/jp/ - Otaku Culture

RECAP!
---
“Hey, Vergil, your hour of acting as the cool uncle is over,” Dante says, approaching menacingly before extending a hand towards the Alpha and the Omega. “Give me the girls.”

“… If you want them,” Vergil shifts on the monobloc chair, Sekai and Hana perched on his lap and playing with demonic dolls. On his face, challenge. “Then you'll have to take them.”
—
>Anon chills (suffers);
>Yukari deals with her retarded children and, dramatically, tries to pull off a little prank. It doesn't work, and she cries inside, though it doesn't hurt as much as when she goes to Eirin to have her pregnancy check and gets some hard truths about her eating habits and body fat;
>Hana goes through hell at Keine's Festival, dealing with both Youkai and people too emotionally charged to think straight, elevating the trauma of the stuff she sees and experiences in that mess even more, yet growing anyway with the challenges like dealing with the mustard gas and angry villagers. Following Sanae and her apprentices getting shot down after sealing Mokou, Hana rushes Hieda and gets to see the man's true face beneath the mask and hear words that'd likely destroy her confidence: 'we are much the same' from the mouth of the oni;
>Okina sulks on the depths of the ocean for a while, pondering her downfall from godhood and what she can do to mitigate all that. Amidst that, she hears a suffering prayer, which she immediately answers, meeting a stranded man on the ocean. They talk, and he reveals to have been a therapist in the past, helping Okina as the talk evolves into something deeper and that touches many wounds she'd inflicted upon herself. It works, though, and upon tasting the milk of human kindness, Okina starts to figure out herself, her problems, and how to act on them, sending the man on the brink of death to a hospital somewhere. Back on Gensokyo, she has strong opinions about her position and symbols of her power, soon finding the remains of the pyre Satono and Mai burned Nazrin and maybe Cirno on, and pays her respects with a nice flower and words. Following into the Myouren, she meets the consequences of her inactivity in the wounded and harmed from Keine's Festival. Inside, watch as Hijiri teaches Satono and Mai Buddhist magic with cunning and simplicity, feeling jealous(?) at it but also poignantly proud of the girls. A talk ensues between the four, and Okina apologizes for her deeds and promises she'll be better - a promise Hijiri sees as truth and forgives her, much to the goddess' delight. She leaves Satono and Mai at the Myouren for their protection and wellbeing and so that they can learn from Hijiri and, back in the LoB, ultimately destroys her throne and replaces it with a nice chair, feeling good about her change and optimistic of the bloody future;
>Aya has a tense talk about Hana, Okina, and the Solstice with the goddess of winds, who leaves a little present for Okina in the form of a stink bomb as a means to weaken her during the Solstice so she remains on equal footing with the rest of Gensokyo, talking a lot about Hana’s sadness and situation at large, tipping even more the Ayacoin. The goddess and crony reporter soon “achieve” a deal about it… though Aya refuses it;
>Kosuzu survives through sheer-fucking-will having a sword cut into her body, internalizing her secondary core into power. A few days following their meeting at the cemetery, Kosuzu and Keine talk about the Hakurei crisis, which escalates into a convo between all the corners of the new government about the future, the half-breed children and Yukari, with Suzu learning why the HSE exists after discovering the Yakumo is pregnant;
>Goro and Seija get permission to go talk a little with Keine after Yukari tries to prank them into getting skewed by Miko's sword, vaporized and rewritten into ribbons of flesh by threatening Keine's children. Outside the HSE, they ponder the consequences of the Festival, even talking to an old associate of Goro and stopping a fleeting remnant of the Cult of Douji from attacking a child;
>Eirin breaks out the news that Yukari is, indeed, pregnant and the child inside of her is developing naturally, though Yukari needs to lose weight and start to eat better, something that shames the sage. Outside the room, she has a cryptic exchange with Kaguya that doesn't last much;
>Years before the HSE, after Goro's father died, Shou had a moment with the boy before one with Hijiri in that same vein. The death has affected everyone greatly, as it does;

Sorry for taking quite a while to bake the new thread. Still am mega sick.
—
[All entries of the HSE here in chronological posting order!]
>>47155400 | Part 1-22
>>47065336 | Part 23
>>47210937 | Part 24
>>47380706 | Part 25
>>47515159 | Part 26
>>47715146 | Part 27

[Last thread chapters]
4chan's new mechanic thinks it's spam, so, uh... Damn.
(1575 entries)

[for phoneanons that can't access the dead threads, here's the last thread. Link to all others in the 'all entries']:
>>/jp/thread/47715136 | 33rd thread

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

this waiting period is soul draining, jeez...

>Konngara: "I'm going to win this time, Dipshit! Because I am the Astral Knight! I always have the master plan."
>Seiga: "Well aren't you a Wild and Horned Hermit!"
>Yachie: "More like Wild and Moronic..."
>Yurkari: "Enough of the Jokes, you three! You're almost making me wish Seija and Goro survived instead. Anywhom, I've stalled this match long enough. Any last words before I turn you into all Fried Shrine Buffet?"

Hana: "Oh please! There's no way you're ever gonna beat us, not with the REAL Hakurei Shrine Experience up in here." *Points to Reimu and Anon, who're reunited & powered up*

Marisa: "I won't mind painting the sky red for you Reymoo!"
Alice: "I second that claim! I'll blow a million of my dolls before I let your legacy end here."
Aya: "You're rougher then the rest of them, Anon!"
Chen: "Me and my mama wish you the best of wells, Hana!"
Mima: "Kill her or I'll need to kill all of you myself!"
Kosuzu: "Don't go there, yet!"
Yuuka: "Remember the Master Spark, Hana."
Lemontene: "Don't Cry! We're all with you to the end-"
Rikako: "-Whether Human, Fairy or anything in-between!"
Keine: "Feel the Rush, Hakurei-Clan! Fate depends on it."
Tewi: "Dream of a million bunnies clawing for your support, Hana! "
Toutetsu: "Yer' Lucky I'm on your side this time. Don't blow it like you blew all those girls Anon!"
Pachouli: "Fly high! Do it not just for us, but for the Hata no Sekai inside all of us."
Meiling: "...True Dat."

Hana: "Ough... The vibes... feel so right.... Consider us Highly Responsive to your Sins! The world is made to be cute and like hell am I gonna let you turn it ugly! I'm going to unleash my power and show you the real super power of Gensokyo. SHRINE MAIDEN OF PARADISE STYLE!"

>Konngara: "I'm going to win this time, Dipshit! Because I am the Astral Knight! I always have the master plan."
>Seiga: "Well aren't you a Wild and Horned Hermit!"
>Yachie: "More like Wild and Moronic..."
>Yurkari: "Enough of the Jokes, you three! You're almost making me wish Seija and Goro survived instead. Anywhom, I've stalled this match long enough. Any last words before I turn you into all Fried Shrine Buffet?"

>Hana: "Oh please! There's no way you're ever gonna beat us, not with the REAL Hakurei Shrine Experience up in here." *Points to Reimu and Anon, who're reunited & powered up*

>Marisa: "I won't mind painting the sky red for you Reymoo!"
>Alice: "I second that claim! I'll blow a million of my dolls before I let your legacy end here."
>Aya: "You're rougher then the rest of them, Anon!"
>Chen: "Me and my mama wish you the best of wells, Hana!"
>Mima: "Kill her or I'll need to kill all of you myself!"
>Kosuzu: "Don't go there, yet!"
>Yuuka: "Remember the Master Spark, Hana."
>Lemontene: "Don't Cry! We're all with you to the end-"
>Rikako: "-Whether Human, Fairy or anything in-between!"
>Keine: "Feel the Rush, Hakurei-Clan! Fate depends on it."
>Tewi: "Dream of a million bunnies clawing for your support, Hana! "
>Toutetsu: "Yer' Lucky I'm on your side this time. Don't blow it like you blew all those girls Anon!"
>Pachouli: "Fly high! Do it not just for us, but for the Hata no Sekai inside all of us."
>Meiling: "...True Dat."

>Hana: "Ough... The vibes... feel so right.... Consider us Highly Responsive to your Sins! The world is made to be cute and like hell am I gonna let you turn it ugly! I'm going to unleash my power and show you the real super power of Gensokyo. SHRINE MAIDEN OF PARADISE STYLE!"

I clapped

>>48114142
the chinese girl threads fucked you up, huh? The terror matches Halloween, though.

happy halloween!

I wish you'd fuck off and die already.

>>48115103

>>48115103
just two more weeks, Anon. Trust me.

>>48116600
I don't.

>>48066773
>Mimaanon has his family problems; Hanaanon was situated on US soil and had already difficulties writing consistently with him working solo in a store
When was this mentioned? Or is there actually a writefag Discord we haven't been told about?

>>48118620
When was this mentioned?
throughout an entire year. Mimaanon would often put in his author notes the hell that was one of his family members; Hanaanon would talk about basically dealing with a business alone and, around Thanksgiving, how he'd be commemorating it. Both scattered throughout past threads.
If they were telling the truth or not is really none of my business.
>Or is there actually a writefag Discord we haven't been told about?
would make keeping in contact and so sure the other is still alive easier, but nah. We had an icechannel at one point, but it became unnecessary after the scare of the Obi-wan pasta passed.

>>48116600
What are you talking about, somebody already posted the ending right here >>48114142
It's already over.

The rain came down heavy and hard on the wilderness, further adding to the dreariness of the road that night, upon which walked just one person, a woman, who in her luck, saw a light in the distance and made for it. Tis all she could, as otherwise hypothermia would've surely taken her or perhaps something that dares even lurk in the night rain.
To her luck, the light was a lantern, hung from a small cottage beside which laid another building which looked more decrepit. She summoned her courage, made for the door, knocked three times, and waited. And again, her fortune was good, a man, clean and good-natured, wearing the robes of a monk, answered the door and beckoned her in.
"Come, come in! You're soaked head to toe and the rain won't abate any time soon, here, let me take you cloak. Make to that side of the cottage and strip, there's a curtain you can pull, I'll have a towel and some fresh clothes for you, then you can come and warm yourself by the fire thereafter.
The woman did so without comment or question, glad to have been welcomed, and joined the man by the fire not long after. He offered her some hot tea, which she took and drank from.
After she was warm and had taken her tea, the man asked "Tell me, now that you safe and warm, why do you travel the night in these woods? There's dangers beyond the elements you know."
She swallowed and made a noise as if she had forgotten how to speak. Despite being chilled by her journey, her beauty still shown through, with rare straight and vibrant blonde hair tied atop her head, pale, radiant skin, and slit eyes.
"I was traveling with a band, our camp was attacked though, and I fled into the woods." she struggled.
The man nodded and did not ask for more. "Well take heart, you'll be safe here for now and, if you had good company, I think they'll find their way here soon as well. If you'd like to retire, there's a bed over there, I'll remain to watch for them though. Wait just a moment, I'll have to refill the lantern." He said as he rose and turned away from the woman.
"W-wait just a second!" She struggled out. And the man turned back to her, expecting some request or perhaps even a word of thanks.
"Let's not wait for my friends, I don't want to share." The woman said in a low voice as she dove for the man's throat.

>>48120535
And that, Chen, is why you never open the door for strangers.

>>48120535
The woman awoke, her arms bound to a rough wooden chair so that her wrists were face up and fingers lay flat. As she looked around, she saw on one wall a black board with a grid, within which every column but one was completely filled, a table next to her had several metal instruments as well as papers with square holes punched out of them, on the other wall there was a shelf with all manner of jars, some of which contained spices while others held jars of strange organs suspended in fluid, and next to her, stood the man in the monk's robe.
"Good, good." he coo's "I always worry about how much sedative to put in the tea, I never know who's going to show themselves until you knock on my door, and then, well, even I can't tell from just a glance behind those glamor's sometimes." He said, as stroked her large tail that lay freely behind her, but with a few seals laid upon it.
"This is proof though, a Kitsune. The last, piece, of proof, I need." He said, his words carefully range, bit by bit.
"Human..." The Kitsune uttered in sheer contempt "I will feast on you as you still live."
"Oh, do not be so bitter. You lost the game fair and square. Had you checked the other building first, you'd have seen the kind of person I am, but you all overlook it. Why is that? I thought Youkai lived where humans don't, ah, but I guess they're many humans living in squaller in this troubled times." he mused.
The Kitsune said nothing and merely bided her time, testing the tension of the belts that held her, poking the air with magics to see if the seals were weak in one place or another, taking in every detail of the room for something that she could use to her advantage.
Clinically, the man watched her, knew what she was thinking having done this many, many times before. He took one of the sheets with the square punched holes and placed on bare fore-arm, sliding his hand over it so the adhesive would take.
"Despite your misgivings, I'm not interested in your life, only in completing my research. You need only do one thing, after I apply sample to your skin, I want to give me a number with your fingers, from one to five, on the level of pain you experience. And, if you happen to feel pleasure, you can form a fist instead." he explained, taking the restraint off one of her fingers.
Instantly the Kitsune tried to create a hand sign for the first magic that came to her mind, but before she could finish the man took a hammer he had concealed at his side and smashed into the armrest beside her hand.
"Ahem? It doesn't have to be your fingers miss. There's man ways you can, signal, a number. Blinking, the fidget of ears, tapping your foot..." He murmured, gently caressing her foxine ears, the side of her face, and crouching down to her leg to rub her thigh. "But fingers are the quickest and most accurate. Let's not resort to less efficient and error-prone method hm?"
The fox merely stared at him, unbroken be his threats.
"Well, I'll take that as a yes for now and thank you, for not cursing my eyes to suddenly develop spontaneous cataracts! Or was that the sign for filling my stomach with thorns? Hmm, never you mind, I'm eager to begin." He said as he took a need from the side table, dipped it in a fluid, and applied it to one of the squares.
The fox felt... relief. Soothing aloe had been spread in the square, she made a fist.
"Very good. Now this..." He said repeating the operation with another needle, another sample, another square.
It burned, festered, and seared her skin. She pulled hard against the restraint and bite on the gag in her mouth until the man wiped it away. Her hand formed another fist.
"Huh, no no no..." The man said, quickly tearing off the paper from the foxes arms. "The first three are calibrations dear! Yet you all, always, lie!" He grumbled, crumbling the paper and tossing it into a bin.
"Why, do, Youkai, hide, so, much!" He yelled to the ceiling as rain beat against it from the other side.
"It's so frustrating! I have tomes, TOMES, full of your weaknesses, filled with my time hunting your kind and yet you all treat me with such indignity. As if I was an ignorant stranger! As if you all don't have as many chinks in your armor as we do! Well, I tire of deception, of pride, of all of things you use to drive us away. So, I'll expose it, and finally, we can be together." he nodded happy.
The man took another slip of paper and set it on her other arm and began the test again. This time, the Youkai didn't lie.

>>48120756
Sample after sample, test after test, the man continued to apply new substances to the Kitsune's arm. Sometimes making a remark or two, other times remaining silent, but always, always did he mark an empty square in the last column of the blackboard table behind him.
To the Kitsune, it was agony. One sample would send a chill down her spine but leave no harm, another would cause her skin to squirm and heart to race for minutes after touching her. It all dragged on as the night rain continued outside, unabated, uncaring. Until finally, only one unmarked square remained, on her arm, and on the blackboard's grid.
"You've done well, very good in fact and now we have the last, most important, sample..." He said, pulling a vial from his pocket that seemed to contain ash. "Pure, human, extract." Her remarked, tapping the vial with each syllable. "Not just REMAINs, mind you, nor something more PURIFIED. No, this here? It's a constant. First you take a corpse, a complete corpse, and you give it it's rights. Then you take the bones out, leaving the flesh in the shape it was, and grind them twice, pouring salt into the mixture as you do. The eyes need to be laid and covered in the bone meal and the flesh must be buried and not disturbed. Once a year has passed, the eyes will be subsumed by the meal and reduced to this." He explained, setting the vial on the table and removing it's top.
"This is... a grudge with no motive that somehow doesn't fade. And it has agonized all the Youkai I've brought here, every, single, one. Some, even asked me to put them out of their misery afterwards. It's funny, something so mundane and trite would be a universal weakness for you all. Not a legendary herb or metal or gift from the heavens, just a little kitchen recipe that anyone who happens upon a battlefield can do. A 1 to 1 exchange rate for a Human and Youkai life. Well, if it works on you that is."
Now, finally, the Kitsune's eyes widened at the mixture. Not one of her many senses could detect it and it was only by how mundane it looked in comparison with everything around it, acids, aloe, poisons, salves, but the bone meal, the EXTRACT, it just was, and she felt that if something so unremarkable touched her, that she would cease to be.
The man put a hand over her bound one. "Just one more." He told her as he poured the meal over the last square.
Black, the entire world turned black. The man was gone and the Kitsune still sat bound in the chair, but she did not wait for long, as from the shadows mishappen forms began to appear. Red, mangled, faces that looked at her with not contempt or joy, but with indifference. She was passe, ordinary, and yet, they didn't turn from her, nor did they show any more interest, they just stared.
Then, the world returned. The Kitsune was no longer bound in the chair and the man made a last mark on the grid, the same as every other mark that was in that row.
"Congratulations." He said, as much to himself as he did to the woman.
"You've just proven that the spiritual, no matter how obscure and elusive, is not immune to humanity."
With hot anger and rage the Kitsune lunged again at the man's throat, not to feed or for pleasure, but for vengeance, hot, hateful revenge for what she had seen and the man caught both her hands in paper seals held within his.
"There's that indignity again!" He said joyously. "I'll not ask you for your answer now, you should rest, at least here for the night, but now that I've proven my theory, I'll need help to see it's implications. Won't you come with me? See what this all has lead to?"
"Why do you even think that I'd ever want to see your disgusting, miserable presence for a second longer, let alone on a venture?" She snarled like a beast.
"I just thought you might like the antidote to the poison I gave you? It was square 14 by the way, you gave a 1 for it remember?" He said, pointing to a grid on the blackboard.
"Give it to me! Now or I bite through your throat!" She screamed.
"Well, the thing is... I can't! I haven't made it yet, part of my research you see! Research you could help with..." He trailed off.
The Kitsune's arms grew weak, tired, and in her despair grew. 'Death' she thought 'I've brought you so many places, won't you come for me?'

>>48120895
"Mama! Get up!" the toddlers voice sound as he patted the Kitsune's face.
Restlessly she rose, gently holding her swollen stomach and groaning slightly. "Little one, it's far too early. You'll wake your sister."
"But Papa's missing!" He said, his ears flicking nervously.
The Kitsune sighed, the boy was needy, just like his father. Tiredly she pulled the sheets aside and stretched out her limbs, yawning as she did, and, with a little preparation, she rose to a stand and made her way over to the cradle, her tail flowing behind.
"Come, come on little one." She said in a low, sing-song voice as she lifted her second baby to her arms as the first clutched onto her robe.
The trio, soon to be four, all made their way across the cottage and to the door, outside which they saw the man wearing the monk's robes, sitting, watching the early morning, fingering a bracelet he held in his hands which consisted of large black sphere inlined with silver veins.
"You've worried your son again." she said as the boy ran to hug his Father.
"Oh have I? Forgive me little one, but you snore so loudly!" He told him as he rubbed his head.
The Kitsune gently took her spot beside him and waited as he kissed her belly, her daughter, and then her.
"You're still holding onto that? It'll bring ill fortune you know." She said, looking at the bracelet.
It was the culmination of all the research, not the antidote for the poison she would later learn was utterly fictious, but a weapon, a sterile curse, capable of touching any being regardless of where it stood 'The Root' it had been named. It wasn't evil, nor could it be called divine, it was just a mundane tool, the most mundane of them all.
"Well we're in luck then, an opportunity to do so just came in a message." He said, holding up a purple envelope, with white lace, that was tied with a red ribbon. The baby reached out for one of strands.
The Kitsune sighed. "Just because you Youkai Hunters made peace with that woman doesn't mean you should consort with her further. Keep her at bay."
"Oh, but you'll love this, she's making my dream true! The last bastion of Youkai that will ever exist, Gensokyo she's calling it, where a small contingent of humans will live to sustain them."
"Like cattle?" She asked, stroking her son's head.
Although her children had fox ears and instincts, they still had the mark of humanity within them, and so, the thought of them living in such a way disgusted her.
"No, the numbers don't support it. She says they'll live like normal people, just in fear of Youkai attacks, but, and you'll love this, protected by the remaining Hakurei line. Whatever parts they need, she can source from those that would die regardless elsewhere."
"Sounds like a scheme she'd concoct. It's bound to fail." She said.
"But that's just it! Humans and Youkai, so close together, so dependent on one another... eventually the walls that have been so carefully constructed will fall. We can finally move on." He hummed, looking on to the rising sun.
"And how does that deal with that thing?" She asked, scooting a little closer.
"If, or rather, when things go wrong, the lady in purple and her cohort want certain items in place that'll right the balance. She wants Youkai hunting tools, these items we hunters sharpened for years and years of war, just in case. This bracelet will be a ticket to a nice little home where our children can chose to live as they'd like."
'good' she thought 'finally that miserable part of their history could be put to rest' and still "What about the person who one day has to wield that thing? Are you really okay with cursing someone in the future?"
He hummed and set the bracelet back into his pocket. "I think, unlike a spear that can cast lightning or a pot that can conjure flame, somebody who can find a use for this thing is probably of a careful mind. And, in couple centauries or so, that Lady in Purple will probably go a bit mad, so maybe she'll need the help. In any case, I didn't ever think of this thing as a weapon or a curse, it's more like a wedding band."
"You're beyond foolishness or help even thinking to help a crazed Youkai 100 years into the future." she scolded, laying her head on his shoulder. "I hope we both don't live to see it."

And there's my Halloween special. I had this idea for how 'The Root' came to be and the horror theme aligned with the season so I gave it a shot. Apologizes for any roughness, but wanted to just get it out. As to how the two fell in love after the whole incident, stranger things have happened!

Cold fusion is a lie, a scam, and the coward’s choice of nuclear glory! If you want some good and stable energy, you also need the flashy and radiation-packed explosiveness of fission. Just sticking some D-rich palladium and expecting D-T and nigh infinite energy, all done in silence—mostly: the crushing of particles going light-speed is still cool—is utter lame. The passion of my words, however, does not seem to reach Koishi-san, her eyes full of shine locked on her baby's as, biting his left knuckle, he looked around the Human Village confusedly, focusing on the screaming people fleeing when they saw Koishi-san.

Maybe they are performing a ritual of some sort or being dramatic like Orin?

… Or they’re just weirdos.

Eh, whatever it was, at least it wasn’t bothering Koishi-san. “What do you think is cooler, Junya-kun? Embarrassing cold fusion or kick-ass thermal fusion~?” The baby etched to his mother shifts his eyes from the scared people to me… then silently moves away to follow a passing butterfly. “Sheesh, you ain’t a cool guy…”

“He’s also just two weeks old. Wait a few years, then you’ll have your answer!” Koishi exclaims, the goal of our walk coming to view— “And please, continue speaking about things I don’t understand in the slightest nor care about—they were helping with the crushing anxiety I’m feeling!” Eh…? I tilt my head, confused at the words. Koishi-san flings Junya up, the baby laughing adorably as the cord connecting them stopped him from going too far up. “I have no memory of this Anon and am freaking out on the inside about how he’ll react to a child neither of us were prepared for!” She says with a smile that shows none of it, catching Junya-kun.

Ah, w-well…

… “S-Suika-san said he’s the coolest guy, so no need to go nuclear over it.”

The people freaking out scream something about ‘psychopath’ and ‘murderer’, the Youkai of the markets of the HSE packing and storming away lightning fast—

But hey, we’ve just got to the HSE!

“Do you think they’ll let you enter and show Anon-kun Junya-kun, though? I know little of brothels, but they ain’t a place for cute babies.” I express, skipping ahead and opening the door for the tired mother. She nods a small thanks and, just as I follow, scared and desperate people rush out of the doors, spewing like Elephant’s Foot. “Gee, what’s up with everyone today?! Those suckers nearly trampled me!” I sulk, combating the legitimate thought of throwing a nuclear warhead—a little one, of course. Just enough to flatten the village—on them… But nah, that’d piss off Satori-sama. So I merely show the running crowd my tongue before following Koishi-san inside.

The place is… less crowded than what I’d imagined, with the front counter empty beside a plume of papers covered in tough words wafting down like a strong breeze had displaced them just a moment ago, no staff in sight; only Koishi-san and Junya-kun, the former sitting on the reception area and playing with the latter’s hair. Cute~

“Where’s everyone…? Is this some sort of self-check-in?” I fish the paper who seemed to have the easier words and approach Koishi-san, the baby bag gifted to her by Eirin sitting to the side open.

A Gap—one of those scary Yukari ones—appears over the counter, a face full of golden hair and a pair of fox ears rearing out of it. Her eyes fall on me, then Koishi, and she retracts immediately with a loud ‘eek!’.

“I dunno, maybe? Only thing I know is that my heart may or may not explode—it’s throbbing…” Koishi-san sighs, Junya slapping a fat little hand on her nose. He giggles jovially, and Koishi-san joins easily.

I grumble in frustration, scratching my hair and ruffling my closed wings against each other. The people above the Underground have a massive habit of overcomplicating simple stuff, and the more I read on this paper, the worse it seems—open-and-closed hours? Money fluctuation? Scenarios…? C-Changing clothes?!—; even worse comes with the realization all this overcomplicated bullshit spawns from evil deeds towards an innocent. Man, wish I could just blow up this place to ionizing radiation-packed smithereens… Eh, whatever. Tossing the paper over my shoulder, I plant my fists on my hips and, with a daring smile, declare: “Since no one is stopping us, let’s just stroll over to Anon-kun and show him Junya-kun! Sure he’ll love him!” That seemed to uplift her spirits… or not. It’s tough to tell with that smile of hers. “Though, by what I got off that paper, we need other clothes.”

“Other clothes…?”

“Yeah, let’s go get dressed!” Thus, I lead the way inside, the annoying door on the way dissolving under the exquisite threading of possibly 580 trillion neutrons. Surprisingly, some weird little people were standing behind it—safe from the radiation? Eh, probably—, their wide eyes on me and Koishi-san, who’d just huffed as she struggled to get up and sling the baby bag over her shoulder, the little people’s skins colorless as the background of a half-life chart—wait, they’re definitely part of the staff! “Hey, guys, could you help—” And they’re scramming and screaming at the top of their lungs, begging for Yukari to save them from the… psycho. That again. Koishi-san eyes me expectantly… Oh yeah, I said I’d lead the way.

