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RESUME!
>It's been eight years since Yukari died. It's winter time. Hana is twenty five and has a date so she dolls up. The date goes poorly because the dude has profound retardation and Hana has profound anger issues. Hana leaves the Geidontei fuming and has a seething fit in the sky before she's contacted by Keine. Hana is gaslit into doing some stress-healing teacher-assistant grunt work, where she's humbled by being dumber than a seventh grader. She vents about her date, flipflops between blaming herself and blaming her date and panics over being 25 and having no adult friends or relationship prospects. Keine suggests therapy. Hana denies therapy because therapy -> therapist -> the rapist -> Yukari, and demands she's given her actual daily gacha mission. Keine relents and Hana leaves after getting her mission. Keine has a small chat with Toyotosatomimi no Miko, who chastises Keine for being too soft on Hana, which Keine denies and leaves to talk to Anon. Hana returns to the shrine where her apprentices were trying to kill Aunn for no reason, and after sending them out, she leaves for the underground along with Aki, who plays a bootleg version of Subterranean Animism, whereas Hana just teleports to the stage 5 boss in the underground wastes. Hana runs a training session for Aki, who cheats to beat the stage 5 boss that resembles Ran and is powered by the missing talisman Ran created to deal with Yukari. Hana suspects the whole thing, and after she has a heartfelt conversation with Aki and some teacher-student quality time, she's confronted by Zanmu, who's undercover and acts as the extra stage boss. Hana sends Aki out and aggros on Zanmu who just wanted to have a conversation. After Hana bugs her for a while, Zanmu guides their duel out of the oni city and traps Hana and herself in a void construct. Zanmu tells Hana that she knew Reimu before she died and wanted to know Hana better so she could ask for Hana's help. Zanmu says Anon might be in danger. Hana agrees to listen to what Zanmu has to say;

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[Chapter count]
18 (+18 last thread)
[For phoneanons, here's the last thread.]:
https://warosu.org/jp/thread/51295271#p51295271
[Autosage time: 11/02-11/09]

ah wonderful

>>51342530
Do you think that if we make Patchouli talk to Hana again she might he able to bully her into being less autistic? She doesn't really seem to be following any of Patchouli's finale advice here.

>>51343157
She was on the right track until that Anon talk. After that it was all downhill. She psyopped herself into idolizing Reimu's end and developed the most insidious tier of pathological altruism under the guise of being a seething bitch. The bullying to prevent a childless bitter 30s is astronomical.

>>51343175
It certainly is some form of contingency plan to prevent an evil Reimu 2 from happening.

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The woman had a blank stare. A muscle jumped in my jaw. “What?”

“Nothing of concern,” she waved her hand, crossing one leg over the other. With the adrenaline fading away, I couldn’t help but loathe the paisagism of this… void bubble. There’s nothing to look at besides the hooded oni. Nothing at all. “Just a bit surprised all it took to get you roped into this was mentioning your Fath—”

I crossed the distance between us in half a blink and stood before her, centimeters off. Her unseen gaze climbed to meet mine. “Don’t get it twisted. Said before, saying it again. We ain’t buddy-buddy—I'm listening to what you’ve got to say, and if I decide it’s bullshit, this Gohei is going up your rectum.” I meant my every word, and her answer was raising both hands in faux surrender. Yeah, yeah, ‘not here for a fight’ or whatever she’d said.

The worldlines folded, recreating the distance of about three meters between us. I crossed my arms, waiting.

“Nobunaga was right to contract you, Ukifune,” She huffed—did I miss something…?—, but seemingly got the memo, for she headed straight to the point. “For starters, my associates and I have reasonable motive to believe the Moon in the sky is not our real Moon.”

I blinked, then scowled.

“… The fuck?”

She gestured before I could continue. “Save it for when you have all the info, Hakurei.” I held my tongue, even if I really didn’t want to. How? Why? In what possible reality does that even relate to Father— “It is suspicion and reasonable doubt, not confirmation. Had I confirmation of this to begin with, this… peaceful approach to plans wouldn’t have been my first choice,” I scowled. What’s that supposed to mean? “All we know is that this new Moon—despite looking like the real Moon, despite feeling like the real Moon—is simply not the real Moon.”

