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Have been a bit under the weather and couldn't bake the thread yesterday or this morning. Hope it's not the chinese virus again. Sorry anyway for the lateness!
[No entries of the HSE here in chronological posting order...]
still can't post all the chapters here…
(1621 entries)(+46 chapters last thread)

[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/48111658 | 34th thread

[pastebin for the finale -- for writers, full of spoilers]
https://pastebin.com/zqS1Krp7

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RECAP!
—
“S-SAGUME-SAMA!” Reisen barges into my office, looking distraught. Before one word leaves me, she stammers: “T-THE BUMP FAILED!”

… what? “Is the connection with Earth auto-saged?”

“No-”

“-Then what happened?!”

She swallows nothing, eyes like that of a bug, rabbit ears trembling: “W-We… used mobile data to bump, S-Sagume-sama!” I blink. Oh no, no, no… The next moment, I sigh as the sound of raging screaming comes from the streets of Luna Capital. Ugh, Susano'o already? They must be really pissed…
—
>Anon suffers, as expected;
>Hana, after a terrible nightmare, wakes up to Yuuka's motherly care, and both discuss a bit about Hana's stagnant nature as person and how her hatred and desire to not change will make her greatest fear come true: she’ll become like her mother. It's been a few days since Keine's festival, and the scars are deep. Later, Hana is fixed up by Kanako with a Moriyan Miko uniform before bringing out the Kasen topic. Kanako agrees to let Hana talk to her, but only if Kasen comes to the shrine and they all get to talk together, to which Hana refuses and breaks into a run after discovering Reimu has put her in Sanae's care again. Having fled the shrine, Hana goes to meet with Kasen, who's completely destroyed following Koutei's imprisonment, and they talk about various things about the past and their deeds, with Hana finally breaking out and revealing her incestuous crimes and desires before apologizing to Kasen for what she’s done to her. It goes better than expected with her not suppressing her feelings anymore, and they almost reconcile for a moment, with Kasen opening her heart about everything that ails her… Then Yukari comes and starts ruining things by destroying Hana's newfound courage with her different treatment. Long gone is the motherly figure; only a cold woman remains, which throws the girl off completely, and she breaks into a fit that's coldly silenced by Yukari, leading Hana to understand she's never cared about her. The Moriyans arrive then and, with some cunning bluffing, manage to ward off Yukari and save Hana, but not Kasen. Back at the Moriya Shrine, Hana talks about all that she's uncovered today with Aunn, who supports her unconditionally, and they have a nice moment together~;
>After fucking up things with Hana, Yukari leaves Kasen with Anon and goes to ponder about the Moriyans 'bluff' and how she doesn't remember spreading the information about the Kappa Switch, assuming it had leaked out through a spy, but the more she looks into it, the more she understands that wasn't the case. After going into a paranoid brainstorm and understanding she hasn’t control of one variable, Ran comes to talk with her, seeing everything but not understanding immediately. Yukari almost asks her about it, which would have broken her facade and revealed her as a spy, but Yukari is stopped by her jealousy, traumas and delusions, ending with her going to a tea party with Flandre and forgetting the matter, attributing it as irrelevant since she's already going to win no matter what;
>Kosuzu and Mokou meet in the Kamisharasawa Estate's library and talk among themselves about the last months, from the children to the revolutionary war and lewd jest about baby-making, before Kosuzu goes schizo-mode on the poor unsuspecting smooth brain of an immortal about meta understandings of libraries and how they, with their wealth of knowledge from all sources, can act as a reflection of a person and their positioning in history, and how everyone is important, no matter how little and 'insignificant,' something that massively resonates with her journey from simple girl to the person she is now, full of responsibilities and having marked history thoroughly. Mokou stands confused as Kosuzu does her very best to dumb it down as much as possible; it's very cute;
>Goro and Seija go meet with Keine-sensei to discuss things. They immediately set off security by doing metaphysical stuff in the front yard, but Miko says it's all okay and brings them inside, the duo quickly joining the head of the empire for conversation, mainly about Goro's regrets of joining the Yakumo Empire, the impact on his to-be children and yet how fervently he's willing to stand by Yukari no matter what. Goro and Keine leave the scene then, and Mokou, Miko, the babies and Seija stay behind;

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“The air has cleared, wind combing through the new willow hairs,” the words hazily come with a breeze of cold and a rustling of iridescent scales as they met soft yet prickly snow. I feel the old blood from my wounds shiver under the frigidity; broken horns aggravate and exposed veins sizzle as if dunked in acid. Pain, constant and guttural. Pain never enough to cloud the images that swim in my head; the feelings mere remembrances, though just as scalding as the real thing. Pain never enough to make everything seem but a dream… Good, deserved pain. “The ice has melted, waves washing through the old moss beard…” Winding words followed by pink eyes tiredly opening, forced once more to face everything this world—myself—had created. A walking stampede of sin, a congestion of people of all shapes and sizes flooding into the still recovering Human Village, a flood made of Youkai, both strong and weak—weak not like those who attended Keine-sensei’s festival, for those were the lowest cast possible of Youkai: tiny and frail individuals clinging to whatever hope offered, the breed who’d comfortably become Zashiki-warashi. No, those Youkai that converge upon the wretched street of winter-themed boutiques and markets of all horrid taste, nestled at the roots of HSE, are those capable, willing and maybe even fond of fight and bloodshed, attracted by the overwhelming sin and mumbles of what’s coming as the snow gently falls, unanimously turning their eyes upwards to gawk like children at what—whom—some employees would call ‘The biggest beacon for Youkai’…

A chained dragon.

I have no hopes of swallowing the block of ice stuck in my windpipe, nor do I wish to attempt; the pain beckons me and whispers promises of a setting sun—lies: I breathe still—; therefore, I guide my hand to pat Koutei’s head, the dragon barely reacting in his perched pose atop many buildings surrounding the HSE, each reinforced with Gaps to withstand the hundreds of tons of sheer force of nature… No matter how chained it was, guarding the main building of the HSE like piles of gold in children's stories. Awestruck, the Youkai, weak and strong, watch and flock to see; the humans and the meekest of Youkai do attempt to ingrain themselves in the stream of people, but this atmosphere is not kind like the festival was before it became a bloodshed, as said the burnt wood, the bloodmud that covered the pathways those first few days and what the villagers have called ‘The Memory Garden,’ a sight that reminded me of a mountain of shattered skulls, the nourishing flesh plucked off by my very own teeth.

Amidst the attendees gleefully enjoying the festivities prepared by Yukari and the staff, the White Wolf Brigade prowls and watches, roosted on buildings and keeping themselves prepared, waiting for the foretold presence of the Secret Sage, whom strong Youkai speak with lustful challenge and the weak with hushed awe, keeping the peace should any petty fighting start—such a facade—; the Kitetsu minions, however, meld together with the shadows, hearing and relaying any detail back to the interior of the HSE.

A sink filled with eager corpses, waiting for a downpour of blood.

I watch them all. Watch as they delight themselves in the new form of literature this place has made popular. Watch them talk with ease and casualness about the torture of someone’s body and soul for entertainment. I watch it all… And I do nothing.

My mind reflects on the words of that poem I’ve heard so long ago, desperately trying my best to harvest some meaning from it again—Hana was there; she smiled as tears cascaded down her face, though her eyes only showed me relief. She’s free of a burden. I couldn’t protect that smile—, but all I find is a blankness, my hand reaching for my broken horns… Through the corner of my eyes, I see the chains holding Koutei, his body invincible against magic yet still susceptible to physical damage: deformed iron sunk into his flesh, agony manifested in the sight of two dozen meters of gashes formed by Yukari’s collar.

Those words have no meaning anymore, not after what I have done.

Hana was there; if I had just moved and saved her, guided her, then Yukari wouldn’t have ever put her hands on the innocent girl! I could’ve saved Reimu if I’d tried when the first signs of her corruption began showing! I knew of everything and did nothing—a thousand years to become someone better and yet bloodied horns still decorate my head! What did I do wrong? Was it my pursuit of hermitage? Or was it something else? A maelstrom of lust, misery and abandonment, failure after failure and counting. Anon, poor Anon, the things I’ve subjected you to…

… What have I become…?

And what did I do so wrong to end up like this?

Unable to retain my eyes on Koutei’s suffering, I turn them upwards; the sky is littered with clouds as the proper first day of winter graces us, tiredly gazing at two looming figures far away framing the dull gray with red-and-white and black-and-white.

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Today is the day.

Eyes narrow as they scurry the movements below with calm interest—there’s something weird with most villagers and weak Youkai: their auras bear a small, harmless blue flame. Is this some part of Yukari's plan…? I have to be careful not to hurt them—heart pounding, hand wrapped around the gohei, sweating. Today, everything ends.

“Sheesh, Remi doesn’t look particularly amused, don’t you think? She’s looking at Seiga like she’s ready to chop her head off or something-da-ze,” Marisa comments to my side, sitting cross-legged on her broom and supporting her chin with a hand, the jar containing her children’s soul nowhere to be seen—safe in the Moriya Shrine together with Sanae’s apprentices. I can’t help but glance back towards the gates of the Human Village, heart constricting with the sight… “Reimu,” Marisa calls, her eyes exuding tenderness. “She’s gonna be safe. Yuuka, Alice and Sanae will be there for her as they clean up the mess outside—we’ll also be right around the corner-da-ze—, and when things get heated…” Her words fade, but the meaning remains. I take a breath in, then out, which seems to satisfy the blonde magician, if just a little. “Is the new uniform comfortable-ze?” The subject change is appreciated, an amusing huff leaving me.

“I’ve found two holes already, and you got the wrong shade of Hakurei red. Even Chen got it in her first try! You’re an awful seamstress~” Marisa protests, then pouts as she’s met with playful laughter, my left hand brushing the thicker fabric before grasping Chen’s scarf, now enchanted with the same spells. “It survived my fires, though, so I won’t need to fight naked… Thanks, I guess.” Flames that’ll burn bright and tall, until completely spent. I stare at Kasen and Koutei, but no anger rises. It feels rather cold.

Today, everything ends.

I expected a soft remark or some jest, but Marisa kept her silence, studying me. The wind blows between us, muffled chattering and festival music from below nothing but white noise as… something I can’t really understand blossoms, a question about to leave me—“You promised me, Reimu.” A stern Marisa is a rarity, her voice like the crack of a whip and eyes harsh, though tempered by trepidation. I told her I wished to live. “That's my payment-ze! Don't forget it!”

“I wasn’t intending to—c’mon, I need to be around to help Hana choose a proper man to marry,” knuckles close and move to my hips, a posture that makes the magician shiver with memories of a pink-haired oni and her sermons. “I have the gut feeling that if you or someone else tries to play matchmaker for her, she’ll end with a deadbeat dude that doesn’t even know the nuances of planting sugarcane~”

“That’s a terrible standart-ze! I know how to find good men—look for the ones that like clovers!” She snickers, and I follow it with hearty laughter.

At this moment, it’s like we are just two children again, bickering before going to kick some rowdy Youkai’s ass…

But I’m not a child anymore. I’m a mother.

… I see Kasen and Koutei faces. The blood, the pain.

Today, everything ends.

Heart clenches.

Marisa’s smile survives, and it pulls and it pulls, my hand clutching the gohei rattling. I don’t want things to end, not after recovering a modicum of that happiness I had…

I see Hana and the others. My poor Hana…

Hand clasps Chen’s scarf around my neck harder.

Today, everything—

… Huh…?

“—W-What is that…?” Swept away from my thoughts, I turn to Marisa… And furrow my brows with the heavenly golden light that bathes her front, her gaze turned to its origins. It’s not sunset already, and with the sky enveloped by gray clouds, what could be—

My thoughts stop as I follow her eyes.

Below, the chattering grows from a wild and rampant sinful cacophony to sudden fascination as they too turn their eyes upwards. The villagers and weak Youkai follow the herd; the remaining Tengu in Youkai Mountain do too. Hakugyokurou, every shrine dedicated to every god—heavens and the Moon watch with bated breath, as do every single habitant of the surface, their faces twisted with awe, dread, expectation and morbid curiosity, unanimously showered in rays of shining gold.

Gensokyo stops to stare.

For a constellation had fallen from the cosmos to scorch the skies.

It burned gold against dull gray with its many giant stars—Anon had taught me a little about them, enough for me to wish to die in between them: stars are enormous—, 8 jewels, resembling a snake. “… I-I’ve never seen this constellation before…” Marisa’s words were of immediate concern. Studying under Patchouli Knowledge, and she has never seen a specific constellation? I grip my gohei tighter, a weird feeling ringing in my ears, lips moving to say something.

Then, the eighth and topmost star blinks so brilliantly it makes my eyes narrow. Shining like a sun.

A horrid feeling…

Danger!

… MARISA!!

No word leaves me, tackling the magician out of her broom with speed—

—the next moment, the star casts a Master Spark.

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“I’ve never seen this constellation.” Patchy muses with sheer interest, pressing that massive book she hasn’t given a word about yet to her chest. In her eyes, unsure knowledge. Meiling and Koakuma stare in wonder, the former almost proud of the overbearing golden light, and I can’t help but think back to the soulless corpse asleep in my mansion. “Its composition is similar to the seven stars of the Plough, though I have no recollection of it leaving its astral plane to imprint itself on the very clouds.” Koakuma suppresses a giggle, getting a nasty glare from the magician. “… And then there’s that eighth star to consider…” Thoughts, theories and conduction of studies akin to the ministrations of a capable maid that idly stands to my side in their quality. Sakuya observes the sudden universal collapse, not letting it distract her from her duties of pouring me wine and, discreetly, monitoring the freak of nature looking at the stars with fear.

Though, before Patchouli can ever reach for a pencil to record this new phenomenon, the eighth star erupts like the sun, a parasol immediately protecting me from the brunt of the damage, whines and hisses of pain coming from the others as the unwavering light assaults their eyes.

I remain calm and unmovable.

I’d recognize this hatred fluttering in my heart anywhere, after all.

Then, true universal collapse comes as the eighth star shoots down to the ground at immense velocities, a wide tail of blazing fire following it as it hits the ground… With milquetoast force. “Hmph? No deadly explosion to wipe out these poor souls…?” If we were to have one, the massive dragon watching it with disinterest had orders to move and protect us. Manipulation of fate, naturally, would protect my flock anyway. “She’s probably in a bad mood, then. Good~”

Lacking impact means nothing to the terror of golden light that, in a crescendo of absurdity, purifies the atmosphere of the sinful festival for but a moment, a tower of golden luster splashing up and sweeping through the alleys and streets of Yukari’s festival… Harmless, but felt anyway. Felt like the morning dew, brisk breeze, and the deadliest of tornadoes.

It felt like nature incarnate.

… Only to subside into the sight of a goddess sitting on a monobloc white chair, a casual smile on her face, pleased with the grandeur of her entrance and the assortment of stares over her. In the skies, Reimu holds Marisa like a sack of potatoes, both looking like scared kittens; Seiga hums dryly a few meters away from me; Kasen-san and her dragon stare with unrelenting passivity—anger threatens to boil up, but I rise above it—, and on the ground they stare. Every person glares at Okina, abrupt understanding, one colored in the purest of fears, springing into their stunned minds: they’ll die today if they stay here.

They will die in a clash none of them can fathom.

Thus, they run.

They squeal and they run from the booths of sin, from the foods and risqué literature. Like a tidal wave, they storm towards the Village’s open gates, Okina’s presence a stationary boulder in their path, forcing them to divide into two columns of despairing Youkai, their nature obliging them either to run like cowards or to stay. Few do, wide-eyed with morbidity and barely concealed bloodlust—all strong, yet all shaken and frozen like statues.

It takes only a few moments for me to join them—though only in surprise—, my sipping wine forgotten at the sight of an unthinkable occasion: Okina, slowly, lifted herself from her picturesque throne—the thing unscathed!—and walked towards the HSE. Her smile remained, if quainter, as she approached, casting glances all around her. Her eyes tore through the White Wolves, shot down the Kitetsu onlookers, and kept every single Youkai nothing but an observer to her march through the emptying Winter Festival’s main street, sieged by rushing, desperate Youkai.

Through the valley of death, she walked fearlessly.

A pang of that fear echoed as her molten gold fell upon me, and even with the difference of heights, it was as if the goddess towered over me.

Sakuya felt the same as those eyes fell on her…

… They narrowed in elation, however, when a Gap tore reality in front of her, half the front of the HSE disappearing in bloodshot eyes and darkness. “Yo, sis.” Okina said. Yukari, who walked out of that darkness flanked by her two stoic shikigamis, fanned herself for a moment, waiting as the last of the despairing crowd left.

‘Tak!’ Her fan closing rang in the now-silent streets. “… Hello, my sister. Quite the marvelous show, I must say myself.” A million bloodshot pupils focus on Okina.

“Did you like it? I got it through the faith of one Catholic man~”

“Oh?”

To the side, a head the size of a building, a pink blur jumping from it. “Catholic faith…? Never expected that from a Buddhist.” Kasen says with a frown.

“Kasen…” Okina whispers, and I’ll be damned: she looks sad.

The three sages, once more, together.

May the heavens fall.

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>>48495088
>>48495083
>>48495080
first part (out of 1/3) of the start of the Solstice! Decided to divide them because I'm really excited to start and can't wait any longer it feels better as a build-up rather than a bombardment of chapters, or that's how I felt during a re-read. With this time-frame, the explosion of tension and actual start of the 'festivities' will happen during the Solstice, so I'm looking forward to that~
will be trying my hand at daily posts again too for the whole of the Solstice, been craving that for quite a while now.

>>48495088
Holy shit, this is actually happening? No more two weeks?
It feels like I'm seeing into a parallel reality.

>>48495097
the pastebin is now updated.

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>>48388548
"You two have come a long way." I told Seija. "Seems like only yesterday you two were at each other's throats."
"What? You mean there was a time where these two fought each other?" Mokou asked in disbelief.
Should I stir the pot a bit I wonder? It'd be bad if I said too much, but I hadn't had any fun pulling at people's threads recently. May as well take this moment of respite. "Yes, in fact Seija tricked him into wearing that accursed bracelet."
Seija's eyes narrowed at me and she huffed, recognizing what I'd done, but totally unable to do anything about it.
"You, you cursed your own lover?" Mokou asked.
Seija continued to rock the sleeping Aki. "Yeah, I did."
"But why?" The immortal begged for an explanation.
"An Amanojaku loves to be hated and hates to be loved." Seija answered.
"You, well, you're saying that, but now you're clinging to him and... I mean, you're cradling a child like a born mother or something! Do you really expect me to believe that it's so simple?" Mokou retorted.
"It could be, at least in the beginning." I mused aloud. "But maybe Seija laid a trap for Goro, only to get stuck in it herself?"
"That's... that's just so demented, hurting someone you care about, that you love." Mokou commented.
"Do you really think it's that weird? There's a living example just a short walk down the village or you could just look into a mirror." Seija told her.
"I would never." Mokou said, an edge undercutting her voice.
"What about when that Horned Sensei was left destitute and on her own? Were you with her then?" Seija asked.
"That was different." Mokou said bitterly. "I, I wasn't in my right mind because of a misunderstanding."
"Sure. Call it that, but don't look at me all mystified wondering why relationships in Gensokyo involve people getting hurt. Otherwise the rejects who come after us will pick up the same, played out habits." Seija said, stroking the child's head.
Mokou sighed, probably wondering how, yet again, she'd gotten the blunt end of a verbal lashing, from Seija no less. "Fine, I'll lay off the judgement, can I have my baby back now?"
Seija shrugged and gently handed the child over the table to Mokou, who secured Aki and sat back down.
"I guess we should both be thankful we have such forgiving lovers." Mokou remarked.
When Seija heard those words I could hear a clear pang in her heart as if those words struck a grim chord on her very being.
"That's what annoys me the most about that man." Seija began. "He can't hold a grudge."

Rushing a bit because I need to tie this up before I write for Solistice, sorry if it's a bit rough.

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The wordlines converged the moment the sky melted and the beam of light burned my retinas, a sudden wave of horror as I blindly watched the trail of gold swallow Marisa-sensei and Mother, unconsciously acting and moving the wordlines to assess the damage, heart an uncontrollable, roaring beast… But they were okay. With a sigh of relief, the non-Euclidean world slips away, and I hold my hand to the white shirt of my repaired Moriyan miko outfit—Mother had glanced at it in the brief intermission she and Sanae-san had before the Solstice, but I can’t say exactly how she felt about it: memories of the past resurfaced, and fear had glued my eyes to the floor. Stupid, stupid heart—, the light-burn slowly dying out and ringing ears regaining their strength, eyes jumping to the others: Aunn had her tail tugged in-between her legs as she groaned, squeezing her eyes; Alice-san, Mima-san and Yuuka seemed only slightly affected by it, and Sanae had not a trace of discomfort, soon gaining attention of everyone.

“Huh? What's up?” She tilted her head, eyes moving from me to the others with curiosity.

“Just how strong are your eyes, Sanae-san?” Alice-san asks, her dolls patting her head as she gently rubbed her eyes.

Sanae paused, then seemed embarrassed as understanding came; “Oh, that? It was nothing compared to the flashing lights in Gundam anime~” What…?

The words come with a bright smile. A beautiful smile.

Sanae-san’s smile.

Before anyone could react properly to her strange words, a stampede reached the gates of the Village—gates where we stood upon, the blessed things trembling with the earthquake-like force—while others preferred to scatter through flight, their eyes desperate and accompanied by hushed whispers—!! One of them, however, caught my attention, and to the surprise of Sanae-san, who’d moved to protect me from the tidal wave of desperate beasts, I vanished through the worldlines, tackling one blackish blur out of the masses. “W-Wha—?!”

“You!” I shove the tengu forward as we pop out of the eagerly dispersing masses, rage bursting inside with both the ear-shattering drums below and the visage of a perverted, dark-haired tengu with big, round glasses.

“H-Hana!” JP stammers. “H-Hello! Fine evening, don’t you think…? I think your mother and the Ordinary Magician look great together! A-And you look very sexy and charming in a Moriyan miko outfit! And I heard from Megumu-sama that we might start adding safe-lewds to the newspapers shortly! A-And—” My glare sharpens. “B-Bwuah! Sorry, sorry, I just wanted to say everything in my mind right now because I think I might die if I linger here too long, y’know? And the dead can’t write smutty masterpieces!” She’s incredibly tense, casting glances towards the charred sky—whether gazes of awe or utter fear, I couldn’t tell—and shaking like a leaf.

Fear it becomes, though, when the Moriyan miko zooms to her side bearing a death glare, cold bathing the tengu woman as she yelps an ‘Eek!’; “Who’s this, Hana?”

“A pervert that’d fare well with my gohei stuck deep inside her ass—”

“—Hana! B-Bad words!” Sanae cries, flushed.

The tengu suddenly looks pensive. “I’ve thought of the imagery before and its provocative manner of using the sacred object of one’s faith for lewd purposes. If I’m not mistaken, Yukari-sama has made use of it in the decorations of her Experience, and considering the contents of my next pieces, it may be a good idea to use that cliché—” Said cliché pokes her face with force, the tip striking the nose and sending her tumbling with a pained wheeze, her hand now clutching the bleeding nose.

Blushing furiously and with grit teeth, I hiss, “Stop your demented babble and answer me! Why is everyone running?! What came out of that?” The bloodied gohei points towards the lingering golden veil, the shifting waves paralleling the definition of what Father had once called ‘Aurora Borealis’, the topmost star shining above and bathing Gensokyo in bright light. I could pierce that veil and look inside to try understanding what’s happening, but I’m not taking any chances—one of Mother’s lessons: carelessness kills.

“Huh?” The nasal sound follows as Sanae-san approaches her with an expression of worry tempered by sheer crimson, the winds stopping the blood flow and resuming JP's unimpeded breathing. “Thanks! Ah, so kind and beautiful, Sanae-san~I can’t believe I haven’t written a volume about you yet.” She’s not looking, but she feels my glare, a promise hidden in it: if you do, you die. Sanae-san seems oblivious. “Eep! Sorry, sorry… Y-You see, Okina Matara just descended from the skies and landed on the street. It was so scary! I almost lost all my feathers in fear and had to abandon my precious works and booth without a care in the world! I felt so bad… but I also felt like a child again hearing the horror stories about how the Matarajin, in simple terms, fucked us Tengu over. Oh, I can d-describe them in comprehensive detail if yo—”

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“No, thanks.” My answer is as dry as my humor. “Anything else I should know? You better tell me, because if I find any…” I stare at Sanae-san. “… of your 'art' including someone I like, then not even Mother will save you.” She furiously shakes her head. “Good, now get the hell out of here, you filthy pervert!” She waits not another word before dashing away in a blur of slutty darkness.

So Okina is already here…? That means the fight will break loose much sooner than expected.

I can’t stop my eyes from darting to Marisa-sensei and Mother—

‘She has never cared’, words I’ve heard in both real life and in many nightmares. A feeling—rather, urge—echoes inside, begging the answer to that question: Who is Hana Hakurei?
—But soon, my attention goes to Sanae. She’s pouting, knuckles on her hips. She looks cute. “Compliments won’t save you, Hana Hakurei.” I-I said that out loud?! Why is Sanae-san even mad? “Why did you act the way you did just now?”

