

Huh?

My mind trailed upward, I felt like there was something there too. I was soon proven correct.
 
?Kiddddd! Heyyy!? I heard yelled in japanese.

Hina-kami and I looked up and at the airborne speaker, and I saw the first familiar sight of the day. Komachi-sempai was in the far distance, her voice yelling and echoing all the way to us.

?Kiddd! I finally found you!? I heard her say again as she noticed me and made her bee line towards us.

I breathed a great sigh of relief. Rescue had finally come for me, maybe Komachi-sempai can finally help me figure out all that?s going on.

After getting thrown through the air, If this is how my day begins, part of me fears how it should end. I doubt I should worry about that though.

After all, how worse can it get?

Chapter 2- End

AN: Kid, you have no idea.

And now chapter 2, and Liam makes his crash landing into Gensokyo and meeting three girls we probably won?t be seeing much, our favorite iblis and Oarfish youkais, as well as Hina. Hina may cameo again, but I?m not all too sure. It?s just if it happens or not.

I kinda like making Hina not be much of a natural Japanese speaker. The concept of misfortune is quite old. She may have theoretically been around as long as people started attributing the concept of misfortune to the supernatural (it's not my fault, the gods are angry at me)

Also, as you can tell, this story isn?t a full first person narrative from Liam?s point of view, but each chapter the POV will jump to another character. As you might guess, We started with Liam giving the prologue, Eiki giving chapter 1, Liam gives chapter 2, and it?ll be Komachi?s turn next chapter.

Lastly, I'm a tad curious on what you all think of my writing style, and the formatting. Most of the text is entered and not grouped together. Does this work better, or worse for you the reader?

Anyway, thank you all for taking your time out to read, and I hope you all continue to enjoy ?The reaper of gensokyo?
I'll see you next week.

[MaJO]

I was busting your balls.  I know, like Hong Meiling, Komachi is a deep and interesting character despite the fanbases making them not so.

also change herd to heard. Herd is a group of wild animals, mainly cows.

[Nicktendonick]

I was busting your balls.  I know, like Hong Meiling, Komachi is a deep and interesting character despite the fanbases making them not so.

also change herd to heard. Herd is a group of wild animals, mainly cows.

*Reads it in*
heh-heh...*sweatdrop* I'm somewhat new here, couldn't tell the difference if you were well, you know. I need to poke my head around more instead of well....not.

And thanks for the correction Chocolate. You truly are a Sunbro. I'm glad you like it man.

[Blue]

This looks like a pretty good fic so far. I like the story, and Liam seems like a pretty good OC to me. There are a few grammar errors, but the ones that I saw were just a few capitalization and comma placement issues, so it's fine. Looking forward to more chapters.

[Nicktendonick]

It's been a while since I updated. Heh.

You can blame the new pokemon for that. Dear lord, that game is just pure awesome. I'm very, very much enjoying it. As you can see this hasn't been updated in a while, and that's to blame. This may or may not influence things. May or may not.

This looks like a pretty good fic so far. I like the story, and Liam seems like a pretty good OC to me. There are a few grammar errors, but the ones that I saw were just a few capitalization and comma placement issues, so it's fine. Looking forward to more chapters.

Yea, I do notice that seems to be my little downfall. I seem not to notice those errors sometimes. That's why I usually speak out what I write as a final draft, to catch myself when I make grammar speech mistakes my mind skips over when reading.

I'm glad you're enjoying the story and Liam. So, here's the next segment of the story, enjoy!

---------------------------------

Chapter 3 ? The Welcome Wagon

?Kyan!?

I was launched at high speed into the ground, my body smashing into the ground like a ragdoll, forming a tiny crater and a kicking up a whole lot of dust.

It took a second for me to heal, and looking up, I could see my cute little boss fuming, floating in the air high above me.

Komachi, you really did it this time.

Eiki had finally stopped whacking me with that last one and began to descend from the air. Hopefully...she got it out of her system...

?What in the world were you thinking Komachi?!? She yelled again

Or not?

?We finally get our sub, you scare him half to death, and now you lose him because you wanted to shoot him there! He?s probably halfway across Gensokyo now!?

She landed by my side, and extended her hand to help me up.
I took the helping hand, until it moved it and bonked me on the fresh bump she made on my head.

?You knucklehead? She told me.

I blinked and flinched again grasping my already throbbing head.

?What the heck were you thinking?? She said

I pouted and answered ?I was planning on giving him a prime view of his hunting ground, that?s what.? I responded.

It looked like Eiki was calming down, well, a small bit.

?And you thought that was the best way to do it? With barely a warning?? She asked me.

?I didn?t expect him to let go.? I argued to her.

She just sighed

?And how many have let go? You do remember how many people manage to hold on the first time you do that to them, do you? None of them do. Remember when you first tried it with me? You ? literally - shot me out of orbit.?

?Oh yea, I remember that, you crash landed on the moon captial and they-"

"Oh right th?"

?..

?damn

?.

I looked away from Eiki and pouted.

?It seemed like a good idea at the time.? I said childishly.

She said nothing back.

I then looked back to her.
She looked at me.

We looked at eachother.

And?

I crossed my arms ?Alright alright, I?m sorry. I should have thought about it before I actually did it.?

?Goo-ahhh...? Eiki broke her composure and her word, breaking into an uncontrollable yawn. It took her a moment to get back to speaking

"I accept your apology. But Liam?s the one you really need to apologize too, figuring you just shot him at supersonic speed. I?ll be waiting to hear him accept your apology too.? She said to me.

Hu-oh I know where this is going.

We looked at eachother.

?and it seemed she did too.

?You know you gotta go get him now.?

I turned away again. ?I know...? I groaned. Well, I suppose I ought to anyway. I did cause this.  But when am I suppose to go see Fuka today? I was planning to visit where they were keeping our fallen friend.

Reluctantly accepting this mission, I gave another sigh and began to get up. Eiki gave me her hand to help with that, this time with no whacking either.

My friend helped me up, and gave a yawning stretch afterwards, as my spine also straitened out as it put itself back in place.

?Alright. Let me go find the kid.? I said, dusting myself off. ?Where would you want me to flash us-?

?No. No distance-warping Komachi. Just normal travel, ok?? Eiki told me.

Awww. ?Really?? I said.

?I?m sure he?s been traumatized enough today.? Eiki jested

We looked at eachother.

"Well, by us".

We both nearly laughed.

I gave a shrug. ?Fine.? I said nonchalantly. ?Where would you like me to meet ya when I pick him up??

?Meet me back at my house, ok?? Eiki told to me. ?I need to go back to my office and make sure everything?s ready for my replacement. After, they'll probably make sure I stay here."

...that I did know... last time we threw her on a "mandatory" vacation she started sneaking in after hours and started cleaning and organizing everyone's stuff. She managed to clean half of our department offices before we finally caught her.

Ahhh...such a workoholic that girl. That's why I love ya Eiki.

Hmm, I wonder if she's gonna manage to sneak in again...we all know she's gonna. I am totally not gonna lose the betting pool this time, especially to that Fuji reaper again.

"Well, enjoy it Eiki-sama, I'm off, and see ya later!"

-------------------

After departing my adorable boss, I entered inside the nearby forest.
Getting off my feet, I saved myself the trouble of walking and floated through the forest.

I sighed.
So much more work to do today. I could probably find the kid if I searched hard enough....but....It'll take a while, and if I slack she'll catch me today. Especially if she's about to have a LOT of time on her hands very soon...

Geeze, I still gotta do today and yesterday's workloads today. And I know I'll be giving him some sort of a tour of his new stomping grounds. I mean, it's just one of those things I just don't think about until it happens. How much time is that gonna give me now? Geeze, and then if I even want to go visit Fuka-chan too. When in the world can I do all of that? What about Komachi-time, I need time too. And nap time too.

Ahhhh. I don't wanna....but I gotta...Eiki's gonna be super watching me now.

"Looking for someone?" I heard.

Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks. I see a medium sized fairy infront of me, stopping my path.

I jam on the proverbial breaks and stop floating along, seeing this fairy infront of me.
She wore a elegant purple dress, with a pink little cap on her head. She had normal wings, almost too perfectly normal wings that flapped in the air. With golden eyes the fairy flew up into my face.

"Yea, I am. Quite busy too." I said, hoping she'd leave me alone.

I looked again at her wings. Something seemed off about those things.

"Really?" She said, in a manner that seemed to fake curiosity. I noticed the wag of her finger in a strange way before she flew right into my face, her golden eyes shining in my face.

"Could you tell me please? " She then said to me, "I've been out of the loop so much lately, I'd love to know."

As the fairy's eyes glistened, as I looked into them, I felt obligated to lay it all out.

"Some dumb-ass celestial who I haven't tracked down yet beat Fuka almost to death, nearly destroyed that shingami's entire soul and ever since Fuka hasn't been able to reap. Eiki and I have been covering the reaping for some time now, and finally, we now have a temp who just got out of the academy to fill in while Fuka heals up. Liam Albius's is the kid's name. He's a cute little kid, but I've meet much cuter men."

Was I just totally honest there for a moment? Well, Liam was cute for his age range...

"Then I kinda screwed up and launched him halfway across gensokyo. Now I gotta find our newbie, give him the grand tour and put him through the ropes. I don't know how strong he is, but if he needs it I was thinking a friend of mine in the bamboo forest might be able to help for some training. She's usually good in that manner of toughening people up. But I don't know about it though, I'd probably need to go over it with Eiki first."

Wait a sec...why am I telling her all this?

....Oh yea! She asked me with those golden eyes... I could see her making one of those "ahhhh, it now makes sense" arm folding thinking poses from the new information I told her, before she locked eyes with me again.

"I never knew, thank you very much shingami-san" she said to me.

"Just don't go telling everyone ok?" I told her, our eyes still locked. "Eiki and I haven't been telling people about it, we don't want everyone to know there's been a deficiently here, and I as hell don't want the youkai or hermits to find out they got a easy reaper to contend with. I totally know a bunch of dumb-asses waiting for their fight against a reaper will flood here to like they always do when there's blood and fresh meat in the water."

Wait...didn't Eiki tell me not to tell people about this?

I broke eye-contact with my fairy friend. The moment I did, my mind possessed the thought, why am I telling her all this?

"Hey, I don't think I've meet a fairy that ever cares about this. You fairies are pretty much immortal anyway, we never deal with you. Why are you asking me this? " I questioned her.

The fairy flew past me like she was in a hurry. "Oh...my shikigami wasn't collecting info like I asked, so I decided to go straight to the source. That's all. Thanks again for the info Komachi-san."

Wait wh-

I heard a voice behind me. A much older voice.

"Your forgetfulness is too much, you should be more retentive. That's a boundary that you should not forget."

I looked back immediately to see the voi....

Um...the what? I looked back, and I didn't see anything. There was absolutely nothing behind me.

Was I looking for something?

Oh! Yes!
Yes, I was looking for Liam.

Wait...no, wasn't I suppose to be looking for something else too? A fairy...no, haven't run into one today...

I scratched my head of what just happened, my only memory of the past minute was a pair of stereotypically normal fairy wings, and someone saying thank you. But like I remembered I haven't run into a fairy today.

I shook my head. Must have been one of those annoying fairy tricks. Couldn't have been anything else.

I shook it all off.

"Girlfriend, just forget about it. Whatever it was...just whatever." I said to myself, giving up on whatever just happened. "Just go up, just get a eagle-eye view and get this over with."

I knew I was right. Just get this over with, and hurry my butt up.

With that, I took flight and flew far above the forest. Flying higher and higher into the sky and just below the clouds I began my search. Looking around I started to scan for a sign of something that happened.

North, south, east and west, I saw nothing whatsoever.

So I skipped around.
Using my power to manipulate distance, within a second I was at a large open area next to a giant misty lake.

High above the lake I searched again. No signs of life again, expect for the fairies playing below me. I didn't see anything here.
Before the fairies below noticed me, I skipped around once again.

I moved to the very top of Youkai Mountain, former capital of the oni kingdom, and current home of the their successor, the Tengu settlement.

Well, a good chunk of the mountain is the Tengu's territory, the rest is all wild territory where some of Gensokyo's strongest wild youkai reside. Like those dang bears.

.....

...bloody youkai bears. They drive everyone away from the best honey points in Gensokyo.  Leaving me to fend off that dang mama bear so I can get honey for Asakura's honey ales. I don't know how that guy does it, but Asakura-san's brews are totally worth getting mauled by Youkai bears for. He's as good as his father, grandparents, and great-grandmother.

Arriving to Gensokyo's highest point, I landed on the flat surface of Gensokyo's highest point. It's a moderate flat area, not too bad. There's a few trees here, but aside from that nothing else makes their home here.

"Ahem."

Except for the Tengu watchguards.

"Oh! Hello!" I said, looking up to see a wolf tengu with a flat, very huggable bushy white tail standing ontop of a tree. She had short silver hair with a tiny little tengu tokin on it. She had a nicely woven white shirt with detached sleves, one that reminded me of what a shrine maiden wears.

"Looking for something?" She asked me flatly.

Man, this one always gets to business fast. What was her name again? Dang, I always remember Aya, but I keep forgetting her underling's name.

"Um...yea. It's official afterlife business stuff." I said.

If there's someone who blabs things to someone else, it's the tengu. Keep my tongue in my mouth...

"So I suppose you're responsible for that sonic boom that crashed into the mountain?"
She said with that hint of adversarial journalism she usually has.

If it wasn't a shingami, I would expect Ms. Serious to draw that sword of hers that's hanging by her side. She always draws her sword, like a dog bearing fangs at a possible foe.

But she knew me. She knows she wouldn't last five minutes against me, and thus, no point to figh-wait...

Sonic boom? That's it! That's got to have been him. Woohoo, this is going faster then I had hoped. Hasn't even been 30 minutes yet and I already found his trail (of destruction)!

"No, just heading to the source of it myself. Mind telling me where that happened? I got a date with the kid who was that sonic boom. Gotta show the new meat aroun-" I stopped myself cold.

ohhhh crap. I said too much.

I fidgeted, my mind reworking what I was about to say, despite letting the cat out of the bag right there. She knew, she totally had to know. Those eyes of hers refused to let go of me, taking in everything I was doing and clearly making mental notes.

...crap.

Oh screw it, just cut to the chase Komachi.

"Ok ok, um... can you just tell me where it happened? I said "I need to deal with stuff there."

"Stuff. Right." She didn't act like a normal tengu, trying to get a new "news" story out of this. Instead, fluffy tail gave a simple reply that clearly showed she really didn't give a damn "It's on the wild side of the mountain, close to the mid-center, not too far from where those feral youkai have been acting up."

Oooo...That means I gotta find him before he's youkai-chow.

"Thanks a million....um"...oh crud I forgot her name again "...Inuyas-"

"Inubashiri Momiji, Onozuka-san" she said cutting me off. I suppose she realized I forgot again...

Hey, points for trying?

She leaned in. "Please try not to forget my name Onozuka-san."

Ouch.... I guess not.

Passing by her, I got that sense that she'd be keeping her eye on me. And with those eyes of hers, she probably just from standing on that tree-top...and figuring who she works for...

Great.
Well, I suppose I oughta be ready for that bridge when it's crossed. I suppose I should also save her the time and just show him the Tengu later. If I'm with him when it happens, we should be mostly ok.

"I will" I said to the Tengu who's name I'll probably forget by day's end.

......

I'm a face person. Not a name person.

I flew off towards where Inubashiri-san showed me, and low and behold I began to see it. No destruction though. weird. The trees got blown a bit, but nothing really was destroied. Well, execpt for one uprooted tree.

And the kid was right there. Looking deeper, I saw another figure with him,

Ahh, Hina-kami.
That explains it.

Once into view I waved my hand and shouted for him. ?Kiddddd! Heyyy!? To get their attention

I succeeded, and I made a bee line to the duo ?Kiddd! I finally found you!?

Landing on the ground, I gave a welcoming bow to Hina-kami.

"It's good to see you once again Komachi-san" She said to me.

Liam gave a relief on his face, before thinking.

"Sempai....um...what happened to me?" Liam asked. "I know that you were taking me here to gensokyo, and next thing I know I'm here. Um....what the heck happened?"

I saw Hina-kami in thought.

"If what I guess...I assume he let go?"

....
....busted already...

I brought my hands and my scythe behind my back.
"Yea....he kinda did."

Liam didn't know what was going on.
Oh yea! He doesn't know of my power. Of course he doesn't know

"Let me explain. I have power to manipulate distance. I can make distances very long become very short, or vice versa." I explained to him. "I tried to bring you here really fast, using my power....and well..."

"Reaper-san let go, and with the momentum he was launched into the sky."

uhhh...

"Supersonically and nearly killing two people..." She added...

Uhhh...

"Yeeeea, something like that." I tacked on.

Liam took it a bit better then I thought he would. Infact, instead of anger, he sighed and it looked like he felt sad about the whole ordeal I just put him through "Sorry Sempai." he said to me.

Before I could speak, Hina-kami did "Don't be sorry Liam. Everyone lets go the first time. Even I did. I got launched quite deep into the ground. Straight into the underground actually."

Ahh, Komachi's greatest fails, let's just bring them all u-

"And speaking of, Komachi-san, please refrain from doing that. You know the sky can be crowded. Please stop shoot people into the sky like that."

uhhh...um...

"I'll um...make sure that doesn't happen again." I said.

She gave me a lovely smile.

"I assume you two have some business to take care of?" She asked me.

"We do Hina-Kami." I said back "Come-on kid, lets go to Eiki-sama's home. She said to meet us there."

"Where is it?" He asked me.

"Oh, It's Not too far." I told him.

I took to the air, but Liam did not.

"Um...Sempai...are we going to do that thing again?"

My eyes saw Hina's eyes, remembering what I had earlier vowed before I answered. "No. We'll take the slow path."
I could see them give a sigh of relief.

After Hina-kami gave her goodbyes to use we departed.

I lead Liam high above into the sky. Finally reaching our point someway off the mountain, the entire land of gensokyo, or at least enough to give Liam a good view of his new territory.

Gensokyo....gensokyo is a very beautiful place. It's a place of awe and beauty. A place untouched by time. Nature in it's purest form. The mountainside and the flowing rivers, the green bamboo forest and the forest of magic, all of it.

This view, as I looked below me, was one of my favorites.

I turned to see how Liam was taking this in. He was quite awed be the view. I had a smile of pride seeing that. It looked like the first time he ever saw such a sight.

This was how I wanted to introduce Gensokyo to him.
It's pure...awe-inspiring beauty.

"Like the view?" I asked him.

I didn't need to hear his response, his eye said yes for me.

Granted, that didn't stop him from saying "Yes. It's...amazing."

I had a little chuckle, and put my free hand on my side. "You look like this is first time you've ever seen a forest."

"In a way it kinda is." He said to me.

Huh?

"Back where I lived, there really wasn't any forests, or anything like this. Most of my world was developed metropolises, or just desert. Well, most of it was desert anyway...I think."

He floated in a circle around me, taking each part of Gensokyo's view in.

"They're just so much of it here. I've never seen so much of it in one place." Liam told me as I saw him enjoying this perfect view. He turned to me "It is like this all over the planet here?" Liam asked.

"It use to be." I said. "But over the past few centuries humans, which is the unchallenged dominate species on this planet, began to develop it."

"They have developed lots of the land, but there's a lot of spots where you can find nothing but nature just like this. Infact, the humans themselves have made and quartered off a few of those areas, they call them nature preserves or something like that. Gensokyo, in a way is one too, for totally different reasons."

Figuring no-one's told him yet, I might as well give you a quick history lesson Liam.
"Figuring no-one's told you yet, I might as well give you a quick history lesson Liam."

Looking at the boy answered it for me. Liam seemed more then willing to listen to me speak.
And I am more then happy to speak.

"In the past, all over the planet youkai use to live in places where humans didn't populate, such as these massive forests, and humans themselves carved out their own land. Human and Youkai interaction was very common and both races clashed from time to time, then repopulated, then fought again and whatnot. That was pretty much the way things were. But, the balance of power began to shift in the past few centuries, mostly the past two thousand years in favor of humans, through technological achievement. Unlike many worlds, the humans here use to use magic once, but they've forgotten it, and use electricity and technology to build their civilization in lieu of magic."

"Really?" Liam asked me.

"Yep" I confirmed. "Infact, magic and youkai are treated as fiction by humans, denying it's existence all together. Nobody thinks they're real, and whenever there are small little "slip-ups" the humans themselves rationalize the mystical parts of it away. It's made our life a lot easier when it comes to reaping them. Won't last forever of course, but it's how things are now. But that's not gensokyo. As you've seen, everybody knows we're here."

"Anyway, human civilization and their magic-less cities began pushing youkai out, and before long humans practically took control and settled on every landmass on the planet. Losing their home and existences, the Youkai found themselves at a crossroads. Some changed and adapted into human society hiding their true nature, others decided to stake out their own land and drive everyone else away, and the last group of youkai decided to make lands hidden from humankind, using magic as the key to entering into their secret worlds so they can keep on living how they use to."

"I'm guessing Gensokyo is the later." Liam accurately guessed.

I snapped my fingers and pointed them at him as he got it right "You're catching on quick kid" I said with a smile.

"As you said, Gensokyo is one of those hidden away lands. It's a mountainous area that is tough to get to by mortal means, and is very disconnected from the rest of Japan, the country Gensokyo is located in.  We've had a presence here long before the barrier was set up, due to some of the planet's most powerful deities and youkai making Gensokyo their stomping grounds. When they started living here, we shortly followed and created the Gensokyo branch."

Ok, his brain seems to be soaking this in well.
That's good.

"A little under two hundred years ago, the youkai here decided that instead of dealing with the growing humanity presence, they decided to seal Gensokyo away in a giant magic barrier, putting it in a pocket dimension that existed right ontop of the real Gensokyo."

That boundary going up, It was quite an sight to behold. I even took pictures for my personal photo album. Ahhh...

"And that's the land you see today. You can't see the barrier unless you apply something against it, but it's there. It's actually easy getting use to living under a giant dome, especially since you can't see it... the people who made this thing thought this thing through, they really wanted to make something that would last. And aside from a single lynchpin, the people who made it did a pretty damn good job."

"You getting all of this sofar Liam?" I asked him. "It's a lot to soak in, and I can show you the info on this place later."

"No, I'm good sempai. Is there more?"

"Of course" I said prideful.

I'm not sure how much of this he'll remember, even if he says he does. Oh well, I can refresh him later. Let's see...let's get the rest of the boundary team 101.

"Let me tell you about who made the barrier. The boundaries was created with a tri-fecta of entities that are still around today. A family bloodline of humans, a youkai that could alter reality, and a powerful dragon god."

"Wait, dragon god?" Liam interrupted me.

Oh...o boy. Dragon god, how do I describe him...um...hmm...what might he relate to...Oh I know!

"Uhhhh....Heard of Overlord Babylon?" I asked him.

"Yea. That giant dragon overlord that ruled a good chunk of the multiverse at one time? I remember reading about him in the academy." Liam answered.

Oh good. That makes it easier.

"They're the same species." I told him.

"Seriously?" Liam said with shock.

"Yep." I said with a nod. "The Dragon God's a cool dude, and his mere presence keeps the rest of earth's superpowered creatures in check. Nobody wants to piss him off, and sans a couple of crazy souls virtually everyone gravels at his feet whenever he actually does appear. Usually, he just chills up in clouds at his palace with his servants and the celestials that reside there."

Of course, I omit that he can be even lazier then I am (which is saying something), rather not leave a bad first impression on the guy.  "But he's the least active of Gensokyo's powerplayers. You'll barely see him, I'm sure about that."

"Wow, I didn't think someone so powerful would live here. Someone that powerful just causally going around..." He told m--haha....

mmm-I felt a laugh about to come out, taking all my willpower not to laugh.
 
I turned to the side let out my emotion with a little misleading chuckle "If you think he's something. The other two sides that created the boundary are a whole other bag o worms."

Liam looked at me, confused.
Sigh.
"The other two, the boundary youkai Yukari Yamako, and the Hakurei shrine maidens are very, very involved in Gensokyo's so going-ons."