Not that I know where I need to go, but I’ll figure that out in time.

It took some time…

“Utsuho-chan, my legs hurt…”

“I-I’m sorry, Koishi-san…” I whimper, scrubbing her back covered in bubbles and some nice-smelling conditioners—heh, I stole some to bring back to the palace. Satori-sama will be happy~—with a sponge, Junya-kun watching carefully the shallow water he was on. This place was so impossibly confusing!! Somehow we’d ended up at the storage, outside, a crematorium, and a goddamn theme park before reaching the baths, and throughout every moment of the way some weirdo tried to stop us, though they’d all have the same reaction upon seeing Koishi-san. Why the fear? She’s so cute and affable, especially holding her baby and looking as if on top of the moon—with a suit, ‘course! Being on top of the moon without a sufficiently proper suit would just get her killed~! “Do you have any idea why people run away screaming when they see you, Koishi-san?”

“Perhaps they think I’m ugly as all hell and beyond! Apparently happens to a lot of women after pregnancy, and many end up committing suicide. Though the anxiety of seeing Anon-kun is making me consider doing the deed!” She looks very deflated, but I scoff, soaking her with the water and conditioner after making sure no alpha radiation had seeped into the water.

Wait, those thoughts she’s having… Those are bad thoughts! “I think you’re pretty, Koishi-san! Everyone in the Underground does so, and I’m sure Junya-kun will too!”

“Thanks, I don’t want to kill myself as much anymore~!” She beams at me. Hell yeah! Still, she turns to Junya-kun and pets his head, her smile kind. “But don’t you develop an Oedipus Complex, please and thank you.” A what…? Meh, if she’s saying it probably is terrible— “It’s when the son wants to have sex with their mom.” Koishi-san explains.

… Ah.

Sighing, I hop onto the baths, soaking in the chemicals. “…I feel dirty all over again.”

—

Sadly, they didn’t have a miko outfit for Junya, which meant the baby had only his diaper and couldn’t be part of the ‘wearing the Hakurei Miko clothes’ club—comprising me and Koishi-san—as we walked towards the ‘Fake Shrine’, gladly unmolested by weirdos trying to diminish even more Koishi-san’s self-worth. Before we got there, though, a bakeneko strolled down the corridor, holding a paper and looking between confused and tense, talking to the rather carefree little blonde girl to her side. Their eyes fell on us and, whispering among themselves, approached us… Well, we’d have met anyway since we were walking the same corridor—b-but hey, they didn’t run on sight or scream like fools~! Baby steps. “Hello, kids! I’m Utsuho, and tis Koishi-san. Could you help us a moment?”

The bakeneko tried to speak, but the other girl wearing some weird glasses—aviators… indoors—spoke first? “None of that ‘kids’ stuff. I’m BAD cop,” she points to the other girl. “And this is GOOD cop. We’re looking for a psychopath.”

“A psychopath? That sounds dangerous.” Koishi-san hugs Junya-kun closer.

… Wait, I think they’re speaking of Koishi-san— “She looks like this.” The tense Good cop, with tails wavering and shifting, ready to jump at any odd movement, shows us the paper: a disturbing doodle of Koishi-san lies on the page, her skin pale as milk, bearing owlish eyes and a peculiar smile. “Have any of you two seen her, Miss…?”

“Utsuho, Koishi.” The bakeneko nods, frowning.

“We’re gonna rough her up good.” Bad cop confirms, though her wings and their crystals shake a little.

“I haven’t seen her.” Koishi-san turns to Junya-kun. “Have you?” He doesn’t answer; he’s staring at nothing on the floor.

That seems like an answer enough for Good and Bad cop. “What about you, Ms. I-overcompensate-with-my-massive wings?” Bad cop—w-wait, that was so rude! I am not overcompensating! “Too shaken to speak? I would be too. Just thinking what this monster could do to me… Uh, my wings shudder as if chucked into cold water or something. Be careful, ladies. Let’s go, Good cop.”

“But, Flan, we didn’t even…”

“They’re useless to us—one carries a baby and the other pisses me off with those big, majestic, and overly compensating wings,” she smiles for a moment, looking proud. “Heh, Ms. Seija’s course on how to be a bad bitch is paying off~let’s continue patrolling, Good cop!” The bakeneko scowls, looking between me and Koishi, then the paper… then towards the clothes we wear. She sighs and walks off after the other cop.

Puffing my cheeks, I shift my gaze to Koishi-san. “Such jerks.”

“At least that drawing was very cute~”

The Fake Shrine is… Well, I don’t know what I was expecting. It looks like the Hakurei Shrine, which means it looks boring, old, and uninteresting. I like my architecture brutalist and enlivened with the well-oiled machinery of the nuclear age~

We stroll the snow-covered path, just enough white to not be bothersome, and the trees stand tall yet naked, the chilly wind groaning as do the worn-out floorboards as we get to the veranda and huddle by the shogi doors. “… Are you still scared?”

“I think I’ll pass out in 10 seconds.” Her smile is faltering, her body is trembling, and Junya looks stressed.


Shit, this is bad… But that’s still 9 seconds of action!

Now or never! Nuclear meltdown or glory!

I chuck the door open to a… quite boring though cozy interior—b-but that’s not what matters! The man snugged on the kotatsu looks up from the eight-legged thing wading on his hand, one hand shooting to his clothes and fixing them instinctively, the pen he’s holding until now to scribble on the notebook rolling off the kotatsu, but he freezes as his gaze follows me dragging Koishi-san inside by the shoulders, the woman frozen like a statue, and, a little on the rough side—you won’t split the atom with tenderness, anyway—slam her down into a sitting position opposite to him on the kotatsu, Junya-kun’s head barely rearing above the wooden surface. “… I’ve never seen you two before.” He mutters.

A-At least he hasn’t freaked out yet about a psychopath.

A moment of silence. “This is our child.” Koishi-san presents her baby, putting him on the wood.

Anon stares…

… Then, Junya-kun’s eyes move to the spider the man was holding, and there’s a sparkle of childish joy in there as his little arms spring forward, trying to catch the bug.

Anon seems to have an epiphany, eyes growing even wider. “… He’s mine, yeah.”

Koishi-san sighs in relief, “I’ll explain in a minute.” She smiles, nods—

—and passes out with a face of pure joy, arms spread on the floor of the kitchen. She’s drooling, which is dangerous, so I kneel to shift her to a more comfortable position. Anon has approached the boy and is showing him the small and docile spider; the adoring giggles warm my insides like a girth rod of thorium~

But, gee, even knocked out cold Koishi-san looks happy and at peace~ “I still have no memory of ever seeing you two here—and wasn’t told you were coming, either.”

“It’s our first time! Koishi-san doesn’t remember coming here either, and no one tried to guide us throughout this place; they just ran away from us! We had to figure it out ourselves! It was so hard and we walked so much…”

His face completely shifts to flabbergasted. “Which means you two… invaded the place alone; got through all security and just… strolled right inside?” I nod. He seems at a loss, moving Junya-kun to his lap so the baby could better watch the spider. “And Yukari just…”

“She didn’t try stopping us, which’s nice. Though everyone kept thinking Koishi-san was a psycho or something—it was so annoying! She’s so cute, look!” I hold her by the cheeks and move so Anon can see more of her face… Uh, I probably shouldn’t have held her so energetically; now her expression looks scrunched up like she ate a lemon! B-But still! “A-And she even has a little baby; she’s a proper mother and pretty cool! She wouldn’t nuke a fly if she could avoid it! Why were people so mean to her?”

The man giggles incredulously and, scratching his head, shrugs. “Who knows?” He pauses. “… Do you want tea until Yukari eventually comes around?”

“Do you have some flavored in anti-matter?”

“… Yeah, I guess. Dolly,” A trembling and scared doll brandishing a knife slowly leaves from behind one of the cupboards, her eyes over Koishi. Seeing no imminent danger, she relaxes, Anon taking a moment to show Junya to her before saying: “Could you fetch the bananas?”

Oh, so that’s why everyone is obsessed with him.

He’s husband material~

>>48121530
>>48121525
>>48121518
and this is how a rumor seeping from beyond the fog got Koishi and Utsuho to solo the HSE. Impressive feats and with 0 suicide bombings. Nice!
just a silly Halloween special~!
happy Halloween!

damn, Ayaanon missed a special? Sad, his Halloween contribution last year was fun. Props to the writers that chimed in though.

Contentless bumpo

>>48129485
bump itself is contentless

>>48130426
The bump is due to lack of content.

>>48121518
>>48121525
>>48121530
Cute! The Not-so-spooky Kosh and the nuclear raven save the day! Nice choice of wing envy from Flan- Although her wings are nice as well, of course.

>>48121530
>A moment of silence. “This is our child.” Koishi-san presents her baby, putting him on the wood.

>>48132840
She's got questionable social skills, please forgive her.

>>48131325
the wing stuff was a more wholesome attempt at Flan's wings back in KKHTA. The sheer iconography of Flan's wings are matched just by Reimu's sitting

less than a week until the deadline. Even if he doesn't return, hope hanaanon is doing fine.

>>48147167
Hurricanes can't keep getting away with killing good writers...

>>48147167
I know this is a hobbist project and people can fuck out whenever, but he hasn't checked in for a while. It is a little concerning.

>>48151110
True, I hope he's okay.

>>48151110
same, though it soothes me the thought that rather an actual death took him away from us, he just decided the strain of keeping up with in-universe events; post-Festival stuff with Kasen and then the Solstice would be too much on his health, so he abdicated from the project to focus on his health and job. It is sad, naturally, but the thought means he's focusing on himself first; wouldn't want it any other way, be it him or any of the others.
if it serves as consolation, I'll make sure the HSE reaches a worthy end, no matter the strife.

Waiting patiently for the next flowchart update

>>48151228
may take a lil' bit, got a job interview tonight and been preparing for it the last few days. Either tomorrow or after tomorrow I'll be posting.

>>48151195
I'm still hoping he's just trolling

>>48139396
that's a given in the mega extended Hakurei family~

>>48164858
>Mother had limited social interaction and was prone to weird lines of thinking as an adult
>Closest thing to a grandmother is a megaautist with zero morals
>Father was a /jp/ user.

Even if she hadn't lived the life she had, Hana would still be a autist.

>>48170844
Anon turned out pretty well if you consider your average /jp/ user. Got himself some skillz, is the highest possible authority in spider facts across Gensokyo and though his attempt of 'I can fix her' didn't quite land, at least the cat he got Reimu shifted the worst of her personality into suicidal temptations. It's an improvement, somehow. Hana in the other hand got destroyed in the birthright department and inherited just a little of the cool stuff, and a lot of retardation from both parents.
I'm sure her offspring won't be as autistic!

flowchart of last thread coming through!
https://files.catbox.moe/zh7tpm.png
for writeanons to guide themselves and for everyone to remember our boy with fondness.

>>48094208
After encountering the child-hunting Youkai, the two spent the rest of the day looking over the village, taking it all in, until the sun began to touch the horizon and Seija waved Goro over to an empty building.
First the Jaku hopped up on a box and jumped to the roof, extending her hand, she took Goro and pulled him up with her. They could've flown or played all manner of tricks to avoid such an exertion, but it seemed necessary to both of them. then the two walked over to the ledge, which gave a nice view over the village and the soon to be setting sun, and sat down side-by-side to keep warm.
"Say, is that Chen handing out scarfs?" Goro pointed watching as the cat handed patterned garments out to the villagers while riding atop Mokou.
"I think it is! Can't wait to hold this one over the phoenix woman in her own home." Seija snickered.
"You should hold onto to it longer, wait until she threatens you first and then use it to disarm her." Goro Suggested.
"How devious, and if she doesn't flinch?"
"Well just imagine her wearing a cat-shaped hat and she'll be as threatening as a kitten." The two laughed at the immortals expense.
"Hey, why did you cut that deal with the Douji runt? Never seen you force things like that on someone before." Seija asked.
Goro rested his chin on his hand and pondered for a moment. "I guess I wanted to understand a little better, what's it like to do the kinds of things that I thought were wrong, but for the right reasons."
Seija put her head back and groaned "You mean you wanted to understand what it's like to be Yukari."
"Hey! Yukari doesn't have a monopoly on dubious actions for the alleged greater good! There's Hijiri, Kasan certainly has some skeletons in her closet, I've read books about Okina's actions, and I'm sure every other big-wig has swallowed their pride, forsaken their vows, and did what they thought was necessary when the time came for it. I wanted to know what that was like, before we meet Keine-Sensei, if things shake out and we find ourselves in a position like that." Goro explained.
"You mean being a shadowy mastermind orchestrating events, reviled by the public, and willing to do whatever it takes to get the world we desire? We already have at least two of those things you know." Seija said, tossing a stone at some birds.
"Well I think you'd look lovely in a dress with bows as a mysterious, diabolical, and secretly altruist, villainess." Goro said, wrapping both arms around Seija's neck and pulling her close.
"If you try and stick me in a dress I'll put you in one first, tie a rope around your neck, and parade you around the village as my property." She threatened, jabbing her horns into Goro's chest before asking: "How did it feel though? Taking away that Youkai's choice?"
"Like nothing in particular. I don't regret it or feel frustrated that I compromised on my own ideals, maybe they weren't that important to me after all? Or I just misunderstood how I felt, after all, it felt like every other bargain I've made. She said I 'cursed' her, I think that was accurate. Whenever I've wanted to make a deal with someone I'd always try my best to make it so they wouldn't, or ideally couldn't, say no. Of course it was in their best interest, but with conditions like that, having some exchange like a handshake or kiss, and an unbreakable agreement..."
"Sounds like you laid a curse on all your business partners?" Seija said, running her arm over his and huddling closer.
"Yeah, curses. It was odd that they made so much sense to me, so maybe I've just been doing that all along and hadn't realized." Goro said.
He leaned back, pulling Seija with him so that she laid upon him and that the setting sun was still visible to them both.
"So the Buddhist witch's 'son' goes out on his own to have his own practice, only to find himself casting hexes on others anyway. What a dreadful reversal of intention."
"Yeah." Goro sighed, rubbing her head.
For a spell the two sat there and watched the sky turn from orange, to amber, to purple, and finally dusk. Neither really felt like talking and nobody was coming to the roof to disturb them for now, so all their obligations, their training, the rest of the world faded away. The future though, they still couldn't look away from that.
"I think, what I wanted most was to be able to look after people who had nobody else to look out for them." Goro finally spoke up. "All of this, it's because most of us had it pretty good, or at least were 'comfortable', but what about Anon? What about Hieda? Yukari? Sekai? And-"
"Our kids?" Seija said, gently rubbing the beads of Goro's bracelet between her fingers.
"Right. It's not glamourous work, and we're probably not suited for it, but for those two, someone has to do it. Give the neglected a last chance." Goro closed his eyes for a moment, trying to see the future he described, before opening them again. "Seija, I have to tell you what happens when I die."

>>48188383
Alright, next up is the Keine meet-up and then the Jaku duo will be locked in. Feels like I've already written in my head over and over again so it's an uphill battle, but I'll pull through.
Also, I propose that we set the deadline for beginning the conclusion on the winter solstice, December 21st.

>>48104684
Assuming the deadline is set in UTC time, it has already been met 3 hours ago.
Feel free to post away everyone.

>>48188639
damn, sad he's gone, but I'm glad the waiting is over and we'll have some main storyline chapters again

“We are much the same in that regard, Hakurei-sama!”

The twisting features of a demon and its spilled venom burned skin, flesh and muscle; the decaying rot seeping into blood vessels and coursing like euthanasia, melting my body before reaching my heart—a throbbing acidity that, agonizingly, withered all else. A bubbling sludge of decadence—my father’s harrowed eyes; Yukari’s demented smile. Echoing moans and whimpers of lust—lies where I stood, frozen yet aflame, phantom fingers yearning to skin me alive, but I run away from him and those words and the meaning they carry, but I cannot run for long, for those words wound the very fabric of my tender heart, unsafe even in non-euclidean worldlines, and they pester my ears implacably. I see that monstrous visage and cackling, rot jaw and gums, dribbling its innards with wild abandon.

In the void, I hear my father’s weeping, I hear my Mother’s wrath, and I hear myself sneering with elation at the fear I struck by that small Izakaya.

I hear a demon proudly declaring himself my equal.

Screams echo. Some I recognize: amalgamations of terror, death and scorching fire.

Words failed to leave me; to give any sort of plausible excuse—justification!

I am a victim!

… I have been a victim my entire life…

The terror in the mob’s eyes loom over me, watching me as if a devil clad in red and white, no different from the Youkai I had exterminated—I protected you! I gave my all!—; in a corner, rolled into a ball, is Father, and I try approaching him, ignoring the senseless nature of this void, yet the more I try closing the gap, the farther away he seems.

I extend my hand, eyes wide and brimming with tears.

We are victims, me and you, Father! Victims of that senseless monster, of the apathy of this village—we’re victims of Gensokyo!

I am a victim…

When did that change?

Father’s tears drain and a small smile sprawls on his face—how can I tell? I can’t see his face—my heart skipping a beat, this sense of righteousness befalling me. Father understands; of course he understands…

… But Father is not looking at me. His eyes are on the bakeneko he cuddles so tenderly in his arms, who also smiles boisterously, sure to convey to everyone the sheer of her happiness.

I’ve never seen Father happier—

Mother is also there.

Her rage is gone; her eyes are gentle.

She kneels, and together they hug the bakeneko—a Youkai! She’s a Youkai!—and laugh to each other, their cheeks rosy and smiles wide, filled with glee. The speed increases, the word lines diminish despite my maddening efforts, and I cannot close the distance between me and… And a happy family.

A happier family than they've ever been with me.

I try to scream and rage against the chains of my own powers, but nothing stops me drifting away from Mother and Father, thick tears welling in this bodiless body of mine. How can they be so happy? Happy without me—with someone else?

After everything she inflicted on me, ruining my life… After I ruined his—how?

The cackling oni drowns me in his echoing laughter; Father’s pain is loud and acute; Mother watches me with a gaze that professes absolute, profound disappointment.

… A sadness, too.

One she tried to hide when she proclaimed her suicide.

For me.

Without me, s-she’d never need…

Father laughs, throwing the bakeneko up before catching her, their joyous laughter continuing as Mother brushes her hair softly. They turn their backs on me and, before long, disappear into the void—

—A pair of arms catches me and I immediately recognize their soft, thin paleness. Yukari holds me close, and inside thumps comfort. I’m not alone to wither away, affection those wrathful eyes could never properly give; her sweet guidance numbing the pain scribbled all over Father’s body… But it lasts only a second before the blistering ferocity of her violent hold stands to wound my maimed soul, a pain I thought I could bear—already so much pain in the past; what’s a little more…?—yet that spreads like an infection, tarnishing every facet of my existence and blurring it together.

There’s no breach, no escape. She holds me like a thing.

Father and Mother have left, every wall or rock I try to lean myself on oozes pus, the festering wounds close in, the pale arms hold me as if the lid of a coffin, crashing waves of despair reverberate deep inside, yet without a mouth to scream those ailments go unseen, the excuses fade into the ether as the putrid walls swiftly entomb me.

Kasen-nee holds me, Father holds me—Yukari holds me.

It all hurts so, so very much.

Though, in the dark, the light of the most beautiful flower I’ve seen—a flower harvested from the heavens—shines brightly and despite the ocean of anguish I find myself in, the moonlight petals provide guidance—barely, and it doesn’t cleanse the noxious, yellow plumes—air—that enter my hurting lungs, but…

Yuuka holds me, Aunn and Marisa-sensei hold me. Sanae-san holds me.

… I hold them with all my strength.

Then, with a startle, I wake up.

Unfamiliarity welcomes me with the tenderness of a crashing Master Spark, blurs of lights and shadows that, for a moment, confuse and frighten, activating a primitive crevice of my brain that aches for the embrace of my parents—dad, m-mum! Help me!—layers of cold sweat crusting my skin and heaps of natural oil combined with sweat caking my hair, eyes wide and mouth agape, digits holding the blanket covering me as if my life depended on it… But only one hand held the blanket; a tender warmth in the right one clasped back, fear of purple eyes making me inch away as my doe-like eyes flew to it. A feminine yet calloused hand, like Father’s after a day on gardening, held mine, the arm attached to it coated in pristine white fabric, then a full chest draped in a flannel, red waistcoat with a yellow ascot followed before a cascade of green of wavy green hair framed her face—a green not as beautiful as her red eyes on mine or her gentle, if worried, smile.

Yuuka utters softly, “… You were having a nightmare, Hana-chan.” Her thumb caresses the back of the hand she holds.

And, as if the turning of a switch, my mind calms down.

I am safe.

Wearily, I look around—

—Immediately noticing the Komainu curled on the end of the bed and over my blanketed legs, sleeping tight and snoring, messy hair covering much of her face. Aunn… This isn’t our home. What happened?

Though soon a perplexing sinking feeling overpowers me from beyond, eyes squinting as, in the silence, all the memories return: the bloody festival, the terrifying fires and the rolling clouds of unbearable death, the sulfuric stench wafting over my eyes and nose, both thinly protected with Hakurei barriers—many didn’t have the luxury, and theirs melted off…

… Chills ran all over me with the decayed visage of Hieda.

The confusing battle, Sanae getting shot and nearly dying, the death—‘We are much the same’… “Aunn-chan stayed awake all night watching over you. I’m glad you have such a sworn protector~” Yuuka says, and… There’s little I can do but swallow dryly the memories that bubble from deep inside, memories of fire and death and…

Keine-sensei’s children are my siblings. Half-siblings—Youkai.

She told me more aside from that, but everything is so scrambled up in my mind I can’t… exactly remember more; only that her children are my half-siblings and—

Rage. That it enrages me.

Oh, so much rage that courses and poisons, shriveling and melting, my teeth clenching with the pounding thoughts that race back to my mind. They took advantage of him! Shameimaru first, and now more—how many more are out there?! How can these people live with themselves, knowing what they did and the consequences of it…?

This wrath is volcanic and insurmountable, like buckets of acid rivuleting down my intestines and triggering every synapse at the thought: invaders! Monsters! Rapists! Things I hunt, protecting those I care for… But now they’re my equals?! My b-brothers and s-sisters—Aunn mumbles in her sleep, ‘Ana…’, said in a serene, adoring tone. The rage is all-consuming—blessed by the Hakurei God as I was? I-It doesn’t make any sense… I’ll have human brothers and sisters through M-Marisa-sensei, all these others…

… They may as well burn in hell.

Burn, melting.

A voice to my side calls me, and I turn—

—A slurred face stares back, pupils of thundering yellow, a mad grin in its bony features. Blood drips down like rainfall—inverted rain, bullets piercing white and green—bonfire of thunderstorms barely visible behind this monstrous form.

Sanae’s blood flashes.

All the deaths of people I knew of, the sheer despair flashes.

A dagger presses against my face, threatening to peel it off like an apple…

I cannot scream, I cannot run—not from this…

What I see in Hieda’s eyes burns like hellfire.

Horrified, I stare at myself.

“—Hana-chan!”

Then, it all melts off again, and Yuuka still stands there, sitting on a stool and staring at me with utmost concern; her hand has never left mine and… A little, faint light grasps my full attention. Resting on the corner table, a plant pot cradled the most beautiful flower I’ve ever seen. By it lies the red-white clover pin Father made me—destroyed, grazed by Hieda's thunderbolts—and the tattered, scorched ascot Mother crocheted me.

Before I can understand it, I’m sobbing.

Arms—strong yet kind—wrap around me, chest—a pounding, soothing heartbeat—cradles my face, my tears running with no rhyme or reason, thick and stressed. Yuuka didn’t even hesitate before starting the hug; word lines I hadn’t even noticed were there, laden in shame and terror, fading away with the wind as the hand not tugging me towards her brushes my hair. “… I-I…” I try, confused what my mind even wants to say.

“It’s okay, Hana-chan.” Her intonation is calm and motherly, yet her hold is that of a statue.

Against encroaching darkness—those purple eyes, that overwhelming lust, the burning guilt and the poisonous hatred—her arms feel like home, and words beg to leave.

They jostle and they scream and they trash inside maddeningly, my lips trembling and arms clutching this Youkai of Flowers to me so strongly I feared the knots of my hands would burst… But nothing comes out, no matter how much I try, the sight of the beautiful flower rotting in noxious fumes, melting into a foul, nightmarish picture of fetid black grime. The smell of blood was like rusted iron, and my tears thickened by the seconds. Yuuka-san never once released me, the seconds passing and this heart nearly exploding with the words, frustratingly barred from becoming more than swirling thoughts.

That dirty tengu’s wide-eyed gaze comes back to me, full of fear.

A moment of hesitation.

Mystia watches the food I’d just thrown to the ground, terrified and clutching to that human.

… I could have killed them so effortlessly…

Burning eyes, black holes and electrifying golden—a sword, blood. Executioner of my teacher… mother of two of my siblings, who’d nearly died alone in the forest.

My entire body jolts in silence, swallowing the words with broad eyes.

“—Hana-chan, don’t force yourself.” Yuuka whispers reach me, and they drip with worry and exhaustion. “That festival… I saw what remained of the village. You shouldn’t have gone through it, poor girl.” Her crimson shifts to the flowerpot, and there’s a crippling loneliness behind them. “… I recovered our flower. She called to me—so, so scared, yearning for the beautiful girl she’d been gifted to.” The rhythm of her sentences takes me away from the waking nightmare, tears not drying yet brows furrowing. “I… wasn’t there to protect either of you.” A moment of silence; she’s thinking… And soon, she sighs: “T-The events of that birthday party, they… They crippled my emotional state so deeply I didn’t know what to do with myself.” She breaks off the hug, and I long for the warmth of the love that simply poured from her as I sat back on the cushion. Aunn shifted, deep in slumber, and an attempt to smile beckons me: she watched me all night. “I couldn’t bring myself to visit Anon, even after everything your father has done for me, a-and such depression made me again lose sight of what was important—your protection.” Plagued by reluctant gracefulness, her idle hand rises and finds place on my cheek. I lean on it, visualizations of melted off masks and pointy horns fading slowly, eyes on Yuuka’s face ridden with guilt and apologies. “… But look at you, Hana-chan. I can’t even fathom what you went through, yet you survived it all! You survived a beast I am unsure I could’ve bested. It wasn’t without scars…” Her hand holding mine climbs, touching the bandages—Hieda’s rage phase, frenziedly swinging those chains of liquid thunderstorms. It chills my spine, a terror I swallow. “But that doesn’t matter. You’re still here. So, while you heal, my girl, please do not force yourself. I trust you to tell me all I need to know in time.” She stares almost pleadingly, my dried-off tears leaving behind trails and a pounding headache, the words simmering in my heart…

And peace.