“… Huh?” She says nothing, her back to the golden veils around the HSE. “I-I just got some info from her, nothing more; why are—”

“You harmed an innocent woman; treated her with foul language AND didn’t listen to her problems! That’s not how a shrine maiden operates at all, Hana-chan.” Her glare goes from censuring to disappointment, arms crossing. “If you want to be a good shrine maiden in the future, Hana-chan, you need to understand this uniform—” She approaches, patting gently the white and blue vest, looking rather proud of the person wearing it as that disappointment wears off, a breath I didn’t even notice I held leaving me. “—and this Gohei—” She scoops my hand in hers and raises them together so the bloodied Gohei stands between us. “—Are meant to protect and aid good people and to bring down bad people. No buts or ifs. Anyone is capable of both, after all.” My brows crease with her stern tone, eyes moving from the gohei then to her, and I can’t help but remember Keine-sensei’s festival and a similar talk we had together…

A talk after she almost died.

I nearly lost her.

That hadn’t kicked in until now.

… But now, suddenly, it does, and my eyes swell with water. W-What? Why…?

The shining eyes and tender touch; the unwavering smile, like she’s trying to bring down the very sun to Earth just to ward off the darkness.

—Yukari has never cared about me—

I almost lost S-Sanae-san!

Sanae-san, who, right now, wraps her arms around me. “Hey, hey. No need to cry now. You’re fine, Hana-chan.” She whispers as my arms move on their own, clutching her and holding her to me. Flashes come like a splattering glass cup on the ground, images reflecting on the shards: the little festival they threw at the Moriya Shrine and how I worked there, how happy Father was afterwards; Sanae-san in the party; how she shielded me and cried for me. She held me dearly; the bullets pierced her and she’s in excruciating pain, but she returns and she’s there for me. She stands by my side as the world folds into thunderstorms of blue.

I remember everything, but also something that deeply aggravates me. I’ve never said: “… T-Thank you, Sanae-san. For everything…”

She hums sweetly, twirling a lock of my hair on her finger. “Everything you think you’re thanking me for, Hana-chan, know that I did not because I expected something out of you, but because I wanted to make you a happy gal… Ah, I can already picture it~a noble shrine maiden, powerful like none before her, that has already gone through two major incidents and has had wise senseis—like myself!” She breaks the hug and holds my slumped shoulders, her gaze soft. “A girl capable of immense good.”

Yet, I image all the bad. The incest, the rape. I see Mystia crying in fear before I see her tend to Sanae’s bullet wounds that almost took her gentle smile from me. “I’m…” The words don’t come, but eyes on the gohei dripping blood tell enough.

Her hand climbs, finger tenderly wiping a lone tear. “Things have been bad, Hana-chan. Nothing is the same anymore, and you may feel you’re losing yourself in this storm—that you’re becoming someone you’re not proud of. I almost did in that cursed festival, but I decided not to stand by that man’s side in the end.… It’s not too late. As long as I can, I’ll stand by you; I’ll help your Father get back on his foot when this nightmare ends; I’ll help Reimu-san back into her shrine maiden duties; I’ll do my very best so Kasen-chan can recover and return to her sage chores. I’ll give my all to Gensokyo!” Her eyes flicker with overwhelming truth. “… Because that, Hana-chan, is what we shrine maidens do. We help lost people; we guide them to our gods—we do adorable dances when needed,” we share a little giggle. “And we deal with evil, whatever form it takes. We’re like superheros, Hana-chan~!” One more. My heart flutters, though a pinch of severity enters Sanae-san’s tone, her stern eyes on the bloodied gohei. “Thus, we have responsibilities.”

“… I’m sorry.” I mutter again.

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“You won’t be for long; I'll teach you whatever is necessary, for as long as it is necessary—” She moves a little away and gives me a thumbs up. “—for I’ll never give up on you, Hana-chan!” Without blurred eyes and with a better distance between us, I can see her frame more vividly: Bathed in golden light, that beautiful smile had expanded into a massive grin that tore her face open like a pot of wonders, strands of green hair hovering with the gentle wind. Half a kilometer behind me rests the HSE, the inhumane embodiment of every terrible thing and sin I’ve committed. The place where I destroyed my relationship with my Father and nearly let a monster consume me whole, all because this heart craved something it had lost a long, long time ago…

… Yet, in front of me, stands an angel. She sees someone who resembles me yet is so much better than I am.

She believes I can become that person.

She loves me, doesn't she?

Like Aunn does; Yuuka; Father; and… Mother.

She’s still there with Marisa-sensei, staring at the burning holes in the sky and patiently waiting for the gong of her suicide. We hadn't talked to each other these past few weeks, and I couldn't even look her in the eyes. Mother did nothing towards that—is she as afraid as I am? Worried, maybe? The Hakurei Shrine Maiden, Hakurei Reimu, scared of talking to her teenager daughter after all that boisterous display that night that the Backdoor Sage came to us…? After everything I’ve seen, the response can no longer be just a ‘no’—, that confusing urge growing alongside this healing heart.

An urge that rattles an unspoken desire—a desire I avoid my eyes from.

A desire to have been born Sanae-san's daughter.

Hana Kochiya, daughter of the Moriyan Miko. Green eyes, hair, pin and everything. Father always loved clovers, after all. He'd probably love if I had green eyes… He'd doubtlessly love me if I had brown or blue eyes; if I were a boy; if I were taller or shorter; obese or very skinny; hairless or limbless, without sight or without speech, anyway.

The absurd thoughts make my eyes tickle with water. The familiar nightmare of his backs turned to me, walking away while holding a better replacement, fades away, if for the moment.

—Yukari has never cared—

Sanae-san does. The other Moriyas do; so do Aunn, Marisa-sensei, Yuuka, Alice…

… But this growing urge…

I shake my head, though, as Sanae head pats me with a little giggle, a shard of authority behind her shimmering eyes which move towards the others watching us from down below. Aunn stares intently, whimpering as if she craved to be part too; Yuuka seems jealous and Alice pouts, while Mima-san looks exasperated with their reactions. I quickly clean my eyes, ignoring my flushed cheeks: “Let us get on the move now, Hana-chan. They're awaiting us; we’ll be very busy protecting the village from the fight, and the sooner we relay to Shinki-san that Okina has arrived, the better.” The thoughts don’t vanish, but the situation mandates hurry; therefore, they’re buried somewhere in the soil of my soul…

I can’t help myself and peek towards Mother in the sky, her back visible, that crushing urge whispering of a broken pin and frayed rag tucked in this Moriyan uniform. An urge that asks: ‘Who is Hana Hakurei?’

The answer doesn’t come as I follow Sanae-san back to the others.

I wonder if Mother would have loved me too.

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It takes a lot to keep this facade up. Ms. Reimu, Ran and Tetsu have taught me it is very important that I maintain a straight face on the day of the Solstice, and Ayaya would probably say something like, ‘a good liar lies not only with their words—but with their faces,’ and I’d kick her on the shin because lying is bad and she shouldn’t set such an example even before her babies leave their cute eggs… The fantasy warms me, though it promptly fades as we traverse the tear in reality to the front of the HSE, and I drink off the sights like a man drinks poison.

Immediately, my heart feels like it’s being crushed by a vicious hand, eyes darting around the scenery as I do my best to suppress the tremble of my legs and hide the sweat covering my palms: a big, scary dragon looms just ahead, fountains of blood pooled in his scales and yellow eyes double my size, twin horns each as massive as the building of the HSE. Just a swipe, a single, lazy movement, and I'd be but a red stain… The horned people that’d come earlier are nowhere to be seen, though I still vaguely recall their hushed, convoluted words about ‘Irabadouji’ and the Beast of Burden, as they’d called Mr. Dragon, words that made my heart cool with just how hateful they felt, begging another powerful oni for violence against Ayaya’s species and conquest. The scary people who remain are scattered about, gawking at us like the tense white wolves and the shadow people, full of barely concealed crazed expectations.

Surrounded by towering monsters, their eyes fueled with hatred and hunger for blood, standing by a woman I once loved yet that now nests comfortably amidst other monsters, I… couldn’t help but feel scared, my stomach rumbling and screaming for me to throw up today’s breakfast, but I cannot show anything.

I can’t cry; I can’t hug the people I love or talk to them.

I can only behave as if unfeeling; otherwise, the plan will fail.

The plan to betray Yukari.

… People will die, many. They’ll die for motives I don’t understand. Ms. Reimu said she’d die for Hana-chan; Ran has been on edge constantly, and Mr. Anon has hidden our spider frens.

Today is the day; there is no postponing, no praying it won’t happen.

I want to cry, but I do not. I can’t do anything.

It is suffocating.

“Okina. Long time no see.” Kasen-chan says, her appearance scary yet her voice gentle as always—though it echoes throatily and tiredly.

“… So the rumors were true. You are now a slave.” The Sage of Backdoors says, and Kasen-chan flinches. Ran remains as still as a monolith, and I shift on my feet, miserable.

“My, my~why be so blunt? Don’t be mean with little Kasen; she’s found her purpose in life—or, perhaps, traded it,” Yukari coos, the immense Gap behind us slowly disappearing together with the golden, translucent blankets that’d consumed the atmosphere. “A purposeless hermit, wandering about with no goal and no ambition; an onlooker with so many skeletons in her wardrobe, she could open a cemetery.” Kasen-chan mumbles a weak ‘Stop…’ but Yukari is nothing but relentless. “Now, she and her dragon are my pets. As you may expect, she’ll eventually bite the hand that feeds, though we’ll figure that out when the time comes.” Confidence dripped from each other, Kasen-chan shuddering as a shadow began drenching her forehead—

“—You should be gentler to her, Yukari,” Okina cuts in like a knife, Kasen-chan freezing at the sudden words on her behalf. “Nothing has been decided yet.” Above her head, far on the clouds, the blazing eighth star gleamed. “Every slave that’s ever lived had shackles, yet time withers every steel under the sun. No shackle is permanent, sis—or I’ve heard.” The fierce glare she gave Yukari stood as an antithesis to that eerie, lifeless look she showed that night at Mayohiga. Now her eyes brim with compassion, twin blooming flowers revitalized under sunlight after a harsh winter; so very jarring I almost went wide-eyed if not for Ran pulling me behind her…

… An action I only understood when cold flooded the air. “Such hypocritical drivel… You are vile; did you know that, Okina? Are you claiming you can free her?” A movement so fast I can’t comprehend happens, and Yukari’s closed fan had stands an inch away from Okina’s nose. The Sage of Backdoors remains still. “Don’t delude yourself, my sister! You’re a disgusting pedophile hellbent on seeing this world as your playground and she a tramp to her lust! I know you! There’s not an ounce of care or kindness in you! You and I together created this Gensokyo for nothing but entertainment,” slowly, she withdraws her fan, smiling whimsically. “But that time is coming to a close. Gensokyo has been plunged into sin and debauchery, violence and religious fanaticism. The time for a clean-up is long due, and I can guarantee you, my Sister: I never fail to draw out the best of what I do.”

Silence follows; silence that is heavy, and that burdens my chest. I cannot breathe.

Until the sound of clapping reverberates.

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Okina is clapping, her face never losing that simple smile and boiling determination. Kasen cringes under the shrill melody—I can hear her heart beating from so up close; it is about to explode—, and Yukari just… stares at her ‘sister’, dumbfounded. Even Ran’s facade breaks for a second, though I can’t focus much on that, only on my thumping heart. I don’t like this! Any of this! So much turmoil, so much stress! Every single movement, every single word is scrutinized! My head spins and I want to cry so incredibly much, but I cannot. I cannot cry! Mr. Anon, will you be okay?!

When everything goes down and things w-will look desperate, will you be okay? You c-can't die so soon! I haven't ever begun writing the first of my billion books for us to discuss together when I die and we meet again!

The sound of dying clapping continues, unwavering against the maelstrom behind my eyes, a swirling terror that goes unseen. T-Today is the day. Today is the day… I want to throw up; my belly feels cold. “Great delivery, sis! Have you been training it on the mirror or something? You sound exactly like the monster you hide under that pretty face.” The clapping stops and before anyone can say a thing, Okina marches onwards, Kasen-chan jumping out of her way, though not Yukari. They bump their shoulders as the renovated doors of the HSE open, Yukari's confused visage breaking as, for the first time in forever, she grits her teeth in annoyance.

My heart pounds; I want to hold Mr. Anon. Their powers are immense; they can kill each other so very easily—everyone around will only be able to suffer…

Okina's next words sound like tolling bells. “But I don’t have time for your theatrics, sis. They piss me off like you wouldn't believe; my tiny Star of Bethlehem won’t stay up forever, and our agreement of a truce until the Winter Solstice has reached a close… So, show me the man you’ve tortured all this time already and make your moves, won’t you? The sooner I get to kill you, the better.”

Mr. Anon, h-hold me, please…

Yukari stares at her for a long second with an unreadable expression, and the atmosphere is so oppressive I unconsciously reach for Ran's sleeve. Her hand on my back erects every hair on my body. T-This is not breaking the facade, right?! If it is, I hope Yukari didn't see it…

… But what I see when I turn my face to her is something I didn’t want to see: with clarity and precision, I watched as every feature of her face twisted into taciturn madness, characteristics that landed blow after blow to the image of a loving, if lazy, woman that I’d loved for 30 years, leaving behind a weeping heart. T-The Yukari I loved… Where is she? Has she died? “My, so scared to face me and our youngest sister, or have you interest in tasting my Anon, sis? Whatever it is, be my guest~”

With no hesitation, both sages enter the HSE, Ran following suit—completely unfazed, but I know her. She and Ms. Reimu have a similar way to hide their fear—, my trembling legs barely keeping with them, and as my stomach churns and my heart bleeds, I shakily throw a glance at Kasen-chan on the outside.

She looked utterly devastated.

The doors close.

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>>48502988
>>48502983
>>48502968
>>48502945
>>48502941
and this is the 2nd one! Next will be the last of the starting batch and so kick off the Solstice! See you guys tomorrow~!
>>48500817
nah, it's fine. No kosheer; kankos or heidas~; it'd snugly fit into a longer chapter, and it's fun to see a wife beater -- Mokou gave Keine the Texas of all black eyes during their confrontation. At least it wasn't as bad as Goro, who got skewed and his hand turned inside out. Poor guy --, confronting another and reminiscing their luck that they were pardoned and not taken to federal court. Pretty cool! Though, the stuff about grudges remembered me the paper curse they discussed, and I do recall using a parodied version of it during Keine's festival.
thanks for the chapter!

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!!!!!

>>48502994
>Though, the stuff about grudges remembered me the paper curse they discussed
They'll be an answer to this next chapter.

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It’s an awful feeling to know everyone outside is having fun while you are stuck guarding the entrails of the HSE that’ll probably not see a modicum of action during the war.

Fuck me…

The decision was as sudden as it was harsh, and no matter how much I pouted and begged for them to let me be outside where the fight will happen, Captain and Goro-san had already decided through this weird game of pulling sticks I’d be one with the shit job—I probably should’ve bitten someone’s stick so they were smaller than mine, but oh well…

I pace around with a little sluggishness to my movements—I’ve been at this for hours now—, hand on the pommel of my blade and humming some lullaby I heard from Anon-kun, the large corridor just as samey as the one I patrolled a moment ago, about to yawn.

A weird smell, however, stops me…

… It smells of… Sheep—?!

Two arms wrap around my neck to the melody of a tear in reality, every synapse firing at once as I attempt to reach for my sword or to scream. The thin arms are unrelenting, oxygen fading from my lungs as we fall to the ground, legs kicking as my hands, unable to go down, move up to scratch the assailant. The smell of blood emerges, but soon consciousness leaves me.

—

Keh-heh-heh, it’s been a fucking while since I’ve felt so exhilarated.

20 years ago, the Blood Pools had a party with the Petroleum Fiasco! Things were so fun; people were doing stuff and all that, but then it was oven and the monotony returned.

The repetitive gang wars, the everyday drink and just doing basically nothing for a long ass time… But, oh, the HSE was what I needed to get the blood rushing again—blood that cascades down my face from desperate scratch marks that tingle with sweet pain, smile plain—, mind reviewing for the umpteenth time the information one ‘Kosuzu’ got us about the bowels of the HSE and making sure this door I had just slammed both my hands on was Yakumo’s office…

A smile tears my face open as my eyes grow bright, body recognizing the faint yet powerful traces of Old Magic—magic of 4.2 billion years of godless animal fury and perseverance. A specialization of mine and, to a degree, to every resident of the Animal Realm—and shivering with delight. Tackling the passive Gaps with my own Old Magic, I consume each one individually, trusting my ears to hear any approaching enemy in need of some spanking… But, confusingly, no one comes.

Didn’t that Moriyan midget say I should expect more resistance?

“The fuck is happening, Ranni…?” I ask myself, but there’s little I can do. Ranni’s Gap opened the moment she re-entered the HSE, meaning she should be with Yukari and Okina; to contact her would be a death sentence to the both of us. Perhaps the lack of security stems from the Yakumo woman’s pride and ego? The bitch thinks she’s untouchable, gloating around about a sure win and other stuff. Keh-heh, greater the pride, greater the fall.

Satisfaction backs that thought as the last of the passive Gaps gets devoured, and I quietly open the door, scrutinizing every step and glance I take. Can’t have myself falling for that analogy like a dumbass, huh? Ranni would get mad, and Chen would laugh! The laughingstock of the group is Shameimaru, not me.

The mental image of our little group—Ranni always so calm and headstrong; Chen, so pure and innocent; Reimu is a tease and Aya is a fucking retard, but a cool one—brings forth a fond smile… Everything is coming to a close. Yakumo will have her ass handed to her; Ranni and Aya will have their brief war for their piece of man; Reimu and Chen will carry on knitting me comfy stuff…

Just one more day of hell, and I've got an important job to make sure that hell remains down.

My ears twitch as the invisible blanket of magic I had stretched over the room picks up on a source of immense magical power, silenced to be as small as possible. Found it~

Moving carefully to Yukari’s table, I pinpoint the location of the switch and, with sweat beading my forehead and blood cleaned off my eyes, quickly and systematically isolate it…

“Itadakimasu~”

… And thus, I consume it.

The bitch now is out of her time-stop—

—The wall breaks in front of me; my pupils constrict, jumping away and rising my spork. A blur of scaly green hits it, sending me barreling to the far wall—

A katana hums towards my neck, deflected by my spork… Now, cut in half.

“Ho~? Already out of a weapon? You should just lay down and die, Yuuma!” The voice coming out of the smoke is grating, but I met it with a wide smile.

“Keh-heh-heh… So fuck Gensokyo being neutral territory, right?” I stand up and dust my face off of the excess blood, doing my best to hide the sharp pain in my chest and legs, eyes on the many shadows lurking in the cloud of soot that covers the room—two reveal themselves: an oni wielding a katana, her face murderous. The other… “Fine by me! Always wondered how turtle tastes like!”

Kicchou meets my bloodied smile with a vicious grin.

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With the thumb and the index fashioned into a claw, I gently twirl the bulky, elegant feather, watching it with a tepid feeling coating my heart. It stayed as pristine as the day it got plucked out with its imposing dark shade, dim as a sliver of midnight, yet brimming with luster anyway under the soft light of the first day of winter. I study intently her feather—her promise—, mouth a thin line as these tired eyes climb to peer at the Torii gates and the invisible door behind them.

Everything ends today…

… But will it truly end for me? I have gone from a nightmarish shrine to the next when Hana tried to save us; from the hands of an all-powerful madwoman to the next, and I know many outside are salivating to be just one more in the list of terrors that've owned me.

Will those people let this be the end?

Rage threatens to build at the monsters that have been harassing me for two decades, stripping me of my dignity and tainting my dreams—my poor Hana, corrupted; my young love trampled on; sanctity of fatherhood forever crushed under the things I've done with my daughter—, but it fades in a wash of cold with the sight of a silver bracelet around my wrist, small and adorned by a peering, bloodshot eye—a promise imprinted on it and whispered to me as Yukari raped my body, parodying tender caresses and passionate love, taunting me with the notion the pendulum will swing the other way and the hatred I look her with will blossom into everlasting love—a promise that, if I kept my silence and tried nothing to aid the ones trying to save me, my poor Hana would be spared from death. I let my hand holding the feather fall, my arms resting on my knees, gulping down all the bitterness and despair the next hours shall be filled with. Cleaving those feelings, though, comes Shinki’s words: once more, live outside… Eyes move to the dark feather, and I twirl it again.

A repeating cycle.

I didn’t want to make that promise with Yukari. I believe Hana and the others will save me…

… Yet, life has shown me nothing is universal. Love and a delicate child do not always save a marriage, nor do hope and prayers always save you from three years of excruciating pain.

“Hey, Anon, whaccha thinking about?” My eyes shift from the feather to the little vampire floating to my side, a smile rising—albeit it falters with the sight of her Yakumo uniform—together with my gloved hand—such gloves bring back nostalgic memories of a little girl lecturing me that, no matter how wrong something turns out, they can still mean something special to a special someone—meeting her hair. She seems to enjoy the head pat. “Hey, have I been a good girl to get free headpats?”

“You’ve been the best girl, Flan~but don’t go babbling that to Chen, okay? She’ll get jealous.” I store the feather in my red-and-white scarf, keeping it as close as possible to my heart. If I have enough faith, maybe it becomes blessed and protects Aya.

“Wha—? But I want to gloat!” She pouts but drops the subject with all the hastiness of an excited child. “When are they comin’? I wanna fight already! I’ve been dying to burn 'Kina to a crisp for the longest time. Especially now that she’s trying to take you away from 'Kari! Feh, that old hag wants everything for herself.”

I retract my hand, the smile withering. Yukari has filled her head with lies—to my knowledge, naturally. Ran can only tell me so much these days—solely so she wouldn’t attempt to join the forces against her… Eyes move to the gazing bracelet, the silver eye watchful. “Soon enough, they’ll be here, Flan. Just be patient.” I pat her head again, and the vampire giggles before something flying about catches her attention and she gives pursuit… I follow her with my gaze as she wards off her boredom with ‘animal cruelty’—flying laps around birds and stopping them from going away—, Flan’s giggles loud and plentiful, and I can’t help but imagine a similar little girl clad in a warmer shade of red, with the exactly same ruby eyes, though wearing a cute clover pin I’d made myself.

My heart aches with the thought that today might be that girl’s last day alive.

If so, I'd want this to be mine as well.

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It’s a challenge to walk properly; it’s impossible to think straight. I do my best to keep my composure and act as the soulless shikigami Yukari thinks I am, but my flaring estrus is by definition tearing me apart. The skin feels as if sizzling and my eyes jump at every shadow, tails erected and longing for his tender caresses, femininity begging for the man who stole my heart to nourish it, a war of attrition rumbling inside my mind against the imagery of passionate sex and intimacy, of a beautiful yet distracting fantasy of many little ‘mes’ and ‘hims’ running around a house—a home—and calling him their Father and me their Mother. I could melt away in the warmth of those thoughts, but to even have a chance of that someday turning into a reality, I cannot falter.

Not here, where it matters the most.

My facade is all everyone sees as we enter the HSE, being met by the captain of the White Wolf Brigade and a small army of tengu, all who stare at Okina as if attempting to shred her with their eyes, and Goro-kun and Seija-san, who seem wary. Yukari didn’t even glance at anyone, following straight toward the Fake Shrine with leisure, but The Goddess of Backdoors addressed the cursed man and Amanojaku with a sly smile: “Yo, Goro! I have heard no prayers from your bloodline in a while! You better resume those prayers or I’ll be revoking your bloodline’s blessings~!”

The goddess chuckled at his expression—or maybe at the acute suspicion that arose in every white wolf tengu in the reception area—and walked alongside Yukari, who’d dignified the exchange with a sharp glance, but Okina merely shrugged in casualness. I study his face for a moment but decide to ignore it to focus on keeping myself together, eyes scurrying to Chen.

My poor Chen, who looks so emotionally devastated.

Instincts rush me to hold her in my arms and relieve all the pains and sorrows out of her mind, but robotic rationality and urgency stay my movements; the routine of walking a few paces behind Yukari unbreakable… no matter how much my heart tears in half with the notion I'm leaving my Chen to drown in sour thoughts. I wish Chen could’ve stayed out of this, hidden somewhere safe, but Yukari demanded both her shikigami by her side.

I almost disputed her decision…

… Which would have unveiled the farce
Just a little more…

Hold on for a little longer, and this nightmare will end.

Such thoughts were aimed at both Chen and me, the uncomfortable walk continuing in stiff silence, the goddess and Yukari looking forward and not hesitating one step, the absolute pressure they radiated making me feel queasy, the poor staff coming and going staring at them with unadulterated fear before hurrying away as quickly as possible.

They know one of them is walking to their death, and they’re completely sure it is the other.

Inevitably, we stroll through the Torii gates and venture into the open space in front of the Fake Hakurei Shrine, the freezing atmosphere contrasting the warm corridors of the HSE… And it is at this moment that Okina stops walking, but not Yukari. She keeps her stride towards a downtrodden Anon—his expression is one of complete fear and resignation. I want to hug him, hold him to me, dispel his cold with my body and… And I look at Chen, her wide-eyes on him, her lower lip trembling and the facade breaking slightly as tears well on the sides, her body trembling so much…

Anon smiles sadly at Chen, and she sniffs—

—A smile that vanishes the moment Yukari’s hand cups his cheek. “Hello, my love. Are you ready for today?” She asks and receives only a baleful glare, her sweet smile sickening me to my core, a burning flame demanding her hand be burned away from him.