"First are Priests and Shrine Maidens of The Hakurei shrine, who are a family of very powerful humans that live here. They helped create the barrier, and they have a very important role in maintaining the barrier too, or so I'm told cause noone ever told me the fine details except that the barrier would collapse without them alive. They're also usually the protectors of Gensokyo. When incidents and big stuff happen, usually they're behind stopping it."

"Currently though, the family is well, just a mother and daughter. Seika Hakurei and her little daughter, Reimu Hakurei. Lately she's been trying to raise her daughter, so she hasn't been all so active lately unless it pertains to her little girl."

He "ahhhh'd" to that.

"But assume she's a pushover and Seika will leave you in a crater a kilometer huge. Seika's one of Gensokyo's strongest fighters, definitely stronger then the majority of youkai here. She and her friend Clementine are the two who deal with the incidents that happen around here, they've spent their lives beating up gensokyo's troublemaking youkai. Also, she's also a friend of mine, so I don't want to hear from Seika you're causing her or little Reimu trouble. Ok?"

I should go pay Seika a visit lately. She's been so shut in this whole month. I know the humans at the village said she's come by, but still. Raising Reimu alone might be taking more of a toll on her then I thought. She seemed ok when I was there for her birthday last month, but I still need to see her myself. I've been so busy I haven't even had the time to even say hi.

I should take Liam to meet her at least once...

!
That's it!

That'd be a great excuse to go visit her. I know Eiki's replacement isn't gonna let me get off easy, so I'll need a reason to visit on-hours. I'll take him to meet her in person. Could snatch up some of Asakura-san's Honey ale, go visit her and have a nice drink. That does sound quite per-

"Got it Sempai." He said.

My little reaper snapped me out of my thought.

"Oh, um..alright." I said as I adjusted my mind back on the rails.

...

It kinda took a moment.

"Alright, that's all for Seika. Now time for number three."

Now time for the last member of the boudnry trio.

"You're going to need to remember this one. The last and most important of these three is Yukari Yakumo, the youkai of boundaries and the De facto ruling authority of Gensokyo. One of the strongest, if not the strongest youkai in Gensokyo." I told him,

"Wait, what did you said she was the youkai of?" Liam asked me.
Attentive kid, some don't catch that first time through.

"Of Boundaries." I replied.

"Boundaries?" he parroted.

"Yep" Confirmed me. "As you know, many youkais, humans, demons and the whatnot can develop some sort of innate power, some special ability of their own. Yukari's, as strange as it is, is that of manipulating boundaries."

Liam took a minute to try to think in his own head, what does boundaries do?

I don't blam him, took me a bit longer the first time too. It's quite a shock to see what she can do.

"That doesn't sound very strong, or make much sense." He said.

"I thought so too. We had a sparring match once, and then I realized how wrong I was when she wiped the floor with me using those powers alone" I fidgeted a bit, cleanly passing over that humiliating defeat "....and then again without using them." cleanly passing over the second humiliating defeat.

But, instead Liam was just confused. "How are boundaries strong?"

I'll be honest. I don't know. I just don't freaking know. And I really don't know how she made them so strong. I can control distance, that's kinda self-explanatory. But her, but for Yukari, I just don't bloody know.

"I'm not sure really" I told him straight "But somehow she's evolved her own power to manipulate the boundaries between similar concepts and intangible things, and the ability to screw with them at will. As she said to me, as long as there's a middle ground between two things, nomatter what they are, she can manipulate it."

"Like the distance between two trees?"

"That's my own power, but yea, something like that. She's also a very powerful magic user and just flat out extremely strong in pretty much every regard. She also has the uncanny skill of somehow uncovering information. Don't know how she does it, but she's a pro at that."

Seriously, she does. It's hella annoying. How in the world does she figure our secrets out?

"On a personal level, She's usually a friendly person if you can make friends with her, and well, slightly troublesome regardless if you're friends or not. She's one well...very youkai-like youkai I suppose. She's very cunning and quite sneaky when she wants to be, always aiming to achieve some sort of goal she'll be extremely vague about telling you, even if she's got no goal in mind."

Liam looked as confused as I usually am when dealing with Yukari.
Ahhh, confusing people before they even meet.

Speaking of confusing, how do I tell her about her. Geeze...hmmm...

"Um...well."

Hmmm...think girl think

She's...complicated. She sleeps for most part of the year, barely active, extremely lazy in her doings, and usually manipulates other people to get done what she wants done.

My hand met my hip as I began to think about it more.

Still, I really wish she stop...being so vague and cryptic about almost freaking everything. Even if it's "Happy Birthday Komachi, I got you a new necklace," she goes through freaking leaps and bounds instead of just telling me to my face. It's annoying as hell.

I suddenly reopened my eyes.

uh...turns out I said that all outloud.


ooohhhh....

"uhhh..."

Liam had a "I didn't like the sound of that" expression. That fearful "what the hell am I getting myself into" expression.

I brought up waving hands to try to calm him down.

"Hey hey. You shouldn't need to worry about her. As ambiguous she may be, Yukari's one of the good guys and one of the few pillars of order that exist here in Gensokyo. Most Youkai revere her, for a variety of reasons, and when she speaks others listen."

"If anything, she's on our side, infact her closest friend works for us. Eiki and I need to introduce you to her later, but that's not now. For a rule of thumb, As long as you don't go threatening Gensokyo, Yukari won't mess with you."

Or if she finds it funny. Or if she's in the prankster mood. Or if she's... eh, good enough on Yukari 101. He can discover the rest himself.

"Ahhh...umm...I see..." He said.

"Like I said she's on our side. She's well, it's easiest to get a feel for her if you just meet her in person, she'll probably try to meet you eventually. And FYI, She loves to stroke her own ego and talk about herself, so there's a in for ya."

It seems our conversation has reached it's conclusion, he went a bit more silent after I told him that.

I held onto my scythe, and Liam's still had his weird white scythe still folded up and strapped above his tush. We entered that awkward moment of silence that happens when conversations end. Looking around Gensokyo from my favorite spot won't cut it anymore.

"Hey, Liam, let's go meet up with Eiki-sama now, ok? I haven't showed you where she lives yet."

"Alright Sempai" He said as he began to take off.

Just before I moved, I felt a buzz behind me.

"Huh?" I said to myself, my attention turning to it and seeing nothing.
My senses told me otherwise.

The corner of my eye caught it. a small little nat. Something so small, something so unnoticeable, totally not moving around like small little nats should. Instead, it was just flying in place.

It was like it was watc...Ohhh.....

"Wriggle...You sneak" I muttered under my breath, and I gave a gentle blow, seemingly snapping it out of it's trance and back to how nats normally act.

Oh well, was gonna happen anyway. Surprised so soon. Maybe Yukari found out?

...nah...we've been keeping this under wraps, sans my loose lips to Aya's lackey a moment ago I haven't told anybody when our sub was coming, and Eiki said she hasn't either. Fuka wasn't around to tell anybody either, so that's out. Yuyuko knew Fuka was out and that we were getting a temp replacement but...

Hmm...maybe she leaked it? Yuyu gave us her word she'd stay silent, and she's not the type to lie like that. Maybe when I'm back to my boring routine I'll check it ou-

"Sempai? Which way do we go?" I heard him say.

Oh well, whatever, this was gonna happen to the kid anyway.

"Right. Just follow me kiddo. If nothing gets in our way, it shouldn't take too long" I lied.

Of course, I knew that something was in our way. I don't think she's want it any other way .

I lead Liam into the forest below us. I noticed a few more bugs flying in place as we did.

...Buckle up kiddo, seems like the first member of the welcome wagon is headed your way.

Chapter 3 end

And so we get a bit of worldbuilding, foreshadowing, and some answers.

Like I said, with this chapter's end I introduce a few things.
Out of technicality, this is crossover... well, more like a shared universe. We really won't be seeing much of non-touhou things, but they do exist in-verse.

Such as overlord Babylon from Makai Kingdom (one of my favorite N1 games, BTW).

I can promise a few other things non-touhou will appear during this story, but like said they aren't the focus, and more-so the consequence of creating a shared multi-universe that multiple franchises can exist in. But don't worry, if you're not familiar with the other series you shouldn't have much of a problem, I'll make sure instory you know enough not to get lost.

Anyway, the welcome wagon is heading to our "innocent and starting shingami", I wonder how he'll do. Read along and let's find out.

And if you enjoy the story, let me know what you think. Stay tuned for the next chapter

It'll be a while until the next chapter comes out. I'm gonna write a bit ahead before I actually post anything.

[MaJO]

I like it a lot so far, its like eating bacon. You did an excellent job with differentiating characters by their inner dialog.

I have noticed that you unnecessarily repeat yourself. The most notable example is thus,


Figuring no-one's told him yet, I might as well give you a quick history lesson Liam."Figuring no-one's told you yet, I might as well give you a quick history lesson Liam".

you don't necessarily need the inner dialog. though if you want something there you could reword it. Anyways I point this out because in writing you don't want to make the reader read the same thing over and over. 

[Nicktendonick]

Dang man, since October? Wow.

Anyway, Chapter 5 is now done, so is chapter 4. Chapter 4 is coming out now, and I'll give a little buffer before chapter 5 comes out. Chapter 5 is gonna be just HUGE.

And I hope you like this chapter. As you'll soon see, My Wriggle is not like your Wriggle.

--------------------------------------------

Chapter 4 - The welcome wagon part 2

Onozuka-san and young Alibus-san flew down into the forest below.

They talked about ignorable things. Things about the trees and the forest, and what seemed to be around here. He seemed like this was all alien to him.

Hmm, he hadn't seen mushrooms before? That's strange.

Note that before I forget.

Onozuka-san continued on the path. She noticed a firefly buzzing in place, and it seemed he did too.

"Sempai? What's that?" The young shinigami said, pointing with his scythe at the firefly. It lit up to draw their attention.

"Those are called fireflies Liam."

Oh yes! Liam is his first name. Note before I forget again.

"They're some of the many insects that live here on earth." Onozuka-san said like a teacher. "You uh, do know what insects are, right?"

The boy nodded.

"Phew." She muttered to herself. "They're these cute little bugs that have little lights on their rears."

The boy made a "ahhh" and a "haaa"...and all those learning sounds the kids in Keine-sensei's class make when learning something.

They began to bore me now. Talking about things I didn't need to remember, small little details that had no weight in the long run, all while my bugs keep their eyes and ears on those two...

---------------------------------------------------

"So then, what are they talking about now?" She asked me.

But I wasn't listening to whatever she just said to me, all my focus was sucking on the thing that I was sucking prior...

"Wriggle." I heard Yukari Yakumo say to me. which promptly left my mind the moment my tongue tasted the pretzel rod again.

Oh, that wonderful salt, the form of the pretzel just perfect to take each grain of salt off it...how do those humans make this stuff? The village's attempts to make it is nothing compared to this. It's too addicting...

"Earth to Wriggle Nightbug."

Dear god it's been too long since I've had one.
Oh, I love you Rold Gold. I love you I love you.

"Hello. Are you there firefly?"

I felt her touch my shoulder, and my antennas picked up as my attention shifted to the youkai infront of me.

Yukari Yakumo wasn't out of the ordinary, while at the same time was someone completely out of the ordinary.

Unlike me, who had clear features that distinguishes me from humans, such as my antennas, Yukari Yakumo had none. She wore a deep purple cocktail dress, a white mob hat that held her long golden hair, and a parasol used to shield herself from the sun, which now was floating in midair thanks to her powers.
 
Youkai and human alike say she has a beauty that is unsurpassed. A level of power unrivaled, an alluring aroma, a fantastic and voluptuous body, an pretty and symmetrical face, along with lips red like roses and ivory skin as soft as silk; while I'm not interested in such a youkai like her it is easy to see why so many teenage humans and young youkai are willing to become her useful idiots just out of hormonal lust.

She reminds me of a venus fly trap, in my own opinion. Beautiful on the outside, something fierce on the inside.

Either way, The beauty's arms were crossed, her parasol was floating in the air shading the sun out. She was giving a pout at me, "I'm starting to regret giving you those pretzels." She commented.

With the salt gone, I began the final act of this pretzel and chomped down on half of it, Chewing up and taking it's goodness down my throat.

Holding what was left of it, I spoke to the gap youkai "My friends took my stash and have been forcing me to do what they call "cold turkey"" I said, my hands forming the quotation marks.

With that I chomped down on  the pretzel rod again in my possession.

"...And you have that uncanny ability to gather and store anything at whim." I said showing the all powerful youkai the pretzel, before consuming the last little bit of it.

"So, I'm enjoying the moment."

Now out of my wonderful drug, I sighed. I reached into the plastic bag, taking the last one out....

...or not. Damn it, i'm out.

With nothing else in the bag, I placed it alongside the three other plastic bags I had just consumed, next to a safe containing many more plastic bags of pretzels and what the outside humans call "junk food"

It's not often we meet, and I'm glad she's held onto that safe of mine. Granted, I paid that gap youkai to keep it in her gaps, but it's still a nice gesture before we get to business.

Looking at her, I began to see her frown again.

"Can we get back on subject?" She said to me.

Now that my addiction was quenched the emotions of logic and reason returned to me, and I decided that I should.

"Yea" I said "Right now, they're talking about fireflies."

I continued "She's telling him about the forest of magic as they're walking through it, onward to the Yama's home."

"I see, I see. So that's what our replacement shinigami is going to be doing." Spoke the mysterious Yakumo.

"By the way, how did you know that?" I asked her "It makes sense with everything else they're saying, but I haven't heard them flat out saying that. Pretty much everything I've told you about you said you already knew, how'd you do that?"

The gap youkai smiled her smug smile.

I could see her metaphorically stroking her own genius ego in her own mind. "Oh...I have my ways." She said with a grin.

Of course you do. Bah, she's paying me to report on information that she already knows about. Whatever, I'm getting handsomely rewarded for this. So, whatever floats your boat.

"None-the-less, he seems quite naive about things. The shinigami seems not to have any knowledge of mushrooms whatsoever, and from what I gather grasslands like Gensokyo's seem alien to him. He reminds me of a newborn, innocent and all."

"Is that so?" I heard her say.

I smiled.
"Yea, it is so." I replied before continuing.

"He's a unusual shinigami" I told her "Much different from Fukakusa. Fukakusa was an experienced shinigami, this child shinigami isn't. I suppose experience doesn't mean much, figuring Fukakusa's dead and all."

"Actually, Fukakusa's not dead." I heard Yukari tell me.

Now that, that is news to me.
And also a total lie.

"What?" I exclaimed "That shinigami got vaporized. That shinigami's SOUL got vaporized. There was nothing left. There's no way anyone could survive that. "

"From my very good source, Fukakusa's actually not dead, but well...out of commission would be the proper euphuism. Some part of Fukakusa was left from that attack, unlike what we all thought happened. This boy at this point in time is just temporary, not a full replacement. I believe he will be doing Fukakusa's job here until Fukakusa is able to resume the duties of being the reaper of gensokyo."  She scratched her head. "Yuyu-chan knows more then me on this stuff. I ought to ask her..."

You're kidding me. That shinigami just dropped off the face of the earth after that incident. That survival...is interesting...

"So, in conclusion, you're telling me that the boy is inexperienced, new, and seems to be very virgin to not just this world, but in general. I suppose when Komachi said "new meat", she really meant it." Yukari said, before grabbing her parasol and folding it up.

"Ahhh, it's good to know what Yuyu-chan couldn't tell me about. I know now, so I believe we won't have that difficulty anymore. I suppose since she doesn't know anything about him, I ought to leave to inform her of the good news."

"Thanks for your services Wriggle, I believe I've learned all that I need to."

"Oh, with what you're doing for me, anytime Yakumo-san." I told her.

I saw her smile.

"Now, I believe it's time for my end of the bargain, no?" She told me.

Yukari snapped her fingers, and with her power a crevice began to appear in the air. A crevice in the world grew and cracked all the way open, this gap in space had decorated bows on each end, and inside of the gap a infinite set of eyes were peering from its abyss, staring into the outside world through the gap Yukari Yakumo had just created. The gap got wider, and out of it floated a egg half my size that was cutely nuzzled in a blanket and basket all fit and snug.

I walked over to the egg and placed my hand on it.

I, Wriggle Nightbug assumed my power of dominance over my fellow insect growing in the egg that I touched. It only took a moment before my power of insects took hold over my new egg, and it became mine.

She could easily see my delightful smile. This is exactly what I was looking for.

"She's a wonderful replacement Yukari. I already have control over her already, everything seems good."

I smiled, picking up my little bundle of joy. "Hello there Betsy Jr." I said to my soon to be hatchling. "I'm gonna be your mommy and master."

From the corner of my eye I could see Yakumo smile at the sight of me hugging my egg, before putting it back in it's basket.

"Now make sure you take good care of her." Yukari told me "Those bugs are quite dangerous, and I do not want those dangerous things messing up Gensokyo. I'm letting you have those bugs because I know you'll be responsible with it."

"Yes mommy dearest, I'll be a good little girl." I said in jest to her.

"As long as you understand. We both know what those things are capable of. If I get a whiff of those bugs spreading out of your control or threatening the balance here, I'm getting rid of them all."

She's always a stickler for that peaceful balance, isn't she?
"I'd expect nothing less. Thank you." I told her.

"Would you mind sending her to that little bug sanctuary of mine? I have some business to attend to right now."

With a little smile I watched Yukari snapped her fingers and the egg was sucked back up into Yukari's gap. With my own power I could tell my little egg was where she belongs, safe and snug.

"So, intending to do what I think you're about to do?" She asked me.

"Of course. You can watch if you'd like, only if you can keep yourself hidden." I demanded to the most powerful youkai of Gensokyo.
 
It amused her. I saw Yukari give out a little chuckle. "Sounds nice. I'd like to see your little show."

"Good. I've told you a lot already, and soon you should learn everything you need to know about him in a few minutes Yakumo-san"

We both smiled.


----------------------------------------------------


My bugs continued their surveillance on the pair of shinigami. 

Onozuka-san stopped, reaching a clearing within the forest, a nice circular area.

"Hey, Liam, why don't we take five for a moment?" I heard her say to the young shinigami.

"Um..." He began to say, unnerved. He didn't know what to say.
Flinches.
He'd get eaten fast if he wasn't already dead.

"Ok Sempai" He said, taking a seat down by a large rock.

Ahhh...

"Hey, Liam, do you mind if I head away for a second? I'll only be a minute"
Weird way to put things.

"Um, Sempai, you said we were suppose to go to Shiki-sama's house?"

"We do, I just need a few minutes."

He looked at her with a curious look.

He seemed passive.

"Why?" He inquistioned.

Onozuka-san shrugged. "Bathroom"

His face lit up with an embarrassed expression "Oh, I'm sorry" he said, as if he had to make up for what he just said earlier.

The boy went silent for a moment. I suppose saying ok, now go to the bathroom is too weird for him.

He seems more submissive then I thought. Of course, I'll find out how much in a moment.

Komachi on the other hand, took that moment to find her path away, and turned to the boy before she left. "I'm heading off, I'll be back in a while. See ya kid." She said.

Ahhh. She's giving me the go ahead. I always prefer privacy. Dark room, places where it's just them and m-

And then Onozuka-san suddenly appeared infront of my face, inches from my soft, human-like flesh. My antenna's went stiff and took a step back in naturalistic shock.

Damn, how'd she track me?

After I regained my composure, all Onozuka-san did was glare at me.
I returned the favor inquisivitly.

After a minute she gave up the glare and shrugged in surrender.

"Look, I know you're gonna do your thing you normally do, and it's not gonna matter how much I bitch and moan cause you're gonna do it anyway cause that's what you always do. I'm not gonna fight a losing battle; so I'll leave him to you."

She came around nicely.
"Thank you. This shouldn't take too long Onozuka-san." I said to her back.

"I'd prefer it that way. Wriggle, I won't stop you, but can you be gentle this time? He's not a normal newcomer like the others. He's actually new to pretty much everything." Said Onozuka-san, telling me information that I already had known. "And more importantly, Shiki Eiki and I desperately need him around, so don't go scaring him away. Because he can up and leave if he's pushed too far, and we really need him to stay. Do you understand?"

Her eyes focused on mine, as if she was burning a hole through them. I looked at hers back, unwavering.

Seems like she wasn't gonna budge on this one. "Be gentle, do you understand?"

Eventually, I think I felt myself budging on this. "Alright " I relented.
Or maybe I won't. Why show mercy.

Well, for Onozuka-san...maybe I'll give some leeway on this one

"I'll show some restraint" I told her, may or may not agreeing to do that, at least, to what she considers restraint.

"I'm glad you understand." She said, breaking eye contact and walking past me. "If you excuse me, I really do need to use the bathroom."

Oh. That was the truth? Hmmm.... "There's a bushed area behind those tr-"

Onozuka-san interrupted me as she took offense to it. "In the middle of the forest? who do you think I am, a feral brute? No way I'd take a crap there. I'm making a stop at home."

Wouldn't that take a whi-Manipulation of distance. Right. Lucky bastard.

"If you excuse me, I'll be off"

She vanished from my sight, her powers kicking into gear and sending herself far away. Presumably to do nature's business outside of nature. I suppose if I had the luxury of instant high speed travel, I'd probably do that too. At least I have alternative methods.

Whatever. I have time with him all to myself, and it was time to begin.

-----------------------------------------

The mark was sitting all by himself on a broken, fallen tree.

Age had consumed that old tree into being nothing more then a impromptu bench.

He seemed to be doing nothing. He took out his strange, folded up scythe and placed it next to him on the "bench", leaning back to relax.

This was more then the proper time to act. I began to bring some of my insects out, as well as taking control of the native ones around the area and bringing them under my dominion. My absolute control.

The new additions began to rustle the leaves around the forest, grabbing the young shinigami's attention.

He didn't grab his scythe instinctively, and as a matter of fact did not grab it at all.

Still sitting he looked around, trying to see where the sounds came from

"Hello? Sempai?" He said to the open air, thinking maybe it was her.

Hmm...interesting.    

"Hello? Komachi-Sempai?"

Nooopppe.

I decided to make it louder. The swirling and whooshing doubled in speed. This got the boy's attention even more, and he finally stood up from the dead tree bench.

I still said nothing, staying at my vantage point, continuing to observe the boy who was unaware of me.

"H...h-hello? Komachi-sempai? Is that you?"

.....

"Eiki-sama?"

Guess again.

Looking at him, that soon became apparent to the boy.

At the crypts to his worry and on a whim I stopped my insects.

Upon doing so, the entire forest went dead. Neither I, nor him could hear a single thing. Like my fellow subservient insects, I became perfectly still.
A skill of the insect. Hiding within sight, more silent then anything. Unknown, unseen, and unheard we want to make our presence known.

The sudden silence brought a sense of confusion and unease to him. From being surrounded to being alone. Like being jerked heavily, this becomes very unpleasant very fast.

"What in the..." I heard him mutter, as he now was starting to look around, looking for something familiar to tell him everything is ok.

Of course, it was not ok.

My eyes moved to his weapon. The boy had still not grabbed his weapon.

If he was human, I could swoop down, and with a single blow claim his life. Dropping down, he would notice me far too late. Foot to head, positioning to smash his nose into the brain...My foot would be my prey's last sight before I sent him to the Yama...

But I had no intention of letting murder be his first impression of me.

His eyes continued to scan the thick forest. I think he might finally notice me.

And then he did.

Hmm...hello boy.

For a flash of a single second, he and I locked eyes. I looked directly at his young red eyes, and he glared into aquamarine eyes.

It's time to stir up my insects again.

A second after our eyes made contact, a loud buzzing came from nowhere.

"ACK!" He shouted breaking eye-contact, nearly falling over the tree he once sat on thanks to the sudden noise.

All the insects within my reach began to play their buzzing songs as the native bugs started to swirl through the trees as before, and in addition a group of insects grouped together towards me, making like a giant curtain that I pulled over myself as I jumped back into the forest, letting the curtain of insects come apart and reveal that whatever had stared him in the eyes was now gone.

I had noticed the boy had still not grabbed his weapon.

I could see his breath increase, his eyes darting all around frantically, no longer could he stay still, and he began to turn around once, twice, three times to try to understand the situation. His eyes became desperate to find me again, to find the unknown thing that was watching him. Once, twice, three times, his building frenzy did not stop.