Peace that, despite those words that linger like deep wounds, begs no hurry—arms taking me away, watching Father and Mother boasting sunny smiles, leaving without me… I couldn’t fix anything—

—Yuuka holding me amidst the darkness.

But I can fix this.

To the side, the heavenly flower shimmers faintly.

“… Yuuka-san,” I call her attention, fixing myself on the bed and being careful with my movements as to not wake up Aunn, then cleaning the remaining tears; the Flower Master mimics my movements, relieved by something… But that relief doesn’t reach me—the simmering wound boils droplets of blood that bubble to the surface. “I… at the birthday party, I… said some things.” It’s one of the least important things right now, yet between this and the festering wound, the bubbles feel much meek. “A-About Marisa-sensei and Father, how they’d form a…” Shame, burning and red. Yuuka definitely seems to understand what I’m about to say, and her relief drops. I grasp the blanket’s hem, just now noticing the intricate cartoonish star pattern layered onto it—we’re in the Moriyan Shrine, then. “… Good human couple.” I look at her, and though her features are despondent of the glistering relief, there’s still a light there—one I can’t place my fingers on. “… A-After everything I saw in Keine-sensei’s festival, I was wondering if…” A pause, tense and prolonged.

Yuuka chimes in softly, “If it hurt me?” All I can do is nod, the shame eating my insides like a voracious beast. “… It did, Hana-chan. It hurt me a lot.” A voracious beast that grew unsettling big, like the polished edge of a dagger about to chop my face off, an apology on the tip of my tongue— “I love your Father like you wouldn’t believe, Hana-chan. He was the man who remembered me I am more than my reputation—more than a monster—and you the girl I saw first as my responsibility… But now, as family in everything but blood.”

Such words halt every single function of my body, and I stare at Yuuka in awe and astonishment.

“… You two are the family I’ve always wished for, and I am ready to give everything I have to have that family—I’d be happy even if your father wouldn’t reciprocate my feelings, Hana-chan~just to be an important part of your lives… That’d be enough,” she pauses, pursing her lips and fighting off the tears. “The thought that none of that matters because of what I am… it broke my heart, Hana-chan.”

Words, please, any words! Anything to offset the paleness of my skin, the horror that coats my eyes. Yet, familiar rage grows; it wasn’t an l-lie, just the truth—

—Yuuka’s hand grips firmly. “But I do not blame you, Hana-chan.”

“… W-What?”

“Your entire life revolved around dealing with monsters like the one I was. What you grew up with and what you were taught to do for a living—ridding Gensokyo of problematic Youkai.” She eyes me and I drink of the love her reds spew—not an ounce of judgement in sight; it tastes too sweet. I want to throw up. “But anything can change, and it always starts with a shoulder for you to cry on~” A slight chuckle, though it’s short-lived. “… No matter how hurt I felt, I’d still give you all my unconditional love and support, hoping you’d change your mind about me, Hana-chan.”

Her words, her tone—her warmth…

… From all that, I expected fuzzy feelings—some quaint happiness to facilitate the overbearing feelings that stir inside like crazy.

Change…

All I felt was dread.

Change is something I’ve seen time and time again this last year. It started with the flickering embers of my rebellion against Mother’s tyranny, and before I even understood what was happening, everything was changing. The village has changed and became unrecognizable, trying to parse the old and the new fills me with… fright; Mother has changed—that worry in her eyes; her tears and words of suicide; and the time we’ve spent together—

—Change, complete and utterly. Good and bad.

Unstoppable.

The simmering wound in my heart writhes and lashes against the walls of flesh around it, terror towards her response to my apologies still a smoldering hollow; all this pain, whimpering and staggering, pointing at invisible shackles that, under Yuuka-san’s tearful gaze and gentle smile, grow and grow like sown seeds.

Everything is changing, even me…

… But I never wanted that.

I never wanted to change what I am—this Hana Hakurei!

Because…

The festering wound swells, and the infection and its blight, sickly yellow—plumes of death, rolling and consuming—try to hold me back. Fear like nothing else; fear that rises the stomach acid.

Fear that tries to chain me down.

“Hana-chan,” her voice calls me, and though the dread does not dissipate, the red of her eyes never leaves me—as if beauty that triumphed even the heavenly flower to her side—the warmth of her hand. “… If you feel it is the time… then talk to me, would you?”

“… I-I…”

Eyes fall on Aunn’s soft green hair; Yuuka’s grip is vice-like yet also so gentle, like the crater of a meteor reclaimed by nature, draining me of inner fight. Hieda’s words and foul visage echo; Aunn stands by me as my heart collapses. Yukari had just destroyed the illusion, peeled off the charade as she’s done with my clothes, and Yuuka never left my side—a lifetime of horror, this one second holding her hand…

“I’m a-afraid,” I gasp, not believing my words. “Afraid that… Changing what I am—what I have always been—” Blood runs down a broken nose; mother watches with rage unlike any other. Inside, burns defiance. “—I’ll end up becoming like her.”

There’s no need of name; Yuuka understands.

My heart heaves and my body shrinks with memories both new and old, a churning mess that seems to be a defining characteristic of my life, clinging to the Flower Master’s comforting touch to not fall into this sudden pit of misery that’d opened where once stood a bed. Shame, ardent and twisting, its origins unknown—something deep down knows that’s not truth and though the chains holding me down hurt like spasming worms on fire, the reality of my words threatens to create even more chains.

The truth, the festering wound.

Yuuka opens her mouth, about to say something, but a small and faint knock on the door—might’ve had been thunder, my mind springing back from the ether—, her mouth hanging agape for a moment before, retracting her hand, standing tall. “Such a small knock must belong to one of Alice’s dolls. They’ll be checking for any lasting damage in your body, Hana-chan,” her crimson eyes dart to the hidden scar in my arm, a trinket from the Hieda fight… Her eyes narrow with flaring disappointment. “If I was there…” A low mumble that is followed by a second knock on the door, Yuuka tsking and staring at me, my throat clenching— “… There was a time Reimu-san was a good person.”

A pause, body freezing and eyes staring at Yuuka in puzzlement. She bites her lower lip before continuing, a resolute light shining in her eyes.

“She solved incidents, helped those who wanted to be helped and would do her job efficiently despite her laziness… She was not perfect by any means—no one is—but she tried her best anyway, and she was relished by her friends. Yet, there were always signs. Signs of something bad to come.” She sighs inwardly. “… Some believe she simply turned into a monster with the flicker of a switch, but I know what a facade looks like—how to spot a corpse party. I know what it is to struggle against demons.” Yuuka paces a bit, studying my face; her stern gaze sapped off humour. Only traces of tears and regrets remain. “Your mother lost the struggle and, rather than trying again and again—they say you Shrine Maidens have three lives~—she… gave up to desolation.” Another knock, one that goes unheard. “She stagnated in her debasement, refusing again and again to change her ways, and so she let the demons mold her into one of them.”

In Yuuka’s eyes danced demons of the same cut of cloth—yet, demons worse than anything I’ve ever seen, Shrine Maiden instincts paralyzed and human nature shivering in face of imminent danger—an odd feeling washing over me, like déjà vu.

But nothing came off that gaze.

Yuuka shifted her eyes away from me and, gingerly, moved to the door. “… I’ll support you for as long as I live, Hana-chan, so be not afraid—but only you can save yourself from following your mother’s path.” A move of her wrist and the spell shatters, the doors opening and giving way for the dolls to invade the room en masse. One—Shanghai, if I’m not mistaken—stood by Yuuka to hand over to her a letter.

She nods, and then, with a last smile towards me, leaves…

… But not entirely, for her words remain, ricocheting against the bone of my skull and piercing the jello of the brain with a myriad of thoughts, the infatuated dolls assessing my condition through hugs and silent bodily gestures. Amusing as it all was—even Aunn woke up and was all over me, overjoyed that I’m awake… My sister—I didn’t feel… here. Rather, drifting alone with those thoughts on the sea of my mind.

Change, stagnation…

My eyes often would move to the three trinkets perched on the side table, an indistinguishable feeling rushing up and down this body, thoughts gaining purchase with drooped eyes and a rumbling mind, lingering first on the destroyed hairpin Father made me—things used to be so easy in the past. The path was clear; lines maintained, pain was bearable and familiar. The past was good—then on the tattered rag of the most vibrant, now ashen, green, given to me by her—everything has changed. It’s unrecognizable. Envy overflows at the remembrance of Mother and Father holding that cat; utter rage and perplexity at Keine-sensei’s revelations… A Youkai brother and sister, blood of my blood… Yukari, the things she’s done to me, to my Father. This present is tearing me apart, a spreading infection that outgrew its petri dish—and, finally, the pristine flower.

The future has promises…

… It nearly got snuffed in the fires of the festival.

A melting mask of putrescence rejoices, choking laughter echoing from deep within, provoking the festering wound with so much righteous rage of this damned world and the things it has laid upon me.

If only all the monsters would’ve burned down…

… But this is also my home. A home of pain and torture, of people that, until last year, stood by as atrocities took place in the shrine—a place of soft arms and purple eyes, her lips calling my name—but my home nonetheless. I don’t want to set this world on fire like that hideous visage begs me to.

Yet, swinging this pendulum to the other side, embracing the change that beckons their supportive whisperings, their showering of positive energy, praying me to become a better version of myself…

A towering monolith of flames and death, Mother silhouette there.

Enough to take away the breath of my lungs and clench every fiber of my being.

Amidst this hell, I recall pinkish hair and warm flesh, and the fires die down with the wave of guilt that rolls forth, eyes fixating on the flower… Forcibly taken advantage of, a slave to factors out of your control, holding enough power to change them yet unable to do anything.

… Do you feel the same way, Kasen-nee?

I’d like to know.

A-And… to say I’m so—

“Hana-chan?” Aunn’s voice calls me, my eyes darting from the angelic bloom to her greenish eyes brimming with curiosity and concern. “… Are you okay?”

I pause, if for a moment.

Then, smile, pushing away one doll that’d clung to my nose, taking the chopsticks to my mouth, the meal brought by the dolls, and munching on the tasty meat—everything is always tasty in the Moriya Shrine.

If only I had been born Sanae-san’s daughter…

“I’m fine, Aunn. Just a little shaken.”

>>48196535
>>48196527
>>48196518
>>48196506
>>48196499
well, the deadline was met and nothing of him. This sucks, and I feel empty, but that's life; unexpected to the mega. Will hold dear to the memories of writing this project together with him, but life goes on.
first draft picked up immediately where he stopped and I had more or less twenty chapters planned to the end, but decided against it since, conveniently, Hanaanon stopped around where Hana became a focus in the festival, so everything she did is already documented, meaning it'll be more effective to explore that trauma as a blur of memory rather than the here and now. Will be posting the next batch and penultimate entry in her storyline in the following days, with the third batch being the last.
which means it'll be all main characters ready for the Solstice.
hopefully it isn't what will tear Hana apart completely; the levels of trauma are off the chart~!

GUYS! GUYS! I'VE FIGURED OUT WHAT'S GOING ON.
THE REAL REASON THE THREADS HAVE SLOWN DOWN BECAUSE YUKARI IS TRYING TO KILL THE WRITERS BEFORE THEY

>>48204767
we went on our own 40 (60) days trip across the desert and survived, so the hag is doing a substandard job.
though she did snag Ayaanon, Mimaanon and Hanaanon, what a fearsome old lady...

>>48204767
I wonder if the archive guy is still here he hasn't updated since the birthday event

>>48205169
decided to refrain from posting for the duration of the waiting period since it was apparent the cycle of 3 weeks per thread was getting nuked. 32 is already edited, 33 is on standby and we're just starting 34, probably our last of threads before the solstice if I'm reading the writing on the wall correctly.

>>48196499
>>48196506
>>48196518
>>48196527
Hana's abandonment issues spring up again, she's thinking her parents won't love her at the end of all of this after all she's done. It's nice to see Yuuka again, and she's helping Hana confront her far of turning into a monster like Hieda or Reimu, good for her. Who knows, maybe she'll end being slightly less racist to all her siblings by the end of all of this!

>they say you Shrine Maidens have three lives
Heh, nice one with this.

>>48196542
It's unfortunate that he dipped out without saying anything, but in the end this is just a hobby project and people are free to back out and take breaks if they have to and they don't have to prioritize it above their other duties. Just hope he's doing well, his work is much appreciated.

>>48207579
>Who knows, maybe she'll end being slightly less racist to all her siblings by the end of all of this!
That's fanfic inside a fanfic lol

deleted 2k words today, feels good to be back on writing~

The girl—woman? Child…?—in the mirror stares back at me with owlish eyes and a stiff posture, sitting down like a gingerbread biscuit that’d stayed too long in the oven. Her rare skin is white as dough, and, unlike the usual red and white condiments, the baker has used blue and white for her clothes, starry patterns and half-done constellations on the blue of her skirt and the middle of the sleeveless shirt, her detached sleeves also embroidered in cosmic over deep lazuli. Shoes of black and high socks of white majorly stood out, hair undone with the lack of a clover hairpin and the Hakurei bands… Change, inevitable.

A confusing feeling echoed inside as I gazed at the uniform of the Moriyan shrine gripping to my flesh—a nearly perfect fit. Irony sears the exposed skin with how wrong and… right this feels.

The Hakurei God’s blessing resonates inside of me—I share it with Youkai of all things—and the malnourished seed of Mima’s faith, small yet existent, writhes… and here I am, wearing another Goddesses outfit. Kanako touches her chin as she measures me up for the umpteenth time, making sure nothing was out of place and I was presentable, a contrast compared to how mighty she displayed herself around the other young mikos. But that’s expected. Those mikos wear their emotions on their sleeves—Sanae is busy taking care of them and their traumas, as Suwako-sama told me before she left to attend some type of meeting she didn't elaborate on with a tengu—but I… “Something wrong, my girl?” Kanako-sama asks, hands resting on my shoulders as she stands behind me, the reflection on the mirror a sobering view: she towers over me both in width, stature and poise, incarnate fury of the sky, yet with a venerable truth in her red eyes. Everything ‘her’ is enough to make one hold their breaths to the point it burns… and burn it does, the Whispering Decay enveloping my taste buds with the remembrance of me laid on the ground and about to be butchered like a pig.

I feel small. “I-It’s nothing, Kanako-sama.” She doesn’t buy my muttered words. Aunn, a little ways behind, watched the exchange with a frown while some dolls replicated Kanako-sama’s movements on her wild mane of green.

She paces away, towards the mountain of neatly organized clothes and accessories of all types—stars spanning the whole rainbow, clips, pins, and barrettes. An entire room dedicated to beautifying the face and features… If I had been born from Sanae, I doubt this feeling of non-belonging would be pestering me—and breathes. “If you don’t feel comfortable in my shrine’s outfit, I can get you something else.” There’s an edge to that voice—the same edge's been there since she came to fetch me from ‘my’ room, a gaze I’ve seen my entire life and can easily recognize.

She's withholding a secret.

“No, it’s fine; I just… am thinking about what I’ll do next.”

Kanako-sama pauses briefly, silence besides the dolls’ erratic and excited movements growing, but one that lasts until she returns with a—a-a pink headband?! A shock-pink laden with imagery of flowers and a cartoonish white cat, probably from the Outside World. “Any ideas in this cute little head of yours? Though you should stay around here to rest from the festival.” She speaks lightheartedly, posing the pink abomination over my forehead; her eyes squint, and, gladly, before I can say one word, she tosses it away and goes to fetch something else… hopefully something more tasteful.

But that doesn’t matter. An idea born from the festering wound in my heart—even rubbish can grow life, no matter if such life is mold—swirls in my head, spiky in execution and brimming with guilt like an overflowing basin, yet… It’s something I need—must—do. Kanako-sama returns and even before the words leave me, her gentle digits combing my hair to test if the pin she holds would suit, I can see her reflected eyes narrowing.

No sense in hiding; she knows something’s up.

My hands press firmly on the white skirt, heart throbs, and I say with a soft tremble: “I want to visit Kasen-nee.”

The effect is immediate, and the view of a true goddess stiffening like a statue is… disturbing. I knew it’d be bad from the moment the idea popped up, loaded with guilt and stark mental imagery of lust, but the way she just stops, mirrored eyes widening for but a moment before squinting into a knife’s edge, cold and unfeeling—or maybe feeling too much—makes my stomach churn with dread and a desire to throw up, the justification unable to leave me as, before any of us could say anything, Aunn yelled, stressed: “W-What?! Why?!”

“Yes, Hana—why exactly would you want to visit our enemy?” There’s another question hidden beneath the surface of her intonation, and I swallowed dryly the jarring, exhaustive rage that sprung up: why do I need to explain myself to her?

Such rage shut down with the mere sound of ‘enemy’.

Kasen-nee isn’t an enemy! She’s a victim to all this, like Father and me…

… Someone I took advantage of and raped.

But Kanako-sama wouldn’t take that for an answer, her body still towering behind me and making me feel small—gee, her breasts are so big too… Nah! Focus, Hana! Focus—, her slim yet strong hands holding the shiny accessories frozen as if painting. The wordlines allowed me to see Aunn’s face and the utter dread her features harbored, and even the dolls had changed their childish and carefree demeanor, watching me with dead eyes.

Watched from all sides, the silence felt bloated with pressure, my heart rate skyrocketing, hands sweating, and I watch the girl—woman? Child…—in the mirror with a single thought consuming me: this feels like a prison.

Then, a thought that catches fire and swiftly turns to ash, mangled before it could take roots. Here isn’t a prison! This is the Moriya Shrine; I’d know what a prison feels like; I lived in one for 16 years of my life. Just because I have to explain myself and answer some questions doesn’t mean it’s a prison… The talk with Suwako-sama is still fresh in my mind: a fracture in processing of scarring, but that’ll never close up if I don’t go up to Kasen-nee and… Do something. Say I am so, so sorry for her and K-Koutei-san… “I-I'll talk to Kasen-san to figure… things out.” Thumbs twinddle with one another; my posture shuts.

“Is that really a good idea, Hana? I could see the vision before the festival,” the wind carried answers of all varieties, her facial features, though stern, also gentle. She heard me and Suwako-sama that day. “But you got affected dearly by what happened. You shouldn’t go around tackling difficult topics while not in a fit state of mind.” Aunn frowns slightly, though says nothing, which is good because I can barely pay attention to something but the anger that flares up inside. I’m in a good mind, am I not? I don’t see the same details I saw in the mirror that day before Yukari came and… T-That cursed expression of loss, of powerlessness. No! I was there to witness Hieda’s destruction; I saved sensei, no matter how much they teased me afterwards for fighting in the ‘easy’ zone—which doesn’t even exist!—a-and, and… And many other things.

“I-I’m good, Kanako-sama. I feel better than ever, actually.” Shoulders try to firm themselves, an attempt to reinforce my posture, though a foolish endeavor with Kanako-sama standing right behind me… But when was it different? The shadow of Mother, massive; Yukari’s looming presence; Kasen-nee’s body on top of mine—n-no, not that!

Sensei's gaze…

Always under someone else's shadow…

Kanako sighs, taking away the accessories she holds and switching them to a small miniature of a frog—a perfect copy of Sanae’s—, positioning it silently where once the Hakurei pin stood, and… Still in silence, all the rage drained, shoulders dropping. “No need to lie to me, Hana-chan. I understand, sometimes, there are things we must see through no matter what, and you’re a brave girl for not shying away from difficult topics.” She pauses, focusing on the mirror. A moment later I see a smile spread on her face as, effortlessly, she adjusted the pin onto my hair, hands now resting on my shoulders. “… Ah. Suwako probably would say something like, ‘Not like we can stop her’.” A moment of hope, crushed by those eyes of hers hardening. “But if you’re going to pay Kasen a visit, either we’re getting her here or you aren’t going alone.”

“W-What?” I turn to her, bending my neck so our eyes connected. “I can go alone; there’s no harm—”

“There is: Kasen is with Yukari.” I wince at her tone, the goddess never losing the severity of her stance. “And last time you were in danger, only dumb luck saved your skin—you should’ve summoned me and Suwako the moment you saw Sanae getting shot.” Another wince, the room blossoming with feelings that made me cringe. “Talking to Kasen in the situation we find ourselves in is dangerous, Hana-chan. Suwako may think she’s still the same as before, but I doubt it—I promised your mother that I would take care of you, and I’m not about to let you go against unknown circumstances by your loneself.” She speaks more words, but those ‘I promised your mother…’ deafen me.

Of course that was the case. Mother and Sanae talked before I came here; of course she’d have been the one letting Sanae take me here after I passed out.

It’d be her controlling my every move.

Rage.

Impossible rage, spreading through the festering wound in my heart like the plague, infecting all synapses and muscle tissue. My eyes never move away from Kanako-sama’s…

… I see in her eyes the reflection of mine. I see a bomb about to explode.

She understands, body jerking: “Hana, you—”

Her voice barely reaches me as the wordlines shift and, by the fraction of the next moment, I’m gone from the chair and the room—and still was by the skin of my teeth, thundering heart and mind parsing Kanako-sama’s movements: she nearly got a hold of me! In the goddamn wordlines! And Kanako-sama isn’t even the strongest in the Solstice…

How absurdly outmatched am I?

No matter. I ignore the non-Euclidean tears that stream down my face into the messy ether of millions of square kilometers of contained land, and people disintegrated and reformed onto themselves as I move between the 'empty' space of the Moriya Shrine, ancient magic, seals, and curses impossible to breach even in this non-Euclidean vacuum, meaning I had to maddeningly scramble out for an actual exit—a breach half the size of a grain of rice would be more than enough—, though not without outside interference. Traveling through non-Euclidean space doesn’t mean I don’t have to breathe still, but the moment I tried to pull in air, I could sense Kanako-sama’s divinity turning to me, her powers trying to wrestle me out of the wordlines forcibly, like heavy chains and—NO! NO! NO CHAINS!

I bate my breath, body quaking and mind howling; Suwako-sama already knows about me and is searching as well, but by the time she enters the fray it’s too late: the Moriyan defenses are top-tier and beyond anything I’ve ever learned from either Mother or Yukari, but no defense can be perfect, and soon that miniscule breach appears—wait, how? I checked this spot twelve times. Why did this gap between two major curses just… spawn out of nowhere? No matter, it's here and I can use it—; mind's eye recalling Sanae’s legendary, though failed, sealing of Fujiwara no Mokou; her shrine maiden powers so unfathomably strong she summoned the lore of her religion as means to hold down a rampaging monster.

When will I be that strong? Will I ever…?

Maybe never.

But right now, I’m strong enough to cruise through the breach I found—

—And the worldlines expand into the actual entire world.

Right here, right now, I could be anywhere; I could be anything.

Freedom in the very essence of the word.

Yet, I cry as the echoing wordlines stir with Kanako-sama’s worries, Suwako-sama imprinting marks of curses on the fabric of existence as a means to make me hear: ‘Hana-chan, let's talk about this’, mind wriggling with desire to answer them, to stop with whatever stupid thing I’m doing—why am even running away from them? It's not reasonable! They're such good people to me! A-And Kanako-sama said we could bring K-Kasen-nee to the shrine; why am I doing this?—and just…

Go back to the vast shadows of others.

Like always.

I’m sorry, Sanae-san, K-Kanako-sama, Suwako-sama…

I am the freest person alive right here and right now, yet my heart begs to remain chained.

Hieda’s maddening cackle echoes with insurmountable thunders, holding a knife to my face and about to peel it off.

Helpless.

Mother’s flames tower, their inherent magic incomprehensible; her fist has just broken my nose; she stands there, watching like a hawk as I kneel on the mud, tears overflowing, and retrieve all the offerings I had accidentally let fall to the ground. Mother cries, knees on the wood, and begs me for forgiveness—on my body the white clothes of Yakumo Yukari.

Outmatched.

Yukari clutches me like an object, eyes watching from every angle; she touches me, explores the depths of my femininity, and, triumphantly, whispers sweet nothings into my ears. Father cries somewhere among all this.

… Powerless over my fate, the fate of my Father.

In impossible wordlines, the clothes of the Moriyan Shrine remain static yet shimmering nonetheless on the weak sunlight, no speck of air wafting them—left hand reaches into my pocket—I see myself in Yakumo’s clothes, white and pristine, like a presented doll—I gently grasp the destroyed hairpin and torn ascot—and I see myself in the Hakurei red, something I was born into; never a choice.

Shadows dance, pull me uncontrollably.

They try to chain me down in their fire; their wrath and lust; their compassion—their everything.

They beg me to change.

In the infinite expanse of the wordlines, a world collapsed unto itself and frozen in time, I am the freest I could ever be.

I alone remain unchained.

This power…

I bare my teeth, clasping the two broken trinkets, and fly the fastest I can to Kasen-nee’s Senkai. Suwako-sama and Kanako-sama already must be on their way, but I am quicker and can go through the entrance without any problems.

I’ll have just a few minutes—

—The shocking shift from bitter winter to pleasant spring pulls me out of the wordlines like a jagged shovel digs a hole, body tumbling and rolling on the grass and dirt for the better part of two seconds. Thanks to adrenaline, the worst wounds and rashes are but inconveniences; purple lungs drinking of the tepid air with gusto, a momentary sadness bubbling inside with the few rips in my once pristine outfit… I’m so quick to destroy everything I own.

It doesn’t matter. Not here, not right now.

Not when Mother's shadow seeks to loom over me again.

“Kasen-nee!” I yell towards the immense, slumbering dojo, the temperatures drastically cooling around me in answer, something barely perceptible with the sharp creaking of my lungs and throbbing mind. “I’ve c-come to talk to you!”

>>48218569
>>48218547
>>48218543
this is half of the next batch because it felt it'd work better as a stand alone. Now back to rewriting~

do you guys read this shit or is it just one guy posting it like this is his own blog

>>48218543
>>48218547
>>48218569
Poor Hana, that girl can't catch a break. Not even Kanako's attempt at being a mom helped her. But there's an awkward conversion coming up for sure with Kasen and Hana.

>>48221879
It's three guys

>>48225062
is it only three now? Hananon, Seijanon, and Guy-Who-Writes-Everythingnon?
Guess that's what happens when you drag something out this long.