Soon. Just a little more.

“HEY, 'KARI!” A missile of scarlet hits Yukari with a tight hug, the woman laughing out loud as she spins around, holding the giggling little girl. Chen observes as she takes place by me, doing her very best to cope with the crushing turmoil of her mind. “Is it time? Has the fun started?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, Flandre-chan! But the fun must wait a little more…” Okina yells, about ten meters of distance between her and where we stand. Gently, Yukari puts down the pouting vampire, who blows a raspberry towards Okina. “Sorry, sorry~I promise I’ll be quick… after all, it’s just one simple question.”

“Hm…” Yukari muses, her fan appearing on her hand and opening to hide her lower face. Behind her stand me, Chen and Anon, and a humming Flandre floats above. Okina stands alone against the backdrop of the tall Torii gates and the snow forest, not a glimpse of anxiety or fear in her eyes. “Where are your two slaves, Okina? Why aren’t you mounted on your throne of stone and acting as if you are still a goddess like the misanthrope that you truly are? And what was that star you’ve shown us…?” Yukari barrages her with questions, pacing forward a little, her expression hidden behind the fan—

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—Something that didn’t change as a multitude of Backdoors began appearing around the Secret Goddess, her carefree demeanor melting away into outspoken temerity. The wind blew ominously, Chen gasped and Anon held his breath. “Ah, aren’t you being a little greedy, Yukari? I told you I was gonna ask only one question and you ask me three—but so be it.” The Backdoors don’t open, but I can feel absolute magical prowess colliding with the barrier that surrounds the Fake Shrine, prodding it violently and thoroughly like the implements of surgeons. Such overwhelming power shakes the ground, Okina's hair swaying in the wind and hands balling into fists. “My girls are safe. Can’t have you targeting the ones I love the most now, can I? And the throne?” She huffs, amused. “I destroyed it.”

“You… destroyed your throne?”

“Where I’m going, sis, there’s no need for thrones or facades.” Any trace of joy or humor died out, and all the goddess shows is fervent determination face an opponent of matching strength. Yukari admires her like a lab rat, features unreadable behind the purple fan. “You said earlier Gensokyo needs a revamp, and I agree with you, sis. We let those wounds fester for far too long and now we have a revolution for Youkai and men to walk together; one of the mikos turned into a monster and so many have already lost their lives under our little, sick games. You do not know how much I loathe not having destroyed you before you let this cancer grow as much as it has.” In her eyes shine righteous wrath. “I corrupted and let myself be corrupted… But everything can change. Ideas, minds, concepts, places—people,” a hint of fondness crosses her face, yet it lasts no longer than a second. “My Star of Bethlehem shines above Gensokyo. It begs for change upon the very day you elect to plunge Gensokyo in a darkness so infinite, no one could ever dig it out! But I will stand against that degradation as I should've from the very beginning, Yukari! Not on a throne, not with a title, not with lies, for I, Okina Matara, goddess by divine decree, will guide the hearts of men towards greatness—if it is the last thing I do!” The conviction that bleeds out of her words seeps into the earth below and springs forward a tremor of terrible proportions, the ground beneath the shrine cracking with the dizzying amounts of power the Goddess of Backdoors projects. The Fake Shrine ruptures, crumbling as the trees and vegetation tumble, Anon desperately getting on his feet to flee the falling planks and debris; Flandre is so enthralled by the magnitudes of power she claps, cackling with wide eyes; Chen is staring at Anon, who runs in despair, the bakeneko wanting to move but being unable to do so under the excruciating pressure.

“Ah… I see I cannot activate my Kappa Switch. I take your allies have already destroyed it.” Yukari coos as her house of cards collapses, the fan closing to reveal her expression—

“Answer me this one question, Yukari. Answer me before it is too late…” She hesitates as the many Backdoors burst open, her visage twisting into… grief. “Why?”

A blur of charcoal explodes toward Anon as the Fake Shrine falls apart, but all Aya Shameimaru meets is a solid wall of silver magic, shocked as she jumps away from Anon, a heartbreaking fear in the man’s eyes as the bracelet’s eye sparkles and the protection magic around him holds strong. She was so close, yet so far.

Byakuren Hijiri has a fist raised to Yukari’s face, a millisecond until the blow lands.

Suwako Moriya moves the earth below into avalanches, trees exploding out of the ground as their roots grind against lifted stone—an avalanche aimed at drowning Yukari.

Kanako Yasaka drags down the skies towards Yukari, intending on tearing her apart with a tornado.

Okina Matara sprouts a million Backdoors on Yukari’s body.

Flandre laughs as an inferno of red flames blossoms around her, her body dividing into four.

Chen screams, mortified eyes on Yukari about to be killed in a plethora of ways…

—I watch as Yukari simply smiles.

And the world freezes into a still image.

“‘Why’ indeed, my sister…” In the greyed-out world, her words reverberate with close to no obstruction. She stares lazily at the frozen Buddhist nun, gently trotting around her extended fist, fabled to bear sufficient power to level an entire city. “Why have I built the HSE? Why have I gone against the Dragon God’s pact? Why have I imprisoned the man I love in this gilded cage, and why have I thrown off the balance so deliberately that Gensokyo now wallows in despair and tragedy?” She watches Anon and Aya sharing an eternal stare, the reporter’s massive wingspan acting almost as a shield for Anon against the frozen debris. Chen, completely stressed out, falls to her knees, crying and blubbering senseless words…

My heart beats so violently it hurts.

The time has come.

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“The answer is rather simple, my sister: I, for once… wanted to take.” She ignores the frozen Moriyan goddesses, walking in-between them towards the silent sage. “I’ve given so much of myself to Gensokyo throughout the last century and a half. The erection of the Great Barrier, protection against the Lunarians, against the twin suns humans threw outside. Yet, all I got was a life of misery and loneliness. That is not fair, my sister. I could never find love because of what I am, and without love I could not build myself a family and achieve a happy ending for myself—you wouldn’t be able to imagine the dimensions of my pain, I understand. You’re a pedophilic parasite with no other motivation than hedonism… You wouldn’t understand the desire to be truly loved—to have a man and children that’ll cherish you not because it is in their programming but because it is what they want. But I do. I’ve been rotting away for a thousand years with that desire locked deep in my heart.” In the unchanging world, I clearly see her tears falling… As I feel my own; as I seethe with each that Chen sheds, her eyes wide and empty, tiny body trembling uncontrollably face Yukari’s barbed words. She loved Yukari, and now she's being told all that love and care meant little to nothing. “But not anymore. I gave too much, my sister; I now take! I will take my happy ending from the clutches of this disgusting world, no matter what I have to do or what I have to sacrifice! You want to know why I did everything I did, sister?! I did it all because it put me one step closer to my happy ending! I shank that sword in the Underground’s womb because it’ll make me omnipotent when I reap yours and the soul of the Dragon God with it! Nothing will ever threaten my family as long as I have it! The HSE has bred true love in my heart and, with its forthcoming dissolution, Anon’s pure hatred will swing the other way! He’s been so broken by other women he’ll never look away from me! HE’LL ONLY LOVE ME! AND HE’LL BE HAPPY! OUR FAMILY WILL BE COMPLETE WHEN MY CHILD IS BORN, WHEN YOU ARE DEAD—WE’LL BE THE HAPPIEST FAMILY ALIVE, FOR I HAVE WON! TODAY, I HAVE WON!”

Shouts fill the air as she stands in front of the statue of a goddess, sobbing with glee and swimming in her victory.

A victory she'd thought guaranteed.

She thinks she has won.

… The sound of a Gap tearing the world makes Yukari stop…

Confused, she turns and looks at me. In my right hand, one talisman bears the skull of a sheep and the crimson emblem of the Scarlet Devil Mansion; the left holds three others. Chen stares at me with sudden despair, her breath hitched.

With eyes clouded by tears and sharp teeth clenched, I hear as Yukari whispers, her eyes shimmering with the future she’s fantasized about for so very long. “Ran… stop and tell me what that is.”

Her mind deems that more than enough.

For hundreds of years, her word was gospel.

I need only one: “No.”

And, before she can digest a shattering of our contract, the talisman meets the fractured ground, and the Fake Shrine combusts into scarlet flames, the talisman disintegrating in dust as the very foundation of the world gets consumed and destroyed, the embers dancing across Yukari’s eyes as we watch the grayed-out world effortlessly vanish.

A grunt leaves Yukari, her eyes perplexed and wide: “… Betrayal.”

Within the second, she’s sent flying by a hasty Backdoor, a stream of blood following her deep into the forest as her disembodied limbs fly in every direction, hitting the ground and trees with silent thuds. Chen screeches in utter terror, hands pulling her hair with force and nails digging into her scalp, drawing fine strands of blood; the world rumbles as a burst of wind brutally tears the Fake Shrine off of the ground, sending the battered building flying towards the back of the destroyed forest, the bakeneko scooped in my arms and a terrified Anon safeguarded by the bracelet's protection against Byakuren’s mighty strike. “IS SHE DEAD?!” I holler at Okina as the others recover and understand what had just happened, Kanako’s winds hitting nothing and the tsunami of earth halted, Shameimaru panting heavily and darting her eyes around, trying to understand—

—My mind reacts instinctively, one hand flying forward and closing the thousands of Gaps that’d have eviscerated everyone but Okina Matara, the goddess' eyes on the gargantuan Gap that had opened in front of Anon, Backdoors opening all around her.

Unharmed, Yukari walks out of the Gap.

She was absolutely furious.

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With a single moment to spare, I don’t think, only open a Gap to somewhere far away and throw Chen inside of it, the bakeneko’s eyes bulging and a scream of “N-NO, WAI—” cut short by the Gap closing as I prepared my two remaining talismans, unconsciously closing thousands of Gaps by the second as they open all around us, sweat already draping my forehead with the excruciating effort of stopping all of Yukari's Gaps, glad that my soul born in the Animal Realm made it a tad easier. Kanako and Byakuren prepare themselves on the front lines, the former sporting a glowing fluorescent seal over her flat belly; Aya has moved all the way to the back with her top speed, staring distressed at Anon behind Yukari; Flandre looks confused at why her scarlet flames burn the forest, the ground and the skies; and Suwako stands protectively in front of me as Okina jumps in the air, a hand thrown upwards—!! At the next moment, a massive Backdoor appears on the roof, no magical barrier remaining amidst the scarlet flames to stop it from, with a mighty magical pang, rending open the roof of the HSE, letting the real sun shine on its sanctuary for the first time and sending a volcanic eruption of debris to the gray clouds.

A Backdoor from which a massive flying ship comes careening out.

Outside, the bloodcurdling roar of a terrifying dragon echoes, a green light—the seven-branched sword?!—overtaking the atmosphere above as the Backdoor disappears.

It has started. The war of all wars.

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>>48509679
>>48509673
>>48509671
>>48509666 checked
>>48509663
>>48509657
AND SO OFFICIALLY STARTS THE BATTLE OF THE SOLSTICE, OUR THIRD AND LAST ARC! Time to break Gensokyo apart~
god, I'm pogging out of my mind.
more tomorrow!

>>48509657
Oven

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>>48509686
god fucking dammit.
it's so oven...

>>48509687
Nah, you're fire, it's okay to bake mistakes.

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>>48511909
STOP!

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soon....

>>48517090
Soon what?

>>48520812
Hana will bless the thread during Christmas!

>>48523094
That girl can't bless anything let alone the HSE

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Few things in my hundred years of life have brought me to a complete standstill. My first flirtation with the intrigues of arcane knowledge, veiled beneath hushed whispers of blasphemy, wonders and secrets I realized would endure throughout my whole life; my initiation into the Scarlet Devil Mansion by a little girl with profound red eyes that’d grown interested in my manuscripts, who then revealed me a world beyond intellectual mysticism… More recently, a failed ritual that reshaped how I interpreted existence and the gift of life.

Excruciating months following that ritual, I find myself a mother, a title that begs much more than routines of pampering, feeding, instructing and grappling with tantrums—I shudder mildly with the residual venom of our dispute by the bedside, eyes on the Book of Ymir softening… Hm, Meiling had complained such a label for what is essentially our daughter’s first crayon coloring book, courier of sufficient arcane prowess to reinvigorate the mud graveyard of Passchendaele, was ‘too snobby’. I ignored her—but a title that is wholeheartedly welcomed by me.

I am Sekai’s mother, no matter how ugly things get.

Thus, when I hear in my very soul the brat shrieking in agony, I halt as if plundered off my heart. Remi’s conversation with the vile necromancer—a farce. She’s keeping appearances—is silenced; Koa staring at the serpentine formation of stars stamped on the skies, wishing she could rearrange them into a blasted cube ignored, and I nearly let the Book of Ymir meet the concrete floor, my knees weak and lungs filling with heavy liquid, the brain and the connected synapses firing like machineguns as these eyes scurried towards Meiling, the woman until now deep in meditative katas taken out of them like a ventriloquist ashamed of its own puppet, our eyes meeting and sharing the crashing waves of terror.

I wasn’t hallucinating it.

Deep down, a thread not properly severed, connecting an assimilated Remnant to the whole ‘Patchouli Knowledge’, sprung tense and ablaze with Sekai’s anguished cries.

If I were anyone but Patchouli Knowledge, I’d cry.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the Book of Ymir flies a thousand pages, one at random selected, steps to my side and a presence hovers above my shoulder—


SCRAM!


One word written over two pages, characters bold and massive.

—Gravity shifts, the wind blasts my hair in all directions, and if I still had my hat, it’d have flown with the strong winds that Meiling had created with her exceptionally fast movements. But didn’t pay attention; wide-eyes locked where we stood not a moment ago, the concrete swelling abnormally…

… Before exploding upwards as if a geyser of magically charged cobblestone, a thick column of debris and dust crested onto the skies as the sides of the building presented opened doors—backdoors. With movements even swifter than the last, Meiling met lightning-fast rocks twice my size that’d have slammed against us with her kicks, her other arm occupied… By Koa in a shocked state.

Looking up, I saw Meiling’s shoulders populated by a disorientated silver-haired maid and Remi, who was blinking in sheer bewilderment. “Everyone fine?!” Meiling yells to the four sacks of potatoes she carries, landing on a wooden roof nearby and putting us all down, though responses don’t come immediately as we watch the birth of a massive ship—I recognize it, the Palanquin from the Buddhists of the Myouren, the thing flying around the startled dragon—from the ruined roof of the HSE, charges of despair doping my bloodstream. That’s why Sekai screamed…

She feels every harm that comes to the building, of course.

“Oi, Sakuya! Why didn’t you use your Time Stop?! You had an entire half a second to do it! I nearly couldn’t save us all…” The shaken gatekeeper barked at the wide-eyed maid, hierarchy forlorn with the hellish sight of a thousand Backdoors simultaneously opening in the skies, Sakuya’s eyes on her silver watch. No answer came, but the little sounds of her repeatedly pressing the top button echoed. Nothing happened.

Marvelous. Exactly what we needed in this dire situation…

“I see, so Okina has made her movement against us. Rather rude from her, but I wouldn't have expected any less.” Remi elegantly picks herself up, eyes scrutinizing the opening backdoors and the streams of Youkai leaving them—residents of the Animal Realm, going by the bombardment of Old Magic—, before the atmosphere grows oppressive with the scarlet brilliance of her Gungnir ominously floating by her hand.

Sekai’s copies had attempted to simulate the terror of such a weapon but didn’t even come close.

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“As per my contract with the Yakumo, those are our enemies. Their defeat will guarantee the safety of my little sister from the Sage of Backdoors.” She doesn’t believe—at least not completely—in those words but says them anyway, her red eyes briskly moving past a head of blue that disappears into thin air amidst dust and debris. “… Forthcoming before us lies a war unlike any war. We’ll meet it as I met the Ottoman Empire: with punishment. You are with me, Koakuma and Sakuya.” K-Koa? Why is she taking my assistant… Her eyes move to me and Meiling with a glimpse of understanding. “You protect the building, and when the time is right, the Scarlet Devil Mansion will serve Yakumo Yukari the lap of Satan and his strongest drink~” I narrow my eyes: Remi’s just proclaimed we’d betray the filthy Yakumo woman with conviction of victory, the backdrop that of a collapsed Gensokyo engulfed in anarchic war, and she did it without a trace of dread in her eyes… These are the moments that remind me why I trusted this vampire so long ago. Remilia Scarlet has never once disappointed me. “Afterwards, I am eager to know what my friends have been up to the past year and how did they end up with a child~”

The world shaking stops any further words Koutei suddenly screaming on top of his lungs and flailing like a slug laid on a bed of salt, blood drops the size of wardrobes oozing to the ground—

—The Palanquin flies around him, a flea against an elephant, pulled, and with it goes the dragon, enormous sea chains besieging him at the height of the neck, exactly where Yukari’s own chains dug deep into the dragon’s flesh.

Through every world-shattering roar, the dragon communicated pain, his claw reaching into his gaping wounds and illuminating the world in emerald, pulling a seven-branched sword like a parody of King Arthur, striking it at where the Palanquin would’ve been. The anchor attached to the chains was released, and the sword grazed only air, the very act of swinging it reshaping the clouds above. Soon the aimless blade hit the ground and turned to dust everything around it in an explosion that topped even more debris than the volcanic eruption of the HSE’s roof, a torrential rain of stone, wood and glass violently greeting the warriors, be they from the Animal Realm, the army of white wolf Tengus that’d taken to the skies, or even the attendee Youkai that remained after Okina’s entrance, Youkai biology sending them into a frenzy under the bloodcurdling roars of a wounded apex predator.

A kaleidoscope of Danmaku painted the skies, with crimson red prevailing as blood raced. It rained corpses, charred or destroyed, and it rained death as the meat grinder disguised as a festival started.

It didn’t take long, however, for most of the Human Village to consumed in sudden, soft blue flames; not one moment of thought going by before everything but the Market District and the HSE had just…

… Vanished.

In this now desolated landscape, one heartbreaking thought crossed my mind as I watched Remi, Sakuya and Koa take to the skies, the little devil’s gaze lingering on me for a long moment.

Sekai feels every pain that comes to the building.

Koutei lifted his seven-branched sword, the Palanquin again releasing the anchors holding it to the dragon, but he foresaw it—

—A familiar stream of a thousand rainbows amassed into a laser of mass destruction hit the dragon, heavenly serpent not even flinching under Marisa’s Master Spark, yet the swift movements sent the sword’s edge sailing towards the building of the HSE, my eyes ignoring the blur of pink that’d suddenly hit the Palanquin, shaking the whole vessel and sending it away from Koutei as if a tsunami wave. No, my mind was full of that wail of misery, accompanied by surfacing thoughts of a pale complexity smeared with tears, reshaped from its snarky yet childishly happy demeanor into staggering pain…

And with it came rage.

They were maiming my child. Each strike, each brick—each enormous explosion—taking bits and pieces off my child, and she felt excruciating pain because of them.

They were making my child suffer.

“Patchy—!!” I ignored Meiling’s voice.

Hand clutches the Book of Ymir—glowing in a faint blue light, each microscopic rune she’d imprinted on its cover for that little prank lit up and crackling with power, but in my despair I paid them no mind— as I fly towards the HSE watching the massive seven-branched sword descend upon it, the shifting air so oppressive I felt my lungs constricting and mind throbbing, weak blood dissolving into a slurry of sickness that crippled my strength as I pushed forward in a rare burst of strength, teeth grit and eyes focused, body on overdrive and mind stimulated by the consuming rage of my Sekai’s pain as I glided parallel to the glinting sword of iridescent green, sigils sprouting and the pages of the Book of Ymir turning, my heart pounding as I turn midair, feet skidding on the remains of the concrete roof.

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Eyes climb, facing the tumbling sword, displacement of air threatening to crush me, a feeble human that’s navigated the world of magic by her loneself for the longest time.

“YOU—”

A sick human with knees about to buckle. One page of the Book of Ymir abruptly catches fire, my pale and scrawny hand shooting towards the sword of heavens about to flatten me and make my child cry in pain, intended on a spell that’d guide the sword in another direction…

But something changed. Familiar power coursed my magical well.

“—SHALL—”

Nothing but a terrified mother hellbent on protecting her soon-to-be newborn!

A huge blue sigil of a sprawling tree, the crucible of all life taken form, spawns in front of this hand, hair unraveling maddeningly as my eyes grow wide and my heart burns with that same sentiment the night Aquarius shone down my desperate ritual and had mercy on my child.

“—NOT!”

From the Sigil of Mímisbrunnr bursts roots coated in a blue energy that I’ve only seen twice, meeting the verdant craftsmanship of a realm beyond realms with full force. High up and underneath, the world warred, a rain of corpses and deadly Danmaku that seemed infinite and that bred chaos. I saw known faces, felt the ripples of power as another Master Spark hit Koutei, deflected by his iridescent scales like sunlight on a reflective surface and melting smaller structures and the ground with overwhelming magic power.

Yet, here and now, that matters naught!

I push my recovering magic well to its ceiling, gawking as the great roots of Sekai’s Yggdrasil perish under Koutei’s assault, the dragon howling at the top of his lungs as the chains around his neck dug deeper and blood pooled like waterfalls, his other claw and massive serpentine body thrashing fast at random directions and hitting falling wrecks and people, making both into fine mists with the unquestionable authority of his existence, his horns glowing with power and acting as machineguns that sent without stop barrage after barrage of Danmaku. The epitome of life as it is conceivable…

… Held at bay by the struggle of one feeble woman.

Though, quickly, the sword began overpowering the sacred wood; the dragon having not even noticed me as the Palanquin had returned to hound it, a red-and-white blur having tackled the pink one away from it, my magic virtually brushed off as my muscles strained, breath hitched and mind boiled, sweat drenching my clothes and wind swaying my hair with such force I felt as if it were being ripped off the scalp, blue and green light mingling into something that cast shadows on the Danmaku above—from the start to now, two seconds.

Why am I even here, attempting to stop my daughter’s gilded cage from being destroyed when she’s orchestrated that future? It’s premeditated! No matter what I do, everything will go as she’s written…

Yet, in my mind, I can still hear the resonance of her pain and delicate sobs—I can’t even pinpoint if the latter is real or not—the guttural feelings caressing my innermost sanctum, where the last of that disembodied Remnant lives. It is all premeditated.

Until her tyrannical cage is destroyed, the future remains static as if a line of production.

But what mother would I be if I sought excuses to let my child suffer?

The building will die, and that’s it.

However, if someone wants to destroy it…

… They will have to move past me.

The roots of Yggdrasil collapse into dust, the blunt sword of pure magic not inching closer but barreling like a bullet towards this mother that lacks the strength to even move… Or maybe she gambles she doesn't need to move. After all, sudden realization comes together with wild yet lush locks of crimson hair, powerful feet sunk into the snapping roots that flow from the sigil in all directions, her arms lifted high and not an ounce of hesitation in her actions.

Hong Meiling meets the seven-branched sword of a dragon with her bare hands.

“Gee, Patchy! Of all times to be a reckless idiot, you choose now?!” She yells with sharp pain, the sword's inertia thoroughly halted face the might of a Ki Master, a power struggle unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I barely register the offense, a smile tearing open my strained, sweat-ridden face: if everything is premeditated, then mine and Meiling’s actions were meant to be from the very beginning.

With the side of my eye, I notice a second page of the Book of Ymir ablaze, the flame’s coloration pale and ghostly. One of the ever-growing roots reaches to Meiling, that one a limp and frail branch coated in blue leaves. Gently, it touches the back of her head… And a Laurel crown of ghostly glass leaves sprouts around her hair, beautifully highlighting the bloody mane of the Gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

You damn brat, what’s the meaning of this? Why force your mothers to fend off a dragon of all things?

It takes one peek at the Book of Ymir to see letters amidst the fire:


You two look cool~!


Ah, of course. That explains everything…

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I can only hide an amused grumble, much to Meiling’s initial confusion before she understands she’s been holding that sword for more than a second without having turned into red paste; she likely intended on deflecting it at first, too. You'll give your poor mother cardiac arrests at this rate, Sekai. “If you are gonna rush to protect our girl like you’ve dropped your brain somewhere along the way…” Not wasting a moment of her enhanced strength, Meiling bares her teeth and, groaning in effort, shakes the very foundation of the world.

… Indeed, few are the moments I’m brought to a standstill.

And to watch Hong Meiling gruelingly turn, both her arms holding onto the viridian sword, wind up something twenty times taller than her and the dragon attached like a baseball and, just like that, hurl the both of them away is one of those glorious moments, heart fluttering with one more opportunity for her to show off strength Gensokyo wouldn't have appreciated until recently. The dragon and the sword shoot above us and away from the HSE, the Palanquin tied to the former going together, the exasperated screams of the crew loud—

—Before Koutei would hit the ground, though, a sudden giant red-head oni caught him in her arms like he weighted nothing, stopping the green serpent from crashing onto the soil and causing massive earthquakes.

My eyes shift to Meiling as she turns to me…

“Remember to bring me to protect you two~”

… And she gives me a thumbs up and a shining smile. What else did I expect?

