Thread #36 of the HSE
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This thread is for the spinoff of the spinoff of a fan work.
>“Hana Hakurei is the daughter of Reimu Hakurei and her husband, Anon. As the future protector of Gensokyo, Hana was never going to have a normal life, but it was worse than it should have been.”
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Useful links:
OG work: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43718466/chapters/109935363
Hana's story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52050766/chapters/131634781
1st chapter of the HSE: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51816529
HSE collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/The_Hakurei_Shrine_Experience
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Winter Solstice Ending!
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previous thread: >>49100719

[Chapter Count]
(1795 entries)(+72 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/49100719 | 35.5th thread

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

RESUME!
>Ibaradouji awakens with the destruction of the HSE and Koutei's death at Hana's hands. With complete control of the body and recovered power lost to time due to the influence of Ibaradouji's cult created by Yukari, she leaves Hana and Anon behind and goes on a rampage to feed herself, wreaking genocide upon Makai down to the last one present in Gensokyo, Alice. After Anon and Hana's reunion, Douji returns and has a quick fight with Remilia, revealing the nature of her power to be the manipulation of everything she knows, the opposite of Yuugi's power. Meanwhile, Hana talks to Suika and Sanae, who tend to Okina, who's suffering the consequences of Aya's prank, and decides to take her mother's burden and fight Yukari and Douji. Anon opposes that fiercely but is unable to stop Hana when one of Yukari's Gaps appears in the vicinity, the result of Yukari and Douji squabbling after the former stops Remilia and Douji's fight. Father and daughter are now stranded in the underground and caught between a bloody battle. Hana doesn't falter and does her best to protect Anon against the cult of Douji and the collateral damage, but she's quickly approaching her limits and the Hakurei God, using Dolly's body, communicates to Anon that he can do something to prevent Hana from dying. Heavy-hearted, Anon sacrifices Dolly to kickstart a ritual of healing, which heals Hana's wounds and restores her stamina. Now, in tip-top shape, Hana deals quickly with the oni and joins Douji and Yukari in battle, proving herself necessary to bring down Yukari with her ability to strike from the past. Outmatched, Yukari does her best to survive the two-fronted assault, though not without tricks: the boat she used to flood the sword lake was a sunken nuclear carrier from an undisclosed outside world war that happened between 2020 and 2043, and it houses 26 megatons of bomb(s). The sword is outside the confines of the lake.
>While that happens, Yuuka, Mima and Sakuya fought Seiga, with the results of the battle yet to be seen. Sakuya has survived and joined Remilia, both escaping Douji and Yukari when news of Flandre's survival came to them.
>Reimu is with Chen and Okina, the latter of whom is recuperating after the HSE's explosion and the former of whom is said to have nearly died in the magical toxic cloud. Reimu has only about 20 minutes of fuel remaining before her boost ends. The jaku duo is descending Youkai mountain with Byakuren, Yuugi and Satori, and Suika and Sanae are supposedly separated from them but heading to the same location. Underneath the tree, Patchouli and Meiling start the ritual of Sekai's soul, one of the biggest hurdles solved by Sekai being half Yukari and seeing into the future. Toutetsu appears to fuck that up.
>Kasen and Sekai huddle inside the former's soul, her body taken by Douji and seemingly beneath the sword in the lake. Sekai says she's taking shelter there while the SDM crew revive her.

Don't forget the obligatory!

It was like floating through liquid glass. My hair fluttered up, yet an invisible hand pulled me ever downwards, eyes focused on the thin veil of a surface as it shimmered. Everything before this moment felt like a blur colored gold, red, and white; now, only the cold of the water and silence shared with every other shape that drowned with me. A massive vessel could’ve been mistaken for a whale, piercing the water like a knife and carving a way down to an unseen bottom, and pieces of a satellite followed true together with many a rock and other sediment. Water flooded my lungs, made it impossible to breathe, though I wasn’t keen on breathing or focusing on anything but the pale light and—joining the wobbly tentacles that made my hair—my hands…

… My charred hands, mummified in a ghoulish cast of bubbling porcelain and marked by long, charcoal-like peelings. A single gold thread remains.

Still hot, still impossibly hot.

Are my spiders safe? Is Chen okay? Hana will be okay; she fights so well—she fights like her mother.

Water ballooned my windpipe, bloated the back of my eyes, and Alice’s kind arms wrapped around me pulled me further and further down to the dark. “… Nothing else remains of you.” I said without words. “She was the last of your dolls, and now she’s…”

She nods absentmindedly.

A small shadow paints the light, and if I could, I’d frown. “She lives forever,” her voice was as beautiful as the kiss we shared; the touch of her hand upon the boiling layer of porcelain was the coldest sensation I’ve ever felt. The name Death feels the most appropriate. “And she does it for you, Anon. The last doll I’ve ever made…” The shadow grows, gets closer, and Alice’s hands had moved to press against the small of my back.

“… Am I that worthy? Worthy all of this?” Ice formed on the walls of my arteries, heartbeat a dying laugh. It did not stop burning. “I don’t think I am—I don’t… want to be.” Her death replays before my eyes like a broken record, ten and twenty times, and a hypoxia-stricken brain tries its best to focus. Brutality without an A or a Z, for the sake of it, and dismissed just as quickly, brought by unmatched power. Unfair, senseless and… “I am…”

“Afraid?” Her voice brushes my ear. It’s angelic.

“… Next will be my Hana, then Chen, then… someone else. They’re all caught up in this hell because of me,” memories flood as does the water: a tiny baby, cradled in my arms. She would revive my marriage. Years later, on the edge of a bed, knitting together, scratching her ears occasionally.

The shadow is immense; it fills my vision, and it's daughter-shaped.

“… Yes, Anon Hakurei.” Shivers circulated every nerve of this sinking body; a bated breath wholly metaphorical, for those gentle hands of an expert craftswoman had pushed me upwards and lungs worked again, water spouting from my mouth as hands reached with fervor for my throat, clenching it to stop the invasion of cold sludge, darkness surrounding me like a plague, reflexes working overtime to keep me alive for just a second longer. What had happened?! Why had I just— “Yes, you are.” Her words echo final, and Alice Margatroid—or whatever had spoken those words to me—disappeared in the darkness.

I tried looking for her, though one arm had wrapped itself around me, and before I could even blink the underwater world had stretched like bubblegum, the soft sways of red and white ribbons contrasting an unfurled world of every tone of blue that exists. The next second I had these trembling, burnt hands of mine pressed against the rock and there was a ringing in my ears—

—puking. Uncontrollably getting rid of the rancid water from my body, gasping for fresh air, no matter how sulfuric it tasted on my tongue. “FATHER!” Not as forcefully as underwater, her hand reached and patted me on the back, hearing slowly returning as the excess water drained from within my eardrums, and… And rumbles I know too well filled them, spine straightening and water-damaged eyes looking out for the source: a thunderstorm had brewed above the lake and not by the hand of magic or lights, only two of Gensokyo’s most brutal fighters meeting above a floating blade of brimstone, Gaps sprouting to no avail as Ibaradouji ripped through them with five jagged nails or thunderbolts with the same girth as the tree logs I used to haul over on those few, peaceful weeks away from the shrine. Below, the water responded in kind, waves rising and breaking depending on which side employed more force. Inside the shrine, I saw a controlled war of gods…

… Now, I see two beasts vying for victory.

Where gods stand proud and untouchable, beasts have limits.

The small glimpses I got of Yukari Yakumo amidst showers of bloodshot eyes crawling on unstable Gaps, decommissioned trains and cars and metal signs flying at such speeds they’d bite into the earth with the same zeal of a gravekeeper showed a woman at her very worst, soaked in her blood and struggling with the pressure of a battle of gods.

A silence of a kind impossible to tell had risen between me and Hana as we watched Yukari get tossed around in brutal fashion, her blood shimmering in the dim light of the Underground and through the barrier of ofudas Hana erected to shelter us from debris and rushing water. My breathing was shallow, and my ribcage ached; the scorching cold eruption of molten porcelain cast over my arms was numb in the ways Reimu had explained during those awful winters as ‘very not good,’ and… And a thousand other things…

Nothing took priority over the relief that washed over me now.

She’s going to die, that Yukari Yakumo.

Pale, trembling arm reaches within the folds of the jinbe, the thing now akin to the tenderness of a rock. The sliver of night taken form has resisted every form of tribulation, pristine as a shooting star. “… Did you know A-Aya has my children, Hana?” I talk, throat grinding through soreness and a sheen of blood that’d crystallized there. “F-Four children. Marisa is having three and…” And Yukari one. I don’t say that. Sword-like nails cut Gaps; the Yakumo hunted like a wounded fox by a bloodhound. “How are we going to balance all… that? I barely managed one; now there are so many that need us…”

Hana moistens her lips. “I knew about Aya and sensei.” If she wants to say more, I couldn’t tell. I used to do so easily. Now her tone and posture are all but unreadable.

“Of course…” The number of trains and signs had dwindled. No matter what Yukari tried, nothing seemed to work against the oni, and a look at Hana’s Gohei—inscriptions in a familiar blue cover all of its length—and the blood that’s soaked into it tells me the base of Yukari’s doom. Even the strongest of Youkai is still a Youkai. “… Hana, I—”

Her eyes are on mine, and my words choke. A baby I cradled in my arms once, with eyes bright and gentle and wide… Hana’s eyes are sunken and devoid of naïveté, tough as hardtack. She holds fast to her Gohei with comfort, and the way she carries herself is the same as Reimu’s, always prepared to run into danger, and… And she’s dressed in Hakurei colors, not a trace of the gentle Moriyan colors she’d taken after, only an ocean of red with a single droplet of dark-green. If she had jet-black hair, I doubt I’d be able to tell them apart.

My little baby girl, gone…

… Not forged in the sins that Yukari showered upon our family, no matter how much the Yakumo had tried.

Hana survived it all, and she’s got her Mother’s eyes.

“I am proud of you, Hana.”

A moment of stillness, the flicker of a light in the red.

My heart skips a heartbeat as Hana moves instantly to strengthen the barrier defending us, the world trembling as a tsunami wave shaves centimeters off the shaky lake, tons of gallons of water scraping the barrier like chisels. Something else, however, rung dread and anticipation, the heart making up for that skipped beat tenfold. That wave felt different…

Beyond the rush of the water past and behind us, silence took over. No big bursts of power or wailing walls of rusted steel and the eerie hiss of Danmaku, only the drizzle of a fading battle.

Like that murky water, my mind was a haze of ideas, of possibilities. Did Yukari kill Douji? Have they come to a stalemate, or has Yukari used the Gap and fled? Would Hana have to interfere… and…

… Oh.

From far away, Yukari had looked imposing and strong, fighting the oni toe-to-toe. Yukari Yakumo is a devil, and three years inside that gilded cage had built her to be a monster beyond my wildest thoughts, strong and unstoppable in her cruelty. Yukari had washed on the shore of the lake, her eyes tear-stricken and bulging as she looked up at me and Hana, her face twisted in both deep and shallow wounds that turned purple and swelled. Her body trembles from despair—I know that despair; I have felt it on every piece of my skin and my nails scraping the floorboards—, and her hand holds her belly like a lifeline, arms soaked in runny blood, juddering as she tries to lift herself from the stone. Her favorite purple dress is torn and clinging to her feebly. She’s barefoot. Not a hint of the feared Gap Sage remains. “… A-Anon…” Whatever cadence I remember of her is forever tainted by how limp she sounds.

A beheaded queen.

“What a deplorable sight,” Hana snaps together with the voice, brandishing her Gohei in front of me and standing as if a drawn bowstring. Douji pays her no heed, stopping beside Yukari and lifting her foot—! A piercing scream shakes my whole body as I watch a red ballet flat force her back to the gravel, her always pristine blonde hair cascading into the mud. “You two and Kasen should feel ashamed of yourselves—you let this sad, small thing here ruin your lives, and it won’t even be you finishing her,” the oni shakes her head, horns tall, eyes glazing over me before locking with Hana’s. “You did cripple her well, Bride, so I’ll keep my word: we’ll share!” The sounds of her bones cracking are small; her blood pools, her trembling never subsides…

Douji disappears and materializes next to that cursed sword.

Yukari lifts her head. Her eyes burn with determination.

Her hand never left her belly.

“… I…” That same broken tone is there. I doubt it’ll ever leave. Hana tenses and watches like a hawk for any movement, any sign of a Gap. Old blood drips from her Gohei. “… I-I’ll kill them, A-Anon… Every single o-one… I-I need you to be s-safe,” a broken tooth slips out from between her lips and falls into the mud. She’s crying hard; the light in her eyes is pure fire. “C-Come to me… You’ll be safe; it’ll be me, you… S-Sekai.” The backdrop is of Douji approaching without a care in the world, taking her sweet time.

Prolonging someone’s suffering as much as she could.

“You won’t lay a finger on him again,” the sheer hatred those words carry snatches my eyes in Hana’s direction, fright echoing within me. Her expressions were few and small, yet exceptionally rooted in violence. “You’ll die. You’ll die today.” Hana does not cry; she doesn’t flex her voice with remorse or doubt.

I look back at Yukari.

The devil’s eyes are full of light and tears; her hand leans towards me, slack and frail. A thin breeze could knock her down. She pleads softly as the oni wielding a dark blade closes in, slit-pink eyes studying the hamon laid upon crimson metal and swimming skulls…

For a single moment, I am brought to the day we met our time-traveling daughter—Yukari’s hand towards me trembles and trembles; that one over her belly is steady—, and I see once more the weak woman who’d welcome my hatred with open arms, fragile and pathetic and accepting that because she knew she’d get nothing else from me.

That day, I extended my hand out to her anyway.

“… Not y-you too… I have no one else…” Weak, low, almost inaudible.

Alone.

Douji stops by Yukari, a thing cast onto the mud, the red blade slung over her shoulder. “You better have a solid plan on what to do next, Bride… For now,” a flourish, and the sword hangs above Yukari. “Savor the moment.”

Yukari’s eyes widened, a silent plea.

Dead hands press against the small of my back.

Tears roll down my cheeks.

I turn my eyes away.

Then, a horrific cry boomed, like a volcanic eruption, and the world fell silent. My eyes, however, were called back like the crack of a whip, as were Hana’s and… Yukari’s. Together, we three watched in utter horror as the sword fell to the mud as if mere rusted iron and Ibarakidouji screamed her lungs out, five jagged nails sinking deep into her face as she staggered without rhyme or reason. Her hand covered only one eye, the only one visible shining pink, the pupil not slit anymore. Underlying the screaming and the feverish second of shock, only one word echoed: “K-Kasen-nee…?”

What followed was a red, sharp slice, Hana springing into action a moment too late.

Kasen’s only remaining arm flew and spun through the air, blood splattering against my face and clothes. A monstrous roar thundered throughout the Underground, bluish light melting the bottom of the pond in rapid succession.

I did not see a Gap popping beneath me.

Soulmetal clang against sacred wood, and through eyes shadowed in the dark red of a torn scalp, Yukari stared back at Hana with a flavor of hatred that pinned me where I was… As did it to Hana, the Gohei flung upwards with a violent motion—

—the knocking of doors; the loud scream of Douji.

As the sword fell toward Hana, it collided with another Gohei.

Without hesitation, Hana joined her Mother as a slew of Backdoors opened all over Yukari—

—only to disappear as if ashes, the red blade meeting Hana’s Gohei before Reimu’s, the sacred wood floated through the metal—

Yukari caught Reimu’s Gohei with an empty hand.