“So?” I interjected, and I sensed an unseen brow raise. “If it looks the same, feels the same, what’s the big deal? And how does that loop back into Father being in danger…?” I bristled, then pointed the Gohei at her. It felt asinine to threaten her now, but the anger in my chest left little room for more. “You better not be trying to dupe me, cunt.”

Another gesture, this of appeasement. “You’re free to take your own conclusions. Just listen to me until the end so you can make an informed choice—maybe informed mistake,” her voice hardened. It seems even this hooded bitch has her limits. Good. “Being truthful to you, I have zero idea of the actual effect on the world or people at large… but the problem is that it’s spurred on unsavory decisions by your leaders, to whom the Moon is important.”

Only one person footed the bill: “Keine-sensei? That’s it…? Your problem is with her and the possibility she’s fucking with the Moon, someway, somehow?”

“On the contrary: this new Moon is 'fucking' with her, if my information is to be believed,” I perked up, puzzled, though my skin crawled at the last words. She isn’t sure of the information she’s spreading around. How’s that supposed to make me feel better? I bury the question. “Much of her power is derived from the Moon, and since it’s been replaced, she’s only gotten weaker. That doesn’t mean Keine's been idl—”

“—Father comes up when?” I cut it.

“Now,” she said, and I straightened. “She’s planning something to regain her powers, or do something to the Moon, and we have reason to believe she’s using your Father for that.”

I blinked at the oni, then narrowed my eyes. “… You were at the marriage, were you not?” I asked, and she remained quiet. “You were. You know too much not to. You wouldn’t be so suspicious of her if you didn’t know history at large was altered,” I smirked, my mind racing through the guests I’d seen while performing and fighting that night. I’d paid attention to Father and Sekai most of the time, so no one in particular bounced to mind. “Might as well show me the cute face beneath the hood. There were only a handful of oni there that night. Or wanna me to discover for myself?” I tilted my head, my smile turning into a frown.

“For our protection, it’d be better if you didn’t know,” she added, her tone too calm. “Your memories of this conversation will remain untraceable, but a name and a face might trigger more memories you didn’t know you had, and those will be added to the library of history. Your relationship with the woman is already prickly, so you having bad thoughts regarding her won’t come across as intimidating or revealing. But should Keine have a reason to believe I approached you, it wouldn’t take long for my information to be unearthed—”

“So you have your hands tied. Didn’t think this through, hm?” I mocked. It felt good to have power over this pretentious, conspiratorial bitch. “Show me your face,” I demanded. She won't do it, the bitch.

She steadied herself with a long sigh. “… You really are a piece of work when you want to be, Hakurei,” a smirk came through. “Just like your mother.” Another sigh, a pause of consideration.

The oni pulled her hood down.

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I know it is a bad idea to ask her to reveal herself.

It achieved very little, and if her warning held value, then seeing her face and learning her name would only make it harder for me to shield Father from whatever the fuck’s been brewing—my skin crawled with unease; liquid cold pooled in my lower belly. Something bad. It could only mean something bad—, but the mere thought of… allowing this woman to play me around, to dictate how things go and I have no say, overpowered any sensible anxiety and careful play.

It wasn’t the smartest move, but it was the only way to keep me playing nice.

… I glared, looking at her face against the dark background. “Did two bees bury themselves in your head? Your horns look so weird,” I said, and those piercing red eyes blinked, befuddled, before a smirk pulled at her lips and she laughed, flowing deep black hair mussing with the tittering. Twin loose red ribbons, wrapped around her horns, framed her face. “Besides that, you don’t have much going for you, huh? You’re kinda… plain.” A lie.

“That’s not a bad thing. I was a monk in my previous life—at least, like this, I have hair,” she hummed, then added as her smile settled into something neutral. “Zanmu Nippaku. I oversee the Hells and deal with problems as they come.” She said, and my mind flashed to the wedding. I saw this woman drinking with Suika. “Well? Satisfied? Or do you have any more threats for me?”

“… Disturbed,” I said, and she sneered at the irony. “I didn’t expect you to actually follow through.”

“It wasn’t what I had in mind—” I narrowed my eyes. She’d said before she’d tell me who she was after I’d listened to all she had to say. Was that a lie? “—I know what you might be thinking, Hakurei… and I had no intention of showing you everything in this encounter,” she stressed those last words. Smart. “I wanted it to be in your next encounter, preferably after the Winter Solstice festival. I’d have had good sake to share then. Alas, before, I didn’t have a grasp of your personality. Watching from afar and hearsay don’t correspond with having a good conversation. That is much more enlightening.”

