Author Topic: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...  (Read 23401 times)

♛ Apher-Forte

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    This is a new story I been pondering and writing for a while, releasing it alongside Origins of Yama Shikieiki, and guaranteed no longer the old Touhouverse I canceled. I hope you all read this, it is  a bit of a new undertaking of a different style, even more novelish than before, and guaranteed to be laced with excitement.
 :V


I will be using some classic character sets of Touhou characters, and the incident takes place after UFO, about a year later in gensokyo time.


Note the Gensokyo time frame, in chapter 1, so you can grasp a better idea of what happened.
Here is hoping tsundere Wrathie will read because Mokou will likely get involved. (or if not Medicine)
Jeez... I need some personal fans.




Prologue





A drop of sweat slid down her forehead, marking a cold streak of water gently evaporating off the surface of her rising heat.
 
 
 The heat was not from the weather, not in this cold autumn day, when the sun is barely shining? It was from the fear, a rising panic of sorts, and coming from Yukari, it isn?t a normal sort of panic. She remembers this as being ?flustered?, something she hasn?t experienced in a while since her battle with the maiden of the Hakurei Shrine.
 
 
In her hands, a crumpled note with writings on it lay shriveled, rolled over and over again until it is mashed up in her sweaty palms. She looked at her gaps, opened, nothing in them except enigmatic eyes that don?t belong or were indeed attached to a torso or face at all looking back at her blankly. Her servants live inside them, boundary servants that do her bidding.
 
 
She can manipulate time and space, and she has a job in the lands of Gensokyo. That job, is to spirit away humans from the real world to Gensokyo, to populate it and continue its existence.
 
 
However, her dilemma rounds back to her as she looked at the opened gaps before her, facing a large rock; its shadow looming over her majestically. ?Why??? She asked, to no one specific.
 
 
?We don?t know, there is no one left in Japan, we looked everywhere in the usual places you ordered?? One of the gaps replied, the servant within, unseen still, said anonymously with a crackling voice resembling an old geezer on his deathbed.
 
 
?The cities?? What about the fishing villages??
 
 
?No one.?
 
 
?Damn it?!? Yukari cursed, with one wave of her hands, the gaps sealed back up, the ones inside silenced and never heard from again.
 
 
She marched away from where she was, quickly now, she wasn?t going to fly, or gap straight to where she wanted to be; she needs time, time to think, what she would say.
 
 
Another drop of sweat rushed quickly down the sides of her rosy pink cheeks. She wiped it hard with her sleeves, hurting the delicate surface.
 
 
 
--------


 
 
 
 
 
 
   
« Last Edit: September 27, 2009, 04:50:27 AM by 名無の妖精さん »
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♛ Apher-Forte

  • Am I to go home...or shall I stay alone?
  • *
  • Forever lost at sea, a distant bell rings for me
    • Himitsu's NSFW Blog ~ contains NSFW material
Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhouverse story, 100% new.
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2009, 12:37:07 PM »
Chapter 1



Gensokyo?


It is a land of mythical legends, a land within a sealed dimension, where time, seasons, weather, are all governed by a single existent law that is unchanged, and will remain forever unchanging. The days will pass on for nights, and vice versa; the weather and seasons will change, time will pass? but they are mere illusions of progress.


In truth, Gensokyo exists in a timed plane, time passes but to the real world outside where people are living in concrete jungles and flying in giant metal mechanical birds and talking through plastic boxes with numbers on them in little screens? Gensokyo is a world that doesn?t exist nor progress.


It is there, but unseen. It is there, but unheard. It is there, but unfelt. Gensokyo has been there for hundreds of years, sitting atop mankind?s skyscrapers and radio towers, safely tucked away in a dimension without a gap to pry into, without worries of having to be discovered. It is much like the Bermuda Triangle, a mystery that exists in modern mythology, but never mentioned, investigated barely and yielding answers as vague as the mystery itself.


Gensokyo has been in a state of stagnant passing since then, though people age, time does not pass so quickly. Time in the outside world could pass well over 10 years before a single year passes in Gensokyo? time is so slow it felt like it stopped. Yet, of course, no one will note the difference, that is the name of the game, and the Hakurei, generations of spiritualists who are directly responsible for the maintenance of the borders of Gensokyo and the guardians of the land, knows only so much? the rest, remains an undiscovered mystery.


Its population is reset to a quota each specific time of perhaps years and years passing, and there is a need to capture people from the real world and bring them there.


Male, female, man and child, beast or livestock, it is all accounted for by the woman, Yukari Yakumo. She is the manager of sorts, who does all the work of accounting for the numbers of Gensokyo during specific periods of time.


It is now, that time of the year again?



++++++


(Reimu?s shrine, The Hakurei Shrine)


?Sweep~~sweep~~, I love sweeping~~?? She hummed, convincing herself the lie through a ritualistic sense of self hypnotization? it never works though.


Slowly, she put down the broom, looking at the distance in the blue skies.


The breeze only make it harder to work; she gathers the leaves, and the breeze blow it away? annoying really, although there really isn?t anything else better to do until dinnertime. Reimu Hakurei sighed, holding the broom with both her hands, she leaned against it, her breasts, barely hidden through her already old shrinemaiden fabric worn on her body touching it and holding it between them. She sighed even louder? ?I wish something would happen??


?Look no further then, something DID happen.? Reimu slapped her face in disgust at the sudden reply that popped out behind her. She knows exactly who it is, and really, she rather no see the person.


?Yukari? really? Why is it when I feel bored you are always here, and when I feel you are not needed, you are always here?? Reimu smarmily replied to her friend, Yukari Yakumo, the woman responsible for the numbers in Gensokyo? or rather, to be precise, the one who made Gensokyo in the first place.


?Oh, don?t give me such drama, Reimu? you know I hardly ever come here!? Yukari protested, looking cute all of a sudden in her Western frilly dress matched with a centerpiece remarking of old Chinese Taoist purple fabric laced down her middle, giving the dress a West meets East design that is truly unique in fashion. She held her hands to her face, eyes sparkling with excitement, battling the eyelids as though she is a little girl longing for free candy, despite her physical age really well beyond that.


?Ugh? stop doing that, you are giving me goosebumps!? Reimu picked up her broom and gently bonked Yukari on the tip of her forehead.


?Listen?Reimu?can we talk??



?You were here yesterday?to talk, you ended up silent after sharing my food, which you could have a scrumptious meal while at your own home, cooked by your servant shikigami, you choose to share my already lack of rice and miso soup?then? of all things, you decided it was a good idea to grab a carton of Sake wine and drown me and later proceeded to sleep on my porch? so?? Reimu recounted yesterday?s many unpleasant happenings.



?But?but?It is serious, really is??


?You promise?? Reimu countered, still doubting.


?Promise~? Yukari smiled.


?Okay?c?mon? I will get us some tea??


?Okay~? Yukari said, and followed her inside. Although she is taller, and certainly much older, she certainly acted not much her age.



++++++++



(After dinner)



?That was good, Reimu??


?We still haven?t gotten anywhere with your talk?? Reimu lamented, this is going to be another one of those nights again? she thought.


?I am getting to that, but are you ready to hear what I have to say??


?Does it involve me getting up early tomorrow forgetting where my clothes went and why there is a Sake bottle slid between my legs?? Reimu recounted an incident two weeks ago, with Yukari, as well as her friend, magician Marisa Kirisame.


?No, silly! This is serious!?


?Then, get on with it!? Reimu chided. ?Honestly?this woman?? She murmured, silencing herself with the loud sipping of her tea.


?You know about how I keep the numbers of people in Gensokyo right? It is my job and I am sure you are away of the spiriting away incidents?? Yukari began.


?Yeah, what about them??


?Well?something happened, it is that time again and I?I can?t find a single soul to spirit back to Gensokyo?? Yukari revealed, not exactly her nature, considering she likes to beat around the bush a lot.


?What? The normal spots you designated got tired of you and moved away from your grasp?? Reimu joked.


?It is not funny?Reimu?I am worried, something happened in the outside world.?


?And?that concerns us in Gensokyo how?? Reimu is still clearly oblivious.


?Listen?this morning, I was going to begin the operation?I searched across Japan?it took me 5 hours? 5 bloody hours just to get a living soul from Japan? and guess where I found her?? Yukari questioned.


?Some distant village in the godforsaken middle of nowhere??


?No, the city?in a toilet cubicle, under a tunnel called a ?Subway? where ?Underground Trains? are running or something like that, she is holding a knife?, and she was not awake, had I not noted the servants in my network to look for any signs of human breathing and tune their senses to the max, I would not have discovered her at all? Do you know what this means, Reimu?? Yukari said, and questioned, her face full of seriousness, tight and unmentionable fear draped over her face so clearly.


?Uhhh?no??


?It means, she is last breathing human, in all of Japan? does that not tell you something?? Yukari yelled out the answer, slamming her palms down to the smaller table, spilling the tea.


?Heyyy! Watch it, the tea is hot!? Reimu picked up the cup, and proceeded to dab the wet spot off the tatami with her table cloth desperately.


?Reimu!? Yukari reached out, grabbing her hand which is dabbing the ground with the cloth. ?Have some cow sense! The entire of Japan is dead! There are NO MORE Japanese people! I don?t even know how to begin?to??


?Then look somewhere else, isn?t there Korea? there is also the Mainland not too far away?then again, distance isn?t a problem for you isn?t it?? Reimu mocked.


?You don?t get it don?t you?? Yukari sighed, ?I don?t really mind if I should bring in some foreigners, we have a few foreigners here in the past, and even now, living happily in the village with no desire to go back? one man Damien even has a family there now, he took a Japanese wife. I worry, because right now, there is no one in Japan, doesn?t that make you question what the hell happened there? What could have possibly killed the entire possibility of all Japanese lives? What?! An epidemic? A virus? A fallout of war? This concerns Gensokyo greatly, Gensokyo relies on Japan?s existence, if they are gone, we are dead as well.?


?You made this world, Yukari!? Reimu snapped her hand away from Yukari?s grasp, ?You made the damn rules, I recall correctly that you are one directly responsible for the Laws of the Hakurei, and my job is a simple shrinemaiden, I solve incidents IN Gensokyo, NOT OUT. It has not affected me or the people here so why should I give a fuck?? Reimu answered angrily.


?You are so shortsighted, Reimu?no wonder Sanae Kochiya that new shrinemaiden girl at the Moriya Shrine is getting so much attention lately, you suck at understanding the situation?you are just good at solving them, and just in time too?? Yukari mocked.


?Hey! That was uncalled for.? Reimu complained.


?You don?t understand??


?What don?t I understand??


?People are going to die, Reimu, Gensokyo will vanish without Japan?s population, our last ?mass re-stock? was well over 40 earth years ago, and if we don?t replenish the quota soon, we are looking at the breakdown of Gensokyo?s society. Just Youkai alone won?t work?Reimu, besides? don?t you wonder what happened outside??


?I don?t really care, no??


?What if I say I will now proceed to remodel the whole of Gensokyo to speak English? I know a few who are fluent with it, Alice Margatroid for example?even Marisa? but no, not you, Reimu, not you?? Yukari flipped open her fan, which was in her hand all this time, ?I know, you lack a real education because of who you are, your parents don?t exactly care and a strict with your training to become a shrinemaiden, you only learned how to write because it was an occupational benefit?what would happen I wonder, when everyone speaks a language you don?t understand, would you get even less donations? Even none at all? OHOHOHO!!? Alice mentioned here is the magician who controls dolls that lives near to Marisa in the Forest of Magic.


?Yukari?you won?t??


?Oh yes, I will, I only have to twist a certain note in my boundaries?people will be speaking English like they were using Japanese overnight, but not you?you are an exception, because you don?t like it when I do you?? Yukari winked.


She opened a gap, pretending to step in to leave the premises.


?Alright! Alright! You won! I will see what I can do??


?Really??


?Yes, really?? Reimu slumped down, defeated.


?It is not about what you can do however? we are investigating, I will be bringing a few friends along, yours and mine of course, once I consult them of the matter, I am sure they would agree rather readily to chance of seeing the Outside World, unlike you?you seem to care more about that tea-stain on your floor?? Yukari slapped her face with her palm gently, seeing as Reimu is unconsciously dabbing the table cloth at the tatami floor again.


?Oh?oh? This?No, it is not really, I just??


?It is your house, I understand?but please, I am not joking, be well rested, we depart tomorrow afternoon? this is really urgent, you have to be prepared, Reimu?we have no idea what lies outside.? Yukari said in earnest, then?like a whispering smoke, she left as suddenly as she appeared.


?Sigh?? Reimu sighed, and looked at the moon outside hanging brightly in the sky.


++++


(Yukari Yakumo?s house, The Mansion of Mayohiga, Unknown place in Gensokyo)


Shikigami, servant, companion, call her what you will, but first and foremost, Ran Yakumo is family. She has been Yukari?s special companion for so long she even forgot how long it has been. This all began when she was a mere fox, considerably long a history, consider she now carries over 9 tails behind her back, each a sign of over a hundred years, and that adds up to 900 years in total and little more.


This night, she has a strange guest, unusually a human that Yukari has brought home from the Outside. She has seen the Outside before; she was originally from there, with its rolling green meadows and tall barley wheat fields wavering in the cool Southerly winds and people, farmers mostly singing and dancing around a fire to celebrate the great harvest of each year?s end?


How she missed that place, it reminded her of how simple life was. She was a fox, aware of herself, transforming into something else. She was powerful, a powerful fox demon who evolved through self-actualization, growing stronger, leading, and overpowering creatures beyond her, the wolves for example that live in the dense jungles.


Come winter, when their leaders roam in the packs in the jungles, jumping on unsuspecting travelers in their carts and wooden wheeled barrows dressed in thick wool and skin, she would be there, like a silent guardian, scaring them away with her prowess.


She is the guardian spirit of man in that village, from a mere fox whom received warmth and kindness, she pledged to deliver that kindness back to the man whom cared for her. Of course, after he died, in old age perhaps even disease, she had nowhere to go? that was when she met Yukari, who took her in.


Since then, she has continued to live, and for her sake, she has lived well; serving her master?s every need and want, sometimes even sexually? but she serves, and that is all she was doing, truthfully, sometimes the desire to run free in the meadows again like she did so many eons ago makes her regret she took this path. However, an oath is an oath sworn, she knows loyalty, and loyalty she shall display and uphold; besides, she has Chen now, like her own daughter, a cat with two tails in the form of a young girl, barely 12 or 13 at best, a childish young cat spirit who is her assistant.


Together, they are like family, and nothing warms her heart more than to see Chen smiling at her after a hard day?s work.


This day is no different, Chen gave her a smile earlier after eating the dinner she cooked, and went to sleep in the hall, under the kotatsu table, warmly tucking up underneath to escape the cold air, as all felines do during the nearing of winter.


However, she calmly waited until Chen was in deep sleep, almost hibernating before she made her move. She now carries food, on a tray along with some warm tea in a pot. She is heading to the attention of another person, locked deep within a chamber under the house, a place where Chen does not know about nor have access to.


The guest that Yukari has brought back, is probably starving.


Quickly, she closed the hidden doorway under the floorboard of her room, making sure the wooden door has been sealed so that no sound may get out.



+++++


(Under the dungeon room)


The ?guest? never did introduced herself, she had to keep her tied up with some chains strongly bolted to the walls. She was feisty, unwilling, and very tragic indeed, with bits of her sanity completely gone. Still, she had known Ran seemed to be different somehow, so she didn?t particularly clawed her way with her face seeing as Ran clearly has sharper claws than she will ever have or grow.


Ran also had a stare that was nearly as deadly, strong, filled with youkai (spirit) energy that almost permeate the thick walls. Then, however, she presented her with dinner, with proper plates, and food oh so glorious clean food?


It wasn?t sure when, but she felt calm, she wasn?t alone anymore? no more dead bodies?


The stench of death has left her, there was no crying in a distance, which must have been her happily wishing there was and actually heard it in her own head. No one at the time was alive in Japan, Japan was consumed by it? there was nothing left.


It all happened so maddeningly?one man, one person? then?suddenly, everyone else. They gnawed at each other, chewing, biting, killing even their own flesh and blood. They consumed cannibalistically and voraciously, without a hint of mercy if it was their own child or their mother they were chomping on.


It was a horrible sight?but somehow, somehow, she survived. She met up with people, people who told her they would survive, they had guns, or at least ones that didn?t kill but were enough to hurt badly. Pump air guns, capable of shooting smallish projectiles, capable of injuring if shot enough times.


They gathered, and ran, raiding food supplies in local supermarkets, and grabbed what they can. They rode, but everywhere they go, the mad crowd would be there, waiting for fresh uninfected meat. They want her, to be like them. It wasn?t too long before this meager resistance, fell to smithereens. The army launched strikes from the air, but that was no help, the army had infected ranks lurking in the shadows.


They infected from within, and soon even the army perished. The sea farers quickly rode out to sea, only to get infected as well because at least one crewman somehow carried the undetectable virus, and the breakout happened, and they were dead at sea. Some managed to land in neighboring countries, they were never heard from again?


They say the world has gone insane, and they still can?t find the cause for it.


Still?this kind soul, this kind being, who is serving her dinner?


?I?I?? She tried to speak, ?My name? Setsu?


?Good, Setsu?what happened?? Ran asked.


?Ran?I?I?speak?not?forget??


?You have forgotten how to speak?? Ran asked, seemingly confused.


She sighed a bit, looking downed, if only she can remember? yes, she had the virus too, but it somehow didn?t finish rendering her insane, and she had escaped the nightmare somehow?and now, this?


?Look, it is okay, finish the food, we have seconds if you want, this is your place for now, there is water there, warmed up and you can use it for your bath? clean up. Do you understand me?? Ran asked, pointing to the water laying in a pool of sorts by the side.


She nodded, and continued to eat voraciously.


?Poor thing? I wonder what has happened?? Ran murmured.


Somehow, this girl, Setsu, reminded of her when she was a mere fox, hunted down by humans?shot but forgotten, in the name of sports. Had not the boy found her laying nearly dead by the fields, she would have died then.


It is a good thing the boy had a heart of gold and cared for her until she healed.


She patted the head of the girl, and proceeded to unlock the chains tied to her neck.


?I am going to unlock you? now that you calmed down, I am confident to let you roam a bit, but you have to wise, make a wrong move and I will have to put you down?okay?? Ran warned, and snapped the lock free.


Setsu nodded, and looked up a bit, placing her hands on her neck to feel her newfound freedom.


There was a moment of elation, and then she felt it, the need to vomit? no?she can?t, not such delicious food, her host will think of her badly?


With enough force to choke a man dead, she threw her head back and swallowed everything down, staying still while a troubled Ran scratched her head at what she is doing. She held her mouth shut, hands placed over her lips and looked upwards to the empty dark ceiling above made of wood.


The feeling was soon over?


?If the food was that bad, you could have chose not to eat it?? Ran said, disappointment in her tone.


Setsu shook her head sideways furiously, denying that was the case.


?No?it was not? Then was it good?? Ran asked.


?Yes?Yes?yes!!? It was something she could say? and she paired it with nodding furiously.


Ran seemed pleased, and sat there across the room, looking at her.


Yukari would return soon, she might as well wait for her here. Yukari would know where to find her.


True enough, a little bit after, a knock on the upper floor of her room was heard, her master has returned.


Some explanation will be needed.


______

comments critiques are welcome.
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Esifex

  • Though the sun may set
  • *
  • It shall rise again
Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhouverse story, 100% new.
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2009, 03:50:40 AM »
Oh, my.

Do go on. This could be interesting - especially since I happen to like Left 4 Dead, and that scenario seems similar. :O

♛ Apher-Forte

  • Am I to go home...or shall I stay alone?
  • *
  • Forever lost at sea, a distant bell rings for me
    • Himitsu's NSFW Blog ~ contains NSFW material
Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhouverse story, 100% new.
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2009, 07:39:23 PM »
Oo, thanks for reading~


----

I have chapter two right here:


Chapter 2


-----


(Gensokyo, elsewhere)


?I will join your expedition, but only because I am interested in it medically, a disease that can kill humans entirely, wipe out the whole of Japan and elsewhere? Perhaps it may be strong enough a virus to actually be used for my new work?? Eirin Yagokoro answered, she didn?t even turn to face the woman she was answering.


This is a feared woman of Gensokyo, for a good reason as well. She is the one behind Gensokyo?s medical needs, come to her with a flu and she will give you something that can cure you in one night; walk to her with a limp leg and she will grow you a new one. There is quite literally, physically, nothing Eirin can?t cure with her knowledge in the medicinal world. Not surprising of course, consider she is an alien from the moon, a Lunarian, who is tens of thousands of years old. In her mind accumulated enough knowledge to rival the largest medical library on earth, Eastern, Western, pagan, unorthodox, you name it, she knows it. This woman is also a known drug maker, quite simply there is nothing yet again she can?t make with those miracle fingers of hers? all she needs is inspiration, and then the right material.


?Thank you, Eirin.? Yukari Yakumo answered, and turned to leave.


?Who else is going??


?We need some technical personnel, so I will be bringing Reimu along.?


?Why that useless Shrinemaiden?? Eirin asked rudely.


?Useless? She hardly is, she defeated you in battle and myself.?


?Mock battles using petty magic she alone dictated the rules to, I don?t think danmaku rules applies outside.?


?No, of course not? but still??


?Quick thinking solves problems, not slacking shrinemaidens. Suit yourself, do not have her dragging me down when shit actually goes down.? Eirin continued pouring her concoction into another vial, green this time while the earlier one was red. Only heaven knows what she is making now, or that it was any good.


?Of course. Have a good day.? Yukari left, closing the gap she opened behind her.
Her next destination: home.



++++++



(Gensokyo, Mayohiga Mansion, House of Yukari Yakumo)


?Ran.? Yukari called, the dungeon room resonated her voice perfectly around the walls, making echoes that seemed to tail outwards but bounced back again thanks to the windowless walls.


Water was flowing, seemingly so because there is someone splashing about in the water hole dug in the floor. The hole was designed so that any prisoner, or slave captured will have at least a place to wash themselves. It was considerably a luxury, but as it is, Yukari really has no business starving, dirtying a slave she captured and wants them to work for her? if at all necessary. By technicality, this room was reserved as a guest room, a last resort for any unwanted guest, as her house above is too nice to be given out for unwanted persons. It is not that she expects anyone though, no one even comes to Mayohiga, or knows where it is. The ones who do are Reimu, who told no one else; and doctor Eirin, in case she needs to make a house call; rare as that chance may be.


?Yes, mistress? Welcome home.? Ran bowed at the doorstep, a metal door, bolted, so that no one escapes the room is opened, Yukari walked in.


The girl, Setsu, captured from a subway toilet in Japan, is awake, washing herself. She picked herself up, running to a corner, cowering and covering herself desperately while still being wet, fear in her eyes as she looked at Yukari in a distance.


?She?s awake??


?Yes, she is, her name is Setsu, she seems to have forgotten how to speak.? Ran explained.


?That won?t do.?


One finger raised to her brow, she slid open the air in a black gap, and miasma gas flowed out from it. ?Sukima? it can fix everything??


?Are you???

?The Boundary between Speaking and Understanding is an easy one to fix.? Yukari explained and reached her index and middle finger inside the small slit floating in the middle of the air. The girl looked bewildered, and then suddenly, jolted upwards straining.


She then sat back down again? entirely amazed, shocked even? something has changed in her.


?Now can you speak?? Yukari asked softly.


?Yes, I? I can, how??? Setsu answered. Her eyes wide, inside her mind must now float the entire dictionary she had before.


?I am a demon, capable of changing the things normally unchangeable in this world and beyond, the only thing I can?t change, is perhaps human emotions?which runs freely as water would in the wide open seas.? Yukari answered, smiling.


?I see?you saved me, you wanted me to tell you what happened? am I correct??


?Very perceptive, it is indeed what I desire.? Yukari answered.


?But before that, can you tell me your name?? Setsu asked.


?Oh, where are my manners? I am Yukari Yakumo, and Ran I believe you already met.?


?Yes, we did?I am Setsu?Ijima.? Setsu said in reply.


This night will be long.



++++++



(Elsewhere)


?That Yukari? who the hell does she think she is?? Nitori Kawashiro, Engineer of Gensokyo, murmured to herself as she fixed the four strange foreign contraptions Yukari sent her. ?Fix this, fix that, fix this too?oh and this too? what do I look like to her? Ran?! Ugh!!?