If Reimu had not let go of it, she’d be headless now, one arm wrapped around our Hana, and before I even understood what was happening, her teeth had caught the back of my jinbe and hopped away. Within the second, a hundred meters rested between us, Reimu releasing me. “NO! K-KASEN-NEE! WE NEED TO HELP HER!” The oni had slipped off the pond's edge and crept towards the blazing bottom. W-What is happening? What is that light? It’s strong enough to illuminate the whole of the lake’s surface like a sun…

“Be glad we are here, you fool,” this voice… I have never heard it. The sound of backdoors was much more understandable, and I watched as a small child walked out of one, Yuugi following. The big oni waved gently at me, though her good humor vanished the second she set eyes on Yukari. “A moment too late, and everyone but you and that disgrace over there would’ve gone up in flames—”

“—MISTER ANON!!” Her arms around me are immediate and strong. I reciprocate. I always would. Others flocked around us, but my focus was on the bundle of joy in my arms.

Kasen descends into the void.

Reimu and Hana stand side by side.

I hold Chen in my arms.

On the other side, Yukari watched, one hand on her belly, the other gripping a twisted sword. The fire in her eyes was all but gone.

>>49514066
>>49514062
>>49514058
let's kickstart the thread~!
for Takaneanon: didn't outright specify it, but Okina in the Reimu chapter was pinpointing everyone's position so she could get everyone in together at the same time. Next chapters should be Reimu, and I'll talk about that, so that's it. The idea here is: Satori read a weakened Yukari's mind, so she knows Yukari plans to literally blow up the whole of Youkai Mountain and take down Douji and Hana together, but the timing begged immediate action, and I picture the duo reversing the nuclear explosion, though that means the same burst of energy that every transforming atom releases rebounds into more energy—supposedly—, meaning if they ever stop constantly reversing that shitload of energy, the bomb goes out and everyone not named Yukari, Anon, Kasen, Reimu and Yuugi dies. I thought that it'd be best if the duo got to talk with Yukari at her lowest with their usual safety nets stripped down; it doesn't get more genuine than that. No pressure~
I ask that you mind the in-universe time, though: Reimu is about 18 minutes away from submitting her name to the scoreboard. She'll hover back to assess Anon and wonder how the fuck Yukari bypassed her floating, but not for long
whatever you need or wanna discuss, tag me. Good writing~!

Solstice update #19
I'll remove it next update takanon, I'm not leaving that there for the whole month.
11-18: https://files.catbox.moe/t8axuf.mp4

>>49514072
Gotcha!
So, just so it's clear, I'm up next then and It's gonna be the duo reversing 36 megaton nukes exploding while Yukari wails on them and Reimu is recuperating for a last-ditch attack? Presumably Yuugi will also be supporting?
>>49516746
>#Pride
I'm going to get you.

>>49516754
26 megatons, not as bad! I had Anon focusing on Chen as to give you free autonomy over the remaining cast, so if you want only Yuugi is okay, Okina only has a backdoor on Satori so it'd be expected she, in her weakened state, can only find those that have it; if not, you can have Sanae and Suika enter too, I have plans for them later but nothing I can't tweak around. Yuugi as presented would most likely go recover Kasen. That's the essence of it. Good luck~!

>Ao3 archive got to 100 kudos
Nice.

>>49516754
So no goro chapters for pride month? Sadge at least Kazakhstan got its share.

>>49514058
>>49514062
>>49514066
You can't solve this with a thousand years of sealing, just saying...

>>49532445
we'll know the validity of the method in a thousand years~!

章をお願いします？

>>49539445
today. Nightreign consumed my life this past week, then when I thought myself liberated, Lies of P dlc drops out of nowhere...

>>49516754
I'm baking. gotta get back in the swing of things.

>>49544926
Yukari should swing that sword at herself, it'd be a very Yukari action.

>>49544967
that's just rude!
>>49544926
and I'm waiting for it, take it easy and good writing~

Searing pain cut through the whole of my back and I arched it as a soundless scream left my mouth. No support could act as a crutch to muster strength against the tears rushing down my cheeks, and a familiar weight that had stood there for a thousand years had vanished. Despair mixed with the pain of a Backdoor attempting its best to split to no result, and one word materialized amidst this inferno of unseen flames: “Anon…!” I called him the same way one would call a guiding light, and once he'd served as protector of both me and our four children, a hand of golden light in a dream so tender it felt wrong after the wind underneath the wings of life turned into acrid smoke that withered and killed everything, now he could not come.

It did not mean I was alone, for two strong hands reached me anyway, a pair too strong and not an ounce gentle, and though pain rippled through me unforgiving, I eyed her, and Momiji had pressed teeth and this massive bandage wrapped around the top of her head, bloody and messy despite my smudged vision. It could have made me laugh if not for how my toes would curl and my shattered spine fought charred ends, as if continuing to arch forward would stop the intense burning of the sensitive bone. “Hey, hey, calm down, Aya!” She sniffles. “The phantom pain seems bad…” One of her troglodyte hands leaves my shoulder, talking to someone else beyond my sight and concern, before that hand returns holding a… Oh… “I-It was quite hard getting them out. Youkai Mountain is crumbling under these big earthquakes—” Stressing her words, everything around us shakes and low, tuned-out groans grow to screams and yelps the whole five seconds of terrible movement, my stomach churning at how the modern-looking ceiling lights—I know these lights. Beneath them, Kanako essentially tried to scam me—moved and danced.

Momiji not once faltered in her hold of the incubator.

Soon the tremors stop, and her red eyes are as determined as the naked tree to survive autumn. “—But I would never fail one of ours… Four of ours, anyway.” She titters, and I take a moment to notice how that gnawing pain had faded away, back resting on the bed and ignoring the uncomfortable casts wrapped around what remains of my wings.

“Momiji…” The 'thank you' is there, somewhere, though it finds no leave at the moment. To think I have lost my pride as a Karasu Tengu, my tidal wings, maybe to never be the fastest again… It hurts. Not physical hurt, which battered me out of sleep—what is happening to Okina…?—, but a hurt that was there from the moment I had Yukari bearing down onto me and robbing me of my life's work, soiling it with her propaganda.

Another loss for Aya Shameimaru.

“Things could be worse, surely. We could have earthquakes and explosions.” She pounds her words with a sternness that makes me wince, eyes turning to— “You are completely worthless in this state, in the eyes of Lord Tenma, and you have committed many crimes against our home.” She shakes her head, and the shame grows like a maddening beast. “You're a disgrace to your race, Aya.” —she hands me the incubator, and I can't help feeling offended when she makes sure that I hold my children firmly. “Make sure they are not also ashamed of you.” Ha! As if Takezo, Waku, Midori or Tomoe would ever feel ashamed of their awesome mother.

A crucial fighter in the battle of all battles, and who had to sacrifice her wings for the love of her life!

She's the fastest Tengu reporter of all, owner of the Bunbunmaru, and gave it her all during these terrible, terrible past few months, and even when things were at their bleakest, she never gave up, no matter how many defeats she'd stack up…

“I'm getting mixed signals, Momiji…” I stare at the incubator, how the light shimmers off the hard shell nestled on smooth hags and comforters. My lower lip trembles, and, despite the passing gaze of many other people who come and go around me—busy white and green mikos and humans and Tengu. A lot of hurt, and many more dead—, these tears that flee me are not from pain. Rather, they're from unbridled joy. The few minutes within that Fake Shrine against Yukari were a nightmare, and before them came actions impossibly stupid in execution.

No more wings to be the best; a fleeting chance at love—a creeping thought overlays my mind and pumps my blood with cold like nothing else: is Anon even alive…?—; a tainted newspaper, something that'd started before Yukari, even. “… B-But mama still has you, right?” I whisper to these pristine white eggs.

They give no answer, though it's unneeded. Like that gentle ward he'd cast upon restless dreams, I hope my kids feel the same safety I felt that day.

Well, at least the last installment of the Bunbunmaru will be its most legendary~!

Momiji's expression is unknown to me, and not even the loud clang of metal and a body upon the ground, followed then by the very familiar sound of a Gap mercilessly tearing the world apart, could take my eyes off my children.

>>49549865
just a short and sweet (I hope) chapter today, to balance out the hell of previous ones. Got caught in that "one more run" cycle on Nightreign and I don't think I'll ever recover... Oh well, at least the game is fun
this chapter is also a little further in the timeline!
more soon~!

>>49521907
20k hits too. Next entry should be more chapters packed together!

>>49549865
This is what winning the Anonbowl looks like, let's go birdie!

>>49544926
Hag chapters onegai? I miss her...

>>49568374
tmw I swear. I had a good idea, but then realized it was awful halfway through.

>>49569439
Be mindful with her, she's kind and misunderstood...

>>49569439
Okay, I'm a liar, I got too into another job and it's not done.
Pray for tomorrow.

>>49574801
take it easy man, the next chapters are a pivotal piece of the solstice and require temperance when writing, no rush is needed. I'll restart posting now that I'm getting out of my 2 weeks addiction, so you'll have the time. Good luck, brother~

Reinforcements.

A single word that was either the greatest of succors or the most grim of omens. To Anon, Hana, and Reimu it was a welcome sight, to the battered Yukari, it caused her stomach to churn and the grip on the blade to tighten. Yuugi had fought her almost to a standstill not long ago, even with an Oni-Slayer in her grasp it would not be an easy brawl, that was until she saw the rest of the party, and the perspectives of both sides flipped.

Hana immediately flicked her Gohei in the direction of those last to leave the backdoor, ready to strike. "Down you fool!" Satori shouted with a piercing gaze. So high had Hana's reactions and focused been raised that Satori, hearing her lethal thoughts, was just barely able to utter a warning.

The shrine maiden didn't strike, but she also didn't lower her weapon from the Amanojaku and her Partner, even though both carried a small babe in their arms.

"Not a bad look you have in your eye girly. Have you learned some honesty?" Seija asked her.

"Your with HER aren't you? Is that why you came here?" Hana replied, ignoring the question.

But before the Jaku could answer, Yuugi flew off and Hana turned, thinking she had made for Yukari, but was surprised to see her descending, down into the blackness, down to grab Kasen she realized. Hana turned back and saw the two were now gone and slowly floating towards Yukari. She made to point her Gohei at them again, only to have a small hand pull upon her arm.

"Relax! Take a moment now, you'll need to converse your strength." Satori says, gritting her teeth slightly. "A cornered animal is the most dangerous."

"They...did they have children?" Anon asked, finding himself even more terribly confused at the evolving situation.

Above the lake the two floated towards Yukari, they had never seen her so ignoble as they did then, with the Sage caked in blood, her clothing torn, and shoes missing. Yet, it also was a relief to Seija and Goro both. The had known her inner turmoil and how much her posturing had hid and now there was no longer a dissonance between her anguish and appearance.

"Excellent." Yukari breathed. "You've dealt with those other pests and now return to me hmm? Fortunate, for me and for you. Had the both of you come a minute or so later I'd have behead you two of you for incompetence. Now that you're here though, you can prove your loyalty: the Shrine Maiden has minutes, her daughter is exhausted but troublesome, distract her and I'll-" she stopped, her eyes narrowed and grew wide as she looked at the babes they held.

"What is this?" She asked, eyes shot pointedly at Goro.

"They're our children. Oiwa and Tsukuyomi." Seija answered, pointing to the raven-haired, sapphire-eyed child in her arms and the blood-orange eyed blonde child in Goro's. "They were born of the HSE. They're your Godchildren."

Yukari's eyes went wide and a thousand scenarios ran through her head. A lie, an illusion, time travel, parents leaving their twins at the HSE's doorstep as if it were a church, but even through her fatigue and insanity, she happened upon the truth: the construction of the HSE was flawed, their energies had spilled into it and coalesced into children.

Goro smiled at her, seeing the realization in her face, and tried to approach her, almost reaching out with his child to her, but Yuakri flinched, pulling herself back.

"This is...a test." Yukari uttered. "Yes, of course, a trial. To think that someone in this land would give me an ounce of consideration when I have known nothing but betrayal. Just like the old epics, one last temptation before the reward is-"

"We made a promise!" Seija yelled, holding her Oiwa close to her breast. "We swore not to leave you alone. You gave us these two, whether you meant to or not, so I'm going to make sure that you at least see that much, before you try to throw everything away."

"You think I'm tossing everything aside? You stupid Jaku, I am taking all that I'm owed! My Anon! My child!!" She said, a hand on her belly. "And all of Gensokyo, mine, as it always should have been! For all that I've suffered and endured! You believe I'll waver because some nobody Youkai and her peasant Human partner show me two...two..." She strained, face contorting as she saw innocent sapphire and blood-orange eyes stare back at her.

"Homunculi?" Seija asked, as she brushed Oiwas short black hair. "A Youkai who beds a human shouldn't say such a thing, not after all that you went through to have yours."

At this Yukari felt something within her snap. "I won't be lead astray, not after coming this far!" She screamed mustering her magic once more.

Breaking it down into smaller parts for sanities sake and to get back into the groove.

Spiders crawl up my throat and I feel each pneumatic leg, limbs growing numb and squinting eyes peering past the mist of colors that surround me, a pumping heart clenching as lungs beg for air. Something sickening etched itself to my stomach and made me want to throw up, feeling on my skin like the intense sting of a thousand bees, but I knew the moment I opened my mouth, I’d only be drinking more of this terrible vapor. Twin tails had arched and the cast Yamame-san gently fashioned on my head felt as if melting, and both my hands pressed against my mouth, making sure it stayed closed, tears streaking down my cheeks as I tried to find again Mr. Anon’s scent or any shape of a living person or safe place, the murk making it nigh impossible; no matter how high I tried to ascend or how fast I flew away, the fog seemed to expand ocean-wide, time a mere suggestion.

Everything hurts.

There was no escape, and in this mist that’d appeared with that colossal explosion—it happened many minutes ago, yet I can still hear rumbling thunder—, I slowly suffocate, skin aflame.

I don’t want to die, not yet. Not when I haven’t written all those books I’ve promised to share with Mr. Anon in the afterlife; not when I haven’t helped Ms. Reimu with that sad stuff that ails her heart… Not when I can still offer Yukari my best.

Hidden away in my qipao, a talisman boasting a side of death and one of mercy.

Her words linger, those she’d said inside the shrine.

Had she never felt loved, despite everything Ran and I did? Were we not enough, or did we not try hard enough…?

We could have been content with what we had, right? We had each other…

Body limps down to the ashen ground and through groans, I turn myself to face a cloudy sky, my breath dry, stomach aching, and fingers trembling. I still haven’t shown her my best, everything I can bring forth, the wonders of a life without sad. Everything I promised Yamame-san I’d show… A ‘best’ I know Yukari herself would never find within herself to show me—Ran, Mr. Anon—, and even so I seek it. Things will end the way I know they will—my nose tickles with the smell of burnt flesh and charred bones—, and tears and blood shall be abundant.

It’s impossible to imagine a different outcome for this war.

Beyond this warring Gensokyo are stars I and Mr. Anon have watched, eating and talking about spiders; somewhere in this rubble and poisonous smog that kills me softly are the memories we made together, those I’ll cherish beyond a forever. It was a terrible, sad thing, all that's happened to us, and it has caused so much harm and pain…

“… P-Please…” I beg to the stars, the world blurring around me.

I’ll do my best, anyway.

Doors open.

What else can I do, Mr. Anon?

I blink, and the stars are clear as day. Golden and red and blue, and shining. A moment of stillness precedes my lungs filling with clear air, and a coughing fit befalls me instantly, my hands wrapping around my belly as my body detoxes from all the icky mist, a sort of supernatural cleansing washing over me—not dispelling the pounding headache—, and replacing it with relief that grew and grew the more my hands touched my body: I’m a-alive! I didn’t die! “It’s good, isn’t it?” Her voice is familiar, and I have no time to writhe in icy fear when such pungent delight crosses through my whole. “To breathe again after drowning for so long.”

Eyes go up, and, laid on the ground a few paces ahead of the third sage, is Ms. Reimu. Battered and missing one arm, with a bloodied face, Ms. Reimu. Her chest rises and falls.

She’s alive, Ms. Reimu.

… So much Yamame-san had taught me; so much I thought I knew about death. I had thought myself prepared to face it when it inevitably came to be in this terrible war.