My actions seemed to bring out something I never expected, one nor have ever seen come from a shinigami before...

"Who...who's there?"

Fear.

This boy smelt of fear. He was getting scared. It was building, like a slow drip filling up inside his soul, and his fear was finally rearing it's terrified head. 

While it was not much...I have seen fear a thousand times, and this was it. A...

Wait, a shinigami is scared? What the hell?

These people are suppose to be trained not to act this way. Right? They need to go through some sort of training...why the hell is he scared? Maybe he's just unusual...no...

...this kid is different.
What's different?
What's different what's different I need to know.
I need to know.
There must be some reason why he's not like the others...

Or maybe...maybe is this a facad-no...
No, this was fear, genuine fear. It's not fake.

The fear was building, I could sense. His eyes darted around, looking to see me once more.

He hasn't tried exerting his authority as a shinigami. He must know of that "card" to play, and he still hasn't grabbed his weapon. He was still vulnerable...

Hmmm....

I've seen enough. It's time for the next part.

From the storm of insects swarming around him, I jumped out into the open area of the trees.

I jumped out spinning, my cape flapping in the air as I stuck the landing, landing firmly on my two feet as my cape gently flapped down my back. As I did I scattered my bugs and released the control of the natives, the forest going mostly silent as the insects left, leaving just him and I to be the only people in this forest. Heh-heh...

I looked up at my target.

"Hello" I said with my smug smile still stuck to my face.

My blue eyes looked up at him as I moved to stand straight upward. I pushed my teal short hair to the side as I patted down my baggy navy blue frilly shorts, then my white, short frilly sleeved shirt.

I then flapped my cape backwards to add just a little more of a flare.

"Um...hello" He said to me like a child.

"I take it you're the new shinigami here..." I said, walking towards him.

"I am, how did you know that?" Liam asked me.

I could only grin. "Oh, I have ways.".

I wonder...how far must I go to get him to grab that scythe...

I walked towards him, getting closer and sized him up compared to my own.

For insects, I am a titanic creature far larger and intelligent then my fellow insects, but as a humanoid youkai I'm only fairly shorter then the majority of adolescents, and the matured adults still dwarfed me in height

Walking up to him and sizing him up, he definitely is taller then me. Not by much, he seems to be the height of a late adolescent. His stance and posture was shaky, he didn't seem like he was ready to fight. Pity.

His eyes averted mine, before then looking back to me refocused.

"Well, um Hello...I'm Liam-" Liam Albius began to say, before I cut off his premeditated response.

"Nightbug. My name is Wriggle Nightbug." I nonchalantly said, walking up to a few heads away now, my unwavering eyes staring into him.

Let's see, disrespect...

Passive.
He doesn't seem to have many tough bones in his body. I've been rude to him, but his patience seems to be unwavering.

But he's got to have some tough bones, right? I don't seem to be breaking past that shell, there must be something inside that exoskeleton.

The boy robotically tried to return to that which he felt before.

"I-It's nice to meet you Nightbug-san, I am Liam Albius." He made a forced greeting bow. Not of forced by anger, but by other emotions.

His eyes told me what the mind knew. The boy was quivering internally, he wanted to make sure he did this all right.

This child is boring me. Without any sense of power or inner strength to back it up, I felt like I had no need to listen to him any further.

Being so passive, I could probably force myself on him and he'd just submit like betas to alpha males in the animal kingdom.
Wait, he's sentient and humanoid. Those self-aware types usually enjoy mating.
Nevermind.

....He's still talking...

...still not paying attention to it...

...hmm...

I wonder if he mates well.

Heh...maybe that's how he passed. To each and every teacher...heh-heh
Heaven knows the Yama could probably use some.
Ah-hah.

Ah-h--Stop stop, turn away.
Don't let him see you smile Wriggle. It'll break form.

"....and I-I'll be filling in for Fukakusa for a few months." Finished the boy's worthless words.

Luckily, after that there was no more words from him. There was a bit of silence between the beta shinigami and I, the alpha insect.

I had noticed I had taken steps past the beta, and in my own wandering, was between him and the strange, white, folded up scythe on the ground.

Gah, he's still doing nothing to secure his weapon. Dear lord.

I would never approve of a shinigami like this. How in the world could they? This creature is what brings my soul to the next world? Pathetic. Just pathetic. Onozaku and the Yama would be better off if I drove this guy away.

Bah. I'm not going to watch this beta anymore. His power clearly has to be what he passed with.

That rule of incompenticies. Good in one, suck in another. Good at fighting, bad at others. Must be, got to be. Just like Cirno-chan. Must be...

Hmmm....thinking....thinking....

I really need to get Betsy Jr. hatched and start feeding and get her up to speed to repl-

Think something important. How do I see that power...

The scythe!
Yes, the scythe.
Yes, let's use that.

And so I snatched his scythe.

Hmm...
My guess was correct, the scythe was a pure white triple-segmented scythe that was all folded up. My eyes found the blade folded into the top segment of the scythe.

Weird.

"H-Hey." Voiced the boy

What's weirder. The scythe...

...I see. There's something coming from this scythe. The boy might have some power...but so does his weapon. This is the third shinigami scythe I've ever touched...and this one is not like the others...this power combined with his own power...makes a person think...

"For a shinigami, you have a weird scythe." I said to him.

The boy didn't know what to say to it.
Ehh...yea, it is sorta a weird thing to say. Whatever, I don't care.

I extended the weapon to towards him to hand it back.

"You want it back?"

"Yea" He said as he began to relax. The beta shinigami reached out for his own missing weapon.

"Thank you. I don't know what I'd do withou-"

Which I then pulled back. "Nooope" I said, taking the weapon back.

Clearly, this was exactly what he was expecting. His befluttered face said that.

"I think I'll keep it instead." I said teasingly, taking the scythe back and starting to turn away.

"Hey, wait" He said to me. "I really need that. You can't take it"

"Oh really?"

"Yes." He said with a passion. "That scythe was a gift to me. I'm suppose to keep it with me at all times and I have her my word I would."

And there we go, we got something.

Motive, and a girl. Hmmm, he wants to impress her. Maybe a mate? Desired mate?
Nah...his earlier naivety suggests this she isn't a romantic relationship, maybe. So what does that leave?
A mentor? That'd be interesting, and could explain-

"Please, can I have my scythe back."

I looked at the boy. If he is someone's student...then...

I grinned and formed a smug smile. One to send just the right signal to the boy.

"Make me."
He's definitely going to know how to fight then.

"You want it? You're going to have to pry it from these hands of mine" I said to him.

Clearly, violence is what I imply. Now, how long until he chooses that path?

Will he just jump right to it? Find another way? Use intimidation? I won't budge until he uses force. Yes, then I'll cave and then come crawling to him oh so begging for life and an attempt at bribery to save my own skin when he thinks he's in a position of power and I'm in "weakness".

Two, three clashes then I'll take a fall and start that. Alright, that'll be the gameplan.

"You want this right? Come and take it." Taunted I, the small firefly youkai to an immortal reaper of souls.

He stood there, his eyes told me he was conflicted.
I dangled the low hanging fruit called his scythe out for him to see, giving it a little twirl before holding it upside down.

Something was stirring. Anger? Determination?

"Nothing? Better make a choice, or else I'm just gonna walk away."

....

"Hm. I suppose you don't want to keep this after al-"

"STOP." He said. Not shouting, but loud to get my attention. I suppose the most a beta male can do. "Look, I-I don't want to fight, I just want my scythe back."

I wasn't gonna give it to him that easily. "You don't want to fight?" I questioned "What type of shinigami are you who doesn't want to fight? Isn't that what you reapers do for a living?"

"Reaping isn't all about fighting" His response was quick...quicker then previous responses. "It's not just about having to fight dead souls!"

I think I hit a nerve.

...Let's see how far this goes...

"Oh really?" I said. "In your line of work, I don't think you'll have a choice."

"That's only if you don't try to help them." He replied. "They're hurt. W-when you die, it hurts, you're lost, confused, and everything is trying to tear your soul apart. Someone should be there to help those who are hurting, not just cut them to pieces with a scythe. That should be the last resort..."

I faked a demeaning laugh, scoffing at his notion. "I really have trouble believing that." I said "You know what I think? I think if you really think that, you might as well quit right now, because the world don't work like that at all you idiot."

Actually, I'm wrong here. Brute force can only take you so far, and can also backfire and destroy you. Despite how weak he said it the boy speaks a enormous truth, but that's not the point here.
I want to know what you'll say. I mock and defy your worldview and call it foolish, what's your response?

"..."

Looking, I see the response was silence.
And silence speaks volumes.

He didn't like what I just said one bit. He closed his eyes scrunched in annoyance of his words not getting through my proverbial exoskeleton, or... or maybe he took in what I said.

Maybe he was thinking about quitting?

"You're wrong!" He Defiantly exclaimed....but as a defense to his own decision then anything else...I can tell the difference. I kept my gameface, and kept up my act.

"Of course I'm wrong.." I said back. "Even though you keep telling yourself, not a thing is gonna change. If you can't even raise that scythe of yours, if you can't overcome a simple question like mine, and you done either haven't yet, then you don't belong here."

He broke eye contact with me.

Yes, I hit a nerve. One that's been hit before, one that's hurt him before.

Something tells me this wasn't the first time he was told this, which would explain that trigger of sudden verbal defense...Yes...the pieces seem to be falling in place now.

I can't believe this. This is the shinigami that's replacing Fukakusa? Fukakusa was a fine reaper. I might be sullied by Fukakusa's high standards, but this boy has nothing on his predecessor, be it temp or not.

Onozuka-san must be desperate to have someone like this. Or maybe, maybe they don't know. I may not know how they do their business, but do they truly need someone to replace Fukakusa this badly?

"...Please, just give me back my scythe." He said. His voice sound defeated, his voice didn't want me to continue on the path I was taking. He really was like a beaten child.

I've seen enough.

The last thing, his fighting skill. It's time to start it and finish here.

Hmm....fighting...
He really didn't seem he wanted to fight me. I've seen Onozoka-san recall her weapon and pull it to her like a psychic, but...something tells me that boy isn't competent of doing such a basic trick.

"I'm not just gonna hand this back to you. You will have to take it." I told him. "Or you're never getting it back"

He closed his eyes in annoyance, I saw his fist clench.

Anger response, check. Is this depression leading to anger? No...his hand is unclenching now.  Not an anger response, moreso thinking then anything else. He's thinking how to get it back.
Being him, he's probably aiming for something nonviolent...

Ok, he's thinking. Let me give him a hint.

"Come on. Take back your scythe." I said "I won't sit here all day, call it back to you or something? A good shinigami can do that, no?"
Because if he can, now he has to. Or else what I said earlier will be justified.

It seems he's resigned himself. He's seem to come to some sort of conclusion, or epiphany in that head of his. His hand is open and he's-

!

My taunt worked. I felt the scythe began to shake in my hands. Like it was slowly starting to wiggle out of my grip and trying to return back to the hand of it's master's.

The pull of the scythe felt much stronger then Onozuka's, maybe he's more competent then-OW!!!!!!

"OW!"
Owowowowow-owowowowowowowowo-

"Nightbug-san!"

That scythe of... just, just unfolded into me....

"Shit! OW! OW! SHIT!"

...right in the girl's box...ahhhhhhh......

"ahhh...eeee....ahhhh...."

It hurts.....ahhh.....ah....damn it....this...hurts.....

My brain could think for a moment, and told me my mistake. My hand had let go of the scythe, and It left my crotch and fell to the ground and I fell down to my side right beside it...curling up in pain-

"-Nightbug-san!"

-as that idiot makes more and more annoying noise and making my brain hurt.

"Are you ok?!"

....shit...goddamn it...How does...how does getting hit there hurt so much....crap...I thought it only hurt guys....shit...

Why didn't I know this?...ahhh...ooww

"Oh my god. I am so so sorry" Grated in my ears. And it was getting louder. Shit, he's getting closer. I can hear his voice grating in my brain as it's trying to-

"I was just trying to recall my scythe."
 
Just shut up already.

"I wasn't trying to attack! Honest!"

But No. No he wouldn't.

"I'm Really, I'm really really really sorry." his voice scratched my brain.

....When I get up....I...am...going to kick.your.ass!

"I really didn't mean it Nightbug-san."

Gah...stop talking. I can't think!

"I am so so sorry."

Just....just...

"Let me help you-"

"SHUT UP!" I shouted louder then a yamabiko at that damn idiot!

"Ah!" He grates again and-

oh no.
I focus on my vision, and I see the recourse of my actions as my brain slows things down, allowing me to see what I had done. That scythe, yes. He dropped it because I scared him, I see it falling down, getting closer...and f-

"OW! MY HEAD!"

Son of a bitch! OUCH!

I grabbed my head in pain, letting the pain in my crotch go unchecked, no sign of dignity left as rolled left and right, my top and bottom of me throbbing in pain because of that stupid idiot.

I screamed out, finally stopping on my back and mentally suppressing the pain I had just inflicted upon myself.

I still let out a painful hiss, my eyes closed as I try to make the pain go away.

And it went much better this time. I think the idiot finally listened to me. I don't hear his voice at all. I think I hear some other voice, it's faint, but the ruffling trees above us don't deceive.

After a minute, I felt the pain slowly start to go away, I began feeling better as I tried to hear what was above me, because something really, really was there.

"Ahahahahaha" that voice, that wasn't the boy's got louder. It wasn't male, but a female's, seemingly enjoying my-

Oh god it's Onozuka. What the hell is she doing? I thought she said she'd give me time!

"I was trying to be quiet Wriggle, I really was, but that...that little bit pushed me over the edge." I herd her say, before rolling off the tree branch she was loafing on, magically swinging around it, now floating, but looking like she was relaxing on the bottom side of the branch in defiance of gravity. "Seriously Wriggle, what a show. I never thought you were capable of that."

....

The ferrywoman's laugh doubled, nolonger needing to hide it her enjoyment of my pain

"Sempai?" The beta shinigami said to the laughing shinigami. I could see the tension in his body let up, relief and famility has returned to him.

Shit, I'm losing him.

"Yea, it's me kid" She said, flipping upright (giving me a quick peek under her dress as she did, which I couldn't care less about) and floating back down to the ground.

"Decided I'd come back a little early and see how this thing was going down."

What.

"And I gotta say, it's been a interesting little show."

I double-blinked. Don't tell me you're-

"Show?" Said the idiot male shinigami to the older idotic shinigami.
Oh no...oh no.

She's gonna ruin everything! Damn it! I think she's gonna reveal what I'm doing!

I have to stop it!
I hopped up to my feet. Still felt wobbly, I didn't care. I gotta stop this and salvage this mess.

"You! Whoever you are! Get lost!" I pointed shouted towards Onozuka-san. "I'm about to beat this guy's ass. Unless you wanna die too, whoever you are, scram!"

The target took a step back when I made my threat. Onozuka-san did not.

Onozuka-san just stood there between us as I waited for her to scram. She responded to me. "hmmm...nahhhh. I think I'll stay."

WHAT? You're messing up my thing! Get lost! I still haven't fought and gauged him and thrown my fight with him yet! How is he gonna act when I'm at his mercy! If he has a peer is there, if it's not just him and I he's going to act differently! That's important! You're messing this whole thing up!

"Onozuka, get out of here" I said softly enough only she would hear.

Instead of complying Komachi responded by tapping my sore head with the top of her staff.

"OW!" I said, falling back down on my rear, the pain in my head reignited.
Ouch!

"Onozuka, What the hell!?" I shouted, falling back against a tall tree.

"I told you to be gentle." She said bending over to me not really caring what the boy heard. "What the heck were you doing?"

"I should be asking you that! What the heck are you doing?" I shouted to her, still mostly incapacitated.

"Trying to make sure Liam doesn't quit on day one, no thanks to you. I told you to be gentle and this clearly doesn't look like being gentle."

Your opinion of being gentle is not what I think is being gentle. Yours involves chainsaws, mine involves talking, I think my way's better.

"Komachi-sempai? What's going on?" The beta shinigami asked to us, suspicions nodoubt raising.

He was inching closer, now that Onozuka-san played protector for him.

"It's quite simple."

Oh crap. You better not-

"Wriggle here was testing you. She wanted to find your limits, know all about you, how you react to things, all that good stuff."

!!!

She told him! She freaking told him! Damn it! You big breasted ginger jackass! My thing! You ruined my thing!

I flailed "You jackass!"

"She was testing me?"

"Yep. But don't worry, she does this to everyone. It's kinda her thing."

"Jackass! Stop telling him stuff!" I exclaimed.

Instead of doing what I like, she turned around. "Come on, you were pretty much done anyway, weren't you? From your MO, all you had left was just to fight him, right?"

That is true.
I immediately stopped, and I calmed down.

"Fine. I'll concede that." I said-

WAIT! But then how am I suppose to know what happens when someone he doesn't like is at his mercy? Maybe he'd enjoy it and take advantage of it. Maybe he'd kill me, maybe he'd make me his slave, or maybe he'd extort me. There's too many what ifs!

"Wait, No!" I shrieked out. Riling back up and hopping back up on my feet.

"How am I suppose to know what happens when someone's at his mercy?! Maybe he'd extort me, take advantage of me, maybe he'd kill me, maybe he's able to be bribed, or worse! But now that he knows we're not gonna know until it happens, are we?"
 
I saw the beta male take a step back. "I-I'd never do that!"

"Thanks for the concern, but we vet our people well." I herd Onozuka-san say to respond. "We don't just give any smuck a scythe and send them out. I assure you, we don't let bad apples slip through the cracks, and when we do, we clamp down on them quick."

"You're like what, millenniums old?, how do you know? They might have chan-"

"Bonk" Spoke Onozuka-san, crossing distance in a second and giving my throbbing head another tap with the butt of her weapon, sending me back on my bottom filled with pain.

Ow! Again!

She turned around to the beta shinigami. "Liam, here's girls 101, Never call us old, ever. Mortals especially, but us too."

...

"Besides, It's just centuries." I herd Onozuka-san muttered under her breath, before acting like that never happened.

"Anyway Liam, you don't need to fear her. Whenever there's a newcomer she finds worth noting, she does this whole little thing to them, like she's doing to you. But really, after that she's pretty cool to hang around."

The boy just stood and listened.

"Why are you telling him all this?" I groaned, getting back up on my fear.

"So he knows he's not the only person you've done this with? Remember when you did it to me?" Komachi poked to me.

Yes, infact I do.

"She did this to you too? Um...if you don't mind, what happened?" Questioned the boy.

I could see Komachi smile, hearing the beta male say exactly what Onozuka-san wanted him to ask. Onozuka-san began to go in great lengths to detail our first encounter.

Honestly, I don't see much reason to go into such detail as she is.

It was quite simple with her.

Upon finding out a new ferryman shinigami had arrived, I began looking for her and found her on her very first lunch break and all alone by the riverside. This denied me a chance to do what I did to the beta male and open with my insects in the forest (a personal favorite). Instead, I approached and began pestering her, asking her meaningless questions and taunts, and when I realized she wouldn't violently retaliate and despite her constant telling to let her eat in peace, I ruined her food with my bugs.

That...That was my mistake.

Within a second, I had found myself on the ground and my neck a centimeter from Onozuka-san's scythe.

She almost took my head, and very much pointed that fact out to me. Telling me she's not interested in hurting an idiot for, how'd she put it? Not going to hurt a child, especially for no bloody reason?
Yea, I think that's what she said.

She then started chastising me for acting so suicidal and told me how I shouldn't act so foolishly, this wasn't a way to make a name for oneself, all those good things a child shouldn't d...oh yea, she still thought I was a child youkai back then.

The only time I saw any true fury was when she saw the food being eaten by my bugs. After that short moment, she seemed more worried for my own wellbeing then for her own lunch.
I suppose since immortal shinigami nolonger need to worry their own wellbeing, they shift it those who's wellbeing can change. For us mortals grave injury is serious, to them, not even worth batting an eye.

I suppose that's why she seriously freaked out so bad when she thought that Fukakusa had been killed. She wasn't expecting something like that to randomly happen to someone so close to her who's wellbeing is suppose to be constant.

Blindsided, I think is the word.

My own mental process died down as Onozuka-san finished the overly long version of how we met. "...But, in the end she made up for it. She tracked me down later that night to make up for the trouble I caused her, she brought me a bottle of sake, and not just the crap sake, but the good stuff. We talked and drank the night away, and we've been cool ever since."

Yes indeed, and I learned that sake gets you talking quite quickly. It's very helpful.

But it's not that I don't enjoy talking to you or just use you for information. I really do enjoy talking to you. You're one of the few people I know that I can actually have a engaging conversation with. It's not like Cirno-chan understands philosophy or economics, Dai-chan and Sensei are too wholesome to have some discussions about, and Mysty well, looks to me about these things. I feel weird talking to them about things I can talk to you about without judging me.

I can talk to you of anything about anything, and you're ok with it. You're a valuable ally for many reasons, but more importantly Onozuka-san, you're a very good friend.

My annoyance towards her, I noticed, were long gone.
"Indeed. She's been a very good friend to me." I added onto the tail of Onozuka-san's story.

The boy seemed relaxed, and well I suppose... I wll let it slide after all...

"So, now that we got all that out of the way, what do you say we find out what this kid's made of, eh Wriggle? I'd like to see if the academy's been keeping up to task with what it's been throwing out lately."

The boy showed some resistance to it. "Wh-wait, you want to fight me?"

"Oh no, I wouldn't deny Wriggle that honor. She'd love to be the one who gets to break you in, figuratively and possibly literally too. And quite frankly, I really wanna see what you got too"

You know me well.

Judging from the boy's reactions, he seems like he's not gonna say no to his sempai.

Perfect.
Thank you Onozuka-san.

"I wanna see how you handle Wriggle-san. She fights nothing like anything the academy throws at you, and I wanna see if you can take it. I won't spoil anything, but she is a strange opponent so you better get ready."

The boy really didn't seem to know what to say. I think that intimidated him, like what I was doing to him before.
Yep, Totally a beta male.

"You're worried that you're gonna hurt me?" I questioned. Hahaha, how cute.

"Um, actually yes." he said comfortably "Should we use some safeguards, or something to keep me from hurting you? I mean, I heal from things but you won't and-

"Ah-hahahaha" I laughed a soft, pleasant laugh "You're worried about that? Trust me, you don't need to do all. There's no need for any of us to hold back for any reason at all."

He looked to his sempai to get the permission to use deadly force.  "Like she said, you don't need to hold back Liam, I'll explain later. Go give her everything you got."

I now spoke up. "You're immortal, you can't die right? So go ahead, use lethal force, and I'll just be fine. Besides"

I hopped off my feet and floated, flapping my cape and landing opposite him in this forest, the perfect location to our duel.

As I landed, I took my stance with a very wide grin. "Besides, it's not like you'll be able to hit me anyway."

Chapter 4 - The welcome wagon part 2- End

------------------------------------------

Author's Notes: Didn't I tell you my Wriggle is not like yours?

And well, now we know a whole lot more about our hero then before. Hints and things to come from her "exam" of Liam, as well as some other things. I honestly wasn't going to make Komachi and Wriggle friends at first...but the more I think about it, Komachi does strike me as the type who easily makes friends with everyone she meets. It's probably harder not to be her friend.

I'd love to be her friend too. Maybe she could help whip me into shape too (hmmm...or maybe Eiki would)

Ok, I've said it over the IRC, and well, I now have a FF.net version of this story (Which you can find right here - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10035454/1/The-Reaper-of-Gensokyo ) I still prefer here, the formatting so just SOO much better and you guys are just awesome anyway. Updates will always come here first. And I've also said and made my declaration that I will finish this story in 100 days.  April 29, 2014 will be the date that I complete this story.

Sofar, I'm at 38,902 words.

Not much else to say here I think. Give me your thoughts and opinions, I always appreciate C+C.

See you next chapter!

[Nicktendonick]

I was gonna wait longer...but...eh.

Chapter 5, the big chapter is big. So much so, I have to break it into two posts.

And for the fightscene. This was the music I was listening to as I was writing it.  I'd say it's fitting for the  first half of this fight. (踊る水飛沫 ～Irish Session～ (Dancing water spray arrange).
Enjoy Yukari's chapter!