“Naturally,” I scoff, and she hums. “Motherhood has had unprecedented effects on me, I’ll have to admit,” I start, dusting myself off as I observe with interest the magical roots disintegrate. So they’ll wither the moment they’re not being fed magic through a Sigil of Mímisbrunnr? Expected, but nicely cataloged—I also take a moment to feel prideful about the abrupt but pleasant creation of a new school of magic. If I can perpetuate it beyond the confines of this book, Merlin himself would roll in his coffin with jealousy. Hm… I wonder what should I name that spell with the roots. Will reserve it to posteriority. “I blame the brat for corrupting me and you and dread what the future reserves for us in terms of subconscious change and instincts rife with imprudence and sentimentality…” She meets my exhausted sigh with bright laughter, though it lasts only a moment as we two watch—feel it with magic and Ki, respectively—the world: the many deaths, the cacophony, the shed blood, the explosions of Danmaku, magic and much more—a layer of clouds and residual barrier magic hampering my vision of the HSE's interior, guarding whatever was happening inside from the eyes of the world. The realization I had when Meiling appeared comes forth, my tone gaining a degree of edge: “Sekai planned all this,” Meiling didn’t look particularly surprised. She’s becoming numb to the brat’s antics, it seems. “The HSE will be destroyed; however, it must happen within her terms. Our timing with her body was much more lenient, since we don't have a frame for the soul and, when it comes, we'll have mere seconds… For now, we’ll do as Remi said and ward off any attempts of destroying the HSE before the time is due.” Playing a game where the only thing you know is that you’re playing a game, and if the brat hasn’t given more information, that means more information would be harmful…

But in what way? What have you not told me, Sekai?

“I see. I wish when it happens it is quick and painless…” She mumbles, and I nod slowly, deeply understanding her sorrow. She gave Sekai Ki and probably heard it much more intensely than I did. “Until then, our arrangement is the same as it always is~” She prepares her body and hides that pain under a facade of martial determination, ready for the war and the recovering dragon, touching slightly the mystical Laurel cradling her hair—an astonishingly beautiful contrast. “—I’ll be the first line of defense. Whatever goes past to me, you crush with a bunch of cool magic… Then we save our little girl and her poor papa.”

Save Sekai, and per Remi, kill Yukari.

Quite simple.

Holding close to the glowing Book of Ymir and its two flaming pages, I stand by Meiling, who giggles for whatever reason, mind fueled by ideas on how to manipulate the newfound magic channel I’ve grown with this book. Seriously, putting an entire hidden ‘protection mechanism’ that’s actually a power-up for this very moment, all because it makes us ‘look cool’? That brat is incorrigible. “A satisfactory summary of events. I’ll be watching your back.”

Her smile is sincere. “I wouldn’t want anyone else supporting me.”

Without another word, Meiling lunges forward into her war, meeting those that’d been attracted by her inhuman stunt against the viridian dragon with all the determination of a mother hellbent on not leaving her child to suffer.

Hm…

Pouting, I mumble to myself. “It wasn’t reckless in the slightest. I knew I had you.”

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>>48524938
>>48524931
>>48524924
>>48524916
had some snow problems yesterday and lost an update. Sadge...
anyway, more tomorrow if Lily doesn't fuck me over~

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>>48500817
"The moon is beautiful tonight." Goro said, gazing upwards into the cold sky.
Keine smiled and shook her head. "That cliché line is entirely unsuitable, least of all because the current lunar cycle is nearing it's end." She explained. "But I am a little cold."
Goro took the top half of his cloak and invited his Sensei under it, who took the invitation whole-heartedly. "I might not be a phoenix, but she'd kill me if I let you freeze. She'll also kill me if you tell her, so spare the both of us alright?" Goro pleaded.
"Of course. Seems we both ended up with the jealous sort, although it is nice to be coveted isn't it?" Keine asked.
"Maybe a little." Goro said with a smirk.
The two mused on that for a bit, their difficult loves, which seemed now to be lighter subjects with the levity of what was to follow. If only the peace could last just a bit more.
"If you were in my position..." Keine began. "...what would you have done?"
Goro answered without hesitation. "I would've asked Hieda stop his corrupted agenda and in return give him the one thing he truly desired: I'd let him see his daughter again."
Keine let out a heavy and sad sigh. "So, bloodshed was inevitable it seems."
"No. I believe your plan was best, gather support from the villagers, slowly tip the scales, and before Hieda notices he's at too great of a disadvantage, depose him. What nobody could have, or rather didn't, account for was that he was already too far gone, ready to torch his own people for his delusions."
In his words it seemed like there should have been resentment and his face should have been cross with anger, but Keine saw an absence within Goro, one that wasn't filled with regret, sadness, or anything else, just... empty.
"But you aren't looking for your own forgiveness are you? You're trying to get me to reason backwards to forgive myself right?" Goro asked, his smile returning. "You are a crafty one Sensei."
"It wouldn't work unless it was the truth." Keine smiled back with some satisfaction.
"If only you had the time to debate and soothe each villager and youkai, then you wouldn't have to resort to mollifying them with your ability." Goro stated.
For a split-second Keine felt the security of teacher-student relationship slip and that her actions were laid bare before her. The manipulation, the lives she had traded, all the lengths she had gone to for her family, just as it had been with Yukari, she felt the same, soul-wrenching, knowing glare coming from Goro. It was only a fraction, but a fraction was plenty. And the next moment the feeling was gone. The one at Keine's side was her student, that hadn't, wouldn't change.
"You've become even more perceptive it seems, I told you that poking at people's weak spots was a fast way to lose friends." Keine reminded him. "Manners aside, how were you able to tell?"
"Let me show you." Goro said as he shook his wrist and the beads cracked together, producing a noise that seemed to blow away some imperceptible sound Keine only became aware of when it was gone, then, slowly, the noise returned and a moment thereafter it was imperceptible again. "Have you ever been flying so long that you become uneasy? As if it's not just your feet on the ground that's absent?" Goro asked.
"You mean the magma flows beneath the earth that we feel normally, but don't think about until we no longer sense them?" Keine asked.
"Precisely." Goro smiled. "Now, a bit about curses, they're a form of spell that relentlessly pursues a target, be it a person, a blood-line, or even a location. It's well known that curses can be deterred or destroyed, but if left alone they'll always find a way to their target eventually, have you ever wondered why that is?"
Keine thought a moment. "It's hard to say. I haven't made a habit of studying dark arts, but from what I do know, it's treated as a fundamental theorem without an explanation. A curse is a curse as some might say, although, from what you said about magma earlier... are you suggesting there exists a sort of flow on top of things upon which curses travel?"
"I know so." Goro nods, lifting the bracelet. "It's what this accursed ornament has shown me. Yukari once described to me something called 'old magic' in passing, remnants of ancient beings, this is not the medium through which curses pass, but it did point me in the right direction along with the construction of the HSE." Goro stopped for a moment, collecting his thoughts and thinking through the safest way to convey this information. "It is the final curse everyone puts upon life itself at the moment of their passing. An aimless curse, the agony of the necessity of death and the absence of reason for it. These dying wails grew and molded together until they became indistinct from one another and now exists all around us as an unseen sea by which curses travel." Goro waved his arm, as if passing his hand through invisible waters.

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>>48525763
"An unseen world, made up of post-mortem grudges?" Keine said. "And one only you can see? Well, I suppose I heard it's absence just now, but it's rather hard to believe."
Goro shrugged. "If it were not so then I wouldn't have heard the echos of your own death, or of Hiedas, and... the villagers."
Now misery took the brokers face as the thread had been pulled and rapidly he became undone. "When I lost my Father and I hadn't found his corpse I had wished I'd seen him die to know he was truly gone. Now, now I'm so thankful I didn't. The cries a dying person leaves behind Keine, the things that even the Yama do not see, they are terrible. Even a ghost doesn't carry a fraction of it's true grudge, it's too heavy for them. The Taint, The Miasma, The Putrid Stench of Death, Impurity... I hope it is an illusion of mine, that it does not exist. The Lunarians think they're safe, it is a fool-hearty lie, the sea covers all life in all directions."
"Goro, are you alright? You can take a moment if you need-" Kiene starts.
"No, you haven't heard the worst part yet! I, I see the sea because I am apart from it, because I have no more grudge Keine, because THIS has eaten it all!" Goro said, lifting his bracelet. "What you have done, it's cost, I see it because I feel the tides, and I cannot judge you, because I wasn't there when I should of been, and yet, I'm incapable of hatred Keine; my forgivness is worthless!"
Keine did not want to think about all the implications of what Goro was saying. If someone could not hold a grudge and what he said about death was true, could he ever truly die? If he did, would his soul simply be caught betwixt the Sea he talked about and life itself? Unable to let go of something it never had to travel beyond? She didn't know, but she could comfort her student in that moment, who let his woes out to his teacher that he had hidden from almost everyone else.
But there was someone else who heard, or rather, was waiting to hear his cries. A particular trickster, who had little energy left to spare, as she had so many other schemes in motion, yet still had just enough to send two faint sounds to someone who happened to be holding Goro at that moment: the cries of his unborn children.
"Twins." Kiene said as her senses worked to understand the full meaning of the message, only able to desphier one fact: "You and Seija are having twins."
Goro's eyes widened. "You...how did you know? Sagume, her words had hexed Seija and I to keep that information silent."
"A mother's intuition? No, forgive me, this isn't the time for such corny jokes. How did this happen?" Keine asked.
"It's, a mess really, Yukari, she displaced a piece of the bracelet and that hole filled with our energies which also connected to HSE to fill another hole which became, or rather, is becoming our children, Tsukuyomi and Oiwa respectively."
"The HSE, won't that be destroyed in the Solstice?!" Keine asked.
"It will, and that's another reason we can't leave that building. There will be a moment, a small sliver of time that Seija and pull them into reality, giving birth to them. There's more but I'm afraid to say, Sagume's words has censured more then just our children's existence." Goro explained.
"Well, Congratulations!" Keine said, hugging Goro, who was still a little feeble from his confession, to her chest and rubbing his head. "I was always worried you'd never be a proper adult! And now you're not just having one child, but two! Oh, this will be so much fun! You should bring them over so they can have play dates with Aki and Mochi, ah, if you'd like I can give you their hand me downs as well as they grow out of them, that should result in some memorable photos!" She said with glee.
"Thanks Sensei, but this is..."
"Goro..." Keine began affectionately. "It doesn't matter how guilty or how lost you feel right now, you're going to be a father, those children are what matter to you the most aren't they?"
"Yes." he said.
"Then worry about them before any feelings of self castigation. Those two will have a hard enough time with the circumenstances of their birth, and with Seija as a mother, you'll need to be strong for them and them alone." She said sternly.
Goro made to speak but stopped and then spoke again. "Thank you, Sensei, I'll do that." he said, defeated.
"That you will and that goes double for whatever you have planned for Yukari or that talk about Sages." She added.
And to her surprise, Goro shook his head. "Sensei, Yukari is their godmother, without her they would not be. They deserve to see her at least once and I want to show her, so badly, that she helped at least two good things into this world."
"Augh, okay, fine. But the Sage talk is ludicrous and you have to promise me that-"

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>>48525770
Goro shook his head again and smiled apologetically. "Seija and I are pursuing it for their sakes. Okina, she was supposed to be the goddess of outcasts, and she has so throughly failed. Her sister Sage, Hieda, and Anon, all three were left alone, all with apocalyptic consequences. Our children are accursed by birth and we will protect them from her."
"And if she falls in the war?" Kiene asked.
"Then someone still needs to make sure nobody is left to suffer on their own again or all of this will have been for naught. Yukari, Okina, and I even Kasen I think, they all were alone. Seija will always have me though and I'll always have her, whether I like it or not." Goro smiled again, resolute.
"You're always such a difficult student." Keine rubbed her face.
"If it were easy, teaching wouldn't be any fun would it? Now, about that village expansion I assume you're planning..."
The two went on for a bit that night, both feeling a little defeated by the other. Some cosmic wrinkle was righted that day, even if just by a little.

---

"It's going to go down when Okina enters Anon's chambers." Goro told Takane and the White Wolf Captain as he squeezed his fleshy hand into his skeletal one
"You're sure?" Takane asked.
"Positive." Seija answered for Goro as she cracked her knuckles.
"Just to be clear, what do you expect from us?" The White Wolf Captain asked.
"Evacuation and rescue are your top priority. Start fighting fodder only if it gets in the way of getting people to safety. If you see one of us fighting a heavy hitter, don't get in our way." Goro said plainly, knowing full well that only a minority of Yukari's 'allies' would give even a moment of consideration to the Tengu or Employees.
As Takane and the Captain left to make last minute preparations, Seija approached Goro and asked: "You're seriously ready for this you asshole? You know we might have to fight your precious Witch Mother or your supposed Long Lost Aunty and if it's between them and ours..."
"Then we'll make it work." Goro cut her off. "Until the HSE explodes, this is all preamble. For now, we join the slug fest and pretend to enjoy ourselves."
Seija sighed with pleasure and pulled Goro into a standing position by his collar before pushing him forward. "I'm not going to pretend." she chuckled.

Sorry if rough, laptop is about to die and I want to get to Solstice writing already. Canon note: Goro's perception of what's happening may not be entirely accurate(as he admits), but there is a phenomenon that he's tapping into. Also, the reason he's still capable of using curses without being capable of hating people is sort of like making waves in a pool. There's grudge all around and he can just 'wave his arms' to create the proper force(might not be the best analogy, but I'm tired and low on thinking power)

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I made a little something to keep track of characters during the Solstice. Please ping me if I missed someone.

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>>48523130
Don't be mean to the Hana, I believe in her!

>>48524916
I've read this bit multiple times and I still can't figure out what's happening here. Were they in the SDM? That's not really concrete though. Can they see the human village and the HSE from there? Did the entire SDM just get blown up? I'm way off track.

>>48529986
That's really cool, I guess were getting this in place of a final catbox flowchart update for now?

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>>48530970
they were perched on the HSE's roof watching the Market District, muh bad I wasn't clear enough with the context clues.
>>48495083, Marisa comments about their position as she looks towards the HSE
>>48495088, and here 'A pang of that fear echoed as her molten gold fell upon me, and even with the difference of heights, it was as if the goddess towered over me,' with Okina looking towards the HSE and up at them.
>Did the entire SDM just get blown up?
Nah, I wouldn't undo Yams work in the Voilé so quickly.

>>48529986
>Sanae, Yuuka, Aunn
Too green....

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>>48534151

>>48531020
Not really. I'll finish the last flowchart after the Suzu becomes Suzudone, and have plans to frequently post updated versions of >>48529986 according to the Solstice developments.

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Merry Christmas everybody!
https://files.catbox.moe/z7x2bb.webm

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>>48525783
interesting development with Goro, poor guy not only has lost his soul to ultra Satan or something, but now has a front row seat to all the misery happening to the people of Gensokyo -- though it's funny to think he's been cursed to forever listen to the wails of what's essentially 98% dinosaur magic --; at least he's got friends in high places to propel him to sagedom should that continue to be a desire post-solstice and all which comes with being a sage.
>spoiler
I've read worse analogies, no worries~never gonna forget the desk lamp that is inanimate like a desk lamp.
take it easy, I'm taking my time with the Solstice -- and am still recovering from stuffing my face yesterday --, and should be returning inside after this next update, so you'll have the outside to use freely.
also, merry xmas!!

>>48539681
Merry Christmas to you as well!
>That video
Hana no!

>>48541937
she's trying to lighten up the mood, Anon! The Solstice has been pretty grim...

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Holy shit the finale™ is finally happening, I have a year of writefagging to catch up on… I'm afraid to look at the flowchart.
I might have missed it when it was initially introduced in the underground fight, but the funny demon sword turning out to be the seven-branched sword is really cool.

>>48542388
Just remember to read the ao3 version and not trek back through the threads and you should be fine.

>>48542759
You're right, that would be a lot more readable. But I'll probably trek back through the threads anyway to see the memes, webms, and overall discourse because I liked that part of these threads too.

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The longer you live, the crustier is the layer you develop over your heart to the grim spectacle of a living being harming another—killing; robbing the light from a person's eyes. Some may not have a heart to begin with, and others are so warm they never mature a defensive shell. One would think a demon goddess like me would abide by the former, but the glimpses far away over the trees of rising plumes of smoke and a thousand kaleidoscopic fields of Danmaku with the occasional laser and the two silhouettes of massive proportions dancing in the misty afterthought of burnt lives, a breathing one swinging a piece of the heavens and the other a flying ship, held much more to them than apathy. Even the devils cry, and this one felt her heart constricting.

Below, the entrance to Makai—hidden, naturally. Can’t have magicians wondering into my realm for no reason—stands wide-open, letting the invisible tendrils of a few months of accumulated magic reach towards what remained of the Human Village, most of it having vanished in that phenomenon of blue fire. With the doors wide open and magical barriers lowered, the echoing rumbles of a maimed, wrathful dragon flooded the innards of Makai, sending countless weak demons into a frenzied bloodlust that stripped them of sanity and mental inhibitors. Such manifestations of absurd derangement I’ve seen only once, 20 years ago, when someone replaced the moon. Sariel soothed under her wings those holding well enough, yet those that couldn’t be soothed… had to be put down.

Spellcard Rules forgotten; their willpower incessant as driven by the cries of a beast beyond their comprehension and his rivers of blood that wash the Human Village like a beacon. Calming down the affected demons was like dealing with a wounded and cornered animal.

Focus on the magic, Shinki; don’t let it go now…

… Not in the casualties.

Focus on the magic and finish Yukari once and for all.

Was it a part of Yukari’s plan? Was there a plan to begin with that involved Kasen's dragon going demented, or is this consequence of her utter carelessness towards the people surrounding her…? I sigh, rubbing my arms and facilitating the magic flow through me towards the burning Human Village. The Sword in the Lake; Hana Hakurei; the brothel; Reimu’s husband, for goodness’ sake!

Yukari doesn’t care—or, better, she has never cared.

She's burning Gensokyo to the ground and smearing everyone's face with singed coal with glee. She does not fucking care.

Just one of many motives for her to die, and though my involvement in this venture bore bitter and rotten fruit with what's going on inside Makai, I won’t let this suffering go to waste, nor will I turn my eyes from the rewards at the end of the tunnel. Alice’s and her man’s futures are on the line; I have every intention of seeing it through to the finale. I will transport the HSE to Makai, to its eternal damnation taken form, and every villain will grow vulnerable and pathetic, ripe for the harvest of the righteous.

They’ll die for the hideous wound they’ve inflicted on Gensokyo, a vindictive feeling coming to me as the tendrils of the Makaian magic clutch the HSE, arcane machinations showering the cursed people and the area surrounding it with energy and, steadily—

They’ll die for the hideous wound they’ve inflicted on Gensokyo, a vindictive feeling coming to me as the tendrils of the Makaian magic reaches the HSE, arcane machinations showering the cursed people and the area surrounding it with energy and, steadily—

I'm abruptly jerked forward, eyes wide.

A hand had just pulled on the spell’s invisible tendrils.

Bewildered by the sheer impossibility of someone actually comprehending magic so insanely well-guarded throughout the ages to counter it, I try pulling the tendrils back to me and away from them.

Who is doing this? Why… And how are they holding on?

Confusion turns to untamed anger, stronger attempts on my side infecting the long-range spell with so much magic I fear it’ll burst open like a watermelon, only one the size of what humans outside call a skyscraper, but I don’t care: I need that spell back under control and operating properly if I want to see Yukari done for, yet the blasted idiot on the other side resists like the plague!

Who would dare play tug of war against a goddess—with me?!

… They’re in for a big surprise, then. This demon goddess despises losing!

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Our job here was to protect the people, help them to safe places and fend off any attacking Youkai with deadly force. However, from what I grasped from Mother’s and Sanae-san’s plans, eventually—if Mother s-survived Kasen-nee, that is…—, the Moriyan shrine maiden would've joined her and they’d go seal Yukari. There are more intricacies to their plans and many moving parts I couldn't fathom, but with that little information I concluded: I don’t like it.

But what can I do?

The thought is one that burns like liquid fire, clamors from deep within ushering me to help Mother against Kasen-nee—to run past everything and barge through that massive hole in the roof of HSE and rescue my Father from that monster clad in purple. Thoughts that were then met by nightmarish juxtaposition: the sky’s saturated with Youkai fighting not with human swords, weapons from the outside world or plumes of yellow curses but with Danmaku and mystic implements—despite the chaos that day, I understood what was happening. I could follow it with my eyes and weep as people I knew, innocent people, died. I saw my mistakes. Everything here happens too fast for me to gauge—, a jumble of unique colors, shapes and sounds that vehemently assaults every sense as I ride the wordlines to dodge a thousand stray bullets and graze the lasers, utterly shocked and clutching to my Gohei so tightly I feared crushing the sacred wood, eyes desperately seeking Aunn and the others, the sudden war having scattered us with wide clouds of dust, falling debris and Danmaku, not a single moment to breathe with the sights that took place.

The bizarre ship and the dragon—I’d never forget the state of his body when I got up close during the chaos and saw the true extension of his wounds. How long have you been enduring this, Kasen-nee…?—were just thrown like rag dolls away from the HSE, sensei following and Mother disappearing amidst the dark smoke of fires that'd lift from where the seven-branched sword hit. Magic whisked away the people we were aiming to protect, leaving us without an aim and surrounded by absolute chaos.

Forces beyond my depth and that were cracking Gensokyo in half with total war surround me… And I want to carve a path in between them and face some of the strongest head-on.

Who are you, Hana Hakurei?! Why are you so stupid—

—I dodge to the best of my ability, wordlines stretched in the nick of time and allowing me to avoid sensei’s Master Spark, a stabbing hint of betrayal overshadowing my heart before, following the origin point, I saw it being reflected on Koutei’s scales. The dragon attempted to get a hold of Sensei, two people barely visible on top of his snout, but Sensei is at her best when mounted on her broom and dodged the slices of a sword the girth of an entire street and multiple bouts of Danmaku with apparent ease, the ship rebounding to aid her.

So incredibly strong is Marisa-sensei…

She can do something. She can bring forth change.

Mother, Sanae-san, Marisa-sensei—who am I next to them?

“Hana!” A sudden voice comes to me together with a familiar hand clasping hard my shoulder, my eyes drowning with relief as I bring them to meet Alice’s bright wide-eyes, one of her more expressive dolls—Shanghai!—floating at her side with a small knife. “I thought I’d lost you. Have you seen the other?” She asks, pages of her grimoire prying off and turning into golden lasers aimed at Youkai, who charged toward us, attracted by sensei’s Master Spark… Lasers that'd disintegrate them entirely. Alice-san is unfazed beyond a slight frown, her hair disheveled and her delicate clothes slightly charred and nipped on.

“N-No! The Danmaku is too dense; I can barely see anything within the worldlines,” She nods and then flies off, with me following and grazing through the torrential Danmaku shower. “A-Alice-san, d-do you think they—”

“Don’t even think about that, Hana-chan! If you think she’s thinking about that, Shanghai, hit her on the head,” the little doll nods, though I ignore her, eyes on the Dollmaker as she weaves between the showers with effortlessness, pages ripping off her grimoire and purging anyone who attacked us. “They are fine, Hana-chan. They’re strong—even Aunn,” she hits where it hurts the most. Just thinking about the Komainu trapped in this hell makes my stomach sink. She isn’t notably proficient in fighting, and she doesn’t have an ability that can protect her like mine or Mother’s… “But above strength, we have our convictions; our numbers—and we have you.”

I halt. “M-Me…?”

Shanghai moves, her cute apron dancing like the edge of her knife as she slashes the air above me, tearing open the face of a sneaky Youkai I, in my confusion, hadn’t noticed approaching. The next moment, the cold Dollmaker vaporizes the Youkai.

In the middle of a devastated alleyway surrounded by flames and with Danmaku flying above and the atomized remnants of a mad Youkai fluttering in the wind, Alice-san stares at me with authority.

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“Yes, you, Hana. Don’t be dumb; you must’ve noticed.” Despite the harsh words, she smirks softly, fist bumping Shanghai—I mumble a ‘thank you’ at the beaming doll, who cleans the blood off her blade with trained movements. Her apron doesn't look as cute stained by blood—before gently tapping me on the head. It’s not tender like Yuuka-san’s or playful like Marisa-sensei’s… It feels strong. Ruthless, even. I wonder what life Alice-san has lived to have hands like those. “You’ve had an effect on everyone around you. A good one at that. Yuuka is not a weird loner anymore, and Marisa seemed to have an ounce of purpose again with her teaching you, and, well… I’d guess me too, but you were too young to see that change.” The days of retreating to her house and playing with her dolls as she and Father did their 'adult' things come back to my mind. Before I learned the extension of Mother’s evils upon Father. When things are calmer, I should thank her for always taking care of Father when things got rough and Marisa-sensei stopped helping us. “You are precious to us, Hana-chan. You make me wanna fight; put my cute dolls on the line, even,” Shanghai scoffs with a grandiose gesture of her little arm, as if that’s of no concern to her. “So don’t greet us with a sad frown or tears! We’re doing our damn best here, and if our recompense is one of those, Shanghai is cooking your steak ultra-rare!” Every word felt like it was supposed to be said with cadence and confidence, but they came out somewhat… shaky, like she’s trying way too hard. Alice-san’s also blushing, and Shanghai nods with her little arms crossed…

Amidst my second stay at hell, I couldn’t help but laugh at her display and the eccentric dissonance between Alice before and Alice now.