Ms. Reimu is alive.

I run up to her and my fingers caress her body, struggling to place her head on my lap, thighs scratched yet ignored as I peer into her face, its pallor and its mortal beauty, folded fire wings snuggled on her back as if afraid to open like a flower, cascading below like the tears of a volcano. I hold her to me with everything I know I’ll eventually lose, and that dark hole Yamame-san told me about is overwhelming against my chest, her missing arm and the remaining stump a wound all by itself. What had she gone through? What nightmares she’s faced alone!

She's so very hurt…

Even though she’s alive, the loss I hadn’t even fathomed crashed suddenly against me, its inevitability—Mr. Anon, where are you? I need to hug you, too, to see the dispelled sad from your eyes. I need you to see me at my best—a knife that stings dope casts and the many wounds below.

This hurt; this relief…

Around us, a dilapidated world I ignore, clinging to a feeling the giants whose shoulders I stand on have warned me of—of the consequences of feeling too much. “Careful there, otherwise you’ll end up suffocating the poor Hakurei miko!” The sage's voice calls me, a smile anyway on her face. “Wouldn’t be the worst way to go, I guess.”

It was the comparison of a firm heartbeat and the wheeze of parting dying lips. She’d lost that same evil that sprung from within Yukari, the creepiness of her presence and stare back then at Mayohiga gone and replaced with this… uncanny warmth—one besieged by sagging, dark eye bags and an emptiness I’d seen in Ms. Reimu when she’d talked about her suicide and Mokou-nee. The pull of heavy chains—fake or not, I had no way of knowing.

I pull Ms. Reimu closer to me, tails puffy and broken nails ready for slicing, a silly yet macabre feeling echoing: against the power of a Sage, what use am I?

Such thoughts would not stop me, and I hiss at her. “Away!”

The woman giggles, gesturing at me with a hand as her other clicked fingers, like she was trying to remember something. “Hey, hey, I mean no harm to you. We’re not on opposite sides of this war… and what a weird reaction of a faithful, albeit I know it’s warranted,” she sounds guilty, eyes rising to look at something behind me—! My eyes followed instinctively, mind about to reprehend itself if not for the sight of a monumental, reptilian-like skull with a single horn protruding from its shattered top. Behind it, rows of bony columns. W-What…? “I should thank you. Without the faith you put in the stars, I doubt I’d have awakened as soon as I have from my short coma.” H-Huh? “This body tasted selfless faith once more and has gotten addicted to it, it seems, and the lack of it left me vulnerable… But to receive faith from a Youkai of misfortune and bad omens? Heh~” she coughs at the end, and rage courses within.

“I have two tails! Two—I am not only a bakeneko; I’m a nekomata, and I can be plenty good.”

“… I see that.” her eyes are on Ms. Reimu before she throws her head back to rest it on the stone, a weary sigh escaping the Sage of Backdoors. “Would you be good enough to forgive me, too?” The sudden question throws me off, the weight of Yamame’s cast on my head tilting it somewhat to the left. Despite the angle, the conflict in her expression is visible. “I… wasn’t the best person last time we met. Demanded a lot from Reimu; I didn’t consider your well-being and was an awful person to interact with, and…” She pauses, as if considering something. The wind howls, and beyond invisible barriers, the smog of death lingers. “… I’ve caused everything around us. All this, my fault. I could’ve prevented it all, but did nothing. I could’ve spared Reimu from whatever the hell she’s doing, m-many of the deaths, too. I c-could’ve done my job as goddess and protector of this land and… been better. I was not, and I—”

“—I forgive you.”

She stops dead in her tracks, almost shifting her face to look at me but catching herself mid-movement. The glimpse I got of her eyes told me enough. “I didn’t even finish—”

“It doesn’t matter to me, Ms. Okina,” I say, that which kept me going amidst a sea of toxic fog and deep wounds caused by these hands of mine taking forefront. “Bad people with bad intentions and deeds exist, and the consequences of their existence are sad,” I hold dear to Ms. Reimu, and in my mind is Mr. Anon’s pain as he’d talk about a long past. Alongside them echo the words of a suicide, and I’m sitting on that porch with Yukari at the start of all this. A dark night, that one was. I refused her ways. “I don’t know… why you did the things you did or acted like you did, but I’ve seen the power of forgiveness before. If it could do for you a fraction of the wonderful things it did for Ms. Reimu, then I forgive you.” Despite these words, an acute bitterness takes hold. Why couldn’t Yukari do the same? If her Sister Sage can do it—if a person as bad as Ms. Reimu can return to the fair person she was before things turned sad—, then what’s stopping Yukari…?

No person is equal, no burden is the same, yet…

… Can forgiveness be decreed the same?

Tucked within my sleeve, the red-and-blue talisman burns softly.

The thoughts escape me as a small huff echoes amidst the destruction, Ms. Okina cleaning her eyes before bringing forth her head to look at me and Ms. Reimu. “How the hell Yukari turned out like this with you around is a great mystery… Thanks, kitten.” Hey! That’s rude, calling me that! It’d be like calling Mr. Anon a cucumber, and I make sure she knows. Her laughter thickens at my pouting, if modestly, and if I had the heart to release Ms. Reimu for even a moment, I’d kick her shins. Her finger clicking rises a tone, and the atmosphere changes slightly. “… Such kind words help more than you think; I truly appreciate them.” I have no time to placate her, for the woman resumes swiftly. “Ah, no matter, I’ll get us away from this hell when Reimu wakes up, and I’ve gathered enough power to kick Yukari—” Ms. Reimu groans, her eyelids trembling a little. “—Speak of the devil, and lo and behold.” The sage shrugs. It goes unnoticed.

I watch Ms. Reimu like a falcon, and soon her lids open to expose misty red jewels. She's a-alive…

The hole shuts, yet it never fully closes.

>>49584266
>>49584270
if the cat gives out therapy, who gives out therapy to the cat? Questions and more questions...
next on the line are Patchy and Toutetsu!
more soon!
>>49584122
first thing I'm reading tomorrow~! Maybe after the news, just to make sure I can fit my schedule around the approaching nuclear holocaust
>spoiler
take it easy!

>>49584122
morning actually means in the dead of night after a grueling work day, but I digress. Good start, putting the foot down on the gas; am patiently waiting developments!
>[...]her descending, down into the blackness, down to grab Kasen she realized.
just a small nitpick: she's diving towards a nuke-turned-drift king and not dying because of her unknown manipulation, the whole lake is lit up. Have a good writing~!

Bump.

Thread seems a bit barren at the moment, let's lighten things up a little.
What's some missed potential in the narrative you feel could've been incorporated in a different way?

>>49593850
>Thread seems a bit barren at the moment
Mofos are hiding the good stuff from us, I want Yukari...

>>49593850
Aya, mostly. Her og storyline didn't go anywhere, and it ended on a cliffhanger. At least there was closure with her anonbowl victory.

>>49593850
besides Okina I talked about last thread, the Myourens. Was too shy to bring them forth in the past after their troubled first months, and really just tapped into them for a little in the Okina final chapters; remember Anons talking about how in another world Reimu got help from the more empathetic members that noticed her little changes, and though I didn't entertain the idea then, I do find myself absentmindedly writing AU snippets that center around that -- amidst other stuff of course, they're mostly warm-ups for actual chapters.

>>49593850
I'm trying to come back to it, its very hard atm but I'm working on it. I need to get this fixed before the next solstice!

>>49598049
Whatever you do, just be nice to her.

>>49597727
It really is amazing how much damage one thread shitter can do to one project, at least they're gone now.

>>49593850
Myourens, and Shou and Mamizou in particular. The only reason they don't have more of a focus is due to the sabotage of a tertiary that doesn't even like touhou.

She’s Genghis Khan in everything but appearance. Curved horns adorned her head and a dangerous gleam her eyes, a sick smile just below. Blood and mud caked every visible centimeter of her body, and her nails clamped around two gruesome pieces with murderous intent. No armies backed her, but as Yuuma trampled Lady Patchouli’s side of the miracle, the realization she needed none was crystal-clear—I recall how she came to the mansion to play with Lady Flan. The contrast of then and now drowns my blood in ice: she’s paces away from Lady Patchouli; if she tries anything…

… I won’t be able to help, four hands—two spectral, burning with a battery made of dead memories, though it’s of the same design as the batteries of Baghdad. Spiritually-charged, as taught to the elders of the temple I grew up at eons ago—sunk into thick roots spanning as fields in all directions, inverted to veil the skies in Sekai’s blue. Lady Patchouli made it more than certain: should I release this tree when the ritual is underway, our Sekai is… No. Don’t think such thoughts, Meiling. Not even when Genghis Khan stands before you and her.

Every muscle fiber screams, the balance of Ki lies in disarray.

Sekai—La… Patchy—is counting on you.

“Welcome to the fucking reckoning, ladies,” Toutetsu Yuuma spells, Lady Patchouli taking a step back. Without the book, she has no more right to Sekai’s tier of magic. “Aren’t you two gonna be the part? Tell me what I’ve asked of you? I’m not patient with those that have allied with that Yakumo woman.” The smile was a betrayal: only crassness lurked in her vertical pupils. She stepped forward, and Lady Patchouli stiffened the slightest—

—Knowledge sparked immediately inside her slit eyes.

“We are not of her ilk, never were, Toutetsu Yuuma.” She draws the dignity with which she regarded herself under the stars of our daughter’s birth, yet it does not come. The corners of her eyes are bluish—anemia—, her voice shakes, and a spasm is ever-present. “Yukari Yakumo was a mistake, committed under fear and—” Blood and mud and iron hit against paved dirt, destroying dozens of thousands of words and symbols in an instant. The reaction is crude. “DON’T!” Her body had lunged forward two centimeters, and against her best efforts came a coughing fit. My heart boiled, muscles brought to their limit screaming. Not from effort. Fury.

Hundreds of hours of tireless work for our girl’s life, erased just like that…

“Lady Patchouli! You monster, how—” I tried, but within the second, Patchouli had turned, grasping the center of her bosom with one hand and throwing the other in my direction. Smoldering coals made her eyes, but not those of a war machine; rather, the coals of an oven baking the bread attached to its ceiling, infuriated and blazing, yet not destructive. It eased the burden of rage.

“—No…! No. I…” Blood parted her lips and poured in fine strands. Lady Patchouli remained. “There’s no need for a battle. We know what we are, and we are not savages!” Her eyes sang a strange tune, and one that my bleeding heart lashed out against: the ritual has started, compromising us to keep it going. It fails if we stop, and we cannot stop Toutetsu Yuuma like this…

For their sake, and against the wishes of this rocking heart, I maintained an unwavering focus on preventing the tree from sliding. Lady Patchouli has come through once and again in situations that seemed final—my almost death, the play-fight, the two rituals…

S-She got this.

“You heard her, Gatekeeper? Civilized folk: I got the cards; you, the info. Dead people rarely talk—and you don’t want these cards to burn.” She places the end of the bigger jagged metal against the ground. “The dead kid, the ritual, the tree. Now.” The demand is a gong, and it shakes the earth. This time, Lady Patchouli is steady, her weak body protecting our slumbering Sekai. Relief rears its head despite the budding nerves and whispering fear: if she explains everything with that elegance she and Lady Remilia share, Yuuma’s surely backing down. She’ll know we mean no harm to Gensokyo and just want to have our child safe and sound, the ritual will proceed unmolested, and then I’ll never have to hear those words of suicide again in my dreams—

“… I cannot tell you any of that.” Eyes snap and lock to the back of her head instantly, wide and confused; a moment of hesitation lends the tree a few inches. My muscles roar. Yuuma frowns. W-What is she…? “The whole of that information is known to me, and I beg you to understand we are not a threat to Gensokyo. This won’t benefit the Gap Sage, nor will it weaken your forces.” She stammers but stays set like the cord of a bow. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t fucking matter. What is she doing?! Why is she keeping information from an Underworld gangster marinated in blood?

“Wait, wait, wait,” Yuuma waves at her to not proceed, expression unreadable. Meanwhile, the ritual hums in stillness, fragile as glass.

One wrong movement, a breeze too strong…

“I take you’re not retarded,” her tone lands in the middle of dumbfounded and amused. A smile-made trap that triggers every hair on my body. Danger. Patchouli must’ve seen it too. “You don’t look so—you look smarter than the idiots I ate before this tree packed with enough Old Magic to cause a second mass extinction pinned half of Gensokyo on top of me.” Her point wasn’t lost.

“The life of this child may or may not hang on the measurement of my secrecy.” Lady Patchouli does not back down, yet confidence forged in a dream degrades, as does my physical instrument. What is she doing?! We cannot afford to keep the secret of Sekai’s existence; it’s beyond the point of that mattering in the slightest… isn’t it? We kept it a secret from Remi to avoid manipulation of fate overlap and from the rest of Gensokyo to protect the girl from Yukari. Whatever reasons Patchouli must think we have to keep the secret, it’s moot against having a failed ritual and a dead daughter in our hands. My throat clenches, words begging to be freed, hands numb and a pounding headache settling; even with four arms and the pure strength I had poured into this secret sigil, the tree gained purchase, a shrill scraping resounding throughout the cavernous underbelly of a destroyed HSE.

“And that bimbo's life and yours depend on the truth leaving your mouth!” The bloodied iron meets baked ground, destroying hundreds of characters in a second. Lady Patchouli quivers, yet does not move to stop the Underworld goat. T-The ritual we worked so much for, our daughter’s future…

It leaves me before I can stop myself: “P-Patchy, please…” Wood cleaves rock.

“… I know what I’m doing, Meiling.” Her eyes aren’t on me when she shifts again; they’re on sleeping Sekai. Cuddled on the cold ground, lifeless and dirty. An ant crawls across her cheek, unbothered by the world collapsing right above. “She has her whole family to protect her.”

The way she spoke those words, the sheer confidence behind them.

A pound of the heart, then another.

Blood poured from the sides of her mouth as she stared down a fuming Yuuma. Her scleras had grown blue and her skin a pallor lighter than marble, and the ends of her fingers quivered maddeningly. Patchouli Knowledge is at the most weak I’ve ever seen her… Yet, with her back to our defenseless daughter and rigid eyes fixed on a cruel woman bathed in blood, I don’t think I’ve seen a more powerful figure.

Before such grandeur, how could I ever falter?

Heart tightened despite the dread throbbing from the base to the top of my spine, muffling it; arms recuperated their hold and though the headache remained, it was with great effort that the belief in her steadfast back—gentle eyes, home—overtook central standing.

I don’t know what she has in mind, or if she even has a plan…

… But I believe in Patchouli Knowledge.

Yuuma had opened her mouth, rage obvious and patience much more in each glimmer of scarlet. Lady Patchouli was faster, stepping forth as the soulglass, aflame in blue and phantasmagorical radiance, marked bounds. “I won’t answer your questions, for they impose unacceptable risk on the livelihood of this child,” Patchouli reiterates, a groan midway through leaving Yuuma’s mouth. “There are those I can answer! Should they satisfy you is beyond me, but hear me out, for the sake of a child not yet lost…” A groan that swiftly dies, a breath that is held not by mortal or immortal: the world, and it endures only one additional second. She’s doing it…? “Her name is Hata no Sekai! Anything else matters not to me—her origins, this ritual or this tree—, and she’s… S-She’s my daughter! Mine and Meiling’s! Not of conception; our daughter. As long as we are not interrupted, she lives. Her dream is to visit China, and I have every intention of trampling whoever stands on the path of that dream. There’s no need for things to come to that, and I know you care—I wouldn’t be alive if you didn’t—so, for the sake of that dream, I urge you to leave us!”

Hanging by a thread, yet with a booming voice to muffle the rumble of a cataclysm. Had the heart of Patchouli reached her or not, I couldn't know…

The mafia boss rose and slung the deformed end of blunt metal over her shoulder as the other, wider one hung low like an axe ready for the slaughter.

