Thread #34 of the HSE—This thread is for the spinoffs of the spinoff of a fan work.>“Hana Hakurei is the daughter of Reimu Hakurei and her husband, Anon. As the future protector of Gensokyo, Hana was never going to have a normal life, but it was worse than it should have been.”—Useful links:OG work: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43718466/chapters/109935363Hana's story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52050766/chapters/1316347811st chapter of the HSE: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51816529HSE collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/The_Hakurei_Shrine_Experience—previous thread: >>47715136
RECAP!---“Hey, Vergil, your hour of acting as the cool uncle is over,” Dante says, approaching menacingly before extending a hand towards the Alpha and the Omega. “Give me the girls.”“… If you want them,” Vergil shifts on the monobloc chair, Sekai and Hana perched on his lap and playing with demonic dolls. On his face, challenge. “Then you'll have to take them.”—>Anon chills (suffers);>Yukari deals with her retarded children and, dramatically, tries to pull off a little prank. It doesn't work, and she cries inside, though it doesn't hurt as much as when she goes to Eirin to have her pregnancy check and gets some hard truths about her eating habits and body fat;>Hana goes through hell at Keine's Festival, dealing with both Youkai and people too emotionally charged to think straight, elevating the trauma of the stuff she sees and experiences in that mess even more, yet growing anyway with the challenges like dealing with the mustard gas and angry villagers. Following Sanae and her apprentices getting shot down after sealing Mokou, Hana rushes Hieda and gets to see the man's true face beneath the mask and hear words that'd likely destroy her confidence: 'we are much the same' from the mouth of the oni;>Okina sulks on the depths of the ocean for a while, pondering her downfall from godhood and what she can do to mitigate all that. Amidst that, she hears a suffering prayer, which she immediately answers, meeting a stranded man on the ocean. They talk, and he reveals to have been a therapist in the past, helping Okina as the talk evolves into something deeper and that touches many wounds she'd inflicted upon herself. It works, though, and upon tasting the milk of human kindness, Okina starts to figure out herself, her problems, and how to act on them, sending the man on the brink of death to a hospital somewhere. Back on Gensokyo, she has strong opinions about her position and symbols of her power, soon finding the remains of the pyre Satono and Mai burned Nazrin and maybe Cirno on, and pays her respects with a nice flower and words. Following into the Myouren, she meets the consequences of her inactivity in the wounded and harmed from Keine's Festival. Inside, watch as Hijiri teaches Satono and Mai Buddhist magic with cunning and simplicity, feeling jealous(?) at it but also poignantly proud of the girls. A talk ensues between the four, and Okina apologizes for her deeds and promises she'll be better - a promise Hijiri sees as truth and forgives her, much to the goddess' delight. She leaves Satono and Mai at the Myouren for their protection and wellbeing and so that they can learn from Hijiri and, back in the LoB, ultimately destroys her throne and replaces it with a nice chair, feeling good about her change and optimistic of the bloody future;>Aya has a tense talk about Hana, Okina, and the Solstice with the goddess of winds, who leaves a little present for Okina in the form of a stink bomb as a means to weaken her during the Solstice so she remains on equal footing with the rest of Gensokyo, talking a lot about Hana’s sadness and situation at large, tipping even more the Ayacoin. The goddess and crony reporter soon “achieve” a deal about it… though Aya refuses it;>Kosuzu survives through sheer-fucking-will having a sword cut into her body, internalizing her secondary core into power. A few days following their meeting at the cemetery, Kosuzu and Keine talk about the Hakurei crisis, which escalates into a convo between all the corners of the new government about the future, the half-breed children and Yukari, with Suzu learning why the HSE exists after discovering the Yakumo is pregnant;>Goro and Seija get permission to go talk a little with Keine after Yukari tries to prank them into getting skewed by Miko's sword, vaporized and rewritten into ribbons of flesh by threatening Keine's children. Outside the HSE, they ponder the consequences of the Festival, even talking to an old associate of Goro and stopping a fleeting remnant of the Cult of Douji from attacking a child;>Eirin breaks out the news that Yukari is, indeed, pregnant and the child inside of her is developing naturally, though Yukari needs to lose weight and start to eat better, something that shames the sage. Outside the room, she has a cryptic exchange with Kaguya that doesn't last much;>Years before the HSE, after Goro's father died, Shou had a moment with the boy before one with Hijiri in that same vein. The death has affected everyone greatly, as it does;
Sorry for taking quite a while to bake the new thread. Still am mega sick.—[All entries of the HSE here in chronological posting order!]>>47155400 | Part 1-22>>47065336 | Part 23>>47210937 | Part 24>>47380706 | Part 25>>47515159 | Part 26>>47715146 | Part 27[Last thread chapters]4chan's new mechanic thinks it's spam, so, uh... Damn.(1575 entries)[for phoneanons that can't access the dead threads, here's the last thread. Link to all others in the 'all entries']:https://warosu.org/jp/thread/47715136 | 33rd thread[pastebin for the finale -- for writers, full of spoilers]https://pastebin.com/zqS1Krp7
this waiting period is soul draining, jeez...
>Konngara: "I'm going to win this time, Dipshit! Because I am the Astral Knight! I always have the master plan.">Seiga: "Well aren't you a Wild and Horned Hermit!">Yachie: "More like Wild and Moronic...">Yurkari: "Enough of the Jokes, you three! You're almost making me wish Seija and Goro survived instead. Anywhom, I've stalled this match long enough. Any last words before I turn you into all Fried Shrine Buffet?">Hana: "Oh please! There's no way you're ever gonna beat us, not with the REAL Hakurei Shrine Experience up in here." *Points to Reimu and Anon, who're reunited & powered up*>Marisa: "I won't mind painting the sky red for you Reymoo!">Alice: "I second that claim! I'll blow a million of my dolls before I let your legacy end here.">Aya: "You're rougher then the rest of them, Anon!">Chen: "Me and my mama wish you the best of wells, Hana!">Mima: "Kill her or I'll need to kill all of you myself!">Kosuzu: "Don't go there, yet!">Yuuka: "Remember the Master Spark, Hana.">Lemontene: "Don't Cry! We're all with you to the end-">Rikako: "-Whether Human, Fairy or anything in-between!">Keine: "Feel the Rush, Hakurei-Clan! Fate depends on it.">Tewi: "Dream of a million bunnies clawing for your support, Hana! ">Toutetsu: "Yer' Lucky I'm on your side this time. Don't blow it like you blew all those girls Anon!">Pachouli: "Fly high! Do it not just for us, but for the Hata no Sekai inside all of us.">Meiling: "...True Dat.">Hana: "Ough... The vibes... feel so right.... Consider us Highly Responsive to your Sins! The world is made to be cute and like hell am I gonna let you turn it ugly! I'm going to unleash my power and show you the real super power of Gensokyo. SHRINE MAIDEN OF PARADISE STYLE!"I clapped
>>48114142the chinese girl threads fucked you up, huh? The terror matches Halloween, though.
happy halloween!
I wish you'd fuck off and die already.
>>48115103
>>48115103just two more weeks, Anon. Trust me.
>>48116600I don't.
>>48066773>Mimaanon has his family problems; Hanaanon was situated on US soil and had already difficulties writing consistently with him working solo in a storeWhen was this mentioned? Or is there actually a writefag Discord we haven't been told about?
>>48118620When was this mentioned?throughout an entire year. Mimaanon would often put in his author notes the hell that was one of his family members; Hanaanon would talk about basically dealing with a business alone and, around Thanksgiving, how he'd be commemorating it. Both scattered throughout past threads.If they were telling the truth or not is really none of my business.>Or is there actually a writefag Discord we haven't been told about?would make keeping in contact and so sure the other is still alive easier, but nah. We had an icechannel at one point, but it became unnecessary after the scare of the Obi-wan pasta passed.
>>48116600What are you talking about, somebody already posted the ending right here >>48114142It's already over.
The rain came down heavy and hard on the wilderness, further adding to the dreariness of the road that night, upon which walked just one person, a woman, who in her luck, saw a light in the distance and made for it. Tis all she could, as otherwise hypothermia would've surely taken her or perhaps something that dares even lurk in the night rain.To her luck, the light was a lantern, hung from a small cottage beside which laid another building which looked more decrepit. She summoned her courage, made for the door, knocked three times, and waited. And again, her fortune was good, a man, clean and good-natured, wearing the robes of a monk, answered the door and beckoned her in."Come, come in! You're soaked head to toe and the rain won't abate any time soon, here, let me take you cloak. Make to that side of the cottage and strip, there's a curtain you can pull, I'll have a towel and some fresh clothes for you, then you can come and warm yourself by the fire thereafter.The woman did so without comment or question, glad to have been welcomed, and joined the man by the fire not long after. He offered her some hot tea, which she took and drank from.After she was warm and had taken her tea, the man asked "Tell me, now that you safe and warm, why do you travel the night in these woods? There's dangers beyond the elements you know."She swallowed and made a noise as if she had forgotten how to speak. Despite being chilled by her journey, her beauty still shown through, with rare straight and vibrant blonde hair tied atop her head, pale, radiant skin, and slit eyes."I was traveling with a band, our camp was attacked though, and I fled into the woods." she struggled.The man nodded and did not ask for more. "Well take heart, you'll be safe here for now and, if you had good company, I think they'll find their way here soon as well. If you'd like to retire, there's a bed over there, I'll remain to watch for them though. Wait just a moment, I'll have to refill the lantern." He said as he rose and turned away from the woman."W-wait just a second!" She struggled out. And the man turned back to her, expecting some request or perhaps even a word of thanks."Let's not wait for my friends, I don't want to share." The woman said in a low voice as she dove for the man's throat.
>>48120535And that, Chen, is why you never open the door for strangers.
>>48120535The woman awoke, her arms bound to a rough wooden chair so that her wrists were face up and fingers lay flat. As she looked around, she saw on one wall a black board with a grid, within which every column but one was completely filled, a table next to her had several metal instruments as well as papers with square holes punched out of them, on the other wall there was a shelf with all manner of jars, some of which contained spices while others held jars of strange organs suspended in fluid, and next to her, stood the man in the monk's robe."Good, good." he coo's "I always worry about how much sedative to put in the tea, I never know who's going to show themselves until you knock on my door, and then, well, even I can't tell from just a glance behind those glamor's sometimes." He said, as stroked her large tail that lay freely behind her, but with a few seals laid upon it."This is proof though, a Kitsune. The last, piece, of proof, I need." He said, his words carefully range, bit by bit."Human..." The Kitsune uttered in sheer contempt "I will feast on you as you still live." "Oh, do not be so bitter. You lost the game fair and square. Had you checked the other building first, you'd have seen the kind of person I am, but you all overlook it. Why is that? I thought Youkai lived where humans don't, ah, but I guess they're many humans living in squaller in this troubled times." he mused.The Kitsune said nothing and merely bided her time, testing the tension of the belts that held her, poking the air with magics to see if the seals were weak in one place or another, taking in every detail of the room for something that she could use to her advantage.Clinically, the man watched her, knew what she was thinking having done this many, many times before. He took one of the sheets with the square punched holes and placed on bare fore-arm, sliding his hand over it so the adhesive would take."Despite your misgivings, I'm not interested in your life, only in completing my research. You need only do one thing, after I apply sample to your skin, I want to give me a number with your fingers, from one to five, on the level of pain you experience. And, if you happen to feel pleasure, you can form a fist instead." he explained, taking the restraint off one of her fingers.Instantly the Kitsune tried to create a hand sign for the first magic that came to her mind, but before she could finish the man took a hammer he had concealed at his side and smashed into the armrest beside her hand."Ahem? It doesn't have to be your fingers miss. There's man ways you can, signal, a number. Blinking, the fidget of ears, tapping your foot..." He murmured, gently caressing her foxine ears, the side of her face, and crouching down to her leg to rub her thigh. "But fingers are the quickest and most accurate. Let's not resort to less efficient and error-prone method hm?"The fox merely stared at him, unbroken be his threats."Well, I'll take that as a yes for now and thank you, for not cursing my eyes to suddenly develop spontaneous cataracts! Or was that the sign for filling my stomach with thorns? Hmm, never you mind, I'm eager to begin." He said as he took a need from the side table, dipped it in a fluid, and applied it to one of the squares.The fox felt... relief. Soothing aloe had been spread in the square, she made a fist."Very good. Now this..." He said repeating the operation with another needle, another sample, another square.It burned, festered, and seared her skin. She pulled hard against the restraint and bite on the gag in her mouth until the man wiped it away. Her hand formed another fist."Huh, no no no..." The man said, quickly tearing off the paper from the foxes arms. "The first three are calibrations dear! Yet you all, always, lie!" He grumbled, crumbling the paper and tossing it into a bin. "Why, do, Youkai, hide, so, much!" He yelled to the ceiling as rain beat against it from the other side. "It's so frustrating! I have tomes, TOMES, full of your weaknesses, filled with my time hunting your kind and yet you all treat me with such indignity. As if I was an ignorant stranger! As if you all don't have as many chinks in your armor as we do! Well, I tire of deception, of pride, of all of things you use to drive us away. So, I'll expose it, and finally, we can be together." he nodded happy. The man took another slip of paper and set it on her other arm and began the test again. This time, the Youkai didn't lie.