>>48222215
That's the power of autism at play, bitch literally fucked her nice new clothes because she was pissy at being treated like a teen

>>48225077
Hananon and Mimanon are gone, possibly dead due to living in the us and being hit by multiple natural disasters.
Takaneanon and Ayaanon are still here trying to write as well, Suzuanon might be here but last we heard from them social obligations are keeping them busy.
Patchyanon takes around 4 months to finish writing and is one of the most wanked writers here, so we might get another batch out of them before this is all over.
And then there's Guy-Who-Writes-Everythingnon(Kieneanon(?)) who basically owns the project now that everybody else is gone.
So it's a three with an asterisk attached, 3*
Writer attrition has been happening for a while, the great leaving where a bunch of now former writers basically jumped off ship formally, and the he who should not be named situation are just the most notable examples I can think of off the top of my head. I don't think anyone individually is entirely to blame but some like he who should not be named along with Kieneanon shoulder more fault than others.
Although for my part, I stopped reading when the Kiene story started taking over everything and I've struggled with paying attention ever since, efficiently taking a multi-month break to focus on an entirely new set of characters who have their own climax and resolution gives the story a sense of finality to me.
The climax of the story already happened, and we know how the rest is going to go, so... Honestly I don't know why I've stuck around occasionally bumping and trying to keep up with these threads anymore, but I'll probably end up staying here to the end even if I have no idea whats going on anymore.

>>48188383
"Noise or an assassin, noise or an emissary, noise or a ...." I repeat to myself as I walk through the halls of the Kamishirasawa estate.
Having good hearing served me well in politics, listening to heartbeats to tell apart lies and preparing for troublesome officials long before they arrived at my desk. But it also tended to pick up more confusing things, like sounds that had no explanations, just noise.
In particular, for the last ten or so minutes, I've heard the same set of footsteps walking away, never toward, the HSE in a predictable, oscillating, but always descending fashion. This was either the strange doing of some stray youkai, my own mind addled by the stress of founding a new government, or a very cruel and specific practical joke.
"Your highness, guests have arrived." A guard called called to me as I approached him.
"If it's not urgent, send them away. It's far too late for Keine to receive an audience." I told them, wanting to protect my co-conspirators health just a bit.
For a moment the guard's face squirmed, before he moved his broad frame to reveal one man who had a woman, floating and clinging, to his neck from behind. Both wore Yakumo symbols.
"You are dismissed." I told the guard, who was all too grateful to return to his post. "And the both of you, why is it that you've come, Seija, Goro, did your Mistress not already visit us?" I asked them.
"So cold Crown Prince, and after we haven't seen each other in ages? I've merely come to pay a visit to my former Sensei." Goro said casually.
A social visit? Or, was a mission by Yukari to lay on more pressure to force us to act? Perhaps neither, after all, If it were an intimidation mission, then why not chose the mob boss instead? And even if Keine knew him, why wouldn't he send a letter first to know he meant no ill will? Or was it that he was desperate for help?
No, even putting motive aside, since I had last seen these two the air around them had changed dramatically. They weren't at each other throats, on the contrary, energy seemed to circulate between them in a strange pattern unlike any I've seen before. Was this an experiment by Yukari? Were they victims of her somehow? And if they were, could they be unwitting throwaway assassins?
"Ah, forgive me. There's been quite a lot of work recently and hospitality pays the price so that the people do not. Come, I'll show you to Keine." I said, inviting them along.
From what I could tell, they weren't being controlled and didn't seem to be any sort of time-bomb, what's more, even in the worst case, this was an opportunity to remove some 'jokers' from the Yakumo deck. By myself, I could probably defeat the both of them, but with Mokou and Keine in the same room it'd be over in an instant and I had a few ideas on how to make it look like an accident. I signaled a guard to call the two to a meeting room.
"Say, did you happen to walk away from this building ten or so times without approaching?" I asked him, some light conversation to ease the mood.
"You picked up on that? Sorry to annoy you, we wanted to do a test and needed someone with more delicate ears and proper discretion to listen." Goro said.
'Coy bastard' I thought, as I heard him stretch the 'l' in 'delicate' and the 's' in 'discretion', a simple slip of the tongue for most, but for a broker such as him, surely a signal. Had they come to betray their mistress?
"You'll figure out soon enough." Seija finally spoke, lifting her head from the man's neck. "Is that Bibliophile here?" She asked.
"Kosuzu? No she left for the day." I said.
The Jaku sighed, reached into the man's robe to pull out a thin black book, and handed it to me. "Tell her she did a good job not eating dirt and give this to her, it's a return." Seija said, putting her face right back to the man's neck.
"Of course." I said, turning the book over in my hand.
"'An Invitation to Curse Theory', a book on the theory and practice of creating, expelling, and the lifecycle of hexes, well, from the author's perspective at least. Theologically, I think Taoist or Buddhist might find fault in his explanations." Goro answered, anticipating my next question.
"You two sure the make the rounds don't you?" I told them.
"Do we? I think most people are steeping outside their domains more often these days." Goro shrugged.
My worries evaporated. I'd been on edge since it seemed like whatever strange phenomenon surround the two obscured their desires, but two strong wants stood out the most: "I want to see Sensei" and "I want to burry my face in his back". It wasn't anything to agonize over.
Still, as I opened the door to the meeting room and saw that Keine and Mokou had brought their children, I wondered if I should've kept up the serious act.

Just gotta get through it, just gotta get through it, just gotta get...

>>48230068
wait, weren't Kiene and Mokou fucking after that whole meeting with Yukari? Insane that Goro would cockblock his own sensei

>>48231616
You know, I thought to say something like:
>This takes place a few days afterwards
But instead, I'm just not gonna specify and leave it up for interpretation. The HSE could use some cock blocking frankly.

>>48234158
>The HSE could use some cock blocking frankly.
this reminded me of the cursed Shanghai one-shot and how Yukari cock blocked their cuddling post-sex...
... I wish it hadn't.

>>48236147
The Shanghai posting truly was quality.

Hello, yes, Do I have your attention?
Good, I'd like to inform you of something Anon.
This thread has not but one, but two themes. An opening theme and a boss theme for Sekai.
Respectively they are Neil Cicieregai's Musical Chairs and https://youtu.be/AOsIMvEq788?si

>>48244485
>Generic
that's so mean!

>>48244485
>he didn't post her actual boss theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jM-tpLMI9g

>>48248484
Is this a wip?

bump

>>48255877
always someone to steal your page 10 bump...
not like I've finished editing still, though~

>>48255899
>not like I've finished editing still, though~
Should be
>Although, it's not like I've finished editing yet.
But please, keep at it. If your unedited work has the same level of quality as that sentence I quoted, then I don't want to see it.

>>48256064
this gotta be one of the most disproportionate reactions to a minor spelling mistake I've ever seen, geez dude. I was being casual with that reply and wrote it without paying much mind, no need for that cringy, reddit-tier passive-aggressive addendum.

>>48256756
>cringy, reddit-tier passive-aggressive addendum
Do you realize what thread you are posting in, correct?

The moment the words left me, I felt the familiar chill of being watched, body unable to as much as spasm as my frenzied breathing continued to draw upon the tepid air of spring with need, yet my eyes met those that appeared first: slit pupils, the predatory stare of dangerous animals, thrown at me from a tiger whose head reared from the bushes surrounding the dojo, and the gawking eyes of a massive falcon or eagle, silently watching and ready to swoop in. But they do not move or pounce, for another pair of eyes shapes itself in the cold, chills straightening my spine and drawing from within bitter memories that snuffed the warmth of spring. I swallowed dry, instinctively reaching for my gohei—

“—Do not, Hana.” Her voice stops me immediately, the front door of the dojo opening by itself, leading into pure darkness. Words formed on the roof of my mouth but remained unspoken. “Are you properly dressed?”

“… Yes, I am.”

A moment of silence. Then: “Yukari sent you?”

“No, I…” as the moments drag on, those malformed words gain luster. “I-I wanted to see you, Kasen-nee, a-and…” I feel misplaced, lost, floating down an invisible river. A nightmare echoes with images from that night the Sage of Backdoors appeared before us; her words, Mother’s reaction—noticing now how my right hand had lifted, clutching so tightly to my forearm—, and I whisper, strained: “… I heard about K-Koutei-san.”

Kasen-nee doesn’t answer, but her animals seem to react. The tiger’s piercing gaze dies down and his head disappears into the bushes, a note of sadness in the act; the eagle had already lifted flight, disappearing amidst the perfectly eternal spring of the Senkai… Immediately, though, my attention shifted to the overbearing darkness of the open doors, breath bated as that dimness molded into a silhouette, and the silhouette molded into a woman… A woman whose whole existence screamed exhaustion, shoulders dropped and brows furrowed; pink eyes and hair alike dull as ash, the latter caked with old blood, mouth a thin line and cheeks sunk; posture normally tall and stern diminished into the frailest of clay mounds and… I had to squint, but soon understood that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me: twin broken horns adorned her head, bloodied and jagged.

Yes, of course. Kasen Ibaraki was—is—an oni.

The melted mask clung onto her sunken features, and it took all of me to not throw up.

“Sorry for the terrible presentation.” There was an attempt to make her voice sound strong, one that failed; her steps toward me bearing a discernible emotional limp yet never faltering. This is what a woman at her limit looks like. “… I haven’t been in my best for quite a while now, and… You know why already, don’t you?” Nothing comes out of my mouth as she places herself in front of me, about half a meter between us. “No one seems to be in their best recently, actually. Everything feels like crumbling apart—” Whatever she intended to say next vanishes in her throat, and she shrugs, sighing frustrated. The flower on her bosom looks withered. “How did you come to know? Yukari told you?”

“N-No, there’s nothing to do with Yukari! I-I… I have distanced myself from her… D-Din't she tell you?” Kasen-nee’s eyes reveal nothing; her gaze peels skin off my body. Sweat pours down my nape; my knees jerk and threaten to fold like paper, and the frayed clothes feel heavy. I shouldn’t have come here alone. I don’t know what to say or how to a-apologize—the things I've heard about Koutei-san, Yukari’s cruelty, the things I’ve done to Kasen-nee… I-I should’ve listened to Kanako-san! This was such a mistake! I’m standing here like a stupid girl, heart pounding with the inevitability that is the Moriyans arrival here sooner than later, Kasen-nee watching me from above yet I cannot even match her sta—

“Compose yourself, Hana!” The yell drains me of soul, my body jolting backwards, and broad eyes all over her. The impassivity is gone, her features morphing into… Sadness. Incomprehensible sadness, but one that doesn’t burden her body; one that doesn’t consume, chew, and spit out a hollow shell of a person.

It feels like resentful sadness.

“Did you go into the Underground?” A fleeting thought wonders why the manner I came to know of him matters. The rational part of my brain loudly yells ‘don't’. “Was it Okina?” I give a quick nod, which Kasen mimics, though striking a pensive face; my eyes stray to the stubs welded to her hair—hidden before by those white buns—the wordlines showing open veins and coagulated material like that of nails, if denser. The horns were big with such wide bases, and who tore them off her head wasn’t gentle. Only a handful of strong people capable of doing so come to mind, my stomach churning with the imagery of Yukari’s violent gaze of purple…

But then Kasen turns and walks off to the side, following a path towards a cliff overlooking an idyllic spring on Youkai Mountain. Tense, confused, and a little shocked, I followed.

A pestering yet nudging knowledge accompanied the few seconds of walk, taking form in the notion that, sooner than later, the Moriyans would find their way here and… What’ll happen next I don’t know, and trying to think of possibilities makes the aforementioned churning grow into a devouring sandpit, legs wobbly and sinking, mind running circles and burning feverish—yet, compared to the thought of staying put and letting others take personal matters of mine into their hands, make decisions that'll impact my whole life without me having to lift a finger…

This sickening rage was preferable to that insane, mounting helplessness.

So much rage, too. What are its origins? All that comes to mind are the walls of the Shrine.

Thick bushes, lush ferns and flowers of all types around us, all sprung and blossoming, eyes gazing at Kasen-nee’s movements as she followed the trail sunk into earth—sulks that dug deeper into the soil the further we got to the cliff—, words fermenting both in the roof of my mouth and scattered throughout my mind, though not finding a way out… “Y-You seemed interested in how I knew of Koutei-san.” I ignore my brain beating itself.

“I wanted to know the extension of his suffering through you,” I tremble. W-What? “Yukari wouldn’t trust you anything, which I’d already figured out—more, you wouldn’t be in those clothes if she still cared.” Her tone is unflinching yet glum; her pace steady yet heavy. “… Okina would’ve gotten involved and sought ways to get rid of Koutei next. If it weren’t her, I’d imagine either Suwako-sama or Kanako-sama, or then…” We reach the edge of the pathway, the vision of a beautifully illuminated and blossoming Gensokyo sprawled in front of me—the sulks were also massive, to the point I had to slide a little on the dirt to reach the bottom. “Okina contacted you directly or tried to get to Reimu through you?” Carelessly, she kneels into an easy meditative pose with clear practice, her voice carrying skepticism.

“You think she’d have failed if she'd tried to…?” The question leaves me before I can properly parse it out, her head moving to give me a sidelong glance of bafflement.

“Do you?”

A seed of a question, which my answer would make into either a tree or a rose. A block of cold heaves my stomach—Mother, crying and begging for my forgiveness—and, in my heart, the infection spreads—Mother screaming, the smell of strong alcohol and Father’s whimpering—, mouth shut as, slowly, I mimic Kasen-nee’s pose, two meters apart and hands hard-pressed on my knees… The night alone we spent, her words, her gaze following that cursed meeting with the Goddess of Backdoors. I hadn’t even noticed my right hand reaching into my pocket and, gingerly, squeezing the tattered green rag. “She…” ‘She changed’, the words attempt to leave. “… S-She did exactly that. She was there with me, and O-Okina… She tried to use me to blackmail Mother into k-killing Koutei-san—I never wanted that, the things she almost revealed…” I am not staring at Kasen-nee as the words leave me, miko instincts screaming for me to not look upwards; if I were to look up, I may see a bonfire of thunderbolts—or maybe something worse. “But Mother t-told her off, and they struck a… deal.” And just like that, the feeling was gone, my head shooting up, an agonizingly morbid curiosity trying to get a glimpse of it.

Kasen-nee’s gaze is one part relief, one part…

“… I see,” she muses to herself, tears streaming across a stoic face. “My other sister sage tried to get him killed.” A pause, as if tasting the venom of such thoughts. The chains around her wrists clink ever so menacingly. “… You’ve never seen Koutei, right, Hana?” The question catches me off-guard, but I gesture a ‘no’, Kasen-nee turning her eyes back to the sun, shoulders threatening to drop. “I never expected him to return from his ethereal journey into the kingdom of the Dragon God. In the other side, he’d live eternally and grow much more powerful—like a true dragon, he’d develop and maybe one day promulgate a Gensokyo of his own,” she touches the sunken earth with her human hand reverently, a shadow of a smile crossing her face, my brows furrowing…

Then I glimpsed the edges of this small, sunken clearing and how even it all was, like the slope you’d often find in your pillow post-sleep.

… A spark of confusion, of sheer trepidation: the WHOLE clearing AND the serpentine path we followed for maybe twenty seconds…?

But the sight of Kasen-nee’s deep hurt as she tapped lightly the packed dirt was clue enough. “… How a-anything can be this big?” I whisper to myself, the feeling of insignificance prowling from inside. Keine-sensei had taught us the sizes of dragons, how they could cloud the skies, and that, compared to the actual Dragon God, the statue in the middle of the village was but a grain of rice.

To hear is one thing; to witness living proof is another.

… Mother will fight him in the Solstice; Yukari has enslaved a beast of such proportions.

My eyes glanced down, focusing on my hands, Kasen-nee’s fleeting chuckle barely reaching my mind consumed by a single thought: outmatched. Maybe forever outmatched. Forever living in the shadow of titans, with an uncertain future—Father in that sick parody of the shrine, his eyes full of sorrow as he pounds my insides—, the binding chains of fate smearing the name of Hakurei all over me, no matter if I wear the clothes of the Moriyan Shrine or Yukari's sick whites… And on top of everything—of this echoing laughter of a dead man and Yuuka’s words, demons dancing inside her eyes—inside my head I still hear the rustling of chains.

Stagnation, Yuuka had explained to me, demons dancing in her eyes: never able to move away from these shadows and… Become something more. But I-I don't want to be something more than Hana Hakurei! Trying to change the core, to shift things haphazardly and expect the result to be recognizable—the village is unrecognizable! Sensei, Mother!

… I don't want that…

It feels like falling eternally.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” My eyes flutter up, her voice laden with life—a painful juxtaposition with the dried-up blood covering her horns and hair. “… That such a powerful being would choose to return to me. What did he see in me? Was it nostalgia or an i-instinctive need that arose when I… when I watched him hatch from that egg?” Falling into a deep, dark hole with no way to climb out of it. “Or was it something else entirely? Duty—maybe… pity?” She lifts her bandaged arm, staring at it, my eyes unable to see her features. “Pity of everything I have lost along the ages and what I’ve become?” Her arm falls and, slowly, Kasen-nee turns to me. I can’t bear to look her in the eyes. “I saw you were looking at my broken horns. Sorry for this display…” A pause, and I nod, heart frozen and still falling. “I’m an Oni; one of the great fi—four of Youkai Mountain. I fought someone in the past and, in a stroke of luck, had my arm cut off and, with it, my Oni self. That day, I felt enlightened and thought that all bad, all evil of me was gone forever.” W-What… What is she doing? Trembling, I lift my eyes to meet hers. They’re overflowing with nauseating nostalgia. Terrible memories. “The seal broke a few decades ago, and when it did, I fought your mother. I almost killed her…” A moment of silence, her eyes flickering to the entrance of her Senkai, but nothing else. T-They are almost here… “Yet she saved me and repaired the seal, though it wasn’t a perfect craft.” She tries to study me, but a blush stops her. “But already knew all of that. Okina told you and Reimu-san, and… She told you how the weakness of this seal materializes, didn’t she?”

The lust. The uncontrollable lust that got her enslaved by Yukari.

There is no answer, and Kasen-nee’s eyes glow with understanding, but not surprise—those words when I got here… The consuming darkness grew unwieldy. It’s too much. “Sorry… I-I’m so s-sorry, Kasen-nee, I…” Body trembling, heart clenching, mind conscious of every torn hole in these new clothes and her efforts to avert her gaze. Everything I touch, I destroy. “I-I took part in your pain—I-I didn’t know, I’m so sorry—and… I was so stupid! I should’ve known something was up—that Yukari had set me up!” Tone raising, chest pounding, and, before I knew it, my forehead hit the dirt, my body prostrated. “I AM SORRY, PLEASE! I’M SO SORRY! I—DAD! I RAPED YOU, I RAPED MY D-DAD!” WHY?! H-How?! The words just left me before I understood them! W-Why did they… A maelstrom rippling inside my mind, no answer springing up despite how much I sought it; all the while I kept babbling, mouth a maniacal worm, squirming and wriggling amidst small tears.

Yet, it feels… right.

“Y-Yukari h-holds so much power above me; she made me do terrible things t-to Father, to myself—things I knew I’d regret doing afterwards, and she filled my head with lies—b-but… It was always me doing them! I always knew what she wanted me to! What I was doing! I-I…” Her eyes grow large and confused. In her lush pink, I see Father’s tears; I see that perverted tengu’s eyes full of horror; I see myself longing for Yukari’s warmth, and I see myself kneeling with my tongue inside her femininity.

I see myself at the birthday party, naked and horrified—and, deep down, aroused.

“… I wanted what I got from her. I wanted love, I wanted sin—and she gave me everything.” I see myself in her tight embrace, and I see myself drowning in her. Father and Mother, holding that bakeneko, walk away; others try to shield me from the truth with their unconditional love and support—Marisa-sensei; Yuuka-san; Suwako-sama and Sanae-san—, but here and now, in this hell draped in beautiful spring, seeing the consequence of my actions, it becomes all too clear: “I am no victim…”

Barely a whisper.

Yet loud enough to tear the walls down.

The worldlines collapse into one another, showing me a non-Euclidean world—

—A way to run away from my responsibilities; of what I have done.

The abyss swallows me; the festering wound oozes with pus, and, with such clarity, comes the sheer cold of consciousness. The incest, the violence, the cruelty of my actions—behavior—and everything that blossomed from them—a rumbling ocean of insecurities and fears fermented inside the walls of the Hakurei Shrine. Everything weighs so much, I'm sinking faster into this pit of despair. Suwako-sama words try to reach me—they make sense, they do! But I'm not looking for sense or rationalizations, not here with a burning, broken heart and mind a hurricane of emotion, skin feeling as if about to fall.

The towering blossom of fire that is Mother's power, the conversation late at night, the cursed meeting with the goddess… A blinding redemption, a monster so cloaked in the shadows of her own sins that, when disposed of them, I couldn't recognize the gentle smile and motherly love that lied underneath. The unrelenting, unconditional love of those women, shielding me from harm… Never from myself.

Father, distant and harmed. I destroyed him…

The villagers’ stares of horror.

Nothing of the new makes sense!

… I need something—anything—that I can relate to.

“You’ve come to me to make me aware of your sins, then?” She asks, voice filtered and cautious. “I fear I’ve lost my edge in lecturing these past years, Hana… as I’ve done with the hand of justice, so I wouldn’t be able to deliver any useful words to you—I lack the knowledge of how to mend myself; how would I help you mend yourself? Nor your Mother, nor Okina or Yukari. The truth might be that, for quite a while, I haven't been useful. What excuse of a hermit I am…” The slight chuckle she gives bears on me like iron and threatens to proliferate flames, the sickening shower of self-pity abominable, yet… This deplorable state of hers reveals infinite secrets, secrets I could never have picked on otherwise.

Before, I saw her sadness, but now I see she is lying.

Underneath all the dried blood and the destruction, there is the Kasen Mother would so often talk about—a flame and a sword, sharp and scalding with the matters of solving problems and maintaining the peace.

Beneath the slave, there’s a person.

When our eyes meet, she sees what I see, and no word is needed, for in those pink jewels I see a mirror.

A sigh, one hand climbing to touch the bloody stubs grafted to her head, thoughts swimming across her face. In the shadows of people much more powerful than us, unable to do anything to change the tides and forced into terrible acts left and right, bearing the scars of atrocities, my hand clutching the tattered rag and destroyed pin as I fixed my posture, cleaning the few of my tears. A moment later, with both hands resting on her thighs, Kasen-nee began, “They destroyed our lives, haven’t they?” Muttered words, brimming with pathos and dread. “But to attribute everything to others’ would be moronic and unbecoming of a hermit like myself,” her eyes return to her bandaged arm, mine able to catch just a glimpse of them as they shifted—bathed in golden sunlight, they blushed with regret. She takes a deep breath before turning those eyes again to me, and her next words I listen to with bated breath. “I’ve hurt your father too, Hana. A lot. It wasn’t me doing the deed, not mentally, but many actions I have taken—things I have ignored—got us to this moment. I have no right to judge or lecture you, not when I could’ve stopped your Mother in the past but failed to; when I could’ve stopped Yukari if I had been more prudent with my approach to the HSE… When I could’ve stopped you by not letting sentimentality shallow my judgement.” In her words I hear her beating heart, and in her tears I hear my very own words. Things I understand. I can breathe. “… I forgive you, Hana. For every transgression towards me, I forgive you.” She licks her lips and, without a moment’s hesitation, speaks: “Last time I tried in that forest, I didn’t recognize my mistakes nor tried to do better for you. I let you fend for yourself after such a major change… I’m awful, Hana. An awful hermit and an awful nee-san. Someone who could’ve done more but didn't and let her faults take over her entire self… Do you feel that, someday, after all this is over, you could forgive me?”

‘Yes’, this wounded heart screamed.

The mind churned with a million feelings, conflicted and aflame—the cackle of the demon; the scarlet fires of my Mother; unconditional support. A flower, a rag, and a pin—but a light seared through the bog and, with the loud shattering of heavy chains, shouted ‘yes’. To forgive a mirror, the reflection on it…

… This mouth was about to make everything true.

Kasen-nee’s eyes then suddenly widened.

“My, my~such mellow words could melt anyone’s heart. But what would one expect from a poet’s friend, hm?” Her elegant tone emerges with the tearing tune of a Gap. “But, Kasen, that is not how you entertain a mature girl like Hana-chan! Perhaps I’ll need to remind the both of you how’s done~?”

>>48258568
>>48258557
>>48258552
>>48258550
part 2, and with this her second batch is done! Next will be Hana's last batch and I'll be moving to the Solstice, supposing Takaneanon sticks to the timeline he spoke of in his previous post (seeing it is tangential stuff, I should be delving into actually writing the base of the Solstice and initial batch)

>>48258568
There's just no end to Hana's panic attacks is there?