She cursed, and then some, but kept most of her calculating, engineering genius of a mind intact, every detail of the data sheets she is looking flowed into her like a stream of water rushing to the open seas. The wideness of the flow of data in her mind is calculated with instantly, mathematical jargon dissected into small compartments?all forming a large picture of the contraption she is piecing together now. Her fairy assistants which are doing the labor of carrying the heavy parts, called an Engine, fixated it onto the contraption, called a Bike.


She wanted a flashier name, but it seems human like their contraptions named simply, not surprising of course. They could not even make the damn thing fly, it was as easy as 1, 2, 3, and they can?t do it. She took half an hour just now and the engine now puts out well over 4 times its original power, using only original parts themselves and a few extra tubes and bolts. The next hour she managed to get the Bike to use rocket fuel, capable of burning so strongly the Bike can fly if it had wings; which she is installing now with a zealous effort of fixing them to the sides?


In fact, she wants it have a name like: ?Glorious Nitori Flying Machine? but then? it sounded strange to her, so she stuck with Bike. Except now it is called Flying Rocket Bike, cute, she thought. The fairies she employed worked tirelessly, and her friends felt neglected.


?Nitori, are you done? Can we get something to eat?? A certain girl, a fairy called out from in the shadows, holding her stomach to indicate her hunger. This one had ice blue hair, and matching with her ice blue skirt. Her special feature would be her wings, which are really six floating magical pieces of ice shaped like long sharp diamonds and crystal clear with icy mist flowing off them due to their sub-zero temperatures. She is an ice fairy, called Cirno.


?Yeah, you been at this for hours?nanoka?? A blond one with eyes as red as the darkness can hide, but failed to as they glow within said as well. She had a blood colored ribbon attached to the sides of her hair, short but flowing, making her purity shine from within. However, make no mistake, she is no ordinary girl, she is a predator? a demon of the darkness, coming packaged in a cute outer image only because? and her name is Rumia.


?Just a while longer, girls.? Nitori answered without looking up, still eyeing the schematics of her fancy piece of modified bike.


?You said that 2 hours ago?alright, that?s it, it is getting late and I am hungry, I am gonna go hunt.? Rumia got up and immediately took off, halted only by Cirno jumping down from the platform and landing on her face in a rather stupid fall she took.


?Ouch??


?Careful?why are you so clumsy??


?I am not clumsy! Not stupid either!? Cirno replied angrily.


?Didn?t say you are, now get up?? Rumia helped her up slowly, Cirno has yet again, by some wondrous work of math perhaps, forgotten she could fly.


?Ok, done!? Nitori yelled out. ?See? Told you guys it will only take a sec.?


?Yeah, like 2 hours of a sec.?


?Whine, whine, c?mon?let?s go.? Nitori grabbed her backpack, which is filled with tools she won?t really need and slung it to her back. They all quickly ran out of the curtain of water, which hides the cave Nitori dwells in behind the waterfall.


?What were you doing?? Rumia asked, suddenly interested.


?A contraption that can fly, and take riders with it?? Nitori answered, she felt her hungry stomach grumble in dissastisfaction as she traveled into the night with her friends. The nearby river as a small patch, which is filled with fish, tonight, their hunting grounds is there.


?Oh, I forgot? you can?t fly? but erm? why do you need 4 of them??


?It is not for me alone, the expedition according to Yukari will be with Reimu and someone else human tagging along?? Nitori paused, suddenly realized the comment that she can?t fly, she felt inclined to reply? but paused only by Rumia, who shot another question.


?But Reimu can fly?so??


?It is conserve energy I suppose, it is an expedition after all, it would be silly to waste so much energy flying and spare none for emergencies?plus, why fly yourself when something else can carry you along?? Nitori explained, and turned her head to Rumia this time clearly as she walked, ?One more thing, I can fly?it is just??


?Oh really? You never showed us before??


?That is because it is not very ladylike??


?Show us?show us? cause we are flying to the river and if you don?t we are leaving you behind~? Cirno childishly said, suddenly remembering how to fly again she jetted off into the night sky ahead.


?You seriously won?t laugh if I do?? Nitori asked, she looked really cute somehow now to both of them, her face slightly red with a tad pink blush, she ever knocked her knees together somehow, and her hands were placed right between her thighs, as though she is rushing for the toilet.


?Nope.? Rumia answered bluntly? she was preparing to let out a snicker of course.


?You know? the Kappa are resourceful creatures, they are the only youkai after the Tanuki to have more tricks on their bodies than 3 or 4 different youkais combined? so?erm?it is not that I can?t fly?I can?I just??


?Just what?? Rumia snapped, impatient already.


?I FART! Alright!? I use?my fart?to fly?it is our ability?just like how I am able to shrink one of my arms into myself to extend my other arm? and how my shell can shrivel like so because I don?t drink enough water!!? With one forceful push, her face turned beet red now, Nitori let out a rip of a sound from her rather unmaidenly end, and forced out a hail of wind that spread the dirt below her which immediately jetted her up the air vertically.


?This?is?unbelievable?? Rumia looked on, too bewildered even to laugh?but did so anyway.


This night, will be a secret kept between the three friends, for more than ample reasons.


The three flew safely without being sighted by anymore other youkai or people along the way, and reached the river?


An embarrassing dinner indeed.


++++



(Mayohiga, House of Yukari Yakumo)


?It was like?madness, I didn?t know what happened, first it was that one man I heard on the news?the next was like a strange dream, a nightmare?they all?they all began acting up. Their eyes turned red as blood, and came out and started biting people in the neck?? Setsu said, her voice trembling. She is fully dressed now, sitting on a soft pillowed futon by the floor, with Yukari kneeling next to her listening to her like a shrink would to a patient in her office.


?I see?were they possessed? Maybe spirits??


?I don?t believe in spirits?at least, until you came along?but I don?t think that was the case?the news said they found saliva viruses?and worse thing was?they can detect breathing?if you breath human, smell human, they can find you no matter where you hide!? Setsu continued her terrifying tale.


?What else?do you know??


?I followed these people, they were otaku you know? Military fanatics, they are boys?I thought I would safe, they are friends afterall?and they offered some kind of protection. They have these things called BB Guns, and they shoot these little projectiles that can blind you, or hurt you badly if you fire it into someone? They are made of little metal pieces, so they can really hurt?I believed them, I?.? Setsu trailed off, recounting that event.





[1 month before, Japan]


?They are coming, they are coming!! SHIT! SHITTTT!!!? Yelled the younger man, who had a bandana in white with the Japanese flag pattern over it and armed with an airsoft rifle slightly modified by his own genius to give a higher power output enough to stun oncoming hordes of attackers with its projectiles.


He is panicking, of course he would?


Who wouldn?t? This madness is truly without control, it has barely been 2 months, Japan is dead? all but them left? cities were bombed, armies were sent but nothing can curb the raging disease? they say it runs in the air, no one is immune from it.


By the time Setsu realized it, it was all over the news, it was already off the news in fact because no one is left alive to report it. People fled everywhere?but nowhere remained safe. They got to the sewers, only to encounter the infected inside them, in the form of rats. They ran to buildings, but somewhere, there must be one about. They rode out to sea, only to have one in the ship, or swam to them in desperate hunger for fresh blood. No matter where they go, even atop planes, they were chased down, and the infection spread like wildfire, unstoppable, incurable.


Suddenly, a bang, loud as thunder and something cracking, giving way?a door!!


?Hold that door, Kensei!? A boy with a blob of fat hanging bout his chin and on his belly shouted to another one, who is his brother, just as overweight as he is. Kensei followed, rushing at whatever speed his weight can handle to the door? only to be late.


He aimed his airsoft rifle at the door, half broken now and the angry mob looking in, clawing their way at the door, clamoring for a way of entry? It was madness, all of it, and he opened fire mercilessly with the automatic rifle.


It was too late, the guns don?t kill, they stun?there were too many of them. Setsu saw that, and she saw it quick, she ran.


Like a desperate soul, she jumped out the window, from the second floor of this small house, without waiting for the others. She couldn?t care anymore, her mind is doused with fear, there is nothing left to question, there is only time to run?if any.


She ran, hearing from behind her the bloodcurdling screams of her protectors, the three boys, submitting to the terrible angry mob?chewed madly by them in cannibalistic manner. ?WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK!!!!? She held her hair, clawing into the sides of her head crazily as she ran helter-skelter down the road onto the railway. There were the others, they are chasing her but she had a head start.


She felt breathless, her throat stinging for water, her eyes red from the tears, but nothing matters now more than to hide. If she lives, she will live on something lesser luxurious? it doesn?t matter, it just?


Then?like as though fate has been playing her all along, she opened the door to the toilet? a crazed infected lunged for her, and promptly chewed down onto her neck.


The rest seemed like a blur.


She blacked out.




(Yukari?s house, in Mayohiga)


?I see?so that is what happened?? Yukari nodded her head, she can see now that Setsu is tired, it is quite late now to the night, not surprising. Most of Gensokyo?s humans would have slept by now, and it is feeding time for the youkai and nocturnal beasts, a dangerous time approaches.


It would be unwise to keep her awake if she is to follow on the expedition, and she needs to tell her this.


?Setsu?I need you to follow us back to Japan tomorrow?don?t worry, we are not abandoning you, we want to go on an expedition with some powerful, truly capable people of Gensokyo? so I want you to lead the way as we don?t know our way around modern Japan, or rather, in your case, Tokyo. We would begin our expedition there?? Yukari said, softly a voice so not to stress her, but she could see Setsu?s eyes widened to a bloodshot state, almost fearful, trembling irises inside and tears seemed to gather.


?I?I?don?t understand, you rescued me from hell?why would you want to go to hell yourself??? Setsu questioned, trembling now in her futon. It has been some time since Ran retired back to her room upstairs, and the place leaves only Yukari?s presence about, the quietness so deafening that one can hear her teeth chatter as she spoke.


Yukari placed a hand on her shoulders, patting it softly before placing another one to hold her still.


?Setsu?you understand, you are now the last living specimen of Japan, whatever happened needs answers, you were in hell yes, living hell?you were very lucky. Right now, I ask this because I obviously don?t work for free, I saved you, and this is the best compensation you can give by returning a favor I ask of you?? Yukari sighed, before looking down to the floor below; then, she continued, ?There is a place much more terrifying than that place you were in, trust me, I been there, I seen true hell, and it exists?you haven?t seen anything yet.?


?Are you threatening me???


?No, I am not, but I just want to tell you, because I am not human, I don?t understand your fears. More so, won?t you assist your savior? Is that what humankind have become today, so dishonorable, thankless, that they expect only one sided devotions? Even I do not treat Ran that way?despite our relations being Master and servant.? Yukari replied with a stern look on her face staring closely into Setsu?s eyes.


?I?I?, alright?fine, I will go?but please?don?t leave me, not even one moment, I may?have not seen?those cannibals, the infected for a time, but God?oh God, I know they are there?they must be??


?Don?t worry, the capable people I mentioned are not only incredibly versatile, they are also rather strong?perhaps, one of them, who is doctor may even find a cure, she is an excellent doctor mind you?? Yukari smiled, totally unlike a moment ago. Setsu wondered if this is how all youkai react, their emotions and behavior changing as fleetingly as a blink of an eye.


?Okay?? With that, almost immediately as she collapsed to the soft fabric, she fell asleep.


Yukari looked, poor child, she must have not been sleeping for a long while? the sheer loneliness, the fear of all that? somehow, she lived  a month in that cubicle, she must have been raiding the shops or something.


If anything, this girl is strong, whatever that must have somehow helped her live that long and still kept her sanity, must have been the work of a miracle. When she was found, she had a large chunk missing from her, had it not been Eirin?s miracle drug that can regenerate entire limbs when eaten, it would have been literally impossible to revive her. At the time, while in the cubicle, she had miraculously moved into a state of hibernation, something entirely impossible for a human, and somehow breathed really shallow, really few, until help arrived.


Possibly, the only reason why the infected cannibals did not find her again despite she never becoming one of them was because of the life signs being so weak on her, she is basically dead. Still?this is worrisome. Yukari wanted to go to the place now, to see for herself what madness has left behind, but she has a feeling she would save the excitement for tomorrow when everyone is ready.


Eirin, Nitori?and then of all people, Alice for her significant surveillance capability with her army of dolls. There is a reason of course for the first two, Eirin has medicine, which they need and she wants in for the sake of investigating the disease. Nitori is a technician; a member on the party who can work their way around the bundle of the electronics would be great to have around in the modern world. Yukari has asked them each to bring a partner of their own, and she of course herself, will have Reimu with her as a necessary precaution; they both work well together anyway, as was before during the underground geyser incident with that bird that controls nuclear fusions.


Yukari has no doubt Eirin will bring along that useless bunny Reisen, she rather that Eirin brings the immortal princess, she has the firepower much needed if anything goes wrong with those mythical treasures of hers. For Nitori, it is unsure whom, but judging by their recent alliance not too long ago with Marisa, it may be her; however, that may conflict with Alice, who is also likely Marisa due to the lack of any other choice. Though necessary, Yukari wished in her mind that Nitori would bring someone more?selective, a useful partner who doesn?t rely on firepower, maybe a technical partner, perhaps someone like that half-ghost, whom is both capable of speed and swordsmanship, that they may cover wide grounds before nightfall.


Whatever the case however? it is time for a rest, it has indeed been some time since Yukari had to move so much in one day.


Outside?the nightingales sing, perhaps a song of distress, an ill omen waits.



++++++

Chapter 2 finished.

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2009, 11:00:53 PM »
Japanese Zoey. :B

I like it so far, keep it up

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2009, 02:37:31 PM »
Chapter 3



_________



The  house was silent, so silent a pin drop could possibly be heard had not the morning birds call out outside waking the day. Ran was already up, silently handling her tasks, diligently so cleaning the house that really didn?t need cleaning at all, and washing the plates that didn?t need washing at all again out of routine.


She had been diligent always, she never slacks off, and certainly never once rebelled. True, she objected to Yukari?s orders more than a fair share of times, but nothing out of the ordinary, consider she always complete them in the end. She has been the perfect companion, she will continue to be. Yukari looked, and thought to herself, in this silence that is her room, how long can peace last?


Gensokyo needed Japan, because without it, the sustenance of power, the supply of humans, their faith; Gensokyo will be doomed without them. It is a bit of a mockery really, consider how it all began. Gensokyo was made to separate the humans from the spirits, demons, and youkai, so that the modern world may progress without the relics and old myths of the past that were so cunningly constructed by nature and fear of the unknown of mankind. Mankind grown smart since then, the unknown becomes explainable, and the once fear which gave birth to the youkai that is attributed to that fear becomes useless, and thus must rely feeding on other fears? It is, however, to the youkai, a form of humiliation, it is like begging, a taboo among their kind.


Fear is sustenance, while the city lights shine and sanity prevailed, humankind has nothing to fear despite their wars and terrorisms, despite their pain and questionable faiths in falsified idols and western gods. Fear lifts its ugly face and bares its fangs when humankind is in doubt, when they don?t understand, it kills. Fear corrupts the mind, robbing it of logic, reason, rationale, until all that is left is the sense of survival; however, mankind has since lost that edge. Not surprising, consider the many comforts.


These days, she heard mankind can use ?computers? something which is entirely foreign to Yukari herself, but quite familiar with geniuses like Nitori the Kappa Engineer; and those things, those ?computers? can do almost anything, as long as it is supplied with electricity. Mankind is plugged in, a term she once heard an outsider spoke of, they are directed by electric signals made to control them, made by they themselves; he regarded it as insane, Yukari had to agree with the man from outside.


However, what transpired yesterday, when Setsu mentioned of the insanity, the cannibalistic disease that robs minds of all fear, all sanity, all logic and reason and rationale, is something else. It isn?t so much so as a fear of the unknown but rather what transpired to the normally evolved, unsubtle, rational humankind, it is both strange and foreign. Had the outsider been here now, Yukari would ask him this, ?what happens when mankind is unplugged from his known comforts??


The answer then, would be sanity lost, and a new world, with new rules will rise to replace it. Survival means everything, boil down to the skin and bones, and humankind, no??not just man? everything will then struggle to live, no matter how small the chance is, the desperation will course any living thing?s mind with blood and adrenaline, and force it to think first for itself. KILL THEM ALL, I MUST LIVE. The mind will be forced to take action, and no amount of logic will stop it.


?Today is the day, Lady Yukari?? Ran came in her room, hands carrying the clothes for her to change into, diligent as always; Yukari would have no problem leaving the house a few days in her care.


?Take care of the house while I am gone, okay?? Yukari spoke, voice still laced over with drowsiness.


?Of course.?


With that, she stood, dressed now, she progresses slowly outside the door as a manner of ceremony only, and opened a gap. She saw the girl, Setsu out there waiting? she gave a nod, and Setsu nodded back.



++++



(Gensokyo Hakurei?s Shrine, Reimu?s place)


?Good morning all, how was your sleep?? Yukari asked, out of courtesy perhaps, not that she cared how they really slept since Gensokyo is inhabited largely by nocturnal people.


?Sleep? You really think I had any?? Reimu asked, her eyes are visibly tired.


?You didn?t??


?Excitement.?


?Ah so, you are eager to go.?


?No, not one bit, I just can?t think up what to eat out there, and it troubles me since I can?t at least bring a pot for miso soup?guys?? Reimu looked, the crowd are seemingly flabbergasted, ?what is this miko thinking?? It seems, to Yukari and everyone else here, the honorable name ?eternal spring shrinemaiden? is really true, her mind seems to stay in that weather no matter what the conditions are.


?Nonetheless?seriously now, care to fill us in?? Nitori asked, her backpack jammed full of stuff that only she knows how to use, mostly her own modified tools of choice.


?Yes, I had a better grasp of the situation now?it seems Eirin?s logical deduction was correct, it was a disease, this girl, Setsu Ijima is the only survivor.? Setsu nodded, seemingly intimidated by Nitori?s look as she looked at her back eye to eye.


?Setsu?nice name, look, what else can you tell us?? Nitori continued.


?It is a flesh eating disease? if the virus in the host does not nourish itself with victims whom are uninfected, they will turn on each other; and if that is not an option, it eats the host itself. Whatever that transpired was quite a blur however, and this happens rarely, since there are plenty of corpses about to be fed on?? Setsu started, and paused, thinking for a bit and then continued, ?Also?they are most active at nighttime, they run fast due to their metabolism I think, at daytime, they seemed more keen to sleeping and conserving energy.?


?Good?we are approaching in the day, so that leaves us with plenty of time to explore.? Yukari added.


?Ya~ze, thanks for bringing me along ~ze!? A rather annoying person stepped out from the crowd, which consists of 8 people in total including Setsu. This person is none other than human magician Marisa Kirisame. She sports a tall witch hat, black and her costume which resembled a maid?s uniform paired with short skirt, also black entirely save for the apron like centerpiece. On her face was written all over her excitement, and she carried a broom, as all classic images of witches seemed to do.


At her side, another magician, this one non-human but looks entirely like one save for the glowing irises in her eyes, is Alice Margatroid. She is a dollmaker, dollmaster to her special dolls Shanghai and Hourai, both which acts as her sword and shield respectively. She is capable of great magic, and like Marisa, she is fluent with magic using light elements and her specialty would be to summon dolls and use invisible wires to control them as though they have a life of their own. She however, remained silent, only looking at Marisa?s carefree attitude seemingly too aware of her.


At the left, stood Nitori, and otherwise no one else, she had not chosen a partner it seems despite being told so. As predicted, Eirin had brought along Reisen Udongein Inaba, a rabbit from Eirin?s homeworld, the Moon Capital. She was once a slave, working for an army that does not care about her welfare and views her as expendable as the waste on the ground; after escaping from her forced servitude, she came to the Earth while searching for Eirin Yagokoro, whom was exiled from the Moon Capital many eons ago. She had a pleasant personality, helpful, cheerful though not for herself. Her rabbit ears hung high on her head, drooping slightly as it came to the upper middle and hung seemingly lifelessly there as though it were fakes.


Nonetheless they are very real, and coupled with her flowing purple hair, and then her scarlet eyes which looked they can suck a person into a deep trance, she looked a whole otherworldly being. Her features are beautiful, and her body as slender as a model, with legs so long it would make any woman jealous, and wearing only a miniskirt doesn?t help. Of course, she wore a long blazer paired with an inner white working shirt, and had a tie tucked into the blazer itself; her clothing blending almost too tightly with her womanly figure, giving one full view of her Venus-like form.


She went forward, holding Setsu?s hands, and gave her a smile. Setsu smiled back, and she somehow felt compelled to say this could well be the first person she felt close to. ?My name is Reisen Inaba, please call me Reisen, Setsu-chan!? She shook her hands, and Setsu only seemed all to happy to smile back. How she missed such kind voices, she had last heard them since 3 months ago, when her mother tried to kill her; all these voices stop making sense to her.


She introduced herself, and just then, like the wind, a silent whoosh and an extra presence was added to group.


Two goddesses, one wearing a tall hat with two eyes by the edges of the tip, and the other had a wide ring of rope hanging behind as though it were floating majestically against the pull of gravity as she walked. The smaller one, Suwako Moriya, a Goddess of ancient lands was wearing her simple blue blouse with green frogs in a state of play paired with inner matching white long and loose sleeved turtle-neck shirt while having the sweetest smile ever walked out from under a tree. The other one, much taller, a womanly figure by the name of Kanako Yasaka, a warrior Goddess by class had on a red sweater of sorts, paired with matching deep sea blue pleated skirt pants covering down her ankles like fabric-made armor. She wore a smile of confidence, and an aura of said confidence as well, paired with her great ornament of holy rope behind her, and a mirror before her chest signifying her Godly status as all Kami of old Japan has; she is indeed a figure to be reckoned with.


It is often hard to tell the other one is a Goddess at all, short and blonde, cute and cuddly, almost unlike a status as grand as Goddesses should have. She wore a kind smile however, unlike Kanako, Suwako had the features of a mother; soft and caring, yet a pertaining childishness about her because of her height and small built made her all the more admirable from a distance. She walks also with a hop, and landed softly before Reimu, whom looked at her with a puzzled look.


?Reimu, Sanae will be taking care of this shrine as well as ours, so you best be thankful okay?? Suwako said, her voice was sweet as honey, chirping, crisp and a melody to the ears. At least, that is what Kanako seemed to think, everyone present could tell her face is somewhat redder than usual. Suwako does indeed have this unlikely charm beyond a child would have, yet, as it seems; she is a rank older than Kanako as a woman, both in Goddess status, and age. Sanae, the referred person is the resident shrinemaiden of Gensokyo, the second one to be precise since Reimu, and has a personality that is well liked by many of the human residents; much unlike the very lazy and narcissistic Reimu Hakurei in utter contrast.


?Make sure she doesn?t get my donations.? Reimu answered, totally indifferent to the situation, thankless if not any less. Suwako?s smile faded slightly, but turned about to face the crowd looking at the two?s sudden interference into the group.


?You will be heading to a place we came from, so everyone should be prepared. While we did left the place, it has been many years since then and because of Gensokyo?s time plane, we may have seen many changes during that time, so please be careful.? Suwako announced to the people around her, she waved her hands to get attention to her small frame and even more smallish voice, yet as it is, she didn?t really need to; all eyes and ears were on her, a small glorified glow seemed to emanate from her like a golden aura of peace that calms people around her.


?In addition, we have something to give you?? Kanako behind her suddenly said, the reddish hue on her face now gone, replaced with a solemn seriousness unlike a moment before.


?This is??? Everyone looked at the foreign object in their hand, resembling a talisman, a piece of paper with poetic Chinese writings in deep etched calligraphy strokes.


?A talisman of the wind, while it can be used only once, it would protect you by blasting away unwanted enemies? in close range at least. It will be activated if you are in danger and you think you are facing some undetectable or unreachable foe behind or from your position?call it a precaution, but outside, the Youkai are much like the demons in Makai? wild, untamed, and danmaku will only work so well.? Kanako explained, her hands placed across her chest crossed, voice as stern as she can make it.


?I see?thanks.? Marisa pocketed the piece, snapping it in half and folding it neatly inside her pocket. She turned to Suwako, whom stood silently gazing at the grounds of the Hakurei shrine.


?Is there something else you wanted to tell us? You looked strange earlier on?? Marisa, thought rough and seemingly uncouth for her personality, is as always, highly perceptive.


?Marisa! I?no, there isn?t anything important? it is just that?? Suwako stammered.


?You best blurt it out.? Marisa asked.