“B-Bwua—are you laughing at me, you little…” She balls her right fist and scowls, but only grumbles in the end, a little tired smile opening her face. “A laugh is much better than a frown, so at least you’re following my instructions.”

“Sorry for laughing, I just—”

“—’Thank you’. Hearing a ‘thank you’ feels better… Even though you’re laughing at my expense.” As she says that, her eyes continue to roam around with subtlety, never stopping or giving any enemy a chance to jump us.

“… Thank you, Alice-san~”

“You’re welcome,” she whispers something to Shanghai as she turns, though I can’t hear it all with the booming of Danmaku resounding from the skies, only: ‘one step… ther… Ana Margatro…’; it means nothing, so I forget it with her next words, her intonation growing stern. “Enough dallying, Hana-chan. We need the others if we plan to be of any use in this war and get Anon-kun back; it’s only been two minutes, so they mustn’t have gone fa—”

—The buildings and fires on the far end of the alleyway are swept away by a rainbow beam so bereft of limits, it almost stands at half the height of the HSE’s building, quaking the ground beneath my feet and sucking the soul out of my body with the sheer power of its brief existence, the alleyway's walls threatening to crumble, Alice-san immediately jumping in front of me with her grimoire, ready to blast anyone with golden lasers. However, that is unnecessary, as it only takes a moment to consider who could cast a far more powerful and visually threatening version of the Master Spark: “Yuuka-san!” I shriek to myself, jumping ahead through the wordlines and crossing all the distance between here and the source of the 'Spellcard', Alice gasping my name before setting to follow me, a look of nervousness in her eyes. But why worry? It’s Yuuka Kazami on the other side! A powerhouse so overwhelming, she’s not facing Yukari only because we needed powerful people to protect the many villagers we thought would be defenseless.

Yet, without the burden of landing our protection to them, she’s free to join Okina—

—O-Or protecting Mother! Y-Yes, that’d work much better! A hundred times better! Yuuka-san, Sanae-san, Alice-san and everyone else can aid her against Kasen-nee a-and I'm absolutely sure she’d live! My speed escalates, glee spreading across my chest as it tightens, feelings impossible to be described in-between grazing the rain of Danmaku inundating my heart, the constriction settling as an aching that urges me to move, to be quicker, to be better.

Mother won’t need to perish! We’ll have better chances against Yukari, more time! Sweat drenches my body, eyes dilating and breathing a labor to be maintained in the stretched, fragmented world.

But nothing of that matters!

Mother will be—

The moment I burst out from the alleyway, my eyes scurry to where Yuuka should’ve been…

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—A spearhead pierces where her head was at just a moment ago, Yuuka bobbing away from the red-hot scarlet lasers that followed suit and soon lifting her parasol towards the child clad in pink, an insurmountable amount of energy gathering in but a second, though it quickly got dispelled after the pink child dodged a chain of Gohei strikes from behind without even looking and used the flat end of the imposing scarlet spear to pound Yuuka’s parasol out of her hand at an angle nigh impossible—h-how did she hit that?! It looked absurd!—, droplets of redness gushing from the spear as if alive and landing on Yuuka’s fair skin, the green-haired woman hissing in pain and recoiling, though not dissuaded, fields of Danmaku spawning from hers and Sanae-san's Spell Cards and zooming towards the child… the child who maneuvered in between them with precision and finesse, spheres of red hovering above her shoulders as she dashed towards a defensive Yuuka Kazami that’d recovered her parasol…

What is happening here? Why is Yuuka…

Noises a little way ahead call my attention, and I watch a maid shanking at Mima, dodging with efficiency her masterful manipulation of magic—a goddess and sensei of Marisa-sensei, yet unable to catch the woman in a maid uniform.

… A bunch of dolls aided Aunn as she tried her best against a redhead with bat wings, her long claws barely sidestepped by the focused Komainu.

“—STAND BACK” Alice shouts to my side, speeding ahead to join the fray with her grimoire, casting dozens of yellowed pages around her, each that burns into a laser of molten gold that shoots towards the child in pink…

W-Wait, that bonnet and light bluish hair, I think I—!

“Oh, so there she comes; the Heir of Hakurei,” her polite tone sounds pleased, each laser and subsequent Danmaku deflected with remarkable ease by the point of her spear, profound red eyes like those of snakes over me. The reflected lasers aim surgically for Sanae and Yuuka, the seasoned fighters dodging and retreating to, respectively, my side and in front of me, sharp eyes on the pink child… no, vampire. Sanae-san turns her worried eyes to look at me, and from so up close I can see she’s getting out of breath, though no one says anything as Remilia Scarlet approaches a few paces, wary ways scrutinizing the little vampire who seems right at home under a shaded sky. Black wings spread as the ground beneath her still singes with the Flower-Master’s spark, buildings crumbled and on fire, the skies dulled with smoke yet illuminated by a billion multicolored stars. The little vampire stopped and, elegantly, gave me a curtsy, her red spear fluctuating by her side as she lifted both sides of her pompous dress. “I’m Remilia Scarlet, matron of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and it’s my pleasure. We know each other, Hakurei-san, but last time you’ve been in my presence, you were but a mere child. Time doesn’t pass to me as it does to you, so forgive me if I still think of you as one~” She hums, and I instinctively try to remember more of the times I’d visited the scary mansion… All that comes is Mother angrily mumbling about the 'fucking vampires'. “Forgive me for engaging with the others also; I’d concluded it was the best way to attract you to me—and here you are… Ah, but I guess you’ll have to forgive me thrice: Reimu-san and I were good friends before she became a psychopath, but from what I have heard, she’s recuperated her soul. I want to witness that for myself; only, I’m too shy to approach her after such a sour fall out. So, I was hoping you could act as our middle-man, Hakurei-san!” She punctuates it with a modest bow.

I… blink, unsure how to react.

Yuuka does it for me, venom in her voice. “You're not laying a finger on her, Remilia! We know you’re with Yukari.” The vampire nods slowly, her eyes on something else in the distance—following her eyes to the top of nearby buildings, I see smoke and Danmaku.

Meeting Remilia’s gaze again, I notice subtle disappointment.

“Ah…” She gazes at the maid fighting the goddess and the winged devil slugging with Aunn and the dolls, a blush coming to my face with how embarrassingly slow their movements were. This is what easy dodging looks like, Mokou-san; I-I was pretty lunatic against the oni-Hieda! Ha, in your face! “It’s an understandable conclusion, Kazami, albeit regretful. It doesn’t matter; everything will come to the surface in due time—for now, let me treat you with a challenge none of these unpleasant Youkai could ever hope to offer,” she picks up the floating scarlet spear, twirling it with prowess cultivated through years of experience, hitting the flat end on the ground. “Come on, don’t fret: all of you can attack me at the same time. It’ll make for a fair fight~” Yet, the moment she gives us a smug grin, my wounded pride brims with rage and I clutch firmly to my Gohei. After this fight, Sanae-san, Yuuka-san, Alice-san and Mima-san will help Mother. We only need to get rid of a cocky vampire.

Should be easy.

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>>48542909
>>48542902
>>48542896
>>48542892
it took a lot to not make any fiddle jokes.
more tomorrow if the snow stops fucking with me~!
>>48542388
welcome back, Anon! Not giving any spoilers, but be careful with some chapters in the old threads that became de-canonized. One example is 3 Meiling ones I wrote. 2 remained canon, but 1 was decanonized because it fucked too much with main patchyanon's stuff.
Have fun, and Merry Christmas!

>>48542930
Guess that's more work for any anons who try to streamline/rewrite/edit down this thing from the beginning.

"Hello Reimu dear!" Yukari said, as Reimu slid open the door to the shrine, and was greeted by a hug and two kisses on the cheeks along with the cold that blew in.
"I'm terribly sorry, my invitation seems to have been lost! Oh, I can't wait to see all the little darlings." The Former Sage said, as she strode in.
"I thought I told you to keep her busy." Reimu whispered, staring daggers at Goro.
"You did, and I told you I would do what I can. Plus, the children wanted to see you." He replied.
"Auntie Reimu!" Two little girls cried as they both jumped and hugged her, one with straight black hair with a red under color and a western skirt and the other with wavy blonde hair with a sliver under color and a Japanese kimono. Both sported a single horn that poked out of the left and right of their heads respectively.
"Little Oiwa and Tsu, my,you two have grown! But I'm not your aunt." Reimu noted.
"Really? But Sekai is our sister and Hana's sisters as well, but you're not our mama, shouldn't that make you Auntie?" one asked.
"Papa said an Auntie was a cousin's mother, but I guess Hana isn't our cousin, maybe having two Mamas is possible like Aki and Mochi?" The other added.
Reimu, having played this game many times before relented, simply let the children in. "Alright, alright, I'm your auntie, now come inside, it's cold out."
Reimu welcomed the rest of the extended family in, watching as a grinning Seija, proud at the terror her children had inflicted on her, walked in with a little toddler boy in her arms. Pregnancy had been insulting good for the Amanojaku, giving her actual breasts to feed children with and the present Husband she was hover near was a further insult. 'Oh well.' the Hakurei thought 'She still doesn't know Aya has pictures of her playing peek-a-boo with her baby, among other embarrassing moments.' This much gave Reimu the strength she need to keep going for the rest of the evening.

"Well, of course our Mama is the best." A little blonde girl said with her two siblings in two. "She knows all sorts of magic and can cook all kinds of yummy food!"
"Food that has mushrooms maybe. Our Mama can make delicious tofu AND she probably knows a hundred more magics then your Mama does!" A young fox, backed by a bundle of her kit mates asserted.
"Dummies! Our Mama is the best because she knows all about everyone else's Mama! Plus, she's the fastest!" A raven haired girl, with jet black wings and three siblings announced.
"You're all so stupid! My Mama's the best because she leads the rabbits! Oh, that makes your Mama second best because she's under my Mama." A black-haired rabbit said, patting a taller, but still little rabbits back. "Y-yeah." She said timidly, even though her hair shone with a little bit of golden light, given her a somewhat regal presence.
Many other children voiced their own opinions, all insisting that their Mama was the best because she was strong, could swim, served the most important god, and many other reasons besides.
"We're always arguing about Mama's..." one cursed child asked, looking to her sister. "...why don't we ever talk about Papa's?" the other said, looking to stir up trouble.
"Well cause obviously our Papa's the best!" More then half the children said in unison.
"Now, hold on!" Two Night sparrow kids stepped forwards "Mama Mokou, may not be a Papa, but she's better then any of your Papa's!" The boy Sparrow stated. "Yeah! She told us so!" The girl Sparrow re-iterated.
"Then is Keine a better Mama or is Mokou?" One child's voice asked, coming from the Kitsune Kit's direction. "And everyone knows that the Accused Broker is really still the evil Yukair's lackey!" it added.
The two cursed children squinted in the direction of the voice and the blonde one gently frolicked over to the group and pointed at a specific tail. "Isn't that tail a little brown?" She asked.
And the Kitsune all turned and moved outward as a unit, leaving the Kuda-gitsune by herself. "Faker! You snuck in with us again!" The other foxes said, making after the odd one out.
The other children joined, along with a little doll who saw the fun and decided to join in, with the accursed children catching up first, but running side-by-side, instead of catching the delinquent fox. "What are you two doing?" She asked in surprise.
"Papa said following evil children around is more fun then punishing them." Oiwa said, before all three of them ran into three pairs of legs, the owners of which scooped up all three girls and brought the rest of the children to a halt.
"You little scamps! Don't just run around as you please! Someone's going to get hurt!" Hana said, struggling with the squirming little fox.
"That's right. A little roughhousing is fine, but singling someone else out is no good." Sekai said, giving Tsu a little toss.
"And making friends is good, but it's even better to make friends with everyone, alright?" Chen added, poking Oiwa on the nose.
The rest of the children apologized and their play continued.

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>>48543321
"So, a son this time huh?" Takane asked, as she rubbed her pregnant belly, her Husband sitting at her side.
"Yeah, guess after two girls we were due for one." Goro added as the little one crawled over to his lap.
"It'll be nice to show you lot how to properly raise a boy as well." Seija said, proudly as she eyed Keine, who sat on Mokou's lap.
"You can try, I wouldn't mind teaching you a thing or two." The teacher said, having a small sip of wine.
"I think we'll have to wait until they're mature before the real problems start. A bunch of able-bodied young half-Youkai men might make things a bit difficult." Ran voiced.
"It could be good! Plenty of men running around means our girls have to worry less about find a good man! Although I worry about my sons... and if they like their half-siblings it'll be difficult." Aya trailed off.
"Hmm, well I'm not too worried, my boys will be lady killers, no doubt about it! I mean, just look at their Dad!" Marisa said proudly.
"Please, let's not talk about those kid's future so strangely." Kasen asked politely.
"What's the harm? All the better to prevent the next crisis. Although, I guess that's someone else's problem now isn't it?" Okina, who sat in a whethered wicker chair, said as she looked toward Goro.
"The eight of us have been hard at work." The man shrugged, gently cradling his son. "It would be so much easier if there weren't so many rabbits." He smiled, looking to Tewi, who only gave the biggest shit-eating grin back as a reply.
"How about I bring in some men from the outside world? I have the perfect selection method and could-" Yukari began, before everyone replied with a hearty "No!"
"Come, Miss Yakumo, have a seat." Reisen waved, pulling up a chair for her which she gratefully accepted.
"Well, okay, point taken. But I'm curious about what you think we should do."
"I think, for now, we should all just enjoy this, mostly peaceful, evening." Anon said, taking a healthy swing of Egg Nog.
Everyone pleasant let out a nice little sigh, which was finally interrupted by Seija tapping her glass. "Yes, yes, that's all very good of you to say HOWEVER..." she began, a delighted expression creeping up on her face. "I may have taught our kids a little game after we learned of a little tradition of the outside world, gave them some fishing line as a present, went foraging for some branches, and told them to be good little girls and share."
Before Anon could ask what the hell she meant he felt a little bump on his head, looking up, he saw a swarm of Mistletoe above his head. "Sorry Uncle Anon." Oiwa, who rode on Sekai's shoulder and held a stick that was tied to a line which held one of the Mistletoe aloft, told him. "But we heard this was a fun way to make adults act like children."
Now, it was Anon's turn to run.

Most of the other woman chased after Anon, but absent among them was Yukari, who simply sat back and watched.
"Have you finally given up?" Reimu asked, taking a seat beside her.
"No." She said "I just don't have the strength to continue, but sometimes... not having a choice is best."
"How evasive." She shrugged and saw a pair of golden eyes peering over her seat rest at Yukari.
"Oh my, another little one? Why aren't you playing with the other kids? Go on, have some fun." Yukari told her.
But the child shook her head and gingerly stepped out, clutching a little toy to her chest. She wore a purple dress, with a green and red lace ribbon tied around her waist, and her hair was a radiant and messy blonde.
She struggled to speak for a moment, before finally she opened her mouth and asked: "Are you my Mama?"
Yukari blinked, more then a millennia of facade fighting one last desperate battle to remain dignified before an imaginary dam in her head broke and her eyes could no longer hold their shape or retain the mass of tears they held. She lept up and hugged the girl, answering the question in the affirmative over and over again.

A Christmas Special with minimal editing just like God intended. Merry Christmas.

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>>48543321
>>48543364
life could be dream....

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>>48542892
oops, just noticed a mistake with this one: the doubled paragraph. Added it in the third editing phase and didn't even stop to check if I had deleted the unreviewed one. Time to commit sudoku, bye everyone.

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Solstice update #2

>>48543003
nah, not really. I've already deleted all non-canon chapters in the archive, and usually do a once over to iron out the more glaring mistakes before posting the chapter.

>>48543364
I wonder if people really want Yukari redeemed or it's just shitposting. That woman is beyond recovery, death is a mercy at this point

>>48553018
>I wonder if people really want Yukari and Okina redeemed or if it's just shitposting. Those women are beyond recovery, death is a mercy at this point
ftfy, both hags should die.

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>>48553018
Redeemed? Yeeeaaah, she's too lost in the sauce for that I agree, but I also don't like character death and the potential implications her death would have on the barrier, it's also a mercy as you say. I'd say seal her and make her a battery for the next ???? years. I know some would say that's too lenient as she's allowed to live at all, but I think it would be fitting for a control freak to be relegated to a passive observer who can't talk or affect anything outside her prison. The most harmful thing to her is her own thoughts which she'll be spending a lot of time with as she's forced to watch everyone else move on and find their own happiness.

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>>48554300
>character death
>in the HSE

>>48554933
Literally no one ever dies, it's not surprising no one is going to die in the solstice either.

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By the hole in the wall, Kicchou assessed me. Her freaky monkey took her side with characteristic carelessness, bo staff thrown over her shoulders. The oni maintained her stare, despite how her sword seemed chipped. My ragged breath is the first and only sign I need, eyes narrowing as the dust cloud is thoroughly displaced by a brigade of white wolves and Kiketsu gang members that surround me: Kicchou’s ability is in play.

There’s structure to the chaotic nature of the Netherworld, the Animal Realm and the Blood Pools, even if it doesn’t feel so at first glance. The law of the jungle reigns ultimate—the strong govern the weak, and it’s the weak's fault for their weakness—, but to dilute ‘strength’ into one’s bodily prowess and birthright is beyond retarded and a glaring shortsightedness. Strength defines: numbers; ambient awareness; combat brain; skill; cunning; hand-eye coordination; and, above everything, creativity. You can patch the others with likened minds and thus create a force to be reckoned with, but without a modicum of creativity, you’re just a lumbering mess begging to have the back of your head burst by a fairly heavy small rock. And Yachie Kicchou is creative.

Creative enough to push my power into obeying her orders.

She knows trying to rob me of the will to fight will cause me to absorb the order and, effectively, she'd achieve nothing. The same would go if she tried to make my brain, heart, feet or whatever give up. But commanding my ability to not work strips me off most of my arsenal…

Key-word: most.

A one-trick pony is but a feast in the Animal Realm.

Gladly, she’s limited to only one order per time, and that’s what keeps the show running in the Netherealm. She counters me, Kurokoma counters her with her limitless speed that flees Kicchou’s orders, and I counter Kurokoma by not giving a shit about her speed.

Rock, paper and scissor.

But I almost chuckle, blood gushing down my face as I heave for oxygen, horizontal pupils darting around and taking every variable into consideration—twenty-five people against humble old me; two escapes, may need to create a third through Danmaku, too tight for a regular escape; spork broken, unreliable but useful still, as is any sharp stick—this strained heart pounding ferociously with the tricky situation I find myself in. “Don’t get too close to her; remember the plan! She won’t hesitate to kill any of you idiots.” Kicchou yells at the footsoldiers, her eyes blazing coals. Plan? Reinforcements, most likely. Oh, she wants me dead, and she knows this will be her only chance. Her grunts stop dead in their tracks, though the white wolves hesitate for a moment, something shining behind their eyes, their body language drooling for sweet violence…

They found that unconscious idiot I stuffed in a random room, I see. Good. They’re itching to tear me to ribbons—won’t be using 100% of their brains. “You heard the turtle bitch, right? I could’ve killed that little bitch that tried to stop me when I got here, but decided against it—heh, maybe I’ll go find her and finish breaking her neck~?” My words drip with smugness and, coupled with a relaxed body posture, birth growls and stares of plain hatred.

“Why's she still alive? You said she’d be an easy target with your powers,” the oni speaks to the turtle dragon, though the latter barely detects it, the meeting of our gazes unwavering. “Are you that afraid of her even when she’s crippled?” An incisive question, and one that drives Kicchou’s eyes away from me for the first time since this altercation.

“I’m not afraid; I’m being thorough—”

“—That means she’s shitting her panties, Horny Samurai-chan~!” I open my arms, gloating despite their superiority in numbers. The oni underestimates me, and that’s beyond good news. “You get close to me, and I’ll crack your skull open with my bare hands, devour your brain and use that pointy horn of yours to clean my teeth! The same goes to every white-haired dog bitch in heat watching me like the juiciest cut of steak I know I am: I’ll make glue outta you!” I show two rows of sharp teeth and jagged claws, issuing a challenge similar to what animals would offer each other in territorial disputes deep within the jungle.

The slight twitch of the oni’s eyebrow is enough for me to know I hit a nerve, Kicchou scurrying to say something to mitigate the effect of my words—always a woman of rhetoric first, violence then.

I ready my body, instincts firing and epinephrine flooding my veins.

Suddenly, everything is trembling around us, faraway explosions giving shape to a burst of speed from the oni. The Battle of the Solstice's started, and so have ours. A moment the oni was there, the next her sword is about to cleave my chest open, Tengus and Kiketsu assembling Danmaku and those with weapons lunging towards me. Kicchou groans with wild fury as she hastily pulls a Spellcard and her monkey’s bo staff extends towards me.

One lovely woman vs. 25 idiots.

Welcome to the jungle~

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The bo staff whizzed past me as I deflected the oni’s katana with the tail end of my spork, head end thrusting towards the oni, who dodged and had another attack prepared. But I hadn’t aimed that at her, fork prongs catching the bo staff and pulling it towards me with all my strength, hundreds of Danmaku pellets leaving me and sending the storming wolves into the defense, guaranteeing me one second before I’m drowned in steel and Kicchou’s own Danmaku, a second stressed by the monkey’s scream as she’s brought face-to-face with me—

—And, with no qualms, I headbutted her with my horns.

A moment she’s here, the next she flies through the roof and bursts open a hole in the wood with such strength it shakes the whole room, a laugh echoing in my mind as my knees bent and, before that one grace period of one second ends and I turn into goat skewer, I fly through the uneven hole in the roof.

Ears twitch, and I break my flight into a dodge roll towards the wooden floor, avoiding a Tengu-made spear and dozens of Danmaku pellets that’d come flying after me dove into the dust above—

—The same spear zips by and it’s only thanks to my animal heritage that a split-second dodge saves me from being impaled, the sharp edge still grazing my skin and drawing blood. The monkey jumps out of the cloud of dust and stares at me with an amused glint in her eyes, her tail swinging dangerously as blood drips down her scalp. Keh-heh-heh, so the bottom freak primate is tougher than she looks? The Animal Realm teaches you to regard everyone without prejudice and be always ready to tear their flesh off, but even I am surprised, though I pay both wound and freak no further attention and sprint out of the room, immediately followed by a tidal wave of Danmaku that’s met by mine. Then, I pulled the Spellcard of Avarice and tossed it inside the room, the thing bursting into a thousand homing projectiles that were met by the monkey’s spinning staff, though they did their job and bought me time to run out of the room soon teeming with enemies and onto the corridors, sweat mixing with blood and soaking the wide grin I had on my face.

Oh, this is fun! So much fun! Hunted by predators and assailed fiercely; if I lose my mettle or fuck up, I’m dead and roasted~!

The way of the jungle, of the strong and the weak!

I’ll never understand why Ranni would trade this for anything else, cackling out loud as Kicchou’s echoed voice reached me: “YOU IDIOTS! WE HAD HER, AND YOU MESSED IT UP!”

Now running down the hallways of the HSE, the fight has grown chaotic, ears twitching as a stampede advances from behind, my smile widening as hair bounces disheveled and my clothes stick to my skin—the idiots probably didn’t even give a thought why I chose the corridors rather than bursting more holes through the walls—

—The air sizzles, and I dodge a slash aimed for my neck, the unrelenting oni following with many more that were deflected with a half of my spork or dodged, Tengu and Kiketsu gaining on me—not all 22, they must’ve split. No Kicchou either, only the monkey. She’s trying a pincer maneuver, then—, Danmaku shooting towards me as the oni slashes, stabs and teleports all around with speeds I can barely keep up with, muscles unable to absorb tiredness screaming with the power behind each of her attacks and the crippling inertia that numbs them like crazy, a warmth so intense bubbling from inside me, I could compare it to setting petroleum ablaze.

And with every move, I back away, plunging farther and farther into the hallway.

Keh-heh-heh, I see how they’re bolstered by the minor cuts and the smell of my blood; how they’re swarming me like flies and attacking together with the oni, each hounding for an opportunity to devour me.

They have the strength of numbers…

… But damn, aren’t they lacking a lot in creativity~?

Another wide step back and, finally, I find it: ‘I’m inside reach’.

Whoever you are, Kosuzu, I’d kiss you if I could.

An invisible chord of Old Magic shoots from me and onto the hidden Gap carved on the wall, one of the Yakumo woman's many traps, not sparing a moment before invading it and, grinning, remotely taking control over it.

I thrust the head end of the spork into a random spot—

—The oni’s eyes widen and, lightning-fast, she deflects the spork before it can pierce her through the head, the deflected spork soaring to the back of the head of a Kiketsu and impaling it like a platted piece of meat.

Sucks that my Old Magic can’t bombard people with gods; it’d make killing them much easier, but what I have is enough—and the look of horror in most of those eyes as I drew back the bloodied spork from the invisible Gap, dragging their eyes away from the corpse with the outrageous slather of my tongue on the sharp steel, savoring the sprawled pieces of flesh and relishing the blood of someone who’d thought themselves a predator…

It’s a look of realization.

They’ve just understood who’s the hunter here.

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Despair.