>>48120756Sample after sample, test after test, the man continued to apply new substances to the Kitsune's arm. Sometimes making a remark or two, other times remaining silent, but always, always did he mark an empty square in the last column of the blackboard table behind him.To the Kitsune, it was agony. One sample would send a chill down her spine but leave no harm, another would cause her skin to squirm and heart to race for minutes after touching her. It all dragged on as the night rain continued outside, unabated, uncaring. Until finally, only one unmarked square remained, on her arm, and on the blackboard's grid."You've done well, very good in fact and now we have the last, most important, sample..." He said, pulling a vial from his pocket that seemed to contain ash. "Pure, human, extract." Her remarked, tapping the vial with each syllable. "Not just REMAINs, mind you, nor something more PURIFIED. No, this here? It's a constant. First you take a corpse, a complete corpse, and you give it it's rights. Then you take the bones out, leaving the flesh in the shape it was, and grind them twice, pouring salt into the mixture as you do. The eyes need to be laid and covered in the bone meal and the flesh must be buried and not disturbed. Once a year has passed, the eyes will be subsumed by the meal and reduced to this." He explained, setting the vial on the table and removing it's top."This is... a grudge with no motive that somehow doesn't fade. And it has agonized all the Youkai I've brought here, every, single, one. Some, even asked me to put them out of their misery afterwards. It's funny, something so mundane and trite would be a universal weakness for you all. Not a legendary herb or metal or gift from the heavens, just a little kitchen recipe that anyone who happens upon a battlefield can do. A 1 to 1 exchange rate for a Human and Youkai life. Well, if it works on you that is."Now, finally, the Kitsune's eyes widened at the mixture. Not one of her many senses could detect it and it was only by how mundane it looked in comparison with everything around it, acids, aloe, poisons, salves, but the bone meal, the EXTRACT, it just was, and she felt that if something so unremarkable touched her, that she would cease to be. The man put a hand over her bound one. "Just one more." He told her as he poured the meal over the last square.Black, the entire world turned black. The man was gone and the Kitsune still sat bound in the chair, but she did not wait for long, as from the shadows mishappen forms began to appear. Red, mangled, faces that looked at her with not contempt or joy, but with indifference. She was passe, ordinary, and yet, they didn't turn from her, nor did they show any more interest, they just stared.Then, the world returned. The Kitsune was no longer bound in the chair and the man made a last mark on the grid, the same as every other mark that was in that row."Congratulations." He said, as much to himself as he did to the woman."You've just proven that the spiritual, no matter how obscure and elusive, is not immune to humanity." With hot anger and rage the Kitsune lunged again at the man's throat, not to feed or for pleasure, but for vengeance, hot, hateful revenge for what she had seen and the man caught both her hands in paper seals held within his."There's that indignity again!" He said joyously. "I'll not ask you for your answer now, you should rest, at least here for the night, but now that I've proven my theory, I'll need help to see it's implications. Won't you come with me? See what this all has lead to?""Why do you even think that I'd ever want to see your disgusting, miserable presence for a second longer, let alone on a venture?" She snarled like a beast."I just thought you might like the antidote to the poison I gave you? It was square 14 by the way, you gave a 1 for it remember?" He said, pointing to a grid on the blackboard."Give it to me! Now or I bite through your throat!" She screamed."Well, the thing is... I can't! I haven't made it yet, part of my research you see! Research you could help with..." He trailed off.The Kitsune's arms grew weak, tired, and in her despair grew. 'Death' she thought 'I've brought you so many places, won't you come for me?'
>>48120895"Mama! Get up!" the toddlers voice sound as he patted the Kitsune's face.Restlessly she rose, gently holding her swollen stomach and groaning slightly. "Little one, it's far too early. You'll wake your sister.""But Papa's missing!" He said, his ears flicking nervously.The Kitsune sighed, the boy was needy, just like his father. Tiredly she pulled the sheets aside and stretched out her limbs, yawning as she did, and, with a little preparation, she rose to a stand and made her way over to the cradle, her tail flowing behind."Come, come on little one." She said in a low, sing-song voice as she lifted her second baby to her arms as the first clutched onto her robe.The trio, soon to be four, all made their way across the cottage and to the door, outside which they saw the man wearing the monk's robes, sitting, watching the early morning, fingering a bracelet he held in his hands which consisted of large black sphere inlined with silver veins."You've worried your son again." she said as the boy ran to hug his Father."Oh have I? Forgive me little one, but you snore so loudly!" He told him as he rubbed his head.The Kitsune gently took her spot beside him and waited as he kissed her belly, her daughter, and then her."You're still holding onto that? It'll bring ill fortune you know." She said, looking at the bracelet.It was the culmination of all the research, not the antidote for the poison she would later learn was utterly fictious, but a weapon, a sterile curse, capable of touching any being regardless of where it stood 'The Root' it had been named. It wasn't evil, nor could it be called divine, it was just a mundane tool, the most mundane of them all. "Well we're in luck then, an opportunity to do so just came in a message." He said, holding up a purple envelope, with white lace, that was tied with a red ribbon. The baby reached out for one of strands.The Kitsune sighed. "Just because you Youkai Hunters made peace with that woman doesn't mean you should consort with her further. Keep her at bay.""Oh, but you'll love this, she's making my dream true! The last bastion of Youkai that will ever exist, Gensokyo she's calling it, where a small contingent of humans will live to sustain them.""Like cattle?" She asked, stroking her son's head.Although her children had fox ears and instincts, they still had the mark of humanity within them, and so, the thought of them living in such a way disgusted her."No, the numbers don't support it. She says they'll live like normal people, just in fear of Youkai attacks, but, and you'll love this, protected by the remaining Hakurei line. Whatever parts they need, she can source from those that would die regardless elsewhere.""Sounds like a scheme she'd concoct. It's bound to fail." She said."But that's just it! Humans and Youkai, so close together, so dependent on one another... eventually the walls that have been so carefully constructed will fall. We can finally move on." He hummed, looking on to the rising sun."And how does that deal with that thing?" She asked, scooting a little closer."If, or rather, when things go wrong, the lady in purple and her cohort want certain items in place that'll right the balance. She wants Youkai hunting tools, these items we hunters sharpened for years and years of war, just in case. This bracelet will be a ticket to a nice little home where our children can chose to live as they'd like."'good' she thought 'finally that miserable part of their history could be put to rest' and still "What about the person who one day has to wield that thing? Are you really okay with cursing someone in the future?"He hummed and set the bracelet back into his pocket. "I think, unlike a spear that can cast lightning or a pot that can conjure flame, somebody who can find a use for this thing is probably of a careful mind. And, in couple centauries or so, that Lady in Purple will probably go a bit mad, so maybe she'll need the help. In any case, I didn't ever think of this thing as a weapon or a curse, it's more like a wedding band." "You're beyond foolishness or help even thinking to help a crazed Youkai 100 years into the future." she scolded, laying her head on his shoulder. "I hope we both don't live to see it."And there's my Halloween special. I had this idea for how 'The Root' came to be and the horror theme aligned with the season so I gave it a shot. Apologizes for any roughness, but wanted to just get it out. As to how the two fell in love after the whole incident, stranger things have happened!
Cold fusion is a lie, a scam, and the coward’s choice of nuclear glory! If you want some good and stable energy, you also need the flashy and radiation-packed explosiveness of fission. Just sticking some D-rich palladium and expecting D-T and nigh infinite energy, all done in silence—mostly: the crushing of particles going light-speed is still cool—is utter lame. The passion of my words, however, does not seem to reach Koishi-san, her eyes full of shine locked on her baby's as, biting his left knuckle, he looked around the Human Village confusedly, focusing on the screaming people fleeing when they saw Koishi-san.Maybe they are performing a ritual of some sort or being dramatic like Orin?… Or they’re just weirdos.Eh, whatever it was, at least it wasn’t bothering Koishi-san. “What do you think is cooler, Junya-kun? Embarrassing cold fusion or kick-ass thermal fusion~?” The baby etched to his mother shifts his eyes from the scared people to me… then silently moves away to follow a passing butterfly. “Sheesh, you ain’t a cool guy…”“He’s also just two weeks old. Wait a few years, then you’ll have your answer!” Koishi exclaims, the goal of our walk coming to view— “And please, continue speaking about things I don’t understand in the slightest nor care about—they were helping with the crushing anxiety I’m feeling!” Eh…? I tilt my head, confused at the words. Koishi-san flings Junya up, the baby laughing adorably as the cord connecting them stopped him from going too far up. “I have no memory of this Anon and am freaking out on the inside about how he’ll react to a child neither of us were prepared for!” She says with a smile that shows none of it, catching Junya-kun.Ah, w-well…… “S-Suika-san said he’s the coolest guy, so no need to go nuclear over it.”The people freaking out scream something about ‘psychopath’ and ‘murderer’, the Youkai of the markets of the HSE packing and storming away lightning fast—But hey, we’ve just got to the HSE!“Do you think they’ll let you enter and show Anon-kun Junya-kun, though? I know little of brothels, but they ain’t a place for cute babies.” I express, skipping ahead and opening the door for the tired mother. She nods a small thanks and, just as I follow, scared and desperate people rush out of the doors, spewing like Elephant’s Foot. “Gee, what’s up with everyone today?! Those suckers nearly trampled me!” I sulk, combating the legitimate thought of throwing a nuclear warhead—a little one, of course. Just enough to flatten the village—on them… But nah, that’d piss off Satori-sama. So I merely show the running crowd my tongue before following Koishi-san inside.The place is… less crowded than what I’d imagined, with the front counter empty beside a plume of papers covered in tough words wafting down like a strong breeze had displaced them just a moment ago, no staff in sight; only Koishi-san and Junya-kun, the former sitting on the reception area and playing with the latter’s hair. Cute~“Where’s everyone…? Is this some sort of self-check-in?” I fish the paper who seemed to have the easier words and approach Koishi-san, the baby bag gifted to her by Eirin sitting to the side open.A Gap—one of those scary Yukari ones—appears over the counter, a face full of golden hair and a pair of fox ears rearing out of it. Her eyes fall on me, then Koishi, and she retracts immediately with a loud ‘eek!’.“I dunno, maybe? Only thing I know is that my heart may or may not explode—it’s throbbing…” Koishi-san sighs, Junya slapping a fat little hand on her nose. He giggles jovially, and Koishi-san joins easily.I grumble in frustration, scratching my hair and ruffling my closed wings against each other. The people above the Underground have a massive habit of overcomplicating simple stuff, and the more I read on this paper, the worse it seems—open-and-closed hours? Money fluctuation? Scenarios…? C-Changing clothes?!—; even worse comes with the realization all this overcomplicated bullshit spawns from evil deeds towards an innocent. Man, wish I could just blow up this place to ionizing radiation-packed smithereens… Eh, whatever. Tossing the paper over my shoulder, I plant my fists on my hips and, with a daring smile, declare: “Since no one is stopping us, let’s just stroll over to Anon-kun and show him Junya-kun! Sure he’ll love him!” That seemed to uplift her spirits… or not. It’s tough to tell with that smile of hers. “Though, by what I got off that paper, we need other clothes.”“Other clothes…?”