?This is not confirmed?but just take precaution?? Suwako paused, her face now stern as Kanako from a moment ago, ?It is unlikely that Gods move from place to place, ours was special?unlike our other peers, whom choose to die in silence and being forgotten by the humans whom once worshipped them in their own lands? we moved. In a very ancient law, there exist a passage, called the Kami?s Heavenly Dictation; this law spoke about ?replacements? a Kami must make before making pilgrimage to a foreign land, or relocating or taking over a shrine.? Suwako finished.


Kanako took up the rest and began, ?In essence, when we moved to Gensokyo, we didn?t do that. We both share the Lake Suwa region, Suwako the land, while I the heavens above and the mountains that surround the great Suwa region. We are too young as goddesses, call it a mistake if you will, but we have no idea what happened after we left. If demons or the sort were to occupy a holy region as ours, they will grow quite strong, and thus? become quite troublesome if you encounter them.? Kanako paused, ?You do know what that means don?t you, Yukari??


?Yes??


?What is she talking about?? Reimu asked, curious now.


?The place they came through is also the best place to get out to the real world when mass numbers like our group is gathered, it has high concentration of magical energy, and while my gaps can take you through, it would be a one on one basis? with this portal, I can bring all of you at once. The dangers lie in if there are any beings that took over the Suwa region? the Kami?s Path.? Yukari explained.


?Hey look, we ain?t got all day, are we going or not?? Marisa, without tuning in to the mood, blurted out loudly, breaking everyone?s attention and turning it to her.


?She?s right? we can stand here talking about precautions and demons, but the day will really be lunchtime soon and I really don?t wanna eat this bento at the shrine when I can be outside breathing non-Gensokyo air and non-spring-influenced-miko-odors.? Nitori followed, rather rudely if at all mannerisms concerned.


?Hey!? Reimu rebutted, but no one heard, everyone just nodded. The time to move has come.



+++++++++



(Lake Suwa region, possibly minutes later)


?Alright, once you past through here, you are bounded to Earth, our next passage won?t be until full moon when the energy surrounding the Suwa?s Kami?s Path is fullest, so we must make full use of our time here?? Yukari said, her eyes darkened by the mythical fleeting shadows casted by her magic, dark miasma that surrounds her brewing like swirling mist in red and black completely shrouding what makes of everyone save their faces barely visible in the poor light.


With that, a hole opened, enough for four people side to side to pass through. It glowed brightly, and powerfully magic seemed to permeate into the open area before them, surrounded by trees and then dark things that laid on the ground, unidentified.


The crowd stepped through, Reimu first, before realizing she is falling quick to the ground, pulled by gravity. ?Whhaaa?.?? She sounded, heart pounding as she fell and hanged barely to the gap?s opening.


?I forgot to mention, you can?t fly here?that includes you Marisa? the magic is too thinly spread in this world compared with Gensokyo?s density.? Yukari explained, she herself floating however, sitting on top of a gap she opened.


?What?!? Marisa seemed genuinely disappointed. Alice, whom is beside her, floated about, surrounded by an energy field casted by her but maintained by her dolls, diligently working hard to keep their master afloat.


?How does she do it then?? Marisa questioned, looking at Alice.


?My dolls are magical and semi-ethereal, while it may surprise you, I am a youkai and hence my natural ability is to fly, no matter the conditions. It does take more concentration though to maintain my anti-gravitational field around myself?which reminds me, doesn?t your broom allow you to direct such a passive field to keep you floating?? Alice questioned, after answering as best as she could.


?My broom, unlike your dolls, is not a magical item or a ?being?. It can be told to fly, using the magic from me to boost speed and power, but only if a natural energy field is constantly present? as it is, I never been used to a non-magical environment.? Marisa answered sadly.


The two Lunarians, Eirin and Reisen, too floated. Eirin naturally so because there is quite simply hardly a condition and situation she cannot adapt to; an added bonus being she learned well to fly in non-magic layered environments long before she retired to Gensokyo. For Reisen, her natural ability as a youkai came into play, and with two arms folded nicely under Setsu, she carried her like a prince holding his princess in her arms. Slowly, the two floated downwards, and observed the surroundings as the miasma from the gap above their heads cleared out more and more.


Nitori jumped down, reaching the ground quickly with her limbs extended and retracting to soften the impact of the landing. As she landed, she pulled out what seemed to a remote control of sorts, and outcame from behind the gap, 4 bikes that came crashing downwards.


?Whoa!? She yelled, but to no avail? the bikes were falling, she did in fact miscalculated the need for a flight path as the bikes don?t float.


Hurriedly she extended her arms, hoping to grab at least one. Alice yelled quite suddenly, ?Dolls Sign; Dolls Army!? and from her arms, 4 non-ethereal dolls seemed to materialized from thin air, and rushed forward, invisible lines attached from behind to her fingers and the rings she wore; they rushed for one of the bikes.


Together, the dolls held the handlebars, and then one under the back wheel with one above it, holding the pillion seat?s handlebar situated behind the black bike. Nitori seemed lucky, she caught it but only then realize the weight was more than she anticipated. Her arms folded, despite being generally elastic, while extended it cannot summon much strength unlike her pure blooded peers of Kappas. Her being simply cannot stand the power of gravity and a modified bike that has a heavier engine attached. The other two, safe to say that it never saw any use in this field, was destroyed before any action was managed.



?Oooooh?.this is bad?really bad? what will I do now?? Nitori pushed the bike off her, which fell nicely about her backpack. It was scratched, but functional. She looked almost teared eyed, from the pain of bike crushing on her shell perhaps, but it was more of the fact she disappointed everyone with her clumsiness? she isn?t normally so, how did all this happen in a flash?


?Hey hey, don?t sweat it, we can always walk!? Marisa said, now using her latent energy, and placing her Hakkero down on her feet, facing the ground. The Hakkero is a small magical tool which channels her energy into beams of light and shots of power, it is her primary weapon. Her other weapon would be her broom which she is fairly good at using on hand to hand combats. She picked it up as she landed, the Hakkero humming softly as the energy disappeared.


?You do realize we are ?walking? the whole of Japan? Japan is not Gensokyo?s backyard or the magic forest, you can?t get across it as though you were heading to Eientei.? Nitori remarked, Eientei being the place which Eirin operates from and is her home.


?Oh?is that so??


?It is so.? Nitori added, looking downtrodden at her mistake? was it the fish? She didn?t felt so good this morning and her thoughts were messy since yesterday? they say the children feed the fishes with strange things, if she wasn?t used to the strange things she may have a bad stomach? and Kappas can?t stand bad stomachs due to their watery diet, the water in their bodies just get corrupted badly.


?Okay, guys?attention please.? Yukari announced, breaking the mood.


?From here on, we will be moving separately? I know this may sound unfair, but Setsu, Marisa, Alice, and Nitori are in the same team. We must finish securing the Great Suwa Region and the Greater Outer Suwa Region beyond those hills there.? Reimu pointed to a mountain, place around far east. It was a mountain that stood the test of time, and was once a source of many ancient fables and chronicles of old Kamis and Youkai at war with each other. It was also rumored to be the source of the first few Kamis of Japan, an ancient source of holy energy.


Greater Suwa was once home to many rivaling Gods, and before the dawn of the Brightened Age, which is when Suwako Moriya was born from the well of holy energy above the hills of Suwa Region, and much later Kanako Yasaka; it was a place of Godly carnage. Ancient villagers and warriors would make blood sacrifice to demonic Gods in the forms of crude snakes and some even evolved animal youkai which sated the blood of humans and put on sheepskin to get more from the petty villagers. It was in the Brightened Age, when the a form of renewal and reformation, around the 1400s, when great warmongers and generals breaking free from a corrupted kingdom and government of a dying dynasty that such immoral acts were purged. With the aids of proper Kamis and Elementals, the war purged the Suwa Region of ?pretenders? which sought holy energy to feed from and harbored the birth of new Gods, including Suwa?s very own Suwako, named after the land itself.


This place, hence is a favorite hunting spot for Gods and demons themselves, naturally attracted by the powerful energy that is present in the air. If only it were pure magic, then the girls could fly as they wish, but it is not. It is quite simply the sort of energy that rouses the air like purified oxygen would, a simple spit of fire would set it ablaze, but not always.


?Wow? that looked really far from here.? Marisa said, placing her hand over her eyes and staring at the Mountain ahead, which has black clouds streaming above in a circular fashion, as though the mountain itself was spewing black clouds from its tip. As all magicians seem to know, this is a sign of bad omen, it normally means something is corrupted in nature, and that expands to many a times, conditions that are dangerous and unpredictable.


?Anyone has problems with the team ups?? Reimu asked, uncaring for Marisa?s lack of attention as she took in the view. Natural, considering she has never seen the outside world before, and she is naturally curious as a cat.


?No.? Eirin answered bluntly, and turned around, not waiting for Reisen at all as she walked north.


?So, I guess that means she takes that direction.? Reimu seemed troubled, Eirin seemed to think not so well of her?


Reisen ran up to Setsu, and placed something in her hand. It looked like a covered syringe. ?Setsu, if something is not right, use this? it is a blood serum made from your blood, it can cure almost everything, infections or wounds, but it works only once like that talisman from that woman, Kanako earlier? use it wisely.? Reisen said, and promptly bid her goodbye as she gave chase to Eirin, whom is already in a distance.


?Such a diligent rabbit? if only her master treats her better?? Alice commented, looking at the girl with short hair, dressed tardily in a salvaged robe, probably from one of the families in Gensokyo and seemed poorly mannered. Setsu only stared, mostly in awe, as she looked closely Alice had the most wonderful hair, eyes that are clear as azure crystals and features as beautiful as the dolls she wields about her; stoic and almost featureless, save for the rosy pink lips and long eyelashes that truly brings out her otherworldly beauty.


?Yeah, Eirin is so cold these days, she is always like that when something interests her. I guess this time it must be all consuming disease.? Marisa added, she bent downwards and looked at the black stuff she is stepping on.


?This is??


?Magma.? Nitori answered, using what seemed like a prodding tube stabbed onto a ground, and a meter attached to it on a screen display which had a needle inside that climbed up and down dramatically. She looked hard at the stuff, which is hardened now, set in stone. ?Pure unfiltered magma, no source, not local, because there are no volcanoes in Suwa region?, she thought to herself.


?The trees are still here? where did it flow from?? Marisa asked, fully aware the magma originates from Lava, which is the sort of stuff that is pretty hot and spews from volcanoes when erupting. Magma would be the molten rock which is like an all consuming terror wave and heated catastrophe that burns all and consumes all in its flowing path.


?If the flows match anything, it is here? from the ground.? Nitori pointed to a hole, black and deep, probably around 10 feet vertical downwards, and has a oddly purplish hue of energy rousing off it like an aura of unknown origin.


?Smells like youkai energy? but different.? Alice added.


?Are those bad youkai or good ones?? Marisa asked.


?What do you think? Stop being blunt, Marisa.? Alice chided, but Marisa took no heed and reached down the hole, touching the surface of the wall softly, feeling up the texture of the cooled molten rock.


?Smooth??


?Of course.?


?Guys, I will be moving with Yukari to South, so catchup with us there.? Reimu shouted.


?Okay, good luck.? Marisa waved back and saw that Reimu entered a gap. Convenient, if she only has that.


?I will take the bike, the other is for Nitori, Alice will ride behind Nitori okay?? Marisa turned to Alice and said. Alice seemed disappointed, but nodded nonetheless in agreement.


?Alright, we haven?t got all day? let?s go!? Stepping on the bike, Marisa revved the engine, knowing full well how to operate the thing as she read about it some time ago in the books she borrowed. The handles give power to the beast, like her Hakkero, when turned, a jolt of energy will make it move faster. If she holds the two bars behind the handle, she will stop; easy.


She hopped on, and balanced easily. Compared with her broom, this widened seating makes it really comfortable and easy, if only she can shoot while riding? that?d be perfect.


Nitori, being the person who modded these things from scratch, clearly knew how to operate them. Stepping onto one, and Alice behind her sitting rather easily behind, she peddled the thing to face East.


?Hold tight?? Nitori warned, and revved the thing.


The last thing she could really hear was Alice?s girlish scream as the thing rode with its head lifted, doing a wheelie across the soon grassy surface onwards to East Greater Suwa.




____


Oh ho ho, Riders on the storm~
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Esifex

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2009, 04:42:47 PM »
I'm liking how you're going into detail about the virus, among other things.

Your portrayal of Alice is impressive, too; most people use her for comedic relief, and have her bumbling around only occasionally doing things right.

Continue on, as ever.

♛ Apher-Forte

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2009, 07:08:42 PM »
Yeah, I didn't like how Alice is the butt of the jokes in most fics.
personally? I think Alice is the coolest girl in Gensokyo, and that is without-a-doubtedly speaking.
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[ Find my cosplay photos here. ] OMG I HAVE TUMBLR FOLLOW PLZX Will You Remember Me... ?

Esifex

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  • *
  • It shall rise again
Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2009, 07:43:04 PM »
Heh, yeah. Sure, it's impressive that Yukari can manipulate the boundary between male and female if she wanted to. Sure, Sakuya can stop time. Sure, Reimu can float away from reality. Sure, Marisa can pump out Master Spark after Master Spark without tiring.

But controlling hundreds of dolls simultaneously without error is such an unorthodox power, one that's really quite awesome in its originality, is even more impressive. <3 Alice.

I just couldn't find a cute picture of her to use as my avatar. Hurhur.

♛ Apher-Forte

  • Am I to go home...or shall I stay alone?
  • *
  • Forever lost at sea, a distant bell rings for me
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2009, 09:44:11 AM »
Chapter 4:
___________



(Elsewhere)
 
 
“So…they are here…”
 
 
“Yes, rather amusing, to leave and comeback again… such arrogance, these younger ones are…”
 
 
“I wonder if they think it is something of a joke to them?”
 
 
“I wonder that myself, we are fated to be bounded to one place, to travel means to be forgetting the roots of our responsibilities… faith is secondary.”
 
 
“Still, rather foolish, consider there are more than faith to be considered… like we do…”
 
 
“Shall we greet them?”
 
 
“In due time, the caverns will be awake soon… the darkness shall set, and the stage will be ready, for full on slaughter.”
 
 
“Perfect. I like the way you think, Hachisaka.”
 


 
++++
 
 
 
“Where are we?” Eirin asked, Reisen’s eyes glowed redder than  usual, and looked around her, not giving a reply.
 
 
“Well?” Eirin impatiently asked, waiting a moment as Reisen’s eyes stopped glowing.
 
 
“It appears we are in a mountain’s pocket, the stones here seemed to belong to one Suwa’s regions many holy mountains, it is just that there are no longer any holy beings living with them or within them. I detect some spiritual essence up ahead, and judging by the landscape, many caverns are within reach, there is movement within them, Eirin-sama.” Reisen answered, giving all due answers.
 
 
“Movement?”
 
 
“Yes, something was wriggling inside the caverns, judging by the size, it looks to be a deer.” Reisen answered vaguely, giving a shrug as to indicate her seeming lack of idea.
 
 
“Deer don’t live in mountainous areas like these, goats maybe, but if I recalled correctly, Suwa region is not a place for mountain goats, as it is not cold enough and food is scarce.” Eirin examined, looking ahead at the many holes that are jutted within the mountainous areas, most of them on rocks.
 
 
“Then what do you think they are?”
 
 
“Quiet…”
 
 
“Huh?”
 
 
“Shhh… did you hear that?” Eirin closed Reisen’s mouth, placing it firmly clasping over her lips.
 
 
She removed her hands for a moment, and promptly cupped it over her hears to listen.
 
 
“It sounds like someone is crying… or rather… a lot of them.” Reisen listened, her rabbit ears now completely erect over her head.
 
 
“I fear the path ahead may be blocked, Yukari said there is no visible human life, yet this voice sounds distinctively human… I sense no spiritual presence, yet…” Eirin tried to reason as she whispered this.
 
 
“Should I fire some danmaku to check the area?”
 
 
“Sounds like a plan.”
 
 
With that, Reisen raised her right hand, fingers held like a fake pistol she aimed to the open mountain ahead. “Pale Moon Flower Bookmark!” Her eyes glowed red, and magic energy directed from her body immediately blasted off a distance, like a powerful shell shot out from her arms, the sound it produced in this silent place became almost deafening. The light the danmaku shot produce for just a mere few seconds shone as bright as day, blasting past the shadows of the rocks clasping upon one another and shining down like a beacon from the skies above.
 
 
Suddenly… without warning, the cries heard before began to change.
 
 
They weren’t cries anymore, rather, growls, groans, and somewhat like the hurtful grinding of teeth of a child when denied their plaything. It was like a mournful sort, yet in every one that resonated, it sounded like they wanted revenge. It sounded like… angry… very angry creatures…
 
 
The sound grew closer as the light faded from the bullets, Eirin’s eyes glowed gold in color, and she looked ahead, just as Reisen’s eyes adjusted to the once again darkness of the mountain’s shadowy crevices and listening hard to the rampaging footsteps.
 
 
“There… are… humans?” Eirin sounded, at least 20 of them, all heading this way, running, claws by their sides, sharp and skinny, dressed in tattered cloth and some are naked completely, skin pale as porcelain and eyes red as the devil’s own two pupils glowing in the dark.
 
 
“No, the claws! Those are not human!” Reisen’s eyes better captured the situation.
 
 
“Shoot to kill!!” Eirin sounded
 
 
Aiming her arrow, a struggle begins.
 
 
Reisen began to fire like her life depended on it.
 
 
“What the hell is this?!” Reisen yelled out.
 
 
“Hell on earth, just the way I like it… so many specimens in one go.”
 
 
A battle begins…
 
 
 
++++++
 
 
(Elsewhere, East)
 
 
Yukari opened the gap, the temple, ruined as it may be stood a distance, forlorn and abandoned. It doesn’t look like anyone here maintained the temple, or was alive to do it for a few good years. Grass grew as thick as a paddy field in harvest, and the paint of the walls cracked, dried and fallen, revealing the age old concrete behind the wooden outer surfaces. A donation box stood forlorn under a set of bronze colored bells tied to a thick holy rope, for when the worshippers when they donate, shall ring the bell to announce to the Gods of the temple their due wishes in return. Reimu peeked out from the gap, before landing softly on the grounds of the temple shrine.
 
 
“Give me a moment to consort the Gods of this one…” Reimu asked, asking for Yukari’s time to talk to the gods in this shrine. Her specialty, a uniquely shrinemaiden’s task, the ability to contact the otherworldly beings that inhabit a holy place of worship, and much like the Kami that live in open grounds; a shrine God requires faith, and stays in the shrine or temple for all times and talks to only those who have authority to see them and house them.
 
 
A shrinemaiden is such a person, the ‘houser’ which places the Gods in their faithful place, and lives their celibate lives to uphold the law and practices of the old days in favor of housing the Gods, and such practices are passed from one generation to the next until which time the next must come after a chosen arranged marriage. Reimu is a child born from such age old adamants, and till this day since inheriting her task many years before, does a good job at what she does. Indeed, some say she is a genius who comes once every thousand years; she has proven those people right with the exceptional powers and ability she demonstrated as a shrinemaiden thus far.
 
 
“So…?”
 
 
“Old Ones of the past, New Ones of the Ancients, Whomever you may be, You whom inherit and live in this shrine, please rise and give answer to me, the Hakurei Maiden. I ask that you voice your being…” Reimu asked, standing for a while waiting for an answer that doesn’t seem to be coming.
 
 
“Hmm…”
 
 
“No response.”
 
 
“Any spiritual energy?” Yukari asked, she herself could detect none.
 
 
“You know that.”
 
 
“Guess we should walk around a bit.”
 
 
“Wait!” Reimu sounded, she heard some cackling.
 
 
“There are people here?” Yukari sounded surprised, she was sure there are no humans here.
 
 
Suddenly, from the trees surrounding the overgrown shrine grounds, a long tentacle of sorts stretched out from out of nowhere, and flew straight for Reimu’s neck from behind her.
 
 
“Oh…what? ArrgghhH!!!” Reimu sounded, thrashing as she felt a strong pull dragging her into the overgrowths and kicking while screaming… “Help me!” She sounded to Yukari.
 
 
With a swift cut, Yukari threw her fan at the tentacle thing, which immediately cut through the overgrowths like a powerful boomerang, destroying all that lies within hiding if at all. The fan’s sharpened tips met the target, and to Yukari’s horror, it was a sight more terrible than any youkai she knew.
 
 
Of course, it is not like she hasn’t seen some ugly ones, but this one… this ‘youkai’ carries an odor that rivals the stinking sewer dwelling yellow beasts that she once caught out of curiosity. It smells of vomit, stinks of feces and as smoky as pounds of floor dust added to a mix of decayed corpses. It reeks so bad she was surprised she hadn’t caught scent of it before she killed it, cleanly slicing off its neck and severing its head from its contracted torso.
 
 
It twitched a bit, letting out a long and loud sigh as it fell to the ground, exploding from its chest like a balloon, blew apart into several broken limbs and bodyparts, and let out some gas akin to its odor, only green in color and quickly surrounded Reimu in utter disgust as she freed herself from the thing attached to her neck.
 
 
“What the…? That was its tongue! Ugh…” She wiped off the slime attached to her sleeves, and then on her neck, which she desperately tried to clean but left a lot of still on her.
 
 
“You better wipe that one off with one of your sleeves… I see no point having them on anyway.”
 
 
“What about modesty?” Reimu complained, and continued her desperate wiping.
 
 
Yukari doesn’t know how to explain it, these things are not human, yet strangely, they also are not youkai. They are dead, yet moving. The worse is that she is not attuned to their scent, they smelled like corpses, and everywhere around them is a densely thick smell of dead bodies, making them hardly detectable.
 
 
Has all mankind became this? Is this why she hasn’t seen any humans about?
 
 
Somewhere, in a tree, a creature looks hungrily at the back of Yukari, its eyes as hungry as its urge for violence. Slowly, its claws grew out, and like a cat pouncing off a platform to catch a mouse within its sight, it jumped, giving a shrill and loud scream as it did for Yukari.
 
 
Yukari looked back, and her eyes widened in horror and surprise.
 
 
A first yet again, in many years; she hadn’t felt genuine fear in a few eons.
 
 
 
++++++++
 
 
 
(Elsewhere, Heading East.)
 
 
“Man this is farther than we thought~ze, isn’t it?” Marisa sounded, her voice barely audible from the incredible noise the machines that Nitori brought along for the trip.
 
 
“Yeah, I had no idea these things are so slow on grass.” Nitori clearly has not thought about it, these things work best on paved and open roads, which are flattened with black tar and oiled till they were as smooth as they can possibly be. Nitori has seen how these things work on those, with some excellent maneuvers, they can outrun danmaku bullets even. Yet, as it seems, riding on grass after the rocky path is utterly impossible, still useful though, better than walking or flying with her fart. She recalled the embarrassing thing she did yesterday… she wonders if her friends are now laughing behind her back.
 
 
The thought burned her, and it felt ticklish even. However, amidst her embarrassing recollection of last night, she could hear something else: rumbling, akin to when stones are being moved.
 
 
“Shhh… the engines, slow it down.” They did, and came to a complete stop.
 
 
“What the hell…?” Marisa sounded, Alice popped from behind Nitori to have a clearer look.
 
 
Up ahead, a creature, possibly 6 or 7 times larger than a normal human should be, with arms as wide the bike they are riding on, and muscular growth so obscenely over the top its body doesn’t seem to fit the tattered underdeveloped lower body below. It stared at a distance, digging the ground while huffing and puffing dramatically as though its heart cannot pump enough blood into what may well be its muscularly oppressed arteries or its remarkably small head fitted just above its chest like a crude ornament. Then, it turned, and like an enraged animal, it roared as loud as a lion, clamoring the silence, breaking it as shattered glass and gave chase immediately.
 
 
Suddenly, Setsu without warning, shouted as loud as she possibly can, “TAAAAANNNNKKKK!!!” Setsu immediately turned to Nitori and shook Marisa on the shoulders, “RUN RUN RUN RUN!!!” Her eyes told everyone it is the only way… no way they can beat that thing, whatever it was.
 
 
Panically, they all turned their bikes and turned to the other direction, only to hear what could possibly be a voice screaming in bloodcurdling unison. Like a tumbling sea of voices, the screams rolled about and encircled them and from the woods, where the in the shadows lurked many youkai, out came a hungry mob, possibly hundreds in numbers.
 
 
The huge thing that was just a while staring at a distance emptily, now chased ever harder, using its arms to prop a balance, it rammed quickly among the horde, bumping some out of the way in focused rage and roaring all the way.
 
 
The grassy surface gave no room for maneuvers, and riding straight is slow as well and pretty soon, Nitori realized the only way to do this is to fly.
 