>>48230068
Mokou was the first to speak as we all came in and knelt at the cozy table together "You two know it's rude to drop by unannounced? That's how 'accidents' happen." She said, as she rocked Mochi in her arms.
"Now, now, at least these two came in through the front door like proper guests. And I'm sure they have their circumstances." Kaine said, as she patted Aki on the back.
Although they seemed friendly towards the two, I sensed an undercurrent of frustration. Was it just the stress of reconstruction and parenthood or something a little more private? I hope the duo knew well enough to be tactful about such things.
"Haha, 'circumstances' if it was any more true we'd have all thrown up our hands and given up, But I hope this helps smooth things over." Goro said, sliding a bottle out from under his sleeve and placing it on the table. Premium Tengu Sake? I'd only heard rumors about such a thing, those societal obsessed youkai looked down on the 'peasantry-like' rice wine. Only a few renegades dared to brew it in secret and produced it in small numbers to remain beneath notice. Looks like somebody has been taking advantage of his mistress's connections.
Keine made a tired smile and gladly took the bottle "When all this is over I think, for now I want to make sure the children remain healthy. We have some tea here if you'd like."
Goro's expression became puzzled for a moment, and he turned to Seija, who still tiredly clung to him. The Jaku patted her chest and the brokers eyes became wide with the realization.
"It's tea then I suppose." he said with a chuckle.
Things were off to a good start with a little small talk, much better then they had with Yukari. Where the Gap Sage had an aura of menace and every word she spoke had layers of flattery that hide intimidation, Goro's speech was honest and gentle, no less tactful, but it had a welcoming feeling. Of course, it didn't mean he was innocent. A patient and good-natured member of the court can make for the most difficult of enemies to remove if you end up on opposite sides and Seija, she looked apathetic and wanted nothing more then to be alone with him, but beneath that she was watching us, ready. Best to move things along.
"I wonder what was so important you had to speak with 'Sensei' about at this hour?" I idly asked Goro.
"Hey, yeah! Couldn't this have waited until the morning? Or what about when Yukari came? Couldn't you two have visited then?" Mokou spoke up, taking my bait.
Kiene remained silent, waiting for the two to answered.
"Alright, but first I have to verify something." Goro said, raising his hand and turning to Seija.
"Hana Hakurei is a real pervert isn't she?" He said, lowing his hand again afterwards.
The Amanojaku smiled and huffed. "Of course she is, she takes after her mother after all." She proudly stated.
Everyone in the room went silent as the taboo subject had been tossed on the table like a hunter's wife throws that day's catch on the good table cloth.
"Well, what exactly did you all hear?" Goro asked.
Keine fished around in her gown and, after finding what she was looking for, flicked it straight at Goro's forehead. The chalk caused his head to reel back a bit, rebound off the ceiling, and was caught by his mate, who gingerly threw it back to Keine. "Good shot." She murmured.
"Thank you Seija. Goro, do you think such perverse matters should be discussed around toddlers?" She asked, with all the restraint a school teacher could muster. Mokou covered her mouth, trying hard not to laugh.
"Ahh, Sensei, you see, that was actually the opposite of my intentions. You get it, right Crown Prince?" Goro asked as he rubbed the bruise on his forehead.
Do I get it? Hmmm... Oh.
"You reversed the sentiment of your speech. Just like you paced backwards and forwards to the estate?" I asked.
"Spot on." He smiled, glad I had understood so quickly as it almost seemed like Keine was fishing for a second piece of chalk. Then, his face turned serious as he raised his hand again. "Until I lower my hand, don't say a word. From this point forward, until I give the signal, we must only discuss the most important and sensitive matters. Anyone outside this room will only think we're having a trivial and laid-back discussion. If you make a joke, or say something unnecessary, I can't be certain what information you'll reveal. If you agree to this, nod now and I'll give you three crucial pieces of information, otherwise we can simply enjoy the rest of our evening together in good company." He explained.
Reversing sentiment, I guess it made sense for a Broker's application of an Amanojaku's abilities. You could maintain privacy in negotiations like this one or, if it's true that they can turn over idle speech into crucial talk, extract sensitive information from a rival. What's more, 'Sentiment' was an awfully immaterial concept that only a high-level youkai could off-handily exploit like this. These two were definitely Yukari's students.

>>48265037
I don't think panic attack can describe very well what she's going through here. Holding to the truth for so long was killing her in the inside for a while now, and though the talk with Suwako eased the load momentarily, when the excitement of the conversation worn off, she again felt subjected to the massive weight of her sins and her guilty enjoyment of them (aka, nothing had actually changed because she refused such change through her denial of, well, change by lying to herself; something that only worsened with Hieda saying they're alike, as it became another truth she felt like she'd to run away from), a weight she felt lifted off her shoulders since she got to share it with someone that she can relate to and has similar sins, the thing Eirin's therapy/many mothers trying their best was truly lacking to make big changes in her emotional state actually stick, though they did have a great effect on her internal barriers. So while not a panic attack, probably a stressed fit born off bottled feelings and overwhelming pressure.

>>48265311
kek, so you went the cockblock route. That makes two in sequence with Yukari fucking Hana's nice moment with Kasen. Always cool the ways you go and use Seija's reversal powers, such an unfathomably versatile ability, sad that they're etched to someone of her personality -- though the use here to conceal their talk is funny, since there's one saint that can hear a coin drop from the estate to the Suzunan and hear people's desires and, in a meta level, a sensei that can rewrite the past so no one weaker than her eavesdrop the conversation. At least she should be proud of his ingenuity~
thanks for the chapter!

>>48258550
>>48258552
>>48258557
>>48258568
Good to see them making up. The girl is definitely going to need some serious therapy when this is all said and done. Speaking of which, here comes Yukari to make things worse.

>>48251519
No the user just vomited onto their computer and spontaneously generated a horrendous assault on the human ear.

>>48277857
everytime Anon displeases Yukari, she makes him listen to that.

>>48277857
>>48277892
Grim

>>48277617
nah, everything is pointing out that Hana is going to have her first w over gappie. Unless she awakens the horny demon in Kasen, then everyone`s fucked

My turn to bump! Chapters either today or tomorrow. Had to rewrite them all from ground up since version 1 was rather vague with Hana as I still had hope Hanaanon would return and there could be some use for them; which is kinda sad, but it's always worthwhile exercise to create something, destroy it and then create something new from its ashes

Here, a pity bump since I do actually want to see how the end of >>48258568 turns out and I haven't said much for the duration of this thread.
Just had other things to worry about is all.

>>48298404
>pity bump
Grim

>>48298404
>>48298625
it's been a rollercoaster of 'it's so over' and 'we're so back' after hananon's leave, but I still have hope for this project.

>>48271165
Thanks.
> an unfathomably versatile ability, sad that they're etched to someone of her personality
Something I don't know if I communicated well(or at all): the idea was that Seija got so deep into the underdog mentality that she internalized being a loser. Working for and being taught by Yukari tricked her out of this headspace of measuring herself compared to others, allowing her to do Great Youkai moves. The other half of the story is that Goro was too technically minded and morally restrained, which is why he has 'absolute deal' and not Buddhist spells a plenty, Yukari got him to think less about his 'rules' and freed his creativity, allowing Seija to cheat all the years of training it would take to get to a higher level by synergizing with him.
Basically, you're 100% right.
>since there's one saint that can hear a coin drop from the estate to the Suzunan and hear people's desires and, in a meta level, a sensei that can rewrite the past so no one weaker than her eavesdrop the conversation.
Half of it is to hedge against Yukari possibly listening in, which they assume the chances of that are slim but not negligible and Miko could probably detect her, but Keine could erase it by your description, the other half is experimentation.
>>48298625
>>48299648
Fall has been tough, I'll probably have more time/attention now that it's holidays.

Her voice came together with her presence, and both shank me like a pitchfork, blood oozing out and soaking up the rend flesh, seeding cold inside; hairs stood straight, and Maiden instincts couldn’t do anything but scream: ‘Do something! Youkai!’

It wasn’t like this before. In the party, in her office—in bed with Father—; though there was always anxious lust and, after this moment of insight with Kasen-nee, crushing regrets and guilt, Yukari Yakumo had never felt like… this. A shattered glass needle lost in someone’s heart, unreachable and just waiting the moment to puncture flesh and kill in one fatal blow. Overwhelming, severe existence, and when my wide eyes turned to that floating Gap and its many peering, bloodshot eyes and saw her by there, draped in sophisticated purple and walking carefree towards me and Kasen-nee, as if with no war hanging over her shoulders, I felt my hands that’d just plunged into my tattered blue skirt—hiding, afraid—shaking like crazy.

It was like being approached by a natural disaster.

She’s coming for me. She’s gonna finish what she started in the party…

… She’ll take me away.

Eyes drooped, power demanding to be activated yet not responding—what will happen if I do? If I flee? F-Father may be in danger if she feels offended or gets angry and—

—Yukari strolled by me like I wasn’t even there.

“I’m just kidding, of course~” There’s a heartbeat in my ears—mine. It’s mine. It sounds like a thunderstorm—and it intensifies as, bewildered, my eyes dart to her back, a complete moment between this frantic action and the quiet I simmered in. D-Didn’t she… Why did she just…

Her back tells me nothing, eyes so focused I miss both Kasen-nee lowering her head—respect? No. She wants to protect herself from the sight of Yukari’s full breasts, her tender, fair skin, a-and… I gulp nothingness, yet taste filth anyway—and a new presence coming through the Gap, nudging the power inside of me like smoldering tar touches the eyes of a sinner. “Such a sad choice~” Eyes shift to the feminine voice that’d just made itself known, velvety and purring, like a spike trap. Her snug, blue palette and casual eyes seemed welcoming, a lush forest amidst this spring… However, the stories I’ve heard of this woman reveal the many spider burrows, poison ivies, and predators hidden in the evergreen. “Enjoying what you see, Hana-chan? I know your Father does, despite his attempts at rejecting me—not that his silly little games ever stopped me~” She giggles, and I feel cold. Cold like winter. Another creature that takes advantage of him—‘Youkai’, the blessing of the Hakurei God thunders.

I feel boiling rage—a rage that thaws the winter and tries to burn the monster leaning on the Gap with a gaze, incapacitated still by Yukari’s oppressive presence…

The answer she gives me is pure, unadulterated delight, crouching and supporting her face with both hands, a familiar hunger emerging in her eyes as her smile widens. “Oh my, out of everyone, I thought you’d enjoy the knowledge that other women also love to rape that piece of meat you call Father. Or have I heard your very words wrong?”

… The rage drools out of me like a sinkhole in the bottom of a lake. They heard it.

They heard everything.

“But maybe you enjoy it when you get a piece too, hm~? What about we go and have animalistic sex with him, Hana-chan? I'd even teach you a few of my favorite positions!” She purrs, touching her lower lip with an index finger, eyes narrowing just enough to resemble the edge of a sword, her words sprouting gongs of rage that make me lightheaded for a moment… Or was it the heat spreading across my whole body?

“Stop pestering her, Seiga—she’s off-limits.” Yukari’s words cut the spell dry, my eyes turning to her as wrath clamoring for battle mixed with the towering fear that is watching her back and thus remember… everything we’ve done. The s-sex, the humiliation, the sweet little lies, innards growing cold yet skin warming up with such cruel memories, guilt oozing from that festering wound in my heart to the tone of cackling, blue thunderstorms. Even after all the screaming and crippling pain, I can’t run away from the worst of myself. “I despise these scars of yours, Kasen…” Wrestled out of the lust- and guilt-ridden stupor, I watch Yukari holding the hermit’s chin and lifting it, studying her agitated features and broken horns, the worldlines revealing them to me despite the angle. Kasen-nee stares fervently into her eyes, as if turning them away would mean death. “… They are like disgusting parasites eating a paralyzed pretty face—but they fit you.” Carelessly, she withdraws her hand, Kasen-nee’s eyes immediately shooting downwards as the Gap sage straightened herself.

Despite the murder of the silhouette of good humor I had seen just now and the walking corpse of apathy that took its place, Kasen-nee still finds strength to ball her fists and question: “Why have you come here, Yukari? Haven’t you tortured me enough?”

“Torture? My, that’s how you see me, Kasen—like your tormentor~? You didn’t seem to think so when you were fucking the life out of me and ‘training’ poor Anon.” Yukari titters lightly, and my heart bursts ablaze when the jungle of pink sways and the worldlines reveal bared teeth and a downpour of wrath; a mask of thunderbolts quickly sits over it, knots of my hands whitening and flames growing and growing, trying to exit me through scalding tears.

Why is Yukari like this? The woman who promised me everything! That I believed in and longed to see any vestige of good in her heart… gloating after enslaving someone precious to Kasen-nee and destroying her life—a shadowy idol of red and white looms over me. In her hand, a gohei—, not a modicum of shame in her actions and words.

I trusted in her; I almost lost the little I truly have…

… A woman to whom my body still responds with lust, ears tingling with the calling of her tender skin, the luscious hair and full tights and breasts, heart pumping loudly.

There’s no victimhood to protect me, not anymore. Not after today.

Yuuka’s demons dance; her words sound like gongs—

“—But, to answer your question, I came around because my little bird relayed to me that the poor Hakurei daughter had fled her little hideout in the mountains and came here. Thus, I checked out of curiosity.” Seiga hummed, playing with a needle she’d fished from her hair, but I couldn’t pay any more attention as Yukari turned to me and approached, Kasen-nee’s eyes watching me like a hawk from below the curtain of dull pink. Frozen instantly, I couldn’t get away from her path, the perfume of the Gap sage wafting with the tepid breeze and pulling the strings of my libido, strings tuned to the sound of Father’s crying and her moans of ecstasy. “I’ll say, I’m pretty surprised you weren’t fornicating like the animals you are and were instead discussing some particularly interesting intel. True, I had known my sister sage was keeping tabs on Koutei-san, but the knowledge she tried to get him killed… That could change things.” Her smile grew a notch, the purple of her eyes shining dangerously in the dying sunlight of spring. A moment of bated silence…

Then, the world crushed me.

It was sudden, and I find my knees wavering as if hit by cudgels, my neck bending forward, and every hair throughout my body standing straight. Body trembled and eyes shifted, desperately trying to find the source of whatever the fuck caused this invisible force to almost flatten me… All I had to do, though, was follow Yukari’s carefree giggle as she turned her impertinent gaze to Kasen-nee to see a true nightmare. Slowly she’d gotten up, her wrapped fists shuddering like a cage crowded with sharks; the curtain of bloody pink cracked slightly to reveal one constricted pupil floating in a sea of white, chains stirring menacingly. “My, my~already figured it out? Even in such a deplorable state, you remain a cunning woman~” The Gap sage wraps her right arm beneath her bosom and supports her left elbow on the wrist, hand climbing to softly cradle her face. A semblance of utter smugness. “Why don’t you explain it to Hana-chan so she stops gawking at us like a fool, hm?” Silence reigned following those absurd words, Kasen-nee’s breathing audible and sheer presence threatening to crush me like an insect.

I hadn’t even noticed the woman of blue, her eyes wide like blaring alarms, slipping away through the still-open Gap.

Soon, however, her mouth moved. “Stop with this madness! I refuse to let you use him like that—his death is not something anyone can bring!” She shrieks with overwhelming venom. D-Death…? “Enslaving a dragon wasn’t enough for you?! When will you be satisfied?!” What’s she talking about? What’s happen—

“—when I’m happy, Kasen.” Sonorous words that halt my thoughts, eyes pivoting to Yukari. She’s lost her noxious edge and in its place blossomed something… resolute. “I’ve told you back when you challenged me and again when you scarred yourself like that: I’ll only stop when I’m not this miserable, unhappy person anymore.” I blink, speechless, mind recalling Okina’s words that night: Yukari is pregnant with Father’s child. “Maybe that’ll take risking your dragon and blaming Reimu.”

… W-What…

Kasen-nee looks absolutely livid, to the point she hisses: “No! We made an agreement over that damned sword—besides, the existence of that would tell the Dragon God that something is wrong! It created a cult in the Underground! No matter what you do, you wouldn’t be capable of hiding that, Yukari!” At the same time her voice carries pure rage; it carries fear and desperation, her eyes not even able to cry under such stress—but then she cuts herself at the view of Yukari’s spreading smile, gears turning behind her eyes for but a moment before a deluge of paleness washed what tint remained of her skin…

Watching a woman of such power fold and lose her edge to the rust of terror is… disturbing.

Yukari grins knowingly and, unworried, approaches Kasen-nee. “The nuclear furnace truly is a great asset, don’t you think? But also so fragile. Just the right amount of energy in the wrong spot, and a terrifying chain reaction would commence.” She hums, closing her eyes and purring a ‘kaboom’. Kasen-nee looks distraught. “So let’s see: Reimu, under Okina’s orders, goes to fight Koutei-san—a venerable dragon—and, in this gruesome encounter of powerhouses, explodes the nuclear furnace, wiping out the Underground. Koutei and Reimu would survive; of course they would… But that wouldn’t matter, would it now?” She reaches the hermit, tears finally finding a way out, and tenderly holds her face. My wounded heart thumped and wide-eyes watched each moving part, mind reeling with the exertion of the conversation just now and the overwhelming crisis it has dissolved into… And yet, it finds a moment to imagine the two of them kissing; touching each other and making love. I feel at a loss—weak, strained… Chained to such debasing impulses. Like a Youkai, unable to escape its instincts… I hear sensei’s voice, how she speaks with so much love about her children; in the back, towering fires of a human war, fostered by an oni. “Because the stage would be set. There’d be no solstice needed. I could close the doors of the HSE, transport it to a Gap and wait for our sword to be birthed. We’d have our duel, and I’d crush you, and when I’d finally summon the Dragon God here with the just cause of Okina going insane, I’d steal his soul without a moment’s hesitation. Our other sister wouldn’t be able to summon him without answering for her sins too, and I always have an eye on you, Kasen… If you tried to summon him yourself, Hana-chan and Reimu would be eviscerated.” The void of emotions those words carried made me freeze. She doesn’t… care. “Imagine that, Kasen. Again failing them, letting your mistakes—your true nature—be their deaths.”

The demonic presence is gone like a snuffed candle, and Kasen-nee’s eyes hover from hers to mine for a moment, burdened with an abrupt and harrowing choice, and so much sorrow I felt like it was crawling up my skin, drawing blood, and feasting on trampled dreams. “… I-I…”

An uncaring monster, a monster that held me and said many pleasant words—a monster I believed in—and she spoke of my death so lightly, like it wouldn’t matter to her. The worldlines revealed her purple eyes speckled with elation.

She wasn’t bluffing.

I feel weak.

“… But you don’t need to worry about any of that, Kasen~” Slowly, Yukari released her face and backed away, the pink sage’s eyes broad and brows furrowed. What does she… “Because it doesn’t matter! I’ve already told you I have won; overcomplicating such a victory would be meaningless, don’t you think~?” And, without missing a beat, Yukari is laughing. She’s laughing, shrill and delighted, unencumbered by all that I saw in Keine-sensei’s eyes; in Hieda’s inferno and cursed mist, in Sanae-san’s struggling gasps…

She’s won, and she’s certain—so she laughs.

Laughter that snaps something inside of me. “… You haven’t won yet.” I muster the words, finally finding strength to stand up; not missing her smile, she looks at me, Kasen-nee’s dead eyes gaining a light of terror. My cheeks are red, and my heart is a bellowing beast begging me to stop and stand down, to not say anything and remain as small as possible, unseen and ignored. A chained shadow, lustful for that demented woman in purple—be her sex and her affection—; a shadow that’d grovel and be humiliated, then wallow in her misery.

A disgusting, hypocritical victim.

Tears strand down my face, fists closed, and eyes try to pierce through her. “You haven’t won yet! No matter what you say, you haven’t won yet, Yukari! M-Mother and the others will put you down like the monster you are, a-and then… Then we’ll rescue Father, and you’ll be purged like the blight you have become!” Hot, thick tears, words that hit her like the thorn of a wretched rose hits a wall. I don’t want to believe those words. There may be something inside of her, something good…

Yukari just stares at me with unreasonable calm.

“H-Hana, please—” Kasen-nee attempts in a hushed tone, but Yukari raises a hand towards her.

“It’s unwise to stop a child when they’re throwing a tantrum, Kasen~let the girl get it out of her system; she’ll feel better afterwards.” The condescending tone drips boiling wax on my shoulders and hairs, the tears grow and Maiden powers plead for me to do something… Yet in my mind play the images of that fateful day I found her and Father the first time, how impossibly useless I was; then, when she came to my house and made me do all those things. Never able to move from the chains of crippling fear and desperation, of the threats to the only person who, for sixteen whole years, made life worth living.

A lifetime of bending my neck and staring at red and white fire, at her venomous purple…

Forever outmatched.

“HOW DARE YOU?!” I scream at the top of my lungs, wiping out my gohei, non-Euclidean movements making the motions erratic and asynchronous, the tip pointed at her, at the sky, at myself, at the trinkets tucked in my pocket, and at my mother so far away from here. I felt out of breath, about to collapse yet soaring tall like a tower piercing the heavens, rage impairing my blood vessels and killing me with liquid righteous fury. Flashes come and go and maybe even reflect on my physical tears, the dizzying memories reminding me of that perverted tengu—she lives; I spared her—, Mother—her forehead pressed on the ground, pleading—Marisa-sensei—pregnant with Father's children. She looked so happy—and many, many more, and yet these non-Euclidean eyes can’t focus on anything but the terminal rage shaped like bonfires of blue thunderstorms and a withering mask of wrath. “I DID EVERYTHING! Everything I could for you! I heard your words; tried to nurture ANY love between us—trying to bring out any fucking good I thought still lingered in your heart…” The rage starts melting away, my body reflecting it by melting towards all cardinal directions, words coming out hushed and shaky. “I r-raped Father with you, tarnishing our relationship forever, and I have even considered forgiving you and returning to you, just t-to be close to my brother or sister that grows inside of you… I d-did everything I could; I tried… I tried my damn best to love you and garner some love back!” A breath of air invades my lungs, a searing flash of white crossing my mind: a tattered rag, a destroyed hairpin… A pristine flower that was nearly lost to the flames of war. In this maelstrom of regret, death, lust, and a thousand other feelings, the sudden moment of clarity surges like Mother’s fire blossom. “I truly thought that I could teach you to love me like Mother never did.”

The core of everything.

A child’s broken hopes; broken dreams.

The non-Euclidean gohei shifts as I raise, drop, and move to the left and right simultaneously my forearm to hide my tearful face, bared teeth collapsing onto one another as my entire frame of being began dissolving to every angle; every direction, like water trying to fill a container—

Change, stagnation.

Since that day on the porch, watching mother beat Father with her gohei, the day that ruined my childhood forever…

A day I ignored for so very long…

… I have never once changed. I am beyond stagnation.

—A hand falls on my shoulder, and the non-Euclidean madness is instantly snuffed out, body returning to its original form, gaze moving to meet hers.

In my mind, I see a shadow of red and white.

Yukari doesn’t look amused anymore. “Hana-chan, please…” A glimmer of hope from deep within. “Never call the child growing inside of me your sister again. She may be your Father’s offspring, but I would never taint her perfect existence by connecting her to you.” A glimmer of hope that shatters, and its fluttering pieces fall in place to illustrate a perverse picture.

… She…

She’s never cared for me.

I’ve called her mama many times.

She’s never cared for me.

I almost chose her over them, wearing that Yakumo outfit.

She’s never cared for me…

… I loved her.

A moment, Yukari is there, clasping my shoulder and bearing a glare of disdain; the next, an onbashira flying at the speed of light hits her, and she’s gone.

>>48305710
>>48305703
>>48305697
>>48305691
next batch will be the last of the Hana story! Then, only the Solstice~
>>48300830
>second spoiler
that does make sense in the context of what he knows and how he's reacted so far to stuff, oops. Man, fall was brutal, but not like we're letting some hardships dissuade us.

>>48305710
>connecting her to you
Sekai has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever

>>48307465
wat

>>48307465
she's been grounded by Patchy for a thousand years, so she can't do so; but the thought is funny anyway~

>>48305691
>Brags that she's a rapist
>Gloats how she'll win.
>Tells Hana she never loved her because she's not the perfect controllable daughter she always wanted.
I'm starting to think Gappy is a bad person.

But at least with this, Hana's illusion of Yukari seems to be broken for good.

>>48315044
>But at least with this, Hana's illusion of Yukari seems to be broken for good.
don't underestimate her extreme autism, she was getting wet watching Yukari dunk on Kasen

>>48305691
>>48305697
>>48305703
>>48305710
This is nothing cat therapy can't fix.

hello, next batch of the Hana story may take a while -- will be posted around 01-04 --, just wanted to give the warning since I'll be on vacation and may not have internet access for a moment. See ya guys soon.

>>48327729
>I'll be on vacation and may not have internet access for a moment
that's how this whole mess got started!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Don't stuff yourself too full, and we might even reach the Second Christmas special!

>>48327875
A married woman shouldn't be dressed so lewdly! Delete onegai!
happy Thanksgiving! May everyone stuff themselves with turkey!

A good Thanksgiving to all Americanons!
>captcha: P0HAG
fuck off, evil woman.

Of the many things Anon resented about his cage, buried deep into his heart to make room for his domestic abilities, the trees were an exception. Four times a year, the world around him flowed into a different stage of life. Birth, growth, decline and death: Today marked the day every vibrant green leaf would begin its journey back to the earth. Even if it was all a product of Yukari’s machinations, there was a comfort in seeing the basic motions of nature play out as it always had. His morning rituals were finished quickly. Anon would need to adjust his schedule for the extra litter he’d need to pick up. It was a mundane thing, really. Nevertheless, the little control Anon could exercise over his duties was all the autonomy he could cling to.

Throwing open the fragile doors of his genkan, an evergreen sight stood before him. Luscious green leaves blanketed the ground like an algae bloom on land. A twinge of disappointment settled in Anon’s chest. Even if the goddess that painted the leaves wasn’t present, the barrier usually did so itself. There was something that felt wrong about the prospect of sweeping the lively litter. Without the crumbling, fragile plant matter crunching beneath his feet, was it really autumn?

Either way, there was still yardwork to be done. With a rake and broom in hand, Anon began clearing the front yard. As he moved further from his home towards Yuuka’s garden, something caught his eye: A dry leaf! It gently floated through the air, drawing Anon’s attention towards a conspicuous mound. At first glance, the dancing colors could be mistaken for a twisting blaze. Leaves from different directions convalesced into one spot, the very notion of natural wind guiding them dead in the ground.

It was a bit pretty, but it was also beginning to crowd the flowers. Whatever Yukari wanted to guide him towards, it shouldn’t be at the risk of the garden. Raking away the magical detritus, a leafy stalk topped with a couple of white flowers sprang up. This wasn’t something Yuuka planted. With a little recognition. Anon gave it a little tug. Lots of resistance. Giving a cursory glance around for any signs of a visitor, he clawed at the soil with his bare hands. Thoughts of what Yukari would do if he was caught with dirt caked under his nails sent shivers down his spine. Suddenly, his fingers hit something solid. Wrapping his hand around the small, lumpy object, Anon pulled up. Right there sitting in his palm was a dirty potato hanging stubbornly to a root. The novelty of seeing a modest spud in his fancy little shrine was cut short by something stabbing his hand.

Anon winced at first. He tried to roll the potato around to find out what cut him. It wasn’t hard to figure it out when a bright green vine was visibly wriggling under his skin, sending waves of searing pain through his nerves. Like a living grenade, thorny vines burst out of the spud and wrapped around his arm. Anon’s years of experience living around supernatural forces taught him the best course of action for a situation like this. “RAAAAAAAN! TAKANE! HEEEEEELP!”

Dying with dignity meant nothing for a human in Gensokyo. At least for a youkai, whether they were in a human form or totally feral, a person could get an idea of what they wanted to do. The intelligence in their actions was something that could be responded to. As far as Anon could tell, this was going to burrow into his body until he died and grow out of his bones. Grabbing the rake with his free hand, Anon did all he could to pry off the menacing vegetable while screaming bloody murder. All he managed to do was scrape up his own flesh and lose control of his weapon. With vines gripping his upper body, a rumble came from below his feet. The nefarious stalk had disappeared into the earth, leaving behind a giant, gaping hole that sucked all visible light into it. This did not scare Anon. Not even the slow expansion of hole towards his feet scared him, if he could even notice it. What scared Anon was each of his limbs being clumsily pulled in different directions before finally pulling him down to the hole. This… thing might just rip him apart before it did what it was trying to. “RAAAAAAAAAN! YUKARIIIII! CHEEEEEEEEEN!” No one had come. Pulled into the ground, the fading light extinguished Anon’s last hope of escape.