“Yeah, let’s go get dressed!” Thus, I lead the way inside, the annoying door on the way dissolving under the exquisite threading of possibly 580 trillion neutrons. Surprisingly, some weird little people were standing behind it—safe from the radiation? Eh, probably—, their wide eyes on me and Koishi-san, who’d just huffed as she struggled to get up and sling the baby bag over her shoulder, the little people’s skins colorless as the background of a half-life chart—wait, they’re definitely part of the staff! “Hey, guys, could you help—” And they’re scramming and screaming at the top of their lungs, begging for Yukari to save them from the… psycho. That again. Koishi-san eyes me expectantly… Oh yeah, I said I’d lead the way.Not that I know where I need to go, but I’ll figure that out in time.It took some time…“Utsuho-chan, my legs hurt…”“I-I’m sorry, Koishi-san…” I whimper, scrubbing her back covered in bubbles and some nice-smelling conditioners—heh, I stole some to bring back to the palace. Satori-sama will be happy~—with a sponge, Junya-kun watching carefully the shallow water he was on. This place was so impossibly confusing!! Somehow we’d ended up at the storage, outside, a crematorium, and a goddamn theme park before reaching the baths, and throughout every moment of the way some weirdo tried to stop us, though they’d all have the same reaction upon seeing Koishi-san. Why the fear? She’s so cute and affable, especially holding her baby and looking as if on top of the moon—with a suit, ‘course! Being on top of the moon without a sufficiently proper suit would just get her killed~! “Do you have any idea why people run away screaming when they see you, Koishi-san?”“Perhaps they think I’m ugly as all hell and beyond! Apparently happens to a lot of women after pregnancy, and many end up committing suicide. Though the anxiety of seeing Anon-kun is making me consider doing the deed!” She looks very deflated, but I scoff, soaking her with the water and conditioner after making sure no alpha radiation had seeped into the water.Wait, those thoughts she’s having… Those are bad thoughts! “I think you’re pretty, Koishi-san! Everyone in the Underground does so, and I’m sure Junya-kun will too!”“Thanks, I don’t want to kill myself as much anymore~!” She beams at me. Hell yeah! Still, she turns to Junya-kun and pets his head, her smile kind. “But don’t you develop an Oedipus Complex, please and thank you.” A what…? Meh, if she’s saying it probably is terrible— “It’s when the son wants to have sex with their mom.” Koishi-san explains.… Ah.Sighing, I hop onto the baths, soaking in the chemicals. “…I feel dirty all over again.”—Sadly, they didn’t have a miko outfit for Junya, which meant the baby had only his diaper and couldn’t be part of the ‘wearing the Hakurei Miko clothes’ club—comprising me and Koishi-san—as we walked towards the ‘Fake Shrine’, gladly unmolested by weirdos trying to diminish even more Koishi-san’s self-worth. Before we got there, though, a bakeneko strolled down the corridor, holding a paper and looking between confused and tense, talking to the rather carefree little blonde girl to her side. Their eyes fell on us and, whispering among themselves, approached us… Well, we’d have met anyway since we were walking the same corridor—b-but hey, they didn’t run on sight or scream like fools~! Baby steps. “Hello, kids! I’m Utsuho, and tis Koishi-san. Could you help us a moment?”The bakeneko tried to speak, but the other girl wearing some weird glasses—aviators… indoors—spoke first? “None of that ‘kids’ stuff. I’m BAD cop,” she points to the other girl. “And this is GOOD cop. We’re looking for a psychopath.”“A psychopath? That sounds dangerous.” Koishi-san hugs Junya-kun closer.… Wait, I think they’re speaking of Koishi-san— “She looks like this.” The tense Good cop, with tails wavering and shifting, ready to jump at any odd movement, shows us the paper: a disturbing doodle of Koishi-san lies on the page, her skin pale as milk, bearing owlish eyes and a peculiar smile. “Have any of you two seen her, Miss…?”“Utsuho, Koishi.” The bakeneko nods, frowning.“We’re gonna rough her up good.” Bad cop confirms, though her wings and their crystals shake a little.“I haven’t seen her.” Koishi-san turns to Junya-kun. “Have you?” He doesn’t answer; he’s staring at nothing on the floor.That seems like an answer enough for Good and Bad cop. “What about you, Ms. I-overcompensate-with-my-massive wings?” Bad cop—w-wait, that was so rude! I am not overcompensating! “Too shaken to speak? I would be too. Just thinking what this monster could do to me… Uh, my wings shudder as if chucked into cold water or something. Be careful, ladies. Let’s go, Good cop.”“But, Flan, we didn’t even…”
“They’re useless to us—one carries a baby and the other pisses me off with those big, majestic, and overly compensating wings,” she smiles for a moment, looking proud. “Heh, Ms. Seija’s course on how to be a bad bitch is paying off~let’s continue patrolling, Good cop!” The bakeneko scowls, looking between me and Koishi, then the paper… then towards the clothes we wear. She sighs and walks off after the other cop.Puffing my cheeks, I shift my gaze to Koishi-san. “Such jerks.”“At least that drawing was very cute~”The Fake Shrine is… Well, I don’t know what I was expecting. It looks like the Hakurei Shrine, which means it looks boring, old, and uninteresting. I like my architecture brutalist and enlivened with the well-oiled machinery of the nuclear age~We stroll the snow-covered path, just enough white to not be bothersome, and the trees stand tall yet naked, the chilly wind groaning as do the worn-out floorboards as we get to the veranda and huddle by the shogi doors. “… Are you still scared?”“I think I’ll pass out in 10 seconds.” Her smile is faltering, her body is trembling, and Junya looks stressed.Shit, this is bad… But that’s still 9 seconds of action!Now or never! Nuclear meltdown or glory!I chuck the door open to a… quite boring though cozy interior—b-but that’s not what matters! The man snugged on the kotatsu looks up from the eight-legged thing wading on his hand, one hand shooting to his clothes and fixing them instinctively, the pen he’s holding until now to scribble on the notebook rolling off the kotatsu, but he freezes as his gaze follows me dragging Koishi-san inside by the shoulders, the woman frozen like a statue, and, a little on the rough side—you won’t split the atom with tenderness, anyway—slam her down into a sitting position opposite to him on the kotatsu, Junya-kun’s head barely rearing above the wooden surface. “… I’ve never seen you two before.” He mutters.A-At least he hasn’t freaked out yet about a psychopath.A moment of silence. “This is our child.” Koishi-san presents her baby, putting him on the wood.Anon stares…… Then, Junya-kun’s eyes move to the spider the man was holding, and there’s a sparkle of childish joy in there as his little arms spring forward, trying to catch the bug.Anon seems to have an epiphany, eyes growing even wider. “… He’s mine, yeah.”Koishi-san sighs in relief, “I’ll explain in a minute.” She smiles, nods——and passes out with a face of pure joy, arms spread on the floor of the kitchen. She’s drooling, which is dangerous, so I kneel to shift her to a more comfortable position. Anon has approached the boy and is showing him the small and docile spider; the adoring giggles warm my insides like a girth rod of thorium~But, gee, even knocked out cold Koishi-san looks happy and at peace~ “I still have no memory of ever seeing you two here—and wasn’t told you were coming, either.”“It’s our first time! Koishi-san doesn’t remember coming here either, and no one tried to guide us throughout this place; they just ran away from us! We had to figure it out ourselves! It was so hard and we walked so much…”His face completely shifts to flabbergasted. “Which means you two… invaded the place alone; got through all security and just… strolled right inside?” I nod. He seems at a loss, moving Junya-kun to his lap so the baby could better watch the spider. “And Yukari just…”“She didn’t try stopping us, which’s nice. Though everyone kept thinking Koishi-san was a psycho or something—it was so annoying! She’s so cute, look!” I hold her by the cheeks and move so Anon can see more of her face… Uh, I probably shouldn’t have held her so energetically; now her expression looks scrunched up like she ate a lemon! B-But still! “A-And she even has a little baby; she’s a proper mother and pretty cool! She wouldn’t nuke a fly if she could avoid it! Why were people so mean to her?”The man giggles incredulously and, scratching his head, shrugs. “Who knows?” He pauses. “… Do you want tea until Yukari eventually comes around?”“Do you have some flavored in anti-matter?”“… Yeah, I guess. Dolly,” A trembling and scared doll brandishing a knife slowly leaves from behind one of the cupboards, her eyes over Koishi. Seeing no imminent danger, she relaxes, Anon taking a moment to show Junya to her before saying: “Could you fetch the bananas?”Oh, so that’s why everyone is obsessed with him.He’s husband material~
>>48121530>>48121525>>48121518and this is how a rumor seeping from beyond the fog got Koishi and Utsuho to solo the HSE. Impressive feats and with 0 suicide bombings. Nice!just a silly Halloween special~!happy Halloween!
damn, Ayaanon missed a special? Sad, his Halloween contribution last year was fun. Props to the writers that chimed in though.
Contentless bumpo
>>48129485bump itself is contentless
>>48130426The bump is due to lack of content.
>>48121518>>48121525 >>48121530Cute! The Not-so-spooky Kosh and the nuclear raven save the day! Nice choice of wing envy from Flan- Although her wings are nice as well, of course.
>>48121530>A moment of silence. “This is our child.” Koishi-san presents her baby, putting him on the wood.
>>48132840She's got questionable social skills, please forgive her.
>>48131325the wing stuff was a more wholesome attempt at Flan's wings back in KKHTA. The sheer iconography of Flan's wings are matched just by Reimu's sitting
less than a week until the deadline. Even if he doesn't return, hope hanaanon is doing fine.
>>48147167Hurricanes can't keep getting away with killing good writers...
>>48147167I know this is a hobbist project and people can fuck out whenever, but he hasn't checked in for a while. It is a little concerning.
>>48151110True, I hope he's okay.
>>48151110same, though it soothes me the thought that rather an actual death took him away from us, he just decided the strain of keeping up with in-universe events; post-Festival stuff with Kasen and then the Solstice would be too much on his health, so he abdicated from the project to focus on his health and job. It is sad, naturally, but the thought means he's focusing on himself first; wouldn't want it any other way, be it him or any of the others.if it serves as consolation, I'll make sure the HSE reaches a worthy end, no matter the strife.
Waiting patiently for the next flowchart update
>>48151228may take a lil' bit, got a job interview tonight and been preparing for it the last few days. Either tomorrow or after tomorrow I'll be posting.
>>48151195I'm still hoping he's just trolling
>>48139396that's a given in the mega extended Hakurei family~
>>48164858>Mother had limited social interaction and was prone to weird lines of thinking as an adult>Closest thing to a grandmother is a megaautist with zero morals>Father was a /jp/ user. Even if she hadn't lived the life she had, Hana would still be a autist.
>>48170844Anon turned out pretty well if you consider your average /jp/ user. Got himself some skillz, is the highest possible authority in spider facts across Gensokyo and though his attempt of 'I can fix her' didn't quite land, at least the cat he got Reimu shifted the worst of her personality into suicidal temptations. It's an improvement, somehow. Hana in the other hand got destroyed in the birthright department and inherited just a little of the cool stuff, and a lot of retardation from both parents.I'm sure her offspring won't be as autistic!
flowchart of last thread coming through!https://files.catbox.moe/zh7tpm.pngfor writeanons to guide themselves and for everyone to remember our boy with fondness.
>>48094208After encountering the child-hunting Youkai, the two spent the rest of the day looking over the village, taking it all in, until the sun began to touch the horizon and Seija waved Goro over to an empty building.First the Jaku hopped up on a box and jumped to the roof, extending her hand, she took Goro and pulled him up with her. They could've flown or played all manner of tricks to avoid such an exertion, but it seemed necessary to both of them. then the two walked over to the ledge, which gave a nice view over the village and the soon to be setting sun, and sat down side-by-side to keep warm. "Say, is that Chen handing out scarfs?" Goro pointed watching as the cat handed patterned garments out to the villagers while riding atop Mokou."I think it is! Can't wait to hold this one over the phoenix woman in her own home." Seija snickered."You should hold onto to it longer, wait until she threatens you first and then use it to disarm her." Goro Suggested."How devious, and if she doesn't flinch?""Well just imagine her wearing a cat-shaped hat and she'll be as threatening as a kitten." The two laughed at the immortals expense."Hey, why did you cut that deal with the Douji runt? Never seen you force things like that on someone before." Seija asked.Goro rested his chin on his hand and pondered for a moment. "I guess I wanted to understand a little better, what's it like to do the kinds of things that I thought were wrong, but for the right reasons."Seija put her head back and groaned "You mean you wanted to understand what it's like to be Yukari.""Hey! Yukari doesn't have a monopoly on dubious actions for the alleged greater good! There's Hijiri, Kasan certainly has some skeletons in her closet, I've read books about Okina's actions, and I'm sure every other big-wig has swallowed their pride, forsaken their vows, and did what they thought was necessary when the time came for it. I wanted to know what that was like, before we meet Keine-Sensei, if things shake out and we find ourselves in a position like that." Goro explained."You mean being a shadowy mastermind orchestrating events, reviled by the public, and willing to do whatever it takes to get the world we desire? We already have at least two of those things you know." Seija said, tossing a stone at some birds."Well I think you'd look lovely in a dress with bows as a mysterious, diabolical, and secretly altruist, villainess." Goro said, wrapping both arms around Seija's neck and pulling her close."If you try and stick me in a dress I'll put you in one first, tie a rope around your neck, and parade you around the village as my property." She threatened, jabbing her horns into Goro's chest before asking: "How did it feel though? Taking away that Youkai's choice?""Like nothing in particular. I don't regret it or feel frustrated that I compromised on my own ideals, maybe they weren't that important to me after all? Or I just misunderstood how I felt, after all, it felt like every other bargain I've made. She said I 'cursed' her, I think that was accurate. Whenever I've wanted to make a deal with someone I'd always try my best to make it so they wouldn't, or ideally couldn't, say no. Of course it was in their best interest, but with conditions like that, having some exchange like a handshake or kiss, and an unbreakable agreement...""Sounds like you laid a curse on all your business partners?" Seija said, running her arm over his and huddling closer."Yeah, curses. It was odd that they made so much sense to me, so maybe I've just been doing that all along and hadn't realized." Goro said.He leaned back, pulling Seija with him so that she laid upon him and that the setting sun was still visible to them both."So the Buddhist witch's 'son' goes out on his own to have his own practice, only to find himself casting hexes on others anyway. What a dreadful reversal of intention." "Yeah." Goro sighed, rubbing her head.For a spell the two sat there and watched the sky turn from orange, to amber, to purple, and finally dusk. Neither really felt like talking and nobody was coming to the roof to disturb them for now, so all their obligations, their training, the rest of the world faded away. The future though, they still couldn't look away from that."I think, what I wanted most was to be able to look after people who had nobody else to look out for them." Goro finally spoke up. "All of this, it's because most of us had it pretty good, or at least were 'comfortable', but what about Anon? What about Hieda? Yukari? Sekai? And-""Our kids?" Seija said, gently rubbing the beads of Goro's bracelet between her fingers."Right. It's not glamourous work, and we're probably not suited for it, but for those two, someone has to do it. Give the neglected a last chance." Goro closed his eyes for a moment, trying to see the future he described, before opening them again. "Seija, I have to tell you what happens when I die."
>>48188383Alright, next up is the Keine meet-up and then the Jaku duo will be locked in. Feels like I've already written in my head over and over again so it's an uphill battle, but I'll pull through. Also, I propose that we set the deadline for beginning the conclusion on the winter solstice, December 21st.
>>48104684Assuming the deadline is set in UTC time, it has already been met 3 hours ago.Feel free to post away everyone.