 
“Marisa, on my count, the red button, press it!” Yet… as it seems, Marisa is all too keen, given the ticket, she didn’t wait, and simply dived her finger onto the red outline of a button placed crudely on one of the handles.
 
 
“Wait------“ Nitori looked, as the engine sounded like it were ready to rip, and stuttered to life in a renewed fashion, revving loud enough to wake even the dead from their graves.
 
 
With effect, like a phoenix rising from its ash, the bike reared its head and aimed into the skies.
 
 
Nitori bit her lip, “Damn it!” Promptly pressing the button she fired her successful reinvention of a bike upwards the sky, blasting past all obstacles and shot to the air immediately to escape the chasing horde.
 
 
Down below, she can hear them yelling in disagreement, and like as though nothing happened, they returned to a strange silence, lumbering about in the cloudy darkness, aimless as they were before. Nitori broke a sweat on her forehead, and chased up to Marisa ahead, with Setsu holding to the back of her like a frightened child.
 
 
“What… the hell just happened? What are those things?” Nitori asked the frightened child.
 
 
She didn’t wait for an answer, eyeing an open patch, which surprisingly had some sun that shone down on it nicely and warming the ground, she directed Marisa to land there; she agreed by nodding.
 
 
They landed, softly so. The power of the engines lowered, and quietly did the silence seemed to engulf them once more. Nitori looked at Setsu, whom calmed down now, and was standing. She seemed reluctant to get off the bike, but seeing as there is no mob just now, she quietly stood there staring back at her inquisitor.
 
 
“That… is the infected… I don’t know how… but…”
 
 
“But what? That big lunge of a thing just now… what is it?” Nitori questioned mercilessly.
 
 
“I don’t really know… but the boys called it Tanks, they are everywhere… large mutated species of the infected. They say drugs change people, I don’t know in what way, but they just do. When they do… they change the normally infected, those that you saw came running from the woods and the shadows… into those and other kinds.” Setsu explained, her voice trembling slightly in fear, as though recalling a terrible nightmare which she rather not remember.
 
 
“Other kinds?”
 
 
“All in all, there are 5 of them… I known only so many, in the time I am silent, I don’t really know what happened or how far they changed…”
 
 
“Five? You better start talking…” Alice commanded, like she is commanding one of her dolls.
 
 
“Please… Alice… stop~ze.” Marisa tapped her shoulder, realizing the human girl is now shaking in her footing, and just then, she crumpled to the floor like a ragged doll, unable to stand straight a moment longer.
 
 
“That was a Tank, the biggest of them all, very tough, not very bright. It is very strong… it can rush into armed forces like it was nothing to them, you can empty entire rounds of gunfire into them it would barely scratch them.” Setsu paused, “The others are the Witch, a crying female capable of killing everyone with those sharp claws, which carries some kind of lethal poison of sorts…, very strong, stronger than even the Tank even at close range. There is the Hunter, an agile jumping infected, it stalks you, then jumps you and eats you there and then as it tears you apart… there is the Smoker, this one stretches its tongue quite far, it constricts and then pulls you in, killing you only then…” Setsu breathed deeply, pausing for a good long moment and taking a loud gulp.
 
Then she spoke again, “There is the Boomer, a fat, slow, creature with a bloated stomach. It spews acidic bile from its mouth, which carries a scent that attracts nearby infected towards you. This one is easy to kill, but also dangerous volatile, for doing anything to it in close range means digging your grave when it blows up the bile on your face.” She paused once more, “Finally, there is something quite recent, I saw it when the boys I was with got slaughtered, I called it a Panther.”
 
 
“What does that one do?” Alice continued to prob.
 
 
“I don’t really know, I just know it is bloody strong, very fast, and is the first one smart enough to evade gunfire. Somehow, it always moves on all four. It has these sharp fangs and claws on its ‘paws’.  Its skin on its forehead is mutated, and covers its face and closing its eyes. I think……” Setsu paused again, recollecting whatever she could in her fearful memories, “It relies on hearing, and heat as well as sound. It is very sensitive, and once it detects you it guides the horde to attack, it has this large sucker like thing hanging from inside its mouth, if it gets close to you it will pounce on your face and begin to eat it beside chewing it down with its massive fangs….that is all I saw… I don’t know the rest…” Setsu stopped, looking away.
 
 
“The last one, you said it tracks by heat source, and sound?” Alice pondered, before fear was hinted in her eyes.
 
 
“That means we must have attracted thousands of them with these noisy things!” Marisa cut in, saying exactly what was on Alice’s mind.
 
 
True enough, from a distance, where the shadows of the clouds cover, a scream tumbling up and down in unison as it was a moment before, came rolling like tidal waves to a shore. Leading them all are a few black bodies, on all fours, running like rabid dogs and drooling with maddened faceless anger.
 
 
They are coming.
 
 
And they are hungry.
 
 
“Shit!” Nitori cursed.
 
 
 
+++++
 
 
The claw swiftly came down, and Eirin did what she does with reflex naturally, holding her bow to her head, it blocked the claw that seemed to weight a ton.
 
 
“Such strength!” Eirin cursed, “Coming from a human female?!” She indeed was in surprise, not only the Witch came suddenly, it came in a horde.
 
 
They are armed with hardened fingernails and ingrown bones which connect to said fingernails. The worst thing was that the fingernails are sharp, unnaturally so and were hard as iron, reinforcing the calcium base of the bone, and which grew around the fingers into each one of them; they resembled chef knives, bolted to the tips as a deadly weapon.
 
 
Though they seemed frail and pale, Eirin mistaken them for easy targets, hoping a few easy bullets will bound them back and drive them off, but that mistake was costly as she soon found herself attacked from all sides.
 
 
A group of them, comprising seven or eight in numbers, attacked at a stone, lifeless. Eirin knew exactly what is happening: they have looked into Reisen’s eyes of maddening. Reisen’s eyes possess a special power, which when looked into as she directed her mental energy towards its focus, will cause hallucinations. Suffice to say that even this woeful creatures of once possibly were thinking, rational girls and women are not immune to Reisen’s eyes. The hallucinations she caused drove them to attack a lifeless boulder laying by the side; however, to them it must seem like they are attacking Reisen herself, thrashing in helpless agony as their claws dug mercilessly into her skin and bones, ripping her apart.
 
 
“Pale Flower’s Cannon: Invisible Link!!” Reisen announced, something new she crafted, Eirin thought; she has always been diligent about her magic studies.
 
 
 A giant gun suddenly appearing out of thin air, the white bodied cannon with an extra long barrel formed into Reisen’s hands, carted just above her shoulder like a powerful oversized tool of choice. Energy gathered at the tip of the barrel, which has a short hammer-like head that spread sideways. Reisen kicked at the two props that were attached to the semi-ethereal cannon and set it up leveled with her knee, which she is kneeling on her left side with and the right side for good measure.
 
 
The props magically shot its sharp tips into the ground, securing the thing in less than a second and then… Reisen fired. Like a thunderous ball of electric, energy gathered at the tip to a brightened sphere, brighter than even burning plasma, the ball headed straight for the horde of rock-attacking female beasts. The effect was immediate, like the sound of a hundred screaming slaughtered beasts; their screams pierced the air sharply and promptly disintegrated into dust.
 
 
All this time, Eirin only witnessed, she herself responsible for a good 10 of them, circling her madly as they clawed for her in all directions. However, she is well versed in combat, living a good 10,000 years can do that for everyone it seems, and they were parlayed with her great strength easily.
 
 
“Enough…” She uttered, and from her bow, arrows of magic appeared, seeping from a snaky vein that led down to her hands from the her shoulders. With an immediate bolt and a turn, Eirin turned loose from their encircling, finding mere seconds before they come for her again, she fired in their direction hundreds of lightning fast arrows that punched them into the guts and pierced their bodies like giant needles. The arrows disappeared just as quickly as they came into contact, driving the numbered to 10 or so woeful screamers back a few steps. They relentlessly tried to come back bouncing, only to face another barrage from their direct path, despite their evasive maneuvers.
 
 
Eirin already has two familiars, magic balls of ethereal spirits that surround a magic user; above her head. Like powerful assistants copying exactly what she did, they spread open fire of hundreds and hundreds more arrows in split seconds, piercing the creatures through and through as one by one quickly fell dead from the impacts.
 
 
Reisen, who stood steadily beside her, aiming her fingers at the creatures that are falling quickly, soon relaxed. “Master… those…are not Danmaku…” Reisen referred to the rule of magic in Gensokyo, where it does not kill. As it seems however, the ones Eirin just used are tools of destruction, capable of killing people where she stands.
 
 
The balls continued firing hails of magical arrows, until Eirin seemed to breathe a command of ‘stop’ and only then did they paused. They still floated, cautiously so following Eirin as she walked up to confirm the creature’s death. “Interesting… this one is still alive.”
 
 
She picked what seemed like a probe, with a tip shaped like a shrapnel and poked the creature, prompting a loud scream as the woeful female bastard thrashed about, only to find that its limbs are all but gone, severed and its torso barely functional as its twisted spine a bloody mess that laid outside instead of inside her back. She seemed to cry in pain, and the probing that Eirin is doing as a merciless torturer helped none the better. Reisen felt a familiar pain, it hinted and reminded her of the old days back on the Moon, when she was a slave, she was subjected to such treatment for amusement.
 
 
“Master…” Reisen called out.
 
 
“Don’t worry, she won’t live long, the blood loss would kill her eventually. I am just taking samples of her tissues, we would have time to investigate the virus to a certain extent by nightfall. Meanwhile, it would also be good if you can scout ahead, you are fine alone right?” Eirin asked, looking to her assistant with eyes that seemed empty, but full of passion for the creature she is probing about as it whined helplessly trying to get away from her.
 
 
“Yes… sure…” Reisen turned, unable to witness the thing a moment longer. She has seen how her master treats the rabbits, sometimes it gets too hard to bear, but her master is a strange and brilliant one, there is nothing she can do for her brethren from earth, she is not the same; she is sentient.
 
 
Slowly, she walked ahead, and in the darkness the covers once more, silence befell the crevices and choking black smoke from her firepower earlier covered densely.
 
 
She can hear sounds, from a distance, resembling bird calls. Cautiously, she walked, treading ever so slightly as she can.
 
 
 
++++++
 
 
The creature was foul, not only was it reaching for Yukari’s face, it managed to actually claw her a fair bit leaving a slight fingernail mark on her skin. However, as it raised its arms for a full on punch or claw or whatever it chooses to do, it landed into thin air. Where she was a moment before is now empty space, replaced by a sealing gap, and Yukari stood behind motionlessly waiting for it to realize through its cloud of confusion as it dug the ground before him, looking for his normally inescapable victim. Then, it looked at Reimu, its angry howling scream sounded, and with it, its legs retracted below him, in a pounce ready movement as it aimed for Reimu’s frame before him.
 
 
“Gyyyyyaaaarrrrggg-h-h-h-h-h---“ it never finished, not even a moment longer as it soon realized its neck was severed cleanly. Not a moment long enough for it to pounce.
 
 
Like a defeated beast, beheaded so; it fell, tumbling into a heap as its head rolled forward to where Reimu stood motionlessly, and emotionlessly as well. Yukari looked, and asked, “Not surprised?”
 
 
“I was going to help you, but then I realize you really wouldn’t have anything to fear from something as simpleminded as this, don’t you?” Reimu said sarcastically.
 
 
Truly so, Yukari has faced some serious trouble and encircling before by hordes of enemies, and this one single pouncing creature cannot even hope to compete with those great demons she faced in Makai before. After all, she has seen a lot in her life time, a moment’s surprise cannot contribute to her failing anything but not taking a breath when she should have.
 
 
“He looks human…except…this grey skin.” Reimu observed at the severed torso.
 
 
“Indeed, if this is what humankind has became, I fear we have a problem. We are not facing a population-less Japan, but rather, a Japan that in inhabited by 90% dead people. I believe these are zombies, they seemed only keen on violence.” Yukari analyzed.
 
 
“Then this is out of my expertise, I am a spiritualist at best, I am not suited for medical jargon like this? What is a zombie anyway?” Reimu asked, shrugging a bit as she picked herself up.
 
 
“They are creatures with no thought of their own, guided only by primal desire or some such. I suppose I can refer you as a zombie as well, consider how much focus you place on your non-existent donations.” Yukari scoffed, and promptly turned about to look at the shrine steps which led down to a paved road below. She thought to herself, ‘where there are paved roads, there must be a town nearby…’
 
 
“Well, whatever…wait…” Reimu headed up to behind Yukari, looking as she took the steps down from the shrine.
 
 
“We are going to town.” Yukari turned back and said, she seemed to choose to walk this time.
 
 

++++++
 
 
 
“One quick question… is that a Panther you been telling us about?” Marisa eyed at the quickly approaching creature, running unnaturally with four limbs, and with skin almost as black as a dark night’s sky with claws and fangs sharp as the creature it is named after; it looked very angry.
 
 
“Yes… run!” Setsu turned, only stopped by Alice’s dolls placed before her, Shanghai’s sword aimed between Setsu’s brows.
 
 
“What…?” Setsu uttered, confused.
 
 
“Not one step, you stay in the center, we will protect you best as we can…” Alice said sternly, staring with her glowing irises into Setsu’s own dull brown eyes.
 
 
“You are crazy… we have been alerted, they are coming, by the hundreds!”
 
 
“All the more reason we cannot risk alerting anymore, we stand and fight.”
 
 
“What if the Tank comes back?” Setsu questioned, trembling as the ground shook for thousands of feet landing in unison in a distance, running furiously for them. Already, the daylight submitted itself to the clouds, and where once was a patch of sunlight, they now stood in the dark, glowing only slightly as magic surrounded their bodies.
 
 
“No worries… we have this.” Marisa said, pulling out her Hakkero, which glowed as bright as a sun placed in the middle of her palm.
 
 
“That?”
 
 
“It is the ultimate magic, c’mon Alice, let’s teach these guys a lesson in love~ze!” Marisa grinned.
 
 
“Let’s!” Alice answered, seemingly fired up as she pulled out a card.
 
 
“Dolls Sign: Imperial Army of Dolls!” Setsu only had moments to blink her eyes before a great army seemed to engulf them in the dead center, forming shields and swords about them facing outwards.
 
 
The lances peeked from beneath a shell of shields, iron and tungsten and unbreakable as the faceless army in thick European armor rose from nothing and stood ready facing all directions in a circle of protection. Alice’s eyes closed in full concentration, murmuring as magic in the form of light flowed from her arms and into her fingers, and into the wires that seemed to float from her fingers onto the surrounding knights in armor.
 
 
“Watch how we handle things, the Gensokyo way!” Marisa said, and smiled.
 
 
The approaching mob impacted… and a loud crash was heard and was followed by hundreds of smaller shocks was sent through the shields.
 
 
“Ugh!” Alice sounded.
 
 
This will be harder than she expected.

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♛ Apher-Forte

  • Am I to go home...or shall I stay alone?
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2009, 09:49:39 AM »
Lol, read this in Louis' voice "TAAAANNNKKKK"

Will be adding other L4D references in later chapters... (including Grabbin Peelz.)
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Esifex

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2009, 05:38:35 PM »
Marisa: "Run... or shoot? Run, or shoot?"
Nitori: "Both, dammit!"

Reimu: "I hate stairs. I hate vans. I hate small towns. I hate airports. I hate elevators."

♛ Apher-Forte

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #12 on: October 01, 2009, 06:25:53 PM »
Lol, why does Nitori have to be Bill?
I wanted Eirin to be Bill but she is too confident lol. "It feels like 'Nam all over again"
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #13 on: October 02, 2009, 11:14:52 AM »
Chapter 5
________




Marisa turned, her broom in one hand and in her left the Hakkero, burning with fiery light brighter than day, hotter than the surface of the sun at the opening. Countdown begins, she needs around 4 counts before the thing is warmed up enough for a barrage of fiery light beams capable of piercing the hordes approaching them from all sides.


Alice grimaced and gritted her teeth, her army of knight armored dolls is as well, and the circle seemed to get smaller with each passing second. They stood huddled back to back, pushing against Setsu, defenseless a human being without her own means of fighting back.


Lake Suwa has become very dangerous, the hotspot for holy energy may have acted as a beacon and attracted unknowingly these foul dead creatures to it, gathering it like rotten fruit would gather flies. The creatures are relentless, bashing the shields, shaking the lance-domed surrounding which resembled a thorn-garden and some even impaling themselves in the process.


The powerful impact from however, the Panther, a gruesome, eyeless, fanged creature that was possibly once human was the most devastating. Alice could tell through the eyes of her dolls Shanghai and Hourai, floating just above the lance laden dome she built around them in solid fashion; safely evading enemy presence as they do not have life signs, be it youkai or human as they are made of wood.


They looked down and saw that two Panthers are now pawing with insane strength onto the surface of the shields, breaking them apart.


Even though semi-ethereal, the dolls army that Alice summoned had a limited capacity to take physical damage, and while summoned, it is vulnerable to any outside force, the most lethal being another magical force. It however can stomach quite a few tons of physical damage, only that it is approaching its limit now.


“Marisa… I can’t hold this much longer!” Alice shouted.


“No worries, break us out, I have the spell ready.”


“Which one?”


“Teacher’s own, Orreries Sun. It is better as it will surround us ~ze” Marisa answered.


“Like last time, I am casting a shield next, this will take as much damage as Yukari’s Infinite Super-speed Flying Objects, but it won’t last, we have 20 seconds!” Nitori shouted.


“Okay, 1, 2, 3!!” Alice cancelled her spell, and like glass shattering the air gave a ring of resonance before the confused creatures around them came to realize they hit air with their claws and nails. The Panther especially seemed to twitch in desperate fashion, the ring must have hurt it badly since it has a keen sense of hearing.


With the last shard of the glassy magical surface shattering and the last of the knight armored dolls disappearing into nothing but air and glittery fairy dust like particles, Marisa quickly activated her spell.


“Light Sign: Orreries Sun!!” She announced, and promptly did 4 body sized balls of 4 different colors in blue, red, yellow and green appeared, firing from all directions away from them bolts of laser light which pierced through the creatures by mass numbers.


They howled, and screamed, their screams as foul as their smell of the decayed dead. Some fell dramatically, while others simply blasted into a distance, broken and unable to move but as there are gaps between the fires, like all danmaku design is supposed to be, the Panthers evaded with such excellent skill it looked almost like they know what is happening despite not having any eyes.


“What?!” Marisa was shocked, seeing the Panthers evade left and right, up and down, jumping above the lasers with their excellent agility and even managed to progress a few steps towards them. Just as she was firing it up her Master Spark, her ultimate spell, she suddenly stopped.


It was only a split second, but among the weaving laser lights, the Panther seemed to stare at it with the faceless feature it seemed to carry, and with immediate effect, it opened its jaws of sharp rows of canine teeth, and revealed what may well be a grotesque formation of a flower. The flower was no flower of any kind however, it is a powerful tool of hunting, it is what was its tongue, evolved into an extending jaw that snaps down on targets at a short distance.


The thing shot as quick as Marisa could respond with her aim, but she had no time to announce her words of her spell. The thing reached and just a second before; the sudden pounding of an invisible wall jolted the creature upwards, and snapped back its jaw with effect.


It turned, seeking for sounds with its ears facing Marisa, Nitori, Alice and Setsu, whom is breathing heavily, clutching her chest as though she is having a panic attack.


“There!” Nitori announced, her shield has been activated.


“19! 18! C’mon guys, let’s go! 16!” Nitori counted loudly, making sure the group heard them.


Alice readied her spell, and like magic in the air the dolls Shanghai and Hourai summoned up from their bodies, split images of themselves. They spread into two and into four, before surrounding the group and rose to the air.


“On my mark~ze!” Marisa sounded, her Orreries Sun spell, the four balls having taken out most of the crowd except for the powerful and agile Panthers which snapped their jaws open and shut in anticipation. “Disengage!” Marisa sounded.


“7!! Shields OFF!!” Nitori shouted, and promptly did the blue colored hexagon shaped wall surrounding them faded.


“Love Sign! Master Spark!!” From Marisa’s hand, her Hakkero glowed and hummed so loud it distressed the Panthers below. They sensed heat, and they tried to run, turning away from the crowd and moving as quickly.


Except this time they can’t outrun a huge gunk of laser.


Like a tunnel of death that moves, the gunk of laser light wider than several humans stacked together, wider than 10 Marisas standing in width; fired into the open ground ahead, with the Panthers running away, only to get caught in its seemingly endless width of range.


Like a powerful furnace, the heat of the laser light burned and blasted all that is alive or dead in the path, disintegrating them into nothing but sheer dust, or nothing at all. The volume of magic power invested into this spell was incontrollable, and it was only a few numbers of Gensokyo’s powerful residents can control its power, Marisa being the only one who is human and can do so.


With effect, the Panthers became nothing.


Then, as the laser died out, Marisa gave a huge wheeze, feeling tired all of a sudden, as her smile faded a bit and she wiped the sweat off her forehead. Indeed, it has been a great task: timing, and most of all, chance. Had the Panthers not ran and pounced for her instead, this spell would not have worked.


From a distance, it was suddenly dawning to them, that this… was a wrong move.


“Are those?” Alice sounded, looking at a distance ahead, where the laser did not reach earlier as it was aimed 45 degrees to the ground.


“Tanks!” Setsu called, and fear once more gripped the group.


“Damn it, one after another?” Marisa cursed, losing her ‘~ze’ for a moment. Nitori only looked, and counted quickly from which she can see.


Two of them, one in the front and one at the back… and then… it looked like another one is approaching due east.


“How tough did you say these things are?”


“Very.” Setsu answered.


“I am fighting. One for each of us!” Nitori announced. To be honest, she didn’t feel like it, but no way she will bested by a brainless mindlessly mad gorilla.


They gritted their teeth, and ran forward, engaging them before Setsu can say stop.



++++++



Eirin put the blood of the creature, now finally dead from blood loss; into a vial of blue liquid. This is a blood serum, mixed with human blood. She saw what she had wanted to see, and has remained uninterrupted for a good time, not even from Reisen. Inside, she worried, the rabbit may be in trouble but is too diligent to call out for her. Then again, she deducted the possible from the impossible list of things that can happen calculatively.


‘She is not that weak… surely a few of these cannot harm her.’ She deduced. However, inside her mind now swirled images of unsure, even she was not completely immune from these attackers, they are fast and violent, very volatile beasts.


She shook the serum vial in her hand, and saw the colors change. To the laymen, it looked like that and only that, liquids changing color. To her eyes, she saw that it was a powerful virus, capable of altering amino acids, genetic strains in mere seconds. Such a thing cannot possibly hope to exist in the natural world, the world won’t allow it. Though she can’t find no reason why it wouldn’t of course, but nature has a way of controlling its population. It has always been this way: ‘the ones that are lethal don’t last, the ones that last are never lethal.’ However, one that is both lethal, transmitted by blood, quick to infect and lasts till the whole of Japan was completely within its grasp? That is a new strain that did not observe any generic guidelines to any virus study. This is a deadly virus, capable of destroying entire capitals, even the moon itself.


She next took out a green vial, blood serum just as well, but with Lunarian blood.


She injected bits of blood from the Witch into the vial. She shook the vial, waiting.


It took a much longer time, around 20 seconds, but colors began to change, the Lunarian blood began to slowly rot to a brownish red color, and then quickening as the number of healthy cells soon degraded into infected blood. She looked, and gasped silently.


“Such… impossible…” She didn’t want to believe it but the truth is as bare as a naked child. The truth was dastard, dangerous to behold.


What would have happened? If the creatures spat their blood into a victim with open wounds, it is very much death for even one like her, had she not have the immortal power to regenerate, and reset her body to before any damage was caused into perfect order, she would have died.


She wondered how bad it would be?


What sort of new strains would the virus carry if it infected alien blood?


Then, from behind her, a bloodcurdling scream that pierced the air, she thought at first it was another one of these creatures; but then, she listened, and it belonged to Reisen.


“FUCK!” She shouted, and ran for that direction, abandoning her vials there and then as she readied her bow.



+++++++



It heaved and puffed, Marisa sidestepped, only to be swung aside but such massive force that her broom almost broke as she flew at least 10 feet away and hit her back against a tree.


“ArrrghhhH!!” She yelled out in pain, the rude awakening was as jolting as it is deadly. The power from just one swing, how can she have mistaken? She saw the thing approaching, it looked large and strong. She should have fired her Master Spark at it but no, she didn’t.


There is no way she can fight this thing.


The worse thing for her now is that she can’t fly as she normally would. She regretted for never learning how to fly without magic. She regretted it with much disgust in her veins.