(Part 1)

>>48339548
By the time Anon stopped feeling his head dig through tons of dirt and roots, he found himself seated in a rather picturesque forest clearing. The sun shone down in soft rays, signaling the late afternoon. Even better was the soft cushion under his butt and behind his back. It was probably hell for his posture, but it was so comfortable to sink into. It took a minute for the barely-conscious human to question exactly why a cushion was in the forest.

Wiggling a bit, a sharp pain ached from his arms and warm blood oozed from his punctures. He was tied to a somewhat-fancy wooden chair, sat in front of a long feast table. Metal platters were laid out near the end of the table, where a small tablecloth covered just enough surface area to account for the head and two people sat across from each other. On second glance, the farthest end of the table was completely bare, surrounded by simple stools. The only other chairs that matched his were sat on either side of him. A grunt from Anon’s left drew his attention, revealing a girl clad in red, white and vines. A quick look to his right showed a woman dressed the same way, her black hair cascading down over her bindings. After the initial shock of fear left his body, Anon relaxed a little. He was kidnapped and losing blood by the second, but he had never been more relieved to see his wife and daughter in his life.

“Nghhhhh.” Hana was starting to wake up. Anon shimmied, trying not to aggravate his wounds. It was no use. Any hope he had of escaping involved losing a layer of tissue. It pained him, but he had to hope Hana was able to free both of them.

“Pssst, Hana! Hana, wake up!” Anon’s harsh whispers were eventually enough to rouse his daughter.

“Dad… just one more… huh? Dad? DAD!” As soon as Hana gained her bearings, she began to struggle. The vines didn’t give a millimeter. She suddenly stopped, a vein on her forehead rising as she closed her eyes and struggled. “C’mon… This is what my power is meant for! Arrrgh, it’s like my head is stuffed with cotton!” Hana tried to rock back and forth, the legs of her chair planted too deep into the ground to make a difference.

“It’s fine Hana. Don’t strain yourself. The vines are thorny, so they might dig too deep. Just save your strength for now.” Anon didn’t really have much of a plan, but he had to be calm and collected for his daughter. Hana glanced around her surroundings before looking at Reimu, regarding her for a moment, then finally settled her gaze on her father. He struggled to put a comforting smile on his face, but Hana’s expression told him she wasn’t buying it. Especially when she could see the state of his body. She gritted her teeth at the sight of his blood, breaking Anon’s heart clean in half.

Before Reimu showed any sign of waking up, two sets of footsteps came from behind Anon’s vision. As they crunched through the fallen leaves, Anon thought about who it could be. Those vines… could it really be Yuuka? Somehow, using a potato as bait didn’t seem to fit her. But, who could break through Yukari’s barrier and plant those spuds without being stopped?

The footsteps stopped behind Anon, drawing Hana’s eyes towards the pair Anon could only conclude were his captors. Filling the left and right sides of his vision were two blonde faces, one pair of eyes a rich red and the other a glistening yellow. The colors of fall swirling in Anon’s vision were starting to make sense: The leaves leading him were obvious, but the brown potatoes and the red pigment of his blood also matched the seasonal theme his saviors represented. The invasive vines would have to wait until his brain had a little more blood in it to reconcile.

“Hey Shizuha, doesn’t he seem a little out of it?” On Anon’s left, it had to be Minoriko. Her touch on his shoulder seemed to fill his body with vitality, though it did nothing to close his scrapes.
“Really? Most humans are pretty lazy during the autumn. No sense of responsibility… Oh geez, these are the wrong vines. I could’ve sworn we were going to use a grappling grapevine, not a pain potato!” That must’ve been Shizuha. Her examination was gentle, but a poke against his tortured arm still hurt like hell.

Anon couldn’t keep up the bickering sisters. Something about shortages and bad imports flew over his head as the backside of one of the trees began to glow. A pair of familiar black wings stretched out form one side before quickly disappearing behind the bark. His consciousness was slipping. Soon, he’d be just as helpful as his wife. “Hana, I’m not sure what the Aki sisters want with us.” With a little strength left, he nodded towards the hidden tengu. “Just let Aya figure something out. I’m sure she has a plan…” Fading into a peaceful rest, the last thing his brain registered was a strong gust of wind blowing leaves into his face.

(Part 2)

>>48339553
Today was not Hana’s day.

First, she woke up late. Then, she scalded herself on the tea kettle. Finally, a box left at her doorstep sprayed out a pink gas that knocked her out. She should’ve escaped through the space between each molecule of the noxious fumes, but her mind was swimming by the time she thought of that. Could anyone really blame her? A sneak attack like that would catch anyone off guard!

Waking up to the sight of her mom tied-up immediately set off alarms in her head. This had to be some plot by Yukari to take out both of the Hakureis before the Solstice. But the sight of her dad was too much: She was ecstatic to see him again, but the scrapes covering his body and torn robes infuriated her. Every lie and deception Yukari told her boiled in her mind at once. He was so close, but this was probably just another sick, perverted play of hers.

Then the Aki sisters showed up.

“… There was nothing else strong enough to dig through the barrier! We couldn’t afford enough fertilizer after you blew our money on sake!” Listening to the two goddesses of autumn talk so casually about kidnapping Father and Mother was baffling. Yuuka, Marisa, Sanae and even Mima couldn’t figure out a way to save him, but these two idiots did it on a budget? Worst of all, they didn’t even seem to care that two out of their three captives were totally knocked out!

“Hey! Fighting after you just kidnapped me is just— do you mind telling me why you did any of this? This place looks like a family feast without the family.” If Father trusted Aya — even if she was unreliable every time she saw her — all she could do was give her information.

Minoriko, the one being berated, answered first. “Oh, my bad! So, we heard about Yukari throwing a festival in the winter. That’s fun and all, but everyone’s looking forward to it: There’s so much hype that people are forgetting to give us offerings! The timing of her festival is just too close to the end of our season, when we’re supposed to receive thanks for the final harvest.” Hana didn’t really care about the goddess’ issues, but it was a little concerning. The effects of Yukari’s control over the village was starting to affect even the neutral deities.

“It’s bullshit! While everyone has the time of their life in Yukari’s little funhouse, we have to make sure their food still grows and the trees tell them when it’s time to get back to the fields!” Shizuha was much less restrained with her frustration. Like a reflex, she was about to kick the leg of the grand table before stopping herself short. “So, since Yukari is monopolizing our faith, it’s only fair that we get something in return, right? That hag won’t get Anon back unless she pays out the big bucks; enough to last us for the next century of winters!” With only one captive awake, the goddesses took their own seats at the table, serving themselves from the small feast under the platters. The smell of seasoned turkey and roasted vegetables made Hana’s stomach growl under her bindings.

Aya still hadn’t made a move. Geez, how much longer was she going to make her wait? From the corner of her eye, Hana noticed Shizuha try to follow her gaze. The shrine maiden quickly turned to face her and tried another distraction. “Well, you already have Father. Why do you need Mother too? A-Are you going to sell us as a full set?!”

Minoriko giggled at the growing panic in Hana’s voice. “No, silly! We needed the two of you for the ransom picture! Once Yukari sees Anon having the time of his life with his family, she’ll be willing to pay any price we set! Oh, and feel free to eat what you want. We really just need the platters in the shot when the photographer gets here.”

Hana had regained a little bit of hope. These two goddesses seemed like complete idiots! Aya was probably waiting for everyone else to get her before jumping them all at once and saving Father! Hana had to hold herself back from laughing: Of all the tengu they could have hired, they chose the one that liked Father the most! Looks like she really was good for something!

As if on cue, a strong gust kicked up the tablecloth and fallen leaves. A swirl of gold and crimson revealed Aya Shameimaru, walking into view with a very nervous grin on her face. A very confused Hana turned towards the sky where the tallest tengu she’d ever seen dropped down in front of the reporter.

This couldn’t be good.

(Part 3)

>>48339578
The daitengu looked around the clearing before addressing the goddesses with a predatory grin. She wasn’t as dangerous as Yukari, but Hana didn’t feel safe. “A little birdie told me that someone on the mountain was in financial trouble. A scheme like this certainly has potential, but it needs the guidance of a daitengu to keep it from blowing up in your face. Iizunamaru Megumu, at your service.”

Shizuha was immediately on the offense. “We don’t need the tengu taking a cut of our profits! We’ll pay Shameimaru for her services and that’s that!”

Megumu didn’t back down. Taking one of the stools for herself, Megumu sat a bit farther from Hana. After a flash of light, she realized it was so that Aya could get a clear shot of the Hakurei family. The daitengu, her geta balanced on the stool in an acrobatic feat that served as some kind of intimidation stance, spoke in a confident voice. “Now now, this isn’t about a single deal. See, once you get the money from Yukari, that’s it. Yukari gets what she wants and you get less than what your efforts are worth in a one-time transaction. Yukari is happy for the next couple of decades. But you? You get a lump sum that will never grow. No interest, no capital, just a slowly dwindling fluid asset while your offerings taper off year after year. Does that sound fair to you?”

The Aki sisters stepped away from the table and began whispering to each other. The silver-tongued tengu was obviously flattering them, but to what end? Aya was an exception, but weren’t the tengu allied with Yukari anyways? The sisters finished deliberating, Minoriko evidently being chosen to talk. “Our offerings may be a little rough, but we can handle ourselves. This deal is all we need until the next harvest!”

Megumu huffed, unamused. “So you’ll just hold out for your followers? Even if the HSE expands by the same time next year, drawing in more people and more faith? If you really believe in that, go ahead. I just hope you have the proper tools in stock for your next little extraction.” Hana was enraptured. The daitengu managed to pick out something useful from the goddesses’ endless prattling.

Red as a tomato, Minoriko was losing her cool. “I-It’s not like we didn’t have a plan! The lower faith meant that the kodama were more stingy with the tools they were giving us! We only had so many offerings from the humans to trade anyways, and the humans aren’t giving out enough faith for my blessings!” The economic frailty of forest spirits was truly dull. Yet, it was currently tying Hana’s family down and forcing her to witness the madness in front of her.

“Tut. A classic case of market failure. Do you see the issue here?” Megumu turned towards Hana, catching her off guard. She wasn’t expecting the daitengu to quiz her, especially when the her black coat was just slightly showing off a peek at her supple thighs.

“Uhh, the humans aren’t giving enough faith?” The answer seemed to please the goddesses, at least. But the daitengu shook her head and jumped off the stool into a needlessly dynamic pose.

“No, the market doesn’t have enough trust! Nobody wants to sell their products for a value they think isn’t right. But I have the solution for you, all of you: A discount.”

“Wait a minute… You want Minoriko to give out blessings for less offerings?” Shizuha stepped forward, trying to take back control of the conversation. Hana could tell it was far too late for that.

“For each individual farmer, they feel less pressured to give an offering at all! This invites more farmers to provide an offering each year, resulting in a greater number of offerings overall over the course of many years.” Megumu had Aya hand her a prepared graph drawn onto a scroll. The reporter looked over Anon, Reimu and Hana while exchanging nervous glances with the miko. Seems like Aya was helpless behind the daitengu.

“But our offerings are being cut off by Yukari! She muscled into the most important harvest!”

“That’s where my experience comes in. You see, demand for harvest blessings rise at the end of harvest season because humans don’t know they need it. They’ll save their offerings up until the very last day.” Megumu rolled the scroll down to reveal a mess of parabolas. “That’s why you need to market your blessings at a discount early! You’ll convince the humans that they need your blessings at a price they can’t afford not to take, securing your profit before the quarter ends!”

The sisters broke off to whisper again. Hana considered interjecting, but the risk of being swept up by Megumu’s fast-talking kept her wary. Finally, the goddesses sat at the table, Shizuha taking the lead.

“We’ll take your advice into consideration. But you aren’t here just for that, are you? What do you want from us?”

Megumu pointed two fingers at the head of the feast table and uttered one word.

“Them.”

(Part 4)

>>48339590
Hana wasn’t exactly excited that it was her turn to argue with Megumu, but it had to happen. How could she just demand her parents out of the blue?! “Hold on, I don’t agree with this!” Megumu turned towards Hana and tried to fix her with a strict gaze. To Reimu’s daughter, a daitengu’s stare was nothing. Without breaking eye contact, she snapped her fingers and sent Aya forth to whisper into Hana’s ear.

“Just go along with it. I promise, you and Anon will walk out of here and Yukari will be none the wiser.” Hana turned just a little bit to look at Aya. The reporter had a desperate, but genuine expression. It wasn’t fair! She was a tengu, she knew how to play on emotions! It was some kind of practiced technique to make her trust her! Still, she couldn’t say no to Aya. Even if she was a tengu, she still cared about Father and still… made eggs… Turning back to her battle with Megumu, Hana gave the daitengu a small nod. She wasn’t admitting defeat to her, just permitting her to keep talking.

Satisfied, the daitengu turned back towards the sisters. “Two humans are all I ask for. It’s really quite the investment. Give me the Shrine Maiden of Paradise and her husband, and the tengu will share our market research with you in perpetuity to determine the best time frame to begin marketing and adjust offering requirements. For two human lifespans, you’ll receive a generation-spanning advantage on the faith market.”

Minoriko rubbed her chin, mulling over the offer. Shizuha was quick to counter. “That’s a hard bargain you’re driving, Megumu. But I think we need something more… concrete than market data. We want upfront payment for Reimu.”

Another snap. Aya pulled out a small pouch from her messenger bag and handed it to her boss. Megumu offered it to Minoriko, letting her judge its weight. Shizuha looked a bit offended, but quickly tried to correct her expression. Targeting Minoriko and driving a wedge between them when they needed to work together? Even if she was on Hana’s side, Megumu was seeming more and more dangerous. Thank goodness Aya wasn’t this clever.

Minoriko nodded to her sister and pocketed the pouch. “If that’s the miko settled, let’s finalize Anon so we can all get out of here before sunset. Feathers like these don’t come without proper rest.”

Shizuha spoke up. “This investment… it’s enough to let him go, but not quite enough to hand him over, wouldn’t you say? After all, Yukari would still pay quite a sum for him…” Hana’s heart sank, but Megumu didn’t shy away. Her ruby irises bored into Shizuha’s amber, daring her to make another demand.

“Really? Even if the miko’s daughter can easily escape with him at this moment? I must say, that’s quite the dare. How about this: You and your sister let Anon and his daughter go. In exchange, our deal has a 20-year contract and we don’t release these images of the Hakurei family to Yukari. You can take it or leave it, but I’m leaving here before nightfall.” The sun was beginning to set. The shadows cast by the treetops were melding together. The most stressful part? Hana’s head really was clearing up. It must have been the gust from the tengu’s giving her fresh air to breathe. If anything went wrong, she’d immediately blast everyone here and fly off with Father as fast as possible.

Not a word was exchanged. Shizuha held out her hand and Megumu shook it. The vines binding Hana and her parents withered and fell apart, the stubby thorns pushing against her skin shriveling into nothing. Before she could even notice it, the goddesses were gone. Megumu and Aya flew off immediately retreating to the higher levels of Youkai Mountain. All alone in the waning light was Hana and her Father, sitting alone at a table in the middle of the woods. He was torn up, he was knocked out, but he was still Father. After everything, they were finally together. Even if he wouldn’t know it, Hana couldn’t help but hug her slumbering dad. It was warm, it was comforting, but it was a little… off. Wouldn’t Aya stay around too? Even if her boss was there, she still… well… did ‘that’ to Father…

The sobering reality of events hit Hana when she remembered why Reimu’s seat was empty. Her mother was bought and sold at a discount right in front of her, and the person being purchased never even knew. Aya didn’t lie, she just didn’t tell her the whole truth. Hana was getting back Father, and the tengu got Mother out of the deal.

(Part 5)

Huh? Thanksgiving Special? That's so 2023. Black Friday Special is what it's all about! The bonds of family are naught compared to the power of market schemes!

I think enough time has passed to call myself "out-of-practice", so this is probably a bit rougher than my other writings. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of writing this month so I can get off that epic cliffhanger of Aya and Kanako drinking while handling explosives.

As always, it's only as canon as you want it to be. Thanks for reading.

I'll either post my unfinished Halloween Special draft on a day without posts or turn it into an alt-end. I wrote a whole paragraph about Anon being buried alive and I can't let it just go to waste, damnit.

>>48339615
Holy shit you're alive

>>48339615
>>48339590
>>48339578
>>48339553
>>48339548
>enjoys the color green and clovers
>tricked by a fockin' potato
I cannot believe Anon is irish...
well, wasn't expecting the Thanksgiving special to include slavery, but guess it's how the 'beyond common sense' works in Gensokyo. Poor Reimu, the iridium mines below Youkai mountain have a calling that not even the children yearn for...
also, do you happen to work in finances? All I've read here reminded me a lot of the excuses and """justifications""" I've heard for lab budget cuts in both structure and sliminess.
no, I'm not a fed trying to steal your memes. Trust me.
thanks for the special!
>>48339648
good to see you around again~
>The bonds of family are naught compared to the power of market schemes!
Takaneanon and his consequences have been disastrous...

>>48342239
Nah, it's just stuff I've picked up over time. Someone can offer you absolutely everything you could ever ask for, but if it involves money or the law they're getting something out of it you can't see. What matters to Megumu (Acquiring the 'mu and possibly recruiting Hana) isn't what matters to the Aki sisters (Offerings and money for the winter), or what matters to Hana (get back Dad and get the hell out). Megumu is experienced in negotiation and knows how to leverage it. Hopefully that dynamic was visible.

I saw some "what went wrong with the HSE" posts in the visual novel thread, started writing my own, and it sort of spiraled into this.
The core problem with the HSE, as a collaborative writing project was that we wrote too much and didn't kill enough babies.
Before I provide examples, let me first say that I think alot of the writing in the HSE is at least interesting and it wouldn't suprise me if some people ended up getting second careers or side-hustles in writing, but unfortunatly, the HSE is often times less then the sum of it's parts.
Since I'm one of the worst offenders, I'll use my work first as an example: the Seija/Goro plotline, post-betrayal, is a mess. For context, at the time a bunch of other writers were "wrapping up" for the solistice so I was a little rushed to tie things off and didn't anticipate having too much leeway to write past that inflection. Hindsight's 20/20 and all, still, I should've been way more judicious in culling ideas like: "Oh hey, what if I sent to them to hell twice?", "What if they fought with Tenshi for information and won by making her think she's lost when she's actually only stuck for a few seconds.", "What happens if you turn over existence?", "The male preg jokes are kind funny, what if...", You get the idea. And while you can say that any particular peice of these segments was interesting, they do not form a cohesive whole, either with themselves or the main story, so together they take away more then they give.
It's important to understand that with fan fiction, a writing process that's often a string of continuous releases with no editorial oversieght, this is natural. See: that four million word long SSB: Brawl fan fic the author wrote to learn English, that's almost eight times as long as War and Peace. With community projects though, the effect becomes more corrosive since eventually, you expect things to meaningfully tie back into the main story line or at least the plots to have some effect on each other, which they still do, but all the little "Namek" saga's make things hard to follow for readers and hard to write for.

It has been suggested before that we could cut down the HSE by just de-cannonizing story lines and it would be better off. This is an interesting suggestion, but it'd result in a lot of strange dissonance, especially with Hana sitting around in downtime while all this crazy stuff is going on elsewhere. Which brings to light the second issue with these wild side-stories, they indirectly start to hurt the main story by marginalizing it.

I've been thinking about ways to solve these problems if a community project like this ever happens again and the model I've come up with is "Take a penny, leave a penny."
Simply put: if you write some indulgent elements into your side story, taking a penny, you should make sure to also help build the main plot thread as well later, leaving a penny.
I'd say the Takane stuff I wrote was mostly balanced in this regard. When the Yamawaro is murmuring about the effective business operations of the HSE and the logistics of trucking dirt from Hakurei shrine covertly, that's taking a penny, since it really doesn't have a large effect on the main plot and is just a comical element that characterizes what Takane does. When she comforts Anon in a platonic manner and asks him hard questions about Hana's conception, that's leaving a penny, one that Ranon was able to pick up on as well as making a future interaction with Hana and the HSE staff more interesting. I'd say Aya's story line is also mostly balanced in this regard between her personal feelings, Tengu Politics, and trying to make nice with Hana, giving the girl an impression of Youkai that's a smidgen bit better.
People will probably split hairs on what counts as taking/leaving a penny is, but this isn't meant to be a hard and fast rule, just a model to think about when you should kill your ideas or adapt them to leave a few more pennies for other writers.

>>48345178
And then there's the solstice, my greatest and worst suggestion. Great because it gives the story somewhere to finally end, horrible because it's very easy to defer events until the solstice, so a lot of people, like me, are stockpiling pennies that we hope are gonna pay off come that day.
The Patchy/Meiling story line, while again: interesting, also took rolls of pennies from the bank that'll hopefully tie back in at the end. I kind of felt my spidey sense tingling when people started to suggest Sekai be a real thing, because it was a cool idea, but it also took a lot of focus away from the core conflict: "What if the HSE was gathering faith into a god that....". Sekai was a baby we might've been better off murdering or at least finding a way to be more relevant in the plot prior to the solstice.
And then there was the Keine plotline, which went from a funny diversion into an epic confrontation with an Elden Ring inspired manifestation of dread and delusions, Keine comes back from the dead like Jesus, and alot of the oxygen is sucked out of the room for the ending. That plotline took entire comically-sized bags of pennies from the bank that we are not getting back.

Again, hindsight's always 20/20 on these things and I don't want to give the impression that I dislike any of these story lines, far from it, I'll never despise them as much as my own of course! But with that in mind, I'd like to use this model, and explain on how I'd use it to "fix" the Seija/Goro plotline. Not to say the HSE should ever be re-written, once this project is done, we need to spread like roaches from a burning building.
First, keep everything the same up until the betrayal, Goro works against Yukari subtly with Takane, Seija is compulsed to stick with him by Reimu, right up until it's revealed that Seija tricked Goro into a cursed bracelet that'll damn him after death, which only Yukari can remove. Those bits were small and allowed the two to give the perspectives of weak humans and youkai in the conflict, leaving pennies, while developing the two's relationship and character, taking pennies.
After the betrayal however, have Yukari, who's growing distrustful of Ran and wants another tool that'll be assured to be obedient(which his "absolute deal" ability can uniquely provide), appears before Goro and offers him a deal "Obey all my orders, and after I win, I'll remove your curse." Goro, who doesn't agree with Yukari, but also is distressed by being betrayed and knows it's either this or damnation, accepts. Seija would join the deal because despite betraying Goro she has feelings for him that she doesn't understand and doesn't want him to be alone with Yukari.
This setup is a lot better in my opinion since it answers the question "why are they working for Yukari?" a lot more clearly: "Because Goro chose that over damnation after death and Seija is confused about her feelings." This leaves a lot more pennies, since as victims of Yukari, their situation mirrors Kasen's, contrasts with Hana's, and provides a more clear dilemma to Yukari's opposition. Leaving Goro distressed and Seija confused also lets them "heal" over time, rather then all at once, providing a foil to Reimu/Anon's relationship and showing that it's not impossible for an abuser to atone or for a victim to forgive their abuser. It also gives more natural opportunities for making Yukari sympathetic, so as she teaches the two to be more villainous, she also enjoys watching them grow as her servants, but it also keeps her firmly as a villain because the two have no choice at that point.
The parts that follow would be them doing specific missions for Yukari, instead of random bumblings, that put them at odds with others, like the Hana fight would happen because the girl would get cocky with her powers and want to test them on Yukari's goons(little does she know, Yukari was also testing her), they end up brawling in the underworld because Kasen fled and Yukari sent them there in advance to delay her, Yukari sends the two to stop some plot by the Myouren's since she knows it'll upset them, ect. All more penny giving activities since, unlike Ran who's allegiance is wavering, they're directly acting as Yukari's henchmen and working toward her goals as the main antagonist, while the penny taking activities would be their growth as villains and reconciling with each other over time.

I am still committed to finishing my stuff, fraying plotlines and all, but I hope this reflection helps any future community writing project to succeed.

tl;dr: for the success of future collaborative writing projects, writers should ask themselves "does this take a penny from the story or leave a penny for other writers?" and try to balance their ideas so their stories don't become too 'greedy'.

>>48345178
>Since I'm one of the worst offenders
Don't be so hard on yourself, there's one, maybe two individuals who have done actual damage to the HSE and you are not one of them.

>>48345183
>And then there was the Keine plotline
craziest part of that is that it supposedly can be read entirely on its own, a guy in the archive even left this comment (https://files.catbox.moe/6z5s28.png).).
It made me think of its place in a collaborative project.
but yeah, great overview of one of our many mistakes and a learning opportunity. Considering the HSE is the first community project of some writers, including mine, learning from these mistakes is always a treasured opportunity. My greatest mistake with the Keine storyline was not noticing how, from the very start, I was planning it as a full-fledged plot rather than the small time joke I was picturing it at first, a thought that led me to believe that isolating it besides the occasional appearance of the Suzu was a good idea. The timing of things didn't help, since I was writing it as just some outlook into the consequences of the HSE while the other writers caught up, a massive window of free time I found freedom to fill in with as much writing as I wanted, 'It is just a silly story that'll end in a small festival with a small time villain', and before I knew it, it'd outgrown the confines of 'small time'. Won't lie by saying I didn't enjoy the ride.
To correct it with the hindsight I have now, I'd have it removed from the HSE and written as a standalone while either tackling other less written-for characters in the HSE or just outright not writing anything after finishing all my main stuff and my turns of the Sekai storyline. Sadge that I wouldn't be able to write it alongside Suzuanon in such case, which was one if not the most fun part of the whole storyline -- the HSE in the writing side is at its most fun writing cooperatively, personally --, but guess it'd have freed him to be more active with the Suzu and the Jobbers. But mistakes happen, and to be able to learn from them is one of the most important tools an author has in their kit; will remember all that I've done here every time I get in front of the computer and start to plan things out. Nevertheless, after we finish with the solstice, I'll still write the next part of the HSE to continue both Keine's and Hana's characters -- though probably not through 4chan threads, since it's doubtful it'd have enough pull to regularly keep a thread up unlike Hana's and Anon's story --, because I love their characters and the flawed world we've built.