>>48188639damn, sad he's gone, but I'm glad the waiting is over and we'll have some main storyline chapters again
“We are much the same in that regard, Hakurei-sama!”The twisting features of a demon and its spilled venom burned skin, flesh and muscle; the decaying rot seeping into blood vessels and coursing like euthanasia, melting my body before reaching my heart—a throbbing acidity that, agonizingly, withered all else. A bubbling sludge of decadence—my father’s harrowed eyes; Yukari’s demented smile. Echoing moans and whimpers of lust—lies where I stood, frozen yet aflame, phantom fingers yearning to skin me alive, but I run away from him and those words and the meaning they carry, but I cannot run for long, for those words wound the very fabric of my tender heart, unsafe even in non-euclidean worldlines, and they pester my ears implacably. I see that monstrous visage and cackling, rot jaw and gums, dribbling its innards with wild abandon.In the void, I hear my father’s weeping, I hear my Mother’s wrath, and I hear myself sneering with elation at the fear I struck by that small Izakaya.I hear a demon proudly declaring himself my equal.Screams echo. Some I recognize: amalgamations of terror, death and scorching fire.Words failed to leave me; to give any sort of plausible excuse—justification!I am a victim!… I have been a victim my entire life…The terror in the mob’s eyes loom over me, watching me as if a devil clad in red and white, no different from the Youkai I had exterminated—I protected you! I gave my all!—; in a corner, rolled into a ball, is Father, and I try approaching him, ignoring the senseless nature of this void, yet the more I try closing the gap, the farther away he seems.I extend my hand, eyes wide and brimming with tears.We are victims, me and you, Father! Victims of that senseless monster, of the apathy of this village—we’re victims of Gensokyo!I am a victim…When did that change?Father’s tears drain and a small smile sprawls on his face—how can I tell? I can’t see his face—my heart skipping a beat, this sense of righteousness befalling me. Father understands; of course he understands…… But Father is not looking at me. His eyes are on the bakeneko he cuddles so tenderly in his arms, who also smiles boisterously, sure to convey to everyone the sheer of her happiness.I’ve never seen Father happier—Mother is also there.Her rage is gone; her eyes are gentle.She kneels, and together they hug the bakeneko—a Youkai! She’s a Youkai!—and laugh to each other, their cheeks rosy and smiles wide, filled with glee. The speed increases, the word lines diminish despite my maddening efforts, and I cannot close the distance between me and… And a happy family.A happier family than they've ever been with me.I try to scream and rage against the chains of my own powers, but nothing stops me drifting away from Mother and Father, thick tears welling in this bodiless body of mine. How can they be so happy? Happy without me—with someone else?After everything she inflicted on me, ruining my life… After I ruined his—how?The cackling oni drowns me in his echoing laughter; Father’s pain is loud and acute; Mother watches me with a gaze that professes absolute, profound disappointment.… A sadness, too.One she tried to hide when she proclaimed her suicide.For me.Without me, s-she’d never need…Father laughs, throwing the bakeneko up before catching her, their joyous laughter continuing as Mother brushes her hair softly. They turn their backs on me and, before long, disappear into the void——A pair of arms catches me and I immediately recognize their soft, thin paleness. Yukari holds me close, and inside thumps comfort. I’m not alone to wither away, affection those wrathful eyes could never properly give; her sweet guidance numbing the pain scribbled all over Father’s body… But it lasts only a second before the blistering ferocity of her violent hold stands to wound my maimed soul, a pain I thought I could bear—already so much pain in the past; what’s a little more…?—yet that spreads like an infection, tarnishing every facet of my existence and blurring it together.There’s no breach, no escape. She holds me like a thing.Father and Mother have left, every wall or rock I try to lean myself on oozes pus, the festering wounds close in, the pale arms hold me as if the lid of a coffin, crashing waves of despair reverberate deep inside, yet without a mouth to scream those ailments go unseen, the excuses fade into the ether as the putrid walls swiftly entomb me.Kasen-nee holds me, Father holds me—Yukari holds me.It all hurts so, so very much.Though, in the dark, the light of the most beautiful flower I’ve seen—a flower harvested from the heavens—shines brightly and despite the ocean of anguish I find myself in, the moonlight petals provide guidance—barely, and it doesn’t cleanse the noxious, yellow plumes—air—that enter my hurting lungs, but…Yuuka holds me, Aunn and Marisa-sensei hold me. Sanae-san holds me.… I hold them with all my strength.Then, with a startle, I wake up.
Unfamiliarity welcomes me with the tenderness of a crashing Master Spark, blurs of lights and shadows that, for a moment, confuse and frighten, activating a primitive crevice of my brain that aches for the embrace of my parents—dad, m-mum! Help me!—layers of cold sweat crusting my skin and heaps of natural oil combined with sweat caking my hair, eyes wide and mouth agape, digits holding the blanket covering me as if my life depended on it… But only one hand held the blanket; a tender warmth in the right one clasped back, fear of purple eyes making me inch away as my doe-like eyes flew to it. A feminine yet calloused hand, like Father’s after a day on gardening, held mine, the arm attached to it coated in pristine white fabric, then a full chest draped in a flannel, red waistcoat with a yellow ascot followed before a cascade of green of wavy green hair framed her face—a green not as beautiful as her red eyes on mine or her gentle, if worried, smile.Yuuka utters softly, “… You were having a nightmare, Hana-chan.” Her thumb caresses the back of the hand she holds.And, as if the turning of a switch, my mind calms down.I am safe.Wearily, I look around——Immediately noticing the Komainu curled on the end of the bed and over my blanketed legs, sleeping tight and snoring, messy hair covering much of her face. Aunn… This isn’t our home. What happened?Though soon a perplexing sinking feeling overpowers me from beyond, eyes squinting as, in the silence, all the memories return: the bloody festival, the terrifying fires and the rolling clouds of unbearable death, the sulfuric stench wafting over my eyes and nose, both thinly protected with Hakurei barriers—many didn’t have the luxury, and theirs melted off…… Chills ran all over me with the decayed visage of Hieda.The confusing battle, Sanae getting shot and nearly dying, the death—‘We are much the same’… “Aunn-chan stayed awake all night watching over you. I’m glad you have such a sworn protector~” Yuuka says, and… There’s little I can do but swallow dryly the memories that bubble from deep inside, memories of fire and death and…Keine-sensei’s children are my siblings. Half-siblings—Youkai.She told me more aside from that, but everything is so scrambled up in my mind I can’t… exactly remember more; only that her children are my half-siblings and—Rage. That it enrages me.Oh, so much rage that courses and poisons, shriveling and melting, my teeth clenching with the pounding thoughts that race back to my mind. They took advantage of him! Shameimaru first, and now more—how many more are out there?! How can these people live with themselves, knowing what they did and the consequences of it…?This wrath is volcanic and insurmountable, like buckets of acid rivuleting down my intestines and triggering every synapse at the thought: invaders! Monsters! Rapists! Things I hunt, protecting those I care for… But now they’re my equals?! My b-brothers and s-sisters—Aunn mumbles in her sleep, ‘Ana…’, said in a serene, adoring tone. The rage is all-consuming—blessed by the Hakurei God as I was? I-It doesn’t make any sense… I’ll have human brothers and sisters through M-Marisa-sensei, all these others…… They may as well burn in hell.Burn, melting.A voice to my side calls me, and I turn——A slurred face stares back, pupils of thundering yellow, a mad grin in its bony features. Blood drips down like rainfall—inverted rain, bullets piercing white and green—bonfire of thunderstorms barely visible behind this monstrous form.Sanae’s blood flashes.All the deaths of people I knew of, the sheer despair flashes.A dagger presses against my face, threatening to peel it off like an apple…I cannot scream, I cannot run—not from this…What I see in Hieda’s eyes burns like hellfire.Horrified, I stare at myself.“—Hana-chan!”Then, it all melts off again, and Yuuka still stands there, sitting on a stool and staring at me with utmost concern; her hand has never left mine and… A little, faint light grasps my full attention. Resting on the corner table, a plant pot cradled the most beautiful flower I’ve ever seen. By it lies the red-white clover pin Father made me—destroyed, grazed by Hieda's thunderbolts—and the tattered, scorched ascot Mother crocheted me.Before I can understand it, I’m sobbing.Arms—strong yet kind—wrap around me, chest—a pounding, soothing heartbeat—cradles my face, my tears running with no rhyme or reason, thick and stressed. Yuuka didn’t even hesitate before starting the hug; word lines I hadn’t even noticed were there, laden in shame and terror, fading away with the wind as the hand not tugging me towards her brushes my hair. “… I-I…” I try, confused what my mind even wants to say.“It’s okay, Hana-chan.” Her intonation is calm and motherly, yet her hold is that of a statue.Against encroaching darkness—those purple eyes, that overwhelming lust, the burning guilt and the poisonous hatred—her arms feel like home, and words beg to leave.
They jostle and they scream and they trash inside maddeningly, my lips trembling and arms clutching this Youkai of Flowers to me so strongly I feared the knots of my hands would burst… But nothing comes out, no matter how much I try, the sight of the beautiful flower rotting in noxious fumes, melting into a foul, nightmarish picture of fetid black grime. The smell of blood was like rusted iron, and my tears thickened by the seconds. Yuuka-san never once released me, the seconds passing and this heart nearly exploding with the words, frustratingly barred from becoming more than swirling thoughts.That dirty tengu’s wide-eyed gaze comes back to me, full of fear.A moment of hesitation.Mystia watches the food I’d just thrown to the ground, terrified and clutching to that human.… I could have killed them so effortlessly…Burning eyes, black holes and electrifying golden—a sword, blood. Executioner of my teacher… mother of two of my siblings, who’d nearly died alone in the forest.My entire body jolts in silence, swallowing the words with broad eyes.“—Hana-chan, don’t force yourself.” Yuuka whispers reach me, and they drip with worry and exhaustion. “That festival… I saw what remained of the village. You shouldn’t have gone through it, poor girl.” Her crimson shifts to the flowerpot, and there’s a crippling loneliness behind them. “… I recovered our flower. She called to me—so, so scared, yearning for the beautiful girl she’d been gifted to.” The rhythm of her sentences takes me away from the waking nightmare, tears not drying yet brows furrowing. “I… wasn’t there to protect either of you.” A moment of silence; she’s thinking… And soon, she sighs: “T-The events of that birthday party, they… They crippled my emotional state so deeply I didn’t know what to do with myself.” She breaks off the hug, and I long for the warmth of the love that simply poured from her as I sat back on the cushion. Aunn shifted, deep in slumber, and an attempt to smile beckons me: she watched me all night. “I couldn’t bring myself to visit Anon, even after everything your father has done for me, a-and such depression made me again lose sight of what was important—your protection.” Plagued by reluctant gracefulness, her idle hand rises and finds place on my cheek. I lean on it, visualizations of melted off masks and pointy horns fading slowly, eyes on Yuuka’s face ridden with guilt and apologies. “… But look at you, Hana-chan. I can’t even fathom what you went through, yet you survived it all! You survived a beast I am unsure I could’ve bested. It wasn’t without scars…” Her hand holding mine climbs, touching the bandages—Hieda’s rage phase, frenziedly swinging those chains of liquid thunderstorms. It chills my spine, a terror I swallow. “But that doesn’t matter. You’re still here. So, while you heal, my girl, please do not force yourself. I trust you to tell me all I need to know in time.” She stares almost pleadingly, my dried-off tears leaving behind trails and a pounding headache, the words simmering in my heart…And peace.Peace that, despite those words that linger like deep wounds, begs no hurry—arms taking me away, watching Father and Mother boasting sunny smiles, leaving without me… I couldn’t fix anything——Yuuka holding me amidst the darkness.But I can fix this.To the side, the heavenly flower shimmers faintly.“… Yuuka-san,” I call her attention, fixing myself on the bed and being careful with my movements as to not wake up Aunn, then cleaning the remaining tears; the Flower Master mimics my movements, relieved by something… But that relief doesn’t reach me—the simmering wound boils droplets of blood that bubble to the surface. “I… at the birthday party, I… said some things.” It’s one of the least important things right now, yet between this and the festering wound, the bubbles feel much meek. “A-About Marisa-sensei and Father, how they’d form a…” Shame, burning and red. Yuuka definitely seems to understand what I’m about to say, and her relief drops. I grasp the blanket’s hem, just now noticing the intricate cartoonish star pattern layered onto it—we’re in the Moriyan Shrine, then. “… Good human couple.” I look at her, and though her features are despondent of the glistering relief, there’s still a light there—one I can’t place my fingers on. “… A-After everything I saw in Keine-sensei’s festival, I was wondering if…” A pause, tense and prolonged.Yuuka chimes in softly, “If it hurt me?” All I can do is nod, the shame eating my insides like a voracious beast. “… It did, Hana-chan. It hurt me a lot.” A voracious beast that grew unsettling big, like the polished edge of a dagger about to chop my face off, an apology on the tip of my tongue— “I love your Father like you wouldn’t believe, Hana-chan. He was the man who remembered me I am more than my reputation—more than a monster—and you the girl I saw first as my responsibility… But now, as family in everything but blood.”