The smashing powerhouse came again, the Tank, a large bulky creature probably around 10 feet tall, with so much muscle growth it resembled like a big thumb tack of a bulldozer, ramming all in its path into a distance. It yelled and roared, its voice muffled by the strain of the muscles must put on his arteries. The creature was no mere infected; it is a powerful one, the strongest of its kind.


She should have listened; Setsu may be safe now in a distance, what if one of those Panthers struck again? She would be carted away, or worse still they’d kill her on the spot. She reached for her pockets, and pulled out a spell card.


On the surface of the card are signs, ancient magic circles which glows in her hand in pink and sometimes orange light. It said on the surface ‘Magic Sign, Ultimate Shortwave’ and she chanted the name above the card and the runes associated with the spell.


The card glowed in response, and like an agile gymnast, she swung with her weight on the tree branch above her to do a back flip, only a blink of an eye before the creature before her rammed to where she was, knocking down the tree which she was stepping on.


Such great strength! “Declare!” She shouted, and the card evaporated from her hands into shiny balls of light, which she gathered and forced it downwards.


As she jumped off the branch, she landed on the creatures back. Thanks to its massive overgrowth, it could not reach above its back, obstructed by its muscular growth, Marisa placed her hand while maintaining just enough balance while standing on its back; she placed it to the above of its head.


“Take this!” She shouted, and a pump shotgun degree of magic power from the seven colored ball which she held inside fired like a bolt of lightning directly into its head. It howled in pain, eyes bulging and even jumped out from its sockets as it choked in its own blood and gurgling from it. For a long while it ran blindly, attacking every tree in sight while Marisa hangs as best as she could to the creature’s back. It was panicking, the pain shocked it so much but yet somehow, despite the amount of destructive light energy pumped directly into its brain, it has not died yet.


Without sight however, its blind rage can only hurt. It swung, and dug the ground and tore with it large patches of earth and rock, carting just above its chest and hurled at nothing in particular. It tried to grab its face, but not able as its arms are simply too bulky to such delicate movements.


“Just die already!” With enough power to break a skull, Marisa used her broom and slapped down on the creature’s already broken noggin, and grinded its way deep into its cracked skull. Something mushy was felt but Marisa was all too inclined not to think about it, God knows what she is doing to that creature’s delicate insides.


With a final and long faded out howl, the creature slumped. Like a tired dog, it crumpled to the ground, rousing dust and dirt, and sinking the earth with its massive weight downwards. It laid down, and flopped over, while Marisa jumped lightly off its back. Happy that she had took one down… normally, this would mean she failed to capture a card by one of her opponents in Gensokyo, but this time, she has genuinely killed her opponent with danmaku, and at zero range. She seems to remember this being called a ‘death graze’, literally translating to taking a chance and grazing death’s scythe by the neck.


She looked at a distance, Alice was nowhere in sight, but she could sense her into the forests. Nitori seemed to have finished the creature she was battling with, and is on the way quickly back to Setsu, who cowered on the ground helplessly, careful to make no noise for fear of the Panthers.


Marisa rushed over, but changed her mind...


Alice may need help. She ran with all her strength towards the dark and dense woods.


“Please be safe…” She prayed.


Alice is not normally the sort to fight such things.



++++


(Moments before)


“C’mon, c’mon!” Nitori taunted the creature before her towered over her like a solid moving mountain. Man would be engulfed by its very shadow, groups would be stunned by its massive form, and even the greatest machine-o-war that man can come up with would be dominated by its sheer magnitude. It howled, a massive roaring tone that is layered with deep baritone, shaking the ground and pounding its massive arms into the ground as it came to a full stop.


Then like an enraged bull, it kicked against the ground, sending dust flying into the air.  It charged at full speed and Nitori welcomed it, with arms poised in wrestling fashion.


She has seen her brethren do it before, long before she became a recluse due to her active interest in inventing strange machinery and science; she was one of the kids round the block. The Kappa community is a strange community, she reminded herself of her past. Their pastimes, of all the greatest nuisances they can cause, are to wrestle among themselves.


Despite their small frame, Kappa-kind has strength well beyond the tiny elastic arms of theirs, and can be rather desperate when denied of their fun. Her brethren, the really old ones, began with simple things, like pulling oxen into the river, drowning it and eating it later. Some who are violent resorted to dragging thrashing full grown human males into rivers. Some even challenged bears in hand to hand combat, but of course, nothing compares with what Nitori is attempting now.


She always loved a good challenge, and back in the younger days, she used to be the little wrestling princess of the block, she has never lost a round. She of all things, before her science and her tools, never backed out a fight and she isn’t going to do it now.


Like a readied wrestler, she moved forward, catching the massive thing’s arms as it swung in full strength to smash her. The Tank looked surprised, from its dumb face, its tongue spread out and made a ‘uh?’ sound. Then lifting it, it hoisted Nitori above its head, attempting to swing her away in desperate fashion. To it, it must be a new experience, to have something so tiny, a girl even, blocking its initial swing? Most of the humans it attacked must have been crashed by that sheer force.


To Nitori however, she realized, this thing is no stronger than a bear, at least by one arm’s swing. The area they are fighting in is still affected by conditions, she is near a forest and the open grounds here make it impossible to look behind its back due to its small head and non-existent neck oppressed by muscular growth.


There most of all, is gravity. Wrestlers, as her brethren in the region of the Holy Mountain, where the Yasaka Shrine now stands and is named Youkai Mountain instead; the old days saw the older generation of Kappa fought even Gods by standards. They fought great spirits, they fought moving giant grotesque beings that shouldn’t even exist, and won.


In terms of pure strength, she is no match, but where the brethren told her lessons in gravity; valuable lessons they were indeed. No giant thing with a body size like this can have efficient center of gravity, its torso too big, its arms too thick. Break its legs and it will swing its arms only in effective range. Break its foothold and the creature will be as helpless as a large moving lump, to which she can safely blow it apart in a distance with her arsenal of weapons, including a few explosives.


Back-flipping a round into the sky and then landing with her extended legs, Nitori restored her arms to obtain her full strength.


With a powerful lunge, her feet dug into the soil, pushing against it with all her might and she ran forward with her arms extended in clawed fashion. The Tank is slow to respond to her maneuver as turning about with its large frame is as slow as snail pace thanks to its inefficient built.


Arms wrapped around the right leg of the Tank, Nitori hauled with all her strength backwards, starving it of any balance left as it split due to its massive weight. Its hips collapsed; proving that Nitori’s strength is inherited from her ancestors and she is no weakling when it comes to hand to hand combat. It swung its massive arm backward, prompting itself to lose even more balance as it shifted its right foot forward and left foot back.


Quickly letting loose of the right leg, she turned about and thrust herself forward to the left leg, and the lunge she made was successful, immediately sending the giant tumbling with its last leg out of balance and falling sideways in surprised fashion. Its face was a grimacing scowl, staring back at Nitori angrily and confusedly, but there is little it can do beside flailing helplessly in the air during its fall.


Nitori zipped backwards, and like a wrestler in sportive fashion, she climbed to the back, and engaged in a backward reverse jointed lock move. The Tank had too much muscle to move its arm back to catch her, nor does its frame allowed it to conduct that move and before long it found its legs locked in criss-crossed fashion, The ankles which should face opposite sides are now locked in a hurtful reversed state, and in Nitori’s trained grasp, she pulled it backwards until the Tank’s underdeveloped spine sounded in crackling noises, indicating the pressure she placed upon sitting on the hip and pushing its hip bones to crush the lower spine.


Thanks to its underdeveloped growth, the lower body is no stronger than a normal human, maybe at best like that of a small bear’s density, and with a hurried twist and pull motion, Nitori heard what she wanted to hear. Her analytical mind helped much, deducing its oversized growth of the upper torso, calculating its weak points; the Tank reminded her of her worst inventions, uselessly propped upon standard sticks and bamboo, easily outweighed and outbalanced by the enormous weight gained above once installed. Using this knowledge, she effectively tricked it to enter a battle which it is most inefficient at: balance acting.


A crack and blood spurting out from its grey skin later, the Tank howled in massive pain, and thrashed in protest only to find itself digging the ground into pounded wet soil but nowhere free where it should be. Releasing its grip, Nitori traced her hands about the spine to where there used to be a neck behind the shoulder blades. She found it, but she knew the veins that matter lies underneath, behind the mass of muscle that protects it from blasts of power and impact from high areas.


Placing her finger to the back, she declared a spell with her right hand, “Kappa: Monster Cucumber!” Pushing her hand quickly to the spine, she stopped its useless thrashing immediately, and sent it into utter silence. She has done it right, and broke its upper spine which all living creatures, mutated or otherwise, relies to move thanks to connective nerves and veins to the brain. Force of several hundred non-precise lasers erupting from the palm of her hand pushed past the thick skin and muscles layer by layer, mercilessly piercing through the armored thickness and finding the inner sinews and tendons before also breaking them down. At such a distance, it won’t be any surprise before the weak lasers pierce through even the heart, and destroying all the arteries, veins and tissues from the inside.


Once broken, no living creature will not be rendered vegetable in state, no matter how strong the Tank is, it cannot move if its veins are severed and ruptured by internal danmaku. This, she learned well from observing a priceless battle between Eirin and a resident, an immortal of the Bamboo Forest in Gensokyo once a long time ago. In order to stop the immortal from moving, Eirin reached behind her in a surprise attack, placing her spell card, normally non-lethal at zero distance and stabbing the card into the back of her opponent’s spine.


She declared at such close range the impact from the spraying force which is typical of all magic spells immediately pierced into the skin of the immortal, forcing her to fall to the ground as her nerves and veins went into overload. Despite her quick healing ability, it was too late as immediately after, Eirin declared a large spell, a powerful focused shot of pure magic energy directed at that spot behind her opponent’s neck, and destroyed the link between its head and torso; severing all movement control from her downed opponent, whom is still stunned from the initial zero-range attack and was unable to turn around to face Eirin in desperation of a proper defense.


Wisdom comes to those who have aged and knows their battles as well as their own being. Eirin has lived long, and there is not one body part that she doesn’t grow all too familiar with; not one she knows is truly invulnerable.


Nitori smiled, and hopped off its back, seeing the dead creature now lying in a pool of its own foul stinking blood. She wiped the blood off, and looked at Marisa’s direction. There and then she saw a great blast of light, and like an exploding of seven colors, Marisa did what she did to the Tank. She destroyed the creature from the inside out, using the impact of danmaku fire. It was however, Marisa employed the use of a proper bomb spell, which is her newly made spell when she chased the Palanquin Ship in the skies nearly a year ago.


She has been very diligent it seems, Nitori noted the spell is visibly lesser obvious a spray of magic energy covering wide ranges, but now evolved into a focused spray in a short wave of colorful magic instead; hence its name, ‘Magic Shortwave.’ Marisa has indeed never been one to choose good names for her new spells, but they were brilliant spells nonetheless.


Nitori suddenly snapped back to attention, realizing the human girl, Setsu is alone.


While it took her a mere five minutes to settle the Tank on her own, those five minutes could have been a very lethal period for Setsu, who can get attacked from any direction. She turned back, and saw that Setsu cowered on the floor, tiny movements from her back; her breathing to be exact confirmed she is safe: she is however playing dead, hopefully to avoid the attention of any oncoming enemies.


“Smart girl.” Nitori praised silently and ran to her direction.


At the side of her eyes, she noticed Alice is gone and Marisa is heading to her direction, which is in the forests ahead, covered with lurking shadows.



++++++++



“Amazing, I hadn’t thought they have such caliber.” A voice spoke from above a tall mountain, overlooking the great Suwa Plains, where the magician Marisa, kappa Nitori, puppeteer Alice and the human girl is fighting for their lives against oncoming waves of brainless infected.


“Yes, wonderful, by the time tonight approaches, our beacons will call them all over, they would be swamped by then…” Another voice answered.


“Hachisaka, it was your idea to gather them here a week before, did you know they were coming?” The other voice asked.


“No, of course not, why would I lie to you?”


“You better not, remember, so long as we are in Lake Suwa and you have been defeated by me, you shall remain my servant; nothing more!” The other voice boomed loudly. Although it certainly is a voice belonging to a young female, the voice carried a menacing tone much unlike the surface of the character’s looks.


Slowly, from the shadows, a figure dressed in black, wearing a tall hat and not exceeding five feet tall appeared. She walked slowly out into the open, her black blouse seeming to reflect the light from the surface.


“Yes, Master…” The other voice answered, carrying a tone of disagreement and disdain.



+++++++




« Last Edit: October 02, 2009, 06:40:07 PM by 名無の妖精さん »
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Esifex

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #14 on: October 02, 2009, 04:27:36 PM »
Just pointing out; you have a very silly typo in the part where Nitori knocks the Tank off-balance. She caused it to 'love' more of its balance. :B

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #15 on: October 02, 2009, 06:37:42 PM »
fixed lol.


Ergh, as all my Touhouverse fics... I added an OC(s), The Panther.

I probably draw it in a few days, just to illustrate what I think would be a cool idea to add to the next L4D game (Not L4D2 obviously)

The Panther has no eyes, only ears, nose, and a large mouth which has a tongue that looks to be a giant venus flytrap.
Compensating the clumsiness of a Smoker, it can run fast like the Witch and stalk like the Hunter. Low HP, but quite hard to kill if your mouse sensitivity is too high, and near impossible to snipe.
It makes wheezing noises and responds to gunfire.

The reason for this setting is so that in the next L4D game hopefully, the silly 'you disturbed the witch' nonsense when you are firing like... 10 feet across without a muffler will get changed. I really find it silly consider she hates noise and getting disturbed, you can still pull an all out frenzy war in front of her and she won't even respond!

Silly. Then of course... likewise an OC, I just want the game to get more difficulty, (as though the Tank is not enough... when 2 of them appear together during escapes lol)
« Last Edit: October 02, 2009, 06:46:12 PM by 名無の妖精さん »
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[ Find my cosplay photos here. ] OMG I HAVE TUMBLR FOLLOW PLZX Will You Remember Me... ?

♛ Apher-Forte

  • Am I to go home...or shall I stay alone?
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #16 on: October 04, 2009, 02:19:35 PM »
Chapter 6:
________

(The forests, East of Great Suwa)


Night is coming and evening was quick to approach. Was it the sense of time or was it the cloudy skies above, she wondered, Alice questioned her dolls silently through telepathy. They each have a soul of their own, much like real humans, the dolls are capable of feeling emotions just as she can, but they have more control, and are generally her own ?slaves? to control as she wishes.


Occasionally, the dolls can stage a rebellion of sorts, when her magic is weak for example; like now. In a time and place when the air is not filled like Gensokyo: to the brim with magic, she finds it extra hard to control the dolls, despite their small frames. They have to be in constant contact, she has to order them to do things that are more complex, like turning ?45 degrees north? or ?retract blade? and ?left evade? as the Tank swung its arms at the small little dolls.


However, of all things that troubled her most is her intention to save her magic, it is not a feasible to choice to simply just fire off valuable magic when there is no source to replenish it in this world devoid of humans and their imaginations.


Imagination of mankind created the first youkai, the spirits, the souls, even Gods and demons and then even hell itself, was all made by man. Man?s mind is capable of coloring the lives of the non-existent; just as their fear is capable of feeding the rotten shadows that lurk precariously in the dark, seeking its prey which is man itself.


Alice pondered, but realized there is not much choice. To defeat an enemy that is as large, the only solution would be a weapon just as powerful.


?Do not tempt me? foul creature!? Alice commanded the dolls to strike, their oversized lances attached to their arms in a comically disproportionate scale stabbing clean and through the armored flesh of the Tank that engaged her.


In these forests, she sought to control the speed of battle and the tide in which the battle flows by using the surroundings. However, she can only see so many trees, their shadows which lurk menacingly with unknown things possible surrounding her. She heard horrible screams, howls, they seemed ready to pounce but has thus far be evaded by her as she scrambled around randomly, hiding behind logs and trunks and branches.


However, she already had a plan, she eyed her dolls carefully as they let go of their lances and began to fly quickly hovering and sliding in and out between shadowy trees around them. Small reflections of light from above could be seen in split seconds as they tightened the wires magically attached to their backs.


Although humans cannot see them, magic users like Marisa can view them clearly as the lines are purely made of magic thinly created through the usage of concentration. Concentrating energy into fine wires is no mere task for any magic user and had not she been trained to do so since young, the lines would break easily.


Quietly, she looked, the deafening sound of trees being knocked over, pounded against as the relentless Tank sought to pull her out from the labyrinth of the woods struggled hard to do so but to no avail except getting itself caught in a web.


The web was none other than the one Alice?s dolls, Shanghai and Hourai, her sword and shield weaved about the Tank craftily. As they whizzed in and out of the trees shadows, they tied the invisible wires to the trees with tungsten hold, and formed a web with their movements intricately.


The Tank stumbled, and tripped on a particular wire, strung just low enough to touch its shin, and off did it fell forward face first. The net woven was quick to set its use, with absolute hold, the creature entangled itself into a spidery web about itself. The wires glowed, and it struggled even more, feeling the intense magical heat of the wires cutting through its armored hide like heated serrated blades of such fineness it looked invisible to the naked eye. Within moments, blood shot out from the struggling, it puffed and huffed like mad, the damage to it barely but enough to cause panic as it raged even more.


Swinging hard its massive arms, it knocked down a few trees against its direction, only to cause an opposite effects as the trees falling down also pulled the wires tighter against its body. With the wires getting hotter and hotter with magical heat invested into it, it became clear to the Tank that there was no escape from this intricate web. With one command, ?Be silent, foul beast!? and lo, did the wires, sharp as the sharpest knives set upon a string, cut through the creature like it were a loaf of bread. The wires sliced with such precision within moments the skin was no more, and passed beyond is just fleshy muscle, easily sliced through and immediately sprayed out blood by gratuitous amounts as the forest clearing took it apart in all directions.


The last howl was met, and the creature silenced, no longer feelings torso.


?Whoa?that is a neat trick~ze!? Marisa, obviously finished her side of the problem earlier, approached.


Alice had to smile, it wasn?t normally that she feels so confident, though she normally is confident by nature. This is a new milestone. She has defeated countless creatures of such size before, but they were much more reliant on other means, such as shooting magical projectiles from a distance. However, something physical means she will need to get physical as well. While true that she could have fired things at it, in an expanse as wide as the Suwa region, and not having a point of replenishment of magic, that would have been a strategy of unwise choice.


She looked back, and said to Marisa smugly, ?Looks like I won the bet.?


?What bet?? Marisa asked.


?The one you said three days ago I can?t swipe a youkai three times larger than myself without relying on you.?


?Oh, that?? Marisa nodded, and had to admit it, it was a surprise even to her.



+++++++



?That was the last one.? The voice said, ?Incredibly confident aren?t they? Competent as well.?


?I will have them by the palms by tonight, they will pray for mercy, and when they do, we would win.? Hachisaka said from behind, she stood bowed down, head facing the ground.


? Make sure you do it well? I tolerate no failure on your part.? The other voice, belonging to a five feet tall little girl with even younger features and a smile across her darkened face; came out loud and clear, threatening even.


?I shall move, I will free them from their cages.?


?What are our chances??


?High.? Hachisaka answered, and departed into the shadows.


Soon, all this will be over.




++++++++



?Ahhhh? I hate small towns.? Reimu complained, loudly sighing as she placed her hands crossed behind her head of hair, rustling and tousled it about.


?Is there something you don?t hate?? Yukari answered sarcastically.


She stopped, eyeing at a corpse of one of the infected, a body already cold, rotting with flies about it festering upon its decayed flesh.


?Oh yes, I like donations.?


?Yeah, you do.? Yukari answered half-heartedly. She placed her hands onto one of the corpses, this one resembling the ugly one she had cut down earlier at the shrine, except it was bloated. The upper body remains, but the lower body is across the road, hanging limply and bloodily at a garbage collection site. She touched its remains, which were oozing out greenish vile liquid thick as glue and stank like the bile of a creature filled with indigestion before it died.


?Ewwww?.don?t let that stop you from smearing it all over yourself? ugh.? Reimu looked from behind with disgust.


Yukari however, seemed to understand what is going on, her eyes looked seriously at the gunk between her fingers. Slowly she stood up, and asked, ?What do you think is happening here??


Without warning and without waiting for an answer, she turned and smeared the gunk, stinking as hell should be, onto the top of Reimu?s breast, pressing it further as a flabbergasted Reimu looked slow to response from this offensive gesture and watched her smearing it clean off her own two fingers.


She quickly pushed her hands away, shouting, ?AWWWWWGGGHHH?what the fuck, Yukari?? Again, using her seemingly useless sleeves, she wiped the gunk off, offended, dirtied, embarrassed are among the few emotions written on her face as she turned to attention the question asked earlier, ?What??


?They are being manipulated? I don?t know how, but this gunk smelled different from the earlier ones we saw? this? is something else.?


?How would you know??


?My sense of smell isn?t as dull as yours, Reimu.? Yukari answered sarcastically.


?What else??


?I have a feeling someone is watching us? I don?t know why, but since coming here, I sensed another foreign presence, it is spiritual.?


?Could it be the shrine god earlier in that shrine that looks abandoned?? Reimu asked, she herself felt nothing.


?No, this one is evil, it smelled like that.?


They moved further, and into the deeper part of town. The stink was overpowering as they stepped to an opening. On a normal day, with people who are alive passing through this would have been a lively marketplace, where the locals would bargain their prices with the shopkeepers selling various fresh produce and food, among other things. This day, however, it was littered with decaying bodies, dismembered limbs and broken pipes as well as severed wires. Silent humming can be heard in the air as the shop generators continue their work to supply the non-functional stalls with electricity, there must be little fuel left; Yukari thought to herself, whoever was here could still be alive, somewhere, hiding.


?Is there anyone here??? Reimu yelled, the voice shook the silence into a shattered peace, and footsteps were heard, rushing.


?Damn it.? Yukari cursed, she is not angry with what Reimu did, it is just that she is frustrated. Footsteps, not belonging to people who are alive clearly. Anyone alive would have been cautious, and not run to the voice like flies attracted to dung.


?I will handle this.? Reimu offered, it is her voice which attracted them, surely she will be the solution to their problem.


At least 40 of them appeared, rushing like bats released for hell for the first time in years, hungry, angry faces that looked as grey as the dead, which they are and hands extended in clawed form; they are attacking from all sides.


Pulling out some yellow and rectangular paper about a 20 centimeters in length each and about 7-8 centimeters wide respectively, Reimu held them fanned out. With a muttering of the cryptic writings in Kanji calligraphy on the surface in blood red ink, she made the fanned out papers form into tungsten and weightless blades each as they each stacked upon one another to the width?s edge; gluing magically into a fanned blade as thick as only paper, but tougher than steel.


Putting some distance between her, she began to dance like a butterfly over the flowering fields, evading skillfully from the clumsy attacks of the hordes and their stinking grasp. None can even touch her as she floated her arms about with such finesse it seemed she was immaterial to begin with.

The steel-like talisman papers in her hands fanned out and did their work, swiftly cutting off limbs and chopping off heads gracefully with their specially toughened texture and sharpened edges like that of samurai blades. Within moments, the dead were sent spiraling in defeat, completely sliced off their limbs without any mercy, and cut from their suffering as they enter into a deep and forever sleep, covered by their own blood.


Reimu made sure to hold her breath, no way she will be caught smelling such foul blood. Each of the creatures when cut produce a distinctively rotten smell that is like the odor of dead bodies, with something else, possibly the mutated strain of virus and bacterial infection in their blood.


None of them are left alive as they all collapsed, and Reimu stopped her dance, holding her pose in such swan-like elegance as she looked at her handiwork. Seriously, Yukari thought, had she not been such a prude, narcissist above all else, she would have been a lovely lady. ?Is that all?? Reimu looked, she had been merciless, it is amazing to Yukari consider these look everything like humans save for their maddened eyes, and grey skin.


Her ability to turn her focused attention to divide between enemies and foes is something the kinder Marisa does not have. Her desire to destroy youkai, when invoked, even if the said youkai looks exactly like her mother; won?t stop driving her until it is dead, a dedication so strong and so focused that is the reason why she is good at what she does. Reimu is merciless, her body may be human, but she has a heart and mind like a celestial. She slays all that is against her, and those that dared to touch her is met with blades from her body. No? to be precise, Yukari thought to herself again, she is the very blade itself. If Yukari is the creator of Gensokyo, then Reimu and the Hakureis, would be the Blade of Gensokyo, the bane against all evil.