“Are you not afraid Keine could see you in the thread of history?” I asked.

“Very much so. It could bring a lot of preparation crashing down…” Zanmu didn't seem rattled. “… But I think I can manage something better now that you’re not looking over your shoulder, wondering who that big bad oni might’ve been.”

“What do you mean by that?” I focused my mind. What could she probably gain from me knowing her identity…?

“It means you could convince your Father to cooperate with us far more easily—after all, you’ll be coming onto him not as a neutral party, but as one aligned with me,” I glowered hard. I didn’t like the tune she was singing. She shifted in her void chair. “Had you known nothing of me, your Father would’ve had difficulty believing you and being swayed to snitch on Keine—in the case our belief she’s harming him has grounds. He’d assume you’re being manipulated with ill intent. This is not what’s happening here, Hakurei. You work better as an ally than a pawn, I know now,” she says as if she did know me.

All she knows of me was gathered from one passive-aggressive, near-hostile chat.

I clicked my tongue. This fucking tick. Hate it.

“So let me get this straight, oni,” get it together, Hana. Don’t get bogged down in her words. Their sound, their inflection—they’re never the same as their purpose. You learned so with Yukari. “You, the overseer or whatever of Hell, and a bunch of others have been spying on sensei, and you believe the Moon is fake, sensei is panicking, and doing some esoteric thing to father… why? Why any of this hoopla? You’re an oni. Your kind don’t do it like this. You could probably have fled me before,” admitting that is like drinking poison and then pissing it out. “And Keine is only strong whenever it’s night. You find her during the day, and you yourself could kill her.” Images pass through my mind of Mochi and Aki crying, glassy-eyed, trembling. I was about to add colorful words to my babbling, but she cut in—

“—It’d be oni-like to take over like that. You are correct. Disregarding what would follow, it’d be the easiest way to go about this,” she firmed up then and said with zero hesitation: “But it’s not the way I will do what I want to do. Victory is never achieved through ‘any means’. There is victory my way, and there is defeat. No in between.”

“And what victory do you want?” I put it out there, heart palpitating hard at her words.

They didn’t feel hollow like the nothings Yukari used to whisper in my ear…

Zanmu Nippaku said, “I want to get to the bottom of this mess with as little bloodshed as possible. Then, I want to make sure Gensokyo is in adequate hands, and that the damage already caused does not seep deeper into the Hells.” She paused, then added. It felt intimate. “… I want to make up for staying out of surface problems eight years ago, when I could’ve done much more.”

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… Those words didn’t sound like Yukari at all.

They felt dangerous in a way Yukari’s words never did. There’s an essence in their midst that makes my skin itch, my Gohei arm tense up, and this bloodthirstiness curl in my mind. Wrongness. All over it—through it, beneath it, inside it, around it—wrongness. A primal feeling of sorts that settles like a blanket yet suffocates; cool water that drowns. Wrongness, yes… even then, I couldn’t spot one lie, not one.

Not one hint of dishonesty in this woman sitting in a void-made chair.

I almost wanted to. It'd be simpler.

Am I not seeing it? Is it right under my nose? Should’ve killed her right at the beginning. I can make her bleed. I can also lop her head off and purify her oni malevolence. She’s so… distracted right now, maintaining this void bubble.

It wouldn’t be too hard, and if it were, I’d welcome the challenge to clear my agitated mind.

But… what if she’s right?

What if there’s some supernatural fuckery with the Moon in play, Father is in the line of fire, and Keine is doing something—she might be soft and kind and sweet, but she’s not without claws. I saw them sink into Hieda and bring the naturalborn oni down—, and… and what does this mean for Kuramochi and Aki? For the girls in the Hakurei shrine? For Sekai and Chen? For Gensokyo? For… myself?

I don’t know anything that’s going on; nothing ever seemed out of place… how would I even know if anything’s wrong with Father? I visit him once in a blue moon. The answer is that I wouldn’t know if something was genuinely wrong with him.

A surge of panic and anxiety washes over my body, up and down. My vision tunnels.

Can I do something? Yes.

I can listen to her. I don’t want to. Her words feel oily on my skin.

Do I have another option…? Yes, I do.