Such words halt every single function of my body, and I stare at Yuuka in awe and astonishment.“… You two are the family I’ve always wished for, and I am ready to give everything I have to have that family—I’d be happy even if your father wouldn’t reciprocate my feelings, Hana-chan~just to be an important part of your lives… That’d be enough,” she pauses, pursing her lips and fighting off the tears. “The thought that none of that matters because of what I am… it broke my heart, Hana-chan.”Words, please, any words! Anything to offset the paleness of my skin, the horror that coats my eyes. Yet, familiar rage grows; it wasn’t an l-lie, just the truth——Yuuka’s hand grips firmly. “But I do not blame you, Hana-chan.”“… W-What?”“Your entire life revolved around dealing with monsters like the one I was. What you grew up with and what you were taught to do for a living—ridding Gensokyo of problematic Youkai.” She eyes me and I drink of the love her reds spew—not an ounce of judgement in sight; it tastes too sweet. I want to throw up. “But anything can change, and it always starts with a shoulder for you to cry on~” A slight chuckle, though it’s short-lived. “… No matter how hurt I felt, I’d still give you all my unconditional love and support, hoping you’d change your mind about me, Hana-chan.”Her words, her tone—her warmth…… From all that, I expected fuzzy feelings—some quaint happiness to facilitate the overbearing feelings that stir inside like crazy.Change…All I felt was dread.Change is something I’ve seen time and time again this last year. It started with the flickering embers of my rebellion against Mother’s tyranny, and before I even understood what was happening, everything was changing. The village has changed and became unrecognizable, trying to parse the old and the new fills me with… fright; Mother has changed—that worry in her eyes; her tears and words of suicide; and the time we’ve spent together——Change, complete and utterly. Good and bad.Unstoppable.The simmering wound in my heart writhes and lashes against the walls of flesh around it, terror towards her response to my apologies still a smoldering hollow; all this pain, whimpering and staggering, pointing at invisible shackles that, under Yuuka-san’s tearful gaze and gentle smile, grow and grow like sown seeds.Everything is changing, even me…… But I never wanted that.I never wanted to change what I am—this Hana Hakurei!Because…The festering wound swells, and the infection and its blight, sickly yellow—plumes of death, rolling and consuming—try to hold me back. Fear like nothing else; fear that rises the stomach acid.Fear that tries to chain me down.“Hana-chan,” her voice calls me, and though the dread does not dissipate, the red of her eyes never leaves me—as if beauty that triumphed even the heavenly flower to her side—the warmth of her hand. “… If you feel it is the time… then talk to me, would you?”“… I-I…”Eyes fall on Aunn’s soft green hair; Yuuka’s grip is vice-like yet also so gentle, like the crater of a meteor reclaimed by nature, draining me of inner fight. Hieda’s words and foul visage echo; Aunn stands by me as my heart collapses. Yukari had just destroyed the illusion, peeled off the charade as she’s done with my clothes, and Yuuka never left my side—a lifetime of horror, this one second holding her hand…“I’m a-afraid,” I gasp, not believing my words. “Afraid that… Changing what I am—what I have always been—” Blood runs down a broken nose; mother watches with rage unlike any other. Inside, burns defiance. “—I’ll end up becoming like her.”There’s no need of name; Yuuka understands.My heart heaves and my body shrinks with memories both new and old, a churning mess that seems to be a defining characteristic of my life, clinging to the Flower Master’s comforting touch to not fall into this sudden pit of misery that’d opened where once stood a bed. Shame, ardent and twisting, its origins unknown—something deep down knows that’s not truth and though the chains holding me down hurt like spasming worms on fire, the reality of my words threatens to create even more chains.The truth, the festering wound.Yuuka opens her mouth, about to say something, but a small and faint knock on the door—might’ve had been thunder, my mind springing back from the ether—, her mouth hanging agape for a moment before, retracting her hand, standing tall. “Such a small knock must belong to one of Alice’s dolls. They’ll be checking for any lasting damage in your body, Hana-chan,” her crimson eyes dart to the hidden scar in my arm, a trinket from the Hieda fight… Her eyes narrow with flaring disappointment. “If I was there…” A low mumble that is followed by a second knock on the door, Yuuka tsking and staring at me, my throat clenching— “… There was a time Reimu-san was a good person.”
A pause, body freezing and eyes staring at Yuuka in puzzlement. She bites her lower lip before continuing, a resolute light shining in her eyes.“She solved incidents, helped those who wanted to be helped and would do her job efficiently despite her laziness… She was not perfect by any means—no one is—but she tried her best anyway, and she was relished by her friends. Yet, there were always signs. Signs of something bad to come.” She sighs inwardly. “… Some believe she simply turned into a monster with the flicker of a switch, but I know what a facade looks like—how to spot a corpse party. I know what it is to struggle against demons.” Yuuka paces a bit, studying my face; her stern gaze sapped off humour. Only traces of tears and regrets remain. “Your mother lost the struggle and, rather than trying again and again—they say you Shrine Maidens have three lives~—she… gave up to desolation.” Another knock, one that goes unheard. “She stagnated in her debasement, refusing again and again to change her ways, and so she let the demons mold her into one of them.”In Yuuka’s eyes danced demons of the same cut of cloth—yet, demons worse than anything I’ve ever seen, Shrine Maiden instincts paralyzed and human nature shivering in face of imminent danger—an odd feeling washing over me, like déjà vu.But nothing came off that gaze.Yuuka shifted her eyes away from me and, gingerly, moved to the door. “… I’ll support you for as long as I live, Hana-chan, so be not afraid—but only you can save yourself from following your mother’s path.” A move of her wrist and the spell shatters, the doors opening and giving way for the dolls to invade the room en masse. One—Shanghai, if I’m not mistaken—stood by Yuuka to hand over to her a letter.She nods, and then, with a last smile towards me, leaves…… But not entirely, for her words remain, ricocheting against the bone of my skull and piercing the jello of the brain with a myriad of thoughts, the infatuated dolls assessing my condition through hugs and silent bodily gestures. Amusing as it all was—even Aunn woke up and was all over me, overjoyed that I’m awake… My sister—I didn’t feel… here. Rather, drifting alone with those thoughts on the sea of my mind.Change, stagnation…My eyes often would move to the three trinkets perched on the side table, an indistinguishable feeling rushing up and down this body, thoughts gaining purchase with drooped eyes and a rumbling mind, lingering first on the destroyed hairpin Father made me—things used to be so easy in the past. The path was clear; lines maintained, pain was bearable and familiar. The past was good—then on the tattered rag of the most vibrant, now ashen, green, given to me by her—everything has changed. It’s unrecognizable. Envy overflows at the remembrance of Mother and Father holding that cat; utter rage and perplexity at Keine-sensei’s revelations… A Youkai brother and sister, blood of my blood… Yukari, the things she’s done to me, to my Father. This present is tearing me apart, a spreading infection that outgrew its petri dish—and, finally, the pristine flower.The future has promises…… It nearly got snuffed in the fires of the festival.A melting mask of putrescence rejoices, choking laughter echoing from deep within, provoking the festering wound with so much righteous rage of this damned world and the things it has laid upon me.If only all the monsters would’ve burned down…… But this is also my home. A home of pain and torture, of people that, until last year, stood by as atrocities took place in the shrine—a place of soft arms and purple eyes, her lips calling my name—but my home nonetheless. I don’t want to set this world on fire like that hideous visage begs me to.Yet, swinging this pendulum to the other side, embracing the change that beckons their supportive whisperings, their showering of positive energy, praying me to become a better version of myself…A towering monolith of flames and death, Mother silhouette there.Enough to take away the breath of my lungs and clench every fiber of my being.Amidst this hell, I recall pinkish hair and warm flesh, and the fires die down with the wave of guilt that rolls forth, eyes fixating on the flower… Forcibly taken advantage of, a slave to factors out of your control, holding enough power to change them yet unable to do anything.… Do you feel the same way, Kasen-nee?I’d like to know.A-And… to say I’m so—“Hana-chan?” Aunn’s voice calls me, my eyes darting from the angelic bloom to her greenish eyes brimming with curiosity and concern. “… Are you okay?”I pause, if for a moment.Then, smile, pushing away one doll that’d clung to my nose, taking the chopsticks to my mouth, the meal brought by the dolls, and munching on the tasty meat—everything is always tasty in the Moriya Shrine.If only I had been born Sanae-san’s daughter…“I’m fine, Aunn. Just a little shaken.”
>>48196535>>48196527>>48196518>>48196506>>48196499well, the deadline was met and nothing of him. This sucks, and I feel empty, but that's life; unexpected to the mega. Will hold dear to the memories of writing this project together with him, but life goes on.first draft picked up immediately where he stopped and I had more or less twenty chapters planned to the end, but decided against it since, conveniently, Hanaanon stopped around where Hana became a focus in the festival, so everything she did is already documented, meaning it'll be more effective to explore that trauma as a blur of memory rather than the here and now. Will be posting the next batch and penultimate entry in her storyline in the following days, with the third batch being the last.which means it'll be all main characters ready for the Solstice.hopefully it isn't what will tear Hana apart completely; the levels of trauma are off the chart~!
GUYS! GUYS! I'VE FIGURED OUT WHAT'S GOING ON. THE REAL REASON THE THREADS HAVE SLOWN DOWN BECAUSE YUKARI IS TRYING TO KILL THE WRITERS BEFORE THEY
>>48204767we went on our own 40 (60) days trip across the desert and survived, so the hag is doing a substandard job.though she did snag Ayaanon, Mimaanon and Hanaanon, what a fearsome old lady...
>>48204767I wonder if the archive guy is still here he hasn't updated since the birthday event
>>48205169decided to refrain from posting for the duration of the waiting period since it was apparent the cycle of 3 weeks per thread was getting nuked. 32 is already edited, 33 is on standby and we're just starting 34, probably our last of threads before the solstice if I'm reading the writing on the wall correctly.
>>48196499>>48196506>>48196518>>48196527Hana's abandonment issues spring up again, she's thinking her parents won't love her at the end of all of this after all she's done. It's nice to see Yuuka again, and she's helping Hana confront her far of turning into a monster like Hieda or Reimu, good for her. Who knows, maybe she'll end being slightly less racist to all her siblings by the end of all of this! >they say you Shrine Maidens have three livesHeh, nice one with this. >>48196542It's unfortunate that he dipped out without saying anything, but in the end this is just a hobby project and people are free to back out and take breaks if they have to and they don't have to prioritize it above their other duties. Just hope he's doing well, his work is much appreciated.
>>48207579>Who knows, maybe she'll end being slightly less racist to all her siblings by the end of all of this!That's fanfic inside a fanfic lol
deleted 2k words today, feels good to be back on writing~
The girl—woman? Child…?—in the mirror stares back at me with owlish eyes and a stiff posture, sitting down like a gingerbread biscuit that’d stayed too long in the oven. Her rare skin is white as dough, and, unlike the usual red and white condiments, the baker has used blue and white for her clothes, starry patterns and half-done constellations on the blue of her skirt and the middle of the sleeveless shirt, her detached sleeves also embroidered in cosmic over deep lazuli. Shoes of black and high socks of white majorly stood out, hair undone with the lack of a clover hairpin and the Hakurei bands… Change, inevitable.A confusing feeling echoed inside as I gazed at the uniform of the Moriyan shrine gripping to my flesh—a nearly perfect fit. Irony sears the exposed skin with how wrong and… right this feels.The Hakurei God’s blessing resonates inside of me—I share it with Youkai of all things—and the malnourished seed of Mima’s faith, small yet existent, writhes… and here I am, wearing another Goddesses outfit. Kanako touches her chin as she measures me up for the umpteenth time, making sure nothing was out of place and I was presentable, a contrast compared to how mighty she displayed herself around the other young mikos. But that’s expected. Those mikos wear their emotions on their sleeves—Sanae is busy taking care of them and their traumas, as Suwako-sama told me before she left to attend some type of meeting she didn't elaborate on with a tengu—but I… “Something wrong, my girl?” Kanako-sama asks, hands resting on my shoulders as she stands behind me, the reflection on the mirror a sobering view: she towers over me both in width, stature and poise, incarnate fury of the sky, yet with a venerable truth in her red eyes. Everything ‘her’ is enough to make one hold their breaths to the point it burns… and burn it does, the Whispering Decay enveloping my taste buds with the remembrance of me laid on the ground and about to be butchered like a pig.I feel small. “I-It’s nothing, Kanako-sama.” She doesn’t buy my muttered words. Aunn, a little ways behind, watched the exchange with a frown while some dolls replicated Kanako-sama’s movements on her wild mane of green.She paces away, towards the mountain of neatly organized clothes and accessories of all types—stars spanning the whole rainbow, clips, pins, and barrettes. An entire room dedicated to beautifying the face and features… If I had been born from Sanae, I doubt this feeling of non-belonging would be pestering me—and breathes. “If you don’t feel comfortable in my shrine’s outfit, I can get you something else.” There’s an edge to that voice—the same edge's been there since she came to fetch me from ‘my’ room, a gaze I’ve seen my entire life and can easily recognize.She's withholding a secret.“No, it’s fine; I just… am thinking about what I’ll do next.”Kanako-sama pauses briefly, silence besides the dolls’ erratic and excited movements growing, but one that lasts until she returns with a—a-a pink headband?! A shock-pink laden with imagery of flowers and a cartoonish white cat, probably from the Outside World. “Any ideas in this cute little head of yours? Though you should stay around here to rest from the festival.” She speaks lightheartedly, posing the pink abomination over my forehead; her eyes squint, and, gladly, before I can say one word, she tosses it away and goes to fetch something else… hopefully something more tasteful.But that doesn’t matter. An idea born from the festering wound in my heart—even rubbish can grow life, no matter if such life is mold—swirls in my head, spiky in execution and brimming with guilt like an overflowing basin, yet… It’s something I need—must—do. Kanako-sama returns and even before the words leave me, her gentle digits combing my hair to test if the pin she holds would suit, I can see her reflected eyes narrowing.No sense in hiding; she knows something’s up.My hands press firmly on the white skirt, heart throbs, and I say with a soft tremble: “I want to visit Kasen-nee.”The effect is immediate, and the view of a true goddess stiffening like a statue is… disturbing. I knew it’d be bad from the moment the idea popped up, loaded with guilt and stark mental imagery of lust, but the way she just stops, mirrored eyes widening for but a moment before squinting into a knife’s edge, cold and unfeeling—or maybe feeling too much—makes my stomach churn with dread and a desire to throw up, the justification unable to leave me as, before any of us could say anything, Aunn yelled, stressed: “W-What?! Why?!”“Yes, Hana—why exactly would you want to visit our enemy?” There’s another question hidden beneath the surface of her intonation, and I swallowed dryly the jarring, exhaustive rage that sprung up: why do I need to explain myself to her?Such rage shut down with the mere sound of ‘enemy’.Kasen-nee isn’t an enemy! She’s a victim to all this, like Father and me…… Someone I took advantage of and raped.