They continued to walk, and Reimu lowered her hands, allowing the bloodied papers return back to their paper form, and slip off from under her arms. They floated, and then dropped to the ground as though they are nothing.


?You said something earlier about a presence?? Reimu suddenly spoke, catching Yukari unawares.


?Ah? yes, I did.? Yukari paused, ?It reminded of a very old scent, something from very old youkai, a stink. I don?t know, but it smells like that and it means we are near the vicinity of a ?home? which houses and enshrines a youkai Kami.? Yukari explained.


?Youkai Kami? hmmm, haven?t heard about that since Mother?s time, I heard they are all but extinct since the new age dawned.?


?It is not strange, most Kami evolved from lowly beings, they attained enlightenment and thus stayed alive long enough to bear the mark of holy energy; and thus, grow from their original being to something greater. Some strayed from their path and became evil youkai, or became demons if they are strong willed and ate enough human fears. Others, attained Kami status through meditation and helping local gods and humans.? Yukari said in detail.


?Then some, from Kami, they devolved, fearing faith being lacking, they choose to follow the path of evil, and became rather estranged from their original path. They began to consume fear as well as faith, and corrupting themselves instead.? Reimu added, as a shrinemaiden it is only natural she should have such knowledge.


?Oh?I see then I have no need to introduce myself.? A voice suddenly boomed from nowhere, and like a freak wind, the air was filled with unnatural energy, both evil and divine at the same time.


?Who??? Reimu raised her awareness, once again, papers slipped out from under her sleeves, forming into hardened paper fans as she stood ready. The presence that spoke is everywhere, as if it were the air that she breathes that was suddenly speaking out to her.


?Show yourself!? Yukari commanded. ?This one is strong.? She thought to herself.


?Of course??


From nowhere, another hail of wind appeared, stirring up the dead bodies and casting them to the sides like they were thrash, and dust formed a tornado in the dead center of the marketplace. Once where was nothing but broken tiles and bent streetlamps, now stood a figure of small size and another one which had the looks of something entirely familiar to Yukari and Reimu.


?Wait?Suwako? And Kanako!? Reimu exclaimed.


How can this be? The two goddesses of Gensokyo, recent residents who moved in to the sealed dimension, staring back at them from behind a curtain of dust and wind so strong that it blurred all possible vision from the two.


The smaller one had on a similar hat, wears a black dress with long floppy sleeves and is the same size. The taller one had on a set of holy ropes and charcoal black pillars of what appears to be wood stemmed from the center of her back like holy edifices floating in thin air. Her eyes stared red and gold from the dusty storm and soon? the wind settled and vision was regained once more.


?You have that wrong?dear visitors of the Gensokyo realm.?


?You know us?? Yukari asked, she is certain the other voice did not belong to Kanako, it was too deep, it sounded almost masculine, except the husky bits sounded more to the female side.


?Greetings? I am Kanako Hachisaka, Mistress of the Suwa Mountains, and this?? Hachisaka stopped, seeing as the smaller one walked confidently up ahead and introduced herself, ?Kowasu Moriya, the God of the Moriya Shrine, at your service.? She said mockingly.


?Kowasu?? Hachisaka?? Reimu was troubled, aren?t they just the Goddesses of Gensokyo, disguised as someone else?


The smaller one wore black, even her hat was black and the eyes on each side of the tip is red and bloodshot. She looked exactly like Suwako, save for the sinister smile which seems to permeate evil from her character.


The taller one, the one called Hachisaka, which the name itself a play on Yasaka, written the same way but pronounced differently; looks exactly like Kanako. She had however, longer hair down to her back, and eyes that are white, with a black iris that stared eerily back in total silence as though she could stare into one?s soul and reap it straight from its mortal shell.


?You may be confusing us with the deserters.? Hachisaka said.


?Ah, yes, little sister, Suwako? I heard she has moved to Gensokyo.? Kowasu began, ?Thanks to that, we can finally be awaken from our thousand year slumber.?


?What is the meaning of this?? Yukari asked hastily.


?Patience, allow me first to explain? but we should not stand here and talk, how about we take a seat over there?? Kowasu offered, pointing to a deserted stall which probably sold tea and snacks when it was still in business. A parasol is still up, although the dark skies were making it unnecessary; but most importantly is a table and four chairs.


?Right?? Yukari agreed.


They moved warily to the stall.


The tension in the air is stifling.



+++++++++



(Eirin?s position)


?REISEN!? She searched, her trail of youkai energy has led her here, hidden in the shrubs ahead where the creatures, the screaming women with grey skin and sharp claws came from.


There is silence, the trail has gone cold.


No movement, not even the wind around her. It was as though time stopped, but she is breathing, so no way time could have stopped. ?Reisen??? She sounded, silently this time, like a whisper only she could hear.


There is an air of menacing death around her, the smell of decay, growing stronger and stronger?


?Who?s there? Show yourself!? Eirin commanded.


The bushes parted, and suddenly, like a torrid wave of green muck, a gurgle followed by a loud rush of foul steaming green liquid came bursting through it from the mouth of a bloated creature with beady little white eyes. It has skin that is nearly green, possibly from the stains of its vomit, and its bloated stomach so stuffed it couldn?t even keep its hands on vertical to the sides of its body, having it raised slightly as it fumbled its way to the opening.


Eirin tried to turn about, seeing the foul liquid reach for her the second. However, a stone stood in the way, taking a careless turn, her heel knocked against a small rock and down she did tripped. Her hands flailed a bit, but recovered as quickly as she pushed to the ground and did a single handed somersault.


It was, however, too late, the liquid touched her legs as it flipped upwards, scalding her skin as the acidic volatility took her by surprise. ?Shit!? She cursed, and quickly forced her focus to that part, healing it before it could reach her bones and tendons, which are necessary to support her weight.


Within a moment, the morbid creature came forward, fumbling quickly in unstable baby steps and reaching its menacing pudgy fingers for her hair. With one angry shove, Eirin used her bow to shove the creature back. It worked, naturally, and the fumbling blob of walking vileness broke its balance as it knocked itself against a tree and tripped over the bushes it came from.


?Die!? Shooting a precise arrow, Eirin used her medical knowledge and calculated the possibilities of shooting the best place. She took it as a sign and aimed for its stomach, which as the arrow shot and came in contact, immediately destroyed the creature into explosive skin and tissue.


Eirin made a ?yeck? sound, truly an offensive creature, she thought to herself. However, the back of her mind, she worried? it couldn?t be, such a simple creature, a surprise element perhaps, but no way Reisen could lose to this one!


Then? suddenly, from the sides of her eyes, as she wiped off the bile which is acidic no longer, perhaps from her neutralization with her regenerative ability as an immortal; she saw it. Hanging by a tree, a large something, possibly feminine in nature with its slender built? Reisen.


?Reisen!? She shot the thing hanging the rabbit girl?s neck, which is like a noose, and attached along to unseen things in the dark. Her eyes darkened, and closed to a slit as she took precise aim.


With one excellent shot, the thing acting as a noose snapped, and down did the girl fell to the bushes ahead, which are stained with blood, bile and dirt that smells as bad as an overturned grave.


?Reisen! Wake up, respond to me if you are alive!? Eirin shook her, and there was no response.


With her hands resting the bow she held by the side, Eirin checked for a pulse, pulling aside Reisen?s lush purplish hair and parting the semi-torn fabric that was once her blazer and inner white shirt; she saw what would surprise her.


?No?.oh no?? The gash was wide open, sunk down as deeply as to the collar bones, it wasn?t all that visible in the poor light and covered with Reisen?s deep blue blazer, but the gash was there. It was there probably for a good few minutes, enough time for Reisen to be infected. Is that why she didn?t respond? Eirin wondered, and she reached for her pockets, and pulled out a syringe with clear liquid, filled inside is a clearing Lunarian medicine, used to clear blood of any impure waste. It was no substitute for a blood serum however, but it should slow the virus down with its anti-viral properties.


She pushed the syringe tip to her neck, only to respond in revolting shock as Reisen suddenly open her eyes, its maddening vision which is her default ability stared at her straight. Snapping her eyelids shut, Eirin pushed her away as quickly as she can.


?Ugh, Reisen if you are alive then stop scaring me!? Eirin said, slowly opening her eyes, making sure to take a peek if Reisen has closed her eyes before she fully opened them; what she found was not that however, they were opened, and staring at her with such ferocious anger within it looked like she was ready to kill Eirin.


It doesn?t take a medical genius to guess what has happened: Reisen has been infected.


?Damn it, you have always been so careless?? Eirin readied her bow, magically now returned to her hand and took aim between Reisen?s eyebrows.


?Damn it all?? Eirin let go of the light arrow held in her hands.



++++++



(Back at the town market place)


?It seems we are ill prepared with any condiments.? Kowasu, the Suwako opposite, spoke in a gleeful tone, ?My apologies.?


?Enough with this play, what do you want??? Reimu asked, not withstanding is her anger as she gritted the words through her teeth.


?Don?t you want to know why there are now two Suwakos and two Kanakos?? Kowasu asked, obviously amused by the anger shown at her and to her.


?Speak, but don?t waste our time.? Yukari answered, reaching her hand and grabbing Reimu?s shoulders as she stood behind her, gripping it tight to give Reimu the message, ?don?t do anything rash? as clearly as she can.


?We can begin this in two ways.?


?Whichever is easier for you then.? Reimu said in answer.


?Then I will do this in relaxed fashion.? Kowasu said, smiling this time, again with her sinister tone of voice that seemed to resonate the air around her.


Yukari may not be a Kami, or a demon, but to the feeling of her senses, Kowasu resembled a great demon she fought once a long time ago, the fact she carries a scent like Ran, her divine fox turned shikigami servant, this Kowasu Moriya puts her at unease.


Of course, it is not like she is a divine fox, or divine for that matter, surely there is nothing up those long sleeves now that she couldn?t manage now, can?t she? After all, Yukari is Yukari, Yukari is a demon that transpires the boundaries of Gods and Demons, beyond time and dimension, breaking all rules and making her own.


When it comes to godly ranking, surely she ranks high above all the Kamis that ever existed, she herself has slain a fair number of them anyways? this Kowasu would be no different.


Or does she?




_______


Suprising turn of events! The enemies reveal themselves... a negative Suwako Moriya and Kanako... what is being held in store for Reimu and Yukari?


(Also, lol Bill and Francis moment)
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Esifex

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #17 on: October 05, 2009, 01:02:57 AM »
Quote
?Ahhhh? I hate small towns.? Reimu complained, loudly sighing as she placed her hands crossed behind her head of hair, rustling and tousled it about.


?Is there something you don?t hate?? Yukari answered sarcastically.

...

(Also, lol Bill and Francis moment)

I love you.



Please have my babies.

♛ Apher-Forte

  • Am I to go home...or shall I stay alone?
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  • Forever lost at sea, a distant bell rings for me
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #18 on: October 06, 2009, 12:25:15 PM »
Chapter 7

________


?There?s nothing here!? Nitori yelled to no one in particular. The patch of ground was razed beyond any remembrance of its past glory, not even the temple grounds are safe, rather, entirely rooted from it.


?Are you sure this is where Reimu and Yukari wanted us to be, Marisa?? Alice asked, her tone suspicious, and hidden anger within. It is just not her day? First, she had to face off a large bulky creature that tried to smash her with limited magic, then she is taken on a flight journey she really could do without, hauling Setsu and Marisa with her dolls, which wasted even more magic. Finally, she is here, the ?promised land? that she was asked to follow.


Nitori had it easy, she thought to herself. She relied on another contraption: her bag. It was surprising what an agile scientific mind can do; when the backpack grew short mechanical rickety legs she could hardly believe her eyes. It looked like a walking platform, which indeed it is when unfolded. It had a cushion, and even a cup holder and some tea making facilities. It skittered along the way quickly, like a deformed bug it was quick and didn?t have much trouble keeping up with Alice flying overhead, as both the eyes in the skies and as carrier of the other two cumbersome humans she took on upon.


She didn?t ask for any, seeing that Nitori has set it back to its original shape which was a backpack. She opened it from the back, which had a small pocket, and revealed what appears to be a grappler of sorts, with two massive fingers, and the other end a tong.


The fingers opened, revealing even smaller fingers that looked almost like thickened hair which moved in eerily bio-mechanical movements, as though they were alive. They reached for the ground, which is covered in dark ash, like the surrounding forests, which were burned beyond recognition save for a few charred stumps of roots and burned barks. Still, it was relatively easy to tell this is the work of a youkai? a rather powerful one, quite recent in fact, Alice noted.


The magma, molten rock which when cooled will become, covers the entire ground like a blanket of soft bulges and liquid surfaces. The air is rich with sodium and calcium deposits, and electricity seemed to charge the air. Whatever happened was an act of revenge, perhaps, or perhaps not and just an act of destruction. However, why choose this shrine site?


There it was, a few standing pillars of wood, formerly a great shrine. It must have stood majestically in this empty path for a few hundred years. It was one of the 3 former old shrines of Great Suwa. Beyond this, Greater Suwa is an advancing little town, growing to become a big town which had tens of thousands of in population. Great Suwa is abandoned by man as it becomes overgrown by old legends and myths, talks of lake monsters and demons and ghosts didn?t exactly help its popularity campaign either.


When the day rose, the people of the village would go to the paddy fields, and work themselves to endless tire for the good of their people. The shopkeepers would take the goods from their storehouses and peddle to the town. The butchers would slay their animals and trim them to suitable cuts for sale at the wet market. The women would accompany their children and play in the evening? the peaceful, simple, everyday repetitive comfort; it was bliss that the townspeople didn?t appreciate.


It is only true of course, townspeople wanted convenience, the sustenance of electricity which the village did not have, the comfort of reading material, books, markets that are installed with air condition, schools with classrooms giving out modern and much needed knowledge. The village had but old traditions passed down from hundreds of years of Great Suwa?s history. It is an outdated world, negotiating its place in the world lead by modern sciences and fashion? it was so bare, too bare.


The people who lost their faith didn?t need to fear Gods, to them, they didn?t exist. The old Gods have left them first, like they did in the beginning of time. The shrines then in Great Suwa, the great 3 which was once the place of holy worship by all the people became abandoned, only visited by old timers who didn?t have anything better to do except take long strolls in the evenings in obscure under-maintained parks, and stare hazily into a distance with whatever subject that must dominate their thoughts in all focus; even if it is just looking at what shapes the cloud formed in the distant skies.


This is the sad route of modernization, even Suwa is not exempted from it.


The pace it goes just transverse beyond the walls of Suwa, and yet, with some semblance of tradition, the old ones kept the Suwa lake and the town in total order, seeking some measure of peace away from the fast moving world around them. It was, of course, to no use, for when they grow old, so do their faith dwindle as their minds are clouded with death, loneliness and most of all senility. Soon, time passed, and did the Great Suwa grew with wondrous trees as old and overgrown with grass as tall as man, the sun gets blocked in its shadowy path. Where once a path existed for villagers and townsmen to travel was replaced with another, a paved road of tarmac, with streetlights and the convenience of a sleepy looking police hut with an officer inside at all times overseeing the peace and safety. The village path, made of mud, and covered with grass, that sinks into a muddy heap when rained; is no more.


No one comes to Suwa after that, Greater Suwa is the new place to be. The children grew up there, and moved on, to other places greater than Greater Suwa, where abundance of cars, trains, jobs, education existed.


This shrine, one of the great three that existed in the past, tells that tale truthfully. Though it lines in ruins now, it was a clear and without lies.


Alice looked, placing her hand on the magma ground, picking up some ash in her hands.


?Well?? Alice asked, there was no answer from Marisa the first time she asked her question.


?Yes, it has to be? this is where Suwako was housed. This is HER shrine.?

?WHAT?? Alice and Nitori jumped up, how did Marisa failed to explain this on the way?


?I didn?t tell you guys?? Marisa questioned.


?No, you didn?t.?


?Well, now you know, to the West is the Shrine of the Heavenly Serpent, Kanako?s shrine. To the East is Suwako?s the Divine Frog; and then finally to the South is the Fire Worm Shrine, the resident Goddess that started the village.? Marisa explained.


?And how did you managed to avoid telling us this?? Nitori asked. She looked at her sample of the molten rock she pinched about earlier.


?It is not my fault you didn?t ask~ze!? Marisa pouted.


?Nonetheless, what is all this now? What is our situation?? Nitori asked.


?We already confirmed it, it is gone now, whatever along with the energy it contained and the shrine itself. No point staying any longer, we should move to the town, and rendezvous with Reimu and Yukari.? Marisa said in answer.


?You are right? but look at this!? Nitori pointed to the rock she is holding, which is now cracked into four pieces of distinctive sizes. It was glowing with black shine, and the minerals inside felt like crystals sparkling back in the poor light.


?It is shiny?? Alice whispered.


?Oh, it is? you know why?? Nitori asked smugly.


?Magic??? Marisa half-heartedly answered. The night is coming, evening is getting darker now and it seemed unwise to hang about. They must have started late, it should be around 5 hours after the midday when they took their first steps to the area of Suwa Plains.


?Oh yes, that is the case, these molten surfaces are not natural, there are no volcanoes, whatever that happened here is however? something divine. It is a natural mineral that exists in all things, but sharpened with enough density that it glows, one can say? diamond.? Nitori explained.


?Diamond? On surface ground??


?Oh yes, it is pure undiluted diamond, formed from the oozing of molten rock from deep earth, or in this case, oozing molten rock from nowhere, fascinating isn?t it??


?What does that tell us??


?We are facing an enemy, all those creatures that attacked us? They have something to do with this? their bodies are filled with so much poison and changed strains, there can be nothing else than some kind of connection. When the earth moved, in the beginning when heaven and hell was divided and humans came, thus creating the subsequent youkai and Kamis, this is what it was? the fundamental building blocks of life. There existed then the same inner creatures that live inside on such microscopic levels, altering all forms of life on earth, yes? inside my hands now.? Nitori looked at the rock with fascinated eyes in undivided attention as she explained.


?I believe that is called bacteria.? Marisa added.


?Yes, you have done your homework.? Nitori paused, and throwing the black pieces out of the way, she looked at Alice and Marisa, ?They are the first sign of life on earth, believe or not, if mankind is made from light then this is the essence of said light? this is a fundamental power that exist in nature. The deep sea heat that warmed the oceans, the sunlight the covers the land, the earth from which trees grew on, the erupting mountains that created lands through molten rocks for thousands of years? it was all an evolutionary process, a progress chart can always be traced to its roots: this is it.? Nitori stopped.


?You are saying we are facing a God, a God that created man??


?Not precisely, but an avatar of it maybe. It has the same powers as the fundamental element of Earth, and the control of it to an extension that it can control what sort of other minerals, ores, and such flow from it. It is a walking factory of ?creation essence? if I may imply crudely.? Nitori ended.


?You are implying also that it is directly responsible for the creatures that attacked us??? Alice got around to asking.


?I don?t know the answer to that, but think about it, if you can alter the food that people eat for hundreds of years, the grass that the cows graze upon, the minerals that flow in the waterfalls and down to the rivers and then into the resource captures that mankind used to process other items they needed to consume? what can you NOT do?? Nitori?s deduction fiercely hit the point, and Alice?s eyes opened wide as she tried to comprehend.


?Then we must waste no time getting to Reimu and Yukari!? Marisa yelled.


?Can you call those things we rode here?? Alice asked, referring to the bikes that they left in a long distance behind, due to the noise they made.


?Unfortunately, the flying mechanism is for emergency purpose only, I am afraid we missed our opportunity to use that now and again.? Nitori looked and said, pointing to the bikes that still seemed visible down by the mountain plains, now surrounded by infected humans, groggily doing whatever it is they do.


?Look, they are moving!? Marisa pointed, some of them even began to run.


?They are heading? South!?


?Reimu!? Marisa yelled.


She hopped onto her broom, and placed her Hakkero at the back of the broom which floated magically at the sweeper?s tips.


?I thought you can?t fly?? Alice asked, bewildered.


?I can push for an injected path, Nitori, help me here!?


?Five degrees more to the your right?? Nitori said, looking at a compass of sorts. She knows exactly where the town is with the thing in her hands that has a needle pointing southwards.


Time is short? Alice had no time to complain. She hopped to Marisa?s back, and Nitori held on to Setsu?s hands, who remained unusually silent all this time as they talked about the rock samples and enemy?s true identity.



?Love Sign: Master Spark!? And off, did a great pillar of laser light went off like a rocket launching at ground zero, blasting whatever remains of the shrine into dust as they took off in the direction of Reimu and Yukari?s bearings.


A warning may already be too late?



++++++



(The Town)



?Do you know that Okami* don?t die?? Kowasu, the negative version of Suwako asked in a deep toned voice. (note: Okami is ?Elder God/Bigger God?)


?Yeah?? Reimu answered uncertainly, truth to be said, she hasn?t know one that did die either. Gods have no business dying.


?Then you should know my story.?


?Perhaps if you start talking?? Reimu mocked.


?As you know, I am Kowasu, and I am a God. God of the Moreya Lands, perhaps once a long time ago, when the Moreya Lands, this Suwa Region itself was known as the Kaminozawa, literally translating to God?s Stream.? Kowasu began, ?In many eons before I took this shape and form, I am a divine toad. I lived here and all my life I was the great hunter and I helped mankind achieve their peace in my own little world beneath the well that is Suwa.?


?You speak in such enigmatic circles? what are you, some book writing fool?? Reimu mocked again.


?Patience, listen to what I have to say? for only then you may know which God you truly wanted to worship? believe me, I have no ill will to turn you into one of those horrible gurgling mindless zombies, I want you to be my priest!?


?I am sorry, I already have a God I house, I house the Hakurei God, and it has been for that many generations I don?t think I am about to break that age old tradition.? Reimu said.


?Like I said, you should ponder only after listening to my tale.? Kowasu smiled.




+++++


?In the beginning, I was a toad, and did I become a youkai when I reached my 30th year as an old toad. I was ready to die at some point, fully feeling death in my veins and understood that I have served my great duty.?


?I knew I was different, I was self aware? but I also knew I was no different from all my brethren, who spend their days croaking and eating flies. Come the season when the bugs are most notorious, I would go to the fields and eat the crop destroyers that plagued the land and the humans who rely on farming to sustain their lives. During May, I would follow into the homes of people and consume their pests which lurk in their walls and torment their children. I am a heroic toad, I hate to boast, but I was.?


?It was exactly 2100 years ago, in this Suwa itself, a light descended upon me upon taking my surely last breath. I was again reborn, and my self-consciousness elevated to a level completely anew, with which I was born into a giant toad, a youkai toad with a stomach that can fill all the pests that the seasons bring. I had no other specialties of course, at the time, I was young. I learned much later, nearly a year after, that I have become a youkai, and my duty was the same as when I am a normal toad.?


?So I lurked in the shadows of old Suwa, encountering troubling humans in the dark forests, and they learned of me. It took several years, but as my influence grew and my contributions greater, and the humans who have their houses free of any infecting diseases and common pests, I was worshipped.?


?The older generation was most respectful, and the shrine priests, a Shinto priest from the region of Kyuushu, travelled all the way to build a shrine here for me. It was located in the center of the Suwa Lake, which is rightfully my place. I was enshrined as a Jizou, and that I did become, a Toad Jizou, similar or equal to that of a Kami.?


?In the beginning, it was horrible, I wasn?t used to feeding on the faith of mankind, but they did worship me anyway. I was before this just a toad after all, I fed myself with bugs and pests, I wasn?t used to eating faith alone as sustenance and my hunger has more than a few times turned me violent. However, the locals were faithful, their children as well, and the Priest, who built my shrine was patient. Not only did he enshrine me, he gave me a name, called me Kowasu, and gave a family called Moreya, the local village head?s own child my reign. They became my immediate family and the shrine was theirs to care for, as is my life and I became their pet God.?


?Faith soon became my only sustenance, and besides keeping the pests and bugs away from the crops before harvest, I was a nature God, and was blessed with the ability to control Earth. Yes, everything is earth related; the soil for which plants must grew from, the soil from which humans harvest their paddies, the water which flows over to irrigate the fields, and the mountain stream from which humans took water from as the cornerstone of each and every civilization? It was all within my control. I regulated it so that mankind would have the clearest liquid to drink, I moderated so that the irrigated fields would have so many minerals the paddies would grow healthy and robust, so that when comes harvest; man would have a surplus to feed his family in winter cold. I am the God of wellbeing; I cared for every soul that comes to me.?


?Even the children, occasionally they would come to me to pray for good fortune, they wished for toys, and I would talk with the village head and ask that he talk to the parents in my steed. I feel fulfilled as I was both protector and helper. I was doing the work of the Gods, as one myself, I am proud of what I am.?