A bated breath, an answer to come.

… Yet, rather than answering first, Yuuma turned with a scoff—

“—Her words are mine,” hope cuts through despair like a meteor does the sky. Alongside Conquest incarnate rides awe: she'd stepped from a blood spring cascading down charred rock and debris, a power she hasn’t—couldn’t—make use of for decades now… Red streaking the sides of her mouth, contrasting with porcelain skin, hints at what’s transpired, and the gaze she pierces the goat with is as unnerving as her large black wings. A gaze that mellowed as it briefly lingered on Sekai. She knows. “Leave, while fate yet permits you.” The ultimatum is laid by Remilia Scarlet to the tune of rivers of blood.

>>49607836
>>49607834
next batch will be the last of Patchy and Meiling for a little while, so it'll be a longer batch. Next on the line: jobbers~!
more soon!
also, for those interested, an update on the Hanamod and how the character feels in a run (not a full run, though):
https://files.catbox.moe/n7pj1s.webm
pure changelog:
>new item, still WIP
>reworked Hana's Ascot so it gives a flat 0.05 DMG per kill, a counter that is lost upon getting hit. Getting hit with a +0 damage bonus kills Hana (gets pulled out of non-Euclidean space -> gets killed lmao). At certain bonus thresholds, changes the game; losing the damage bonus doesn't remove the changes
>(mostly) working item pools
>updated sprites for the Hakurei spheres
>bug fixes

>>49516746
Solstice update #20

Update tomorrow probably.
Lord I am looking forward to having only one project again.

>>49613514
Will you do more chapters after your next upload, or it'll be it for the time being?

>>49584122
"The lake." Seija uttered to Goro as she handed him their other child and man nodded, floating backwards.

Yukari didn't waste a second to jeer about them splitting their attention, she acted, lunging toward Seija and thrusting her sword forward through a gap, one that would cause the blade to be split into a thousand tiny, lethal needles that would impale Seija on all sides. Each and every wafer thin shard missed, extending away from the Jaku, rather then toward her.

"Decisive of you." Seija uttered as Yukari withdrew her blade and prepared another stroke, before Seija's heel hit the flat of the weapon, deflecting it and giving her an opening for a punch, that was just as quickly grabbed by Yukari, and used to toss the girl away before she could follow up with another kick.

"No tossing me into a gap? Or are you afraid I'll turn them on you?" Seija remarked as she cracked her neck.

Yukari, once again, said nothing as she raised her blade with both hand and focused all her attention on her opponent. The Sage was by no means helpless, at this very moment she could conceive of over fifteen ways to dispatch Seija and move on to her other enemies. However, there remained two problems: the first was that she had expended far too much of her focus and energy fighting up until this point, powerful and lethal as she might be holding the blade, if she used more resources then necessary to kill Seija now, she'd be checked by the other fighters. The second problem was that the Jaku was uncharacteristically calm.

With a sudden burst, Seija was upon Yukari once again and the Sage swung, but her swing turned the wrong way, leaving another opening for Seija to stab her hand at, which found it's way into a gap, and then that gap turned the wrong way, resulting in a punch narrowly grazing Yukari's chin. Yukari quickly rallied, swinging up her own leg in an arc to catch the Jaku's side, only for Seija to quickly roll, grabbing the leg, and tossing Yukari, upon which she attempted to rush the Sage, but was repelled when Yukari managed to swing her sword upwards at the Jaku.

"You... Kasen trained you for this didn't she?" Yukari asked.

"What nonsense are you spouting? I barely spoke with the pervy hermit." Seija shook her head.

There was a resemblance the Yakumo could see, a line between the way Kasen the Hermit fought and the maneuvers Seija was managing now: Focus, fluidity, and despite her contradictory ability, it all seemed completely natural.

But those were just punches and kicks, Yukari decided. Quickly mustering herself, she raised the sword and brought it down, tearing opening the air surrounding her and sending it forward like a dense rain of bullets.

"Child's play!" Seija shouted as she clapped her hands and the first half of the rain doubled back on itself, causing a thousand micro explosions that popped in the air like distant gunfire. It was of no matter for Yukari, as she knew such a large reversal couldn't be done successively, and she swung her sword again, creating another rain of micro bullets and at the same time dashing through a gap to skewer the Jaku as she clapped her hands again, but just as she exited the gap, she found herself stabbing air, her hair hanging upside down, the second barrage sputtering out in the distance.

Instinctively she swung around with her sword and almost caught Seija in a sneak attack before the Jaku narrowly flung herself back.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Seija waved a sole finger in the air, tutting. "I'm not going to insult you by assuming you'd try the same attack twice."

"What's changed about you?" Yukari demanded. "Your fighting was sloppier then this, less disciplined no-"

"Focus?" Seija asked, her grin turning into a frown. "Before now, I never really had a goal, just some silly ideal of revolution, but I'd just turn and turn, and end up right back where I started like a dog chasing it's own tail. I gave up on that."

"Nonsense, you're an Amanojaku. You hate what other's love and love what others hate, you can't shed that fate." Yukari said decisively.

"Well, I did, and you know what? It was holding me back. Kids, two of em', both are going to be such an awful handful you know? But that's just what I wanted all along, an interesting Gensokyo, And now..." Seija began, spreading out both arms "...I feel like I can finally think straight, like I can do anything, even make you realize how much of a fool you're being."

The Sage did not reply, but merely readied her sword yet again. She didn't need to win this fight, didn't need to risk anything more. All she needed to do was delay, wait until the nuclear payload of the attack submarine she teleported from the outside world went super critical and wiped away Youkai mountain and her opposition with it.

"If you're stalling for time I have bad news for you. My family, that stupidly tolerant man of mine and the children you gave us, they're about to do your teaching proud." Seija said with a toothy grin.

>>49618312
Precisely 4999 characters pasted from my editor. It's a red letter day.
>>49617965
>Will you do more chapters after your next upload, or it'll be it for the time being?
I'll finish out the fight, probably before the weekend. It's just the HSE and another project I've had forever is wrapping up and I'll finally be able to focus on this third thing I want to be zeroed in on.

>>49618312
Look at her, grandma playing with her gen gamma and gen alpha children! So healthy. Crazy to think Hana is also gen alpha... maybe she should call Anon the rizzler someday. That'd for sure cement her status as a fallen hero and start the darkest timeline.
[/spoiler]hey man, can you write it so whatever you do next you end with a pivot to Yukari, preferably immediately following what the duo has in store for her, and save her reaction for me? Sorry if it's a tall ask, but I can make most use of the culmination of her arc and the ending of Set 3/start of Set 4 if I have those circumstances~!

>>49618312 #
Look at her, grandma playing with her gen gamma and gen alpha children! So healthy. Crazy to think Hana is also gen alpha... maybe she should call Anon the rizzler someday. That'd for sure cement her status as a fallen hero and start the darkest timeline.
hey man, can you write it so whatever you do next you end with a pivot to Yukari, preferably immediately following what the duo has in store for her, and save her reaction for me? Sorry if it's a tall ask, but I can make most use of the culmination of her arc and the ending of Set 3/start of Set 4 if I have those circumstances~! Always check the spoiler tag btw...

>>49618582
>spoiler
Ah crap, did I miss something? My plan is Goro resolves the megaton bomb while Seija's keeps Yukari distracted, but it's taxing for the both of them since they've also been through a lot today and eventually they're at Yukari's mercy at which point I was going to baton pass to you. This is all operating on 'fight time' btw, so the way I see it less then a minute has passed.

>>49618320
It's bittersweet to see the HSE so close to finishing with its second to last write wrapping their things up.
At least you had the common decency to stick around, clean up the messes you made, and help Rananon.
Unlike something other people who rudely made a mess and never cleaned it up.

>>49618862
>My plan is Goro resolves the megaton bomb while Seija's keeps Yukari distracted, but it's taxing for the both of them since they've also been through a lot today and eventually they're at Yukari's mercy at which point I was going to baton pass to you
Rather than stopping the bomb, and since the duo are separated in their efforts, Goro could put his teachings to par and lift a barrier that holds it. Should achieve similar results, and open space for an interaction I have in mind with other characters. All else is fine, thanks for the planning~!
>This is all operating on 'fight time' btw, so the way I see it less then a minute has passed.
30 seconds since your first Yukari chapter seems ideal with the little talk and fight time, and if you could write the rest of things so it takes at maximum another 30 seconds it'd be great. Reimu is on a clock and I cannot explain in-universe why she'd spend longer than 1/18 of her remaining time not trying to split Yukari's head open.
I'll be writing a plug chapter tomorrow to cover the time between your first two chapters, to give context on why everyone hasn't jumped Yukari yet, good writing for you man! We're getting there!

>>49601876
I love gappy, I dropped out when she was going through her mama bear phases before her baby was born and bragging to all her chrone friends she could muster. How much has been done since the birthday party and village fustercluck?

>>49623080
>Spoiler
So by 'lift a barrier that holds it' you mean he creates a barrier that contains the exploding bomb?

>>49623526
it was a generalization on my part, I don't know the duo's extension of power, and barrier magic is one of Yukari's specializations. Any way you can have the bomb be stable, like reversing the ignition so hard it returns to base values or something else would work. If nothing gives, it's okay to go with your initial idea, I can think of other ways to start what I want, the big ass nuke is just very convenient for it.

>>49623460
More of less this:

Chapter doko?

>>49635507
It's only been 6 days since Rananon's last story post and 4 days since the newest soon-to-be-former-writer.
You are only allowed to start complaining when the timer hits 7 days.

>>49638025
>It's only been 6 days since Rananon's last story post
fuckkkk I'm stumped on how to write Reimu's and Anon's first (both awaken) meeting, I'm being reduced to the focking bone.

>>49638768
Then Reimu not know how to handle it and be very awkward.
Then she ends up defaulting to what she knows best, finding the nearest evildoer and hitting it in the face with her Gohei.
Reimu never was one for sentimental reunions and anything else is firmly epilogue territory.

The memories crystallized in the family albums didn’t do it justice. Maybe I had simply traded the sake's potency for losing myself in those old photos. I wonder what Aya thought of me that day of the party, bustling with desperation and begging me to come and help. I’d almost chosen to keep drowning in memories… I chose Hana that day, and now I see her and her father in the same frame, how he clings so desperately to Chen with a sulk of relief etched down his forehead, whispering fatherly comfort. His arms are mangled, burned and mummified; everything ‘him’ looks messy, hurt and scattered, and… A-And…

… Every page of the album had him and Hana further away, forcing smiles, his eyes empty—things that went ignored—, the finest details of what once was untarnished lost in the haze of two decades of heavy drinking.

I couldn’t remember, find a picture of the last time he’d genuinely smiled.

He does it now, the sight branding iron to the walls of my skull. Never forget this smile, Reimu Hakurei. You may never see the man you love smile like this again.

When his eyes pinned mine, the smile flickered away, congesting the world with silence and stillness, my body threatening a reaction to the protagonist of my many dreams. A thousand words rush to the tip of my tongue, cheekbones aching to let it all out and cure this body of sudden petrification, fire rushing from below my skin to reflect on his beautiful pupils, my wings grand like two volcanoes in eruption.

What are your thoughts, Anon? Do you feel fear in what you see, d-do you see—

“Reimu…?” He whispers, eyes scurrying to my stump.

His gaze is of worry.

—me?

Heart rages, blood set on fire responds to the single word, dying chakras vibrating as they turn to ash in what cannot be undone. I had forgotten the true sound of his voice.

An exchange that didn’t last long.

It is too much.

Like a statue being pushed, I turn away from him and his unreadable expression—a yearning to drink of his features, to beg for forgiveness as I’d done at that party. To have him with me once more, for so many nights were miserable and lonely, and nothing could replace his hand holding mine—to Hana, dazedly watching as the Sage of Backdoors caught her shoulder and stopped her from rushing into the lake that’d devoured the sun. “Oi, easy there, child!” She yells, and my Hana lashes out with a swing of the Gohei so powerful, every hair on my body stands upright, teeth clenching shut. The woman dodges, barely.

“I need to save Kasen-nee! Do something, you! Y-You backdoors could—”

“—Yuugi already went after Kasen. She’ll save her,” it’s the satori who interrupts, her eyes lingering on me briefly. Did she…? The Sage of Backdoors labors for air, pressing down one hand on the spot Hana had almost struck. “You have more dangerous things to dive headfirst into, girl.” Clashing not far away reverberates, blurs weaving across the gleaming whiteness of the lake. Few and far in-between were glimpses of a cruel red blade; the chill of meeting it with the Gohei rooted in my heart.

Hana is not easily dissuaded, throwing her eyes towards the lake and back to the satori, grasping the handle of her Gohei that way she would always do when apprehensive—

Her eyes are on mine, wide and frantic. She seeks guidance from her mom.

I shake my head, my heart tearing apart as I awkwardly stand, hundreds of paper-like mikos ready for battle—Hana follows them with her eyes—; Anon’s eyes burn a hole in my back and propagate a needy thirst: how much have I forgotten of him, the man I love? Knowing most memories are beyond salvaging, our love dead, gnaws at the courage to call his name. “She…” My legs shiver; I want to puke. He’s right there, holding a child I love like a second daughter; I’ve figured out things with Hana to a level I never imagined possible, so why not…? “Yukari stopped my Float. I’ll need you in this fight, Hana.” The sounds of clashing are loud, those two holding out better than last time; it’s as much of a futile fight, though, Yukari deliberate in the little I can see of her. She’s waiting, planning…?

Hana sucks her lips at the words but nods gingerly, the three of us forming a trifecta. A backdoor opens ahead and my Gohei falls out, my only hand catching it. “Don’t lose it again, miko.” She’d found it from toxic clouds first, now from the surface of the nuclear lake. I nod at her in thanks.

“It’s work of that sword, Reimu-san.” The satori says from a little ways behind. “She’s… stolen Kasen’s old power. It's not the same without siphoning her full soul, but be careful anyway. Okina…” Determined, she takes a step towards the sage.

“I know, no need to explain it to me.” A backdoor opens below the pink satori, a yelp echoing as she vanishes. “Get your sister out of this hell and leave the fight for the big girls.” A low, pained hiss leaves the Sage of Backdoors, fingers rusty cranks. “… We got a few seconds before Yukari stops fucking around and kills those two. Anyone got a plan?”

>>49644971
finally managed the plug chapter~
next only after Takaneanon's, so that's it for now.
more soon!
>>49638777 (checked)
sometimes a more simple approach is best. Thanks, bro

>>49644976
Just doing my part.

>>49644976
Thanks.
>next only after Takaneanon's, so that's it for now.
Should be tomorrow for real this time. I'm finally about to wrap something else up and I know exactly how to write this next chapter.

>>49612750
I wonder where Genji is, wasn't he doing something last we saw him?

>>49607842
Hana feels quite strong? Well, I haven't played the mod, so.
>>49644971
Hopefully Anon won't fall for it again.

>>49652099
if I recall correctly, last time we saw him, he was at Mima's Shrine, so either he got buried during the landslide Patchy caused earlier in Act 2, or he relocated with flight. If I had to decide it, I'd say he's just chilling in mud around Mima's Shrine
>>49652977
she is pretty powerful, though the run I used exacerbated that a lot by getting brimsnap + a lot of status effects, which in her pool have lower weight (appear less often). Most Hana runs go like this: https://files.catbox.moe/i7e9ln.webm
skill issue on my part, but highlights the balance she has, which I enjoy most. Not as aggressive as Keeper, who often divebombs into enemies for coins; not as passive as Lost, who can retreat to a crevice/rock so he doesn't get tagged. Get tagged as Hana, and you have to scramble for a kill to survive, both to actually not die and to rebuild her DMG bonus, so the fighting doesn't drag out and mistakes snowball. Feels pretty nice.

>>49618312
At Seija's behest, Goro drifted backwards, away from the woman who'd betrayed his trust once before. And he did so without hesitation.