>>48339548
>>48339553
>>48339578
>>48339590
>>48339615
Great to see you back and still kicking. The thanksgiving special might have ended with slavery, but there are worse consequences to discussing politics at the dinner table. So they got off pretty lightly, all things considered.

>>48345841
>there are worse consequences to discussing politics at the dinner table.
>"So… I'm into incest."

Meta rambling time? Sweet.
Early on in the project’s life, I saw a few mentions in unrelated threads where /jp/sies weren't afraid to say they didn't like it, it clogged up the catalog, etc. I figured as long as it stayed in it's thread and nobody would obnoxiously spam it all over the board, it'd be fine. As far as I can tell, the HSE has stayed in it’s lane and nobody’s hijacking Yukari threads or anything like that.
Looking at that list in the 2hu VN thread, complaints 1, 6 and 10 stick out the most to me.

1) [HSE was spontaneous shitposts that turned into a complex narrative] To me, it's part of what defines the spirit of the HSE. Some prompt got out of hand and spiraled into this convoluted story without any foundation. On one hand, that freewheeling nature is what allowed the HSE to have all these weird and shocking developments. On the other, the lack of an initial structure and outline of a full journey does show in hindsight. Each character had their own little journey messing around around at the beginning before alliances started forming and Yukari started threatening the rest of Gensokyo. Then, each story started to develop it's own way of relating to the central conflict. Some of the big players finally crossed at Hana's birthday, then split up again to kinda find a way to set up for the finale, which is the only really concrete goal set after Hana's birthday. Some characters have had multiple conclusions to their arcs at this point while waiting for others to finish up. The real passage of time contributed to this, since the writers have different rates of activity. Thinking back on the character counts from the start of each thread, it’s pretty clear to see how it happened. Some more midpoints and general direction might have helped in the long run to cut down on the parity between character content and create a pace that the entire project traveled at.
6) [Lack of hierarchy or leadership] This shit has no satisfying solution for anyone. Nobody wants a Discord to run a 4chan thread in the background. Using IRC meant little when nobody's on at the same time. Even using trips was just unofficially verboten because nobody actually did it. I didn't see the need for a distinction between writers, reader and shitposters because I liked being all 3. In hindsight that was pretty irresponsible and I wish I took that role now. Would've probably changed my work ethic, made me more approachable for criticism and compliments, and helped quash petty drama before it happened. The only shit I can honestly say I fully regret about working on the HSE is letting that get as bad as it did.
10) [Burnout and lack of passion] Threads do feel less lively after the Keine finale. The retarded Cirno controversy didn’t help boost morale either. I had this stupid fixation on not posting anything to the thread that wasn’t constructive, so I completely stopped posting for a while. That was stupid, this is a thread about fanfiction on the /jp/ board on 4chan dot org. It’s nothing sacred, it’s explicitly profane. I think I’ll try to interact more here, even if it’s not posting actual writing. Other writers and readers have been interacting and keeping the thread alive when they’ve been suffering the same burnout I have. It’s not fair to just abandon everyone. The hiatus and it’s consequences yadda yadda yadda — tl;dr I wanna get the vibe back. Only real way to do that is posting.

I have this responsibility nagging at the back of my head that I started the HSE, but didn’t start the Hana or Abusemu or even write that first Yukari rape story so I have to fulfill an obligation to the HSE to only commit the highest quality work I possibly can and never do something to suggest I contributed something of worth. That shit’s just depressing. It’s a bit too late to start now, but fuck it. I’ll start tripfagging if I post a story or something else that warrants tripfagging. If it causes any problems I can always just stop doing it.

…And make sure to look at the name field so I don’t make an ass of myself off-thread.

>>48344557
it was fucking visible indeed, good work~
>>48350382
man, reflecting on our mistakes is great; it means you'll be around more, which is very nice.
>6
that truly became a problem, though I'd say more the lack of a proper communication tool. Considering the hindsight we have now, perhaps we should organize in one to make sure the solstice goes as smoothly as possible. I'll be finishing Hana's last batch in a bit, and will immediately start writing the first mega batch of the solstice -- about 15-20~ chapters or something, though a bit on the vague side, since I'm really eager about the stuff with Youkai Mountain exploding and what that'll mean for the Solstice --, to post in the 12/21. It'd be nice to have a place to share bits of it and question the others, preparing the said pennies of Takaneanon's example and such. Since IRC is a bust, Discord is the devil itself and posting in the thread is counterproductive, why not just go with skype? We could talk more openly and immediately about our plans there and so have a more thorough final product, though it'd come at the cost of not discussing a ton of variables in the thread;
If you guys don't like it, then I could create a burner google account and so a doc for us to put in our thoughts and ideas about the other's works and organize ourselves efficiently, though without the talking part, leaving more stuff for the thread.
I'm open to either and other suggestions.

>>48353103
That's a nice name desu, if you're going to use a name try actually tripfagging so we know you're the person you're purporting to be.

>>48350382
All this talk of trip and name fagging reminds me of when Takaneanon accidentally started name fagging, which is funny as he's been consistently anti organization. But the vibe isn't ever going to come fully back, there aren't enough writers and what writers there are aren't amateur enough anymore, the decrease in the amount of writefags over time and the change in culture has also led to an increase in cohesion.
Although it's not like people don't complain or try to be constructive, but I think the biggest problems have already set sailed and aren't fixable anymore without more retroactive continuity.

>>48353103
gdoc sounds good. If we did Skype I'm sure I'd only stick to the IM anyways.
>>48353552
That's a cold, sobering truth. I think any retroactive fixing is only going to happen after the finale, if at all. Keeping continuity intact over 31 threads worth of story is going to be a tedious and laborious process. A secondary form of communication would definitely be necessary to approve of and execute any significant changes.

I'm sorry you went schizo Rananon, this is my second regret in all of the HSE. Should I start referring to you singlularly or plurally?

>>48355265
>Should I start referring to you singlularly or plurally?
call me legion.

>>48355265
hope I'm tripcoding right, because if I'm not, this will be very embarrassing. Prepared here the gdoc, and best way I can think to share it is to send you the link through Ao3 inbox.
>for Suzuanon
I remember you saying you won't be participating in the Solstice, yet if you want to see what we're planning, I'll send you the link
>for Takaneanon
if I remember correctly, you don't have a work connected to the collection, right? For safety's sake, could you post a work, link it to the collection and next time you post a chapter of yours here, write your Ao3 name in end of the chapter just so I know it's you? The legion has spooked me...

>>48327791
a vacation got us Ayanon back this time, so the gamble paid off

>>48356327
I see everyone else here has finally come to realize the usefulness of gdocs, hope you guys have a swell time working together.

>>48345178
>It has been suggested before that we could cut down the HSE by just de-cannonizing story lines
Hasn't the ship already sailed on that, it happened already and stuff was even removed from the flowchart.

>The retarded Cirno controversy
Here's my two cents, I got mad at and quit reading the story when two characters were killed off without even their names being mentioned, you know who I'm talking about and honestly if you fags are going to kill off a character, regardless of how mad you are at other people you shouldn't allow that to dictate the disrespect you show to characters.
The very least you could do was call Cirno and Nazrin by their names, even if you hate them and the person who wrote their story.
Especially now none of it ever happened in the first place.

>>48365179
>I see everyone else here has finally come to realize the usefulness of gdocs, hope you guys have a swell time working together.
kek, just remembered when Kanako got pissed at Ayaanon and fucked him with a thunderstorm that erased a bunch of his chapters. Poor guy...

>>48365179
>hasn't the ship sailed on that
The ship has sailed on all of this. Its too little too late to try and start tripfagging and organising now when we're this late in the game and the solstice is already on a pastebin with a complete run-through of what will happen.

>>48356327
>I remember you saying you won't be participating in the Solstice, yet if you want to see what we're planning, I'll send you the link
Yeah that would work out for me. I could get an early start on an epilogue that way.

>>48369300
nice, good luck with that epilogue when the time comes~

Hana chapters today?

>>48376009
If my computer doesn't explode randomly or Kanako decides to cut my power off, then it's very possible.

There’s but a second before two arms wrap around me and my face is pulled to a soft bosom. The next, salty water hits my untamed hair—no big Hakurei bow to keep it maintained—and shaky words reach me: “H-Hana! You, gee… Y-You…” I recognize this voice immediately, soft green of her threads shading the edges of my vision. Sanae-san hugs me close, quivering in both body and speech. The shadows fade away and the fires die down, so very close to setting that pristine flower on fire but thwarted; a maniacal mask of putrescence vanishes to the depths of my mind, and Yukari’s arms are nowhere near me, their imprisoning clutch—she’s never cared. She’s never cared for me—replaced with the comfort of the Moriyan miko’s arms. The fires, the shadows, the clouds of death and brimstone…

… In this second, there was nothing wrong with the world.

The next, Sanae-san separates the hug and, holding each of my shoulders with tender strength, stares into my eyes with hers wide as plates, her breath lacking rhythm and her hair a fluttering mess and a half. “Y-You are a very bad girl! Bad, bad girl! The worst girl in this side of the multiverse! You almost gave me a heart attack running off like that! A billion good girl stars have been removed from your board!! You’re in so much debt, Hakurei Hana!” She was barely coherent, yet I had no interest in her voice, only the sheer relief in her eyes and features… Yukari’s arms had come from behind, held me in place, and sapped my life like orchids; shadows loom over us, Kanako-sama's feet on the ground and eyes where the flying onbashira had hit after soaring all the way down the mountain, crossing the Sanzu and landing so far away from view only a tengu could hope to see the crash site; Suwako-sama glanced at me, then at Sanae-san, before turning to face the oni, who was observing the three of us with unreadable eyes—far away, soaring scarlet flames, the beams of light of an ordinary magician, thick and strong enough to permanently wound Youkai Mountain—but not Sanae-san. Sanae-san doesn’t loom over me or hide her true self from view. I see it in the rushed words, in the maddening relief and in the true-to-every-action methodology she’s taken towards and around me.

Never hidden, never anything but herself.

Father watches from far, far away. He holds to that bakeneko’s hand, for she hasn’t destroyed their bond.

I’d thought myself alone in the abyss.

… She’s never cared…

Sanae-san stands to my side. If only I had been born her daughter…

But I wasn’t born Hana Kochiya. Reimu Hakurei is my mother, and Anon is my father—demons dance in Yuuka’s eyes to the tune of her eternal nature as a Youkai, a curse to carry… but a curse that doesn’t define the love or the gentleness she’s shown me so often; the Hieda patriarch rages and rages against an unchanging destiny, a wrath that decimates everything. Yukari watches me, and she does not care. Mother hits her face on the ground, and she cries—and those two things will never change, no matter if I wear the Yakumo or the Moriyan uniform.

Change, stagnation.

In the core of it all, stands an unasked question: Who is Hana Hakurei?

Thoughts are cut short, though, as a once carefree and simple voice carries in it the weight of all the hells: “Everything I’ve heard was true, then…” My skin shivers and my body tenses, eyes turning to Suwako-sama standing by a disoriented Kasen-nee, the oni daubed in old blood, towering over the small goddess as she watches the distance, though that seems only to make the froggy goddess bigger, the wordlines mending themselves and for the moment, unresponsive. Kanako-sama has crossed her arms, watching with a side glance. “… How could she have done this to you?”

“It was quite easy,” her grating voice drains all gazes to the open Gap, bloodshot eyes staring at us. Sanae-san prepped herself immediately, gohei in one hand and each visible inch of skin tense with anticipation; Kanako-sama, however, remained still and with arms crossed, watching as Yukari left the Gap drenched in water—another step, and it was as if nothing had happened, her clothes flawless, spotless velvet. My core cooled down with the display—, left hand climbing to wipe some dust off her immaculate purple dress. “Never once did Kasen attempt to stop me. She was true to her nature, and in such chose to come to me and delve into her most sinful desires. I did push, but she took the steps herself at the end of the day. I am but an innocent woman~” A giggle. It's so painfully obvious the lie. “Hm… Shall we partake in greetings, little and tall goddesses~? You do look in the mood.” The provocation phases through them, but Kasen-nee cringes, lowering her face with a sudden and twisted expression of widened eyes and clenched teeth, pink threads doing nothing to hide that from the recovered wordlines. “Any motivation for the absurdly uncalled-for attack, by the by?”

“Uncalled for?!” Sanae-san shrieks, burning with rage unfit of a miko… A proper miko, that is. “After everything you said back at the party and the things you’ve done to Hana and her family, you’d call touching her—even being in the presence of this girl, for all the living gods!—an absurd motive to sink your face in?! Stop playing pretend, you demented monster! I’m so sick of you and your cruel games!” Her words attract Yukari’s stare, an inherent laziness there as she studies Sanae like one studies a burrow in need of maintaining, her pale and buxom frame illuminated by the dying sun setting behind the mountains in the distance, casting shadows all over us.

“Game? Of course someone like you would refer to this, real life, as a ‘game’—the worthless miko, nothing but a lesser version of Reimu.” Sanae-san winces. “I watched you during that festival, you know? Reimu would’ve destroyed Fujiwara no Mokou in seconds and prevented the majority of the deaths, and the mad oni would’ve been taken out of the picture just as quickly—”

“—WHY DIDN’T YOU INTERVENE THEN?!” It’s my turn to wince with her increasingly raised voice, the woman of green hair shaking ever so slightly. She wasn’t like this at the p-party… “You could’ve done something—it’s your responsibility as a sage. But you did nothing! Hana could’ve died!” Yukari’s face remains immutable before Sanae-san’s passionate words, the wordlines showing me the strain in Kanako-sama’s face and the overwatch of Suwako-sama’s… Though I hardly could focus, thoughts wavering with another sickening show of disinterest. W-What has changed?! At the party, Yukari made me seem like I meant the world to her! That she cared for and loved me… But it was all a lie. She’s never cared.

“Don’t pinpoint your inabilities and insecurities onto me, Kochiya—I’m just one woman doing her best and therefore don’t intervene in human affairs.” Lie, lie, lie. How many goddamn lies?! How many meticulous layers upon other layers? Just a little, half of it or maybe everything—what has she said that wasn’t a lie…?

Sanae-san tries to speak again, her face red with anger, but Kanako-sama intervenes, eyes never shifting from the Gap Sage. “Enough, Sanae! Whatever Reimu could’ve done, she didn’t… It was you there, and things would’ve been worse otherwise.” Her voice carries the firmness and assurance of a true goddess, Sanae-san’s anger melting into a frown… Puzzling even me, I reach for her empty hand and hold it.

For a moment, she tenses…

… The next, she squeezes it without looking at me.

“What happens now, Yukari?” This time, Suwako-sama is the one to engage, a devilish smile flashing on her lips, one that erases the deceptive weakness of a 4’4 tall child. “You don’t think we came here prepared just to talk or run away, did you?”

The world grows cold, as if the eternal spring of Senkai had just been dispersed. “My, my…” Yet her voice remains constant, like an outlier—thunder amidst clouds; the full moon eclipsing the sun. “Threatening me with a good time after hitting me so violently, nonetheless?” Suwako-sama’s visage barely changes, though her eyes rush towards Kasen-nee for a split second, visible only through the wordlines. Yukari is staring at us as if sheep walking towards a cliff.

Yet, the seconds pass.

Silently, they pass.

Yukari remains passive, watching us with that facade of cold amusement, overshadowing the very sun with her frame… But still unmoving, at the edge of a precipice.

W-What is happening? Why is she—

“—You have just bashed my poor miko about her enjoyment of games…” Suwako-sama breaks the silence all of a sudden, stepping forward towards Yukari, all eyes upon her and in different states of shock—not Kanako-sama, a smirk there seen through the worldlines—, Yukari’s demeanor growing colder and less amused… Though there’s something there that makes me tremble.

Everything with her is always a lie, a lie upon another lie, or even worse: a half-truth.

Even her faint display of fear sends my mind racing.

“… But you, Yukari, have just found yourself in check.” Suwako-sama stands right in front of Yukari, fearless as the looming shadow of the sage covers her all. “Move a tad, and zugzwang will be inevitable.” The hell does that even mean…?

Another moment of utter silence.

The next, Yukari laughs. It is hearty and lively, like that of a fisherman who’s just caught the biggest fish of his life. She tries to restrict and soften it at first, one hand covering her mouth elegantly, but can’t resist and lets it boom through Senkai, one hand holding tight to her stomach. Sanae-san remains close and on edge, and Kanako-sama observes. Kasen-nee is speechless. “Is she… Oh, what a good laugh~who’d have thought I’d be having such a good time in this decrepit pit of filth, heh—” she cleans a lone tear, opening her eyes to reveal a gleam of peril. “—Is my sister sage enjoying your little circus too~?” A dark night flashes; Mother holds that cat and declares her suicide. I shiver.

“She is, but every circus has to end, eventually.” There is no levity in her approach, her neck angled to stare Yukari straight into her eyes. “You, as the clown, should be the first to leave.” It’s becoming hard to get air in my lungs; I feel I’ll choke, the crushing atmosphere and lack of understanding—she’s never cared—squashing me like a bug, though those were short-lived feelings. What is happening here?! Why is Suwako-sama provoking her so badly when she knows, even if Okina were to be here, things wouldn’t change? It’d still be Kasen and Yukari versus her…

… But then why is Yukari just standing there?!

“You have a very big mouth for a very little body, did you know that?” Movement finally comes in the shape of Yukari leaning forward, her voice a hushed hiss, looking at Suwako-sama as if she were nothing but a pebble on the road.

A pebble that does not bulge. “Leave. Now.”

Silence is the answer, but it’s one faulty and unreliable. The true answer lies in the small, nigh invisible crack that forms in Yukari’s veneer as her broad eyes remain on the goddess, her gaze not of surprise, bafflement or shock, but rather the gaze of a predator, studying the prey closely and exhaustively. Breathing grows harder and harder, chest heavy and lungs rough as if coated in a fine layer of ash. In my mind I return to the center stage of the birthday party, stripped of both my clothes and dignity, the pressure unreal, begging to be released in these obvious signs of fear and desperation; tears welling and knees buckling… Though that fear remains just that, a sensation of fear. Sanae-san’s hand on mine is smooth, tender and carries only the most pure feelings. The tattered uniform of the Moriyan Shrine feels nice, too.

Then, suddenly, the spell shatters to the tune of footsteps.

“What an interesting turn of events. Not unexpected, mind you, just plenty fascinating,” She walks by Suwako-sama with no hesitation, the goddess turning and watching her back like a hawk, Kanako-sama sharing a glance with the froggy goddess while Sanae-san remains tense, gohei prepared, her grip growing to almost crushing, a quality I didn’t pay attention to, focused on Yukari as she strolled towards Kasen-nee—

—A lightning-fast Gap came and went, and the blonde woman confidently kept her pace, naked as the day she was born…

… And Kasen-nee simply wasn’t here anymore.

The change was as heartbreaking as it was sudden; her pink pools drained and thrashed like an untouched pond sundered by a landslide of filth. The doll that had taken her place strode forward with wild fervor, the blood coating her hair and broken horns visibly boiling as, with open arms and a giggle akin to that of a mother meeting their child, Yukari welcomed her. Sanae-san had lost her edge immediately, paling like a ghost and watching it unfold with confusion and disgust—“W-What the hell…?” she’d mumbled—, the wordlines shifting to show me Suwako-sama’s brick wall of an expression and Kanako-sama’s venomous disdain, eyes slit like those of serpents.

I watched Kasen-nee plunge her face into Yukari’s full breasts and run a hand over scant golden pubes, utterly uncaring of who watched; Yukari’s hair, extensive and flowing, answering each pleasure, twitch, pull and push with flutters of delight.

I watched it all with a… sobering feeling.

Though my cheeks reddened and my core grew hot, something else—something again and again crushed and oppressed—answered with so much rage, so much righteous wrath, that I trembled, nose wrinkling and a hard desire to vomit rising from somewhere within. The same fed-up feeling that took me to leave mother that day, that swirled with a passionate ire every time I’d hear faint moans and crying through the walls of the shrine. A feeling I thought lost in Yukari’s warm embrace.

The feeling of having a duty to stop evil.

“But nothing has changed,” the Gap sage resumes, staring at us four with booming delight and bouncing breasts, Kasen-nee letting herself be guided to be on her knees. “The preparations have come to an end, and I await you and my sister sage and everyone else she wants to throw to the wolves! I wait for you with open arms! Your blood, your sacrifice and your death—all welcome!” The slurping sounds of a tongue meeting tight feminine walls fill the Senkai, whatever atmosphere of peace gutted. Sanae-san has cast her gaze away, her grasp broken so she could cling to her mouth, fighting back the contents of her stomach; the winds blow maddeningly, howling with fury, though Kanako-sama’s eyes seem to see past the melding bodies, as if thinking of the past—of implications, if I read the long stare she’d given me right—, and Suwako-sama is still the same brick wall.

Yukari’s eyes shift to me, and I meet her lustful gaze with a cooling of the warmth spreading between my legs, throat sore and though the ache rises, I cannot look away like Sanae-san.

The conflicting thoughts of such a scene take shape of knives lodging into my back.

An unnatural melody rings amidst lewd groans and wet strokes, one composed by a thousand bloodshot eyes tearing the boundaries of reality. “Of course, you’re forgiven, dear Hana~! Mama will make sure you return safe and sound to your papa and I~! We’re eager to have you with us again… Well, I’m in the mood to bring this fun to him right now—ah, oh, there, there, we’ll surprise him indeed, right~?” She quivers, bending forward a little and biting her lower lip, eyes narrowing as she passionately holds Kasen-nee by the hair. Wrath crawls up my spine both at her hollow words and at my inability to answer, to make that rage known: the thought of speaking to her after everything I’ve heard, seen—realized—is just… Unfathomable. “So I bid you, civilized ladies, my farewell!” A giggle echoes with the murmur of the Gap swallowing them, creating a howl from all hells. “See you at my solstice~”

They were gone by the next moment, but the weight of Yukari's presence and actions lingered like a shadow hovering over all of us, greedily hiding away the sun…

… Then, Sanae-san’s hand leaves mine, she steps away and, before I can properly understand what’s happening, she’s bent with both hands on her knees, puking onto the baked dirt below. I recoil and hesitate to approach, but Kanako-sama doesn’t, standing by her with one hand lightly tapping her back and the other supporting her left arm. “There, there…” She whispers, though my attention leaves them as a thump echoes: S-Suwako-sama had collapsed on her butt, sitting on the dirt with a faraway gaze, forehead sweat-covered and brows furrowed.

“W-WHAT WAS THAT?!” Sanae-san’s voice is wheezy and strained, her eyes wide, the back of the hand not holding the gohei cleaning her mouth. “I-I’ve seen plenty of… messed-up stuff, but the way Kasen just… flipped! What kind of terrible magic was that?”

“It was a power play, her way to remember us; she’s got more cards than any of us, or just a parasite’s plan of convincing herself into thinking she’s still in control—pick your poison,” Kanako-sama mumbles, eyes turning to me. “Are you feeling okay, Hana-chan?” I confirm that I’d read her eyes right just now, the worry and pity of them reflected now on Sanae-san’s: they know Yukari almost broke me, that I almost became like Kasen-nee, a thought that saps any strength I'd gathered, so I merely nod. Kanako-sama sighs, the swimming concern sign she doesn’t buy it. “… Is Yukari still around?”

Wha—? “No, she is not,” Suwako-sama answers, peering into the eyes of her hat with an unreadable gaze after taking it off her head. “I can’t feel the cursed hermit anywhere, either. Didn’t think her snooping around the outskirts of the shrine would be a problem, but here we are… You can never be careful enough with that woman.” She rises from the ground and dusts her skirt, coming towards us with a downcast, albeit pensive, gaze, hat back on her head. “I’m surprised she believed me, though it’s understandable to not want to take any chances—especially with her so close to her ‘victory’.”

“Huh?” Sanae-san muses, moving herself to my side as we all inadvertently formed a square, eyes often racing to where Yukari and Kasen stood moments ago.

“About Okina,” w-what…? W-Wait, does that mean— “Yep. It was all a bluff.” I cringe, her eyes on me appearing to smile—a cheeky smile, ugh… “Unlike Shameimaru, I do not have a backdoor anywhere near me. Okina can effortlessly contact me, but not the other way around… Had Yukari seen past this bluff, we’d have fallen straight onto her spider web.”

“Risky gambles always pay out the most—they're also the most entertaining. I've lost count of how many times I almost began laughing while you two were talking, heh~” Kanako-sama hums, though her good humor doesn’t last long. “… Still, we’ve abused our last advantage against that piece of shit. As of now, our hands are utterly tied.”

“What bluff, anyway…?” I ask, curiosity overpowering the festering wound—she’s never cared—chewing my body and soul.

Suwako-sama ponders me for a moment, a look of ‘are you stupid?’ threatening to come into fruition but dying out as she picks up the pace—the eyes on her hat seemed rather glum. “Why do you think there’s a solstice to begin with, Hana-chan?” We follow as she walks towards the entrance of Senkai. Kasen-nee’s animals ignore us, perched on the dojo or vegetation, peering longly at where she and Yukari had made their leave…

To Suwako-sama’s question, though, nothing comes to head besides: “Ego?”

“That too. These sages must always make everything a grandiose affair—at least, I can see the vision of marketing the anxiety and anticipation of their confrontation. Sadly, there'll be no time in the winter festival for me to make bank…” The wind goddess offers; a remark ignored. “Yukari has a method to win immediately against Okina, Hana-chan—the solstice is just a way to cover it up neatly.” That, however, is not. The winter festival, a cover-up…? But for what, exactly?

The froggy goddess seems to read my mind: “Toutetsu shared with me during one of our meetings with Okina some interesting info about the HSE. It seems Yukari has a device prepared in the Fake Shrine—an extraordinary creation, I must say; perhaps greater than the Hakurei barrier itself—that, upon command, will time-stop everything inside it but herself,” t-time-stop…? The wound writhes, blood temperature flooring as something swelled inside my throat. I swallowed it up, missing Sanae-san saying something. “—Yes, that maid does too, but no one knows how. That was until Yukari figured it out and weaponized it against us twice. If we’d gone there blind to such an advantage, then we’d have lost before the battle had even begun… Gladly, we’ve got a strategy for the time stop and it’s doubtful she’s aware that we’re aware of her plan, likely only that it exists and therefore she'll be extra careful—I'll be informing Toutetsu she'll have to face more resistance than initially thought… That'll probably make her happy, actually~” Her words rapidly dissolve into white noise as the landscape changes around us, the three women conversing between themselves tirelessly. So many variables, so many challenges… All because one insane woman had the power to execute her whims unimpeded.