?However, like all Jizou, I am a mere local God. Time and again, the foreign ones would come and attack me, because this is the time of being the Brightened Age, a time when Youkai Kami, Kamis of the Yamato* whom are jealous of me and even the Okamis would come for me, they wanted abundance, which I have in my guard. I protected the villagers as best as I can? and occasionally, despite being a Kami, I am capable of mistakes. I have lost a fair share of believers because of my existence alone.?


(*Yamato Kami: the name given to the 8 billion different gods.)


?Faith is fickle, but yet it is strong? while the old ones kept their faith, it was clear the newer generation didn?t feel the same, they are threatened by my fearsome look, I was a giant red eyed deep grey skinned toad after all, it wasn?t all that surprising that they feel fear for me. In my mind however, I am certain my image has nothing to do with it, they fear me cause the turmoil the Gods bring to the peaceful lands, they fear when I lose, they will have to submit to foreign deities that didn?t care for them. ?


?I soon found myself tired, the fighting was too much, a hundred years have passed and they still kept on coming.?


?I am losing the struggle, and a foreign God, the Fire Worm, came to aid me. However, it was benign that such a help would come at a price. That God?s name, the Fire Worm, is none other than Kanako here, whom you see.?


?Yes, she invaded my ground, but together, a compromise between us now that the Priest who named me has died of old age and became a Jizou himself in Kyuushu, sitting in meditation forever in gold embalming in a temple, I knew he would approve of my actions. We became allies, when I am tired, she would defend Suwa with her might.?


?However, with that, it also means I must give my once stand-alone Suwa to her in half, her contributions however, were much greater. The people began to worship her more, and the fear for me grew ever stronger. I was forced to a corner as my powers dwindled and as she planned, eventually she turned her fiery wrath to me, and I was forced back. You must understand, Kanako at the time wasn?t satisfied to be one among the Eight Billion Gods, why should she??


?It took 7 years, and then? it was in the year of 1341, when the then Emperor took his steps to visit this Suwa Region, that he decided to enshrine Kanako as the local god without consulting me first with his fine group of elite monks. I was desperate, what could I do? I don?t want to have to become a homeless Jizou, and if I become that, I am no more than a fool forced out of her last refuge. I have grown up here; this is my home, am I to be forced out of my home because some foreign God?s warlike prowess that drove away the others? I will never stoop so low as to beg but I was desperate, I am a Jizou, and that will never change. So I took a path normally frowned upon, and by myself I took that journey that corrupted me.?


?I began to consume fear, far and wide as I travelled all the way to Kyuushu, wreaking havoc and because of my Jizou status and natural powers to manipulate Earth, I was fearless. I have only one creature to fear, and that is my Priest, my Father, whom named me Kowasu. I was on my way to Kyuushu to seek advice from him, abandoning my home when it is most desperate and in balance upon a thin thread??


?I consumed fear so much my body became blacker, and blacker? until I was ash like color, and from there, I gained a new identity. They called me ?Omoriomoero?, which had another meaning ?Great Forest Immolator? as I uplifted all the roots upon the mountains I travelled. I destroyed homes and eliminated villages of other similar but weaker Jizous of the land, and soon? I have finally reached my Priest, but my face has changed, where once a toad with a wide smile across its face, I am now wearing a frown, an angry snarl that I cannot wipe away no matter how I try. My expression was changed, my heart darkened as the burned charcoal. When I entered his temple, he didn?t recognize me, but he heard of a toad that terrorized the villages and nature.?


?With his divine sanctity, he asked for divine intervention, and lo, a hail of Kamis and heavenly celestials descended from the heavens and banished me to my home once more? They stabbed me, hurt me, and I was no match. I am, after all, a Jizou. No matter how strong I am, I am not on par with Celestials whom are natural enemies to youkai Kamis, which I remain fundamentally as. However, thanks to the fear I consumed, I became stronger, the Celestials took much casualties before they finally did subdue me after 10 days and 10 nights of unending struggling.?


?In the end however, I alone no matter how strong am no match for Celestials by the dozens. I was defeated, and carted back by the Yamato no Kamis, whom are so fond of power over me that they allowed the Land of Suwa to be passed by without being conquered, and gave their blessings to the Holy Mountain, from which their fallen allies and Celestials gather to make the mountain a holy stream which flows to the East. I was sealed there, under the great shrine which people will later call the Moriya, changing from its name to ?Protector?s Arrow? instead of ?Hailing Arrows? which Moreya meant. ?


?Sitting above me is a great rock, which became a great top half of a grand mountain, which on top is further built the Moriya Shrine. Their God, Suwako, is a one of the new gods enshrined in my place, who took upon her responsibility to be the heavenly frog whom sat upon the unholy stone of sealing. Like the Tama no Ue, the Heavenly Fox before me, I am sealed eternally in that place.?


?The first 100 years were the most painful, I am awake and aware, my defeat caused me pain that being sealed in there I cannot heal. I am aware and I called for help, to my nearest former ally the Fire Worm Kanako Hachisaka, whom I learned was enshrined at the other end of the Moriya Village, which is now Suwa?s civilization cornerstone. In my place, is replaced an even kinder God, Suwako Moriya is kind, and powerful, blessing the land with rain and rich soil, the Yamato whom have refused to follow the trail and still come to attack us was driven by her diligently with the aid of the heavens above. Truly, she is a better God than I ever could be, despite my sincere efforts.?


?In my silent state, I witnessed time pass, and I slept eventually? becoming tired of being tired even, slept and awake the first 200 years, then awake after another 500 has passed? imagine long sleep that where you lose sight of all that yourself, disappearing but not dying? The agony of such boredom drove me insane, yet I am constantly in a state of drowsiness? I learned that much later? things happened. However, the world changes regardless, with or without me. In the end, I learned I was betrayed, I come to that conclusion myself. The humans I served abandoned me when I needed them, the father whom I trusted disowned me when I needed him. I am alone.?


?I awoke in the year of 1612, nearly 800 years have passed since then, and Suwa has changed very little. The world however, around me was filled with bloodshed. The smell I first caught whiff of inside my sealed place is blood, polluting the earth which I helped create, polluting the world I am in? I was angry, my conscious awoke, and I began to struggle once more, finding that my anger fuelling me as I tested the strength of the seal.?


?Time and again I shook the earth with my broadening of awakening, I wore thin the layers, slowly one by one while the priests and monks and nuns gather at the shrine?s doorstep to further strengthen Suwako?s powers to subdue me under her seat. I was desperate, but I didn?t stop trying? I wanted to see with my own eyes what has caused the far spread violence and bloodshed? I wanted to see what has happened to my people. Yet, they who claim to be good Gods and deities, whom by now have finally allied themselves to form a peaceful society in unity in the Brightened Age, disrupt my every effort.?


?Oh you have no idea? the pain I felt? the soul of my people, dying? I was Japan?s God, I was the God before even Japan was named as Japan, I had a name, I had a rank, yet? this.?


?With each passing decade I grew weary, I see the wars that mankind wields in the name of unity, in the name of their unifier. I heard their screams as families perished in fiery blazes, I heard the gurgle and drowning of children as they flood the fields by breaking dams built to withstand the test of time with cannon fire. I heard their cries as they beheaded the brothers and husbands of the now widows to single children, left alone to the mother whom have to work twice as hard to fulfill the stomach of the children. I feel their every angry emotion, their wants, their needs, their dissatisfaction? and I learned to feed them to myself, so that I can continue to exist, stronger and grow on in my sealed state, I realized it is the only way I can get out.?


?The agony that fed me became stronger, I grew on them just as the people who no longer care about me grew on in their children?s spoke about legacies. Their wars have spread far and wide, but of all things, even without wars, there was hate and anger. I was aware of its abundance??


?Then, one year so long ago, I felt lighter, and I broke free of my bondages, and I flew with such ferocity I disappeared before Suwako and another that I don?t know who it was who came to aid her can find me. I flew South. Without looking back I continued as far South as I can.?


?There, I settled, and I saw to me, the new world that has forgotten its place.?


?I was angry? but most of all? I am saddened.?


?Thus, I waited, and when I had an army, I invaded Suwa once more? to find what? Yes, you guessed it, Suwako is no longer here, the shrine which I left behind is gone, and there standing in their place, is my old ally and enemy, the Fire Worm Kanako herself. She challenged me and she lost, she has grown weak after her many years of sealing, which I am surprised. It seems, she followed my path despite our differences. It seems all old Gods do in fact follow the path of glory before mutual benefit.?


?Thus, I took hold of Suwa, and from here? I began my delicate plan.?


?The plan to pollute all the nature?s elements, everything that was once mine, I will destroy them so that no humans may ever be able to betray me again, I gave them a virus.?


?Oh yes, I am well aware of its knowledge, they used to call them divine punishment when a man dies from fever? I know better, when the conditions are right, you can make unique things happen.?


?Thus, I welcome you both and your group? to my Apocalypse??


?Rejoice? for the humans in all of Japan and beyond, are coming to get you??


?Unless, of course, you pledge loyalty to me.?





______
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♛ Apher-Forte

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #19 on: October 06, 2009, 12:26:54 PM »
A miserable past... of a God that is the true face of Suwako.

A glorious past which was forgotten and betrayed, in its wake, those who are born later must carry their father's sin.

The sin shall be repaid in full?
Or shall the great fall once more from personal greed?
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Esifex

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  • *
  • It shall rise again
Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #20 on: October 06, 2009, 07:35:30 PM »
And then Yukari shoves the two through a gap that leads to the heart of the sun.

Whoops.

....which is why I don't put Yukari, Sakuya, or Yuyuko into my stories (or at least give them large roles) :x

♛ Apher-Forte

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #21 on: October 06, 2009, 08:37:57 PM »
It won't be that easy, remember, Yukari is still classed a demon.

Gods always are above demons, although certainly when it comes to Yukari, there are some lines being blurred.

Also:





this be the Panther's design
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[ Find my cosplay photos here. ] OMG I HAVE TUMBLR FOLLOW PLZX Will You Remember Me... ?

♛ Apher-Forte

  • Am I to go home...or shall I stay alone?
  • *
  • Forever lost at sea, a distant bell rings for me
    • Himitsu's NSFW Blog ~ contains NSFW material
Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #22 on: October 07, 2009, 08:59:45 AM »
I forgot to add it in actually, too lazy to edit.

Originally it said this:
The back muscles are very strong, double the times of human muscular growth to provide high flexibility. Human bodies relies 90% of the stronger lower and mid back to make some complex turning movements, such as when playing badminton, the back muscles allow for full flex of arms and high maneuverability. The Panther uses this strong growth to accelerate, turn and stop all the while keeping it on balance and allowing to make some complex movements humans can't do.
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #23 on: October 08, 2009, 09:17:37 AM »

Chapter 8

________




The skies seemed to part, allowing some bland sunlight downwards to the shadowy streets, now stinking putridly with the odor of death. A thousand at least, if not more of the moving death around Yukari and Remu must have gathered: the infected.


They slouched, and dragged themselves about the grounds lazily, they seemed sometimes strange and foreign to even their own kind. Bumping, pushing aside, and bumping again into one another, they made growling noises and all sorts of gurgling as they moved about, seemingly now blocked by an invisible wall around the four of them, including Kowasu and Kanako Hachisaka.


They have explained their stories, yet something didn’t quite connect. Reimu noticed, since it is hard for her to not identify with something she has been trained to identify.


“You said you are a Kami, then you said you are a Jizou, but at the end, you spoke that you consumed the darkness of mankind’s negative emotions and thus elevated to something else, what are you now?” Reimu questioned.


“A God, a heavenly one, once you become a Kami, you cannot fall any ranks, even if you are banished. That, is a good rule that almost all old Kami abuse, the Mizukami abused it but became Kappas, there was once a spirit of forges, which forges the soul of swords and armor, it became a Kami that is sealed underground in distant Osaka, becoming the patron Jizou of the land. The same applies to me… I remain a God despite being sealed.”


“Then how is it you can still wander about? The Celestials should have known you escaped…”


“Celestials are the second most useless beings in all of heaven, if there is no need for their presence, or summoned, any Earthly affairs they won’t even meddle with, lest it should interrupt their meditation and other unimportant events.” Kowasu answered confidently, “Now, tell me… do you have the answer to my question?”


“That I will be the ‘Houser’ for you?” Reimu asked.


“Yes.”


“Never. Not in a million years, I have pledge my faith to the Hakurei Family, and so long as I do, my faith shall never waver. In that God’s name, I command you to know your place, rescind your errors and repent, return to the path of light and blessed faith, abandon the darkness that you have accumulated, so that Nirvana may once again welcome you.” Reimu challenged, her voice clear and that made Yukari almost choke, it is hard seeing her so serious.


“Your petty commands to me are useless, I outrank your God of the Hakurei, whomever he is, he is not here now and you have no power.”


“Perhaps you do better to think so that way, so that I can have an easy victory.” Reimu returned the threat.


“You want to do this the hard way?”


“Why the hell not?” Reimu looked at Yukari, surely with her along, a Toad Kami cannot hope to defeat them. They were the strongest team in the Underground incident, and this is just a small challenge compared with that one where they faced off a powerful youkai bird capable of controlling nuclear fusion.


“You are wrong in that…” Kowasu smiled, “But I need not make this effort myself… Kanako, whom I ate should be plenty enough for you.”


“You keep saying you ate others… what exactly are you? How do Kamis eat other Kamis?” Yukari asked, even she seems blightened by the obscurity of Kowasu’s tale.


“Oh you didn’t know? All the old Kamis, namely the ones in nature especially and those who hold special ranks, like a proper name given by a priest or blessed by Celestials and the heavens have the power to consume other Kamis. It is our default capability, we call it Kami unification of bodies. In the old days, there were so many Kamis and some are even duplicates, small gobs of light that some in the form of human bodies would attack one another, the strong one survives and takes the defeated as his own, and thus grow to become stronger… hence in essence, it was a free for all battle-royale. We are the last few, aside from the others like the greatest of demons, the Nine Tailed Fox, or the Eight Headed Snake that is sleeping deep below the sunken grounds.” Kowasu gave her explanation fully, she then closed her eyes, and from her lips, a song slipped out.


“What…is…” Yukari looked over to Reimu, whom shrugged in ignorance.


“Four children stood by the river playing rocks,
For the Sun rose and the Moon set,
For the rain that falls and the grass that browns,
Six dragons pass the heaven’s eight great gates,
Fall came, and pain subsides the screaming children.

To take unto oneself the pain unbearable,
To feel the sorrow that no man can bear,
To take the agony that no soul can attach to,
Light and dark feed the eternal well,
Ache upon the holy, sorrow upon the wealthy,
Seven inches grass grew restively upon the mountain of Suwa,
Also the children play, a flute of tuneless memory,
They suffer a hunger that none can endure,
To take unto oneself the pain cannot fade.” *



The song* had no particular tune, it just sounded like a murmur, using some of the oldest Japanese words ever constructed, which sounded remotely Chinese in origin.


“Kin!” Kowasu yelled, her right fingers rolled into a strange hold, with the index finger and middle finger pressing against each other, and pressing down to the thumb lightly. The last two fingers held up while the left hand index finger pointed upwards, while the middle floated down and the ring finger is pressed tightly against the raised thumb; the pinkie raising as high which connected with her right thumb’s joint. The look of an old jutsu summoning ceremonial signage which is practiced by all Izuna* before the newer standardized gohei and dances which is practiced by Reimu; the sign normally means something bad.


Reimu understood this part very well, it was what her grandmother used to do, and even then, the ritual finger movements and signs were a dying trait passed to not-so-many people. The newer generations of Izuna are called Shrinemaidens, to give it a more neutral name than ‘a woman who can cast spells’. Some of the older generations defected for such a position and became like the very shunned ‘mediums’ and ‘Joujutsushi*’. The Hakurei family was shrunken because of such disagreements, and few downing to the numbers that include Reimu and her family, are left to take the reins of the Hakurei family profession.


As she hymned the last syllable, so did the entire world seemed to shift back into the darkness as Kowasu’s background seemed to grow with insane energy. The true power of an elder Kami, displaying in all full strength, this is the height of all dangers in this world.


“Reimu… if you are gonna do something, you best do it now…”


“Holy Sign: Omnidirectional Demon Binding Circle!” Reimu declared, and a talisman glowed as bright as day in her right hand before dissipating, casting upon the floor which Kowasu stood on a magic circle which has a six sided star encircled in a big circle and a smaller one. It rotated, and gaining speed as light erupted from the ground into a massive energy filled spectacle of seven colored lights. The power was so immense, yet, as Yukari looked, she can’t stop the sweat rolling down her forehead.


“What is this… insane power…?” She questioned under her breath.


The spell which Reimu casted has an effect on any spiritual entity, and it is so powerful in its uncondensed form that it can seal away even the most stubborn of demons. If not, it certainly can delay them a lot, enough for her to do a proper sealing. Yet, the light struggled, it spread like liquid across the air, spraying in every single direction as the darkness behind Kowasu grew and grew.


“Is that…?” Reimu looked, her fear creeping to a chill running up and down her spine morbidly.


“Her true… form?” Yukari continued.


“Ladies, please… this is nowhere near my true form, must I remind you only Kanako Hachisaka will face the two of you?” Kowasu, hidden behind the light and despite the tremendous noise surrounding her from her ‘release’ through her ‘song’ spoke loudly and clearly.


From the light, it shattered, this time like glass as the sparkling fragments spread across and flew everywhere.


Yukari and Reimu took a few steps back, noting that the slowly disintegrating demon binding circle now weakening, and from it… a large creature appeared.


As the light completely subsided, Reimu and Yukari feasted upon their eyes the gruesome sight as Kowasu’s mouth opened, disconnecting her jaw somehow, and a large worm like creature appeared.


It has legs in its multi-segmented body, and small whiskers of hair and spikes seemed to protrude from its rough and exoskeleton frame of a skin which has a red and black contrast. The segments are completely black, while inside them, light blood boiling in crimson red, glowed with red light. Its face was at first a shiny black blob, but as it reared, it exposes its multi-layered mouth which has a funnel like design. Large and grotesque, it is a scary sight to behold, with teeth sharp and grinding in its funnel like hole which seemed to rotate endlessly in a gruesome circle.


From its throat, it looked like a tunnel that led to eternal darkness, save for the fire that erupted from within. As it finally opened its eyes, Reimu and Yukari can tell this is no mere creature to defeat. Despite its grotesque design, it is a Kami, and by that alone, it ranks above them.


It finally crawls out completely from Kowasu’s throat, looking angrily at the two.


Then, Kowasu smiled and spoke, “Did you know I have an urn inside my stomach? You should take note of that, I am the only Kami who took a fragment of the Celestial’s workings within me. Meet the newly improved Kanako Hachisaka…”


“Reimu….?” Yukari looked, questioningly.


“I know… it is the ‘Insect Poison*’. A kind of youkai which can be bred by purists of the shamanic ways, by placing insects inside a stuffed urn, forcing them to consume each other in hunger and in order to survive, the last one that lives becomes the collected essence of all poison that each unique insects have… Kanako, the fire worm, must have consumed all the Kamis and youkai that Kowasu has consumed before…” Reimu explained, a hail of sweat now circling her forehead.


“Looks like we have to fight for this one…”


“Yeah…”



++++++




Special notes


(Note: Izuna – taking a note from Itako Izuna, is an old way of calling shrinemaidens, Izuna no Hime, which they are normally referred as are mediums, capable of summoning spirits, gods, and demons to enter their bodies to perform supernatural tasks. They became rarer and rarer as times move on to the newly male dominated side, the Omyouji which serves the high courts, the royals etc became more dominant to call for services of the supernatural kind. Most of the Izuna are said to have retreated upper North of Japan by 1200s to 1400s rooting themselves there as the local priests and shamans capable of spiritual healing and such. Most of them are good, but courts are predominantly male led, and thus frown on most of the Itako Izuna being women.)


(Note: Joujutsushi – literally translating to Curse Mediums, men and women who specialize in curses and summoning bad spirits to do ill will against others for a price. Normally called shamans, their services are widespread in the old days. It was said in the Heian period they originated from, several chapters in obscure history describes such mediums to have meddled with royalty affairs, causing entire bloodlines to disappear overnight by forcing evil spirits that corrupts the mind to enter the bodies of the cursed. The cursed then take their own lives in suicides that include hundreds, if not thousands. Such mediums are frowned upon by the Izuna, and usually is the Izuna who helps elevate the problem from the cursed. Their favorite tools include breeding youkai insects, youkai fetuses, youkai animals as their carrier of curses, it is said their services can still be acquired today in rural Japan.)


(Note: Insect Poison – the legends to this is wide and vary, but among them is an entry very interesting in during the Heian era. This entry describes how a cursed Joujutsushi attempted to merge the strongest poison that nature can offer. Being that it is done in a time where there is no sophisticated chemistry or biology aid, the shaman put all the scariest creatures by several numbers into a great urn and gave it some heat and humidity. Inside the urn, it grows to a dastard 40 over degrees, and in the humidity the bugs get hungry easily and began to consume each other in desperation for survival. Eventually, even rats and poisonous snakes were thrown in the mix to keep the dangerous boil going as long as possible into the sealed urn. At the end of 99 days, a ceremony was performed to break the seal of the urn, and the shaman released a powerful youkai that is under his control capable of making the strongest poisons. Its venom is said to be hundreds of times stronger and deadlier than any snake, spider or centipede combined. This creature is named the ‘Yu Du’ in Chinese translation, written in Kanji, the ‘Yu’ is ‘insect = Chong’ written above ‘Urn = Bei’ meaning Insect in an Urn; while the Du translates to poison signaling its properties. This creature is said to have polluted all the waters of one Heian family well, and it was said a city fell overnight as the poisons were drank by the unsuspecting city dwellers and the royals. Of course, it was noted at the end even the wretched shaman’s family was killed in the process, in his remorse, he sealed the creature in a cave in the mountains, hoping that in 100 years the creature would dissolve into nothing as it rots hungrily alone in the dark cave. )


(Note: Song - Commonly referred to as En Rei. In ancient times, this was called upon as the 'poem of enlightenment' which is used by normal non-spiritual power wielding villagers as the last line of defense against youkai and demons. By using these words, arranged in such an order that to have each character a special spiritual power (although small) that the words become a sort of verbal sword which can cut evil spirits bond to the earth. Some families employ this as passing rites for their family whom have recently passed so that they may pass into Nirvana in peace. It was the poor man's and laymen's choice of spiritual service. There are a few similiar poems available, the one written here is half fictional, half real in reference. You can actually find this in some specialized Chinese prayer items shop that sells prayer beads, mantras and monk robes. To this day, hardly anyone knows about them, but it was popular in the old days up till before world war 2. My grandma actually have a copy of this which is how I learned from, some words in the second paragraph were taken from there.

"- Ren ren shuo bu neng ren zhi tung, shi ren shuo bu neng ren zhi ku, shou ren shuo bu neng ren zhi ai" is one such line.

It translates to "to endure the pain none can endure, to take the sorrow/hardship than none can bear, to accept the pain (of the heart) than none can accept."

It was followed by a bunch of mumbo jumbo about grass roots and such, which I don't clearly remember. It helped me go to sleep in the very old days when I used to live in a village where they say an evil spirit kidnaps children when they sleep.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2009, 09:31:00 AM by Asphyxiated-Fairy »
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #24 on: October 08, 2009, 05:13:49 PM »
Using your own historical/reference notes there, I'm going to assume Kowasu and Kanako forgot about the Shaman succumbing to his own handiwork. All there in the manual!

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #25 on: October 08, 2009, 05:29:12 PM »
What do you mean?

Ok this is just assuming, but erm...

you do mean about Kowasu being sealed by the Priest's invoking of heavenly beings? The Priest still does not recognize Kowasu at that stage, or rather, it is likely the Priest doesn't even care now.

or if you are talking about the shaman references:
There is no shaman, Kowasu is the one who took Kanako inside her, instead of the Shaman.
The reference was meant to clearly define the lines of who used to do what and were able to commit what sort of tricks and stuff.

Kowasu is a greater and older God, hence having the ability to eat other Gods is what she does best. (also cause she is a Toad, and Kanako Hachisaka here is a worm, an insect eaten by a Toad as nature dictated, although she used to be on par with Kowasu, but since Kowasu ate the fears and anger of her people, she became more powerful) Kanako clearly has not did the same during her replacement by Kanako Yasaka.