I can kill her. Storm up to Father’s house, see it through with Keine. Would she—they—lie to me? If they knew I knew, they’d push me back. Keine can rewrite my memories, can’t she? I don’t know. Has she ever done that? I don’t know. Is Father suffering in her hands…?

For what goddamn reason?

I don’t know.

I don’t know…

I don’t know—

“—Hakurei,” Zanmu’s voice brings me out of my panic—yes, panic. Was I panicking? I think I was. I didn’t scream or shudder or tear up. I’m not a child anymore. “If it’s hard to believe everything I’ve said, I’ll give you another guarantee,” she says. My eyes narrow—suddenly, a wave of terror comes to my mind, the same terror I was experiencing a moment ago, but that’d so readily disappeared. It disappears again. I blink at her, without words. “The illusory part of nothingness allows me to meddle with people’s minds—make them forget things or become numb to others, to say a few—, just like what you experienced. It’s a tactic I used a lot in times past, oftentimes with zero regard. I have relinquished frequent use of it since I’ve become aware of the scale at which something so similar is being used across everything inside the Great Hakurei Barrier. It’s not how I make allies in this new age. I hope that eases your heart.”

I scowled, trembling slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me that first?”

“I did tell you I wasn’t versed in my physical powers—you didn’t seem interested in an explanation,” she corked up an eyebrow, and I could only bristle. This fool knows those aren’t the same thing. There was a small smile there as she shrugged at my death glare. “Now you can recontextualize our conversation: not once did I use it on you. You’d have felt it had I used it,” her smile shows teeth now. “… You are sharp, Hakurei, I must say. You instantly noticed I’d tampered with your mind.”

The worst about this is that I know why she chose to do that right now. It had a visceral impact, answering a question I didn’t realize I had right at the crux of this whole mess.

Such a stupid way of saying 'trust me'.

I hate this feeling. I need to remediate it and get a hold of myself again.

“… So the plan is for me to go to Father and gather information from him, since your stupid ass doesn't operate on the surface and needs a minion to do it for you,” I said harshly, sneering at her look of mild befuddlement. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? Don’t pretend there’s more to this.”

“I suppose that’s your way of saying you’d like to go through this with me, Hakurei?”

A Gohei is immediately pointed at her. “Hold it—we’re gonna make things very, very clear before we continue.” Gohei moved down, but not the threat. She shook her head in impatience, a gesture that ticked me off, yet I didn't outright show my frustration. I’m being needlessly antagonistic—am I, actually? I don’t know. But it feels right to bare my teeth. “Can you name your associates?”

“Can’t,” no hesitation. “One thing is putting myself in the line of fire; another is dragging others down with me. This entire operation might come crashing down because of a slim gamble, I understand, but I’ll still minimize the damage to the others as much as I can. You’ll be introduced to them in time.”

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“When will that time come? I don’t want empty promises,” I rapid-fired it; she answered in kind.

“After the Winter Solstice. Our first true movement will happen then.”

“How so?”

“We’ll retrieve something to ruffle the surface government and sow chaos among it. We’re looking for full-blown panic and overstretching on its part—if something incriminatory were to happen, it’d happen at that stage.”

“How many are you expected to die—” It was a trick question.

“—None,” and she did not fall for it, her voice stone-like. “It’ll be a blitz operation during the Winter Solstice celebrations, two days from now, when the people will be at their most distracted. It shouldn’t last beyond three minutes at maximum,” she said. The hairs on my neck stood up. So little time to prepare, to carry on that talk to Father. “When the day comes, and you’re summoned regarding a Senkai, you will know the operation was true.”

“You mean the palace’s Senkai…?” I whispered, cold washing over me. That would mean Mochi.

If she’s putting Mochi in danger, then I will kill her now.

“Not the palace’s,” I waited for more, but nothing else came. She had an unreadable face as she followed up with: “My turn to ask a question. Does the sentence—“Keine wouldn’t read anyone’s deep thoughts unprompted. It’s not in her nature”—ring true? It’s not a bait or appeal. Answer whatever way you like.”

I scowled, but there was only one truth to that question: “It is true.”

Zanmu nodded, thoughtful, and that was that.

In the silence, I took to processing what I got from this conversation: no one will be put in danger, and all I’d have to do was talk to Father—after a weeks-long stretch of quiet. Typical—about Keine and ask whether she’s done anything bad to him. Oh, and the Moon. Somewhere in that equation there's talk of a fake Moon.