Chapter 5 - You and Me

"It's not like you'll be able to hit me anyway..."

Oh me oh my. Is that so little Wriggle? As usual you're quite overconfident in your abilities.

Well, that or you're underestimating your foe once again, because I know for a fact that you are...but knowing you, you really don't care now, do you?

You want to know, and you don't care if you break every bone in that body to find out.
Good old Wriggle. You're cunning, but very predictable.

I start to hear a familiar "zuuunnnnn" sound behind me,.
 
Oh! Finally.
Hearing the sound of one of my gaps open, I know my company is about to be coming here.

I suppose it's time to stop looking at this show and focus on her.

The sound grew louder as I turned around to see a tear in creavice in reality opening up. Inside, what a mortal would consider countless eyes peered from the hole.

Hm. None of my boeties on it, it must be Ran.

"Took you long enough." I said to the open gap. "I was getting so lonely here I was considering dragging the entire manor here."

And out stepped Ran Yakumo, my shikigami. My shikigami was wearing those clothes I picked for her, her beautiful white dress with a blue tabard across her chest. Her hands as usual were in the other's sleeves, her neatly folded cuffs touching. Ontop of her head was that hat she had custom made for her. The top of that hat had two pointing.

Because they were animal ears.

My kistune shikigami walked out of the portal, all nine of her fluffy yellow tails walked out with her.

"My apologies my lady." I herd the stern, pleasant voice of my shikigami, Ran Yakumo. Her eyes steadfast and true, making direct contact with me.

Ran quickly found herself patted on the back by the other person also going through the gap. Those eyes of hers going into a quick shock before they tried to return to their previous nature.

"Oh Ran, you know she's just screwing with you." I herd the woman say

Out from the portal walked a second woman. Unlike the youkai that had just walked out, she wore a kimono the color of the sky with black trimmings running down it. That familiar head popping out of the portal first, that matching mop cap and hair like a cherry blossom I've become so familiar with. I look to see her eyes. They were filled with a bustling life that outmatched any other. Figuring her condition, it was something most ironic.

This woman wasn't youkai. It was easy to see that she was clearly, clearly human.

"You're too soft Ran, really, you are. But that's why we love you."

Floating out of the portal, it was also easy to see that she was also clearly, clearly dead.

The ghost lead a few spirits floating around her, before scattering around and floating away. Those spirits always seem to float around her. But then again, Yuyuko Saigyouji is the type who draws others to her. Myself included, heh.

I saw her face light up the moment she saw me, that a grand smile on her soft face that I love to see so much. Yuyuko always has smile to die for...which is usually the only way to get here to see it, heh-heh.

"Yuyu-chan!" I said.

"Yukarin!" said my greatest friend in the whole world, us embracing with a big old hug.

"Oh I'm so happy to see you again!" We said, hugging eachother tight, before letting go.

"Me too" She said, before she let go.

"I didn't think you were up at this time of the year."

I stepped back with crossed arms.

"I wasn't suppose to be."

"So, why are you up?"

"Well," I began to say, before my shikigami intrupted.

"That is because I woke her up." Interrupted Ran.

Rrraaaannn....

And Ran's skull quickly met the top of my umbrella. My Shikigami showing no reaction to it. At least she's good enough not to flinch when I bonk her once.

And again.

"And I need to hit you more on the head for that. I was just having a wonderful dream, and then you just had to ruin it."

and one more time...
and once again after that.

Yuyu just giggled at it.

"Yukarin, you so need to stop being such as sourpuss waking up."

Oh come on Yuyu.
I pouted. "I am not a morning person. I never was, and never am a morning person."

"-or a afternoon person, nor a evening person" Ran tacked on.

And for that snark I bonked Ran's head once more

....

...her head's getting tougher now-a-days. Maybe I oughta start working those shins of hers...
 
But to this display, Yuyuko only giggled. "You know she only does that because you ask her to." She said to us.

True, true.
Waking me up when big things happen is part of Ran's job description as my Shikigami. Eh... I'll treat her to some nice dinner tonight or something, instead of the other way around.

We both laughed while Ran stayed somber as always. Though I did notice the crack of Ran's smile. That Shikigami of mine can be so reserved...which also proves that whacking her head isn't working anymore.

"Anywhoo, Yukarin, on other matters..." Yuyuko said to me

"By any chance would you have anything to do with, you know...this big swirling energy thingy in the ground infront of us?"

And with that she pointed to the elephant in the room.
Well, not really a elephant, more like a giant swirling vortex half the size of an elephant.

"Oh, you mean this tear in space and time?" I simply said. "I was wondering when you were going to notice that."

"Yes exactly, this giant tear in space and time." Yuyuko said "Nothing too big really, but it's kinda in my netherworld, so yea it's kinda a big thing. Mind letting me in on what's going on?"

I only smiled and had a little chuckle to myself. "Oh simple. I created some front row seats for us. I wanted to cheer up my bestest friend in the whole wide world, and I knew this would definitely do the job. "

"You created front row seats for what?" Questioned my bestest friend in the whole wide world.

"Well, take a look inside the portal and see for yourself." I suggested. "Don't worry, they can't see us, and we can't fall in."

With the unwavering trust we have for eachother, Yuyuko floated over to the portal and took a look at the scene that I had been watching before she arrived.

"Hmm...I see that firefly youkai, oooh hey it's Komachi-chan! Looks like she's setting something...hey...who's this kid?" I herd Yuyuko say.

She looked. I grinned.

"Young, kinda cute, and what's that thing he's holding...hey, it looks like a scy-!"

Yuyuko gasped.

"-Hey!" Yuyuko said in delight. "Fuka-chan's replacement is here! It's about time so-"

She gasped, and turned to me.

"Gasp! You knew!"

Ahh, if only I could see my own grin on my face. I hope that camera gets it.

"Guilty as charged." I smugly answered with a singsongy voice, my grin stretched as far as it could with my plan coming around exactly as I saw it.

"How did you find out?" She asked me.

"Oh" I said, twirling my hair with my open hand "I have my ways."

"Yea, and I'm half of them. How'd you get this one around m...You hypnotized Komachi-chan again, didn't you?"

There was a beat of silence between us.

I answered with a shrug. "Hey, don't fix what ain't broke"

Yuyu pouted her cute, adorable pout "You have got to stop doing that to people." She nagged to me "Constantly hypnotizing Komachi-chan and all those other people you do that to cannot be good for their health."

"So says the ghost who hasn't had to worry about her health for a thousand years. They're fine. At worst, they'll think it was fae glamour used on them and not hypnosis."

"It's still totally weird. What if they ever remember that you did that to them?"

"Then they'd curse my name once more then they usually do for the other shenanigans I pull on them."

Hmm...me having fairy powers?

Yea...I like that. It adds a nice charm to the mythos they all tack on me. Sofar, people think I'm a former human, born from youkai's self-destructive desires, a god, from the future, oh, adding a fae queen story would be such a nice cherry on top of my portfolio.

"Anyway, take a look at your new hired help Yuyu-chan. I'm sure you'll love him. That, and he'd probably make a good playmate for little Youmu too."

Yuyuko did so, and she checked ou- inspected him "Hmmm...he does look the part...and cute..."

I know, blonds aren't your thing, but for the most part he is your thing, no?

"He's cuter then I thought those replacements would be. Definitely cuter."

I began to wag my finger. "Yuyu, I think you're a little too old for him."

"Hey!" Exclaimed Yuyuko "I am a dainty beautiful flower! So what if I'm a thousand years old? It's not like anyone dead cares about that anymore. And technically, he and I wouldn't be direct co-workers, meaning I'm allowed to..."

"He's not even twenty five" I said, busting Yuyu's romance bubble with one felt swoop.

Yuyuko stopped in her tracks. It took her a moment to take it in.

"..."

"Really?" She said as deadpan as possible. "He's hasn't even been a shinigami for twenty five years?"

"No, he hasn't existed for twenty-five years. He just became a shinigami, and lucky for this child, assignment number one is to the place that makes grown shinigami cry."

With that, Yuyuko sighed.

"...."

"...dang"

Logic then struck in Yuyu's mind like a match. "Wait a second. How do you know this? Let me guess, Komachi-chan again?"

I wagged my finger. "Noope. Try again."

"Oh, how could I? You're just too mysterious to ever figure out" said my best friend who had me totally figured out.

I jested back to her with "It's all a part of my charm."

We both laughed.

I then told her the answer "I got a hold of Wriggle and I paid for her to gather some information on the boy before she did her thing, and luckily, she's letting me watch her little show as a nice bonus."

"Wouldn't you have watched anyway?" Asked Yuyu.

"Of course, but its not like she knows I do that." I said "Besides, it makes Wriggle feel better that she gave her blessing for me to watch her fun little show. And let me tell you," I said pointing towards Yuyuko "You've missed out on quite a show sofar. If Ran wasn't so dang slow you would have been able to catch it. But lucky us I taped it all on my camera floating above, so I will have to show you Wriggle's comedy act later." I said, pointing to the giant floating video recorder over us recording what the portal was showing us.

"Comedy act?" Questioned Yuyuko "Knowing you, that sounds either funny or painful."

"Believe me, it's both." I answered "I'll show you later, but for now, it looks like Wriggle's going to start her fight with the boy."

"She's fighting so soon?" She asked me again.

I then answered "Oh, well you didn't see it earlier. She did the rest of her observations and stuff and you know. All she's got left is fighting the newbie, and thanks to Komachi-san, the two of them are actually going to have a actual duel with eachother, not just her usual gauging of their strength."

"Oooooo, sounds nice."

"I hope it is." I spoke "Sofar, this kid really hasn't impressed me at all. But he did get through that shinigami academy somehow, so he's got to at least be a half-way decent fighter, right?"

There was a silence between us.
...nor did she answer.

"Oh, Yuyu, that one actually wasn't rhetorical. Really, they have to be at least decent fighters to become a shinigami?" I asked.

Yuyu Oh'd, thought, scratched her phantom pink hair, and then answered. "I think so. I really never asked Eiki-sama, Komachi-chan or Fuka-chan about it much."

....eh. Good enough for me.

"By the way" Yuyu began to say, changing gears to something else "Do you mind if we send Ran-san to help out little Youmu-chan? Youmu-chan's trying to cook something to show her mother, I figure Ran-san could give her a little help."

If she's anything like her mother she'll be needing that...

"So she decided to go through with it then huh?"  I spoke.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting that little child to actually go through with those plans of hers to impress her mother.

"I thought Youmu said she was going to do it all by herself?" I asked Yuyuko.

"Of course I won't actually be helping, she's put too much effort into this to actually turn to someone else." Out poked Ran's voice. "When I stopped by to get Yuyuko-sama, Youmu-san was quite determined to make sure it all comes out exactly perfect. I'll just be there to give my guidance, or to answer any questions she has."

Ran, I didn't ask for your very helpful opinions and useful suggestions that would be very beneficial to her.

"Yes exactly." Yuyu said, as both my insubornate and helpful shikigami and my lovely and ghostly best friend turned to me. "Yukarin, would you mind letting Ran-san help out Youmu-chan? You know how much this means to Youmu-chan."

"Girls, girls, you know I can't say no." I said. "Just remember Ran, don't do the work for her this time."

"I have no intentions to do so Yukari-sama. If I did, I'd be ruining everything Youmu-san would be working for."

"Good to hear. Now off you go!" With that, I opened a gap below my shikigami for her to fall through. 

Bye Ra-.....

.....

And instead of falling through like I had hoped, Ran seemed to think she had outwitted me, and floated in place, floating above the gap.

"..."

We took a good 14.3 seconds of looking at eachother making eye contact, I could tell Ran was enjoying this.

Yuyuko then whispered to me the oblivious. "Yukarin, She's not falling for it."

And let's change that.

I flicked my wrist and opened another gap above my Shikigami. A ear deafening horn screamed through the above gap as Ran flinched, then looked. Ran only had that second to look up before a ramming steel beast known as a train came storming through that gap above, wailing Ran with all it's might and pushing her into the gap below her.

...noone ever sees that train coming.

With Ran gone and at her destination, I closed the bow-tied gaps.

"Man, you really like that train."

"How could I not?" I said "A ghost train that I can however I like, indestructible, and it doesn't even really hurt people, so I can use it without restraints on everyone as much as I like. Oh, it's so much fun to use it."

Yuyuko smiled her amazing smile. "Glad to know you're making good use of my gift."

Truly, Best.Birthday.Gift.Ever. I love you Yuyu.

With us done enjoying the moment, we both finally turned to the main attraction that brought us here today, the boy and the insect.

"Oh good, we're just in time. They're just about to start." Yuyuko commented.

I smiled. Perfect timing.

"Now, let's enjoy the show..."

------------------------

"Alright! Now we have that out of the way, are you two ready?" We herd Komachi-san saying. She was standing in the middle between us, her scythe separating Liam's half and Wriggle's half of the open grassy and forest area.

"Yes Sempai" We herd Liam say

"I've been ready for a while now." Spoke Wriggle.

"Awww...he calls her sempai" I herd Yuyuko comment.
"It's cute, isn't it." I said back to her.

Wriggle stood there, her cracking her knuckles, readying her body for battle. Liam on the other hand, unfolded his scythe, and for the first time since he got here his scythe took it's true form. A long pure white staff as taller then himself, with a sleek, but unusually larger then normal black blade to accompy it. He was holding it in a neutral position, not combat ready.

"Alright, as soon as I pull this scythe back, we start." Komachi-san spoke.

"...3..."
"...2..."
"...1..."

Komachi used her powers and pulled herself and her scythe back.

"GO!"

Liam moved to a battle stance. Like a switch inside him, his eyes narrowed on his enemy, the firefly youkai.

Hmm, he's not acting. Instead, he's waiting for Wriggle to make the first move.

What he doesn't realize, or is going to realize before it's too late, is that he's accidentally giving her the first move. She's using some magic to give her a short term boost in physical strength, doesn't look like it but I can tell.
A mistake. His passive nature works against him here.

After channeling her magic to enhance her body, Wriggle's left fist glew a strong silver, she moved it back cocking it like a gun. With that, she lunged forward with all her might and launched her attack.

Shouting her battle cry, Wriggle and her silver fist closed the distance between her and the shinigami. It sounded like pure steel hitting Liam's face, Wriggle's powered up high speed fist launching Liam off his feet and right into the tree behind him, snapping the tall oak in half . Liam being nothing but a impromtu saw cutting that tree in half and crashing into the next tree and falling to the ground.

All of this, in about 3.5747 seconds.

Wriggle smirked from her quick sucker punch as her body's momentum drove her into the ground. She hit the dirt rolling into the ground and needed a moment to get back her orientation and back on her feet.

Reckless.

Liam recovered as well from the blow, regaining his marbles jumping back on his feet as Wriggle came in for another blow with her bullet punch.

If she had used something less careless she could have gotten the jump on the boy.

But, she didn't. The boy twisted to his side dodging the steel-like right straight, Wriggle's iron fist crashing into the tree the boy had rammed into moments ago, shattering the impact zone into pieces and sending the large tree's remains crashing down upon them.

Both Wriggle and Liam jumped backwards in opposite directions from their positions as the tree fell down where they once stood. Wriggle landed on another old fallen tree, and used it like a springboard to jump into the air above, taking the initiative once again and unleashing her next attack.

Wriggle channeled power through her arms and into both fists this time, them both glowing a sleek yellow releasing a barrage of punches that sent out needle looking projectiles intent on doing ill will to our young shinigami. The shinagmi noticed, I saw his two hands grip his scythe as his mind told him what to do next.

He brought up his scythe, and spun it to hit the needle barrage, knocking away the shots at him, only a few of the insect's barrage missing, and one scratching him across his arm.

Not that the boy noticed. As soon as he had an opening he gathered his own power into the scythe and slashed in a arc, unleashing the energy as it's own arc of power heading towards the insect.

Wriggle just floated up and dodged. She didn't even need to try on it. The next three on the other hand...

"Woah!" she shouted in response, barely dodging the incoming arc headed her way. Wriggle dodged to the right, then to the left and then she arced her body to evade the speedier third arc...which she did not fully evade. The attack cut into her left arm, tearing some of her sleeve and drawing blood.

Ha! The kid drew first blood. Good job. Usually, Wriggle draws first blood on herself. Looking at her pout, she was hoping for that too.

Wriggle raised her right hand, insects heard the call of their queen and rose up around her, forming a curtain of bugs and sending them as a large trail Liam's way.

Liam saw the black stream of insects flying at him like a snake, and moved back to dodge it.

It was a cheap parlor trick to make someone move to avoid getting a faceful of fruit flies.
Not that Liam would know those bugs were harmless and couldn't hurt him. He'd assume it's bad and move right into the Wriggle's next attack.

....

...ok, I'd avoid them too. I don't want some insects on my clothes. Dirty dirty. 

Yuyu and I look and see Wriggle's body glowing a blue glimmer of wind magic, her hands holding the air like she was about to jump out of a plane. she pulled them forward and the magic blue glow became like a jet-rocket catapulting her whole body forward, the air rushing past her, her spinning into a dive kick, Wriggle's foot leading the charge.

"TAKE THIS!" Wriggle shouted as she rushed towards Liam like a wrecking ball in a dive kick form.

Once again, Liam dodged by the skin of his teeth as Wriggle rushed past her and crashing right into the ground.

"Ooooh, pretty impact" I herd Yuyu say as we saw everything go flying from the oh so fun impact.

Said impact of wind, magic, and power kicked up and blew away everything. kicking up dirt, blowing leaves, scattering Wriggle's summoned insects, and blowing everything not nailed to the ground far away, like the shinigami.

The boy was sent into the air, unable to control which direction he was moving in before it was too late. Before he knew it, Wriggle was inches from him once again, her fists shining silver. Wriggle repeated her iron first trick, and scored a direct hit to the airborne boy's gut, arcing the blow down and let the sheer momentum of her attack send the both of them into the dirt below.

Just one in pain and the other with a broken shoulder and now a broken fist. Both hit the ground as Wriggle brought up her unbroken fist and opened her palm, channeling more power through it and firing off a blast at the boy, who had only a second to notice before it hit him square in the eyes and exploding.

The attack was weak, but enough to send Wriggle flying back from that not all too damaging attack. That move wasn't to hurt Liam, but to give Wriggle breathing room. With how far the explosion sent her, it did it's job well.

It also had the side effect of making a few more trees finally give way from that blast, and at least three already broken trees fell down ontop of Liam, totally crushing the poor boy. I thought I heard a shout before the trees collapsed ontop of him.

Environmental hazards. Gotta hate them, gotta love them.

Regaining her (floating) footing in the air, I could see the damage she's done to herself, realizing that only one of her four limbs were unbroken. One hand was open and flapping in the wind, The bones within the right leg is shattered flapping there limp and lifeless just like her arm, and if that red leaking fluid from her other shoe says anything it says that foot is done too. Looking past her now dirty clothes, Yuyu and I see her open cuts and wounds all over her from her massive impact earlier.

Like usual, that reckless child realizes she's pushed herself far past her breaking point and is now in danger. If that boy was more aggressive, or well, able to break out from those tree trunks that's currently crushing him, this fight would be over. But he's not, and she knows it.

"Why does she always fight like that?" I heard Yuyu ask me. "Really, she's beating herself more then he's beating her."

"Wriggle's not one to have any self-restraint whatsoever. She fights with reckless abandon and maximum force to crush her enemies, even if it means shattering her own body in the process. Besides, if she didn't I don't think she'd have enough power to go up against stronger youkai, and that's not even counting us."

"I mean, you or I? It'd take a minute." I commented "Heck, if we spotted someone fighting Wriggle, it'd might take two. Unlike the boy of course...who's still trapped under those collapsed trees."

So disappointing.

"What's she doing now?" Yuyu asked me.

I see her pull insects to her. Wriggle took a deep breath, raising up the only good limb she has left, calling all the insects she's brought with her today to swarm around her.

These aren't the bugs that were here earlier...

"Oh, I've seen this trick." I said "You can see these bugs aren't native from the area, they're bugs that she brought with her from that little bug sanctuary of hers."

"...huh." I herd Yuyu sound out. She did try to look deeper, but.. "They all look like to me. How are they special..."

"Queen's order - healing wave" Wriggle chanted, casting a special magic of a queen insect.

We watched as each and every bug that flew around coming to a sudden halt. A calm light began to glow from them, and all of the insects that covered Wriggle's body emitted a wave of energy that covered Wriggle Nightbug from head to toe. They finished their action, and when the bugs scattered away from her, they revealed a Wriggle who showed no sign of injury.

The cuts on her face and the scrapes on her skin were all gone. Each limb moving as they should.

"...Nevermind" Yuyu commented, now knowing one of Wriggle's little secrets.

Wriggle now realized to herself she had a free moment, and realized that the boy she was suppose to be fighting was still stuck under all the trees that had collapsed under him.

She decided to float towards his position.

"Don't tell me you're done already?" Wriggle proudly shouted to him.

We didn't get any response from him. Nothing but a muffle.

One muffle, two muffles, three muffles...

We began to see a dim light emit from under the trees.

"Spirit gun!" We herd Liam shout from under the trees, which now exploded with a white light. Energy blew through the trees, breaking them apart, freeing the shinigami long past when he should have been out.

...spirit gun?

"Ahhhh, so you studied under that school. Not bad stuff." I herd Komachi mutter to herself as she walked once again towards the battle.

Back in the netherworld, I turned to Yuyu. "Spirit gun?" I asked my undead best friend, pointing at her with both fingers, signaling "answer mode" to her.

Yuyu was quick to answer. "I've heard of it before, It's a basic technique taught by some of the afterlife branches. There's much more advanced variations of the move, but it's simply taking the spiritual energies of one's soul, focusing it all into one point, and shooting it off in a short blast, releasing all the gathered energy all in one shot. Unlike other techniques, It's all done in the head."

Yuyu brought up one of her fingers, it shining with a blue light, giving me a demonstration. "It's beginner stuff bestowed to recruits and even to mortals employed by the afterlife so they can attack things that don't have physical bodies and give them a edge against the supernatural. Granted, overuse, overextention, you know can kill mortals, but shinigami don't have that limitation."

I see.

Back to Liam, he showed some signs of fatigue and stress, his clothes seemed as tattered as much as his skin as he climbed out of the rubble. Both were regenerating, I could see part the sealing of cuts and injuries as well as his clothes beginning to restitch themselves back together.. But he still was getting tired, I should see him breathing a little heavier, his eyes had life in them and thinking over what had happened earlier. Now out, he half jumped half few out of his embarrassing pi-ooh...ahahaha

Yuyu and I giggled at the sight of the boy. Something tells me he wasn't noticing that little something on his shirt.

Wriggle smiled smugly, a very small chuckle holding back her own laughter. She pointed one of her fingers at Liam.

"Hey" she said confidently "There's a little something on your shirt."

And Liam finally noticed that there was a massive tree stick logged in his chest pointing out the other side. Kinda took him back by surprise.

"Ah!" sounded the boy, finally nothing the fatal tree branch impaling his chest. It just made me and Yuyu laugh some more.
 
Now noticing there was a broken tree branch impaling him, Liam grabbed it with both hands and pulled it out of him, tossing it aside.

When I looked back at his chest, the damage was already being undone.
That's a fine healing factor he's got there. Self-healing clothes? Those shinigami really have connections.

Wriggle, instead of giggling like a little girl (which me and Yuyu have been doing) just smirked. "You ready to go on? Good. Too you long enough."

"You gave me more then enough time to get all ready."  Wriggle pointed up. "As you can see."

Liam looked up, and saw Wriggle's insects had gathered together into five different groups, a light began to shine amongst them, the five black blurs of insect clusters forming five red magical rune circles, all of them taking aim at Liam.

"Now, you better not go down right away." Wriggle proudly said as the runes came to life "Because we're just getting started!"

"Queen's order- Burning firefly!" Wriggle shouted.

Each of the runes light up, and five fireballs all shot out at Liam all at once, the boy jumped back to dodge the five small fireballs that incinerated the spot where he once stood.

Liam lightly juggled his blade as he jumped back. Flipping it up in the air the scythe began to collapse inward, folding up in mid-air to how it I saw it earlier when he wasn't fighting, the blade tucking inside the rod as a white energy began to form around it.