A wise trader doesn't deal with those who've broken their promises, but only the greatest know how to forgive after recompense. Although the threat of nuclear annihilation did stir some urgency.

'Outside world weapons' Goro thought to himself. There wasn't a worse commodity to trade in, the things were viciously pragmatic and lacked any sense of ceremony, designed for a world were all formality had been forsaken, so it was appropriate that Yukari would think to use one now.

Carefully, Goro pulled a cloth from his robe and wrapped his twins in it, carefully bundling them, stroking their heads to assuage their cries as they floated from his hold. It pained him, being totally unable to shush them and tell them that'd just be a moment, but his voice was forever lost, his touch would have to be enough to comfort them now.

Turning his attention, the Broker gazed down at the soft blue glow of the nuclear sub, it's payload about to go super critical and he felt like a base jumper gazing off into a cliff. Goro brought his fingers together, first at their tips and the slowly cupping his palms together until they formed a pocket of air between his hands.

'Not yet' he thought to himself, gazing at the glow, and his heartbeat slowed. 'Not yet', he repeated in his head as his pupils narrowed. 'Not yet', he said as the event horizon was almost past. Finally, a small dot flew out from the abyss and conditions were perfect.

'NOW'. Goro's hands collapsed together, crushing the pocket of magic that he'd put there and causing it to erupt outwards, thundering towards the lake. It was a grudge with two properties: rending itself, creating two grudges in it's place, and reversing the perverse mechanism of exponential destruction that now poured forth from the ship. The spell looked like a hundred snakes, ever-multiplying, exploding outwards from Goro downwards in an expanding cone.

If Yukari wasn't locked in combat with Seija she would've been impressed. Goro did not have the immeasurably quick-wit of Ran, but he'd learned how to calculate things that couldn't be counted in a lifetime. He didn't have the arcane knowledge of Yukari, but under her tutelage he learned how not to ignore the small details of spell craft. He lacked the intrinsic ability and instincts of Seija, but from the Jaku he had learned to see the polarity of all things and even manipulate some of it. In all these domains, Goro was an amateur, But as a broker, he was in his element.

Mirroring. A principle of good conversation where you adopt aspects of your partner's mannerisms to endear yourself to them. Goro had practiced it all his life, and had gone far deeper then just simply making people more affable. To know someone's desires, to see that with your own eyes, it was to know them and what they saw in the world, things you could see too. But were limits to this.

The Hydra of light crashed into the water, biting and twisting at the colliding microscopic particles, sending them back on to themselves, containing the massive amount of energy and putting it back to the moment before release. But it was not enough, one exponential reaction cannot outpace another that has already started, and the Hydra was being overwhelmed, torn apart by the angry Nuclear Fire that would not be denied.

Goro had simply bought some time.

---

"Did you get into a fight?" The Tired Man ask the Boy, who was bruised, bandaged, and waiting on the steps.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said, feigning ambivalence.

The Tired Man sighed. "Of course you don't. All any man wants to do is talk about the time they laid someone else out, not the time they woke up sore on their ass, ah, don't tell Hijiri I said ass."

The Boy chuckled, despite himself. "Can I say ass then too?"

"Maybe, I won't say anything if you don't." The Tired Man smiled as he took a seat beside his boy.

"I fought Ichirin." The Boy admitted.

The Tired Man whistled. "Now why'd you go and do a stupid thing like that?" He asked in a tone that was anything but demeaning.

"Everyone else fights, but she told me I couldn't and I didn't think that was fair, so I challenged her." The Boy admitted.

"Well you ought to be grateful for that. Can't be getting into fights with Ladies, let alone Youkai." The Tired Man told him.

"But you told me a man is supposed to be strong? Was that a lie?" The Boy asked, before getting a firm palm on his head that rubbed his noggin back-n-forth.

"One of these days I'll find the 'orator' that taught you to talk people into corners like that. Yeah, I did say a man's supposed to be strong, but it ain't just about putting up fists." He breathed in, taking a second to think. "See these callouses? You know how I got em'?" He asked, pointing to his hand.

"Mountain climbing?" The Boy guessed.

>>49656233
"Yeah, mountain climbing, but you know where? The one place where blonde flowers grow. Same color as your Mother's hair once was, same color your hair is." He chuckled.

The Boy blinked. "What's that got to do with being strong?"

The Tired Man clicked his tongue. "You see, for every strength a man boasts about at the bar, he's got ninety-nine others which speak more softly, but are twice as evident. Remember that the next time you hear a Youkai or crazed Magician go on about their Danmaku, they're all compensating for something. 'Quiet Strength' don't forget that okay?"

"I'll try." Said the Boy with resignation, not really understanding.

"Now, with that out of the way, come on, I gotta teach you how to throw a proper punch." The Tired Man laughed, lifting the Boy by his armpits.

---

The memory flashed before Goro's eyes in a moment and in the same second he looked at his twins who floated together in the air, snuggled up to each other. 'Quiet Strength' he thought as he watched his spell collapsing below him.

With both hands, he reached out to nothing in particular and grabbed hold of something that he couldn't see, but he knew was there. Then, with all his might he pulled on it. The thing didn't budge, like a rope tied to a boulder, nothing gave way, so Goro gnashed his teeth and began to try again, feeling muscles tearing in his arms and immaterial parts of his being screaming in protest at the great thing he was attempting.

It was no use, It wouldn't give. He was just one human, that he'd come this far was a miracle, Goro could not become a Sage, he couldn't even save his children, let alone live up to his wife's expectations.

One more time, he looked to his two small kids. They looked soft, innocent, his own. Parental protective feelings gushed forth from within him and collided with the crushing shame of being unable to protect them. No. He'd give his life before that, he'd suffer Hell and damnation for even a sliver of chance now.

But even if he wanted to sell his soul to a devil, he had no more voice to bargain with, no utterance would ever leave his lips again.

'Quiet Strength'.

One last time, he grabbed hold of the immaterial thing and pulled. Pulled, and in his head he chanted and thought so hard it may have well been a scream 'Whatever's listening, give me the strength! Nothing else matters now!' and for a moment, in his anguish as he continued pulling, Goro heard and felt nothing.

Then the roar echoed in his head.

Hands, hands that weren't there grasped onto his and heaved. Dissonant and chaotic at first, yet a rhythm slowly began to form as pulling synchronized. Together, as if pulling a rope from the sea, all the forces that acted on the immaterial finally managed to tug it, and the Hydra, the great spell turned and began to eat the tail of the Nuclear Fire.

Goro's teeth were clenched and every part of his being screamed once more. Now there was innumerable forces pulling upon his spell, but he still had to be the one to direct it and if he should slip and the Hydra loose itself, it'd be annihilation. He did not falter though, white-knuckled, straining, he fought against it, the chaos, the destruction, the oncoming sterility that would occur if he failed, all of it for the two peaceful faces of his children.

And mercifully, the Hydra completed it's turn and gorged itself on the Nuclear Fire from behind, and behind it, the Nuclear fire ate at the Hydra. A pleasant rumbling sounded throughout the underground from the stabilized reaction that took place around the ruined sub, and the twins, once distraught, now blinked softly as they heard the sound.

The Father let go off the immaterial rope that had turned the Hydra, but didn't dare let his arms fall, for he feared that if he did, he'd not be able to bring them back up again. Then he floated towards his children and swaddled them both close to his chest, having moved Heaven and Earth to keep them safe.

The peace did not last for long.

"Move!" Seija shouted as she pushed Goro to the side and a blade slashed down where he once was.

Quickly Goro redoubled his senses, eager to ready himself after letting down his guard. He could see Seija at his side, heaving and huffing, the day hadn't been kind to her and fighting even a weakened Yukari on her own had put her on a back foot. The Broker tried to think of a spell, a trick, anything now that could help in the situation, before Seija placed her hand over his and leaned against his shoulder.

"Save it." She whispered. "You don't have anything left either right? Just, one last time before it's over, let's just, be together."

Goro wanted to rally her, wanted to keep fighting, wanted his children to live at the very least. But when he looked up and saw Yukari, he knew the effort would now be wasted.

>>49656238
Gently shifting Oiwa to Seija's grasp, Goro then put his free hand over Seija's shoulder and turned his back toward Yukari. One last attempt to shield his family from what the mad woman would do next and failing that, one last moment of happiness with his loved ones.

And there's my bit. Quick Explanation: The forces that helped Goro pull the Hydra are up for interpretation, but you can read it as the lingering grudges from the underground responding to his nonverbal plea, sort of as a part of 'Quiet Strength' in trying something even though you believe it's impossible, and asking for help even you think nobody will answer. Sort of as opposed to Yukari, who tried to bear everything herself, thinking she could protect everything on her own.
Ranon, as requested, Yukari's reaction is up to you. The state of the nuclear reaction is, at this point, stable, but feel free to do whatever you'd like to it at this point!

>>49656056
Well i'm glad he at least has some ventilation, nobody would want him to be dead.

>>49656238
>>49656233
That's not how you make an ouroboros, Goro-san, the nuclear hellfire is not mystically sustainable for that in Gensokyo...
>>49656251
>spoiler
thanks for the chapters man, should be starting Set 4 today or this Friday~

>>49652977
>Hopefully Anon won't fall for it again.
Lol, lmao even...

>>49665788
Don't worry Reimu is dying anyways so Anon can be free to dick down the fox into multitude of pregnancies.

>>49665917
>Anon can be free to dick down the fox into multitude of pregnancies.
as the Founding Fathers intended~

Something had changed, something I do not understand. It happened the second these fingers wrapped around the hilt of a blade of crimson and rippled through my veins to that unforgettable chord of pure perfection—hand on my belly clenches. What is your plan, Sekai, my lovely time traveler?—words of guidance. Catching Reimu’s Gohei and trampling over the strongest human power ever conceived came as effortlessly as breathing. Yet… this sword bore no such purpose, at first that is.

Eyes flicker over its frame as I walk towards the huddled, miserable things, watching the red of the blade flow like a waterfall, liquefied souls occupying the place of droplets of water. They moved from the tip down to the habaki, disappearing to mercurial tones, just like they’d appeared as when I and Kasen had planted its seed.

All it’d take to enslave Kasen was to slash her…

… I lay commands in the silence of my mind, ushering Kasen to leave the lake and turn against those who bite the hand that feeds. The sword denies them.

Humoring Seija had wielded no fruits, no answers to what’s happening. Had that morbid rite done to the blade changed it in any way…? No. I cleansed the lake from any sort of impurity, enthralled a dragon to keep it safe—not a single Gap fired after that day. Douji’s revival changed it? Ibaradouji and Kasen are the same; to split them is to entertain delusion.

Nothing could’ve changed its purpose of enslaving souls.

Then why does it rather… echo them?

I stand behind the huddled things, lowering the blade to rest upon the man’s shoulder. Seija stares burning coals at me, trying to shield those parasites of hers. They tremble like leaves in heavy wind. “Do you have regrets? Of standing against me—throwing pebbles at my plans?” I am void of emotion, a heart shattered and atrophied. Gaps sprouted over my body as I spoke, the sword eating away the scourge of Hakurei on Youkai flesh and giving me free rein over myself: purple dress mends by itself, wounds disappear and leave behind only fair skin, not an ounce of dirt swamps my hair. It was as if I had not experienced a second of tribulations… But I have, and no Gap can heal a broken heart. Time shall do; the circumstances shall do. When there’s nothing but I, him and our daughter, what else would he love?

“… They’re your g-grandchildren…” The woman tries through teeth clenched shut, a sprout of sheer anger there amid desperation, hoping to introduce gravitas to her words.

I cannot introduce revulsion to my voice, though it’d not be misplaced.

“They’re nothing.” I shift the sword. Like a knife on butter, it runs down flesh, cutting it methodically; an incision, even. The man does not scream. “I have nothing. Had nothing I could call real—mine.” A moment of pause, something I cannot explain, washes over me; it aches, pulls. It dies in the confines of a broken heart. “Goro, Seija, you were never a part of me. All I have ever had that is true is pain.” With a weak thud, the cut arm falls to the gravel and to the mud, disappearing in a droning red mist. The sword feeds off the man’s power… and my brow creases. He’s no thrall, yet the sword now echoes what he is.

So it isn’t unique to Kasen.

Their tears are falling, and I can hear the pleas embedded in their throats; they matter not. “That’ll change soon. You have no place in my world.” A strike, aimed to kill the four.

From the past, a hiss of death, the sword adjusting places to meet the Gohei that explodes from sheer nothingness. Kasen’s power blossoms and prevents the sacred wood from smothering the death-fermented metal. Arches of flame come next, another Gohei that is caught immediately upon its descent, feet thrown back. Gaps open to bloodcurdling screams yet Hakurei flames target them like automated turrets, a similar effect to Flan’s destruction but with whispers of godhood. My hand holding the blade falters, though microscopic Gaps right the shattered bones and ligaments within the second…

Two blows from Mother and Daughter, enough to send me reeling. Eyes meet the lot of them as, behind, a Backdoor seized the huddled things, their eyes on mine before they’re consumed by darkness.

It aches, briefly.

My Sister Sage completes their little trio, throwing her hand back towards the tearful shikigami and my husband—the man who broke my heart. A heart that swells with undying love and… rage.

How could you have turned your face away from your pregnant wife…? I-I was almost…

Wrath buds like a solar storm.

The blue lake shimmers as a denied nuclear explosion pulsates, waiting in the belly of an impressive beast. Manipulation of Boundaries could easily have detonated the bomb, despite the huddled things’ best efforts…

… But this anger, this all-consuming anger.

Am I not good enough, Anon? Your Sekai is not good enough…?

Our family…

You hug the shikigami close, shielding her, a backdoor about to consume you.

Why won’t you love our f-family like that, Anon?

WHY WON’T YOU LOVE US?!

The rage erupts.

I loved those eyes, once. They had this violent quality to them that seemed so calm with the rose-tinted glasses of young-adult love. Hana got that red tinge from her, a pride of a lineage composed of red and white. Then she changed—revealed her true self, perhaps. I don’t think I’ll ever know for sure—, and murdered our love, relegating those blazing red eyes to spell only pain and misery. In the many who donned her clothes inside that Fake Shrine, always attempting but never breaking what she’s damaged, I saw satire of her eyes.

None ever matched hers.

One arm is gone, the stump charred, torn red-and-white papers hanging on it. Bone is visible, clumped and drowned in the ruined flesh. Her clothes lay damaged, yet they resist, somehow a better craftsmanship than what she used to wear, and those weird wings, limp last I’d seen, stand proud and are open wide, guarding—like an Angel’s. What’s the origin of those things? Hana’s never shown affinity to fire of any kind…

Her eyes are bright, pleading, and wide. A deer in the headlights.

“Reimu…” I called her, not believing the sight, three years of parodies melting away to reveal once more the real thing, matron of my every scar and the one who started it all.

She stiffens up, then she turns away from me as if guided by puppet’s strings. Chen whimpers at the sight, lowly calling her name too, but it had gone unnoticed by the Hakurei maiden. She’s talking to the others, saying important things… I don’t hear a single thing. A pair of ice-cold hands, pale yet brimming with expertise in doll arts, reposes against the small of my back, pushing me away from a drowning state; a sliver of midnight settles against my heart, the pristine feather a lasting promise.

Yet, those eyes…

Love can destroy like nothing else.

“… She’s ignored us,” Chen mumbles, small body trembling and ears down—her arms have casts like mine, and dried blood is prominent. S-She was caught in this war despite Ran’s efforts…?—, looking at Reimu’s fiery back. “There’s no time right now. Y-Yukari needs…” She looks at the frantic blur of movement beyond the shimmering lights of the lake. I cannot make head or tails of what’s happening there. “… I’m afraid, Mr. Anon—” Drawn into her wide, hazelnut eyes were tears and a gaze suited for funerals.