All that infests my insides is despair, the clouds tearing open after the elbow pressed onto my chest hurled me away, eyes broad as I watched Reimu spring towards me with a halo of Hakurei Seals hanging on her back. Under us thundered Danmaku, plumes of dark smoke shooting up and concealing us from the world at war, yet I could still see the gargantuan silhouette of Koutei’s seven-branched sword rattling Gensokyo with each swing he delivered. Words accompanied his roars of agony and heartbreak; no one but me understood: “LEAVE HER ALONE! LEAVE KASEN ALONE!” And I could only cry.

I dodged Reimu’s Gohei with an instant teleport, something the shrine maiden expected, her eyes finding me immediately and then resuming her incessant assault.

Despair that everyone around me is suffering.

Koutei bleeds in agony, fights in agony—lives in agony!—all because of me! I couldn’t save anyone, and I can’t say ‘no matter how much I tried’ because I didn’t try at all! I let them rot and now the world is being blown open by an unforgiving war, Hana has lost any shred of innocence she’s ever had, and Anon stands a broken man beyond repair…

… And Reimu, who looks at me with admonishing finality, her attacks calculated and precise, doing her very best to subdue me with Danmaku, kunais, Gohei strikes and seals, though she couldn’t hit me through instant teleporting—she would if she employed her float.

Yet she cannot use her powers. Not with those eyes.

“R-Reimu, please, I don’t want to f-fight you—” she heeds not my words, Gohei vibrating with fractal power pounding where I stood a moment ago. “—l-let me go help Koutei, please, Reimu, please! They’re making him suffer, hurting him! He’s suffered too much!” I beg—lie. I regurgitate lies because looking at her and knowing that I’ve raped her husband and daughter and that I’ve brought them unimaginable pain and did nothing when I could’ve done something hurts so overwhelmingly I yearn to just drop dead. But death doesn’t come. I endure and death does not come… Please, just arrive at once; let the sun set. It’s too tiring to continue—, but all the shrine maiden shows me are her bulging eyes, constricted pupils, and dark bags that accentuate her aching stare.

Eyes I’ve recently seen in my mirror…

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” I cry out, dodging barrage after barrage of strikes by a woman who should’ve been way past her prime yet who fights beyond it, not because she can or because she sees it fit, but because she must.

If she stops keeping the pressure for a second, I’ll blitz past her, and she’ll never catch me again.

“… I need…” Her strangled voice shakes me to my core. “T-To save everyone! To save you and to stop Yukari, to save Anon and Hana! I need to save everyone…” She does not stop for a moment, plunging into three minutes of pure viciousness, her eyes terrified—not of me or Yukari, but of herself. “I’ve got nothing else in this life!” Those words elevate the grotesque storm inside of me into a spiraling inferno.

Where’s the child I considered my little sister?! The child who'd pretend to listen to my sermons and pout because she wanted to drink tea and lazy around rather than do her job?

A loud howl shakes the dark clouds that open with each of our movements, and my tears surge with newfound wrath—no draconian words spoken yet the visceral pain felt.

Why can’t they see Koutei has suffered enough—?!

—The Gouhei hits the top of my head, sending it down—

One lonely moment of distraction. More than enough for a shrine maiden.

Magic unlike anything I’ve ever felt before soaks my broken horns, flames that burn albeit not scorch, and I feel something inside myself being pulled by the might of a genuine God… Something that melts like the past; that delights with the sight of thousands of white skulls and that’d jeer at all the misery happening right now.

Her name is Ibaraki Douji, and she’s jubilant at the possibility of tasting blood once again.

I snap. “NOOOOOOO!”

A nuclear wave of pink lightning ruptures out of me. The thick columns of acrid smoke converge, and the pink bolts pursue the paths of least resistance, spreading like tree roots in every direction, a few Youkai who’d no idea what was going on around them popping like balloons.

Gensokyo watched the heavens be lit by a weeping eruption of intense pink.

—

Reimu’s miko reflexes hadn’t failed her, and she dodged every thunderbolt with trepidation, knowing one graze would mean her body dissolving into a human cloud, drawing enough distance and wasting enough time until the lightning flurry subsided. Panting and wide-eyed, the Hakurei shrine maiden peered at the Eye of the Storm.

Pink thunder whirred around her, the howling winds licking her short hair as her face climbed to return the gawk of the shrine maiden.

One eye hung wide-open; the other rested shut, tears trickling from it.

Adorning the top of her head and parallel to the broken stump rose a demonic horn.

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>>48557575
>>48557570
>>48557563
phew, we're drawing close to the end of Set 1! Set 2 should be bulkier since the majority of the fighting will be happening there.

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Probably could've posted this in the last thread that could've used a bump but
https://rentry.co/chrome-extension
severely unfinished Three Stooges part involving Okina & part that would've showed off more of Konngara's ability to steal other's powers. The Konn part sucks eggs but personally I liked what was put down so far for Okina and wanted to finish it but given that I was indirectly granted a good extra weeks to finish any of this before solstice finally started and all I did was lollygag, it probably just wasn't meant to be. Heck, I was supposed to post this very message like a week ago but didn't because... I dunno.

Maybe someone else could take a crack at them & have like a comedic relief moment where the Makai Plan succeeds (Shinki successfully brings the HSE down to Makai) but then it gets flubbed because Rikako, Lemontene and the Robot Reimu sold for a Nickle's currently in-progress prison break tired out all of Shinki's best men at the worst possible time, which makes the sages mad and one of them then use Rikako as a human battering ram. Maybe something like that could be funny but it feels kind of entitled to ask considering I'm the guy who's work was so detached from the actual central plot that his characters weren't even included in the Finale Pastebin.
No idea why this came off so scathing. I still love the shit out of HSE even if I've really fell off with keeping up to date on every new chapter posted and occasionally poke fun at it every blue moon

>>48559849
>I'm the guy who's work was so detached from the actual central plot that his characters weren't even included in the Finale Pastebin.
They aren't appearing in the final because (you) decided not to write them and to not include yourself in the finale.

>>48561830
I reeeally hope it stays that way, the pacing of the solstice is pretty fast, bringing it to a halt to entertain the HSE equivalent of jar jar binks would feel jarring and out of place.

>>48562877
So? Just because he decides to post or write something doesn't mean it has to be accepted as canon, neither do the writers have to entertain him if they don't want too.
I was politely telling him to either shit or get off of the pot, I'd rather seem him post something and get shit on for as you say.
>bringing it to a halt to entertain the HSE equivalent of jar jar binks would feel jarring and out of place.
Or just him writing nothing instead of whining about his characters being excluded while he stands in middle begging people to pick up characters that nobody but him cares about.

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>>48559849
Makai is getting nuked by Patchy because they tried to hurt her baby

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>>48561830
Yeah, the weird part is that I had basically everything outlined. a dozen of some good jokes, What everyone would generally be saying and even a nice character heart-to-heart capitalizing off what the other Writeanon's Great Okina story built. I knew what I wanted to write, I only really needed to just sit down and put it to paper but just never could for some reason despite having a lot more freetime compared to around a year ago. Perhaps I was just subconsciously burnt out or just have a bad case of Scatterbrainism. I dunno.
>>48563134
>whining about his characters being excluded while he stands in middle begging people to pick up characters
Did I really come across like that? I thought I did my best job to not sounding annoying or pretentious.
I'm not gonna beat around the bush about it, does sting a little knowing a lot of the stuff I wrote won't matter for Act 3 but I'm not gonna lose sleep or throw a temper tantrum ITT over it, especially when there's already a good story being told that's pretty packed with characters that need focus.
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, so I figured while I dumped all my unfinished chapters it was at least worth seeing if anyone else in the collaborative project had potential interest in doing something cool with the chunks of story I slacked off on finishing . That's all man.

>>48566619
Yo man, your rentry link is broken.

>>48566619
>I'm not gonna lose sleep or throw a temper tantrum ITT over it
>ITT
So what I'm hearing is that, you're going to throw a temper tantrum over it in another thread?
Jokes aside, what did you expect to happen. Nobody but you cares about jarjar binks geroge, so wither you're going to write something about them, or no one is.
This was the best response you were ever going to get, just go back to the china girl threads with cirnoanon and keep posting there if you want to farm positive responses.

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“—N-NO, WAIT—” The world shifts and spins as I harshly drop out of the Gap and onto… a mountain of multicolored silk. Soft and light, cushioning my fall at first, but my weight displaced the pile and sent me crashing down to the ground, muffled voices in the background calling my name, all disregarded by this mind spiraling with despair. Thick tears surged uncontrollably as I stumbled onto my feet and lunged forward, wide eyes on the Gap, holy grail, trying to reach it at any cost. If I could reach it and return to the Fake Shrine, maybe I could help Mr. Anon and Ran deal with Yukari and the others! The people Okina brought with her—Ayaya was there and she knows many things! She’d know something to do to make things right—; a-and I could make Yukari listen to me and give a billion evidences she’s loved a lot a-and—

And I can make things right if I just get—

The Gap shut, and my hands reached nothing.

The universe bates an icy breath and bells toll. “… N-No, wait…” I try to open the Gap with my hands as if it’s a window that’d been closed, a little voice in the back of my head yelling that it is a foolish endeavor—I know how the Gap works, Ran has taught me—but I keep on trying, someone approaching me. The world dims around me, my stomach turns upside down and with nothing to tear open, my nails find the sides of my arms, tearing to ribbons the flesh and letting a crimson rainfall blemish the silk. ‘So wasteful’, Mr. Anon would say.

My body trembles and the pain that spreads inside burns like nothing when compared to the hole drilled through my heart.

They’ll die. I knew it, tried to come to terms with it…

… Then, I saw powerful people swarming Yukari with blood in their eyes; I saw Mr. Anon’s mortified expression as the world around us croaked under their will; Ran broke Yukari’s heart, and I saw the chasm that’d been carved between them. They’ll kill each other.

Ms. Reimu will give her life for Hana.

My family is no more.

I knew it’d happen.

I knew it’d eventually arrive.

… Yet the feeling of my world slipping away hurts so much.

“N-Not like this… Let me show I love you; you’re not alone.” Darkness shrouds me, sapping my strength. Cold, it is so cold. Hold me Mr. A-Anon, the cold is taking everything I have…

Pressed against my bloodied hair, nails having scratched the scalp before, my ears didn’t pick up on those rushed steps halting to my side.

“Please, stop… don’t push me away anymore…”

In this single moment as my knees buckle, the blood cascades down, my head grows light and the cold spreads mercilessly, I don’t think I’ve felt more alone.

… Until ten very warm arms wrap around me.

No, spider legs.

Legs that hold me and stop these trembling hands from rendering the flesh any further; legs that cradle me to her core and hold me close, two of them gently caressing the bruised spots on my head with levity and tenderness, no pain flaring up. Her other legs coat my wounds in spider web, something made to hunt and aid their violent survival, now used to soothe wounds. In her human arms I melted and felt shielded from the world and my mind, disoriented and void of strength to do anything but rise my narrowed eyes, meeting Yamame’s big red pupils tarnished by the stain of deep worry. “… Yamame-sensei…?”

“Y-Yes, Chen. I’m here with you,” she says, one hand climbing down to hold my cheek as a smile crept up her face. “But you’ve lost some points, young seamstress,” a smile that doesn't last after her eyes met my bandaged wounds, the worry growing tenfold. “Using something as precious as your hands to deliver yourself pain…?”

I look silently at the wounds, the lasting sting simmering on the back of my mind, but can’t find words to express it, so I do the next best thing: “I’m sorry… I was sad.”

Her atelier shakes slightly, Yamame’s eyes scurrying somewhere away from me before she spoke words intended for other people. I can barely make them out, ears buzzing with the lasting cold—why am I so cold…?

A flurry of steps is audible, then a door opening and closing. Yamame sighs, her gentle eyes shining over me like red diamonds once more. “You don’t need to apologize for feeling sadness, Chen.” We move away from the broken table and silks—clothes, scarves, tapestries. Ruined—drenched in blood. “Not even for that, you hear? They’re all replaceable; don’t fret.” Along the way, one of her spider legs picks two things from the ground: my hat that she neatly placed on my head—I wince, an acute pain flashing from the scratches—, and a blue and red talisman with a goat and some other symbol. Soon, we’re by the counter, the earth rumbling and the lights flickering, boombursts in the distance muffled by the walls of the Underground.

But I pay no attention to that, only to the huge photograph hanging on the wall.

The photo of Yamame, her husband, and other two hundred relatives—all bearing smiles.

A happy family.

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“… I’m sorry…”

She clicks her tongue. “Chen, I’ve already told—”

“I’m sorry,” I repeat, the tears resuming with full force. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” I close my eyes, trying to take them away from that happy family, but the image, now twisted, scorches the walls of my heart as something I have utterly lost. A sign in the heavens, and I’m bound to the land and its thorns and briars—Ms. Reimu’s suicide; Mr. Anon’s fear; Yukari’s hatred; Ran’s despair—, and all I can do is trek this nightmare, knowing I have lost everything.

My heart bleeds with every thought, and my claws yearn to mitigate the emotional pain.

I’ve loved, and I let all that love crash and burn.

… If only I had done more, tried more. If I tried harder to help Yukari…

Trying to roll myself into a ball, I hold on to Yamame-sensei’s apron with might, back arching and teeth clattering, ruining everything with my tears, for one thought comes to the forefront: it is all my fau—

“—STOP!” Her arms reel me from the abyss as the lights above flicker again and the world shakes. Wide-eyed, I look at Yamame-sensei, the motherly smile and warmth gone; in its place something much more… sorrowful. A unique type of sorrow, which I don’t think I’ll ever match, for it's draped in longing, and everyone longs differently. “Stop,” this one comes out softer, her eyes skipping mine—to hide her sharp sad—, her hands searching the drawers after placing me on the wooden counter, a position I remember from the first day Ran brought me here. I can see the photo clearly.

I dodge it to delay that invisible knife from punishing my heart and watch the curated dope solidifying on my arms, creating white casts stained with blood yet that build enough pressure to keep more from flowing, a thousand murmurs echoing internally with the sight. This wouldn’t be happening if I just—

“For a second there, you reminded me of him.”

The voices stop. “… What?”

“Something bad happens to anyone, and you feel the need to apologize. Apologize to others; to the world; to yourself—because it’s all your fault,” she speaks with cadence, remnants of that shriek on her face still but quickly dissolving into a smile. “You try your best—try your best to help everyone—but it’s never enough, so you apologize… What were you apologizing for, Chen?” She finds what she was looking for: a small box that smells of medicine but not like those Mr. Anon takes, her eyes on mine laden with scrutiny and reassurance.

A disappointed gaze, yet that begs for greatness she knows lies within.

It is the stare of a mother, and despite everything—

Eyes on the picture. A type of happiness I had but have lost.

Everyone I love is in peril of dying.

The world shakes with Yukari’s war, and people are dying.

My world has shattered.

—it compels me to speak: “… Everything—ouchie!”

Over the dope, she slathers a cotton saturated with a weird substance that, upon contact with the skin below, burns and simmers before hastily growing cold. “Everything, huh… Is everything your fault, Chen?”

“I-I could’ve done more! I knew things were bad; I saw i-it that d-day after K-Kogasa-chan helped me and…” I whimper as she soaks the dope with the disinfectant, heart bleeding and words weakly attempting to escape me as the burn followed by the cold ward off physical pain, letting that of the mind filter in again and swirl with sad thoughts.

“What says doing more would’ve fixed things?”

“H-Huh?” I stammer.

“You could’ve done more, Chen. I don’t know exactly what you could’ve done more for, but I don’t need it to know you could’ve done more… But how can you be so sure it’d have helped?” Dipping the cotton into the open jar containing the substance, she moves to my head. “… When you first appeared here, Chen, you had fears about death and what it means. I understand I helped you back then, and you were coping well with its inevitability. Ah… that Gap and the world shaking means death has arrived sooner than you expected, right? Yukari’s Winter Festival, right?” It takes a second to grapple with my growing heartache, but I nod. Yamame-sensei looks devastated. “This is a cruel world, Chen, and it’ll take and leave holes behind without a care for our maiden feelings—yet the world is not me, not you, not Mr. Anon or Ran. The world doesn’t revolve around any of us, Chen. Anyone can do anything they want, but no one can do everything. If I could do everything, I’d still have my beloved to help me raise our children and live a happy married life with,” I shiver as her tone becomes one of pain, and overwhelming it feels if for but a moment, her soft smile returning quickly.

“But I—”

“There are no buts. No burden you feel tempted to shoulder will ease the pain of a world uncaring of our feelings and desires,” words that cut viscerally, my tears returning as a quaking heart tries to ignore the truth laid bare in front of me and stare at its wound—that is a much simpler approach…

And one Mr. Anon would hate me for.

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“What should I do, then?!” I yell full of sudden, aimless rage; the pent-up pain had morphed into a flaming burst of aggression and self-pity, one I hated myself for and desired to drown with these sharp claws. “My family is falling apart, Y-Yamame-sensei, and it’s too late for me to pick up the pieces—”

“—And yet, you want to pick all of them up, no matter if it hurts you. Especially if it hurts you…” She stares tearfully at my claws caked with blood, and I close my fists in shame. “If it hurts only you, then nothing should hurt those you love—but your hurting only serves to create more pain, Chen. Don't bring more pain to a Gensokyo already submerged in it, would you promise me?”

“…” Words don't leave, but their meaning strike deep and true, Yamame-sensei's words unrelenting against a barrage of excuses my heart tries to assemble, my eyebrows frowning…

Until a conversation by a kotatsu at the Hakurei shrine returns to mind—a conversation about disappearing amidst stars; an escape from every responsibility, and one I admonished Ms. Reimu for.

What I got in return from the shrine maiden was warm smiles and nurturing love, and I never regretted destroying her kotatsu for those alone.

Besides, this would make Mr. Anon sad, wouldn't it…?

I swallow the block of ice stuck in my throat and, gingerly, nod to Yamame-sensei.

“Thank you, my cute apprentice,” a low, bittersweet hum resonates from her mouth, and I watch the Earth Spider put the cotton and tweezers by the side, her delicate hands fixing my hat—the hat she’s made for me with its spider embroidery, a symbol of my apprenticeship and mourning for one tiny spider. “… Whatever is wounding your heart, you can tell me, Chen.” Through fading tears, I warily stare at her… And I’m gifted a beaming smile that shone like sunlight and gentle, fond eyes, a hug with no arms. “I am a mother of a hundred and ninety kids. I’ve heard many wails of pain and depression throughout the years, took care of many teenagers' broken hearts and kids' scrapped knees, and once thought my heart filled to the brim by them… But I see I was wrong. As the saying goes: there’s always space for one more~” She giggles, cupping my face tenderly.

It was all it took to break the dam. “I want to… help Y-Yukari! I saw her suffering, and I don’t want her to die! I want Mr. Anon to be happy, safe and free! Ms. Reimu to survive! Ran to marry and have many babies! I want everything and everyone to be happy! But I… I…” Even though the tears streak down and drench her hands, she never releases my face. She holds to me dearly, and in this gesture I find strength to push through the blisters and welts of a broken world. “… I know that’s impossible. I know things won’t end as happy as I want them to. I knew from the very beginning and tried to accept it, but i-it still hurt so much that I wanted to give up! To reason everything being my fault b-because it’d be easy—it’d mean there was still hope I could do more to help them all…” I shout as loud as I can, as if the sheer volume would make it real. It does not, and all that’s left for me is to cry all this sad off my chest, face held straight by Yamame-sensei.

‘Anyone can do anything they want, but no one can do everything.’

Truth I tried to ward my eyes from. An unavoidable truth.

Universal as death, no one can do everything.

I peer into her eyes, and I finally see something I hadn't noticed amidst the unrelenting love and comfort of a mother’s gaze—eyes like Mr. Anon’s, Ran’s and Ms. Reimu’s…

No one can do everything…

“… But you—” all of them, looking at me. The cold is gone, and in its place rests the memories of Mr. Anon and I knitting together; Ms. Reimu singing for me; Ran watching me play with love in her eyes. Yamame-sensei's crimson eyes on me, welcoming me into her heart. A spot I accept. “—believe I can do my best.”

We do the best we can, because it’s the best we can do…

Then, they taught me death.

“And that, Chen, will be more than enough,” she whispers to me and gently places her forehead against mine, a weird sadness in the touch, though I don’t focus on it, my eyes shifting to a piece of red-and-blue paper sitting by the box of medicine. “… Would you say yes if I asked you to stay here with me and my children? They’re downstairs.”

“… Thanks for everything, Yamame-sensei, I feel so much better now~” the understatement of the century, and I make sure she knows it by giving her my biggest smile as I pick up the red-and-blue seal and fly off the counter. “… But I wouldn’t. I still have my best to give them!”

Now, they taught me life.

Yamame sighs, a smile betraying the worry in her eyes. “… A smile always suited you both best, I guess—just make sure you come back to me, Chen-chan. No matter how small, I don’t want an empty spot in my heart.” As she says that, the world shakes.

Our faces remain undisturbed.

Such smile… I haven’t lost everything. Not yet. “I’ll do my best~!” Then, with a wave of my cast arm, I fly off.

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>>48573280
>>48573275
>>48573271
SET 1 OF THE SOLSTICE IS NOW DONE!
With every building block put in place and the foundation set up, I'm done with the first set of the Solstice, meaning we've knocked 25% down of it already~
as said previously, Set 2 will be bulkier because many fights will take place and end there, and I want to start it with a big boy batch, so expect next chapters around 2-3 of January. Wewlad, can't believe it'll take a year to write those…
Will still write a little new year's special.
see ya there~!

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>>48573288
Hi, original Patchouli anon here. Sorry for falling off the bandwagon for a while. Just to double check, we're not really trying to keep any of the epilogues consistent with each other, are we? I'm sure you have plans for Chen and Yamame, and they might be able to coincide perfectly fine with my plans for featuring the Kurodani family rebuilding the SDM library in the Patchouli/Meiling/Sekai epilogue. I'll probably try and work around whatever you write anyway, but I'm just wondering how you feel about approaching that.
Good luck on pushing this through to the finish line, by the way. You and everyone else still writing.

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>>48575907
hey man, long time no see
>Just to double check, we're not really trying to keep any of the epilogues consistent with each other, are we?
yup, nothing's changed in that regard.
>spoiler
I feel absolute fine with any approach you take, and am excited about your epilogue even if it's a complete departure of what I'll write. I wouldn't have you feeling confined with the character that's the definition of “everyone perceives Gensokyo differently”, so be free to let the creative liberties flow~
thanks for the encouragement!
By the way, do you intend to write the last entry of the Patchy storyline, aka what I suppose would be Remi comes to Patchy/Meiling after their squabble with Sekai about the child corpse they summoned from thin air? I've been quite vague about it in the Solstice as to not constrict you, but if you don't, then I'll be writing it likely as a flashback.
don't worry about time if you want to write it. Such thing will only become relevant maybe by the end of January-half of February, presumably the start of Set 4.

>>48578421
>last entry of the Patchy storyline
I think you can be free to do what you wish with it. In truth, I never really planned for much beyond the ritual. I suspect that Remi would probably be more than a little upset, not so much for any potential new damage to the SDM, but mostly because she's downright terrified that Patchouli actually did manage to kill herself this time, and she's plenty scared for Meiling too. Beneath all those pompous airs lays someone who deeply loves her friends, methinks. She'd probably finally force Meiling off of guard duty for a day or two to make sure she gets some proper rest and a chance for her to come to terms with being trapped in the HSE for so long. Patchouli might help out with that, but she might be under watch too for any more stupid attempts to spite fate and remove herself from the world prematurely.

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>>48579003
understandable, and thanks for the insight. Will make sure to use it (mainly Remi's worry, which is an angle I hadn't paid much attention with assumptions that her manip of fate would overwrite any concern, though it's reasonable to speculate she'd be on edge after her episode in the forest without her powers)

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>>48553018
>I wonder if people really want Yukari redeemed or it's just shitposting
Oh no, it's only a shitpost and anything I've written to make Yukari seem less like a psycho is only to increase the levity when she's hoist by her own petard, not to imply possible redemption.

Also sorry I haven't written shit for the solstice yet. I got like three other projects to lock down.

>>48582273
it's okay your still better the some people

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hello everybody, I'll be getting surprise family today so no chapter. Still, hope you have a fun réveillon and a great last day of the year!

>>48585935
>Rananon was mpreg'd as well since he didn't wear protection and is now giving birth
Very disappointing I expect better things from the writers in this thread.

>>48586702
Ayanon must take responsibility for this, he shouldn't have angered the Kazakhstani gods of mpreg...

>>48587301
Takanaeanon is the one who introduced mpreg so he would be the one to blame for Rananon's pregnancy.

>>48588333
>trips
It's so over

>>48589183
At least we known Takaneanon is the one who impregnated Rananon, now the only question is what to name the child.
Takeran? Anonanon? Rantake?
Also which notable anons from this thread are they going to invite?
Will we get graphs and charts based on their wedding and baby? Storytimes?
The world will never know until it happens.

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riveting conversation

>>48589392
That is either a gacha girl or vtuber, neither of which are Touhou.

>>48591066
It's worse than those: it's Chinese

>>48591099
Then she should leave, there is already a thread for the chinese and they aren't welcome here.