"Air!" Liam shouted, his hand outstretched a quick little magic spell that began to take hold, a white energy flowing around the folded up scythe, until it took a form that my gut tells me he's much more comfortable with...

A gun.

White energy formed around his weapon, first giving a little glimmer before becoming a hard white solid. It seemed like the boy had taken the scythe and turned it into a impromptu rifle, He held onto the solid white stock, the folded up parts of the weapon acting as the core of a gun, the last part of the scythe unfolding extending out like a rifle, the blade forming a impromptu front sight for the boy.

I could see a change in his eyes the moment he grabbed his scythe like a gun. His eyes narrowed, focus entered his brain and the boy began to return Wriggle's fire with volleys of his own.

Each shot felt...natural, flowing like water and repetition, the boy took aim at one target, fired and moved on to next. The boy fire a spirit gun blast at each target, forcing the insects to scatter or die. The insects on the other hand dispelled to avoid Liam's shots, the surviving insects regrouping and returning fire at the shinigami.

Liam kept moving, evading left and right, staying on the ground using the trees as cover to take the fireballs, giving Liam more time to fire off his own spirit gun blast from his scythe and sneak a shot or two at Wriggle, who seemed to be avoiding his shots like the plague.

The airborn Wriggle "jumped" downwards up going "Woah!" dodging another near miss. The sheer force coming from each shot she was worried about, she knew she couldn't take a direct hit.
Despite being able to cast magic, those bugs were far more replicable then her.

...hmm, that might even clip me. That would kill Wriggle, but I doubt it'd injure me badly, maybe knock me back a little.

The boy was in complete fight mode. He fought much more intensely then he did a few moments ago. Well, more competent now, at least. 

And well, it's a smart move using the scythe like that. Instead of firing blast after blast just from himself, he does it through the scythe as a catalyst to enhance his magic, like that wand Ran use to use in her early days.

Slowly, the boy seemed to be making progress. The boy's pace was unchanging, but the bugs were getting slower and slower, perishing by the boy's spiritual fire.

Soon, five was down to four, four was down to two.

The boy's making good work of the firing squad. Not bad.

I could see frustration on Wriggle's face, this is not going as planned as control of the fight slowly shifted from her, to him. Wriggle refused to let go of it so easily, and I could see her look at her insects, having them shift up their tactics.

All her insects gathered together, dodging the boy's spiritual blasts and gathering together, creating one giant fire rune and firing a giant wave of fire magic at the shinigami.

The shinigami saw the incoming and unavoidable wall of fire. He stopped his shooting and placed his feet firmly on the ground.

At the tip of his "gun"'s "barrel", a shining white orb of spiritual energy gathered from the shinigami, growing to almost double the size of a basketball before he fired it off at the wall of fire.

It hit the wall of fire, and both attacks erupting in a large explosive, and dare I say pretty flair. Looking and seeing Yuyu's childish "oooh" at the large explosion. Sadly, Komachi was caught in that explosion, I missed the look on her face as the fireball consumed her.

It made a very expansive cloud of smoke, creating a quite large smokescreen for all of us. And moreso, it's in the way of our sho-!

Oh here she comes!

I see Wriggle burst out from the cloud, her foot coming right down on the boys position

Liam, currently on his A game, noticed the incoming firefly with her foot aiming for the boy's head.

The shinigami easily jumped back and dodged her attack. Landing down on the ground, the boy retaliated with blast from his weapon. Wriggle's eyes were dead set on it, dodged with a dash to the side.

Liam didn't stop from that blasting Wriggle again only to hit the dirt as she dashed to Liam's other side.

This, all while he didn't notice the two cluster of little bugs forming to both his left and right. They formed a rune of magic like before, the two fired a small fire ball while he was focused on the firefly.

Liam's instincts instantly reacted, he turned to his left and fired a blast that consumed the right shot and the insect cluster that fired it, but he wasn't fast enough to retaliate with to the right shot. the small fireball hit him, knocking him back and sending his weapon out of his hands, the white solid surrounding it vanished as the weapon his the ground.

I could see Wriggle smirk, and she went straight for her attack. She planted her feet on the ground and bent like a professional runner and took off. She broke into a sprint towards Liam and jumped at him. Her body began to spin, her silver magic took form on her foot instead of her fist this time rushing at him, using her unnatural acceleration from her attack to unleash a mighty spinning kick strong enough to take off the young boy's head like an football.

Sadly, Wriggle sucks at football. American or otherwise.

Liam had just enough time to fall down and dodge Wriggle's steel spinning kick, she whiffed, missing her decapitation attack.

Hmmm

And her landing was crap. She hit the ground quite unpleasantly, her body's momentum really just not working with her today. I suppose when you act so reckless that tends to happen.

But unlike before, battle mode Liam would not let this chance pass. Outstretching his hand, he recalled his scythe flawlessly, the folding up weapon unfolding back into it's regular scythe form as it flew towards him. The weapon spun dramatically as Liam got back on his feet. He grabbed his scythe with one hand and rushed the firefly as she was trying to get back on her feet.

Wriggle couldn't dodge it as the scythe slashed upwards with his weapon. It cutting across her chest and sending her upwards, some blood scattering from the slash.

Wriggle let out a loud "GAHH" as she was slashed right off her feet, the boy's blade finished it's motion. Liam turned around, his free outstretched hand pointing at her like a...

"Spirit gun!" the boy shouted, and he fired a blast right at Wriggle. There was no dodging this blast. The shot rang out of Liam's index finger and struck Wriggle right in the back, sending her careening right into a batch of bushes.

"That one wasn't as big as the others..." Yuyuko commented

"Huh?" I said, turning to her.

hmm....yes...

Yes, that was weaker and smaller. About...um....67.324% percent smaller, give or take a thousandth.

"Maybe it's the scythe?" I said to her "I mean, he could have it made to be a conduit for his power, like a magician's wand."
I mean, if it wasn't that what could it be?

"I...well, guess so....at the afterlife mixers I've been invited too most usually don't have many drastic changes. Most are just normal shinigami scythes, or have a modified blade with a fixing more to the user's preference, like how Komachi-chan's is wavy and Fuka-chan's is made for decapitation. When we meet him we should just ask him."

Oh ho. Well, you can, I can't. There's no way I could ever be direct like that. That goes against my style.

Liam said no words as he watched Wriggle go down. All he did was position his feet on the ground as Wriggle hit the grass below, who quickly floated back onto her feet.

I've seen this focus before. That single minded focus where the only thing on one's mind is how they're going to eviscerate the opponent's face. One hundred percent focus, one hundred percent concentration, nothing else.

Wriggle felt the pain, she ran her hand across her chest to her right shoulderblade, tracing the wound and tearing off her the half-torn right sleeve. Wriggle was hurt, but still was able to fight, and watched Liam come at her. 

The boy rushed forward, one hand at the base of his scythe the other on the middle of the shaft. Liam dashing in on his target closing the gap between them.

He brought the scythe shoulder-high and slashed at Wriggle, Wriggle jumping back at the diagonal slash, it cutting the air between them.

Oooo, close close call.

The boy planted his feet on the ground as the scythe finished it's cutting arc. His scythe clicked as Liam spun the scythe around facing the other way and with a short foreward movement slashed the same arc in reverse.

Liam made a battlecry as his blade lashed at his opponent with a powerful fury and um...wow.

She dodged by the skin of her teeth, some of the firefly youkai's green hair falling down to earth from the sheer closeness of the attack. But that wasn't what made Wriggle sweat.

At the last second, inches from her head, the blade split. His blade split in like a V. Parallel blades like a pair of talons instead of a singular blade. Both blades nearly slashing her face into ribbons. 

So, he's got a collapsible scythe with a twin parallel blades.

...   

...huh.

I should be more surprised by that...but...I'm not.

If he was a few more inches closer, that would have been the end of this. But instead, he missed and left himself wide open, giving Wriggle the perfect chance to drop kick him right in the stomach.

Both were sent back a little, both hit the ground at the same time, both recovering from their fall by rolling backwards and getting back on their feet.

It only took Liam a moment before he was back in Wriggle's face, bringing his scythe down with another diagonal chop from his twin clawed scythe.

Wriggle spun into a roundhouse kick, her foot up and blocked the twin blades, his scythe locked in against the groves of her shoe.

For a moment, they were still.

"Wow....cleats" Yuyuko muttered.

"Steel. Cleats. " I corrected.

Light enough to wear, thick enough steel to stop an otherworldly blade, and enchanted so magic doesn't wreck it. Which were all way damn harder to do then it should have been to do, and to get all those pairs of it for that firefly.

Wriggle grunted, her eyes and her enemy's eyes were both had their eyes on the prize.  She pushed foreword with her foot and pushed Liam's scythe back, jumping off her other leg and attacking with it kicking Liam in the face. Being steel cleats, it cut Liam's face, slashing him as he did to her previously.

The kick sent Liam right off his feet and in the air his body spinning like a really slow plank spinning in space.

Wriggle took pride in that she had gotten the kick in.
Wriggle didn't notice that Liam's index finger was extending as he spun,
and Wriggle realized way too late he was preparing another spirit gun shot until he fired it right at her.

"Spirit Gun!"
A halfway decent, but very accurate headshot. The white spirit energy shot hit Wriggle straight in the head and sent her right back on her ass on the floor reeling in pain.

We didn't need to see how much it hurt her, we just heard it. 

"AHHHH!...DAMN IT!...MY EYE....GAhhhh" Hissed the girl who just lost her right eye.

Wriggle held the right side of her head, as she got up off the ground we saw the shinigami do the same. Liam jumped back on his feet pretty quickly, his face healing up, the gashes from the cleats being healing up to nothing but scratches. Taking his time to analyze the situation and Wriggle's next move.

At this moment, she had none.

"Oooh...ewww...I can see the burn mark on her eyeball." Spoke a kinda grossed out Yuyuko.

Wriggle's right eye was burnt and for all intent and purposes, totaled. Liam watched the blood drip onto the ground, his blank eyes looking at the girl, and him getting a full view of his attack upclose, compared to Yuyu and my own far off view.

He stared at it, the boy double-blinked, and his eyes filled with life once more, the tension within his battle stance faded away.

"Oh my god I am so sorry" Spoke Liam. His tone was apologetic, this was the kid I had seen earlier. "I wasn't trying to blind you."

There was a beat of nothing between them

"I told you to hold nothing back..." Spoke Wriggle in a very serious tone breaking the silence.

"And I..." Wriggle reached her hand around her ruined right eye. "Won't either..."

Uuhh...ooohhhh...

Seriously!? She's!?

"Ewwww!" Yuyu sounded looking away.

I quickly created a gap above my camera to block the unpleasant sight.

Geeze...damnit you freak.

With a grunt, Wriggle finished her disgusting act.

What was once her bleeding and burnt right eye was now bleeding profusely and completely closed. Wriggle's right hand was covered in her own blood as she clenched what was once her right eyeball in her fist.

Damn it Wriggle, do you have to be so damn gross? Yes your right eye is now dead weight but you don't have to tear it out of the freaking socket! You're a youkai! Just let the damn thing heal normally.

The boy had frozen motionless at the bloody sight. It seems he was in agreement that this was gross as hell too.

Seems Wriggle was planning something, but all it looked like all she was planning was to pass out from blood loss...

...wait...

Runes ignited underneath Wriggle. White that slowly started sucking up all the blood that had exited the youkai firefly's body, even pulling it right off her shirt turning it pure white again. The ruins changing into a bloody crimson.

"Lump of flesh! Fist of death!"

Wriggle opened her right hand, what was once her right eye disengaged into pieces flowing up above Wriggle. It combined with blood that had left Wriggle's body, along with the leftovers of her right eye shot up above Wriggle, spreading out and taking form of what looked like a dotted outline of a right arm. A massive duplicate of Wriggle's right arm to be exact, with her regular right arm glowing red as the two  fell into Sync with eachother.

Liam was about to try moving, but the last batch of Wriggle's insects saw to it that he would not move, covering him and making him flinch instinctively.

By the time he saw the massive blood fist coming down upon him it was already too late.

We heard the loud crunch of Liam's bones as the blood fist came down, crushing everything below it and creating small crater in it's wake.

The blood fist, now done with it's duty, faded away into nothing.

I moved the view of our looking glass upon where Liam laid.

....

.....Liam was not moving and showing no signs of life. He was faceup on the ground, clearly dead from Wriggle's crunching blow.

This fight, was over.

...

Back to us, Yuyuko was stunned at the fight's conclusion.

"Yukari..." Yuyu said somewhat worried, turning to me.

"...did Wriggle Nightbug just use blood magic?"

...

"..."

"...Yukari..."

"...when the hell did Wriggle Nightbug learn blood magic?"

"..."

"..."

"Yuyuko, I...don't know...I really... don't know."

I racked my brain trying to figure out how or when I have seen Wriggle find, use, or discover such magic...and In the end...

Shit, she's getting smarter.
How'd she learn that without me knowing?
Maybe giving her that huge Betsy bug was a mistake...she's increased her repertoire a hell of a lot ever since I got that for her.
...no, it's be ok. She's seen enough to know better then to try anything funny. She knows of that lunar invasion, and she knows what recently I did to that vampire who tried to turn Gensokyo's humans into his own personal undead army. 

That vampire should be lucky I spared him. Instead he fees Gensokyo with his tail between his legs screaming that he'd have his revenge against the house of Yakumo.

They always say that yet they never do. Bunch of posers.

I shook the concern about Wriggle off me and returned to watching the epilogue of our show.

Back to the (after)action, Komachi had finished examining Liam's body. Seems he was already healing up. Still out cold though.

"Hey Wriggle, Where the hell did you learn something like that? Magic's usually not your thing." Said Komachi asking the question we were all dying to know.

The one-eyed firefly youkai smiled. "Like the gap youkai says, "I have my ways"".

.....

Yuyu and I exchanged a glance. She was smiling. I was not.

...

...not a word.

We both looked back.

"Besides, he shouldn't have taken out my eye and give me something to sacrifice up. I was gonna use my right arm before" Wriggle said stretching said limb. "But as you can see it's still mostly attached."

"Still girl, that's freaky as hell. " replied the ferrywoman "Don't do that infront of people. It'll make them think you're crippling yourself just to win a friendly duel."

"Hey, I told him not to hold anything back. It'd be wrong of me if I didn't go all out too." Wriggle said.

"Besides, I've been wearing this for too long. I need to change up anyway. You go tell him that I had a good time, and welcome him to Gensokyo for me. I'm gonna head back home, switch up, and get to my sanctuary. I just got a new addition, so I need to make sure her hatching goes well."

Komachi just shrugged. "What did you get this time? Got a name for her?"

"Oh yea. Her name's Betsy Jr." Answered Wriggle. "Betsy's getting old and I know she's getting close to death; so I need someone to fill the void before Betsy passes away. And I'll need to start feeding her right away. So..you know."

"Oooohhh." Komachi just said.  "As long as you're not killing anyone alive, I'm sure the humans won't bother you. They haven't yet."

"Oh, actually I was thinking if any of the kappa died. Betsy jr. could use eating a non-stupid youkai. Have you checked to see if any have kicked it lately?"

"Not at all." Komachi said distressed "I haven't had a chance to look for over a month. I've barely been in my office, let alone Fuka-chan's. You have no idea how busy I've been. I am gonna be so glad to finally get a chance to relax and take a few breaks during my day."

To this, Yuyuko just sighed .
"Your opinion of relaxing is not what my opinion of relaxing is Komachi-chan." Complained Yuyuko as she sighed. "You take half-a-day and write the rest of the day off because it's too late and say you'll do today and tomorrow's loads tomorrow even though you said that the day before."

And then she does that workload slow plus everything else she does in her day, so instead of facing it all she instead slacks off, saying she's got too much work to do, and that's how the Komachi snowball goes. If Gensokyo wasn't so slow and if she wasn't so damn competent at her job they would have fired her long ago. Granted, they still wouldn't do it, they don't have anyone dumb enough to take her place.

"When he wakes up I'll let him know Wriggle-san" Komachi said. "We're gonna head to Eiki-sama's house and then I gotta head to the celestia above. Fuka-chan's appointment with the Hinanawis was today, so I'm heading with the kid to make sure that all goes well."

"And to make sure you don't lose another shinigami up there."

Komachi frowned. "Yea." she deadpanned. "That too."

"Man. Today's just too busy and I haven't even gotten a chance to rest yet-" Memory flashed into Komachi's eyes, reminding her of something else. "Oh yes! I need to go see little Youmu today, I almost forgot that."

My heart sank.

"I hope Youmu-chan isn't sad today. I told her I'd visit on her birthday when I saw her two months ago and I still haven't even gone to the Sanzu today." Komachi scratched her head.

Komachi, don't talk about this please? The last thing I want Yuyuko to think about is..

"Man...hopefully I'll be able to pop in right when she-"

And with flick of my wrist, I ended the transmission. The tear in space and time fading away into nothingness before Komachi could poison the air more.

I look, and I see my attempt to cheer her up today now all for naught.

Damn it Komachi, everything was going so well until you opened that mouth of yours. She wasn't even thinking about it. Now she really is.

I could see Yuyuko wasn't happy at all. Her mind filled with memories that she wanted to move on from, pleasant memories, combined with how those memories came to sudden halt in the worst sort of ways...

"You know...." Recalled Yuyuko "I was really hoping that Hakugyokurou would have been filled with life by now. I mean, Youma-san and Sakurai-san were happy, they decided to make Hakugyokurou their home... it looked like nothing was going to stop this place from the filling up with life and newborns of the Konpaku clan...I mean, we were all planning on it. We were even planning on expanding the manor, adding a whole new wing just for their kids. Youmu-chan was suppose to be the cool older sister to a whole litter of little bundles of joy...and I was going to help take care of them, you know, like their godmother or the nanny of the Konpaku clan... but..."

...Yuyuko...

I placed my arm around her shoulder.

"It's not your fault." I said to her. "It never was. None of us saw it coming, we couldn't have prevented it from happening."

"I...I know..." Yuyuko barely sounded. "it's...well...Life's...like that, isn't it? You just don't...know what's gonna happen..."

Her voice was starting to crack up.

"We finally...and then..."

Yuyuko hung her head low. Yuyuko looked like she was about to cry...don't cry Yuyuko. Please...

"I...I-I just...really didn't want to talk about it today, or think about it, or anything. Today's suppose to be Youmu's day, isn't it? It's her birthday, she's so happy today. I didn't want to go into that and ruin her day, I couldn't, and..."

My arm around her, I moved a little foreword and cut Yuyuko off.

"The last thing Youma did was bring something great into this world. You tell me Yuyu, how would she react if saw you brooding over it all these years later?"

Yuyu somewhat had a little, very forced ha from her remembering her. "She'd get so annoyed about it and bonk me on the head with her sword and chastise me for being so down like this and to move on." She told me.

"It's years later. Get over it already. I have, you should too." Yuyuko said, doing her best impersonation of Youma Konpaku.

Right after she spoke, I took my two fingers and did just that, giving her a little lovetap on her head.

"Exactly." I said.

Yuyuko began to smile a little.

We stayed there for a minute, I could see...

She sniffled a little, she turned into me and hugged me.

"...thanks..."

Thank you my friend.

...

"So...I guess we should go back to Youmu-chan then...hopefully she hasn't burnt down the manor while we were gone..." Yuyuko tried to say with a brave face.

"Noooooope." I declared. "You spent time with Youmu today, you're good. Ran will take care of Youmu today, you don't need to worry about her at all, ok? I'll going to take care of you today, and we'll both see them later tonight when you're feeling much much better. I'm not gonna let you say no to this, you hear?"

I couldn't see it because of our embrace, but my heart told me she was smiling.

"....thank you..." she said so softly.

No...thank you Yuyu...after all, you do the same for me.

[Nicktendonick]

-----------------------------
A very long time ago, there was a crying blond girl, her clothes tattered, her hat torn into ribbons by her own hand. Her back was against the outside wall inside a large courtyard. Aside from single sakura tree in its center, there was noone else inside the courtyard but the blond girl. It was a long while before any of the servants noticed her there .

The servants within the manor gathered towards this alien girl. The way she looked, the way she dressed, none of it was like anything they had seen before. They spoke amongst themselves on how this mysterious girl had gotten inside. The master would not be happy about this.

The master of the household had not been notified yet, or he would have sicced his guards on her and forced her out.

The crying blond girl took notice of them. She couldn't care.
Her life had fallen apart around her.
Her truth was nothing but a lie, and nothing but lies were her truth.
And so, the alien blond continued to mourn a life that never was and but would always be.

The servants continued to mutter amongst themselves. It took a small girl, fragile and weak to send them away.

She held two things within her hands as she walked out into the courtyard.

This was when the blond girl first saw her.

She wore a light blue kimono with traditional footwear. She had brown, short messy hair that had not been combed in a very long time. her skin was pale and her body seemed thin and strained. It seemed like death itself was trying to claim her soul far earlier then he should.

But it was her eyes the blond girl took notice of the most. Here eyes were wearily. They were tired, yet on the same token they were filled with a bustling life and energy, one so strong that not even death itself could even steal it, nomatter how hard he try.

With a smile most inviting, the master's daughter had approached her, two ripe red apples in her hands.

"Here." She said, presenting the broken girl an apple.

The alien blond didn't budge. She just continued to cry.

"You have such a nice face, you shouldn't be crying like that."

"...."

The master's daughter waited for a response. It took her a minute of standing there to finally get one.

"Go away..." muttered the girl.

"These always help me when I'm feeling down. These ones, they're so nice and sweet, whenever I bite into them, they always make me feel better. Some things are just so tasty that you can't possibly feel bad when eating them."

The alien blond refused to budge, and neither did the master's daughter.

"Comeon, do you have anything to lose?"

"..."

The alien blond looked at her. Her hand was still outstreched, the apple still there for the alien blond to take.

"..."

"I'm not gonna go away until you try it." spoke the master's daughter in a singsongy voice.

Resigning herself the alien blond took it, and she bit down on the apple. Anything to make this girl leave her presence.

Seeing the first step of success, The master's daughter smiled took a seat on the grass next to the alien blond, her back as well against the manor's wall and took a bite of her own apple.

munch...munch...

Silence...

munch...much...

The master's daughter enjoyed her apple, and looked at the alien blond chewing the bite she had taken.

War waged inside the alien blond's mouth. Mixed feeling clashing against eachother for control of the alien blond's soul.

"..."

"...it's good..."

The side the master's daughter was rooting for won.

"...it's...very good..." said the alien blond, before eating more of the apple, making very quick work of it. 

"Whenever I'm sad, these apples always do the trick."

"Yes...but this apple won't last forever..."

"Well then, I'll just have to get you more." Said the master's daughter.

The master's daughter clapped her hands twice, and on cue a few of her father's servants came towards them.

"Shall we escort the intruder out for you, Ojou-sama?" They asked her.

The Master's daughter took offense. "Of course not! She's my friend. And I'd never kick a friend out when they need my help. I want each of you to go into the pantry and get us a whole bowl of the sweetest, most delicious apples you can find for us."

They protested "Ojou-sama, you can't be-"

The Master's daughter cut off the servant's doubt "I am totally serious. My father wouldn't be happy if I told him that you weren't listening to his daughter's orders. Now hop to it and get us those apples, ok?"

With fear instilled in their hearts by the frail child, the servants obeyed the command of the master's daughter, and scurried for more of the delicious apples that entranced the alien blond.

The alien blond was more then grateful, but she had just one question to ask the master's daughter.

"we're...friends?"

The Master's daughter giggled a little, and gave a great big smile. "Of course we're friends."

"But I don't even know your name...and I...I don't really have a name any -"

The Master's daughter wrapped her arm around the alien blond, buddying up to her "No looking back and getting depressed! If we keep worrying about all the troubles in our lives we're never going to ever get to enjoy all the things we do have! You need to tie those worries to a doll and toss them the river! That way, we need to look ahead to the wonderful world that awaits us!"

For the first time in a long time, the alien blond started to smile.

The moment the Master's daughter saw that smile, she knew all of this had been worth it.

"My name's Saigyouji Yuyuko! And I know you and I are going to be the best of friends!"

-------------

You truly are my friend...no...