(Just a note, Kanako Hachisaka uses a different Kanako in writing) 八坂 可奈子 instead of Yasaka's Kanako which is 八坂 神奈子


Oh, found an entry on the priest, after checking out the name
Yes, it is a real person I based on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_no_Gyoja

En no Gyōja (役行者), or En no Ozunu (役小角), born 634, was a Japanese ascetic and mystic, traditionally held to be the founder of Shugendō,[1] a syncretic religion incorporating aspects of Taoism, Shinto, esoteric Buddhism (especially Shingon Mikkyō and the Tendai sect but some Zen sects have also been heard of) and traditional Japanese shamanism. He is venerated as a bosatsu (a bodhisattva, or pursuer of enlightenment) Jinben Daibosatsu (神変大菩薩).

although the timelines certainly did not match, consider this half fiction, half true then.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2009, 08:33:58 AM by Asphyxiated-Fairy »
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #26 on: October 10, 2009, 09:50:22 PM »
Erm. Maybe I should've marked it with a spoiler or something, but I dunno how to do that yet >.<

But I meant, Kanako not recalling the bit about the master of the Poison Insect succumbing to the very insect they created.

This is just a shot in the dark. Wild guessing, if you will. Do go on, please, it's very interesting.


And I hope you haven't forgotten about Eirin >.<

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #27 on: October 11, 2009, 09:17:30 AM »
Well, that is actually after my re-reading my personal mistake, I think it is more to the fact that the Poison Insect was an explanation of Kanako(Hachisaka) herself rather than whatever else was happening atm. I guess I would review this chapter, it was written somewhat hastily so I might be dumbed because of it. I am moving atm to a new place so yeah, busy~
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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #28 on: October 11, 2009, 10:51:35 AM »
Awesome story. I love the way you write things.

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Re: Apocalypse Awakening - A Touhou + Left4Dead zombie rush fic thing...
« Reply #29 on: October 12, 2009, 11:18:43 AM »
Chapter 9


----


(Eirin?s position)


?Are you awake??? Eirin held Reisen by her cheeks, squeezing it ever so slightly to awaken her state of unconsciousness.


Her eyes opened, but quickly shut again, and opened again, as though her consciousness is fleeting as candlelight. Her mouth however, murmured a confident ?yes? although it was only her lips moving.


?Good, then get up? we have no time to rest, your blood I extracted has gave me a pop of an idea just now. I found something interesting?? Eirin commented.


Reisen finally opened her eyes, her eyes looked blank, before some form of color flooded back into her cheeks. Technically, she has just died once, and resurrected like her master did all the time, only with much more painful means.


The drug she took was a unique Lunarian military laboratory product, made with such abundance at some point during the Lunarian conflicts between royals that they were left unconsumed when the factory was forced to close down. The same medical genius behind it is none other than Eirin herself, but she was never caught or sentenced? after all, without her genius there is no Lunarian advantage to begin with. The drug was found to be a treatment too inhumane, and the more humanitarian of the Lunarians with their moral high grounds forced the drug to be illegalized through proper means; the reason being none other than their need to curb their guilt from recycling perfectly sane and actual lives of those rabbits.


Lunarians can die too, but why can?t the rabbits be allowed to die? Are their worth so little their very existence should be played by the palms of the rancid believers of their own worthless causes? It is not of course, and thus a lengthy discussion and debate followed by another war happened. The Lunarians are almost always at war, not surprising when someone came up with such a drug to save the costs of manpower, and not surprisingly as well a war was followed to close the issue down with an iron lock.


Eventually, the rabbits were given whatever little left of their dignity, to march into battle and die only once? but the drug that was made cannot be un-made. Whatever that is left is hidden, into a maximum security throve of things the Lunarians wanted to sweep under the carpet with. Files and such are stored there, and only a few members of the higher echelons of the Lunarian capital have access to this throve of wealth, filled with information too illicit even for the eyes of royals and governments, too much treasure in the form of weapons, drugs, data, history that can destroy this very world when given access to the wrong hands.


Eirin is one such person who have smuggled more than a few ?emergency? vials. She doubted she ever had to use it, but she was glad she brought it along. It is the most powerful antidote after all, and it is made from her blood. Her immortal blood is the base to the most powerful drug ever existed on earth and the moon, enough to wipe out this virus once it becomes available commercially. She doesn?t have to concern herself with the humans though, if they are all dead, she wouldn?t actually care.


The virus however, is the thing she came from. She has gotten her perfect sample, now inside her bag; her mission here is done, she should return to Gensokyo and leave the rest to the others who came along to ?solve? the mystery. However, something in her stopped her, and that something was Reisen?s painful grasping of her life once more from the edges of death?s cliff.


She has climbed back up, and for a moment there, she must have seen hell for a furiously long time in her mind. They say coming back from the dead kills the very essence of being mortal, and not limited to humans alone. To Eirin, death is everyday business, she isn?t afraid to die for real, if only she could. She has experienced death so many times it bores her to tears, but to most others who can only experience it once, to climb back is an epic journey of the mind to survive in the madness of hell.


Reisen slowly lifted herself up, with rickety movements as though she has just been born an infant, and that learning how to walk is the first thing she has to do without any prior knowledge or guide in how to begin. Her head seemed to turn to one side, desperate to turn back but couldn?t. Her eyes seemed to daze, looking up down and sideways as though she is looking for something that is not there.


?This is natural, if you do this enough times your body will recall how to gain back the nerve controls for everything with a snap of a finger. I am going to send you back to Gensokyo? I need you to take something for me? from my lab.? Eirin mentioned.


?An errand already? Can?t I get some rest, Master??


?You rest here, you are going to get eaten again? so no buts, I want you to hang as tightly as you can to my back. We are flying back and you will have to get what I am telling you to get? don?t forget, this will save humanity. You have a chance to do what no rabbit has ever done before.? Eirin smiled, and promptly lifted Reisen to her back.


It reminded her when she had the younger and much smaller princess like this, hugging to her back like a child and carrying her about the Lunarian playgrounds for the royals. Her sisters, the princess?s sisters would always come running, and they would play together. If only she hasn?t been exiled, they would still have been together. Eirin missed those times, but regret is for the weak, she reminded herself mindfully and awfully quickly as she took speed to the direction of the Suwa Lake.


The portal will be open, when they are through, she can have her hands on what?s left of this wretched destroyed human race, and if she is correct, this will be the antidote to cure everything.


Reisen blushed, it wasn?t usual she gets a piggyback on her master?s back, it certainly wasn?t easy to stop her trembling either, but she feels good somehow as she did.



++++



(Marisa?s position, halfway to the South)


?Are we there yet?? Nitori asked.


?Not yet, I don?t sense their presence, but there is a large one that just popped out from where they headed? I reckon the enemy has shown itself.? Alice commented, her sharper youkai senses can sense the most distinct spiritual presence from anywhere, but this most recent one has something about it.


It felt extremely holy, like a spiritual essence from some heavenly being. She recalled this because the one that destroyed Reimu?s shrine last time, a celestial from the heavens that is very troublesome to handle; carried this distinctive presence. It is different from the youkai presence, it has a feeling that seemed to emanate ?wisdom?, if all the lack of words can be used to explain it. A divine presence is something much less felt at earth, so the idea that there is one to be felt now is indeed very different. Kanako, and Suwako, the two goddesses that were with them earlier before they left Gensokyo, had something much more earthly attuned, not that it was any less holy, it just felt different from this one.


?How long?? Alice asked.


?10 more minutes.? Marisa said under her breath.


Yukari?s gaps can take her everywhere within a short span of time by bending the rules of time and space, but such is also the dilemma in team efforts it seems.



++++



(Reimu?s position, South, in the town)


The shrill voices of screams and angry cries resonated all over. The dead have gathered by the thousands, and only blocked by a thin layer of powerful shielding that is emitted spiritually by Kanako Hachisaka, whom now is in the form of a giant worm with scales as wide as Italian pillars, and spikes that looked dangerously pointy and oozed some green poisonous mess of slime from them. Her skin is red, magma boiled within the underside of the scales, and cracks formed as it sprayed fire from them.


?The Fire Worm? Kowasu, their enemy, or rather, all of mankind?s enemy-cum-goddess spoke, ?Lives up to her name, Hachisaka, finish them!?


Thus, did Kanako, the copied version of Gensokyo Kanako Yasaka, Goddess of the Wind, and Goddess of War, lunged for Reimu first. Her revolving mouth which reaches deep with swirling rows of sharpened teeth and saliva opened, ready to swallow her.


?Holy Familiars! Yin-Yang Orbs of Heavenly Persuasion!? Reimu summoned, and four giant Yin-Yang orbs appeared from thin air, carrying each enough magic power to turn the ground they stand into a meteor crater.


The orbs glowed magnificently, casting a web of such intense power it sunk the ground she stood on, and Reimu whom before could not fly, used her familiars to gain a foothold and flew above; just as Kanako dived her head down to the ground she stood and blew up half a ton of debris and tarmac off the ground sending it in a pillar of anger to the skies.


The dust knocked against Reimu, but she has upper ground now, and proceeded to spray arm-length needles ?Persuasion Needles? from her familiars downwards while she prepares her spell for an ultimate sealing. Magic glowed in her hands, and her eyes glowed bright with power.


?INFINITE SUPER SPEED FLYING OBJECT!!? Yukari declared, and from 4 of her gaps beside her which opened, powerful shots of light carrying intense piercing force shot with blinding speed and covered all over Kanako?s hide.


Kanako howled, and twisted away before turning upwards to chase after Yukari.


?Don?t bother, let me play with her!? A command came from Kowasu.


She seemed to realize Kanako won?t get anything done by herself and she moved instead.


Like a southern belle, she moved swiftly, clearing entire paths of rock and debris with her default manipulation of earth and all its associated elements. By that, it literally includes her powers to manipulate just about every earth originated things. Being a small town, it is literally filled with wooden houses, dirt laden streets and mountains which surround it with greeneries all around. She is in her home turf, and with this in mind; two giant hands popped out forming meticulously from nothing, rising as tall and as big as a 3 storey building each.


She of course meant to slap Yukari into submission, but as the hands neared, Yukari floated further upwards, but continued her firing, turning her fire now to the hands that climbed with more dirt being pulled like a carpet with the vacuum sucking it up to form the giant arms.


Just as she took the shots, from the hands exploded dirt, but has enough power to become projectiles and Kowasu saw this; thus she made them fly with intense speed to hit at Yukari?s direction. Yukari turned quickly, using her umbrella, she blocked the oncoming boulders, which cracked under her intense multilayer barrier which opens whenever she fans out her umbrella.


A turn and a switch of position in a blink of an eye, and Yukari zipped herself into a gap quicker than Kowasu could react, and emerged from behind her back. The umbrella tip this time pointed to her back, and from it, a giant gunk of laser not unlike Marisa?s Master Spark blasted forward and blew at Kowasu, grazing her only slightly as her reactions are quicker than Yukari had expected.


Six giant pillars formed from the ground below and shot up with such intense speed, stabbing in Yukari?s location as she once again disappeared. From above 90 degrees upwards, Yukari hanged vertically down, and a gap lay open behind her like a gaping mouth. Something big came out from it, and at once at full speed did a train of all things, blasted out from it chugging along the dislocated rails that fell apart as it travelled into mid-air quite suddenly being hauled off its tracks. The train followed the law of gravity, and it gained so much speed as it thrusted full speed ahead downwards to Kowasu.


Kowasu did not block or backed away, but instead before her a wall of dirt formed, thicker than a truck, the wall of flying dirt looked like it could weigh several tons more than the train falling down on full speed. A large impact, louder than a few hundred gongs going off at once and screeches so sharp it hurts even Yukari?s eardrums was heard; as the train was crushed into a metal and steel ?tin-can? being crushed by intense force from the opposing flying wall of dirt, which broke to pieces.


The train cracked apart, its metal parts disengaging and falling haphazardly onto everywhere above the skies. Yukari was unheard, but she didn?t manage to see Kowasu move.


?Tsk?? She heard, and she turned back, only to see Kowasu there, hands reached out and breaking her always on barrier straightly, with her blackened hands which is her original color of her toad form clasping deeply into her veins in a crushing grasp that choked all her air out of her. A split second only passed, but Kowasu had her other fist ready, grouped and formed with another element she is most fond of using: minerals.


Namely, from the dirt, there is rocks, and inside rocks, under the molten layer, there exist minerals stronger than steel.


Her hands reflected light, which was clear to Yukari that what it is, are diamonds, the hardest mineral known to man. She didn?t know Suwa is a region to mine for diamonds, but then again, it is not strange if it was. So far in all of Japan, few areas remain to be places unexplored and undeveloped by the future thrusting generation that did not care for Gods or whatever else. Suwa is one of those places, untainted yet by the hands that push for the future of mankind, retaining its very image of the old and rustic, the majestic and religious, the mysterious and the unorthodox. Yukari?s thought did not manage to think much, except when she did regain her half a fraction of a second?s image of Kowasu before her, the diamond crusted fist slammed with such intense force onto her body that it sent Yukari flying into the gap, choking blood as she did.


Kowasu did not smile, not even a smirk at her small victory. She however, gave chase and went inside Yukari?s gap, only to find herself lost within as Yukari is no longer there.


?Sadly?? Yukari called from outside, surprising Kowasu in reverse as she looked back to see her enemy emerging from another quickly formed gap. She tried to rush out, but then the gap closed just as she turned around.


?I will just seal you in there? and send you to hell!? Yukari said, and forced her concentration to send Kowasu to hell, a place where not even Kamis can easily walk out once inside, for the barriers that separate there and the earthly realm is as thick as entire buildings, and the layers as many as there can ever be counted.


She felt it, confirming that she dropped Kowasu at the other side, her gaps opened, and there was no one inside.


?Problem settled? ouch?? She licked her lips, tasting her own blood for the first many years.


She now has to help Reimu.


However, Reimu was doing her job rather nicely. For as she looked, some 20 over balls of seven colored light emerged from her back which stands a magic circle. Glowing brightly the balls chased after a running Kanako, clearly somehow defeated. ?She defeated a Kami!? Yukari excited opened her mouth to say.


However, her sweat rolled down, as she heard another voice not too far behind her.


?That was unnecessary waste of strength? didn?t you know sending me there is only delaying the inevitable?? Kowasu, who somehow now stood behind her, a portal of absolute darkness opened behind her that does not belong to Yukari. It was connected to no other place than Hell.


?How???


?I don?t know, all I know is that I can.? Kowasu answered, and with immediate form, a hundred miles of dirt rolled from the ground below her, forming like a giant rolling tidal wave of earth and dirt and came rushing to Yukari.


Yukari opened her barrier, but it was too late, the entire town was sent flying above her, falling like meteor fragments as trees, buildings, cars, electric poles, various objects all fell to her direction and rained down like a rain of death.


?Why don?t you give up?? Kowasu mocked, not the least bit tired, even with so many usages of her abilities, she did not even look like she was fighting serious at all! ?You can?t defeat me.?


Yukari gulped, and looked ahead? could this be? She? Lost to a common Kami?



+++++++++



(Moments before)


Reimu looked, Yukari?s lasers has stopped, the giant earthworm is reacting by stretching out its skin, forming some kind of battle armor that clasped around it like a shield as thick as 3 layers of its hide. It is amazing at how some youkai Kami are able to resist so much.


?Do not force my hand, Hachisaka? I know you are a God deep down inside, you have the virtue of the holy ones who are in the heavens, do not force me to take you down because of such needless evil deeds.?


?You don?t know anything Reimu of Hakurei!? Hachisaka yelled back in angry response, shifting her armored skin to roll up, and once again covering her entire body, which is about 20 feet long; she charged for Reimu.


Her face is marred cleanly in all directions by Reimu?s needles which quickly disappear as it punctures the layers of armors; the only problem is that Reimu?s attack sees no effect, as the skin like armor only repaired as quickly as she can cause any decent damage to it.


?This hide is the hide of the Hideryu Kami, you cannot even hope to match it with your measly God?s blessing.?


?I didn?t say I have a reliable God did I? This are MY powers, and I have a lot more to spare.? Reimu swirled, and like before, fans of talismans slipped out magically under her sleeves, and from them they glowed brightly like miniature suns were installed on them.


?Mystical Exorcism Dance: Flower of the Eastern Lobby!? With this, Reimu declared and sent what appears to be a blast of powerful wind around her swirling into pink and red colored flower petals, rolling about in a raging tornado as wide as the street can handle but 4 or 5 times its height.


Her spell carried her, still standing on her orbs which shot the needles that kept Kanako at a safe distance before, and she jumped, turning about in 4 turns as she swirled her sleeves about her. The wind followed as though listening to her orders or movements, and hundreds if not thousands of these petals turned into small squarish looking charms, flying straight for Kanako.


They are sharp, sharp as knives and they punctured mercilessly at Kanako?s hide. She howled a bit, there must be some pain, indicating she feels the effect.


Reimu kept on shooting the talismans to graze her skin, but her real intention was hidden as they only cut her. ?You call this an attack?!? Kanako roared furiously, and from her almost unending trail of a throat, fireballs of molten rock came spewing out and flying to attack at Reimu. Reimu sidestepped, and lifted two of her Yin-Yang orbs that encircled her to before her, forcing an ?8? shaped shield as they are each arranged vertically and trailing a magic line that formed the letter ?8?.


The balls of fire and molten rock hit them, breaking apart. From below however, Reimu suddenly realized that Kanako is now there; it dawned to her that Kanako wasn?t attacking her, rather, it was a decoy. Those fireballs are a part of her, and she used them to avoid this attacking Persuasion Needles!


From below, Kanako rushed upwards, intending to swallow Reimu in one swell swoop. Reimu smiled.


?Declare, Demon Sealing Exorcism Dance!? She rushed downwards, and with Kanako?s loud movements, she didn?t manage to hear Reimu?s declaration, and only allowed Reimu to went inside her throat.


A blow of light formed, like a thousand explosives wired to a single switch being flicked on, the power of several thousands of those explosives instantly happened as Reimu spun with such ferocity and speed aided by her orbs which surround her and were swallowed as well sprayed a million if not more explosive talisman charms which blew apart Kanako from the inside.


?ARRRGGGHHHHHKKKKK!!!!? Kanako howled, desperately twitching as she tries to force Reimu out of her, but it was too late. Her insides are vulnerable, and like piercing knives, they cut through her and blasted her hide wide open; destroying her digestive tracts, her lungs and her everything else inside mercilessly. She coughed out blood, but inside Reimu continued her rampage, and before long, her lower body fell down, cut in half by the swift fanning of the talisman charms which flew from Reimu and exploded her inner tracts.


Like a defeated giant, despite her capabilities to use molten rock and even lava? she had been defeated? by a mere human.


Her pride is wounded, and worse still, she is now dangerously grazing the border of death.


Even Kamis can die, such wounds inflicted by holy spells, coming from another worshipper or believer, will pollute her body so much she cannot recover no matter how much time is given.


From the ground, Reimu mercilessly cut open the stomach, and came out. She is clean still, protected by a thin barrier that keeps her from being soaked by stomach enzymes and fluids of Kanako?s insides. It was something unorthodox, and this is the first time she did it, effective and deadly. She learned this best from her Grandmother, who is both her mentor before her own mother ever cared for her. In her guidance, she learned many traits, though she never used them in governing Gensokyo?s peace, she knows that when push comes to shove, she can do the most dastardly things that ensure her victory.


Likewise, Kanako was lynched, and she wriggled now under her feet. ?How?can a human?be so strong???


?And how can a Kami be so weak?? Reimu returned the question, further giving Kanako a blow in her mental defeated state.


?I am not weak?? Kanako tried to refute, but it is a fact, she had lost to a human worshipper.


?You weren?t before? it is only natural, now that you have allowed your virtue to sink so low that you lost your own faith. You were once a Yamato God, but you lost your position when you allowed the greed of power to contaminate you? installing yourself as a deity here was unsuitable, and then next you were sealed by a great priest under the shrine of Kanako am I correct?? Reimu took an educated guess, and without wrong at that, Kanako only writhed in silence: her reply was clear.


Reimu has got it right.


Kanako here, whatever Godly status she had before, is nothing more than a youkai worm now. True as she may be when she defeated Kowasu so many eons ago she was a dignified Kami then, she is turned into a greedy Kami and lost her virtue as one, which degraded and further contaminated her until she became an enshrined youkai?


When Kowasu was sealed, she ran.


She tried to hide from the Priest that summoned the Celestials to seal Kowasu, but she didn?t get far. After all? the priest wasn?t just a Jizou, the priest was a Jizou who became the guiding figure for his land. When he did then, he was elevated to become a Bodhisattva; referring to the fact the Priest whose real name was unknown to foul beings like herself has became an enlightened one. There are only two things more fearsome than Kamis or Celestials to a powerful youkai or demons, and that is a Boddhisattva and Buddha.


Bodhisattvas* unlike Buddha and do not always take a path of non-violence. Some like the Vaisravana* for example, are battle hardened deities whose goals in their eternal existence is to banish the evils upon all three realms: the heaven, the earth and hell itself. One sword swing from the Vaisravana*, and not even an Oni can live, their existences will be forcefully converted, and turned into one of the many heavenly beings above the heavens, condemning them to a path of meditation and without any desire or lust. The others are like Daigan Jizou Bosatsu* whose existence serves as the guiding light in hell, the power to banish all darkness regardless of how powerful the evil is, can break demonic wills and shatter them into nothingness with a mere swing of his nimbus staff.


Their identity can always be detected when the glowing halo behind their head shines, and as it is, when they do descend from the heavens above, they always do because the light of the earth can never match their glowing embodiments of virtue. Kanako remembered when she was sealed, the way that Priest?s eyes were so full of sadness, for the fallen God, herself. He begged for her to refuse temptation, yet because she refuses to accept that and become a Bodhisattva herself, in preference for reverence and human fear in the land of Suwa which has unlimited holy energy, she was banished.


In her place, the Priest picked a snake to sit upon her shrine, giving her the exact same name as herself. The Bodhisattva then left, happily returning to sit in his shrine and meditate till He becomes a Buddha himself when his eternal work is done.


She twitched now, admitted defeat.


?I was right?? Reimu began, ?You were once a Kami, a dignified one? then you lost your virtue. That means? that Kowasu should be the same. This can only mean one thing? you two were telling lies!?


Kanako twitched, yet again, she is right.


?Yes? you are correct.?


?This disease that spread among all of mankind is not your fault? they are unrelated incidents??


?No, that is wrong, it is my work? my ability is to manipulate diseases? I can??


?No you can?t. You are merely one factor in a string of coincidences, this is all something the humans of this side cooked up and caused their own demise.? Reimu explained.


?How do you know for sure??


?Not once did you use your insect poison at me, despite me waiting for you to do it.? Reimu paused, ?not that I want you to, but I expected you to have that, instead, you used fire, and molten rock? it was clear to me whatever Kowasu mistaken you to have become after eating all those insects and youkai trapped inside her when she put you inside her body? you never changed, you weren?t powerful enough to shed your youkai being??


?You? you can?t deny me like this?? Kanako refuted.


?Then infect me, go ahead, use this virus that you see around you causing the humans to run amok and infect me, I dare you.? Reimu did just that, disengaging her barrier, she stood in front of Kanako?s hated vision.


Kanako tried to use her power, but she couldn?t. She didn?t see the effects, the youkai power she thought she had was not there, there is nothing happening. Reimu smiled slightly, ?So? in the end, you were just used? you foolish youkai, thinking someone could save you, thinking you could turnaround your fate because you can escape??


?I absorbed the energies of Suwa?s great source! I should have changed back into a Kami!!? Kanako stood, slowly regaining her human form, only without the Kanako outlook before, and stood plainly in her plainest attire and tattered ones at that.


?You cannot become a Kami by just eating out of open palms? a Kami is created by the gathering of holy energy into natural things, youkai that become Kami must be enshrined by priests or monks, beasts that become Kami must go through a phase of meditative existence? you did not do any of those? you are a fool?? With this explanation from Reimu, Kanako collapsed to her knees.


She is defeated?


Everything she knew was a lie.


Everything she believed in, was never the truth. She was guided by her nose, by the lies her enemy spread.


?Then I will tell you one thing, in exchange for my life? if you spare me??


?Go ahead, but I can?t guarantee what I might or might not do.? Reimu sighed, ?After all, you are a dangerous misguided youkai, but I can offer you to enter Gensokyo.?


?Kowasu? something happened to her that night when she returned? I don?t know if I was wrong or just the heat of the moment, but she had??


Her conversation trailed off, as a powerful tidal wave of stone and debris rolled high over them.


Kowasu!


Her attack is heading over their way?



+++++++++



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