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>>48586702
>>48587301
>>48588333
>>48589183
>>48589337
hope you fuckers take responsibility and name this thing that's spawned in my room. I hate Gensokyo's faith/belief system so much...

>>48591828
Congratulations on becoming a mother.
Her name is 赤(Aka) because Yukari has zero originality and would not permit the child to be named anything else

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>>48592398
>Red Fox: The average litter size is 4 to 6 pups, although litters of up to 10 pups have been reported
>Akachi
>Akani
>Akasan
>Akayon
>Akago
>and so on
why is the hag like this??

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>>48591145
>Essex bullying
>In the year of our lord 2014+11
This is outrageous, the friendly merchants of /v/ said the sex would be appreciated in this board, but it seems they were wrong. I'll be turning 360° and moonwalking away from here post-haste.

DEAD FISH SEX
AAAAA

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time to drive for 40min to a crowded beach. Happy new year, everyone!!!

Happy new year fellas
My resolution is to write that joke about Nitori v the Dirt Kappa and nothing else.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, HSE!!

Happy New Years, all.

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BAD new years!

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>>48593417
at least she's getting something after lazying around the flowchart for so long.

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>>48588333
>>48589337
>Takanaeanon is the one who introduced mpreg
No, I did not, it was the mothefuckers in the thread who meme'd into existence, I am an instrument, and they played me like a the worst member of a highschool jazz band!

>>48602198
Did these mysterious mothefuckers also force you to make Goro trans?
The motherfuckers in this thread never had the ability to control your decision making, you're still the one who chose to write Goro as being pregnant and it's still your responsibility.
Alternatively, it's your fault for being such a tool that even the worst member of a highschool jazz band can play you easily.

>>48602198
this truly is the dark souls of allegations...

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>>48602198
you better stop using esoteric bullshit avenues to avoid paying reparations, you mpreg enthusiast! This thing can't be raised on heated water mixed with flour alone, and it already tried to eat my cat twice. Look at the poor thing (https://files.catbox.moe/uk09yz.png), it's shaking with fear! I can barely write like this.
if you can't pay the reparations with money, I accept payment in chapters.

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"Bother."

It's the 3rd, are we gettin chapters today?

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>>48611406
>Hana after 10 minutes with Sanae

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>>48611408
yup, should be posting in about 12 hours or so.

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My eyes were wide open, as if Tenma-sama himself hovered over my shoulder. What I’m watching is history in the making, and even entertaining the thought of reaching my notebook in the back pocket and drafting events to avoid memory holes or juxtaposition would get me killed. Hatate’s thoughtography would be useless with the urgency and viciousness of the situation, and I doubt there’s someone in this room with as much of a clear view of events as the remarkable Aya Shameimaru—me.

If I don’t keep my eyes peeled, future narration of events is likely to become diluted, confusing, and exaggerated.

Doesn’t mean that’s all I’m here for, eyes scurrying the columns of pitch-black sulfuric gasses and acrid smoke lifting from the burnt woods, heartbeat shaking my bones. I need to find them before the demon right on my tail catches me…

Damn, I wish my camera hadn’t melted away…

Dark wings flapped and the burning tree I’d perched on got reduced to ashes quicker than a blink, geta perfectly balancing onto the next not burning one as eyes darted around and ears tuned in to the intricate movements of the wind for more flames, breathing labored as the scarlet flood licking invisible walls and almost the entire forest surrounding the fake shrine sucked in tons of oxygen from the atmosphere, the skies a colorful, twisting cloud where molten bloodshot eyes lay, beams of deadly magic falling down harmlessly at first, but then they’d hit anything and evaporate them from existence. On the ground, a rumbling furnace of magmatic rock that shifted like tectonic plates; the walls reversed waterfalls of scarlet hellfire and the roof a crucible of squeezed planets and stars, the mixed juices spraying down death rays on the few people flying about like a cosmic and rather novice stirring.

It was chaos, and the flying vampire clone jumping out of the canopy surrounded by Danmaku laughed heartily as her eyes landed on me. “There you are~!”

The chase restarts.

Dodging Flan’s fires and lunatic Danmaku—thank the Daitengu I haven’t slacked in my combat prowess; Aya the bullet lives on… and that I’ve already given birth. Don’t believe I’d be thinking right now if my cute kids still weighted this belly—with bated breath and many mini-heart attacks, the death shafts and walls of flames served as terrible covers, blatantly highlighting my dark silhouette and forcing me into the crumbling forest of fire, the clone following with no reservations whatsoever of her well-being, bearing that intense glare of red and wide smile. Enough for a thousand nightmares. Desperately but carrying not one concern about my dodges through briars, grooves and branches—any Tengu that doesn't know how to navigate the mountain gets their butts beaten—, I swing my Hauchiwa fan, Okina's Backdoor powering it and sending winds barrelling towards the vampire and ensnaring her in winds so fast my feathers were being pulled towards them, a glimmer of hope surging as I prepared hundreds of Danmaku pellets to throw at the locked girl and maybe, just maybe, have the ‘defeat’ of Flandre Scarlet to boast about—

—the tornadoes combusted out of existence as Flan pierced through it, seemingly unharmed and loudly giggling.

Ah…

I nearly puked out of dread as every Danmaku pellet withered away with the awful sight, but at least I prided myself in how it'd slowed her down… a little; tangible anyway. Eyes rushed ahead, the small dots of darkness that popped up all around the Fake Shrine since the start of this war blurring together at these speeds, their appearance that of noise grain on a shakily taken picture yet that’d vanish within a quarter of a second, choosing to focus on the forest opening down to the destroyed center of the Fake Shrine. Toppled, hurled to oblivion and likely had caught fire and dissolved into ashes; that’s what became of Yukari’s fake Hakurei Shrine—inside my heart, a small but painful sting: despite everything, that was the place I’d conceived my children after a night of wild passion that developed into love; that I made Anon a promise. No matter how twisted and disgraceful the situation turned out to be… Tsk, sentimentality doesn’t matter. It was a terrible place, and it deserved to burn for all it represents to Anon—, winds guiding me in-between the devastation, Danmaku and death rays finding their ways to me as I dodged frantically, the molten red-hot ground cracking open with geysers of unknown albeit absolutely deadly gasses, eyes finally finding them—

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—An explosion of crimson flames made me pick up the pace, wings propelling me towards the mass of golden tails, a thousand Gaps opening and closing around her without stop, her hands spread far and ushering waves of invisible power—power that whispered of something ancient and apathetic to my feathers. Something beastial yet fascinating, like the star-colored growl of what people once thought dogs, but had revealed themselves as shooting-stars—, her clothes fluttering and the chaotic elements avoiding her entirely; work of the froggy goddess close by her, who’d twist the burning ground as tall, tsunami walls that’d meet the rows of Danmaku and scarlet fire Flandre was throwing around, the girl’s eyes sparkling as she and her clone went down without restrains on the wind goddess controlling the storm clouds that’d form with each of her powerful movements, flames carried away and dispelled and Danmaku pellets disintegrating as they’d get—literally—sliced by the swiftest winds I’ve ever seen. But the unraveling skies and shifting earth meeting a hell of burning scarlet paled compared to the sheer pressure Yukari Yakumo exerted by existing, uncontrollable power in the Gaps she’d manipulate and that, a quarter of a second later, would vanish—t-that means a-all those black dots numbering in the millions were Gaps; a legion of them flocking around her like infinite swarms of insects. Why so many; and why create them haphazardly…?—, yet that’d be powerful enough to shield her from, to the extent of my knowledge, Bishamonten’s strongest nun, who’d forgone Danmaku and relied entirely on punches and kicks that’d not only shake the shrine, but cause the disruptions in the soup of broken magic that composed the roof, most catastrophic lasers coalescing on them as only a few stranded away. On the defensive, Yukari dodged the pummeling and sliced the Backdoors with Gaps as they’d appear, Okina not far away from the nun’s back—protecting her.

Beyond the dale of entropy and with a Flan clone hovering above him acting as the maestro of seven-colored giant lasers the froggy goddess would battle with geysers of magma and unknown gases, was one cowering, simple man—caged in silver after years of a cage of gold.

In front of me unfolds history in its rawest form.

Then, pain—excruciating pain. “Ran!” I yell, dodging the subsequent scarlet flames and chasing the goddess and shikigami, sweat pouring down my body and dampening my wings—that single idle moment of awe cost me many feathers, now fluttering in the harsh winds and dying amidst scarlet flames. Tears surge and the Backdoor on my back automatically starts opening over the remaining feathers struck by the fire, tearing them by force and eliminating the spread. Had I not been who I am, I’d be a pile of ashes.

Rumbles of the ground and the skies threatened to muffle my voice, despair creeping like vines as I could feel the vampire clone closing in on me—

—Then, a pillar of magma consumed her from below, the propelling geyser felt on my skin and bubbling the whiteness of it into reddened, crumpled silk; it atomized the clone, so that’s enough. “What do you want, Shameimaru? Why isn’t Anon out of here already?!” The froggy goddess shouts at me, her usual composure converted into a cold ‘O, death’, her eyes laden by a hum of thousands dead forests and a devouring soil that’s been breaking and reclaiming all life throughout the entire concept of existence, hands spread and moving the nigh liquid ground in complete sync with the wind goddess to protect Ran, Byakuren and Okina—all around us, dark will-o-wisps spawn for a quarter of a second before the kitsune that wouldn't move a muscle crushed them—the woman’s eyes narrowing upon noticing my tears…

… Though it’s Ran who speaks, her back to us: “Get up, Aya.” Her voice drips certainty, but her tone is fleeting, like she’s barely here. “We cannot waste time…” From this close, I can see the rattle under her clothes, something Suwako had noticed too. Ran’s body is spasming uncontrollably. “I’m not the host of Gaps like Yukari; only my deep connection to the Animal Realm makes what I’m doing possible… and Yukari knows that. I stop doing what I’m doing, and we all die within a second. That’s why she’s spawning decoys non-stop.” Words go unspoken, but I understand them in my core: we have a fast approaching deadline. Such a conclusion makes me think of four eggs patiently waiting the day they’d hatch and meet their mother and father. It feels cold. “I need to close every single Gap and undo what those that slip by create, or gamble one of them manipulating the air to be venom…” She struggles for air but never ceases closing the insurmountable number of Gaps, a sharpness to every breath she takes that evokes the melody of determination. Her example, however, sent shivers down my scarred spine: we know Yukari can be much crueler… “So, before my body fails, get the fuck up and figure out a way to save the man we love, Aya Shameimaru!”

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Surrounded by hell, and what widens my eyes is the ever-collected and logical shikigami losing her temper and cussing—gladly, Chen is not around—, a dry laugh dying in my lungs as I brought myself to my feet, doing my damnest best to look cool while coping with the pain of my scorched wings, though such pain evaporated into a seething rage not at Flandre, Ran or the sweating froggy goddess whose hands trembled, but at… everything else.

Everything leading up to this day and its consequences.

My goddamn newspaper, robbed and corrupted.

… Outside, dozens of white wolves are dying for empty promises. I hope Momiji survives…

I tried to have them saved—if not, at least make Tenma reconsider helping Yukari for nonexistent profits—and concocted a plan that sent me spiraling in circles without a clear goal and when push came to shove, I was shoved to the ground and cried as my wings burned.

That Yakumo monster harassed Hana again; poor Hana, who hadn’t even recovered after the catastrophic hakutaku’s festival.

Reimu—her arms wrapped around me. She gave me her blessing to pursue love with Anon and let me cry away on her chest all the stuff that’d been tormenting me—fighting and plotting her death against the hermit and her dragon, the words that night with Okina ringing like bells’ toll.

A crumbling world; a world my children would inherit.

Failure after failure.

My eyes fall on Ran’s stiff back, her tails wooden statues and the sights of her being alive narrowing to the cascade of sweat that streaked down her nape and the clinking of her bones, a time limit most clear… But these eyes focused rather on the talismans she held firmly in one of her hands: what Ran had used to destroy Yukari Yakumo’s second masterpiece, scarlet flames consuming the HSE from within like a parasite.

And if they can destroy that barrier…

“Oi, Ran,” I call her, fully standing from the ground, back pain forgotten, and watching the chaotic battle taking place about five hundred feet away: Byakuren's Buddhist magic ripples through her body and out into the world in endless waves, but nothing of the sort exists—the magic that left would return, reborn as something new. An unending cycle—, bringing down the lasers Yukari would casually slap away and Flan would relish in dodging; Kanako guiding death from above with otherworldly winds Yukari paid no attention, such attention all over Okina, each Backdoor she tried to open being met by a two-quarter-second Gap, her back always to Anon, like a warden or a possessive black widow.

Without Anon, we can’t leave—that bridge burned the moment we started the Solstice—, and though we are in stalemate, if we do nothing and Ran fails, we’ll taste instant defeat.

… Heaven or hell depends entirely on my amazing self.

Gleefully, Anon fell in love with the smartest—not counting pregnancy!—and fastest Tengu on this side of Japan. “… Do you think you can lure Yukari away from Anon?”

“She knows the man is her win condition,” Suwako mumbles, shielding us from death rays from above and absorbing with thick metal walls or molten eruptions the flamethrowers Flandre and her clones were spewing without a care in the world—the real one doesn’t seem to have noticed one of her clones had been defeated, which is good but transitory. “What do you have in mind, Shameimaru?”

I smile a little, walking up to Ran and snatching one talisman. The fox didn’t move an inch. “If I have enough time, I can slip by the death row those two represent and reach him, then use one of these to destroy the barrier surrounding him.”

“There’s not a lot I can do in that case. I can barely keep up with every Gap she’s creating; I wouldn’t be able to give you any extra time—”

“—I don’t need extra time…” I ruffle my charred feathers, a lump in my throat as the Backdoor opens and foreign magic flows through me, numbing the crippling pain. Hopefully, it works as intended. “I’ll need her away for only a quarter of a second.”

A quarter of a second is safe; two quarters is death.

“… What?” Ran’s voice has lost her edge, and though she’s not looking at me, I sense concern as pronounced as the howl of the wind. “Aya, what are you planning?”

So many failures, one after the other…

My feathers feel nice and strong with the soothing magic, despite not having healed completely, eyes rising to gawk at Kanako’s imposing gales, their strength and speed staggering, my heart pounding yet determination steeling my nerves for what’s coming—a heart that clenches with the sight of Anon cowering away from the battle of battles taking place inches away from him, his only safe net the mercury shield surrounding him. His cage.

A cage he doesn’t belong in. Like every Tengu, he should be free as the wind.

… It'd be nice if he could be with me for the birth of our children, too.

For that to become a reality, it’s time to set things right. “Everything for the man we love, r-right?” And to get a scoop that’ll make the revival of the Bunbunmaru legendary~

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A lullaby of terror, a sight of ages past that had once plunged this land into untamed chaos. Death followed by death, piles of cracked skulls, and rivers of coagulating blood. I had unsealed half of Ibaradouji, yet her existence by itself stripped Gensokyo of a guaranteed tomorrow.

With the morbidity of watching a dog gorging bones and meat, Gensokyo watched the skies once more as, in them, flew those who’d decide its fate. The seven trumpets that came with her flexing her fleshy fingers, crackling to the hissing rumble of pink electricity as it dispersed, sizzling the air and attracting whichever eyes weren’t upon her already—move—; one eye remained closed as, slowly, she took in oxygen, her chest expanding and constricting in healthy motions—move, move!—; her mouth hung for a deliberate moment…

… Then, Douji’s face tore open in a smile. “Finally.”

MOVE!

Shrine maiden instincts reacted when the body didn’t, and I crudely dodged the booming pink thunder that came crashing down from above. Whatever birds flew above us were immediately vaporized, the dark clouds gathering to Douji’s command as intense lightning bolts just like that one began raining all around the ruins of the Market District—a harrowing feeling eclipsed my heart as the electricity split upon hitting the ground, its effects unkind to bodies of flesh. Don’t come close, Hana, please…—, one even hitting the roof of the HSE and chunking away most of its east wing, the electricity somehow detonating the weird rock material from within and sending it flying as a rain of debris. Soon after, a cluster of huge, gleaming tree roots began surrounding the HSE.

However, I distracted myself when I noticed something.

For a moment, it was as calm as it could be. My chest went up and down wildly, but my battle sense remained and the flames below my skin coursed vibrantly, most of that power saved—defeating Yukari would require all of it, I expected—, body as fierce as it can be in my age and feeling rather light…

… Too very light.

Eyes bulged and tears welled on the edges; teeth snapped together and my whole body shuddered in indignation as I watched blood gush out of my open wounds, arm devoured at the end of the biceps and shoulder hanging by threads of diced, stretched meat, as if a supernatural force had jerked it down with no regard for what harm it'd cause, the bones visible on the upper wound but completely welded shut on the lower one, calcium liquified together with pink flesh into a mount of mutilated gore. Cutaneous eruptions spread all over the remaining arm, spewing blood non-stop.

I wanted to scream as loud as possible, human nature begging me to panic and wallow in the abrupt, horrific pain, Hakurei fantasy defenses crumbling as sobriety kicked me: I’ll die. I don’t want to die. I’m not ready to d-die—I just gained a little happiness again, and—

—With bared teeth, I dodged Douji’s punch, the shockwave blowing my clothes, Gohei almost not defending the many next hits, her pummeling sending me toppling with unnatural might. “This is a rematch, you bitch!” She screamed, uncaring for the tears drooling out of my eyes and the dangling, broken arm still attached to my body by nothing short of a miracle. “You think yourself so incredible because you had one trick under your sleeve?! You were prey, and back then I was toying with you!” My muscles hurt, my head spins, the tears thicken as the biting pain grows and grows, flashes of my sweet Hana and that precious man I loved so much filling my head as I did my best to avoid the rampaging Oni’s attacks; memories coated with choking regret and bleeding certainty of what’s about to happen yet fighting for this—this last chance—with every single cell of my dying body, the rage dulling the pain.

But I can’t dodge forever. If I don’t unseal Douji completely and reseal her, we’ll never have Kasen on our side, guaranteeing us a loss…

The fire of Hakurei burns just below my skin—

“—I’ll eat you and your daughter!”

The fire… dies.

… W-What? How does she know about my Hana?

Douji’s one eye narrowed dangerously, her movements never delaying as I had to use my all to just keep up with her teleporting. “Yeah, that rabid pest you defecated into this world! I did so many things to that foolish girl—no matter if it was only an aspect of myself—and we enjoyed every second!” ‘What did she do to my Hana?’ words that consumed my mind whole. “You should've had seen her face when I—”

“—NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Watching Douji’s mouth go from a grin to displaying sheer horror with that scream before her bandaged arm squeezed her jaw shut was… beyond jarring, my body jolting and the floating Hakurei signs and spheres standing at ready—finally, a moment of respite to activate my defenses after letting them down.

Her nails sank into the flesh, pulling it down with enough strength to cleave wounds as if she wanted to rip off her mouth before it could say whatever she was going to say.

Both her eyes were wide open.

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The sparks traveling through my mind made it immediately clear: Kasen had returned from the depths of her mind and is fighting Douji right in front of me. A thrill of renewed hope rises within and bloats like a voracious pig, though it’s swiftly dampened by the pouring blood of my wounds—something the few precious seconds let me attend to.

Douji and Kasen fought aggressively for dominance, the bandaged arm holding her lower jaw with a grip I know could rip the skeleton out of my body with the ease of skinning a rabbit while the other arm tried to take it away, her body convulsing and flailing about, the storm clouds above imprisoned in a perpetual loop of dispelling and converging to the tune of Kasen/Douji’s screams.

I watched it all, good hand slapping the talismans on the bloodied flesh, closing the wounds temporarily… Yet, the wound that’d formed in my soul in those hellish 7 seconds Douji pursued me was acute and exposed, its existence hinting at something I knew of but actively avoided, choosing to bank on a few months of training and meditation to fix it.

But there’s no hiding anymore: this body is old.

Old, decaying, mangled by the taint of alcohol and carelessness—way beyond its prime. There’s truth in how the Hakurei God revitalized it, but that doesn’t mean it mended what I’d utterly destroyed. It layered on top of the old as if dressing, trying its best to hide the ugliness below, and Douji’s seven seconds of hell punched holes into that dressing… 20-year-old me with the powers I received from the Hakurei God wouldn’t have been hit once, nor would’ve she struggled so much to draw out just half of Douji.

And that burns. Burns like acid; burns like this dangling arm of mine.

If only I‘d taken better care of this body and of this soul. If only I’d given my all for Hana’s—what Douji did to Hana? What did she do?—and Anon’s sake… But I did not, and now I stand face to face with an oni that, without taking out my Flames of Hakurei, I cannot hope to defeat.

Will I even have a chance against Yukari without the whole extension of these flames…?

… After all, their fuel is one most diabolical.

Which is no reason to cry or just roll over and die.

I know what I got to do, and it doesn’t matter what state this body ends up in.

Save Hana, save Anon, save Kasen.

—Images of a baby, small and defenseless, held in my arms. I made this. She was the only good thing I ever made in my life. Anon was so happy. They were my everything—

Seal Douji forever.

—Old times sitting on the porch and hearing Kasen’s sermons. Marisa is there, and others are too. I was so happy back then… why did I become that person? That person who forced him to hold a knife to his neck? I never wanted to see him do that again; the thought of losing everything haunted me—

Kill Yukari.

—Ran helping me clean the shrine. In so long, the first time I felt like a living being. Chen clinging to me and saying she just likes to make friends… The first time I felt like a human in so very long. Everything will fade away. I’m afraid—

I accepted this power knowing what was coming for me.

—I don’t want to die—

It’s everything I have in this life.

—I don’t want to die—

It’s everything I can give back to them…

—I don’t want to die—

… For making me proud of myself once more!

The Flames of Hakurei blaze bright, warding off the darkness Douji had brought to Earth and unveiled themselves as twin wings interwoven on my back, the spheres of Hakurei rotating quickly and relentlessly, each white fold of the Gohei catching flames. The talismans fastened to my wounds sung soft embers. Crackling thunder was sent back to the heavens, and a scorching star burned against the receding clouds. Eyes remained closed for a moment, simmering on the meaning of these flames and at the notion Gensokyo is staring, before opening to look at Ibaradouji watching in both awe and displeasure.

Today, everything ends.

I’ll do what I must…

… Even if I’m all alone—

“REIMU!” Marisa’s voice comes from behind, shrine maiden instincts flashing in full force as my wings of fire flap in insurmountable speed and Gohei shoots forward—

—Meeting immediately with a seven-branched sword, sacred wood sliding across it and leaving a trail of crimson flames, the synthesis of godly magics creating a kaleidoscope of lights for but a moment before, with might not even 20-year-old me had, I parried the sword away, sending the thing, the dragon attached to it and the Palanquin away from me. Koutei didn’t even care, rushing to cradle a spasming Kasen, still holding one hand to her bleeding mouth and the other to her bandaged arm.

“Yo, hot stuff!” Marisa's voice is to my side, and I glare at her after such a vulgar pun. She giggles, but there's no humor there—her eyes on my broken arm. “Thinking you're hogging all the glory for yourself? Incident solvers work together-da-ze~”

Her words…

… Ignoring them and my thumping heart, I lock eyes with Koutei. He stares at me with pure hatred.

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>>48617579 (not often delete chapters, but had a massive stroke in the last sentence of this one)
>>48617570
>>48617565
>>48617560
>>48617558
And so we start Set 2! Have been dying to write these chapters for months now. More soon!

>>48617588
You had me for a second there with Reimu. Facing off against one of her one powerful enemies without the help the the sword and with a aging and wrecked body? man.

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Solstice update #3

>>48622286
she's a 100% dying and I really don't know how to feel about it.

>>48624342
>>48554933

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no comments, but I just opened the booru to search some funny pics to edit Hana in and found this one. Pretty nice timing~

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The HSE employees and White Wolves worked frantically to keep things in order and proceed with the evacuation, but it was the mother of all messes. Outside there was a Dragon, A flying ship, and more weaves of Danmaku then what you'd see in the finest silks. Inside, well, there was a three-on-one in the basement between the mob bosses and that Oni, so I pulled out everyone from there, and gave up on the tunnels, save the Otter spirits who wouldn't abandon their leader, and then their was the fake shrine...
Given the nature of Yukari's barriers we only were ever able to get limited in-out communication, a particular something the Yakumo did not care to assist us with, and even that had gone up in smoke the second Okina pulled off whatever it was that started this off. I only had one other way of getting any intel.
"How bad is it?" I asked Goro, who stood with Seija, staring at the Gateway.
"Six to two, Ran betrayed us, but the invaders are still on the backfoot." Goro said, eyes not veering from the door.
"You want to leave already? That barrier is going to burst any second and we'll be too busy to pull you out of the fire." Seija asked.
I shook my head. "I promised to help get him out, so, I stay here, however slim the chance I can move him along one of the evacuation routes. And what about you two? If it's intense as you say can you really do anything? You haven't joined the fight after all."
"They can't beat Yukari and Flan in the fake shrine." Goro Remarked. "So, either they lose or, they break it, and we join the fight then." He explained.
"And don't forget, they're are certainly more of them waiting on the bench in this cluster-fuck. Do you really want to be alone in this place if a god or oni just happens to waddle in here?" Seija asked.
I wouldn't of course, still, it wasn't like I didn't have a network of tunnels and backrooms to sneak around into if the need arises. "I don't mean what you think strategically, I mean, that's a clash of Sages and Gensokyo big-wigs, will you two really be okay?"
"Okina and Ran won't turn away from Yukari. We could cripple Kanako, Suwako would be a coin toss if she realizes the nature of our abilities, Aya is probably there to seize Anon, and Hijiri, she wouldn't stand a chance against us. And if any of them double up on us, we can make one of them disappear for a time." Goro laid out.
"But that's not what's important." Seija told me. "Our job is to defend this building, not get wrapped up in a meaningless fighting."
The Amanojaku had a fierce, focused expression which had an oddly familiar feeling.