What was that verse I heard long ago?

Yes...now I remember.
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Yes, truly Yuyu you are more then my friend, you are my sister. You always have, you always will be...

Yuyu and I looked at eachother, and I saw her amazing smile.

"Yukarin...do you mind...if we get some apples?"

"Of course Yuyu. And I know just where to get some apples..."

Chapter 5 - You and Me - End

Proverbs 17:17 - A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.   

She can't recall what it's from though. She probably looked over it once, not really paid much attention to the Judeo-Christian texts I'd assume; kinda going through it so she knows what Christians are talking about. I'd guess she's focus more on Shinto religious texts anyways.

And it's quite true for Yuyuko and Yukari's relationship. Life partners. Not in a shippy sense, but a brotherly sense, born from the adversities they both faced, being the other's rock in a great big storm. The two of them are true friends until the very end.

Incase you were wondering, the real life story behind me adding that bible verse...when I was writing this chapter, on a random whim I opened up my internet and searched "random bible verse", and that bible verse was the first verse I got.

Fact is stranger then fiction, no?
For many reasons it was too perfect to pass up so I threw it in.

Anyway, it was interesting writing Yukari and Yuyuko at the end of that super long, super massive fightscene.
I suppose it's a thought, "Does Superman ever cry?". I suppose, sometimes we can forget that even they're human too, even if they are ghosts, shinigami, or youkai; none can escape that human factor that's inside of us all. Granted, that's not really a bad thing. It was originally suppose to be just a few lines with the line "What are friends for" being used. It then evolved into what you just read.

I hope you guys enjoy it. And I hope you enjoyed the fight too. That was a long labor getting that thing done, but it feels really good to have such a thing completed. It felt like magic seeing the entire fight I thought of in my head come together, those "moments" just being pieced together bit by bit into one large flowing thing...oh...it felt so awesome.

Still, took a bloody long time writing it and was much harder then I wanted it to be. Eh, I'll have future fightscenes to improve upon, then drastically cut them, because I'm not sure I wanna make one this big ever again. (ok, maybe for the climax, but that's it).

I blame my shonen upbringing. You watch Dragon ball Z for years, have Gohan be one of your personal heroes, and see a single fight spread amongst a few episodes and think "hey man, that looks easy", and then you start putting it to paper trying to do the same thing until you quickly realize how hard it is to keep it from getting dull.

And yes, I've seen Yu Yu Hakusho. I ended up losing track of it around the dark tournament arc, but boy did I love it. I do need to see the rest of it.
Even though I'd really want to, Botan will not be appearing in this fanfiction. Sorry guys, I don't think I can do it.

I hope I left some good mysteries in these past few chapters for you to simmer over. Some will be answered in this story, others (like Yukari's) I'll milk for all it's wor-I mean reveal some other day. This is Liam's story, not Yukari's after all.

The next story arc begins next chapter!
See you then!

PS- Now that I've posted it..does anyone notice any mess up on the italic / flashback text? Reading it the code here it seems normal, but in normal view it doesn't. Maybe it's just me.

[Nicktendonick]

And it's Valentines day!

Normally, I wouldn't update so soon and finish writing chapter 7 before I posted this....but...hey, not many chances to update on a holiday, so I'm just gonna take it.
I hope you all don't mind the quality of this chapter...it...just did not want to work with me and gah....mid-writing slumps are never fun and always...not-fun.

So, with that, Happy Valentines day update everyone!
With all the love in the air today, let's see if there's some love in the air for our young Shinigami. Maybe he'll be lucky today and find the girl of his dreams.

Chapter 6 - The welcome wagon part 3

....

....ahhh

....

Fluffy.

...yes...fluffy.

These clouds are fluffy.

Not as fluffy the ones back at the afterlife, but still, pretty fluffy.

...I really could get use to resting here, wherever I am.

...granted, I should probably figure out how Yukamo-san sent me here with that...um, thing. If this keeps up my body might as well be a shinigami volleyball.

...surprisingly, that really didn't hurt as much as one would expect it to...
Either way, dang it, that Yukari woman is really weird. Noone in their right mind does what she did. I suppose sempai was right saying how she was...very odd.

I suppose Sempai was right when she said it's easiest just to meet her myself.

Shaking that off I looked around me, my back still on the solid clouds of what must be the celestia here. What did Yukamo-san and Yuyuko-sempai call it? Yes, Bhava-Agra.

...this place is nice. No wonder why they consider this place heaven. Heh-heh. This is nothing compared to the real thing...but it's still very...

"Yaaaawwwwwnnn"

Yea...I think I'll just relax here. I'm...pretty sure I'm gonna get lost if I go out. Yukamo-san must know where she sent me...

......

...right?

Oh god I hope so. At least Komachi-sempai should be able to. Granted, the way today's been going, they probably don't.

....

...oh comeon Liam, just because some phantom something whatever train just rammed you into a freaky portal and out here, you shouldn't be all so negative.

Really, all in all this isn't all too bad sofar. Yuyuko-sempai, Komachi-sempai and Eiki-sama all seem very nice to be around and they seem to be the types I can turn to for help.

Everyone ha-
---------

"What type of shinigami are you who doesn't want to fight?"

"You know what I think? I think if you really think that, you might as well quit right now, because the world don't work like that at all you idiot."

-----------

Ju-just...just shake it off. Don't think like that.

Stop it Liam. Stop thinking that way.

She was doing that on purpose. Sempai said so. Stop thinking about it.

Sofar, everyone you've met here has been pretty nice, and flat out pretty anyway. Just focus on something else, ok?

...like those voices...

...hmm

....

I keep hearing those voices going around. Seems like a bunch of people looking to find whatever that commotion, aka me, was. They've spent at least 15 minutes searching. There's this one guy who seems to be sending out informal orders to the others and getting more frustrated that whatever came here cannot be found. He's clearly their leader. And if he's their leader that says alot. Probably weaker then those he commands. They lack organization, I don't need to look to tell they're not any form of organized or trained forces. They sound youthful, but figuring if this is a celestia, those celestials could sound like children and be centuries old. If I guessed, I've heard at least 6 voices or so. There might be more of these people, but the way they seem to be acting there's probably more elsewhere.

I'm pretty snug here, laying down in this little cloud crevice, pretty much unable to really look around and all I get to see is the very beautiful sky above.

I probably should just go introduce myself...

...But...

...the way my body feels...I...yea, I'd rather just lay here right now. I'm pretty sure my appendix, spleen, and my ribs haven't finished growing back from that job Nightbug-san did to me...and landing on my folded up scythe hasn't helped my lower back either.

Komachi-sempai told me whatever accident that occurred happened up here...yea...I'm just gonna chill here a little longer and wait for evac.

And as soon as I decide I'm gonna relax, the universe decides to once again do the very opposite in the form of a cute girl. I see a head pop up over the cloud crevice.

"Hello." The head said.

I looked up, and saw a beautiful girl pop her head into my view

She has an amazing voice. Very pretty red eyes that glistened. She had long azure hair that flowed all the way down, I'd judge down to her back. She had a sweet white collared blouse with a nice red bowtie. I couldn't see much else. Not even if she was wearing pants or a skirt. I saw she had a black hat on, but I really couldn't see much else about that hat.

She had a very slender figure, she haven't been eating all too much. She's thin, and definitely not as filled out as the other women I had encountered today.

But still...very pretty.

"You alive down there?" She asked me.

Oh yes. Stop staring and answer.

"For the most part. Just resting." I told her.

She had a little nod to that.
"These clouds are a nice place to rest, aren't they?"

"Yea, they really are." I said back.

"So tell me mister mysterious. How'd you get your butt stuck in our clouds?"

Ahh, so she's a celestial. Huh.

"Well..."

And so, I closed my eyes, and thought about what to say.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Komachi-sempai and I had taken our time getting to Eiki-sama's house sometime after I woke up from Nightbug-san's beatdown. Seems like she wanted me to remember the path.

Probably for the best.

Sempai led the way, I just followed as I usually do. My body was still healing up from my injuries dealt by Nightbug-san. I told her it was ok to leave as soon as my ability to walk returned.

In retrospect, that wasn't a smart choice. It's a struggle to keep up and the stress is keeping the rest of me from healing properly as fast as it should.

We got through into a clearing in the forest of magic, a small little cottage that seemed completely disconnected from the rest of the area.

Yes, I could sense it. Eiki-sama was inside. Komachi moved to the door.  "Let me go get her."

She opened the door and with flare Komachi began to shout out "HEL-" before she suddenly silenced herself with one hand and grabbed the door with the other to keep it from slamming.

Right after this, Sempai turned to me and give me a single finger "shhhh" as she gently and slowly popped her head inside, examining the insides of Eiki-sama's cottage a little more before exiting and closing the door.

Sempai told me she was sleeping. "Girl must have plum tired herself out" or something.

I asked her what to do next. She told me that Fukakusa, Fuka-chan as she puts it, had an appointment with the celestials above in the local Celestia which I was going to have to keep. She seemed very adamant on that this appointment needed to be kept, and that she would be going with me to ensure that everything "goes as it should". I could tell by the look she gave me that I wasn't going to have a choice in this matter. I wasn't going to protest, I could because it's not her place,, but It's not like I'd mind having a sempai help me out. Any help is good help too.

She was going to say more but something caught sempai's attention.

I turned to our side and we saw a portal open up. It was weird, it looked like the ends of the portal were tired together with bowties and two women walk out. One was in a purple dress, the other in a blue kimono.

"Hello!" I heard a voice  "Yama-sama! We decided to pay you a visit! We even got some delicious apples! Take a break with us and we'll catch up!"

Seems like that didn't wake Eiki-sama up.

Sempai was quick to silence them and informed them that Eiki-sama was tired and was sleeping. The girls apologized and then took notice to me, to which sempai quickly informed that I was "fuka-chan's" sub.

Both of the women came my way like a doctor to a new patient.

The girls looked at me, scanned me, and both smiled.

I felt a little nudge from Komachi-sempai, prodding me and giving me the cue to introduce myself.

...which...I was about to do it anyway .I always hate it when that happens.

"I am Liam Albius" I said giving a greeting bow to the two ladies." I will be here replacing Fukakusa-san and reaping souls in your friend's stead until your friend is all better and I am no longer needed. It is an pleasure to meet you."

A little forced...I had practiced it last night before I left.

"Ahh, so you are replacing Fuka-chan." Said the ghost in the blue with short pink hair, smiling at me. "I think we're gonna get along great!"

I think so too.

After she said that, a light turned on inside her and she made a big "oh!" moment.
I guess she remembered something.
 
"Oh!  Koma-chan, before I forget again, how is Fuka?" The lovely ghost asked Komachi-sempai

Sempai quickly answered and began to talk. "Oh, you know Fuka-chan, hanging in there like a rock. Most of the soul's regenerated and about half the torso, at least outside wise. Still too squishy to touch and Fuka-chan has had a few bursts of consciousness but for the most part been out of it. The doctor said the hard part's almost over, and Fuka-chan should be awake soon, then back in action in about two to three more months."

"At least, that's what the doctor said." Finished Sempai.

"Though knowing Fuka-chan it shouldn't be that long." replied the ghost in blue.

"You can say that again." Said sempai.

I wonder when I'll meet this Fukakusa-san

"Oh! Where are our manners? We haven't introduced ourselves." The youkai in purple said, speaking with a body language that said otherwise.

The ghost in blue introduced herself first.

"My name is Saigyouji Yuyuko. I manage Gensokyo's netherworld. It's a pleasure to meet you Liam-san." Said Yuyuko-san, giving me a courteous bow.

She's cute.
...Heck, every girl I've met today is attractive. From running into Alicia-san as she headed off to her first assignment too this morning to the celestial above me. I suppose I should be lucky that I'm surrounded by such beautiful women.

"Likewise" I said before my mind spiked and I spat out. "Wait, you're on of us?"

"Yep. She's one of us, mostly. You see, unlike us" Sempai begain "Yuyu here works for the afterlife, yet she hasn't completely crossed over like you or me, despite her being a ghost. She's Non-inducted afterlife personal".

So she is my sempai then. Hmmm.

Lots of times nobody manages netherworlds like the one that's suppose to be connected here. They are capable of running themselves and being so small I thought that'd be the case here, but I suppose if Gensokyo's got such powerful entities like Sempai said earlier there probably is a need for powerful people managing it too, even if they're not offically inducted into the afterlife.

"You see, after I died Komachi-san tried to ferry me over, but well, my I was one of those cases that couldn't completely cross over into the afterlife. Eiki-sama took notice of my situation, and of my abilities and how I could actually control and influence them. As well as the fact that I was dead yet stable as a ghost. I died pretty young, and Eiki-sama asked if I would be willing to stay in the mortal world and help out the dead. I gladly accepted Eiki-sama's offer and be loving being dead ever since."

"Though, you won't be seeing much of me. I usually don't spend my time in the world of the living. I stay in the netherworld in my mansion, Hakugyokurou, and do most of my work from there."

That I was curious about.

"A mansion in the netherworld?" I asked.

"Yep!" Said the woman in purple. "Shortly after Yuyu-chan got the job of a lifetime, I decided it was time to give her a great housewarming gift."

The woman in purple brought both her hands together by the side of her face. "But then I realized a problem! Yuyu-chan didn't have much of a home she could call her own...well, aside from the home she lived in as a mortal, but we didn't want that to turn into one of those haunted places you hear so much about. So, I roped a few carpenter youkai together and with my own powers, we created a home for my greatest friend in the whole wide world. A big old fancy mansion just like she use to live in as a kid."

"She was so happy to see it, but, since I spent so much time getting her home ready, I couldn't find where I put her housewarming gift. So I hasted  I got a baby apple tree  for her courtyard.

...

"Oh, and a bottle of shampoo."

...

If I wasn't there, I wouldn't have believed someone such as her would have said that.

I saw Yuyuko-sempai turn to her odd friend. "That was one very nice bottle of shampoo." She said.

"Only the best for you Yuyu."

This purple lady sure was strange. It's amazing to think this was the woman Komachi informed me about earlier.

"Oh, by the way Liam," Komachi said to me, "I haven't said it yet, but this fine lady here is Yukari Yakumo, the Youkai of a thousand talents whom I told you about earlier, who also clearly has no intention of introducing herself to you, because she could never do such a normal, sane thing like normal, sane people do."

And to that my mind went "Wait, what? That was her?" was what I was thinking.

"Agreed Komachi-san.  And why should I? After all, you just did it for me and saved me the trouble."

Sempai took a inch back. Thought, and laughed a little.

"Ya got a point there. You really are one of a kind, aren't you?" Sempai responded back.

Now that I think about this, I had assumed this was just jesting between two friends...though part of me says that Komachi-sempai really doesn't like how confusing Yakumo-san is. At least...troublesome. Maybe it was just her saying what she thought.

Neither lady showed any signs of annoyance. They just kept going back and forth like friends.

"Always is and always will be one of a kind. There isn't someone quite like me."

I saw Yuyuko-sempai have a little giggle to that too.

"You can say that again. Yukari, you really are, well... a little... Abbynormal"

And with that a metaphorical questionmark popped over my head as the girls had a little laugh to themselves.

Noticing I didn't get the joke, Sempai whispered to me "I'll show you the movie later."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Substitute Shinigami. And I for one welcome to our fair Gensokyo. We do hope you're enjoying yourself."

Hmm...thinking back, I'd ask if how good sofar or what I'm thinking it's gonna be. Cause currently those two are very different things at the moment.

Of course, I'd never say that. "I am. It's a pleasure to be here." I said instead.

"So, now that we've introduced ourselves to you, what do you think about us? And well about Gensokyo as well, we do hope you've been enjoying your stay here" Said Yakumo-san.    

I should have seen her move her finger, a little bit of magic or something as her left index finger limb by her side made a little circle, invoking a magic, or as they told me, a boundary and flipping said boundary on its head.

Said boundary was important, because what I was suppose to say in response to Yakumo-san's question was "That I think you're both very quite nice and aside from being a little banged up, I'm doing quite alright."

Of course, because of Yakumo-san's machinations, that's not what I actually said.

What actually came out of my mouth was...

"Well, alright for the most part. Aside from being a living sonic boom and crunched by a giant blood fist and having all the bones in my body crushed twice within 2 hours, I'm say I'm doing ok, aside from all those very not-ok things happening to me all in the span of said morning. I kinda feel like it's a really bad omen... Like I'm gonna get my ass kicked all day. But I'm worrying about that much more then I should, so I shouldn't say that when everyone I have met is  encouraging me to do my best and I really don't want to let Elly down. I guess on the lighter side of things,  It does help that I've been surrounded by beautiful ladies the whole day too. I'm usually not into, or see things like Sempai's volup-!"

And it was at that moment I realized I was not thinking the above, but actually saying that. Out loud.

And this was when I freaked.

I made a "Ack!" thought, but said "What the heck?"

I tried then saying "What the heck", but instead ironically said what I was thinking "I can't talk!"

"Wait a second, I think, I can!" I tried to say, but instead, "I can't say what I'm trying to say?" I uncontrollably said both confused and frantically.

I tried to process the situation, and from it I only spoke more. "I tried to process my situation, trying to figure out what the heck just happened and why I'm saying all these things. Looking around, what the heck is going on?"

"It was clear they knew what was going on. I tried to silence myself again" I uncontrollably spoke out loud "and Crap! It's-not-working-I-still-am!"

"Ahhhhhhh-" I began to fret until I realized a solution to my uncontrollable talking. Hand on mouth. And I did such, covering my uncontrollable motor mouth. But not before explaining it  in detail to the beautiful Youkai, Ghost, and Soul Reaper surrounding me, because once again, uncontrollable talking.

Once I had managed to muffle my precious innermost thoughts I gave a sigh of relief, despite said mouth continuing to muffle.

As I now freaked out (silently), Sempai seemed to understand what was going on.

"Real adult-like Yukari." Komachi-sempai said to Yukari-san

I don't know what passed me, but I tried to be normal again for once and took off my hand off my mouth.

"So she really did this to me?" I uncontrollably said and thought at the same time. "What the heck did she do?"

Yakumo-san took it all in stride. "Oh come on, it's just a little joke. It's always so much fun to flip the boundaries of inner thought and spoken word. It's always amusing.

"I looked at Sempai and saw her fidget responding, I suppose it kinda is but damnit not when it's happening to me!" I fretfully and uncontrollably said.

We all had a moment of silence (well, aside from me remuffling myself))

"Umm...what he said." Said Sempai. "As much as I'd like to play around, we really don't have time for all this today."
 
"Is that so?"

"Yes, we got a few places to visit today. It is Liam's fist day here afterall."

"True...Liam-san has been through alot today already. Come on Yukarin, we should be at least a little easy on him."

"Alright." With that, Yakumo-san snapped her fingers.
"Consider it undone. You can take your hand off your mouth now Liam-san, you're done narrating your life to us." She told me.

I finally took my mouth off my hand, seeing if something would happen as they did prior.

....and it did not.
 
In response to whatever this was being lifted, I made a big ahhh and sigh for relief.

"Though I must say, it was fun listening to your little narrations. I did enjoy it." Yakumo-san said to me.
Granted, the feeling wasn't all mutual.

"Me too" I heard Yuyuko-sempai say to me, "Iit was fun hearing you narrate what was going on like that."

Yakumo-san turned to Yuyuko-sempai "Yep Yuyu, It very much can be. Infact, you should try it sometimes. I've done it, I know Komachi-san and even the Yama herself has done it on occasion."

"Yea... I feel like I'm the only one among us who hasn't." Yuyuko-sempai commented while she was in thought.

Heh...I suppose when you think back upon events you either play it like a memory or like a stage play...

I was looking at Sempai. Something tells me she didn't want this to keep on going either. "So, with um, this out of the way, we need to get going." She said taking my hand.

"So you really can't stay? Where are you headed?" Yakumo-san questioned

"To Bhava-Agra." Komachi-sempai said.
 
"I see. Well, I won't stop you." Yakumo-san said to me "Enjoy your trip."
 
"Oh!" She exclaimed. "Let me let me make this up to you, I'll get you there in a giffy..."

Yakumo-san snapped her fingers once again, and I felt something subtle behind me open. Quickly looking, it was another one of her strange portals.
   
"Another gap of yours? You're sending us there by your portals?" Asked sempai

....I saw a grin in the corner of Yakumo-san's mouth.
oh boy...

"No. By train."

"Train?" I asked naively "There's a train that takes us to the sky? Huh?"

"No, it's more like a phantom train..." Yakumo-san said.

"Huh? What type of train is that?"

"This one."

And before I know it, I see a bowtied portal appear infront of me and Sempai. As I look inside I see a bright flashing light and a roaring sound of what seems to be well...

"Ahhh!!!"

...well, A train.

And that was I froze up as the bright lights of the train blinded me, then hit me.

And the I wound up here in the clouds....

------------------------------------------------------------------

Hmmmm.....

....yeeeeaaaahhh....

....I probably shouldn't tell this celestial girl any of that. Yep, probably not.

Instead...
"It's a long story." I said.

"Huh" she began "I really don't have time for one of those. Can you sum up how you got here?"

Ummm....

"Phantom train"

From the look in her eyes...

"Aaaaa...."

...yea... not what she was expecting. I could see her eyebrow lift as confusion set in her face, she looked down, to her sides, the celestial racking her brain trying to process "phantom train" as an answer.

After a minute of going "aaaaaa" and trying to process it, she answered back with a "-Ahhhh...whatever...."

I guess she gave up.

Then I began to speak what was on my mind. "You know, when you expect to have a first day, you never really expect it to be consisting of one's body beaten around like a tetherball constantly. I really wish it'd stop, but my gut's kinda telling me that this is how things are gonna be. "

"Oh, first day? Well, congrats on becoming a celestial. I'll introduce you to the rest of our..."

"Oh no, I'm not a celestial." I corrected.

....umm...should I say this?

The girl wanted to know more "Wha? Then why are you here?"

"Um...well, of well, I'm well, suppose to be the new reaper shinigami here for a few months."

And as soon as I said that, I mostly regretted it.

"Shinigami?! Ooohhhh, oh my. There's a new shinigami to replace the dead shinigami?"

And now I fully regret it.

"I see, I see...I'm surprised they sent another into meat-grinder so fast. I thought they would have wised up."

I...don't like that euphuism very much.

"Really, they should have. This is our land, you shouldn't be coming taking our people. But on the bright side, it's guilt-free fun, if you know what I mean. You know what they say, you gotta make your own fun right? Guilt-free fun sounds like a pretty good choice."
...

...my gut sank...

"...something tells me your definition of fun, is not what my definition of fun is..."

"And that" She said in a sing-songy voice." Is correct."

Within a second the little stick thing she held grew a red blade that jammed down inches from my head.

"Welcome to Bhava-Agra Shinigam-Me. Now get the hell out, or you're gonna wind up like that other shinigami: Dead."

...

She smiled a venomous smile "Ok?"

"BABE!" I heard the shout from that singular male.  "WE'RE LEAVING!"
Seems like he's recalling...well, whatever their relationship is.

"Coming!" the hot and venomous celestial shouted back in a very playful voice. It seemed like the opposite of how she was speaking to me.

Turning back to me, she leaned in once more as she recalled her blade.

"You see, I could call the others here, but since you're new and I'm a nice girl, I'll let you run away today."

She stood up.

"Consider this your only warning. Goodbye Shinigam-me."

With that, she left.

......

....and...

....and once again I was left alone in this little cloud crevice. My thoughts of this girl. Beautiful, she's really really cute and sounds like an angel (technically, she can even be considered one) ...but...damnit, why does she have to be such an asshole?

I know that people don't like death, they're scared of it and fight it. I understand...it's not like everyone is like me and accepts our deaths right after it happens. I know people will try to fight it, their attachments to the mortal world...it's something we all have. But the world must have finality and ending. We're a fundamental cog in the function of how existence works. Things begin, but too must they end. I feel for all those people who try to break life and death just to save someone they love...and I-

"Liam. What the hell are you talking about?" I thought to myself, interrupting my own little speech in my head.

"Do you really think this girl cares about anything you just said? Guilt-free fun, remember?"

"She doesn't. Stop trying to talk to someone who isn't there, who wouldn't listen even if she was."

......

Lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice that something had wrapped it's tentidrills around me. Now that I was paying attention, I also could feel something appear below me, from the corner of my eye I could see that this is the same type of portal Yakumo-san used earlier.

From them, the tentacles of salvation pulled me into the portal and away from this crazy place and dragged into...whatever the hell this is...

...man...this is weird...wherever I am, there's these weird eyes staring at me. I suppose this is how a movie feels when watched in the theater.

Are these eyes even real?

Before I had time to ponder the subject more, I fell out of whatever space I had been pulled into, and wound up back at Eiki-sama's house. Landing flat on my back with a "omph!".

"About time you found him." Komachi-sempai commented. "You should be glad that didn't wake Eiki-sama."

"Again, I'm sorry. I don't go to Bhava-Agra often...or really ever. I kinda figured since you were in a hurry I'd send you there the fast way, and have some fun along the way...seemed like a good idea at the time." I noticed Yakumo-san rubbed a corner of her head. Did she have a bump there on her head earlier?

"So let me try that one again. Since now I know where you're suppose to be going up there, I'll bridge a gap to get you where you actually need to be."

With that, Yakumo-san snapped her fingers and opened up a portal gap thingy above us.

....

....Huh, so that's what it looks like. Weird.

"Thanks, but we'll pass Yukari." I heard sempai say. "We'll be sticking with just normal travel today. Eiki-sama's orders, she won't let me use my fast travel tricks either."

"Really? Well, if you say so..." She said, clicking her fingers again and the thing she had created fell back into the non-existence.

Sempai walked up to me and extended her hand to help me up. I took it.

"Welcome back kid" Sempai said to me. "Enjoy your trip?"

I was uneasy to answer at first...looking at Yuyuko-sempai and Yakumo-san...I didn't want to cause anything. I'll talk to sempai later about this celestial problem.

"Yea." I lied.

"Glad you enjoyed your preview of the place. We need to get there right now." Sempai turned to the boundary youkai and the ghost princess. "I'd love to stay and talk girls, but we gotta head out. We got an appointment in about.."

Komachi reached into her pocket and took out her afterlife communication device. Looking like a small little block, she seemed to be checking the time on it before putting it back.

"...about 20 minutes with Lord Nai and some of the celestials up there, and I am not going to be late to Fuka-chan's appointment."

...why don't I like the sound of this?

Oh, right. A unkillable shinigami who's a thousand times more experienced then me was nearly murdered there and I'm going right into that hotzone with no clue but bad clues on what to expect.

Yay.

"Alright girls, I'll see you two later." Komachi-sempai said to the two "Oh, and keep me informed with what's going on with little Youmu-chan ok? I Wanna make sure I-"

Yakumo-san cut her off. "We'll talk to you about that later. You go have fun now, ok?"

"You know I will." Sempai said before grabbing my hand and taking off, taking me with her out of the forest and into the sky.

"Next stop! Heaven!"

Chapter 6 - The Welcome Wagon Part 3 - End

AN: This chapter...was kinda a pain. I really liked the whole boundary of inner thought and spoken word thing. That really is such a troll move that I really could see Yukari doing to people for kicks. And I couldn't resist the narration joke. I hope you got a kick out of it too.

And also, we meet a new touhou girl. Tenshi, the troublesome Celestial. (Clearly, that's who the Celestial is. Conservation of character, after all), isn't as we remember her. And she really didn't have any friends in SWR? I do wonder...

This chapter wasn't all too fun to write, after scrapping it once it just slogged on and I had to keep on forcing myself to write it. Urgh, I really hope it was ok for you people. I'm currently on chapter 7, with 44,300 words. Hopefully chapter 7, "Sky High" is much more fun then this one.
Wish me luck people.

And happy Valentines day!

[Nicktendonick]

Dear lord I got the lazies.
Like...Boosh! Nothing!
At least I got storyboards done for the next few chapters. Hopefully they come much faster.

Enjoy chapter seven.

Chapter 7 - Welcome to Bhava-Agra!

"So that's what was going on with Nightbug-san?"

Finally, an explanation.

"That, that thing about her, is just really strange. No wonder you two said I didn't need to hold back. Did she really feel like she needed to keep me in the dark about that?"

"Yeep." Komachi sempai calmly said. "She likes to try to get one of those "what you are in the dark" moments out of people before she makes an investment in them. Works sometimes, but I've read your profile and the ministies's dossier on you, it's not like I don't know who you are. You're quite alright in my book."

"Thanks Sempai." I said back. "Honestly, I don't remember my past, and well, that mortal me is a different person then who I am now. What you've see is what you get. It's easier that way."

Yes, I do remember my book. We all have one. A profile book containing our former lives, and dossier of the ministry's analysis of each of it's members, both inducted and non-inducted personnel.

I...really couldn't look through it. I started too...but...when I read my list of misdeeds, I read the first one, which was the final one I ever committed, reading that I had killed someone, I stopped. I couldn't finish that-.

"The Murder of Grail Osternburn Decil..."

That was where I stopped. There was a list of things I had done... I didn't want to see it, I closed the book that contained my former life, put my copy away in a box, and I haven't touched it since.

I still remember what Elly said to me. If deep down, I wanted to remember my past, I would have when I died.

But I didn't. If I forgot, I forgot for a reason.

That world I came from is a hellhole...I know bad things happened to me and to everyone else there when I was alive. I don't want to look it all up, I don't want to relive whatever it was and go through a pain and suffering that is no longer me. I do not want the past to shackle my future. That's the stuff that creates wraiths and other monsters. I let go of those things and started anew without thinking about it during my death, and I should do the same when I am thinking about it during my post-life.

That day I met Elly was the start of my life. It's easier that way.

Getting closer to the clouds, Sempai and I were reaching the bottom of the clouds.

....

It's time to talk to Sempai about my experience earlier.

....now or never. I need to know about this.

I stopped flying upwards. Sempai quickly noticed and stopped.

"Hey, Sempai, before we get there I want to talk about something." I said, despite the fact we've been talking this whole time. Time to bring this up.

"Sure. What's up?" She asked.

"It's about what happened earlier, when Yakumo-san gapped me up there." I said.

Sempai cocked her head. "Something happened?" She asked me.

"Yea, it did." I answered "I didn't want to bring it up infront of everyone, but, we need to talk about it."

And with that I told Sempai about what happened with the celestial above. And the threat.

The moment I brought up that threat her face grimaced. I could notice her fist clench, and her eye contact was wavering.

"And that's what happened." I finished.

She was silent.

"Sempai...What happened to Fukakusa?" I asked her. "All I know is something happened here, and it was a celestial who did it. Can you tell me the whole story?"

Looking at her, I could tell she didn't want to. But...

"....you deserve to know." She said. "Liam, have you read the incident report?"

"No." I answered "I haven't gotten around to it. All I know is what I said earlier."

"I'll save you the specifics, but that's the story. Fuka went to reap a celestial up here, I'm not sure where, and was attacked by a third party doing so. Sadly, Fuka doesn't remember much of the incident. It's just a large blur. Going up there, fighting someone as intended, then something...then waking up a couple of days ago. My gut's telling me the higher ups know a little more then they're letting on, but I'm not sure even if they know who did it."

They're not telling you?

"In the meantime, Eiki-sama and the higher ups barred me from checking out Fuka-chan's office and looking up the information. Eiki-sama's got all of the info, but she's not telling me much about it and saying that she would take care of this. It makes me think and worry, you know, li-like any normal person...but I trust Eiki-sama's word. If she says she'll handle it, I know she will."

Because you'll do something you're going to regret if you did handle it?

"You still want to know?" I asked.

"Of course...Fuka-chan means a lot to me. You don't work so long with someone without forming a deep bond with them...and I know why they won't let me know who did it."

"Why...what would you do if you found out who did it? "

Her eyes and mine locked. The troubled in her eyes were gone, they became steadfast and sharp.

"What I'd do? I'd kill that bastard."

...

"Every part of me wants to disembowel that son of a bitch and make them pay for hurting my Fuka. That person showed no mercy to Fuka, I'll show him the same."

Sempai gripped her scythe hard.

"If I could get away with it, I would beat the life out of that bastard and I'll drag his soul into the deepest circle of hell where he belongs..."

....

Deep exhale, deep inhale, deep exhale. Her grip began to soften. Her eyes closed. That breath of hers was normalizing. It was a good thirty of seconds of her not speaking.

I was about to speak, but she brought up her hand and silenced me.

"You don't need to start Liam, I know... I'm not allowed, It's wrong, it's sinful, it's bad...I don't need the ministry to tell me that murdering mortal souls is wrong. I know it is. And besides if I ever did...I know Eiki-sama would never forgive me for it..."

Us shinigami are forbidden from murdering any mortal soul...self-defense and reaping are another matter, but flat out murdering mortals is one of the most grievous of crimes a shinigami could do...

As I looked at Komachi-sempai, I saw her anger slowly flowing out after venting her ill will...

Fukakusa must mean alot to her. After working alongside someone for centuries...and almost losing them...

"I'm glad I have someone like her to keep me in check and prevent me from doing something I'd regret." Komachi shook her head.

Komachi took a few deep breaths, thinking more.

"I know she's keeping me in the dark for good reasons. Keep me from doing something stupid. After all this is over, I'll be needing to thank her."

...

"You really trust her"

"More then anyone Liam. "

"Heh...the more you're around that woman Liam, the more of her that rubs off on ya. Stick around here long enough Liam, you'll see what I mean.

She forced a smile.

"We should get going Liam. We're gonna be late if we stay still."

I'd have to agree there.

---------------

For the rest of our trip, it wasn't much eventful. I told her a little about myself, some of my training at the academy and the friend or two I had made there.

Komachi-sempai didn't really answer much.

I did notice her looking around, checking around her.

I didn't need anything to tell me she was cautious. She's not trying to find something, but keeping an eye out for something unfamiliar... from day one I'd know that look. She's looking for potential enemy contact.

Komachi-sempai and I finally hit the bottom of the clouds.

I saw a little grin on Sempai's face as she doubled her speed and burst through the clouds.

"Alright kid! Just a little more!" She shouted before she passed through the clouds.

And with that we hit the clouds at a breakneck speed. I sped up to keep pace with Sempai, we both rushed through the clouds overhead.

I burst through the cloud cover, flying up a nearly hundred meters into the sky.

The sun burst in my face, it shown so much brighter then when on the surface. I covered my eyes and stopped, my gaze averting and looking down.

And looking down, I got the first glimpse of what Gensokyo calls heaven. And boy, it was beautiful.

It was a pristine paradise, grassy fields ontop of the giant floating keystones, the rocky tops looking like impromptu mountains. Soft clouds covering the rest of what was below, while harder clouds made up paths leading to other keystones and other areas where the clouds became their own surfaces.

"And this, Liam!" I herd from behind me, "Is Bhava-Agra!"

"This place is beautiful..." I said, admiring the view.

"It is." She chimed in.

"Komachi!" we herd someone shout.

As I looked directly down, I noticed someone was there.

She was a girl who had long silver hair, she had a headband with a few simple leaves on it. She wore a simple navy blue dress with short white sleeves, decorated with a cloth necklace with what looks like a white flower at the bottom. Around that dress she wore a gold belt with a gear motif, each gear being a pocket on her belt.

I look down, and I see her-wow, those are nice legs...

I-I look down, seeing the bottom of her dress and her brown shoes, but what caught my eye was a silver quiver by the young woman's side. I could tell by the pokes in it that the quiver was stuffed with arrows. In her left hand she had a strange object. It look like a stick, similar to what the blue-haired jerk celestial had, but instead of it looking like a hilt, it looked like there was a small spiked blue ball on the top of the small sticky-hilt-like, um...thingy.

Sempai, looking down recognized the girl. So did the cute silver haired girl recognize her.

"Hi!" She said, waving her hand to this silver haired girl. "Good to see you Komachi!"

Both girls turned and smiled at eachother.

"Didn't expect you to be coming our way. We're suppose to be coming your way." Sempai said to her.

And to that, the silver haired girl smiled. "I'm more then ready today. I figure I might as well head you off."

Sempai smirked with a "Heh", before saying "You sound really confident Sen."

Both girls exchanged a smil-

-This Sen girl's a celestial and I'm going to be fighting her, My mind clicked and put it all together.

....

Appointment. Duh. That's what I'm here for.

I'm up here to be fighting the celestials that live here, and Sempai's here to make sure nothing bad happens to me and that this formalness is maintained.

Duh.

Great.

Sempai putting her arm around me took me out of my distraction.

"Liam, this is Sen." I herd sempai say "Sen, this is Liam. He'll be filling in for Fukakusa for a while."

I looked at her- wow she has nice brown eyes, and those brown eyes looked into mine crimson ones and gave a greeting bow.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Shinigami-san" said  Sen, my future opponent.

"Likewise." I said to Sen, bowing the same.

"Let me take you to where everyone else is." Said the celestial beauty "Lord Nai is with the others and we're all ready and waiting for you two."

"Huh. What about Belle?" Sempai said.

"Nope, just Nai today."

Sempai's tone changed when she heard that. She didn't like what she heard. Not one bit. "Belle's not here?" She said.

"Sorry. She's not in Gensokyo right now." Sen said back

Sempai's hand met her forehead "After all this, she's not here? I was expecting that girl to be here." Sempai said, ending that sentence like... "She does know what happened, right?"

Sen answered back, "Yea, Lord Nai and Lady Belle do, but Lord Nai said they couldn't leave their current matters hanging. Someone had to stay behind."

Sempai sighed again, and took her hand off her forehead. I herd her mutter a soft "At least...oh well."

Naturally, I'm getting more curious. "Komachi-sempai, who are they?"

Komachi-sempai stopped, but instead of hearing her answer, Sen did instead.

"Lord Nai Hinanawi and Lady Belle Hinanawi are the patriarch and matriarch of the Hinanawi clan. They're also really powerful too. I'd say they're the strongest celestials in all of Japan."

Japan?....oh yea, that's the country Gensokyo is in. 

"You'll love them, I'm sure of it." Sen said with smile. "Follow me."

With that we all agreed, and Sempai and I followed Sen.

As our trip continued, I began to see a little bit of development. Seems like the Celestials really do make their homes here. And as I see, quite literally and quite nicely.

"You like the houses?" Sen said as we passed by them with a bit of glee.

"I do."

I herd her have a quick "heh-heh"

"You see, I designed them." Sen then said.

"You?" She doesn't look the part at all.

"Yep. I've been designing things even before I became a celestial. Granted, when I finally became one was when I really took off. I've designed castles, towns, buildings, machines, and even a fortress too"

I asked "A fortress?"

"Yep. Hell of a fortress too." Answered Sempai "I've seen Sen's Fortress before, and believe me it's a place you're never forget. Trust me."

"Oh, and here we are."

Instead of thinking about what was just said, I looked and saw that we had found our destination.

Yes indeed. There was many celestials here. Among them I noticed one tall man amongst them. From my perspective, all I could see was his blue hair.

"Lord Nai!" I heard Sen shout out, waving both her hands like a kid.

"Hello!" I herd one of the celestials shout back. It was the man with blue hair.

That must be Lord Nai.

"Nai! Hey!" I heard Sempai shout back.

Yep, heh. Intuition for the win.

We approached them and made our landing. Sen and Komachi landed first, I landed last and stood behind them. Komachi naturally took the lead, Sen followed by the side. If I didn't know any better, Sen was scanning my sempai.

Speaking of...did she have anything on her? Might she have some sort of weapon on her aside from her scythe? Hmm...Letting my curiosity get the better of me I scanned her myself. Looking from her feet up, nice figu-no, don't think about your hot sempai. I look, and I don't see much. The only thing of contention I see is that scythe of hers, which the blade was wavy, slightly tilting towards whatever direction Sempai moved it in. Not as malleable as Elly's for sure. Weird design choice.

"Nai-nai, glad you could make it!" Sempai said, like speaking to a old friend.

The man with blue hair, Nai Hinanawi, adjusted his glasses.

This man is the leader of a clan? He seems...simple. His blue hair wasn't combed very much. He wore a simple pair of oval glasses. It fit well with his short feathered blue hair. He wore a large brown shawl around him. Looks like he just came from a desert. I could see him wearing blue pants and yea he did. I see sand, I see some slight wear and tear from it. Nothing much my intuition told me instantly he had been traveling somewhere sandy from the looks of it. Must have been in such a rush he didn't prepare. Maybe it's not his time.

I could hear the others start speaking amongst themselves. I could hear two of them whisper something to eachother. It wasn't in Japanese, but in...um...Korean, or is it Mandarin?

"Bro, who's the new kid? Where's Fuka?"
"No idea sis. I guess this guy is a replacement or something. He doesn't look too tough. "This should be easy"
"Let's hope. We should probably let Lord Nai fight for us instead, you know, just in case."
"So the same as always? Eh."

Oh....

" Lord Nai Hinanawi and Lady Belle Hinanawi are the patriarch and matriarch of the Hinanawi clan. They're also really powerful too. I'd say they're the strongest celestials in all of Japan."

And now another click. He fights in place of others. That's the agreement. Someone else can fight in place of someone's who's got to fight a reaper, be their representative. These Hinanawis are fighting in place of these celestials and keeping them around. Clearly, Fukakusa wasn't strong enough, and I doubt I am too...So that's why they're still around.

But why would Komachi-sempai and Fukakusa-sempai agree to this deal?

"Nai, this is Liam, he'll be filling in for Fukakusa for a little while"

Komachi-sempai's voice shook me out of my thoughts once again. I saw Lord Nai step towards me-oh I have to react.
 
"It's very nice to meet you Albius-san" He said to me, extending his hand towards me.

I took Lord Nai's hand. "Thank you very much sir." I said back to him.

He smiled. I gave one too.

"So, should we get to business?"

"Yea."

"Where's Fuka-san?" We herd one of the celestials behind Lord Nai say.
Upon a closer look...most of them seem to be my age-size. They don't seem like adults...more like teenagers and kids.

"As you know, Fukakusa's hurt, and has to take a little sick leave. Don't worry, Fukakusa will be back. In the meantime Liam here will be taking over those duties. and so, Liam's here to reap the souls of who's times it is. And as such, they must duel death and win if they wish to stay."

That was quick and to the point.

I began to stretch some of my without making it oblivious. G-Ow...ouch, some of those hits from Nightbug-san still haven't finished...some of my ribs still aren't there either. Bah, I could work it off...I'm not sure how well I'm gonna do here, but I do need to try.

Though, sizing up Lord Nai...I could feel a calm air around him. Simple...yet the more I look at him, I could sense a taste of the power that he's suppressing. He isn't giving off anything. And only the strong have the sense of doing that...

Gah...this is gonna suck. I suppose this day really is fated to be nothing but being handed my ass over and over. Damn it a-.

"But, well, I'll be honest. Liam's in no shape to fight anyone. You or anyone else. So, we're gonna have concede this time."

What? Concede? Just like that?
I mean...it well...also mean I don't have to fight, but...um...

Sempai leaned in towards me and spoke softly to me. "Figuring how strong you are and how strong I know he is, I'd say it's your best option. And he is really strong, Heck, he's stronger then me."

"But I don't know how strong you are either."

Sempai processed that. "Oh, right, you don't"

"Long story short, Wriggle is child's play compared to this guy. This guy is very, very tough, and that's not even figuring in his abilities as a celestial. We can concede and give them an extension, or we can do a fool's errand and get pounded into mush. Let me tell you, Nai is very good at pounding things."

.....

Hmm....

---------------------------------

"Alicia-san?"

"Yea Liam-san?"

"Um...what's the answer to number 20? I forgot how many years we can give on a extension."

"It's thirty years max if we concede on our end. Do you remember how many times we're allowed to give that extension before submitting a report about it?"

"Ummm....three?"

"It's twice. My god, you are such a terrible study partner."

"You're suppose to be the one tutoring me remember? Besides, I'm the muscle and you're the smart one."

"No, I'm the brawns, the brains, and the beauty. You're the guy who manages to gets victories out of nowhere and pull our asses out of the fire when we get it in over our heads. You're our lucky one. Personally, I think it's that scythe of yours."

"What can I say, it's my lucky charm.."

"Yea. Too bad my mom's too alive and too psycho to give me my own lucky charm. At least yours takes care of you."

"Elly's not my mom!"

"So if you're saying the woman you live with isn't your mom, then you're admitting she's your girlfriend then? Heh-heh."

"Alicia! Elly is not my girlfriend!"

"..."

"Umm...she's...just really nice to me and is giving me a place to stay. I still can't believe they kicked me out of my dorm. You're lucky. You get your own dorm, no troublemaking roommates, and nobody to bother you."

"It's not all too awesome. It gets lonely you know, being all lone. Besides, you're a guy, I thought guys would love living with a girl."

"Like you said, it's not all too awesome. It's nice to have someone there...but, um...I have to keep on guard and well...um, I mean well, I just don't wanna show her that I'm barely passing and...-sigh...well, you know..."

"You don't need to say anything else Liam, I understand. You wanna make her happy, I know. I felt the same way about my mom when I was growing up."

"You'll be fine Liam. After all, you got me, the cool smart one to help my super lucky friend through it. You're gonna pass, and you're gonna make her and me proud. "

"You're right. We got brains and luck on our side, nothing's gonna stop us."

"You can say that again."

"..."

"Thanks again for helping me study Alicia, I really appreciate it."

"Anytime Liam. What are friends for?"

"..."

"..."

"After we finish this up, you mind showing me that spirit gun stuff? You've mastered it but I still keep blowing up my hand. Can you show me how you do it again? I keep messing up every time they test me on it.."

"Of course Alicia. Like you said, what are friends for?"

-------------

I thought about my choice....

"Ok" I answered. "Concede it is."

"Good choice." She said to me, leaning back away and then turned towards the crowd of celestials.

"Alright, we're going to concede." Sempai said. "And so, all of you who's time it was will get a extension. 25 years. I'll be letting our boss know and get the paperwork taken care of."

I suppose that's the main matter of business...that went much quicker then expec-

"Wait, what?! That's it?" shouted out one of the celestial kids making up Lord Nai's followers. "So I came all the way out here for nothing? I've spent a whole month getting ready for today! And this is what happens?!"

And a fellow Celestial child silenced with a hand on his mouth. "Dude. Shut up! Gift horse! Gift horse!"

With the outburst silenced...we fell to silence.

"Hmm, Komachi-san, anything else needed to take care of?" I asked.

"Nope, that's everything Fuka-san needed to do. I'd say we're done here." she replied.

...

...

I guess we we're done.

The celestials seemed to be thinking this too....aside from that one guy's outburst.

"Well, I guess that means we won, right?"
"Well...technically"
"Um, by default"
"Does that still count?"
"I have no idea..."

They all looked at towards Komachi for her input. She nodded.

And the crowd went wild.

"Woohoo! We won!"  They cheered.

And the Celestial kids went raving, a few hugged, I saw a couple kiss (they had earlier too), and everyone was ecstatic.

"Hey, let's celebrate! Party at my place!" said one of the celestials "Alright!"

A party? They sound like they're gonna have fun.
With plans made the crowd started leaving, passing by us and flying off. I saw Sen almost leave with them, but looked at Sempai and Lord Nai and stayed behind.

I overheard a pair of them speak.

"Think he'll make pizza bagels again?"
"oooh, those were so nice last time, I hope so."

Pizza bagels?
I've heard of bagels and Alysia showed me what pizzas are...but what's that?

Eh, I'll ask later about this interesting sounding food. Besides, they were all gone now.

"So, I guess that's a wrap on everything?" I said to Sempai, still looking at the celestials off in the distance.

Instead of answering, Sempai put her hand on my shoulder.
I reactionary moved foreword as she did.

"You two should go hang out to with them." We heard Sempai sa-wha?

Uh...umm....wha

Groups and crowds...uh...

Umm...

N- n-no.
I'-I'd rather not..

Yes, that. "It's..um, didn't you want us to stay together?" Yes, another reason not to answer.

"No no, it'll be fine." Sempai saying the opposite of what I hoped. "Things should be safe around here. Besides." She began to say, focusing her line of sight on Lord Nai, using her ability of distance and wrapping her shoulder right and buddying up to him to all our surprise.

After the inital shock, Nai seemed to play it all cool.