Arms responded first, engulfing her in a stronger hug, these mummified hands massaging the surface-level wounds etched on her head. Yukari stood bloodied and pleading just ahead; Alice’s body got stripped of her gentle flesh in less than a second, and… my Hana stood like a killing machine amidst the bodies of those onis who’d wronged her, soaked in blood. Not an ounce of mercy or regret swam in the red eyes she’d inherited.

… What is this war not going to destroy?

“—But I will do my best, anyway,” she completes and slowly breaks the hug apart, leaving my arms like a dove lifting flight. It did not compute, my eyes wild and perplexed. W-What’s she doing, my Chen…? “I h-have a plan!” Her voice had grown suddenly, making me jump. She’s standing before Hana, her frown creased; Okina, dark circles sieging her golden eyes… And Reimu, whose stare jumped between Chen and me.

“W-What… No, you don’t, missy! You and Anon are leaving this place—” Reimu says, taking a step ahead and kneeling by the bakeneko, her only hand clasping her shoulder.

“We can stop Y-Yukari without killing her!” Chen stomps her feet and stops Reimu in her tracks, the gruesome rhythms of war beyond the veil of white-blue lights guarding like secrets the source of many sounds. Cruel sounds of blood and red iron. All eyes, however, focus on the small cat. She’s trembling like nothing I’ve ever seen, her arms spread and a conviction that follows her next words. “I know it’d be best if you’d kill her, I know!” Her heart pours, as do tears. I feel powerless to what’s happening before me. Another one of mine, drawn into the absurdities of this great war…? “B-But there’s something we can do!”

“… C-Chen…” Reimu whispers with so much of something I thought long gone. It sends shivers down my spine.

“I won’t deny you may have something that’d actually stop her,” Okina had shifted her eyes to the war happening beyond the overwhelming light of the lake, her body rigid. She sees something I do not. “But it’s way beyond the point of pardon—” Chen tries to open her mouth, but the Secret Sage speaks first. “—She's the reason a dragon is dead.” Hana tenses. “She’s still alive when the Dragon God graces us with communion, and he’d vaporize Gensokyo on the spot. With Yukari dead, at least we’ll have a chance of survival…”

“There’s no other way, Chen,” Reimu coos, reaching towards her as if to caress her reddened cheek, her voice reminiscent of how she’d talk to our baby still in the crib. “We’re so sorry.”

Hana had turned away, yet she can’t hide her anxiousness from her father: her shoulders are poised, her legs shaking, not from fear. She's a loaded rifle.

A wave of chills coursed down my spine.

“Best thing you and Anon can do is leave.” Okina says, pointing a hand towards us, readying her Backdoors.

“… But… w-with what I have…” The bakeneko’s whole body trembles, a mere glimpse of what’s going on inside, and I can’t help but feel grateful she’s in Reimu’s hold—the wings of an angel, turned guarding—, yet she straightens herself and, stumbling quite a bit, she reaches into the long, white sleeve of her qipao. “W-We could save—” A Backdoor is already opening beneath her as she speaks, perception too slow to do anything about it, both hers and mine.

Hana’s perception is not.

A blur of red and white removes Chen from Reimu’s hold as if it’d pierced time, and every pair of eyes rushes to a biting remark only as cold as the sight: “SHE’S DYING TODAY!” With both hands gripping Chen's arms like burning chains, she roars with torrential rage, her face looming over Chen’s. “Even if you pulled off a miracle that could stop her, I’d kill her anyway!” Chen cries and whimpers in pain, her eyes oozing dread.

“Hana!” Reimu intervenes with a severity that should’ve left Hana paralyzed. The girl does not back down, flashing her red eyes towards her mother with righteous wrath. “Put her down now; she’s done nothing wrong!”

“I’m not buying this drivel! Never again!” She hisses through pressed teeth, tossing the bakeneko, choking in pure terror, onto Reimu’s arm, pointing a finger at them as the older miko kneeled to measure the damage. Chen gazed at Hana as if facing Death itself, kicking her legs to create as much distance between her and the younger miko. My legs felt like jelly. I cannot move. “Yukari’s not worthy of any mercy, any show of kindness! You dare say nonsense like that because she’s never put you through the same torment I have experienced! You have no idea of what she’s done to my body, to my mind!” The Gohei appears in her hand, a seething wrath sensitive on her very skin. “You don't! You never will! Who do you think you are that you assume you have a stake in how her future will play out, you coddled brat?!”

Each word made the bakeneko rattle as if physical. My legs refused movement; my heart bleeds. I know Hana’s suffering; I was a part of it. My daughter… “—I-I’m sorry, I just wanted to help… f-family…” Chen stammers, clinging to Reimu for protection.

“You don’t get to decide any of that! You’re weak and pathetic!” She points the Gohei towards the bakeneko. Reimu doesn’t lift hers, but her only hand creaks. “Y-Yukari has thrived in… every single moment of weakness I’ve shown; every modicum of affection I’ve shown. I thought I could save her too, get to know her and… do something—anything.” for a moment, the Gohei threatens to lower, yet its blue hues and runes grow stronger, alight like a thousand bonfires of azure. “I have given Yukari courtesy enough. We’ll kill her.”

Reimu lowers her face, eyes closing painfully.

She… knows it.

She knows what our daughter—our little baby—has endured.

Chen was pale as fog and trembled like a leaf against prevailing winds, looking at Hana with a spirit of bewilderment, and the ache to hug her in my arms and ward off that terrifying sight echoed loudly. A glimmer of poise shone in her eyes, however, of challenge. Whatever its meaning, it died upon hollered words: “Look alive!” Okina called, throwing her head towards the white shine of war, and Hana and Reimu reacted similarly. It took not a second for Hana to fold into herself and disappear, Okina following.

Gently, Reimu left Chen in my hold, her wings unfurled around us as her every movement bore haste.

Yet, when our eyes met, it was like a lifetime.

“… Protect her.” I commanded. Our little girl, once so innocent and gentle, twisted by this war—by her pain—, my arms encompassing all of Chen as if to save my life.

Reimu paused, nodded once, and then disappeared.

Love destroys like nothing else.

Somehow, it had not destroyed her entirely. A better person—a person I have loved—exists within there.

A skeleton stripped of her flesh.

I hold Chen as if this is our last time together. “I-I’m so sorry for Hana…”

Clashes happen in the background, deafening and vicious.

“… No one deserves to go through that pain,” she whispers, clutching me through her tears of fear. “Mine will never be as great as Hana-chan’s; I'll never know. B-But I never want my pain to consume me like t-that, Mr. Anon—” Beneath us, the ground feels as if it is a cloud in the way it parts. Her voice tightens with resignation; a battle everlasting. “—I know how things will end; it'll be full of sad… B-But I want to help her! At least try! I want us all to be happy, have a… future…”

Behind her, a cruel shadow.

“I want to do my best—”

A childish dream of genuine kindness. Love…

Something stops our fall, like a hook, and it rips Chen away from my arms, and they feel empty, begging for something to cradle. We share a long look in frozen time, the realization of what’s happening not dawning as the world quells.

… And love destroys.

Through Chen’s middle emerges a massive red blade, her small body lurching forward in a silent scream, skewered like a fish. The crimson iron bathes in blood as it drips down, her twin tails weakly swaying as she labors to string a coherent sentence amid confusion and searing pain, yet all that leaves her mouth are ribbons of blood, small hands gathering around the blade that’d blossomed from her heart to try pushing it away. Nothing implied sense; the world had shattered; the cloud cut apart as I fell onto hard gravel.

I stare from below; Yukari had stabbed Chen.

Wha…

… W-Why?

Not a second had passed since Reimu and Hana had left. How did they miss her…

Why aim for Chen? Why not kill me…?

W-Why is this happening—? “YOU!” Yukari’s voice is guttural and that single word drips with bitter venom, mad purple eyes burning into me. “You should love ME and your DAUGHTER! We, not imitations! We’re your f-family; we’re the only ones that matter!” She delivers with jealousy and desperation. Begging.

Nothing of what she says truly registers.

Chen is crying in pain, calling low and frail, “M-Mr. Anon…?”

I hadn’t moved, as always. “No… n-no, no, no… Please stop, Yukari, PLEASE—”

A scream of blind heartache echoes, one that tears me apart. “CHEN!” Reimu’s, and the atmosphere vibrated with a murderous blaze that matched Ibaradouji’s—

—Veils of purple lightning surrounded us, broad and crackling against the ground and the water like a waterfall of electricity. “This thing has no feelings! It cannot love you back like I do!” Yukari stepped forward, the bakeneko strung from the brutal red blade like a doll, trying to propel herself off the metal. Her eyes were wide and echoing horror. “When are you going to understand?! Everything I did was because I l-loved you. W-We’re going to have a family together, with our Sekai!” Yukari pleads, paying no attention to Chen slowly d-dying. The curtain of thunderbolts streams as if beckoned by a god, the rumbling silencing all the screams I know are behind it.

Reimu cannot float, not with the anguish I know she is bearing right now.

Were you ever truly gone, Reimu?

I ignore Yukari and her meaningless words, trying to reach for Chen, my tears streaking also ignored—

—A hand grabs my neck and pushes me to the ground. “You sick man-thing…! You were going to watch me and y-your daughter get murdered! You’re heartless! My love and the love of your unborn daughter are worthless to you!” Yukari’s crying and heartbreak go absolutely ignored, my trembling, charred fingers trying to reach Chen’s dangling, pallid hand.

“Chen…” I utter her name as if precious.

… My digits barely manage to brush her pulse, pulling slightly from below the white sleeve a weird piece of paper.

Her bloodied hand clutches it.

“B-But it’s okay! Everything’s going to be okay, Anon! I’ll kill all of them, reconstruct Gensokyo from the ground up, and it’ll be just us three! Y-Yukari, Anon, and Sekai! You’ll love your daughter, you’ll love me—you’ll have no one else to love but your true family!” Her nails sink into my neck, dicing the flesh open and drawing fine strands of blood. It doesn’t matter. Yukari doesn't matter to me. “And then…” Gently, a piece of paper brushes against her face. “… I will finally be happy.”

The world suddenly explodes in blue, Yukari thrown away from us. The curtain of purple thunderbolts immediately died out, the thud of flesh meeting ground shifting my eyes to gaze at Chen, left hand holding the talisman with the sigil of a goat burning blue.

I care not.

“C-CHEN!” Reimu and I screamed together. I crawl through the mud and gravel, unbothered by the surging pain in charred limbs and new cuts, and the Hakurei miko snaps right to her side. Together, we fetch Chen from the ground.

The wound bleeds freely and abundantly; her complexion is the pallor of light itself, and the warmth of her flesh fades away fast. The vertical hole in her chest is the embodiment of the abyss.

She’s dying.

“… My Gap?” A voice pierces the veil as embers of blue flutter. “Where is it…? Where’s my…” A pause. The voice is Yukari’s a few paces away. Hana and Okina have approached, boasting expressions and actions I do not see, for as Yukari and Reimu do, I stare at the large pool of dark blood that trickles from the bakeneko.

Bloodshot eyes stare back.

>>49670964
>>49670962
>>49670961
>>49670956
and with these chapters, we're officially out of Set 3 and into Set 4! Two years waiting to bring this outta the marble~
for Takaneanon: remember what I said about severance? Yeah...
I left vague what arm she tested the sword on, so you'd have autonomy to choose either: Yukari takes the right arm with that sick bracelet and Goro, supposedly, loses those powers, or Yukari takes the left, and I guess Goro pays for his love to Yukari is a blood sacrifice. I'd personally pick the right arm; Goro's a strong man, and if he's still one after those “gifts” are gone, then it was never the bracelet that made him one. Could also be seen as Yukari freeing his soul as one last twisted act of kindness. That's just how I see it; it's not up to me to decide.
Also, my take would be Okina sent him to the Myouren guys. Would make a funny scene after everything in the building of the HSE. Up to you~
more soon~!

>>49670969
Got to hand it to Yukari, she really is context-dependent! I imagine there's a lot of emotions going through her head, but I like how it's subtly implied she's jealous.
Also, lore:
The Bracelet's akin to a glitch as a 'sterile grudge' which doesn't grow or shrink, which is strange, because a curse should either get stronger or weaker over time. The creator intended for this to be a way to assail seemingly-invulnerable Youkai, which it can do, but principally what he actually created was a 'universal reference' through which you can see a consistent world. The problem is that the real world isn't actually consistent, both magic and science have unexplainable phenomenon beyond anyone's comprehension and subordinating that wonder completely to rationality makes the world look accused.
'Absolute Deal' operates on a very similar principle, making trade into a rationale and consistent practice with no room for breaches of contract and also no need for trust or tact, so Goro was already primed to understand the Bracelet's mechanisms. The reason it's been stuck on Goro's wrist is that he's been made aware of the 'consistent world' and is cursed and damned with that knowledge. In that sense, Yukari already 'saved' him by telling him not to think of things so strictly and inadvertently giving him completely irrational children.
So I'd say take the right arm and make the implication explicit. Sending them to the Myouren's makes sense as well, but I'd just like to make sure they're there to witness Yukari dying/getting sealed in the end, they made a promise to do so Afterall.

>>49670964
Ran will explode larger than that nuke. Bye bye, Chen...

>>49673826
Chen is literally bleeding gaps, no shot she dies. Yukari however is beyond screwed, she's dying the mother of all painful deaths!

>>49675817
The writers already agreed to not kill off Yukari, sorry to tell you.

>>49671582
>third spoiler
I'll move her around Set 4 a lot -- it'll mostly be a chase down with two Hakurei mikos frothing at the mouth and a desperate effort to end the war --, so we can have things work out, and they're there at the end of the world.
good writing to you~!

Solstice update #21

>>49683072
Flowchart update when?

>>49683104
Before the anniversary. It's a good deadline to get over the dread of opening my video editor.

Today I will remind them.

>>49688491
A lot changed in the course of the pastebin, it is really just a big Umamusume for the winter solstice.
And I really need to update it and stop slacking...

>>49688491
the pastebin is wrong, here's a snippet of one day after the solstice
https://files.catbox.moe/c7p8ew.png
a joke, for obvious fucking reasons~

>>49692118
Yeah we all know Reimu would rape Kasen instead.

>>49692118
I don't trust you.

>>49695643
i can promise it'd take at least 72 hours~

It is as I wanted it to be. A sunset.

My body wafts through the nuclear wasteland, and I watch bubbles filled with oxygen and radiation pulse towards the surface. I am pulled by the immense gravity of repeated chains and links of energy swallowed whole by a beast I have seen only the shadow of—an abyssal serpent of sheer grudges, born alongside every ounce of karma generated from this war—, and whose jaws have gobbled the blue core of the explosion to keep it stable. A sunset of overwhelming light, soon to claim my life as I have desired. To end the pain and to quell the miserable existence slandered by failure after failure, the original sin of the species I was born into.

The sunset I coveted, sitting atop Koutei’s head. Ashes of dreams…

… I am not alone, however, in my descent towards that raging, nuclear sun. A four-leaf clover floats just ahead through the water doused in the radiation they’d talked so extensively about in the set-up of that weird contraption—cold fusion, had they called it?—, snippets of information that shield this body of mine from dissolving into coalesced matter, and somehow survives destruction. The leaves are a bright blue, almost impossible to tell apart from the thrumming light, and its movements alongside mine are hypnotic.

I know it; recognize what it is beyond the plant-like form.

The scars sprawled across my face ache, left there by a terrible struggle against the influence of Douji, now lost and nowhere to be found within. Yukari cleansed me of it all and left behind hollowness. Shouldn’t I feel happy? Though lacking right and left arms, I am free of the parasite of my birthright—jagged horns sprout anyway, my teeth are sharp, and the way everything appears focused tells me my pupils have narrowed into slits—, and I…

I cry tears that disappear in the radioactive water, eyes following the clover.

Release the hold of the power, disappear in the nuclear sun.

It’d be so easy to spell the end of this life.