>>48625528
Does this count as a recap chapter? it's a step closer to all the characters being on the fray, at least.

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no chapters today, ya boy is boned from 20 hours in the lab. But I made a little Hana edit to calm myself, so here she goes~gotta sleep now
>>48625528
nice to see you easing yourself into the Solstice! I take you'll be interested in working with Yuugi or those on the Palanquin. If you can, brief in me your immediate plans and I'll get something up to speed and push it up the priority list. Good writing, and thanks for the chapter!

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>>48632694
>Spoiler
My rough outline is that they fight Hijiri, which leads them to battling against the Mouyren's on the ship with some white wolf back-up, narrowly winning since the JakuDuo is aware of all their abilities and is fighting on home turf, but then Yuugi steps up and pushes them to their limit and forces them to use their last card: Inverting the rest of Goro's body, making him into a bone-like creature(sort of like Pic Related) capable of perfect synchronization with Seija. This makes them just capable of countering Yuugi's unexplained phenomenon and they narrowly defeat her, probably suffering close to fatal injuries in the process. Then they dive into the HSE and retrieve the kids before the place goes tits up. I can also intersperse other fights to emphasize how much of a cluster fuck things are. Kind of want there to be some payoff to the Yuuka 'HOWEVER' posting.

>>48632694
Take it easy for 'anas sake!

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>>48632813
I see. A lot that's beyond me, but that's the nature of the beast -- I can at least give the tools necessary in the form of Yuugi and the Palanquin. Not much Yuuka until Set 3 since she's important for Hana's next chapters.
will see it done either today or after tomorrow~!

Bump for chapters

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Of the tools every predator has, second only to the instruments of death ranks the capacity to inflict fear. Fear paralyses the opponent, shakes their brains, shuffles smart and dumb judgments and, above all, it spreads. No castle rises above Mother Nature when she decides earthquakes should cave the earth and split mountains, and I embody that as the now active Gap tears open once more and the head end of my spork thrusts forward, seizing the single moment these idiots’ brains were too consumed by fear to strike… albeit sloppily.

The Gap is a weapon unknown to me in its secrets and capacities, dos and don’ts; only the mechanics of ‘opens here-opens there’ I can fathom, nothing of the fancy bullshit Ranni can do— and there’s also the fact Godless Magic can’t cross beings with Gods, meaning just exploding their brains with a Gap is impossible…

Keh-heh-heh, not that it matters. What I can do with the Gap is more than enough.

The fork meets the face of a white wolf, splitting it into two, my body lunging forth and clashing the tail end of the spork against the sword of the oni, barbarous pleasure caressing my tranquil heart with the sight of she recoiling and defensively gripping her sword. Their momentum quelled with my advance; one of the white dogs screamed ’SISTER!!’ to one of the dead bodies, her eyes tearful and spear held viciously towards me, making the path forward clear, wits not forgotten amidst the flooding rivers of blood: tides can change easily, and to feel comfortable following one kill would be idiotic—

Pointy metal slides off the dog’s spear, slitting the throat with one movement; the wolf behind her, I headbutt with such force she flies through the wall, the roof above crumbling and squashing her.

—Thus, a good hunter would never have mercy.

Ah, this brings me back to the days when it was only I and Ranni against the world. A world we’d relieved off of a bunch of idiots~

But I hold memories where they belong—close to the heart—begrudgingly accepting my offensive had run its course and the remaining nine enemies aren’t under the fear spell anymore as they spread far away from me—still inside the Gap range, but they’re aware now—, even the oni and the monkey, the latter a little ways behind the pissed off oni. “Keh-heh-heh—took you idiots long enough to realize you were cattle being led to the slaughter. But what to expect from idiots, anyway?” The provocation bounces off them, likely because of the sight of bleeding corpses. Time to change strategies. I bring the head end of the fork back to my mouth, tasting the blood and guts, carefully looking at both sides of the corridor. Their retreat had surrounded me, the hole in the wall inaccessible after the collapse, though time nags me: going by Kosuzu’s info on the HSE’s layout, if Kicchou had followed us from the hole in Yukari’s office, it wouldn’t have taken her over two minutes to round the area and arrive here…

Hm…

… Something feels mighty off about her absence.

Not only would she be dying to see and take part in hunting me, there’s no sight of the reinforcements she’d fought the oni about. In hindsight, to split your force into a maneuver I could avoid by either creating a hole in the ceiling or floor doesn’t feel like the Kicchou I know…

And I doubt I’m the only one here with such thoughts. With a smirk that displaces mixed blood, I speak to the restless watching prey, “Guess I can’t just say that and not explain myself, eh? What I expect from idiots is a healthy meal,” I pick a bit of brain matter from my teeth, the wolf Tengu looking aggravated, held at bay only by the fear of the Gap. “And, 'course, cowardice. It’s the role of the weak to serve as food and entertainment, after all—but something is irking me: where’s the strong to fight with you? Where’s Yachie Kicchou?” The disgruntlement molds and shifts, uncertainty infused with anger and fear. Though it’s the Kiketsus’ faces that catch me by surprise. They don’t seem to care… “She’s not here fighting alongside you. No reinforcements, either. There’s a name for that~” Realization comes amidst the ranks of the white wolves, together with eyes rapidly shuffling to their fallen mates before moving to the monkey and the oni, very pungent questions asked without formulation.

“If she’s abandoned us, it doesn’t matter. I’ll kill you myself, fiend of the Netherrealm and continue my journey—you might have the fox’s tricks, but it won’t be enough,” so she’s made the connection already? Though erroneous, I don’t have a single idea how Ranni’s plans have unfolded with the hag, only that the war has picked up and everything is shaking.

Yep, this sure solidifies my initial intentions: no survivors.

The oni points her sword at me, bloodthirstiness and delusions of grandeur swimming in her eyes—

—but whispered words catch my attention, ears flexing: “More of us? Check. Is Konn distracted? Check. Yup, it’s time~” What the—

The air whistles, and a chunk of the oni’s head flies off.

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It’s as swift as anything in the battlefield, and I watched it with eyes wide and a creak of, 'Bwuah?!’. Future me would’ve punched me in the gut if she was here.

The oni had sensed the attack coming and tried to dodge—incredible reflects on her part—, but by then it was too late and the monkey’s bo staff had already slammed against the side of her head like a battering ram, rending off her right ear and a handful of tar-colored hair in a show of blistering red under artificial fluorescent lights. “Feh, I missed.” The monkey tsked.

Though she stumbled and her hold of the katana faltered, ‘Konn’ didn’t hit the floor, teeth clenching and pupils constricting as crimson flowed…

… And then sounds of steel meeting meat echoed around.

I regarded with a hint of morbid awe the Kiketsu members turn on the Tengu without an ounce of remorse, drowning them in sharp blades and Danmaku; throaty gasps instead of screams reverberating with the sudden murder spree. The floor and walls became slick with blood following silent thuds of fresh corpses, and I couldn’t stop the smile that spread on my face if I’d tried—the pieces had fallen in place in the span of two seconds.

A second to watch, the other to realize: Kicchou betrayed the hag.

Between me and the monkey stood a bleeding Konn.

The third second came, and the three of us sprung into action. The wounded samurai teleported—! Meeting quickly the sharp, bloody head end of my spork, her eyes widening as the extended bo staff almost caught the middle of her face, the hardwood cutting air like a hot knife. “Why are you doing this?!” The oni attempted, but was met by the tail end as it left a Gap, her teleport activating as she immediately disappeared—

—And the head end of the spork cut deep into her side, the katana stopping it as another teleport took her away from the area I could expand the inactive Gap upon. Her wounds were accumulating fast, but for a woman profusely bleeding and with a few new holes in her body? She held on well, katana ready and eyes calmly darting between me and the monkey; my back never turned to the freaky little bottom.

Trusting anyone in the Animal Realm with your back just makes the stabbing easier…

… Not that I’d ever stab Ranni or Chen. Probably would kill whoever idiot’s forcing us to do so first and if that’s outta the question, then bye-bye good ol’ me.

Still, hypothetical scenarios don’t matter—not when your enemy grows so comfortable in their ability that they don’t even notice the flaws in them; in the oni’s case, her teleporting had pattern. A pattern I studied intimately these last minutes.

Always the same thing with one-trick ponies, keh-heh-heh…

“I dunno; I didn’t ask Kicchou,” the monkey shrugs. “Just got the orders to kill you when the conditions were met.” The oni watched the remaining Kiketsu accumulating Danmaku pellets around them, the pit-pat of blood hitting the floor music to my ears. “Oh, and you, Toutetsu: if we couldn’t kill you, then we were to ally with you—don’t think I’ll be killing you with those Gaps of yours… So, let’s kill her together and be cool, alright?”

My bloody smile grows, though my mind races for motives. Why’d Kicchou turn on someone like Yukari? Is she so assured the Yakumo will lose the war; she’s cutting her losses…?

Whatever it may be, truth'll likely show itself soon. As for now, I let my smile fade into scrutiny, sizing Konn and her wounds.

Never underestimate your prey—a hurt one even more.

… But you can always make things easier for yourself. “So, tables have turned, huh? Where’s that bravery you were parading? Was it all just an act to hide the fact you’re just a little pissbaby hiding behind numbers?” Though the gloating words come, I grasp tight to my broken spork. One muscle twitch—one sound—I move and attack. The oni’s panting face twists, blood-haze numbing the rational side of her mind. Onis and pride go hand-in-hand, and it’s no surprise humans defeated them again and again by playing onto their egos. “You’re gonna die in a couple of seconds, y’know? I’ll do what I said—remember that? ‘Crack your skull and devour your brains’; you thought I was kidding? I wasn’t. You’ll be powerless to do anything, weak bitch.” I lower my voice, challenging her. The twitch of her bloody eyebrow tells me everything. “… How does that feel?”

“Do you know who I am, you arrogant woman?” She brandishes her katana, blood haze sapping any remnant of logic from her brain oozing from the hole in her head. “I am the Fifth of the Big Four of the Mountain, Konngara. A wound means little. I have sustained much worse, and all you had on your side was luck and my inattention. You’re not surviving the fury of my blade—”

—A Gap opens in a split second right at the maximum I can extend it, my body crossing the world of eyes and charging the oni. She barely twists her sword, deflecting my attack by a hair.

Our eyes meet, a perverse glint in mine. “Shut up. You’re annoying.” I spat, and the battle resumed.

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>>48640764
>>48640752
just two chapters since my body's still sore from my last shift; sitting is painful. Should be better soon enough, won't be leaving my bed tomorrow. But anyway: the next Toutetsu batch will be the last of her little side job, and she should be joining the others in future batches -- not saying anything~
more soon!
>>48639809
ask and you shall receive!

>>48640779
The gote better never tell Aya she watched a bunch of Tengu get shanked, things would be weird...

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Solstice update #4

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>>48643429
what happens in the HSE, stays in the HSE!

>>48649838
Amazing post, Anon.

hey, archivist here. Kosuzuanon, do you intend to post more chapters like you said or is Kosuzu completed? I just want to know because your chapters would be the last addition to archived threads and I plan to post solstice batches as their own chapters.

>>48640752
>>48640764
This confirms it, the turtle is retarded. Her 5D Checkers will backfire on her, calling it.

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You live a thousand years and feel compelled to say, ‘I have seen everything’. Anyone who does is a fool, for I doubt they’ve seen a dragon rampaging a ruined marketplace with a Sword of Heavens, lasers ignored and bleeding only when an anchor with more blessings than most shrines would snatch muscle and flesh, displacing scales and causing deafening roars to thunder all throughout Gensokyo, sometimes even creating the illusion of double hearing as they’d bounce on the Great Hakurei Wall. They hadn’t also caught a dragon midair after a martial artist boasting a crown so over-saturated with magic Gods would feel jealous threw him like a sack of stale sake…

… Nor have they watched one stupid bird with the power of the sun futilely attempting to make him regain his ‘coolness’, her eyes welling and body shivering. “Listen to me! I know destroying everything is pretty cool; I always have the most fun when I’m going all out on the rads and causing big booms! B-But you need to stop! If you don’t, they’ll keep hurting you, and Satori-sama ordered me to not nuke them!!” A mini-me on her shoulder moves her hands, and the lost Danmaku that’d have hit the raven gets deflected. The other three fly around Koutei, doing their best to stop the blessed Myouren anchor—hymns of Indra and Bishamonten, dense as the gates of Trāyastriṃśa—from hitting the frayed spots in the dragon’s body, wounds like cave rifts.

I stand at the edge of his snout, peering at his eyes with pity.

“TAKE HER AWAY, ONI! PROTECT HER! I MUST SAVE KASEN!” The dragon roars in his ancient dialect, not as blinded by wrath and bloodthirstiness as some may think, but unarguably twisted.

… And who wouldn’t be after watching the person they love most suffer so thoroughly as Kasen did and still does? Human or dragon, man or woman. Anyone with a heart would.

Despite his pleas, I don’t move a centimeter.

If I leave this spot and stop altering the density of the magic that he draws to his bottomless well to be as thin as possible, he’ll wipe Gensokyo out of the map.

Thus, I stay put and watch the bearer of Yatagarasu cry her heart out for someone she knows for a few weeks yet treats like family; a creature leagues above me who crumbles in deep-seated rage. Gensokyo burns and people I’ve known—oni, Youkai, humans—for decades are killed by the dozens. Reimu is going above and beyond to deal with Kasen, much to Koutei’s outrage; Marisa shoots her Master Spark and drains herself with no end… Somewhere inside the HSE, that man experiences the worst of nightmares, and in these fires, the daughter of Hakurei fights a war she’s far too young to be a part of.

All that happens, and I stay put.

As I have been since the news of Reimu’s downfall came to me.

“LET ME HELP KASEN! SHE DOESN’T DESERVE TO BE A SLAVE!” His howls shake me, but I remain steadfast. Even when his roars become small ruminations understandable only by the movements of his skull below my feet. “A slave to herself…” Words I don’t quite grasp, and his wide-eyes seem to notice, ignoring Utsuho and her unorthodox appeals altogether. “Her distraught mind took her down the road of spiritual redemption, but the woman of the Gap twisted her good nature! She withdrew from shadows her demons, joined them to destroy her—and the only thing that stopped Kasen from lashing out was her good heart! Heed, oni! I’d have finished the woman of the Gap myself for such transgressions if you didn’t exist! You and every soul that’s taken accommodations in Kasen’s heart! But you do, and the woman used that to ensnare Kasen’s soul in a cage…” The rage subsides, and my body cramps— “… Yet, I believed in her heart. I trusted what Kasen feels towards you would get reciprocated, and you’d rescue her from her fate and her shackles. I gave you one chance not even He would have…” —Because soon enough that rage had returned, snuffing compassion even Utsuho noticed, her anguished crimson eyes turning to me, puzzled. “BUT YOU DID NOTHING! You wasted your only chance! She was left to rot under the woman of Gaps, and your champions are content in disposing of her to reach the monster herself!” His serpentine body moves with explosive hatred, missing the split second when the Myouren anchor blitzed past his defenses and seized his leftmost arm, plunging deep into the sacred flesh and muscle. He wailed, vast chains of compressed metal from the Outside World rattling eerily, blood streaming and fertilizing the earth below for generations to come. “The hope He’s put on Gensokyo I see now to have been perverted! There are no redeeming qualities—HOPE—for this place, and even if it destroys Kasen’s heart to lose the entrapped man and the red child, I will be the one to cleanse it in His name! I WILL FREE HER!” A roar so impossibly loud echoed, the Sword of Heavens moving as once again Gensokyo stood deaf—

—But then the skies exploded in pink lightning, and the eyes of the dragon widened in horror.

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As did mine.

The swirling clouds and distance together with the veil of shining Danmaku cloaked it, but I’d have known it even if it happened on the other side of this world—the weight of her existence engraved the souls of those lucky enough to survive a thousand years with a fear that’d molded the very stories that gave birth to my species: Douji is free. The inhabitants of Gensokyo gazed at her with a tacit understanding that their gods would shake on their feet should they be here, before her. But their gods are not here.

Douji is here, and no God dares to stay on her path…

… But a shrine maiden does.

What happened in the next 10 seconds is impossible to describe, only that the skies cracked open as it rained thunder rather than water and everything the electrified droplets touched evaporated into ashes: people, building or the very ground—the mini-Suikas, each with a fifth of my reaction time, exploded into nothingness, Utsuho dodging though her wide eyes were on the thunders pelting Koutei—yet Reimu faced her, the signs of Hakurei cresting the spew of Danmaku from all directions with a red-and-white so bright it was if the sun had cleaved a way through the thunderstorm, the miko's dodges nigh impossible.

But then something happened and Douji stopped, sieged by her pink lightning, and began tearing off her face…

… Just as flames, which exuded alien magic that made me shiver, consumed Reimu. A kind of magic neither me nor this dragon, a being beyond every other, could recognize.

I didn’t need to look at Koutei to know he felt fear.

“KASEN!” He shrieked, shooting towards Kasen like an arrow made of sunlight. In his tunnel vision, the distracted Utsuho got cruelly hurled away as he paid no regard to either anchor crippling his body or bloodied chains, pulling with him the ship and his sword, her head slamming against his fast-moving scales on the way down multiple times, the brutal hits robbing her of consciousness.

The moment Utsuho touches the ground being ravaged by thunderbolts, she’s dead.

Through my ability, I remained attached to his scales, fully intending on suppressing his gathering of magic. The alternative is total annihilation. There’s nothing I can do… Yet, gazing at Reimu’s flames, something sang to me. Not supernatural, no. It was guttural. An instinct that paralyzes—the same whisper humans would exploit to destroy Youkai.

Like Douji’s existence spell Death, Reimu's flames spell… life.

She can win, for who’d be foolish enough to stand before the concept of life itself and challenge it?

One moment of thought, heart pounding. The things I’ve heard of her; what Satori told me she saw the day she and Okina stormed her reunion with the others. This isn’t the Reimu I’d distanced myself from, and these flames make that clear.

You’ve grown into someone better.

Koutei’s words reverberate within this old heart—a heart that’d thought itself shielded from all the misery of this world, refusing to look at the consequences of its actions. That man understood it; no wonder we found console in each other’s bodies—, eyes diverting from the Eye of the Storm to the miko.

Inaction truly is the devil’s favorite sin…

Ah, but it takes only one human to rise above it and inspire everyone else around them. “… Get em’, Reimu.” With no hesitation, I jump from the dragon’s snout and soar towards a falling Utsuho, my heart pounding with the imminent destruction of Gensokyo clashing with the hopes I placed on the Shine Maiden of Paradise.

Heh, she hates that title, doesn’t she~?

Catching the hellraven is easy—though she should consider not eating so many sweets in the future—, dodging the hundreds of thunderbolts with this much momentum and carrying Utsuho is another story, lunacy personified as I rendered my density to be as light as possible to weave between thunderclaps of pink, eyes on the brewing calamity that’d taken hold of the skies: Koutei dearly held Kasen and concealed her from the collapsing world, the hand clutching the Sword or Heavens arcing it so fast that not even the legendary captain of the Myouren dodged the slam—with the ship already battered from being tugged by the beast of all beasts into a thunderstorm of Danmaku and electricity after minutes of vicious fighting, it was only a matter of time until a slip—, one branch of the sword snagging on the anchor’s chains sealing it. The dragon then spun the sword like David’s sling and, with a boom-burst, launched the ship to the building of the HSE, the overwhelming gravitas bursting the Palanquin on its front entrance. Reimu and Marisa moved as that happened, the former descending upon him with angelic flames and the latter casting twin Master Sparks… And I couldn’t help but have a smile fill my face.

Reimu and Marisa, Gensokyo’s incident experts, working together just like three decades ago. Like nothing bad ever happened.

What a time to be alive~!

Hopefully, I live long enough to share with them a drink or two.

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It's weird how an apocalyptic war hasn't been as stressful as watching a mother—a friend and responsibility at that—give birth, but that may be a ‘me’ thing.

Doesn't mean it isn't fucking stressful, and I see its effects on Satori-sama’s face as she speaks to the ethereal skulls hovering around her and burning in blue soulfire, giving them directions to rescue any knocked-out Oni across the messed-up battlefield. I sigh, shooting some pity at Yuugi holding open the Backdoor we’d come from: most oni refused to listen to her and came en masse to see Kasen and Koutei, whispering with delight that, today, the strongest of the Big Four would come back to return Youkai Mountain to its rightful owners… Maybe they were right about Douji’s return—the sky exploding pink is clue enough—though not so much the whole sovereignty shtick.

It's unfortunate that such a wrong belief claimed so many lives, some in their first years and others unborn…

I offer the departed souls some consolation as I organize them into a cage that sheltered us and the people the spirits guided from the lightning and Danmaku from the pink thunderbolts, undying and unharmed by them, as it’d take a different type of energy to kill their souls entirely. Gladly, Kasen relinquished such practice.

“Those are the last,” Satori-sama proclaims, strained. A family of three onis, protected by spirits, slowly flew towards the open Backdoor. Yuugi gives them some harsh words that, despite the woman’s best intentions, went unheard; such is the shock of a graveyard of kin and loved ones. With the oni family gone, the woman draped in a kimono approached my master— “Yes, Yuugi. I’m certain they were the last. Whoever remains here, either killing or being killed, is here out of their volition. The Hakutaku teacher took care of any weak fool attracted by lights and displays of morbidity.” Her voice capitalizes with hatred the last stretch, eyes on the area Koutei was before throwing himself towards Reimu and Kasen. Suddenly, she hisses: “Kah, don’t you dare, Yuugi—”

But it was too late, and the enormous hand fell on top of her head. She groaned, flushed, and I smiled a little as the spirits I’d collected began coalescing around us to protect Satori-sama. The last thing I saw before a sea of blue fire surrounded us lay far in the distance: the land erupted and five massive… fingers protruded like reversed roots.

After what I’ve seen in the last 10 minutes, I was left unfazed.

“You worry too much about her, Satori! She’ll be fine with Suika to her side, just as Kasen is gonna be fine with Reimu.” The way she speaks oozes confidence, towering above the satori yet never drowning her with her presence. To observe Yuugi is to watch the best characterization of ‘Force of Nature': not the storm that destroys or the meteor that obliterates, but the gentle tide that can swiftly become the tsunami. Satori-sama’s eyes try to hide their anxiety, yet Yuugi notices, the hand on her head falling to support her back. “Every human is born inherently good, Satori. You should know that better than anyone,” she withdraws the hand and crosses her arms. “This world will put them down again and again. More than me or you, humans will suffer. I’ve fought a million battles, but men like Anon fight a million battles every day, and they can still keep their good… Some, like Reimu, will lose it along the way, but someone has already straightened her, and she’ll do the same for our Kasen. That’s their greatest strength: their stubbornness.” Her smile is wide, her posture tall and strong, horn always pointing up. “Choose like me to believe in them, for sometimes they won’t believe in themselves and will need a little push to draw out that strength… And when they do so, Ibaradouji herself can be sealed.”

Satori-sama looks away into the mesmerizing fire of the skulls, thinking. To my bafflement, I see regret. “… I may have judged the girl too harshly,” a whisper so low I only hear it thanks to my kasha heritage. “I detest the woman Reimu has become, truthfully… Though I can’t say I dislike the woman she envisions herself to grow into.” She tsks, looking towards where the Backdoor stood moments ago, leading to the Palace of Earth Spirits—where Koishi and little Junya-kun wait for us. The Backdoor was gone. “She’s our only hope, so I got no choice but to believe in her—pray you don’t live to regret saying such boisterous words to a soon-to-be-loser, Yuugi.”

The oni’s laughter is infectious, filling the entire sphere of soulfire with genuine warmth. “Dying would be a mercy if I’d to go through such embarrassment~” Her good humor followed her and her purple kimono as she hovered forth. “I’ll go clear the entrance of the HSE. Our friends inside must be getting sick of Yukari’s bullshit already~! See ya guys soon.”

And, without hesitation, she cut through the fire and left.

“… Let’s move, Orin. I feel Okuu and Suika would enjoy some help.”

“Okay!”

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>>48654521
>>48654509
>>48654489
god, I fucking love Yuugi
The coolest oni around and the Palanquin are now in place, Takaneanon, though the latter was literally shoved onto your face~see that as punishment for refusing to pay pension.
Good luck and good writing!
next will be Hana and Patchy! More soon!

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>>48654250
Nah, trust the plan, this the turtle's moment to shine! Surely she won't get devoured like an idiot, right...?

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Solstice update #5

So will Solid Goro and Liquid Goro ever have their legendary confrontation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR7CWduGV20

>>48660280
kek

>>48659206
>Satori gets her third eye cord, Orin cat ears and Okuu a personalized outline plus bandage
you can taste the favoritism