"Nai and I need a little alone time. Sen, I hope you don't mind me stealing your boss for a bit. He and I, need to talk and stuff."

Sen and I had the same reaction. "Huh?"

"What about me Sempai?" I asked.

Lord Nai spoke this time. "Why don't you go with Sen and go to that party? I know you'll get along with them just fine."

crud...

"I'm well, um, not of a party guy." I tried to say

Yea. If-if I wasn't going to go to some of the parties in the afterlife, I wouldn't here.
...granted, I did have to go to those academy trainees mixers. I mean, I did mostly stay on the side lines...ummm...

Sempai then spoke up. "Sen, why don't you show Liam the shooting range you made here?"

Shooting range?
My ears picked up the moment I heard that. When I glanced at Sen, she seemed to share the reaction.

Sempai smiled. "Liam, Sen can show you around, and then you two could hit the range. Liam's a good shot, I'm sure he can give you a run for your money."

I looked at Sen, and I could see a pretty smile on her face.
"You, you're a good shot?"

I am.

"I am." I said, "Best marksmen in my class" I said with pride to-Oh wait she might not get the class thin-

"Yeeeaaaaa" She said "I don't think I can let you walk away now without seeing that. I have such few competition around here, everyone here just plain sucks at shooting straight. Comeon, I'll take you there."

That...um, that sounds really awesome! I haven't gotten a chance to do any practice in a while with graduation and all, and it's so calming to pick up a rifle, bow, or whatever and just zone out on nothing but the shot and the target.

I was psyched up, smiling and definitely I want to-wait um...uh...

"Don't worry Liam." Spoke Sempai to calm my fears "Sen's a fine girl, you'll be fine. As soon as we're done, I'll come find you. We shouldn't be too long."

...something tells me what she thinks is long is not what I think is long..

She then turned to Sen. " Sen, I trust Liam will be fine in your capable hands?"

Sen just smiled. "Of course."

Well...I wouldn't mind. If Sempai trusts her...though Sempai seems way to eager to ditch me.

I mean, I did just get here, and this place is totally new to me, and despite what she says I'm not sure if this place is all that safe. She wanted me to be here to make sure everything went without incident, and now she's ditching me for Lord Nai leaving me in the hands of a (very attractive) stranger....this formal at all...but...

Well...Sen is really cute. And the range too. That's awesome! And If Sen's a really good shot too, I think it'd be fun to see how well we stack up against eachother. I haven't had a decent challenge in months.

Ok ok, I'll do it!

Range here we come!

Chapter 7 End - Welcome to Bhava-Agra!

Do I smell a love interest? A forbidden love between Shinigami and Celestial?
Heh. You'll see soon enough.

For those who haven't herd of Sen before, (being here, I expect you do) Sen Gatensoku is a fanmade touhou character created by Tottema (on Pixiv).
The Doll Learning From The Natural Laws, Sen Gatensoku is a robot and was made as a fake final boss for Hisoutensoku. Created by Tottema in the pre-release hype of Soku.

Granted, she's not really that here. She's a Celestial, and pretty much wearing the hat of the good celestials. I'd say more, but we'll see more of Sen in the next few chapters so I'll save it for that.

I well, don't have permission (I not really sure how we can even get in touch), but I hope if you ever do read this, you don't mind me using your creation. I will be treating her well, I promise.

Personally, I like the Touhou fan-characters (like Midori, Masha, Sango and Jozu, Sasha, and Meimu, for example). Truly, they're all awesome girls.

Speaking or original characters, we see Lord Nai, Tenshi's father for the first time...instead of going for some towering, all powerful usually maybe a jerk guy...I went for the Shiki Tohno look and that nice guy archtype. I think it's good here, and more potential for use.
Belle Hinanawi, Tenshi's mother though is absent for reasons (Absolutely none involve me not having an idea what she looks like, totally.).

Hopefully the next chapter doesn't take as long. It shouldn't at least.

[Nicktendonick]

And so, here I am. 100 days in, my deadline hit, and...it's been quite a journey. I can't really blame what happened earlier this month, with my laptop going on the fritz and not working, me spending lots of time to fix it (yet failing to find any reasonable fix) and then finding on computer genius who fixed it in less then 24 hours for 90 bucks. He totally rocks, and honestly, he's gonna get my computer business from now on.


And yes, this is ignoring Dark Souls 2's massive addicting effect on me.
And I, being the bearer of the game.
I seeked souls, boss souls to trade for more swag,
I'm at the king, for who is the last challenge before NG+
And, this game has swallowed my time whole, as it has so many others.

Ok.
Anyway, I'll talk more about my deadlines and plans for this story.
Enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 8 ? Sky High

Perfect!

The steel target shattered into pieces as my shot broke it apart.

Another perfect hit. Woo-hoo!

"Nice shot Liam." Sen said to me.

It's an interesting use of steel creation. I've seen some people using abilities like this before, but not for creating target practice.

?But, that was an easy shot after all. It's just at a distance. So...why don't I give you something a little more challenging, no?" Sen said with a pretty smile.

And then she went on with it. I saw her get on her knees and placed both her hands on the clouded ground.

A part of me makes an uncontrollable smile, looking at Sen doing her magic.

"Alchemy sign: Automaton Actualization." Sen said.

Magic sparked from Sen's hands and made a rune underneath them. A stream of magic trailed from Sen's rune and moved far into the distance, creating more targets down where the other targets had been...

Wait, these weren?t more disk targets, but looked more like a pair of metal figures instead.

"So, what do you think of these Liam?"

When I turned to Sen, she was back on her feet.

"How about some moving targets for a change?? Sen said to me. ?They'll just move left and right for us, give us a little challenge, but not too much. Heh, you should be able to hit a moving target, right?"

I should. I did hit Wriggle after all.

?Let me show you how it's done.? Sen said with a smile as she extended her finger. I saw a glow of orange energy from her pointing finger.

She can do the spirit gun?
Damn, that's sexy...

What-whu-I, um, mean,that is amazing. Its not the spirit gun, but something like it. D-Doesn't use spiritual lifeforce like mine it-it?Just the energy of her own body. So it can't be that move.

Oh God, I hope Sen didn't see me stumble like that.
Looking, I don't think she did. Instead, I catch the tail end of her firing a shot from her finger and nailing her moving target, cleanly taking the automaton's "head" off.

Nice shot.

"Good shot, Sen...but what was that? You were using your bow before." I told her.

If it's not the spirit gun, what was it?

"Oh, its was sorta something Komachi-san showed me when I was younger. She called it the spirit gun."

She did? She knows?

I've heard of mortals learning it, but to pass it on to a Celestial? Those two must be closer then I thought.

"Komachi originally tried to teach me how to do it, but I had a lot of trouble trying to figure it out, and well, I worried I'd kill myself accidentally. So, I just used my own body's energy instead and mimicked it down to form."

Sen took aim and fired a pair of orange blasts from her finger that decimated the rest of the automaton.

"I'm not really all that good with using my own soul and lifeforce as a power source, nor do I have high magical capabilities. So I usually stick to using my own body's energy instead, or at least I do now. Before I became a celestial, all I had was a little magic I had learned from a pair of magical texts I got my hands on, but after Lord Nai started showing me how to use the power that resided in me, I've never looked back."

Most entities have three ways of power that resides in most lifeforms. The energy that comes from their body, the energies that come from their souls, or their magical energies. Across the multiverse they have all sorts of names for these three forms. Ki, Chakra, mana, ether, Reiryoku, souls, and so many more. One source of power can even tap into another, that second wind of unbelievable strength. But all in the end, it all goes back to those three sources.

Doesn't really help any that people confuse them for each other and think that they're all the same.

Gah, that was a tough test trying to sort each one from each other. Alicia failed it twice and I did once. Thank goodness for retakes.

"So, like my little replica of your spirit gun?? Asked Sen ?May not be yours, but it sure gets the job done."

"I do" I replied.

My eyes trail a little down as i say that.

My mind trails off...

I see Sen in a red dress. Her nicely toned body perfectly fitting, just an inch too tight, the way any guy would lustfully like.
The sensual Sen walked over to me, swaying her hips, before pushing me down on the bed.

Oh god, she's climbing on top of me

" . . . oh Liam . . . ."

That look in her eyes...I know what you want...

"I wanna see your spirit gun . . . pull it ou?"

LIAM!!!

Stop that. What the hell! In my own head, I took a mental shovel to my brain process and beat myself back to the much less sexual real world.

"Liam, it's your turn. I wanna see your spirit gun shot. You can nail a moving target 50 yards away, right?"

You pervert . . . yes Sen is a really cute girl, she's quite nice, and she's cool. Don't think like that.

She's your friend, not your girlfriend . . . though since she's the first female marksmen I've met in years who also actually talks to me, Sen would be an amazing girlfri?Stop thinking like that! Don't you dare mess anything up Liam!

She's a friend, and a really cool person. And a damn good shot.

Once again, Shovel to brain. Stupid brain, dying when i was in the middle of puberty.

Back to the real world, I could see a little smirk on her face.

She then spoke. "C'mon Liam, aren't you going to whip it out for me?"

Oh geez . . . innuendo . . . no, brain, no . . . .

She giggled cutely at that. I think she was enjoying teasing me.

"You're not having any trouble perfor?"

I wasn't going to allow her to finish that one.

"No No, I'm fine. I just needed to focus a little. I'm sure you'll like my bullet when it sinks into your target."

. . . .

Damn it Sen, now you got me doing it.
. . . no, not doing it. Or with you. Or to you. T-the pun I mean. Gah.

Sen exited my vision and moved somewhere behind me and I took a step forward. Sen was outside my view, and it was time to get to work.

I put my eyes on the target

Think about the target and don't think about Sen . . . .

. . . Think about the target and don't think about Sen . . . .

. . . Think about the target . . . .

And . . . .

. . . the target.
It's moving. I'll have to compensate trajectory. Wind's a non issue . . . .
Weight . . . no weight, non-issue.
Early shooting showed me showed me how long it took. Compensate for time and distance.

?

Take aim.

?

Ready my spirit shot.

?

Let it fly.

?FIRE!?

The bullet shot from my finger. Yet my eyes stayed sharp on the moving automaton.

I felt my energy move away from me and make its way to its mark. The shot hit its target, the spiritual shot blowing through it's chest. Heh, targe?

A second shot maimed more of the target's chest, hitting where it's heart would be.
Unconsciously, I'd double tapped my target.

. . . Oops?

Moving upward, I notice the head untouched. Time to triple tap.

Automatically, I aimed a shot for the head, which succeeded in taking the automaton's head clean off.

"Nice shot. Little bit of overkill. Gotta say, I was expecting you'd miss at least the first shot." Sen said impressed.

I . . . oh yes, Sen's next to me. Turning, the celestial comes into view. "What can I say, I know my shots well." I pridefully said back.

Oohhh . . . my face lit up a little bit, now that Sen was next to me.

"Having fun?" She asked.

"Yea. Haven't had this much fun all week." I said back.

?Week . . . .? She muttered. ?Hmmm? Sen was now thinking. I rubbed her chin and began to think.

?Tell me Liam, how'd you get here? Mind telling a mortal your story?"

?Of course.?

And so I did. I told her where I came from, a godforsaken planet with a lot of desert and so little water. How I lost my first home in a fire when I was a little tyke and my subsequent my trips through crappy orphanages, most of the information I knew from what others told me and a few glances at my own history.

Sen commented how they all sound like made-up stereotypes. We both got a laugh out of it.

"Yea, sounds like anyone wouldn?t last long there." She said.

"Agreed.? I continued. ?But what really killed me was, apparently, a wraith that had gotten inside my homeworld. And being my world had nothing to handle it, it killed everything in it's path. I was it's final victim before it was stopped."

"Ouch. Tough luck"

"More like the opposite. My life sucked. I mean, if I liked it I wouldn't have forgotten it. My afterlife, on the other hand, is great."

Hehe. Afterlife.

"And it was when I died that I met Elly."

"Who?"

"A friend, well, I met her that day I died and we became friends. She was the shinigami who killed the wraith that killed me, and then reaped my soul afterwards . She's the captain of t-"

Oh yea, I'm not suppose to talk about that stuff to mortals.

I readjusted what I was about to say "She's one of the top shinigami in all of our afterlife. She's-she's like, the most awesome shinigami out there. She's nice, strong, sweet; Elly's just amazing."

"It was meeting her that showed me what I wanted to do with myself. I don't really remember my mortal life, but what I do know, and from what my gut tells me about my past life, I never really had much direction in my life. I was listless, just going whatever way someone pointed me in . . . but her . . . I saw her . . . Elly was the total opposite of what I was." I said.

She was something strong . . . something . . . as nerdy as it sounds, grossly incandescent.

"She was what I had longed to be. Someone in control of their own destiny, who had great power and used it responsibly. She was, well, like an angel. I even thought she was an angel when I met her."

She was what I wanted. She knew who she was, she knew what she want

"A-and I just knew right there and then, that I wanted to be just like her."

"After Elly reaped me, she was kind enough to stay with me, too, and brought me as far as she could. Before she left, she told me that if I wanted, I could join the afterlife, and she offered me the chance to become a shinigami."

"So what did you say?"

I had a little chuckle. "Yes of course. I wanted to be just like her."

I'm sure Sen can see my big smile.

"And so, I did. She took me to the Ministry of right and wrong to sign up and I was officially inducted into the shinigami corps. I then joined the academy and began my training. Many years later I graduate, and here I am."

Sen liked everything I said.
I really am smiling now. She likes it. Yay.

"So, how's your first day been here in Gensokyo?" Sen then asked me.

Umm . . . .

"Ummm . . . .? I said and finished the line of thought with ?. . . painful."

To Sen's curious expression, I began to explain. I told her how my day began: Alicia and I both being given our first assignments as shinigami. She laughed when she talked about me getting launched across Gensokyo by my sempai, then told her about her first time getting launched by Komachi.

Apparently, it was upwards and Komachi launched her high into the clouds before she learned how to fly. If it wasn't for Komachi catching her like a newlywed she would have splatted.

Geez. . . one would think Komachi would learn by now not to do that.

I then told her about Wriggle Nightbug and my encounter with her.

When I was done with it, Sen commented. "Yea, she does that to everyone. Wriggle did that same thing to me when I moved to Gensokyo."

So it seems . . . .

"What happened?" I asked.

"She ended up picking a fight with me. I wound up pinning her to the wall with my arrows, knocked her out and stripped her down to her undergarments to embarrass her, and you know, as a warning never to attack me again. Worked pretty well on bandits back in my city when I was alive.

"...or at least that's what I would have done if that youkai bear didn't come rampaging through, nearly bisecting Wriggle and sending me running for my life. Apparently, one of our stray shots from our fight hit a sleeping youkai bear.?

Note to self: do not disturb the bears here.

"Yea, your fear's justified. The Youkai bears here are scary and really strong...but thank goodness they can?t fly. Just take to the air and usually you're safe . . . ."

The way she ended that . . . .

. . . .

. . . something else to add, Sen?

". . . just gotta watch out for their throwing arm when you do. It's not fun."

There was a moment of silence, and an "Ummm" between us.

"Um . . . we're getting off subject. So tell me, after Wriggle Nightbug, what happened next?"

And so I detailed to Sen my encounter with Yakumo-san.
Of course, skipping over the embarrassing part about the boundaries of inner thought and spoken word.

"Yea, that sounds like classic Yukari to me. So, where'd the train send you?" She asked me.

I pointed to the clouds here. "All the way up here actually."

"You came here?" Sen was surprised

"Yea, it was somewhere around here.? I said. ?Not too sure where. I found myself inside a little crevice inside the clouds. Ended up staying there the whole time until I was pulled back to were I was by Yakumo-san."

. . . .

"They were really fluffy. I almost fell asleep in there." I confessed.

Once again, Sen giggled really cutely.

"These clouds are really fluffy" Sen said.

With that, Sen took a dive onto the fluffy cloud ground behind us.

Stretching her arms out and falling backwards on them, she landed quite softly, little bits of cloud kicking into the air as she did.

"Ahh . . . it's been a while since I've done this . . . ." she said to herself. ?You live here so long you totally forget about how soft this place is . . . .?

?Come on, Liam, you try it too.?
Well, maybe . . . why not?

I sucked in fear and I took a dive myself, falling backwards and landing in the comfy clouds.

. . . ahhh . . . .

?This place is a paradise . . . it really is . . . .? Sen said out loud, resting.

And so, we began to lay like this.

After a few minutes of relaxing, Sen broke the silence.

?So tell me Liam . . . why did you choose to come to Gensokyo??

?Huh?? I responded.

?Yea, why did you sign up to take over for Fukakusa-san? She asked me.

?Um, what do you mean?? I said back.

Sen laughed at that.

?Oh come on, don't tell me you don't know.? She said. ?No one in their right mind would choose to work at Gensokyo. I may not know much about what you shinigami do, but I know enough that this place can drive people crazy.?

Say what you want, that's news to me.

?

. . . ok, well, everything I've seen . . . yeah, I could see that being the case.

?You've got to have a reason to choose a place like this. Such as . . . .? And Sen left it hanging.

?Such as what?? Which was was exactly what Sen was expecting me to say.

?That you're Komachi's boyfriend that she's been keeping hidden from me for all these years, and now that Fuka's hurt she's got an excuse to bring you in.?

?WH-WHAT?!? I both said and thought.

M-Me? Komachi-sempai's boyfriend?

My mind flashes in before I can block, thinking about Komachi in that scandalous red dress I imagined Sen wearing, but so much tighter on her . . . .

No no no!

I swatted away the thoughts on all fours.

Must have been a funny sight for Sen to see.

?Oh come on, don't fuss.? Sen said calmly ?I won't tell anyone. I promise I won't tell a single soul.? She said.

?Bu-but, I'm not Sempai's boyfriend.? I told her. ?I . . . I didn't even know she had one.?

The beautiful Celestial turned and looked at me. ?Really? Komachi is one sexy woman. That body is something even a god would wish their lover would have. Myself included."

Sen didn't believe me.

?Come on, just admit you're that red-hot lover she has.? She coyly said

No, no no, don't think about that.

?I'm not. Really, I'm not her boyfriend. I just met her this morning.?

Sen looked at me . . .
and looked at me . . . .

?Bah . . . ok, ok . . . you're not her boyfriend.?

Finally.

?Besides, your story wouldn't make sense anyway. She's said they've been together for over a century.?

So then why did you accuse me of it then?! Gah!

?She has had this boyfriend for over a century now, maybe longer and she refuses to tell me who he is. It's been killing me as to who it is. I mean, I've tried, I've asked, I've followed leads, and I've gotten nothing.?

And with that she exhaled a sigh.

This is news to me.

?Ghhhh, like I said, Gensokyo is a crazy place and most people have to be crazy to do a job like this. I figured being in love might have been one of those kinds of crazy."

It's time I set the record straight.

"How I got this job wasn't anything special. I'm a new recruit. I was automatically assigned here. I had no say in it." I said.

"Ahhh . . . like fresh meat into the grinder . . . ." Sen sa . . . wait.

I really, really don't like that euphemistic.

"Gensokyo's a crash course, but you'll be ok. If you don't quit, I'm sure this place will toughen you up for every other job you take. It's like jumping into the cold pool to adjust to the water. Gensokyo has a habit of toughening up people. I'm a perfect example of that. I kept on getting pounded into the dirt and almost eaten on a weekly basis when I first moved to Gensokyo. Lord Nai, Lady Belle, and Komachi had to save my rear more times then I could count. It took over a century later of being here, but now I'm the one saving other people's butts."

?And speaking of amazing butts, Komachi's going to be around and she's very powerful, I'm sure she'll be able to back you up when you need it. Besides, I'm pretty sure she'll love any excuse to go on a break.?

?Anyway, while we're on the subject of beautiful women, tell me Liam, do you have someone special??

Oh, oh, she's asking that, seeing if I'm single-

. . . wait, is she interested in me?

Umm . . . .

Umm . . . .

How do I answer this . . . ?

?N-no? I meekly answered.

Not like that.

?Really? No one at all? You're a sweet guy, I would expect someone would have snatched you up.? Sen said to me with a smile.

?So you're single then.? She declared ?Well, Gensokyo's a good place to be a bachelor. With some luck, you might save or meet a cute girl here and kick off a fairy tale romance with her. The female population here in Gensokyo is much higher compared to other places across the world. So I'd say you're quite in luck, and I should know, since I figure you're into girls, and well, figuring the only straight thing about me are my arrows.?

Sen chuckled to that . . . though . . . .

?Huh?? I said back.

?Yea, you get the expression right? Straight as an arrow? I'm gay, not straight, so the joke's that only my arrows are straight.? Sen explained to me

And then I got it and laughed an-

?-What wait, you're gay?!?

. . . Sen's gay?

. . . really?

?She told you all about me, right? She always does that . . . right?? She said.

?She didn't tell me anything about you.? I answered back.

Sen . . . um . . . wasn't expecting this.
Neither was I, but um . . . .

?You, you really don't know? I thought Komachi told you? She usually tells the people she tries to set me up with . . . I really assumed she said that . . . oh? And her face went red with embarrassment as well.

?No, of course you didn't. Damn it . . . .? She said to herself.

Damn it all. And here I thought I was connecting with a really cute girl.

?.

I sighed.

?Oh geez, I thought I you knew.? Sen said, sighing with her hand on her forehead ?I didn't mean to lead you on or anything.?

I spoke quick with ?-It's fine, it's fine. You didn't.?
You actually kinda did. But whatever. I don't let that stuff doesn't phase me much anymore.

?Thanks, friend.? Sen said to me.
?You're welcome, friend.? I said back.

A friend's great thing to make.



?...?

?. . . um, we should change the subject.?

?Good idea.?

And then the idea popped in my head.

?Well, I told you my story, but what about you? Sen-san, how did you become a celestial?"

Chapter 8 ? Sky High - End

And we'll find out next chapter.

So, did anyone see that coming? Yea, Sen's gay, and not going to be Liam's love interest, if he actually ever gets one.

I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter.

Ok, story progress. I've been having problems, well, staying to task. While the idea is solid in my head, it's actually sitting down and doing it, inside a chaotic life and unpredictable times to write, discipline is definitely one of my shortcommings for more then this, but most things.

I really want to tell this story. Liam's story is one I want to tell. Though sometimes, I'll be honest, I do feel disenfranchised at times, like I'm well...playing Dark Souls offline with no help.
But granted, that's life isn't it? Difficult, no real guides as to how to make it, and well, you know.

All and all, that's the short and sweet. That's the state of the story. I need to do more, and I shall. I'm not sure how long it'll take.
Anyway, my word count for now to then...about 54,121 words. Pretty good for 100 days, for the first try. Let's see how far I can go on day 200...which would be August 7th, a few days before I start my fall college classes.  This time, hopefully I actually get something done in that last month.

I want to also throw all my thanks to Wolfsbane706, our dear members here. Thank you for proofreading this chapter and helping me. I really needed it.

Also, Dark Souls 2 Rant time
As said, I love Dark Souls 2. Personally, it's a fantastic game. They took all the elements of 2 and made it so much more fun. I prefer the Magic Knight style gameplay. Watcher Greatsword and staff of Alma are fun to wreck things with. Gameplay's better, everything's better.

Well, expect Soul Memory. I admit it is a good system to keep the level 1 master players from killing the level 1 beginning players (a problem in DkS1), but it throws a massive wrench into matchmaking and fight clubs. But you know what? PvP is really a whole lot of fun. Lagstabbing, dishonorable chuggers, and Soul Memory aside, They did a good job with PvP. I'm sure From Software will find a solution, or modders will for the PC.
And Lore. Dark Souls 1 did a great job about this...while Dark Souls 2 on the other hand...I feel underwhelmed and uninformed. I've beaten the game...and was very, very disappointed. From Software could have done a much better job.

And this game ate many, many nights, and probably delayed the time it took for me to get my laptop fixed. But I let my Xbox online expire for now, and I lack the will to go play offline through the game some more...at least right now. I'll maybe pick it up later...or not. Might depend on if I renew my online subscription. I really do like the Dark Souls games, and one of these days I'll write a story for Dark Souls. But today is not that day.

Sen's chapter is next. I hope you guys enjoy this experiment of Sen's Flashback.