But Kanako-sama wouldn’t take that for an answer, her body still towering behind me and making me feel small—gee, her breasts are so big too… Nah! Focus, Hana! Focus—, her slim yet strong hands holding the shiny accessories frozen as if painting. The wordlines allowed me to see Aunn’s face and the utter dread her features harbored, and even the dolls had changed their childish and carefree demeanor, watching me with dead eyes.Watched from all sides, the silence felt bloated with pressure, my heart rate skyrocketing, hands sweating, and I watch the girl—woman? Child…—in the mirror with a single thought consuming me: this feels like a prison.Then, a thought that catches fire and swiftly turns to ash, mangled before it could take roots. Here isn’t a prison! This is the Moriya Shrine; I’d know what a prison feels like; I lived in one for 16 years of my life. Just because I have to explain myself and answer some questions doesn’t mean it’s a prison… The talk with Suwako-sama is still fresh in my mind: a fracture in processing of scarring, but that’ll never close up if I don’t go up to Kasen-nee and… Do something. Say I am so, so sorry for her and K-Koutei-san… “I-I'll talk to Kasen-san to figure… things out.” Thumbs twinddle with one another; my posture shuts.“Is that really a good idea, Hana? I could see the vision before the festival,” the wind carried answers of all varieties, her facial features, though stern, also gentle. She heard me and Suwako-sama that day. “But you got affected dearly by what happened. You shouldn’t go around tackling difficult topics while not in a fit state of mind.” Aunn frowns slightly, though says nothing, which is good because I can barely pay attention to something but the anger that flares up inside. I’m in a good mind, am I not? I don’t see the same details I saw in the mirror that day before Yukari came and… T-That cursed expression of loss, of powerlessness. No! I was there to witness Hieda’s destruction; I saved sensei, no matter how much they teased me afterwards for fighting in the ‘easy’ zone—which doesn’t even exist!—a-and, and… And many other things.“I-I’m good, Kanako-sama. I feel better than ever, actually.” Shoulders try to firm themselves, an attempt to reinforce my posture, though a foolish endeavor with Kanako-sama standing right behind me… But when was it different? The shadow of Mother, massive; Yukari’s looming presence; Kasen-nee’s body on top of mine—n-no, not that!Sensei's gaze…Always under someone else's shadow…Kanako sighs, taking away the accessories she holds and switching them to a small miniature of a frog—a perfect copy of Sanae’s—, positioning it silently where once the Hakurei pin stood, and… Still in silence, all the rage drained, shoulders dropping. “No need to lie to me, Hana-chan. I understand, sometimes, there are things we must see through no matter what, and you’re a brave girl for not shying away from difficult topics.” She pauses, focusing on the mirror. A moment later I see a smile spread on her face as, effortlessly, she adjusted the pin onto my hair, hands now resting on my shoulders. “… Ah. Suwako probably would say something like, ‘Not like we can stop her’.” A moment of hope, crushed by those eyes of hers hardening. “But if you’re going to pay Kasen a visit, either we’re getting her here or you aren’t going alone.”“W-What?” I turn to her, bending my neck so our eyes connected. “I can go alone; there’s no harm—”“There is: Kasen is with Yukari.” I wince at her tone, the goddess never losing the severity of her stance. “And last time you were in danger, only dumb luck saved your skin—you should’ve summoned me and Suwako the moment you saw Sanae getting shot.” Another wince, the room blossoming with feelings that made me cringe. “Talking to Kasen in the situation we find ourselves in is dangerous, Hana-chan. Suwako may think she’s still the same as before, but I doubt it—I promised your mother that I would take care of you, and I’m not about to let you go against unknown circumstances by your loneself.” She speaks more words, but those ‘I promised your mother…’ deafen me.Of course that was the case. Mother and Sanae talked before I came here; of course she’d have been the one letting Sanae take me here after I passed out.It’d be her controlling my every move.Rage.Impossible rage, spreading through the festering wound in my heart like the plague, infecting all synapses and muscle tissue. My eyes never move away from Kanako-sama’s…… I see in her eyes the reflection of mine. I see a bomb about to explode.She understands, body jerking: “Hana, you—”Her voice barely reaches me as the wordlines shift and, by the fraction of the next moment, I’m gone from the chair and the room—and still was by the skin of my teeth, thundering heart and mind parsing Kanako-sama’s movements: she nearly got a hold of me! In the goddamn wordlines! And Kanako-sama isn’t even the strongest in the Solstice…How absurdly outmatched am I?
No matter. I ignore the non-Euclidean tears that stream down my face into the messy ether of millions of square kilometers of contained land, and people disintegrated and reformed onto themselves as I move between the 'empty' space of the Moriya Shrine, ancient magic, seals, and curses impossible to breach even in this non-Euclidean vacuum, meaning I had to maddeningly scramble out for an actual exit—a breach half the size of a grain of rice would be more than enough—, though not without outside interference. Traveling through non-Euclidean space doesn’t mean I don’t have to breathe still, but the moment I tried to pull in air, I could sense Kanako-sama’s divinity turning to me, her powers trying to wrestle me out of the wordlines forcibly, like heavy chains and—NO! NO! NO CHAINS!I bate my breath, body quaking and mind howling; Suwako-sama already knows about me and is searching as well, but by the time she enters the fray it’s too late: the Moriyan defenses are top-tier and beyond anything I’ve ever learned from either Mother or Yukari, but no defense can be perfect, and soon that miniscule breach appears—wait, how? I checked this spot twelve times. Why did this gap between two major curses just… spawn out of nowhere? No matter, it's here and I can use it—; mind's eye recalling Sanae’s legendary, though failed, sealing of Fujiwara no Mokou; her shrine maiden powers so unfathomably strong she summoned the lore of her religion as means to hold down a rampaging monster.When will I be that strong? Will I ever…?Maybe never.But right now, I’m strong enough to cruise through the breach I found——And the worldlines expand into the actual entire world.Right here, right now, I could be anywhere; I could be anything.Freedom in the very essence of the word.Yet, I cry as the echoing wordlines stir with Kanako-sama’s worries, Suwako-sama imprinting marks of curses on the fabric of existence as a means to make me hear: ‘Hana-chan, let's talk about this’, mind wriggling with desire to answer them, to stop with whatever stupid thing I’m doing—why am even running away from them? It's not reasonable! They're such good people to me! A-And Kanako-sama said we could bring K-Kasen-nee to the shrine; why am I doing this?—and just…Go back to the vast shadows of others.Like always.I’m sorry, Sanae-san, K-Kanako-sama, Suwako-sama…I am the freest person alive right here and right now, yet my heart begs to remain chained.Hieda’s maddening cackle echoes with insurmountable thunders, holding a knife to my face and about to peel it off.Helpless.Mother’s flames tower, their inherent magic incomprehensible; her fist has just broken my nose; she stands there, watching like a hawk as I kneel on the mud, tears overflowing, and retrieve all the offerings I had accidentally let fall to the ground. Mother cries, knees on the wood, and begs me for forgiveness—on my body the white clothes of Yakumo Yukari.Outmatched.Yukari clutches me like an object, eyes watching from every angle; she touches me, explores the depths of my femininity, and, triumphantly, whispers sweet nothings into my ears. Father cries somewhere among all this.… Powerless over my fate, the fate of my Father.In impossible wordlines, the clothes of the Moriyan Shrine remain static yet shimmering nonetheless on the weak sunlight, no speck of air wafting them—left hand reaches into my pocket—I see myself in Yakumo’s clothes, white and pristine, like a presented doll—I gently grasp the destroyed hairpin and torn ascot—and I see myself in the Hakurei red, something I was born into; never a choice.Shadows dance, pull me uncontrollably.They try to chain me down in their fire; their wrath and lust; their compassion—their everything.They beg me to change.In the infinite expanse of the wordlines, a world collapsed unto itself and frozen in time, I am the freest I could ever be.I alone remain unchained.This power…I bare my teeth, clasping the two broken trinkets, and fly the fastest I can to Kasen-nee’s Senkai. Suwako-sama and Kanako-sama already must be on their way, but I am quicker and can go through the entrance without any problems.I’ll have just a few minutes——The shocking shift from bitter winter to pleasant spring pulls me out of the wordlines like a jagged shovel digs a hole, body tumbling and rolling on the grass and dirt for the better part of two seconds. Thanks to adrenaline, the worst wounds and rashes are but inconveniences; purple lungs drinking of the tepid air with gusto, a momentary sadness bubbling inside with the few rips in my once pristine outfit… I’m so quick to destroy everything I own.It doesn’t matter. Not here, not right now.Not when Mother's shadow seeks to loom over me again.“Kasen-nee!” I yell towards the immense, slumbering dojo, the temperatures drastically cooling around me in answer, something barely perceptible with the sharp creaking of my lungs and throbbing mind. “I’ve c-come to talk to you!”
>>48218569>>48218547>>48218543this is half of the next batch because it felt it'd work better as a stand alone. Now back to rewriting~
do you guys read this shit or is it just one guy posting it like this is his own blog
>>48218543>>48218547>>48218569Poor Hana, that girl can't catch a break. Not even Kanako's attempt at being a mom helped her. But there's an awkward conversion coming up for sure with Kasen and Hana.
>>48221879It's three guys
>>48225062is it only three now? Hananon, Seijanon, and Guy-Who-Writes-Everythingnon?Guess that's what happens when you drag something out this long.
>>48222215That's the power of autism at play, bitch literally fucked her nice new clothes because she was pissy at being treated like a teen
>>48225077Hananon and Mimanon are gone, possibly dead due to living in the us and being hit by multiple natural disasters.Takaneanon and Ayaanon are still here trying to write as well, Suzuanon might be here but last we heard from them social obligations are keeping them busy.Patchyanon takes around 4 months to finish writing and is one of the most wanked writers here, so we might get another batch out of them before this is all over.And then there's Guy-Who-Writes-Everythingnon(Kieneanon(?)) who basically owns the project now that everybody else is gone.So it's a three with an asterisk attached, 3* Writer attrition has been happening for a while, the great leaving where a bunch of now former writers basically jumped off ship formally, and the he who should not be named situation are just the most notable examples I can think of off the top of my head. I don't think anyone individually is entirely to blame but some like he who should not be named along with Kieneanon shoulder more fault than others.Although for my part, I stopped reading when the Kiene story started taking over everything and I've struggled with paying attention ever since, efficiently taking a multi-month break to focus on an entirely new set of characters who have their own climax and resolution gives the story a sense of finality to me.The climax of the story already happened, and we know how the rest is going to go, so... Honestly I don't know why I've stuck around occasionally bumping and trying to keep up with these threads anymore, but I'll probably end up staying here to the end even if I have no idea whats going on anymore.