My head throbbed.

The day started awful, then it worsened, then it got good, then it plummeted to unrecoverable depths…

Nonetheless, this is the world I inherited from Mom. A world I’ve sought to protect ever since her death.

This woman in front of me is promising to help Father and deal with an unseen wound, if it's even real, before it starts bleeding—and right now I have the strength to stop that bleeding. I did not possess this strength when Yukari bled Gensokyo dry, but now I do.

All I need is to keep my head cool and follow my intuition.

Do not fuck this up, Hana Hakurei.

Unsure but not unsteady, I parted my lips to give Zanmu Nippaku my confirmation—

—A dreadful feeling stopped me in my tracks. Yukari’s shade flared in my mind’s eye, a sense of pure, incoming death that had my teeth on edge and the Gohei gripped in white knuckles.

The Gap. But Yukari is dead.

That means…

“She’s relentless,” Zanmu grimaced and got up from her chair. “I’ve held her back for thirty seconds, but won’t manage another thirty. How she’s making nothingness cannibalize itself is beyond me, and not a concern for now—I need to leave and have it so believable.”

It was mesmerizing: fissures of unseen nothing cracked nothingness itself. Like an illusion of a frame inside a frame, a tesseract of so many sides, torn from its every vertex. It was impossible to find the right words amidst this sudden drop in temperature to define exactly what I was seeing. Zanmu’s voice drew me in. I squinted. “Believable…?”

Her nod carried a grim resolution as she pulled her hood back up, hiding her face in nothingness. “Talk with your Father and save what you get until after the festivities. We’ll communicate if all goes well. We’re staking this on the assumption he wouldn’t snitch on his daughter. Do not think of this conversation more than need be. You’re bereft of suspicion, though it can change any time. I don’t believe it’ll change, with your assessment of Keine, but keep guard.”

“And what if you’re wrong? Keine ain’t doing shit to Father?” I smile, cruel, as the nothingness around us fractures deeper. “I might not be on your side the way you wanna me to be.”

“If that’s the case, we’ll talk it out over good sake,” she shrugged. “I do believe I can swindle you to my cause without hanging that particular carrot before you. I am a charismatic oni~!”

It’s not hard to understand the true meaning of those words.

She’ll try to kill me.

I smile wider, heart swooning…

It’s a shameful feeling. I don’t want Father to be hurt. Never would. He doesn’t deserve any hurt or pain after what he’s dealt with. But the source of those feelings is not entirely innocent.

… I want a reason to kill Zanmu Nippaku with my very own hands.

“Now!” She claps. There’s a crease of effort in her brow. “To make it believable—”

—Before I can react, she’s upon me. Malevolence pulses like a heartbeat, a void marble shattered between her fingers. The Gohei attacks without a beat of hesitation and… she doesn’t dodge. Not properly, like I’ve seen her do before.

The dome around us shrinks.

Her blood ribbons as the Gohei cleaves one arm off.

All under Chen’s purple-eyed gaze.

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and with this Hana's prologue ends! Next we start Chen's!
more soon~!
>>51343157
at that time in her life Hana was incredibly vulnerable and Patchy could've set her straight had they spent time together. I don't doubt Hana would've even idolized Patchy's demeanor - since the contrast of warmth and cold was similar to Reimu's - and gotten closer to Sekai sooner. But she wasn't Patchy's responsibility, charge, or anything remotely similar. Patchy had no duty towards her either. A good conversation helped for a time, but without guidance in the most volatile months of her life - not a choice of her own, considering the fucked up state Gensokyo was in after the war -, Hana defaulted to something easier on her mind and more Reimu-aligned, that being protecting people, self-sacrifice, violence to cope with problems, and a stubborn streak toward doing anything to treat herself. Closing the wound with her father, even with what's essentially a loose bandage, crystallized many of the bad habits she had too
she's not lost per se, but she's slavering to find a way out

>>51343417
As long as Chen is pregnant with my children it'll be kino.

This thread is gonna auto-sage sooner fuuuuck

>>51346301
That's why we make more threads.

>>51346301
Is it about the php thing yesterday?

>>51346301
Just don't wait as long to make the next thread
It's like 5+ days on average to go from page 1 to page 10 at this point and if that's how we're working this part will take another few years