/jp/ - Otaku Culture

-Chapter 3: Human village(?)-
Reimu glared up at the broken sky as a bit of it rained down, shattering into smaller pieces that they made contact with the barrier she and Hana had prepared ahead of time around the Hakurei Shrine.

What was left of the sky was still held a loft in the sky forming odd-looking glass clouds on a background of black, interfaced with strands of red and green, as well as countless mementos of the sages, Eye Gaps, Black Deaths, Backdoors, and bandages as the neighboring Senkais of Gensokyo’s hermit populations floated amongst the sea of chaos like fatalities trapped in orbit.

In the center of what was once the human village stood a massive tree-like structure, incandescent and glowing, the Hakurei Shrine Experience, metamorphosized. Countless flowerless branches reached into the sky and the land around the village warped around the shape of its roots. Buildings once on the floor finding themselves merged into its luminous bark.
Reimu sighed, “Well, come on Hana, Alice, barrier maintenance calls.” Reimu’s tone was exasperated and unbelieving, Okina had said beforehand that an outcome like this was within possibility, although she hadn’t mentioned anything about a weird tree.

Reimu just shook her head and went to work, catching a brief glimpse of a blue field polka-dotted with stars enveloped the village and an explosion of black miasma shot up.
“Looks like Mima’s heading in, and Suika as well?” Riemu shrugged at the last part, nobody had seen either Oni in a bit or coordinated with her, but freeing up Mima to help deal with Yukari was a good thing. Although her gut suggested it’d be a bit more complicated than that.
Alice sighed. “Well, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner Yukari's stopped.”

Hana kept her eyes locked on the village, resisting the urge to go in, they had already talked about this and she needed to play her part. Swallowing her anxiety and restlessness, she followed behind Reimu and Alice.

--

Yuugi punched into the ground as the word broke and warped around them sending both herself and Kasen into the air as the ground made way for the emerging luminous bark and tree root. Crackling with energy.

Yuug flew threw into the air as Koutei and Kasen flew back, landing on a glowing white tree branch before launching herself forward, her bandage exploding into a storm of tendrils, grappling Yuugi before she could back off and dragging her towards Kasen and Koutei.
Yuugi braced herself before Kasen used both of their momentum to punch into Yuugi’s stomach with her blessed bandaged arm as Koutei flew around the two, blasting Yuugi with a beam.
Yuugi kicked against Kasen, using the momentum to launch herself down and into a branch, even as the possessed Hermit’s bandage arm burned her skin while each of their spare hands was locked in a clash.

Crashing into the branch, Kasen was targeted, letting go with her bandage tendrils as a crater formed around them.

Yuugi followed up, punching Kasen in the gut, before grabbing Kasen and throwing her back into the air.

Koutei twisted around the branch before shooting himself forward like a bolt, trying to ram headfirst into Yuugi as she was distracted, only to be greeted with Yuugi’s fist moving in a flash of black lightning and punching into his snout.

Kasen sent another punch towards Yuugi, breaking off from their clash before using her bandage arm, summoning a gate to catch Koutei.

In a flash of movement, Yuugi punched into Kasen’s jaw, black lightning exploding out of the point of impact and disrupting Kasen’s gate.

Kasen flew backward towards the tree, landing in a crater on one of its countless branches.
Yuugi looked down at her and demanded. “Face me yourself, Kasen!” Black lightning raced through the sky as Yuugi screamed, a terrifying silhouette against the backdrop of the multi-colored destroyed sky.

Rage briefly flashed across Kasen's face. “Shut up.” Her bandage arm twitched and then exploded into a storm of tendril-like bandages, whipping around Yuugi as they began to seep with the blood of The Former Hell of Blood Pools.

Kasen’s mouth opened, black liquid dripping from as she activated a spell card.

“[Corrupt Hermit Sign: Curling of the Monkey’s Palm]”

--

Suika flew through the broken sky, thanking herself that Okina and Yukari had decided to make her job easier than it had to be, accessing her Senkai while it was exposed would be far easier, especially with her ability to allow her to destroy the surface of the sky.

To the common eye, the Senkai’s in the sky looked like worlds within a bubble, but Suika knew enough of barrier constructs, to be able to detect slight differences along their surfaces and in the spells that constructed them.

Spotting Kasen’s Senkai, Suika sped up aligning herself with the sphere’s ‘northeast’ line of longitude, Suika let out an attack. “[Oni War Sign: Heaven Pierce Her]”