>>48188383"Noise or an assassin, noise or an emissary, noise or a ...." I repeat to myself as I walk through the halls of the Kamishirasawa estate.Having good hearing served me well in politics, listening to heartbeats to tell apart lies and preparing for troublesome officials long before they arrived at my desk. But it also tended to pick up more confusing things, like sounds that had no explanations, just noise.In particular, for the last ten or so minutes, I've heard the same set of footsteps walking away, never toward, the HSE in a predictable, oscillating, but always descending fashion. This was either the strange doing of some stray youkai, my own mind addled by the stress of founding a new government, or a very cruel and specific practical joke."Your highness, guests have arrived." A guard called called to me as I approached him."If it's not urgent, send them away. It's far too late for Keine to receive an audience." I told them, wanting to protect my co-conspirators health just a bit.For a moment the guard's face squirmed, before he moved his broad frame to reveal one man who had a woman, floating and clinging, to his neck from behind. Both wore Yakumo symbols."You are dismissed." I told the guard, who was all too grateful to return to his post. "And the both of you, why is it that you've come, Seija, Goro, did your Mistress not already visit us?" I asked them."So cold Crown Prince, and after we haven't seen each other in ages? I've merely come to pay a visit to my former Sensei." Goro said casually.A social visit? Or, was a mission by Yukari to lay on more pressure to force us to act? Perhaps neither, after all, If it were an intimidation mission, then why not chose the mob boss instead? And even if Keine knew him, why wouldn't he send a letter first to know he meant no ill will? Or was it that he was desperate for help?No, even putting motive aside, since I had last seen these two the air around them had changed dramatically. They weren't at each other throats, on the contrary, energy seemed to circulate between them in a strange pattern unlike any I've seen before. Was this an experiment by Yukari? Were they victims of her somehow? And if they were, could they be unwitting throwaway assassins?"Ah, forgive me. There's been quite a lot of work recently and hospitality pays the price so that the people do not. Come, I'll show you to Keine." I said, inviting them along.From what I could tell, they weren't being controlled and didn't seem to be any sort of time-bomb, what's more, even in the worst case, this was an opportunity to remove some 'jokers' from the Yakumo deck. By myself, I could probably defeat the both of them, but with Mokou and Keine in the same room it'd be over in an instant and I had a few ideas on how to make it look like an accident. I signaled a guard to call the two to a meeting room."Say, did you happen to walk away from this building ten or so times without approaching?" I asked him, some light conversation to ease the mood."You picked up on that? Sorry to annoy you, we wanted to do a test and needed someone with more delicate ears and proper discretion to listen." Goro said.'Coy bastard' I thought, as I heard him stretch the 'l' in 'delicate' and the 's' in 'discretion', a simple slip of the tongue for most, but for a broker such as him, surely a signal. Had they come to betray their mistress?"You'll figure out soon enough." Seija finally spoke, lifting her head from the man's neck. "Is that Bibliophile here?" She asked."Kosuzu? No she left for the day." I said. The Jaku sighed, reached into the man's robe to pull out a thin black book, and handed it to me. "Tell her she did a good job not eating dirt and give this to her, it's a return." Seija said, putting her face right back to the man's neck."Of course." I said, turning the book over in my hand."'An Invitation to Curse Theory', a book on the theory and practice of creating, expelling, and the lifecycle of hexes, well, from the author's perspective at least. Theologically, I think Taoist or Buddhist might find fault in his explanations." Goro answered, anticipating my next question."You two sure the make the rounds don't you?" I told them. "Do we? I think most people are steeping outside their domains more often these days." Goro shrugged.My worries evaporated. I'd been on edge since it seemed like whatever strange phenomenon surround the two obscured their desires, but two strong wants stood out the most: "I want to see Sensei" and "I want to burry my face in his back". It wasn't anything to agonize over.Still, as I opened the door to the meeting room and saw that Keine and Mokou had brought their children, I wondered if I should've kept up the serious act. Just gotta get through it, just gotta get through it, just gotta get...
>>48230068wait, weren't Kiene and Mokou fucking after that whole meeting with Yukari? Insane that Goro would cockblock his own sensei
>>48231616You know, I thought to say something like:>This takes place a few days afterwardsBut instead, I'm just not gonna specify and leave it up for interpretation. The HSE could use some cock blocking frankly.
>>48234158>The HSE could use some cock blocking frankly.this reminded me of the cursed Shanghai one-shot and how Yukari cock blocked their cuddling post-sex...... I wish it hadn't.
>>48236147The Shanghai posting truly was quality.
Hello, yes, Do I have your attention?Good, I'd like to inform you of something Anon.This thread has not but one, but two themes. An opening theme and a boss theme for Sekai.Respectively they are Neil Cicieregai's Musical Chairs and https://youtu.be/AOsIMvEq788?si
>>48244485>Genericthat's so mean!
>>48244485>he didn't post her actual boss themehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jM-tpLMI9g
>>48248484Is this a wip?
bump
>>48255877always someone to steal your page 10 bump...not like I've finished editing still, though~
>>48255899>not like I've finished editing still, though~Should be>Although, it's not like I've finished editing yet.But please, keep at it. If your unedited work has the same level of quality as that sentence I quoted, then I don't want to see it.
>>48256064this gotta be one of the most disproportionate reactions to a minor spelling mistake I've ever seen, geez dude. I was being casual with that reply and wrote it without paying much mind, no need for that cringy, reddit-tier passive-aggressive addendum.
>>48256756>cringy, reddit-tier passive-aggressive addendumDo you realize what thread you are posting in, correct?
The moment the words left me, I felt the familiar chill of being watched, body unable to as much as spasm as my frenzied breathing continued to draw upon the tepid air of spring with need, yet my eyes met those that appeared first: slit pupils, the predatory stare of dangerous animals, thrown at me from a tiger whose head reared from the bushes surrounding the dojo, and the gawking eyes of a massive falcon or eagle, silently watching and ready to swoop in. But they do not move or pounce, for another pair of eyes shapes itself in the cold, chills straightening my spine and drawing from within bitter memories that snuffed the warmth of spring. I swallowed dry, instinctively reaching for my gohei—“—Do not, Hana.” Her voice stops me immediately, the front door of the dojo opening by itself, leading into pure darkness. Words formed on the roof of my mouth but remained unspoken. “Are you properly dressed?”“… Yes, I am.”A moment of silence. Then: “Yukari sent you?”“No, I…” as the moments drag on, those malformed words gain luster. “I-I wanted to see you, Kasen-nee, a-and…” I feel misplaced, lost, floating down an invisible river. A nightmare echoes with images from that night the Sage of Backdoors appeared before us; her words, Mother’s reaction—noticing now how my right hand had lifted, clutching so tightly to my forearm—, and I whisper, strained: “… I heard about K-Koutei-san.”Kasen-nee doesn’t answer, but her animals seem to react. The tiger’s piercing gaze dies down and his head disappears into the bushes, a note of sadness in the act; the eagle had already lifted flight, disappearing amidst the perfectly eternal spring of the Senkai… Immediately, though, my attention shifted to the overbearing darkness of the open doors, breath bated as that dimness molded into a silhouette, and the silhouette molded into a woman… A woman whose whole existence screamed exhaustion, shoulders dropped and brows furrowed; pink eyes and hair alike dull as ash, the latter caked with old blood, mouth a thin line and cheeks sunk; posture normally tall and stern diminished into the frailest of clay mounds and… I had to squint, but soon understood that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me: twin broken horns adorned her head, bloodied and jagged.Yes, of course. Kasen Ibaraki was—is—an oni.The melted mask clung onto her sunken features, and it took all of me to not throw up.“Sorry for the terrible presentation.” There was an attempt to make her voice sound strong, one that failed; her steps toward me bearing a discernible emotional limp yet never faltering. This is what a woman at her limit looks like. “… I haven’t been in my best for quite a while now, and… You know why already, don’t you?” Nothing comes out of my mouth as she places herself in front of me, about half a meter between us. “No one seems to be in their best recently, actually. Everything feels like crumbling apart—” Whatever she intended to say next vanishes in her throat, and she shrugs, sighing frustrated. The flower on her bosom looks withered. “How did you come to know? Yukari told you?”“N-No, there’s nothing to do with Yukari! I-I… I have distanced myself from her… D-Din't she tell you?” Kasen-nee’s eyes reveal nothing; her gaze peels skin off my body. Sweat pours down my nape; my knees jerk and threaten to fold like paper, and the frayed clothes feel heavy. I shouldn’t have come here alone. I don’t know what to say or how to a-apologize—the things I've heard about Koutei-san, Yukari’s cruelty, the things I’ve done to Kasen-nee… I-I should’ve listened to Kanako-san! This was such a mistake! I’m standing here like a stupid girl, heart pounding with the inevitability that is the Moriyans arrival here sooner than later, Kasen-nee watching me from above yet I cannot even match her sta—“Compose yourself, Hana!” The yell drains me of soul, my body jolting backwards, and broad eyes all over her. The impassivity is gone, her features morphing into… Sadness. Incomprehensible sadness, but one that doesn’t burden her body; one that doesn’t consume, chew, and spit out a hollow shell of a person.It feels like resentful sadness.“Did you go into the Underground?” A fleeting thought wonders why the manner I came to know of him matters. The rational part of my brain loudly yells ‘don't’. “Was it Okina?” I give a quick nod, which Kasen mimics, though striking a pensive face; my eyes stray to the stubs welded to her hair—hidden before by those white buns—the wordlines showing open veins and coagulated material like that of nails, if denser. The horns were big with such wide bases, and who tore them off her head wasn’t gentle. Only a handful of strong people capable of doing so come to mind, my stomach churning with the imagery of Yukari’s violent gaze of purple…But then Kasen turns and walks off to the side, following a path towards a cliff overlooking an idyllic spring on Youkai Mountain. Tense, confused, and a little shocked, I followed.
A pestering yet nudging knowledge accompanied the few seconds of walk, taking form in the notion that, sooner than later, the Moriyans would find their way here and… What’ll happen next I don’t know, and trying to think of possibilities makes the aforementioned churning grow into a devouring sandpit, legs wobbly and sinking, mind running circles and burning feverish—yet, compared to the thought of staying put and letting others take personal matters of mine into their hands, make decisions that'll impact my whole life without me having to lift a finger…This sickening rage was preferable to that insane, mounting helplessness.So much rage, too. What are its origins? All that comes to mind are the walls of the Shrine.Thick bushes, lush ferns and flowers of all types around us, all sprung and blossoming, eyes gazing at Kasen-nee’s movements as she followed the trail sunk into earth—sulks that dug deeper into the soil the further we got to the cliff—, words fermenting both in the roof of my mouth and scattered throughout my mind, though not finding a way out… “Y-You seemed interested in how I knew of Koutei-san.” I ignore my brain beating itself.“I wanted to know the extension of his suffering through you,” I tremble. W-What? “Yukari wouldn’t trust you anything, which I’d already figured out—more, you wouldn’t be in those clothes if she still cared.” Her tone is unflinching yet glum; her pace steady yet heavy. “… Okina would’ve gotten involved and sought ways to get rid of Koutei next. If it weren’t her, I’d imagine either Suwako-sama or Kanako-sama, or then…” We reach the edge of the pathway, the vision of a beautifully illuminated and blossoming Gensokyo sprawled in front of me—the sulks were also massive, to the point I had to slide a little on the dirt to reach the bottom. “Okina contacted you directly or tried to get to Reimu through you?” Carelessly, she kneels into an easy meditative pose with clear practice, her voice carrying skepticism.“You think she’d have failed if she'd tried to…?” The question leaves me before I can properly parse it out, her head moving to give me a sidelong glance of bafflement.“Do you?”A seed of a question, which my answer would make into either a tree or a rose. A block of cold heaves my stomach—Mother, crying and begging for my forgiveness—and, in my heart, the infection spreads—Mother screaming, the smell of strong alcohol and Father’s whimpering—, mouth shut as, slowly, I mimic Kasen-nee’s pose, two meters apart and hands hard-pressed on my knees… The night alone we spent, her words, her gaze following that cursed meeting with the Goddess of Backdoors. I hadn’t even noticed my right hand reaching into my pocket and, gingerly, squeezing the tattered green rag. “She…” ‘She changed’, the words attempt to leave. “… S-She did exactly that. She was there with me, and O-Okina… She tried to use me to blackmail Mother into k-killing Koutei-san—I never wanted that, the things she almost revealed…” I am not staring at Kasen-nee as the words leave me, miko instincts screaming for me to not look upwards; if I were to look up, I may see a bonfire of thunderbolts—or maybe something worse. “But Mother t-told her off, and they struck a… deal.” And just like that, the feeling was gone, my head shooting up, an agonizingly morbid curiosity trying to get a glimpse of it.Kasen-nee’s gaze is one part relief, one part…“… I see,” she muses to herself, tears streaming across a stoic face. “My other sister sage tried to get him killed.” A pause, as if tasting the venom of such thoughts. The chains around her wrists clink ever so menacingly. “… You’ve never seen Koutei, right, Hana?” The question catches me off-guard, but I gesture a ‘no’, Kasen-nee turning her eyes back to the sun, shoulders threatening to drop. “I never expected him to return from his ethereal journey into the kingdom of the Dragon God. In the other side, he’d live eternally and grow much more powerful—like a true dragon, he’d develop and maybe one day promulgate a Gensokyo of his own,” she touches the sunken earth with her human hand reverently, a shadow of a smile crossing her face, my brows furrowing…Then I glimpsed the edges of this small, sunken clearing and how even it all was, like the slope you’d often find in your pillow post-sleep.… A spark of confusion, of sheer trepidation: the WHOLE clearing AND the serpentine path we followed for maybe twenty seconds…?But the sight of Kasen-nee’s deep hurt as she tapped lightly the packed dirt was clue enough. “… How a-anything can be this big?” I whisper to myself, the feeling of insignificance prowling from inside. Keine-sensei had taught us the sizes of dragons, how they could cloud the skies, and that, compared to the actual Dragon God, the statue in the middle of the village was but a grain of rice.To hear is one thing; to witness living proof is another.… Mother will fight him in the Solstice; Yukari has enslaved a beast of such proportions.