—she stands across the field of many flowers, each one a distinct shade of bright or deep blue, and she talks words I understand. Words forgotten with the way my soul snapped back to reality and replaced Douji’s. When had it happened? How? What propelled me from the confines of my psyche to take control over my worst half…?—

Gensokyo is dying above. Koutei is dead, an entire hidden society eviscerated under the sheer cadence of Manipulation of Understanding. Reimu shrivels and marches towards her end, and her daughter, their souls intertwined, shall meet the same ending. I’ve failed every single soul of this land and deserve nothing but the hellfire of the sun to which I drift so slowly… Yet, this clover and the whispers beyond its petals lure me.

What was I told by that unborn child?

What wrought unto me the desire to breathe again in this land I’ve failed…?

A shadow lingers past the clover, and it makes its way towards me. Hulking and horned, hair sprawled around her and… My eyes widen, my heart blisters with the dreaded sight, a loathsome spear lodging itself through me: her skin peels with every inch she takes down the radioactive water, blood curls and ribbons rising as she makes her way towards me. She’d lifted wards, yet they amounted to a crude defense against the biting radiation. Even so, Yuugi’s eyes were dead-set on me, carrying the same overpowered confidence and hope she’d looked at me with the day Yukari toyed with her for one nightmarish minute.

She manipulates unexplained phenomena, so why…?

The question means nothing to me as this shameful body springs into action, exploding towards her and grabbing the bigger Oni by the hem of her yukata with my teeth, eyes wide and animalistic with just how severe the damages appear.

My fault. I caused this.

Without hesitation, I bring us all the way up and explode through the surface of the lake, our bodies rolling across the shore, the lack of arms doing nothing to stop me as I kneel and manipulate my understanding of wounds to heal her. I-It’s not perfect. I don’t understand one thing about radiation burns and injuries— “Ha… I never once imagined spending so much time with Okuu would fuck me up like this.” Blood and peeling skin, shield wards flashing and eroding like a ridge under the scrutiny of a pluvial deluge, her wounds closed yet burning so thoroughly, the tanned skin had vanished. She rose to her feet anyway, tall as any summit. “What are you doing down there, Kasen? Kneeling… Get up at once.” Her voice snapped my spine to a dull halt, my eyes searching her figure for any sign of unraveling, her clothes clinging to her solely by mandate of heaven. “We won’t end the Hag by kneeling.”

I follow Yuugi's eyes and shiver as everything blurs, and I drink of Yukari’s wide purples ablaze with madness. Through the corner of my eye, I caught the object of her focus: that same blue four-leaf clover, floating as if it’d never left water.

Her words, though whispered, were of wrath: “… Give it back… Sekai.”

>>49702492
one chapter to get out of my set break~! Much more geared to set up, but the next chapters (Reimu) should pick up the pace. Obviously, timeline-ambiguous for now. Next chapters will start from the end of Set 3.
more soon!

>>49702492
Kasen always gets the cooest edits what's with the favoritism?

>>49708245
I'd hardly call that the coolest edit.

>>49708245
there's no such thing as favoritism in the HSE~!
>>49708494
it's so over boyz, might as well go full blind at this point.

Our kits flock to us,
Their first spring, smiles are plenty,
It's a gentle dream.

—

The talisman is one I took a second to recognize. Aya used a similar talisman to destroy my cage of silver in scarlet red flames, and those same flames had devoured the walls of the Fake Shrine. Chen’s dissipates in a deep blue, her little—pale, dying—hand holding it like a lifeline; her pupils had disappeared beneath shut, trembling eyelids; heaving of the chest furthered the downpour of darkened blood, bloodshot eyes sprawling in increasing number, tearing down her small frame as they emerged at random, the Gap not working as it should and bringing with its wide stares more wounds. One peeled the skin under her right eye, and it bled profusely. The world felt stagnant as I soaked in every single detail of a slow, painful death.

Tears mixed with the blood, and I glared at Reimu, her teeth grinding and flesh quaking like a pulled bowstring, tears thick and falling as that legendary fury I’ve seen in my every nightmare took hold and erased the woman underneath it. In that split second, whatever redemption Reimu sought had vanished, and murder poised—

It was the first time I found sanctuary in her rage.

—“YUKARI!” Her scream was guttural and strangled, a thing of pity and fear, yet one that I welcomed wholly as her arm rescinded and clenched the Gohei tight to the sound of breaking wood, splinters digging deep into her palm.

My own tears did not surprise me. The Hakurei miko let go of Chen and I held the bakeneko in my arms, alone, her frame throbbing with frailty. Her twin tails had frozen up, her limp body withered away and got smaller and smaller, and my stomach churned violently at the hole and the Gaps gushing from it.

Hugging her to me, I prayed that the rage Reimu washed herself with, massive wings flaring like ruffled edges of a glacier about to be snapped, would bring about the end.

That after she’s decreed her rage, this war ends.

“… Kill her… please…” I beg my ex-wife.

Yukari’s purple eyes flooded mine.

She receives spite.

May her heart be shattered to pieces.

Her purple eyes well with tears.

Reimu is gone in a sizzling of the air that fills my lungs and threatens to explode them, and in my peripheral vision Hana lunged too, her eyes until then glued to the dying cat, unreadable to her Father a second time since her birth—the first, she’d killed and moved on as if merely dusting her clothes—; Okina moved too, a hiss of pain the only thing I detected before the Underground was alight with purple, bristling lightning that boomed so strongly and close my maimed eardrums felt like about to burst. Backdoors sprung up, but they were all… closed? The thick purple electricity bounced off them harmlessly and hit the wet gravel, cooking it into glass.

I had moved my back to the war, as if shielding Chen from it. It’d mean nothing. “H-Hold on, you two!” The Sage of Backdoors yelled at us, my eyes growing huge with the blanket of vertical lightning that’d formed above and around the Nuclear Lake. The eerie silence meant that if the Sage of Backdoors were a moment too late, the pulsar would’ve killed me.

… Yukari doesn’t care. Not anymore.

Her love is dead.

For a brief second, I permit myself to be glad; then, the faint heartbeat of a dying body pressed against mine brings me back to reality, and I rush towards the Sage of Backdoors, ignoring the wounds across my body and the burning of my broken arms. “YOU NEED TO TAKE US AWAY! C-CHEN CAN BE SAVED!” I shouted at the woman holding off something so beyond my comprehension it lost all sense, all possibility. It’s just raw power. A simple man would never understand godhood.

A simple man doesn’t belong in Gensokyo.

“… Y-Yukari did something to my power—when she used the red blade on my backdoors, they’ve… closed,” she grunts, eyes on the backdoors that protect us from the surge of electricity. Though not one sound echoes, in the distance shadows dance over the purple and white coalesced energy, and in my veins—my skin—I feel Reimu’s wrath.

But that doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter.

The sound of opening Gaps continues, a haunting lullaby.

“… S-She’s going to die…” I mumble, hopelessness gnawing, as it does. Gaps spread over my reddened jinbe, and Chen whimpers, pale like a ghost. I watch it all like a hawk, yet my heart urges my eyes to look away—anywhere but the source of many memories—laughter, spiders, crochet—, to not commit her death to memory. It’d destroy me, I know.

Another consequence of this war.

Of Gensokyo.

All the Sage of Backdoors gives me is a sad look.

The purple light paints her tiny frame, the Gaps gaze as if confused, and though these knees of mine have buckled, I hold Chen.

I would always hold her.

Even in the end.

Another voice joins the lullaby of emerging, bloodshot Gaps.

Chen’s eyes flutter open, debilitated. Words choke my throat. “Ran-sama…?” She gurgles, barely a whisper.

And a most gentle hand falls on my shoulder.

>>49716143
decided the Anon chapter would come first, for better timeline control. Trust me, bro
more soon~!

>>49716143
YES

>>49716143
Lets us call it T.H.O.T.
>Total
>Hag
>Obliteration
>Timeline
The best timeline.

>>49716148
Now all of the rest of the old (over the age of 25) women can be killed so Anon can build a harem with his daughter and all the rabbits Eientei can provide.

>>49723684
ror, rumao even~

I have just discovered this masterpiece, and it's soon to be finished.
Will we ever get something similar?
Tatakae my friends.

>>49728196
3000 is young...

>>49732785
Younger than Reimu

>>49728196
That's not canon, there's barely any information on Tewi and the wiki is full of headcanons.

I stand before them, and it takes a lot of this body of mine to not show true feelings. Patchy must’ve noticed—as she often does—and though unapologetic, she has the decency to swivel her eyes away from me; this frustration would’ve boiled otherwise. “… You have contacted a creature beyond my comprehension, be that in shape and spirit, and whose powers casually have overwritten mine and Sakuya’s in the forest so we would not interfere; you have performed a ritual concerning such a creature that culminated in a dead child you want to keep hidden from Yukari Yakumo,” I pause, gaze lurking to the sleeping child. So very plain; so very hard to… gauge. “You have done all that under my nose, inside my manor—and you can not even tell me an ounce of what’s happening.” I finish, exasperation seeping into my expression, for in what world would it not? What is this circus?!

The bedroom is silent for a beat. Sakuya’s clothes ruffle slightly—even the perfect and elegant maid cannot stand wholly apathetic after that—and Patchy’s lethargic gaze returns to me. Meiling blushed, staring at Patchy and trusting, or maybe hoping, she’d take the lead. I cross my arms to hide a most annoying tremble; my nose crinkles, yet in my mind I can’t scrub the notion all of this is my fault: I failed them. They didn’t seek my help because I have unreliably tied our state, our might, to the leash that is the Yakumo.

Foolish, Remilia. Foolish…

“… Precisely, Remi,” Patchy says, hushed as if deliberately stopping herself from waking up the dead yet breathing child. “The secrecy must be kept for this child’s sake. I urge you to remember it won’t last forever; soon, you will know. Trust us, please.” She pleads, confident despite the pallor and dark circles under her eyes. Had she not slept properly? Or had the mysterious entity…?

Why bother asking if I know I won’t have answers?

A hand falls on my shoulder, and the implication I see in Sakuya’s cold eyes is one that sends shivers down my spine. Fear, a small and subdued thing, resounded from Patchy; Meiling remained poised, despite her silence. We all know what she is offering without the need of words. Interrogating or investigating the two of them for answers is a possibility, but bolting to the Human Village right now and feeding off every human in sight is also a possibility. Both promised only pain and hurt in the future, and I stopped a tired sigh from leaving me.

They’re my friends, not my subjects.

Friends trust each other.

Seeing her proposition wouldn’t be considered, Sakuya backed off with evergreen elegance. I uncrossed my arms, my eyes jumping between the trio ahead of me. “… I’ll be waiting, then.” I said, turning to leave the bedroom, the feelings fighting inside me like mad dogs. No reliable friend entangles another to a megalomaniacal woman; no friend gives in to fear and sells you.

“—Lady Remilia!”

My steps come to a halt, eyes fluttering to the gatekeeper now on her feet. Under my gaze she flushes, and her fingers fidget with one another; always a creature of passion and action first, thoughts come later. Patchy stares daggers at her, though the librarian doesn’t intervene.

The silence hangs for a moment before, finding her words, she speaks: “T-Thank you for your understanding! We… w-we have had harsh times since this whole thing began, and it’s not always that we can be straight with you, no matter how much we want to,” the reddish hue disappears slowly, hair and skin no longer matching. “… To be met with your acceptance, barren of judgment, is more than I could ever long for. T-This little girl will have a better life because of you—you are the best of friends!” She finishes with a bow, long crimson hair arcing forward and nearly snapping the air, as if a whip.

Inside, mad dogs are met with another fighter. One warm and caring.

They fight and fight.

There’s no victor, for the frustration is agonizing; the hurt deep and the fluttering of Meiling’s words—of Patchy’s gaze, whose softness is rare and treasurable—is rather precious.

It’s not always that she calls me a friend. How long has it been…?

I wish I could see my reflection in their pupils; I must look awfully cute with the smile that spreads across my face. Alas, a vampire. “Lift your head, Meiling. There’s no realistic fate where the residents of this mansion are mistreated by their mistress—don’t expect a light time, however, when the truth is laid bare,” I turn back to the doors, Sakuya following. “In due time, I'll extract from you two every juicy detail about the child whose facial features match yours.” I tease. It’s dubious the theory I craft in my mind of the child’s origins has ground. A virgin conceived Jesus Christ himself, and though I’m not expecting the second coming to happen anywhere near a pureblooded vampire—that human God wouldn’t be so cheeky—, I can’t help but muse.

I open the door, leaving with mad dogs fighting, yet slightly soothed.

Maybe their truths would be kind to my heart.

The door closes behind me, and the sight is enough to churn a blood-full stomach.

Flandre lies there on her bed, surrounded by stuffed toys and otherwise, pale as ever, with twinkling wings resting as if a collection of jewels. Her face lies bloodied, her Yakumo outfit torn here and there, caked in mud. Sakuya is behind me, attempting to no avail to conceal how she huffs in overwrought mind and body, trembling from bloodletting and… fear. A fear we share, for it was bestowed upon us by a veritable demon.

Her knives clink to the ground as she sinks to her knees, wheezing reverberating loudly throughout the room; “I-In the stopped world…” She speaks. I listen only halfheartedly, approaching my sleeping little sister. I had started everything with my failures, letting fear control me—look at the consequences, at this Pietà. “… S-She’d moved. I saw her following us with her eyes.” The words are gongs.

The demon said she’d discover, but ‘twas mere toying.

Had Yukari not appeared…

I stand by Flandre, burning my gaze at the creamy uniform bearing symbols—trigrams, Meiling had told me—of the woman who brought Hell to Earth. The woman who untimely saved mine and my sister’s life. It bore no merit as it was part of the cycle she fostered… Yet, as my fingers trail across her face and feel warmth, the escaping oxygen, the truth is impossible to deny. And in its existence I found rage. Budding rage.

A failure for your friends, whose dependability you lost; to yourself and to your sister, relying on a much worse devil to save your skin; to the perfect and elegant maid, a fifth of her flowing life-force thrumming through your veins, nurturing lost strength.

Hand cups Flandre’s face, her eyes fluttering open ever so slowly, groggy and…

… A-And…

Purple.

These are not my sister’s eyes.

They are Yukari’s.

What is… happening here?

My hold of Flandre’s face turned murderous, eyes flung wide, staring straight into the violet pupils. Where’s the scarlet red? Is this an illusion—a trap? I desperately search her expression for any other change the Yakumo woman might’ve imposed; these red eyes of mine sickened at the sight of the deep violet and purple swimming in my sister’s face. A parasite sprung out of nowhere and has taken over, feeding and replacing, destroying anything in its way for no other sake than its indulgence. Yukari Yakumo! That monster!

The rage blossomed impossibly, and in an unrelenting fit borne from the blood feeding my every vein and artery, I ripped the uniform off Flandre’s body as if I could rid her of the scourge. Those purple eyes bulge in confusion—those aren’t my sister’s! Away! “R-Remi, what…?” She tries to cover herself, yet I scour her body for any other maim, any other sign of the Yakumo’s parasite taking over my sister’s body. I can only find dried blood, no source of the putrid ocean of hundreds of purples that’d gouged and replaced my sister’s eyes.

It must be something, somewhere. The Yakumo woman wouldn’t settle for so little.

My heart rattles, my mind clenches. It’s my fault.

“Mistress, please, calm down!” Sakuya’s hand on my shoulder stops me, her voice bubbling with concern, pulling me away from my frightened little sister.

“NO! She has corrupted Flandre!” I point at purple eyes, blood simmering. Flan’s eyes go wide as she watches the expansion of my folded wings, the upper bone towering above the tip of my hat and its lowest grating against the ground. “I cannot have that; I MUST not leave that unanswered, Sakuya!” The wrath grew each time I met those cursed purples, a knot overwhelming my stomach at a conclusion that dawned like Uncle Vlad’s last forest of people, thirty thousand long: Flan shall never know the difference, what was taken away from her. Vampires cannot see their reflections.

Failure after failure.

When shall it come to a close?

“R-Remi, what’s happening? Where's Kari? Everyone el—?” Before Flandre could even get a glimpse of what I felt building in my eyes, I craned a hand towards her naked visage, and every blood cell in her vampiric body rattled before, like a stringless doll, she slumped into Sakuya’s arms, who’d popped by her side. Then, and only then, I let the simmering tears rivulet down my face. Sharing them with Patchy as her mind and body unraveled was a privilege, yet to let my sister, now tainted solely by the despicable Yakumo woman, see me cry?

I cannot have that. Not until after this war comes to a close, and…

“Mistress,” Sakuya coos to my side. Flandre rests on her bed, dressed in her pajamas, her mind unconscious due to Archblood magic. What a haunting feeling, to have use of this power so soon after it is returned.

“Do not worry, Sakuya. There will be time for tears.” I weep for my innocent sister and for everything I have caused in my mistakes. Tears I clean off. They can’t shape fate. “… Protect Flandre. I’ll be back soon.” Sakuya nods steadily, ever loyal.

I have friends of mine to help, to save.

And a nasty parasite to squash.

Transversal through bloodspring is a familiar, if rusty, set of maneuvers. Atrophied knowledge, nurtured by a single liter of blood, compelled this body back to its prime—if briefly. Digestion is happening; soon enough, the body will deteriorate back into the state of perpetual hunger I’ve learned to withstand, to live in.

I pose unstable Spear the Gungnir against the ground. “… Leave, while Fate yet permits you,” the words come bluntly from me, rage reserved for the parasite that’s preyed on Gensokyo for far too long; my mercy is still available, and my heart has ballooned after one speck of light pierced this dark, its name Hata no Sekai, child of Patchouli Knowledge and Hong Meiling.

A monumental weight lifted from my chest, and I could breathe again. The child is not the fruit of a heinous ritual or meddling Gods beyond planet Earth… to the extent of my knowledge, she’s just regular, if cherished, offspring.

Logistics shall be of concern later.

“… Holy fucking shit,” Toutetsu cackles, glinting eyes on me, her posture shifting to non-threatening. “That ilk of magic, at this day and age…? You must be, what, 10 thousand years old or something~?” There was genuine curiosity in her voice.

“I am around five hundred years old. Only, Fate bows down to me.” A strand of Old Magic lost upon the yawning age of religion and the birth of belief; a magic chaotic and primal. The feeling that echoes from above is of unbelievable expansion. It makes the handling of this power feel small. Patchouli had revealed the connection of child and tree. Perhaps the child herself is the cosmic entity…? I lower Spear the Gungnir; Toutetsu Yuuma’s answer is obvious to me.

“Let’s make something clear, ladies: I got no qualms dying here,” she says, hovering above the ground. “If I still believed whatever you’re doing here harmful to the people I love? You wouldn’t get out of here whole.” Her eyes wander to Hata no Sekai, the wide grin and the sharp eyes softening just a little before she sighs. “… I better see that kiddo there happy and alive when all this shit’s said and done. Otherwise, I’ll be eating you three.” The threat lingers even after the goat blasts away, disappearing in the swimming blue hues. Her words didn’t strike me as particularly serious, so I let them wash off me with a long sigh…

… Meiling and Patchy are alive. They did not die.

I bask in the soothing thoughts before lifting a few centimeters in flight, the wings—not atrophied; giant and alive—beating slightly. I glided towards the magician, the adrenaline having drained from her blood and releasing her from a prison of tension; the woman falls to her knees and heaves onto a ritual much different from anything I’ve ever seen.

Meiling stared at me, her chest and eyes swollen with bright hope.

Patchy seemed, even gasping for air and with drifting eyes, smug. “… I was right.”

“Had you a doubt I’d come to you in your time of need—even with my Manipulation of Fate in play?” I land by her, helping the woman back to her footing.

“No—I just needed to provide time; things would fall in place…” Her eyes go to the child, and I cannot overstate the amount of whiplash I’ve just received: Patchouli Knowledge, smiling ever fondly. “… It is the usual song and dance with those that see into the future.” She reached a quivering hand towards the child, and I helped her get close. She left my hold and fell by the sleeping child the moment we were close enough, fingers trailing her cheek. “I… I see you’ve restored that side of your power—please, Remi…” Her voice is weak, her body broken. Her eyes, burning, determined. “Puppeteer me. Do not let my flesh and blood cause my child’s death.”

Breath hitches in my throat, wide eyes arch to meet Meiling’s. All I get back is the same fierce zeal. “Patchy…” I sense their mutual trust.

I am not failing them again.

“… You’ll feel the strain all the same, Patchy.” Words and actions don’t match, for a bloodspring opens above, cascading blood of the ancients onto the ritual below. Undulating red strings follow, and they latch to the magician’s body, lifting her as if an odd doll. The sight stirs queasiness through me.

With the eyes she bears, nothing that I could’ve said would’ve mattered.

Then, the world froze: “… We spent a year inside the HSE as phantoms, Remi,” her voice conveys invisible hurt. “Sekai had brought us there to help her. She’s the daughter of Anon and of Yukari—not of flesh, but of coagulated pain and suffering. She was manufactured in a cage. She’s powerful, but not free. We’re delivering her freedom, Remi.” As she speaks, the lines shape movements, guided by Fate itself to where they should be. The glass burning blue reshapes to Patchy’s ministrations, and the blood I’d poured seeps into it. Soon enough, it’s turned scarlet red. Patchy seems barely capable of speaking, yet her eyes are on the child, full of love. “… We’re her mothers; we’d do anything for her.”

And the sigil pulses to the sound of a beating heart.

>>49734346
>>49734344
>>49734338
word of the day? Blood...
next, Reimu chapters!
more soon~

>She has corrupted Flandre
>Protect Flandre
Now that's some freakish words!

>>49735196
It's Okina's fault for being retarded anyway. If she had a single braincell not dedicated to pedophilia maybe she would have second guessed handing the greatest weapon in gensokyo over to Y*kari.

Solstice update #22

>>49732826
hana will bully her rabbit mother forever for the lingerie present, as is the fate of every hag~

>>49743695
She's a beautiful young maiden not a day over 12

The last time I’d felt like this, Aya was guiding me to that cursed birthday party. It’s a licking flame that scours the body and rips off the flesh from the muscle and from the bone, and what remains is nothing but a blood-red seething rage. My hand bleeds and white knots threaten to pop, a battalion of faceless, paper-like mikos following me into the cataclysm of pink—Satori’s words echo, the lightning a mirror of Douji’s—, yet nothing constrains me as I charge towards Yukari like an arrow, black hair swaying as the mikos protect me with charms and small, wordless prayers. Against the destructive might of Koutei, nothing of this would’ve protected me, but Yukari is just a woman whose greatest strength has been stripped down, her eyes wide as I cross the threshold of her thunderbolts, teeth clenched and moving the Onikirimaru to meet sacred wood—

—An attack from the past swerves her attention away from me, Hana popping from absolutely nowhere with just as much bloodlust as what I know spews in waves from me. Danmaku pours from Hakurei Spheres, Yukari having to dodge everything now that her Gap is nowhere to be found. A karmic loss, which blisters through my veins as both acute frustration and celebration.

I’m on her not a second after Hana, Gohei slamming against the blade. Many more come, a hundred attacks filled with youthful vigor and a personal vendetta, the Yakumo woman trembling with transferring force. The Gap would’ve cushioned it all, made it easier. Blemished golden hair bounces as the ancient Youkai moves against the force of two striking Goheis, somehow keeping herself alive and mostly unharmed despite the traveling force—has it to do with Douji’s power…?—, blankets of purple thunderbolts tumbling to deafening pulses that light up the Underground, Danmaku licking off her skin as it grazes, blessed needles dodged by centimeters.

Yukari is an old Youkai. This is not the first time she’s dueled on the ropes—of the little Suzu taught me of history, the Sengoku period was much worse—, and her powers go beyond the Gap.

I’ll make sure it’s the last. Anon asked it.

… But the way things are going now is not ideal. She’s doing far too well; her vitality recovered, and the blessings planted by Hana, aimed to cripple Youkai, killed by Douji’s power. Something gotta give soon, otherwise… Thunderbolts echo through the hollowed tree of purple lightning, and I and Hana dodge away from the onslaught of electricity. “Hana!” I yell, unable to see her amidst the chaotic kaleidoscope.

“I’m here!” She hushes, popping to my side from thin air, sharp eyes where Yukari was. Around us, hundreds of Hakurei miko ready for battle. “… We gotta aim for the sword, she’s using Kasen-nee’s power somehow—she understands our combat patterns, maybe…?” For whatever reason, Hana smirked at the words about aiming for the sword. It was a smile of nostalgia. It faded as her eyes sharpened and sweat was wiped from her brow. “You cannot Float.” Straightforward words.

I picture Chen, suffering and pale as marble; Anon with eyes of misery—eyes I inflicted once—, and this heart screams at the haunting sound of tolling bells. My hand around the Gohei bleeds. “I cannot,” purple lightning roars as if a living thing, nerves blistering on the surface. A full second has passed; where is Yukari…? “We have to change how we attack, then?” The nature of Kasen’s new—old?—power eludes me, so I leave it to Hana to figure things out.

Hana grimaced. “… Youkai are weak to mental attacks.” She whispers, then widens her eyes. “Mother, I think I have a plan—”

A purple blur appears from a mass of thunderbolts snapping behind her, red flashes.

I move without hesitation, exploding past Hana and battering the Gohei against the crimson blade—

—No sound of iron; the blur dissipated as if a cloud.

Hana had moved out of the way, her Gohei with streaks of blue ready for defense, dodging straight into the real red blade piercing through the liquified electricity. She’d manipulated these thunderbolts to resemble her; the understanding echoed…

Then, a facet of this power sprang against my will, twenty paper-like mikos soaring forward and engulfing themselves in flames, sacrificing themselves as their Gohei piled into the lashing red blade, which cut them like the flaming origami they were, Yukari’s eyes widening at being stopped by nothing yet recovering as the powerful Youkai she is. By then, Hana had already twisted and aimed a slam against her head, meeting only crimson steel. My body hissed. An exchange half a second long.

These mikos seem to answer as much to Hana as they answer to me.

Using that, no wonder she killed a dragon…

Hana was thrown back, body recovering and ready to pounce onto Yukari once more—

“—Before I kill you today, mikos,” any pretense of friendship she had in the past vanished; only hatred seeped into her voice and intonation. “I was intending on giving a gift… The reveal of delightful secrets. Hana-chan’s secrets~”

… Secrets?

The world had come to a standstill as I peered into Chen’s trembling pupils, the hope that brews there, before following that hand I know so well. Hope washes over me. A prowling nightmare bore light again, and no matter how many Gaps marred Chen’s visage and maimed her, when the three of us are together—days under the pretend sky of every simulated season inside the Fake Shrine, drinking tea and enjoying the sparse moments of… peace—, every wrong of this world dies out and things just make sense.

I turn to look at her from below, precious fading life in my arms. A purple thunderstorm fills the background; Okina stares with an expression I neither care for nor bother with.

There’s only us.

It is why the heartbreak is so acute.

Her hand had left my shoulder, gaining a creaking quality that seemed to sicken her whole body, even underneath the tattered and damaged Yakumo clothes. Every inch of exposed skin was gaining these lines, ancient and coarse, as if her fair skin was made of paper—it seemingly was; they slowly peeled off and dissipated into the wind, revealing more and more paper below—, golden hair brittle and imposing nine tails, the fur so dense I once mused about knitting scarves from it, down and dragging across the gravel. She breathes laboriously, eyes on me, one of them unraveling like a blooming flower and losing scraps of paper to the air. “… What’s happening to Chen, Anon?” Despite what was happening to her, those eyes lay on the bakeneko.

The question left me before I could do anything: “R-Ran…?” I ask, dazed.

—

They run all summer,
He follows them; he's all smiles,
Distance swells; I stay.

—

Ran looks past me, focusing on Chen—I can’t tell; her eyes are unmaking. Tears prickle the corners of mine before I even get an answer—, and they narrow as they lay on the dissipating blue flames. Her brow furrowed, and she got on her knees, a trail of disappearing paper where her feet once were. What is happening…? Why…? “She used a talisman like this one on Yukari, didn’t she?” She asks low, showing me a red-and-blue talisman. The same Aya struck against my cage to destroy it. I nod, a trembling mess, eyes on her features, completely dumbfounded by how casual she seemed.

I had seen it before, when she came to the Fake Shrine with her back bleeding, whip marks all over.

She returns the nod. Her neck thins like a cut tree; her hair and nine tails are melting away; and her hands that I'd often take in mine threaten to disappear whole as, after placing the talisman by her side, she scoops Chen into her arms. I watched it all, impotent and overwhelmed. Our dying, most precious life held firmly by her crumbling figure. “… Yukari crafted this body of mine using her Gap, Anon,” she starts, nuzzling a few strands of hair from Chen’s face. Her eyes had closed again, dark circles surrounding them. “This body is not mine—it feels so… You loved it like so,” she smiles, despite it all. “But it is not mine.”

Pieces fell into place one by one, and a terrible picture formed. “… Y-Yukari lost her Gap.” I whisper, remembering her words.

Ran nods, looking at the talisman on the ground. “Without her as a source of power, this body is cannibalizing itself—it feeds from every Gap Yukari planted, consumes them… Soon enough, I’ll—”

“NO!” I yell, grabbing her shoulders. Tears thicken, heart thrums. The purple lightning is a constant reminder of who had launched this nightmare. “W-We can do something, right? If C-Chen took away her Gap, and you have another talisman… t-then you just take it for yourself! Then everything will be okay!” I reach to cup her cheeks with my charred, destroyed hands, and the way she leans into my touch stirs my heart.

She looks at me lovingly before reaching for one of my hands and gently taking it to the pouring hole in Chen’s chest, towards the collection of Gaps there. W-What is she—

On a dark night, loud sobbing echoes and overpowers the rain. I watch from a distance as she digs the ground with bare hands, a corpse by her side. It wears pink and soft blue, bloodied beyond understanding. I remember that pink-haired woman.

She was so very kind to me…

—I blink, and I’m looking into Ran’s eyes again. The one unraveling eye had fully disappeared, and she closed it. “… The Gaps are flocking to this wound without Chen’s command. A memory ingrained so deeply in them is what keeps her between the… border of life and death.” She continues as she releases my hand, not by will: it had disappeared. “If these Gaps are disrupted, she’ll die immediately…”

It is too sudden, too impossible to wrap my mind around.

I don’t know what to do.

Gensokyo is not meant for simple men.

I stare at my burns, the twin casts of porcelain. One gold thread remains. “I-If you just take the Gap…” This string of words disgusts me.

Ran hums. “… Yes, if I just…” then, she looks into my eyes. Her tears are many.

Within her one eye, insurmountable love.

Dolly had that same gaze.

“… I’ll save her instead, Anon.”

>>49748211
>>49748207
>"[...]the boundary between life and death disappears, and you are in a state neither alive nor dead. Just as if you were in the living world and the Netherworld at the same time, a Necrofantasia."
>wait, say that again...
took a year and something to get here, but man…
more soon~!

>>49748207
>“—Before I kill you today, mikos,” any pretense of friendship she had in the past vanished; only hatred seeped into her voice and intonation. “I was intending on giving a gift… The reveal of delightful secrets. Hana-chan’s secrets~”
>… Secrets?
Hana is going to have a panic attacjk. Again.

>>49752681
I'd be panicking too if Y***ri was about to tell my mum I screwed my dad. It's not 'ana without a freakout every step of the way.

>>49753105
And Reimu is also probably going to lose her shit too because of how big Yukri's corruptive influence is.
Hopefully, she'll do that calmly and without misunderstanding.