My eyes glanced down, focusing on my hands, Kasen-nee’s fleeting chuckle barely reaching my mind consumed by a single thought: outmatched. Maybe forever outmatched. Forever living in the shadow of titans, with an uncertain future—Father in that sick parody of the shrine, his eyes full of sorrow as he pounds my insides—, the binding chains of fate smearing the name of Hakurei all over me, no matter if I wear the clothes of the Moriyan Shrine or Yukari's sick whites… And on top of everything—of this echoing laughter of a dead man and Yuuka’s words, demons dancing inside her eyes—inside my head I still hear the rustling of chains.Stagnation, Yuuka had explained to me, demons dancing in her eyes: never able to move away from these shadows and… Become something more. But I-I don't want to be something more than Hana Hakurei! Trying to change the core, to shift things haphazardly and expect the result to be recognizable—the village is unrecognizable! Sensei, Mother!… I don't want that…It feels like falling eternally.“Amazing, isn’t it?” My eyes flutter up, her voice laden with life—a painful juxtaposition with the dried-up blood covering her horns and hair. “… That such a powerful being would choose to return to me. What did he see in me? Was it nostalgia or an i-instinctive need that arose when I… when I watched him hatch from that egg?” Falling into a deep, dark hole with no way to climb out of it. “Or was it something else entirely? Duty—maybe… pity?” She lifts her bandaged arm, staring at it, my eyes unable to see her features. “Pity of everything I have lost along the ages and what I’ve become?” Her arm falls and, slowly, Kasen-nee turns to me. I can’t bear to look her in the eyes. “I saw you were looking at my broken horns. Sorry for this display…” A pause, and I nod, heart frozen and still falling. “I’m an Oni; one of the great fi—four of Youkai Mountain. I fought someone in the past and, in a stroke of luck, had my arm cut off and, with it, my Oni self. That day, I felt enlightened and thought that all bad, all evil of me was gone forever.” W-What… What is she doing? Trembling, I lift my eyes to meet hers. They’re overflowing with nauseating nostalgia. Terrible memories. “The seal broke a few decades ago, and when it did, I fought your mother. I almost killed her…” A moment of silence, her eyes flickering to the entrance of her Senkai, but nothing else. T-They are almost here… “Yet she saved me and repaired the seal, though it wasn’t a perfect craft.” She tries to study me, but a blush stops her. “But already knew all of that. Okina told you and Reimu-san, and… She told you how the weakness of this seal materializes, didn’t she?”The lust. The uncontrollable lust that got her enslaved by Yukari.There is no answer, and Kasen-nee’s eyes glow with understanding, but not surprise—those words when I got here… The consuming darkness grew unwieldy. It’s too much. “Sorry… I-I’m so s-sorry, Kasen-nee, I…” Body trembling, heart clenching, mind conscious of every torn hole in these new clothes and her efforts to avert her gaze. Everything I touch, I destroy. “I-I took part in your pain—I-I didn’t know, I’m so sorry—and… I was so stupid! I should’ve known something was up—that Yukari had set me up!” Tone raising, chest pounding, and, before I knew it, my forehead hit the dirt, my body prostrated. “I AM SORRY, PLEASE! I’M SO SORRY! I—DAD! I RAPED YOU, I RAPED MY D-DAD!” WHY?! H-How?! The words just left me before I understood them! W-Why did they… A maelstrom rippling inside my mind, no answer springing up despite how much I sought it; all the while I kept babbling, mouth a maniacal worm, squirming and wriggling amidst small tears.Yet, it feels… right.“Y-Yukari h-holds so much power above me; she made me do terrible things t-to Father, to myself—things I knew I’d regret doing afterwards, and she filled my head with lies—b-but… It was always me doing them! I always knew what she wanted me to! What I was doing! I-I…” Her eyes grow large and confused. In her lush pink, I see Father’s tears; I see that perverted tengu’s eyes full of horror; I see myself longing for Yukari’s warmth, and I see myself kneeling with my tongue inside her femininity.I see myself at the birthday party, naked and horrified—and, deep down, aroused.“… I wanted what I got from her. I wanted love, I wanted sin—and she gave me everything.” I see myself in her tight embrace, and I see myself drowning in her. Father and Mother, holding that bakeneko, walk away; others try to shield me from the truth with their unconditional love and support—Marisa-sensei; Yuuka-san; Suwako-sama and Sanae-san—, but here and now, in this hell draped in beautiful spring, seeing the consequence of my actions, it becomes all too clear: “I am no victim…”Barely a whisper.Yet loud enough to tear the walls down.The worldlines collapse into one another, showing me a non-Euclidean world——A way to run away from my responsibilities; of what I have done.
The abyss swallows me; the festering wound oozes with pus, and, with such clarity, comes the sheer cold of consciousness. The incest, the violence, the cruelty of my actions—behavior—and everything that blossomed from them—a rumbling ocean of insecurities and fears fermented inside the walls of the Hakurei Shrine. Everything weighs so much, I'm sinking faster into this pit of despair. Suwako-sama words try to reach me—they make sense, they do! But I'm not looking for sense or rationalizations, not here with a burning, broken heart and mind a hurricane of emotion, skin feeling as if about to fall.The towering blossom of fire that is Mother's power, the conversation late at night, the cursed meeting with the goddess… A blinding redemption, a monster so cloaked in the shadows of her own sins that, when disposed of them, I couldn't recognize the gentle smile and motherly love that lied underneath. The unrelenting, unconditional love of those women, shielding me from harm… Never from myself.Father, distant and harmed. I destroyed him…The villagers’ stares of horror.Nothing of the new makes sense!… I need something—anything—that I can relate to.“You’ve come to me to make me aware of your sins, then?” She asks, voice filtered and cautious. “I fear I’ve lost my edge in lecturing these past years, Hana… as I’ve done with the hand of justice, so I wouldn’t be able to deliver any useful words to you—I lack the knowledge of how to mend myself; how would I help you mend yourself? Nor your Mother, nor Okina or Yukari. The truth might be that, for quite a while, I haven't been useful. What excuse of a hermit I am…” The slight chuckle she gives bears on me like iron and threatens to proliferate flames, the sickening shower of self-pity abominable, yet… This deplorable state of hers reveals infinite secrets, secrets I could never have picked on otherwise.Before, I saw her sadness, but now I see she is lying.Underneath all the dried blood and the destruction, there is the Kasen Mother would so often talk about—a flame and a sword, sharp and scalding with the matters of solving problems and maintaining the peace.Beneath the slave, there’s a person.When our eyes meet, she sees what I see, and no word is needed, for in those pink jewels I see a mirror.A sigh, one hand climbing to touch the bloody stubs grafted to her head, thoughts swimming across her face. In the shadows of people much more powerful than us, unable to do anything to change the tides and forced into terrible acts left and right, bearing the scars of atrocities, my hand clutching the tattered rag and destroyed pin as I fixed my posture, cleaning the few of my tears. A moment later, with both hands resting on her thighs, Kasen-nee began, “They destroyed our lives, haven’t they?” Muttered words, brimming with pathos and dread. “But to attribute everything to others’ would be moronic and unbecoming of a hermit like myself,” her eyes return to her bandaged arm, mine able to catch just a glimpse of them as they shifted—bathed in golden sunlight, they blushed with regret. She takes a deep breath before turning those eyes again to me, and her next words I listen to with bated breath. “I’ve hurt your father too, Hana. A lot. It wasn’t me doing the deed, not mentally, but many actions I have taken—things I have ignored—got us to this moment. I have no right to judge or lecture you, not when I could’ve stopped your Mother in the past but failed to; when I could’ve stopped Yukari if I had been more prudent with my approach to the HSE… When I could’ve stopped you by not letting sentimentality shallow my judgement.” In her words I hear her beating heart, and in her tears I hear my very own words. Things I understand. I can breathe. “… I forgive you, Hana. For every transgression towards me, I forgive you.” She licks her lips and, without a moment’s hesitation, speaks: “Last time I tried in that forest, I didn’t recognize my mistakes nor tried to do better for you. I let you fend for yourself after such a major change… I’m awful, Hana. An awful hermit and an awful nee-san. Someone who could’ve done more but didn't and let her faults take over her entire self… Do you feel that, someday, after all this is over, you could forgive me?”‘Yes’, this wounded heart screamed.The mind churned with a million feelings, conflicted and aflame—the cackle of the demon; the scarlet fires of my Mother; unconditional support. A flower, a rag, and a pin—but a light seared through the bog and, with the loud shattering of heavy chains, shouted ‘yes’. To forgive a mirror, the reflection on it…… This mouth was about to make everything true.Kasen-nee’s eyes then suddenly widened.“My, my~such mellow words could melt anyone’s heart. But what would one expect from a poet’s friend, hm?” Her elegant tone emerges with the tearing tune of a Gap. “But, Kasen, that is not how you entertain a mature girl like Hana-chan! Perhaps I’ll need to remind the both of you how’s done~?”
>>48258568>>48258557>>48258552>>48258550part 2, and with this her second batch is done! Next will be Hana's last batch and I'll be moving to the Solstice, supposing Takaneanon sticks to the timeline he spoke of in his previous post (seeing it is tangential stuff, I should be delving into actually writing the base of the Solstice and initial batch)
>>48258568There's just no end to Hana's panic attacks is there?
>>48230068Mokou was the first to speak as we all came in and knelt at the cozy table together "You two know it's rude to drop by unannounced? That's how 'accidents' happen." She said, as she rocked Mochi in her arms."Now, now, at least these two came in through the front door like proper guests. And I'm sure they have their circumstances." Kaine said, as she patted Aki on the back.Although they seemed friendly towards the two, I sensed an undercurrent of frustration. Was it just the stress of reconstruction and parenthood or something a little more private? I hope the duo knew well enough to be tactful about such things."Haha, 'circumstances' if it was any more true we'd have all thrown up our hands and given up, But I hope this helps smooth things over." Goro said, sliding a bottle out from under his sleeve and placing it on the table. Premium Tengu Sake? I'd only heard rumors about such a thing, those societal obsessed youkai looked down on the 'peasantry-like' rice wine. Only a few renegades dared to brew it in secret and produced it in small numbers to remain beneath notice. Looks like somebody has been taking advantage of his mistress's connections.Keine made a tired smile and gladly took the bottle "When all this is over I think, for now I want to make sure the children remain healthy. We have some tea here if you'd like."Goro's expression became puzzled for a moment, and he turned to Seija, who still tiredly clung to him. The Jaku patted her chest and the brokers eyes became wide with the realization."It's tea then I suppose." he said with a chuckle. Things were off to a good start with a little small talk, much better then they had with Yukari. Where the Gap Sage had an aura of menace and every word she spoke had layers of flattery that hide intimidation, Goro's speech was honest and gentle, no less tactful, but it had a welcoming feeling. Of course, it didn't mean he was innocent. A patient and good-natured member of the court can make for the most difficult of enemies to remove if you end up on opposite sides and Seija, she looked apathetic and wanted nothing more then to be alone with him, but beneath that she was watching us, ready. Best to move things along."I wonder what was so important you had to speak with 'Sensei' about at this hour?" I idly asked Goro."Hey, yeah! Couldn't this have waited until the morning? Or what about when Yukari came? Couldn't you two have visited then?" Mokou spoke up, taking my bait.Kiene remained silent, waiting for the two to answered."Alright, but first I have to verify something." Goro said, raising his hand and turning to Seija."Hana Hakurei is a real pervert isn't she?" He said, lowing his hand again afterwards.The Amanojaku smiled and huffed. "Of course she is, she takes after her mother after all." She proudly stated. Everyone in the room went silent as the taboo subject had been tossed on the table like a hunter's wife throws that day's catch on the good table cloth."Well, what exactly did you all hear?" Goro asked.Keine fished around in her gown and, after finding what she was looking for, flicked it straight at Goro's forehead. The chalk caused his head to reel back a bit, rebound off the ceiling, and was caught by his mate, who gingerly threw it back to Keine. "Good shot." She murmured."Thank you Seija. Goro, do you think such perverse matters should be discussed around toddlers?" She asked, with all the restraint a school teacher could muster. Mokou covered her mouth, trying hard not to laugh."Ahh, Sensei, you see, that was actually the opposite of my intentions. You get it, right Crown Prince?" Goro asked as he rubbed the bruise on his forehead.Do I get it? Hmmm... Oh."You reversed the sentiment of your speech. Just like you paced backwards and forwards to the estate?" I asked."Spot on." He smiled, glad I had understood so quickly as it almost seemed like Keine was fishing for a second piece of chalk. Then, his face turned serious as he raised his hand again. "Until I lower my hand, don't say a word. From this point forward, until I give the signal, we must only discuss the most important and sensitive matters. Anyone outside this room will only think we're having a trivial and laid-back discussion. If you make a joke, or say something unnecessary, I can't be certain what information you'll reveal. If you agree to this, nod now and I'll give you three crucial pieces of information, otherwise we can simply enjoy the rest of our evening together in good company." He explained.Reversing sentiment, I guess it made sense for a Broker's application of an Amanojaku's abilities. You could maintain privacy in negotiations like this one or, if it's true that they can turn over idle speech into crucial talk, extract sensitive information from a rival. What's more, 'Sentiment' was an awfully immaterial concept that only a high-level youkai could off-handily exploit like this. These two were definitely Yukari's students.
>>48265037I don't think panic attack can describe very well what she's going through here. Holding to the truth for so long was killing her in the inside for a while now, and though the talk with Suwako eased the load momentarily, when the excitement of the conversation worn off, she again felt subjected to the massive weight of her sins and her guilty enjoyment of them (aka, nothing had actually changed because she refused such change through her denial of, well, change by lying to herself; something that only worsened with Hieda saying they're alike, as it became another truth she felt like she'd to run away from), a weight she felt lifted off her shoulders since she got to share it with someone that she can relate to and has similar sins, the thing Eirin's therapy/many mothers trying their best was truly lacking to make big changes in her emotional state actually stick, though they did have a great effect on her internal barriers. So while not a panic attack, probably a stressed fit born off bottled feelings and overwhelming pressure.
>>48265311kek, so you went the cockblock route. That makes two in sequence with Yukari fucking Hana's nice moment with Kasen. Always cool the ways you go and use Seija's reversal powers, such an unfathomably versatile ability, sad that they're etched to someone of her personality -- though the use here to conceal their talk is funny, since there's one saint that can hear a coin drop from the estate to the Suzunan and hear people's desires and, in a meta level, a sensei that can rewrite the past so no one weaker than her eavesdrop the conversation. At least she should be proud of his ingenuity~thanks for the chapter!