Whims I partook in.

I watched it all that day—Father on the chair, Yukari riding him—, unable to do anything; I returned there, knowing full well it was a trap, and I gave in to my darkest desires with a bunch of excuses… A victim once. Never again, for good or bad.

Guilt operates as the good man’s compass, and mine grows bloated and engorged in infection, a gurgling hive of dead bees that could never betray their instincts and so, upon sinking their stingers in sweet little lies, would soon die—and die I did every time father came inside of me, every time my mouth tasted her femininity and golden locks… Even before that: frozen in that alleyway, bleeding from my broken nose; listening to mother raping father behind the shrine doors.

Yet, that type of death is sweet. It is easy to welcome.

It meant I had only to lie down and take the blows, like I’ve done my entire life…

… But that is not true anymore, is it?

The day I left the shrine with Father was the day I got up from that blood-soaked floor and grew a pair to follow the path of strife—perhaps in this life, the first day I felt truly alive.

And it hurt. It hurt more than any assault, any death.

It hasn't stopped hurting…

Before my eyes, the day passed in an amalgam of colors, faces and locations, hardly realizing how we’d left the lonesome Senkai and returned to the Moriyan shrine. A thousand small arms welcomed me first, then Aunn’s, her wagging tail hitting the side of my legs as she cried at the explanation of our second encounter with Yukari; Yuuka came too, all scary-looking, trying to pry something out of me, but I… couldn’t speak properly, my mouth vicariously fighting against the inner workings of my brain. Suwako-sama described to them and others that came, I recall, about how I was in shock or something—it didn’t dissuade the dolls, who constantly tried to buy my attention with cute gestures, candies or whatever. They lost interest in a few hours—, and so I was left mostly alone in that room with a bed covered in starry blankets to process, save for someone that, even in the incomprehensible mess this day had become, was instantly recognizable.

Especially with that cute, wagging tail. “Hey, Hana-chan~I’m barging in!” Aunn barked, one hand holding a plate of food—octopi-shaped sausages? Gee, Sanae-san…—and the other closing the door behind her. Slowly the mind fog cleared, the edges of my vision still brimming with shadows of a woman cloaked in fire and others of a sinful purple, demons whispering and muting everything else… Everything else but Aunn and the peony that sat on the windowsill, immaculate under the moon’s silver glow. I shifted on the chair I was on, gohei on my thighs, watching as the Komainu approached with the steamy food. “You missed dinner, so I thought it’d be nice to bring you some! I had to help in the kitchen first, though. They put me on cleaning duty…” She whimpered glumly, offering me the plate.

“I’m not hungry, but thanks.” I place the plate by the flower, the smell of sausage nauseating my empty stomach, and attempt to shift my attention to the radiant peony—

—Instead of lingering on the flower, though, my attention goes to my lap: Aunn had just kneeled and suddenly wormed her head onto there, moving the gohei away with some reverence. I watched her, confused, but did nothing to stop as that avalanche of lush green shifted and, folding her arms over my thighs and perching her chin on her forearms, she showed me her eyes.

Eyes green—beautiful green—; a green that’d never left me.

A green that could make you cry with joy by the mere sight.

Wordless, I sank my hand in her threads, caressing them with simplicity. “What are you doing, Aunn?”

She hummed as she casually played with the white hem of my Moriyan outfit, tail waving a tad quicker for no motive before that semblance of good humor dissolved into nostalgic sadness. “… I missed you, Hana-chan. A lot.” Her stare bears despondence. “Those awful fires, the p-party—Yukari… Every time something bad came, I thought I would lose you.” She doesn’t cry, though her eyes swell, and she sniffles. “But you are still here. You never left me alone, and you still love me as I do love you.” I narrow my eyes at her words. Oh… “Even with everything we’ve gone through these last months, you haven’t… Y-You haven’t become bad like Reimu.” A note of sorrow sprung in there, one she doesn’t elaborate on—though it’s tempered by a newborn glee of joy—as the mountain of green wiggles into a more comfy configuration, the blue Moriyan skirt of much better material than my older clothes. “… I’m grateful you’re doing fine, despite all.”

Her words strike like a shard of a broken mirror, the reflection tainted by blood, highlighting the times I’d said that to her—one this very morning.

Every one of them was a lie.

The silver glow is soft as I shift my eyes from her to the blankets of snow outside, then the silver moon hanging in the skies, a reef of white in an infinitude of black… Finally resting on the heavenly peony on the windowsill, one singular moment of silence washing over me.

Then—

I see a broken nose, a desecrated childhood. Defiance. I saw myself wither and collapse under mother’s shadows and her yells of rage, her fits of sheer violence.

I see Father crying as the Gap Sage guides his member inside of me. Pain, guilt, pleasure. I saw myself moving my hips and immersing myself in an ocean of sin colored in the pitch-black of tar, ignorant of how quickly I’d sink. When things began making sense, the oily waters blocked all light. I was lost.

I see the fires of death and the plumes of noxious fumes. Wrath, regret. The lengths someone would go for family, for delusions, a blistering mask of rage so unfathomably intense it burned one’s humanity… for some speck of love and understanding. Mother had just spoken in a hushed tone about her suicide, holding tight onto the wailing bakeneko… Was it my fault? Did I do something wrong to deserve all this?

I see a lifetime of pain, torture and loneliness.

—I see the day Father and I left that horrible shrine, and every shadow burns in the flames of righteous rage, a rage born from the coils of my Hakurei blessing.

Change, stagnation…

The pristine peony on the windowsill, lit up by the silvery moon, was nearly consumed by the infernos of sensei’s festival… But she wasn’t.

She’s still here, standing proud.

“… Not everything is fine, Aunn,” I mutter. Her suddenly curious eyes are on me. I don’t stray mine from the pristine flower. “Today I understood that, more than ever, not everything is… fine. Kasen-nee needs help I cannot offer, and everything I thought I knew about Yukari turned out to be a… well, a lie, y’know? Mother has also said she’ll be in a lot of danger when the Solstice comes, and I don’t know what Father thinks of me anymore. Everything is confusing, painful or beyond my capacities.” My arm marred by the oni-Hieda cursed thunderbolts; sensei’s kids are my siblings, one idea I don’t think I’ll ever fully wrap my head around; Mother burns and cries…

I gulp nothingness, heart calm before the words I speak. Peculiar stuff, this placidity. When I said the same things to Kasen-nee, I felt at the edge of a breakdown.

… But things have changed, haven’t they?

Maybe it’s time I do too.

“That doesn’t mean everything is bad, of course,” my hand moves, caressing the tender locks of emerald. The sound of her tail wagging fills my heart with… happiness. Sheer happiness. “I have you. I have Marisa-sensei and her children to come—not everything is fine, but what is indeed fine… I couldn’t love more.” It’s a moment of quiet not even tears dare break, though my eyes darken with the next words. “I have no intention of letting things stay miserable as they are, Aunn—I’ll fight like the others will; I’ll return from that chaos with Father… And then, indeed, everything should be fine.”

A million words flash through Aunn’s eyes in the following moments of silence. She chooses the best of them. “… You’ve changed~”

The dark silhouette of Mother burns—she’s smiling, happy that I had called her mother—, Marisa-sensei leaves, crying while clutching that connection stone—she’s smiling side by side with Mother—, Father is crying and rolled into a ball—I see him on that table, talking with Sanae-san and Kanako-sama, smiling and enjoying the festivities…

Stagnation is two pools of purple, sad and lonely forever.

One question remains the center of the maelstrom, which today was: Who is Hana Hakurei?

… A question left for the madness of the Winter Solstice.

“I’m still me.” I say absentmindedly.

“I wouldn’t want it any other way~” Aunn snuggles closer.

It feels really nice.

>>48383168
>>48383163
>>48383156
>>48383152
>>48383146
>>48383141
And this is it for the Hana storyline! Will start now to write the Solstice first entrance, should be clocking at around 20~ chapters. Anticipated date of posting is the 21st for obvious reasons.

>>48383171
Dog Therapy really does solve everything, although I don't think Sanae is going to forget what she saw for a long time.Maybe she could use some Aunn cuddles. But our girl is growing up, and there's a small chance she'll be a semi-stable adult!

>>48265311
Keine nods her head in agreement, then I, and finally Mokou does reluctantly as well.
"Very well. Firstly, I understand Yukari visited earlier and spoke in veiled threats, totally assured of her victory?" Goro asked turning to me.
I nodded. There wasn't a shred of doubt in the youkai's mind that she'd be victorious.
"Well, she's mistaken. Yukari received a guaranteed vision from the future and completely misunderstood it's meaning."
"A vision? Yukari doesn't have that kind of power last I checked, right Keine?" Moku asked.
Keine took a moment to ponder, cradling her child as she did. "It's not impossible, boundary manipulation is a unique power that's both strong and flexible. Still, there's a limit to such things and to see a 'guaranteed' vision? What edge would she pull on to make that happen? Unless, perhaps she had help?"
"It wasn't by her own power that the vision came to her, nor was it brought by the Mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's alleged ability to manipulate fate, well..." Goro thought for a moment. "Let's put that aside. The point is that the vision is not a product of anyone in Yukari's cabinet."
"Well what about the two of you?" I asked. "You're both capable of working together, combining your abilities. Who's to say you didn't aide Yukari?"
Goro smirked and shrugged, seeing what I was doing. "Curses are entropic by nature. They don't go backwards. As for turning things over..."
"You can make the clock go the other way for a few seconds, but time catches up and makes up for it." Seija grumbled.
I nodded to Keine. Asking about abilities is typically a sensitive question, but there wasn't any dishonesty coming from the two, allowing a little trust to build in the room.
"So what's so important about this 'vision'? And how did the great pompous purple wre-" Keine moved to cover Mokou's mouth and would've done it to if Mochi hadn't Idly put her first in it.
"As I said, idle talk is dangerous." Goro reiterated and Mokou squinted at the man, annoyed at having been silenced. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you the contents of the vision."
Now, Mokou gingerly set Mochi in my arms and turned back to the man. "Listen. You've come here in the dead of night, unannounced, to drip feed us info as you please. Seems like you're trying to manipulate us, how very Yukari-like..." She said, before Keine sighed.
The teacher got up with Aki, walked over to the two, and offered the babe over to them. "Could you hold him for a bit? My arms are a bit tired." She asked.
And to everyone surprise, it was Seija who put out her hands. Keine didn't refuse, gently placing the boy into the Jaku's arms, and guiding her arms on how to hold him best. "I'm tired of talking anyway." Seija said, as she held the boy who began to chew on the tassels that draped from her clothes.
Keine returned to Mokou's side, having restored balance to the room and refrained from making some light verbal jab at her lover, settling for a strong pinch instead.
"I'm sorry, since you're not wrong. I do intend to manipulate you all." Goro said. "But it's because there's things we're unable to say for now, so this is the best we can do."
"Can you at least tell us how you know Yukari's mistaken? Could she be manipulated or perhaps have some delusion?" I asked.
I saw a flicker in Goro's eye. A soft yes, on both accounts. "We have received a vision from the same source as her." Goro said. "And this is where our second piece of information comes from: the HSE will be destroyed."
"Destroyed? I guess Yukari couldn't have won if she lost that place." Mokou reasoned aloud.
"Well, so long as Anon is inside of it." Keine added "That place is a thick, complex tapestry of magic. It could be Yukari plans on detonating it once Anon is clear or maybe his chamber will be protected when it does."
"Either way, the battle at the Solstice will be that much more dangerous. I'm hoping a few people are present when it happens to handle the effects. Reimu or Ran would be ideal candidates, but they'll probably be occupied. The Makai Mistress could also probably do the job, in any case, we'll have to cobble together a clean up crew specialized in boundary and esoteric magic to make sure there aren't any harmful after effects." Goro added.
Would it really be that bad? I would think that, even if Yukari did such a maneuver, she'd ensure there was still a village to lord over after. I could also detect some uncertainty about the nature of the danger coming from Goro. It could be the building was too obscure for him to understand or something is being overlooked.
"The third piece of information you have, will it give us a fourth?" Keine asked, smiling softly. Just shy of being idle chatter...
"Perhaps. You all have already learned much more then what I've spoken aloud." Goro waved. "The third piece of info is that, before the end the Solstice, we will all face the consequences of what we've let happen to the Hakurei."

>>48388541
The room was quiet again and Goro's face, contrary to the grim nature of what he said, looked glad, as if he was anticipating that moment.
"Can I ask something?" Mokou said , raising her hand. "You two stand with Yukari, yet it seems like you know how vile that woman is. Why? Is she threatening you two? Or is there something she's promised that's worth more then your dignity?"
"She's threatened us plenty of times." Seija said, bouncing Aki in her arms. "That isn't the reason we're with her."
"So, you've seen all the things she's done, the brothel, the lies, the manipulation, the people she employs, how she ignored the village going up in flames and even knowing she's delusional, you still stand by her?" Mokou continued.
"Yes." Goro answered.
Mokou stared in disbelief, trying to fathom a reason or anything to say, before Seija spoke aloud. "When your enemy in the village, that old fart, went senile, who was on his side?"
Nobody. The answer wasn't a mystery to anyone. "Hieda, was beyond help. He died when Akyuu did." Mokou said to the two, almost as if she was speaking to Keine instead.
Goro did not retort at this, but instead, moved away from the table and bowed his head. "I'm sorry Mokou, we made a grave error joining Yukari."
"We didn't owe our allegiance to anyone, so we thought we could get close to her, understand her, and at the very least reduce some of the harm she's caused. We were foolish, and because of that, we weren't in the village and many more died that we could've saved. And worse, we understand what Yukari is doing, why, and know that we're helpless to stop her. I don't have the words to apologize for all the evil she's committed that we could've worked against, however..." now Goro raised his head. "What I regret most is knowing the flake of goodness in her heart and the good things which come from it that everybody else, even she, is utterly blind to. Now we can no longer leave her alone."
"And if she does win?" Keine asked.
"We'll be one of the first she kills. I'll use that moment to plead for her children's lives."
The image of despair in the duo's desire was grim, as if it was their own children who'd be slaughtered. Seija held Aki a bit firmer in her embrace.
Mokou let out a long sigh. "Hahh, you two are really annoying you know? When you tick me off I'm not allowed to be upset and now your prostrating so I'm well within my rights to tell you off, but I barely feel like it anymore. Oh shi-" she said covering her mouth.
Goro smirked waving his hand, signaling that the inversion of sentiment had been undone the second she started speaking. "Foul language isn't appropriate among infants." He said as Keine gave her another pinch for emphasis, before kissing her on the forehead. She then turned to Goro and asked "Let's take a walk outside, I'd like to get some fresh air."
Goro rubbed Seija's shoulder for a moment, rubbing his head against her horn, and followed his former Sensei out of the room. Leaving Mokou and I alone with the Amanojaku, still cuddling the now sleeping Aki.


I feel like I'm kind of bullying Mokou hard, but she get's Keine at the end of the day, so she'll be fine. Anyway, just two more bits and I'm done, just two more bits.....

>>48388548
>>48388541
took me a moment to notice we were going by Miko's POV, poor woman was so lost in that Izakaya milkshake she barely got to speak…
interesting way to use recent events to reminisce about the duo's integration into Yukari's empire, and how it developed more as an innocent sin compared to the power play it looked like at the time. No amount of aid or kindness could've ever helped Yukari after a thousand years of suffering in her self-inflicted loneliness. She's been lost for a long, long time, and Hana and Goro in their own ways became victims of the most terrifying variety of lie: the half-truth.
that's one of the many things that separate Yukari's character from Hieda's, how she ever expertly travels her delusions, always managing to stay afloat -- if by a hair, as seem with the existence of the HSE --, rather than sinking and burning away, and it's nice that such distinction did play into Goro's perception of Yukari.
To know full well such circumstances and still remain by the monster's side is commendable, in a way. Takes a great deal of humanity, and Hijiri should probably be proud of Goro's tenacity, no matter how misguided.
it also plays in an unorthodox but welcomed way into Mokou's character progression in my 2nd season, learning to be human again, so thanks~!
>spoiler
nah, she deserves the Ls for not watching her profanity around kids and a wrist-pregnant man. Women wear headphones around their bellies for a reason when they're pregnant -- the kids are always listening, so it's better to teach them good manners from the very beginning~
thanks for the chapters!

>>48389489
>took me a moment to notice we were going by Miko's POV, poor woman was so lost in that Izakaya milkshake she barely got to speak…
I always forget Miko is a woman, I always think of her as a man.

>>48393865
that's not very cool anon

>>48393972
Here's the superior Miko.

>>48394001
a man?? In Gensokyo's head government??? Nah, that'd have been just too much. Next thing you know they'll be requesting "fair treatment" and "policies so no other men are stuffed into megabrothels by crazy strong Youkai".

>>48394001
We'd have lost our token lesbo relationship if Miko had been a man, so tough luck!

>>48389489
>>48393865
>took me a moment to notice we were going by Miko's POV, poor woman was so lost in that Izakaya milkshake she barely got to speak…
It was kind of difficult with there being five people in the room. Although they'll be a bit more Miko next time. Mokou was the Watson in this situation where she's slightly below average intelligence and I see Miko as being the kind of person to gently prod, but let situations that will unroll themselves do so.
>>48394001
Please no, I don't need another vector for the allegations.

>>48404816
>Please no, I don't need another vector for the allegations.
You're the one who chose to write two separate transgendered characters outside of cirnofag and Lemoteneanon's china girl threads.
The allegations are simply a fact of life you must accept now.

>>48404816
>Please no, I don't need another vector for the allegations.
the allegations have been beaten already! Praise be Gensokyo's system of law!
>I see Miko as being the kind of person to gently prod, but let situations that will unroll themselves do so.
she is our Magician, isn't she? Upwards you'll see a master tactician armed with a cunning, moderate mind; but turn it upside down to reveal the string such tactician wield extend so much further than what you'd first anticipated -- maybe even above your head~
at least that's how I defined her somewhere in my notes

>>48406018
Miko is one of the more understandable characters . She saw the HSE for what it was and decided she was getting far way from it until it could benefit her.

>>48387843
Aunn cuddles are reserved for the Hakurei family, another thing for Sanae to seethe about

>>48414302
>Miko is one of the more understandable characters . She saw the HSE for what it was and decided she was getting far way from it until it could benefit her.
That's because she's one of the only character written with any degree of canon compliancy in mind.

>>48419870
Wait, Reimu being a rapist isn't canon compliant? Man I need to play the games. The doujinshis tell a much different story

>>48421945
just wait until you hear that sex doesn't exist in Gensokyo therefore it's not canon compliant.

Holy shit, don't think I've ever written so much in my life. At least the solstice is coming along nicely~

Yukari-chan, gap me 9 days into the future please!

My eyes drift through the infinity of pale blue before falling on the Fake Shrine and the silhouettes that move there, always beyond my grasp. Father has this serious edge to his eyes as he explains in dizzying detail to an overwhelmed Mother Ran the specifics of every vivarium, small boxes of glass and substrate, piled on the veranda, rambling on about what temperature each resident spider enjoys most, the amount of water they like in their dish before they think their homes are being flooded and clog the thing with debris and so on and so forth. Sister Chen supports his every word, and Mother Flandre stares intently into one vivarium, the spider inside staring back at her wordlessly. A friendship seemed to form.

Laughter echoes from the kitsune, though some light teasing follows before she starts to—gently, as per staggering demand—throw the vivariums into Gaps. They are now safe from the incoming battle of the Solstice, such bleakness ignored in those people's minds as the tenderness of each other's company silently unfolds and hugs them, always out of my reach. Father says he'll be making tea and cookies; Sister Chen and Mother Flandre cheer…

A small smile rushes to my face; no matter how much I knew beforehand of their actions, it doesn’t make it any less sweet.

That’s one perk of reading the future…

… Eyes move downwards to twisting forms of light in my arms—two of them, one of pure, blinding white and the other an eclipse of ultraviolet—smile growing tense and unsure with their erratic little movements. “Shhh… Big Sis will figure it out, okay?” The words don’t stop their ghostly whimpering, low reverberations that travel through the here and now and everything in between this strange world I call my prison, but at least the rocking motion makes them stop flailing so vigorously. They know I don't believe those words, and they don't either.

Shoulders heavy and bearing owlish, sick eyes, I turn to the Tree of Life ahead. It had grown, nearing its apotheosis, and… It wasn’t a pretty thing to look at. The wounds the tree had carved into the cosmos above bled liquid manure, an inflammation that bathed the massive tree and its branches, killing off most of the foliage—and thus, different futures—like a cancer, the pure, shimmering bark wasting in whatever diseases the raw blood of the universe had poured onto my tree, massive roots the size of mountains crumbling away like columns of foul ash. At the height of its power, a day before my birth, my tree was deteriorating… But, above all, nothing of this was unexpected. I accepted this plague; I told Mother Patchouli so when she screamed at me for my selfishness, though a shard of shame accumulates with my omissions. If they’d known the ailments of my human body would reflect here and slowly poison my soul, would they have accepted this as they did? Would Mother Patchouli have tried something to rid that body of mine of the festering infection?

The thought brings me a smile, even if it doesn’t matter anymore. My blighted tree is dying, and this body, alive with ki, fades together with it.

“It’s not all bad, right?” I say to the lights of duality, sluggish feet bringing me close to Yggdrasil and all of its rotting splendor, an overwhelming sense of nausea threatening to bring me to the ground, lines of blood escaping both sides of my mouth and ears. Powering through it all—Mother Meiling would be proud, wouldn’t she…?—, I took a few unsteady steps forth before collapsing on the blue grass, my back pressed hard on the ethereal, wooden crust, resting my nape against moldy, iridescent peeling texture. “… In case they fail to resurrect me, at least I’ll have the peace of mind to know nothing of me will remain. No stranded ember of power to be exploited or a stillborn soul to be harvested by people like Mother Seiga…” The thought doesn’t bring as much comfort as I craved, not when it whispers about a death of utter insignificance, the symphony to the tune of my inability to see the future past my death. I hold my unborn siblings closer to my chest, the effort of walking a few meters dousing my heart and lungs with petroleum and setting them on fire, a blaze equal to a supernova, eyes darting to Father and Sister Chen maddeningly searching for a spider Mother Flan had mistakenly released. Mothe Ran watches them with warmth.

I want that. A life just like that…

The tree behind me croaks as it falls apart in rot.

>>48449107
my batch of the solstice included about 4-6 character driven chapters. Decided to post them separately along the days as to start the solstice immediately with the good stuff, and not 2-3k words of people talking and thinking about themselves~
next would be Yukari's!

I've been a bit busy but I should be free to write stuff after tomorrow. Gonna be my deadline to get something out so I can clean up my pre-Solstice loose ends.

>>48451384
waiting warmly for it!

>>48449107
Poor Sekai, not only her tree is fucked she has to spend her final hours babysitting Seija's jobabies.....
I'd kamikaze myself without a second thought

>>48458737
nothing is ever easy for those of Yakumo heritage~

My words didn’t marry my actions, for the beast was unceremoniously thrown into the Fake Shrine to rape and molest to her heart’s content, probably joined by the abomination that is Seiga Kaku. The wolves shall make sure Anon doesn’t die, and if not, Ran then. I’m not losing him so deep into my plans—so close to my Solstice.

… Yet…

The Gap closes silently behind me, the dimness of my office in the HSE welcoming me together with the crisp cold of Winter. A short, absentminded swipe of my hand, and a beep echoes as the heater turns on, eyes never leaving the mahogany of my desk, hands hard-pressed against the noble wood, posture slightly arched forward and waves of hair shielding both sides of my vision, acting as tunnel for my eyes to focus on scattered papers that bear as much importance as the dust beneath my soles. I am clothed again, bathed through Gaps from the filthy of my sister sage, yet can’t stop experiencing an uncharacteristic… pounding. A pound centered on my heart.

My right hand leaves the desk and climbs all the way to my face, holding my chin as, inside, the perfect machine that is my brain works around one question not even the rumble of unease could hope to match: how did they know?

The switch I’ve prepared as bait was, indeed, supposed to leak out to Okina’s forces. By design, it’d put them at ease through the erroneous belief that they had the upper hand, meaning Okina wouldn’t have any qualms about following me inside the HSE and entertaining my every whim—her pride deems it the perfect opportunity to gloat; I know that old, disgusting woman like the palm of my hand—; then she’d fall into my trap, and everything would end before it even began. The confirmation that they know about it should’ve elated me greatly! It means my flawless plan is going as expected…

… Yet…

Moving my hand from my chin to the table, I fix a sheet of clean paper in front of me and Gap a pen to my other hand. I scribble the first line: ‘Okina’s spies’.

She has spies in the HSE; I know that. I monitor each employee closely and thoroughly, from the high echelons like Remilia and her librarian’s meetings with that magician to disgusting creatures like that parasite of brown fur that’d often cling to Chen or Takane… But none that I’d entrusted the information with revealed it, nor have I ever given the orders for them to divulge it around. Did Seiga miss someone? Or has she taken bribery…? No, Seiga is too blunt of a woman. If she has an outlet for her deviancy, she’ll subscribe to it like the plague. Nothing anyone could offer her would come close to the debauchery she’s free to indulge in under me.

I cross that line, and the next follows: ‘Invasion of the HSE’.

Impossible. My domain is too secure. It’d take an army to even hope to breach my magical defenses, let alone recuperate such sensitive information. I snort with pride at my creation of mythical proportions, a short-lived expression as, again, another line gets crossed.

‘Himekaidou Hatate’s thoughtography?’

Impossible. She’s been monitored closely—a sickening endeavor, as her editors and my spies would claim. The things they’ve seen her watch…

Crossed.

‘Komeji Satori’s mind reading?’

… Probable, but much more likely no. Back in the Palace of Earth Spirits, she had only a moment to read my thoughts, and she has never been close to the HSE.

‘Motoori Kosuzu’s ability?’ No. She’s an insignificant woman. Crossed.

—No, crossed—

—Crossed—

—Impossible. Crossed—

—Crossed. Crossed. Crossed—

In the silence, I release the pen, a grating sound reverberating as it rolls on top of the paper, once clean, now bearing from top to bottom a hundred crossed lines. Incredulously I stare at it, my hand now lightly caressing my soon-to-be bulging belly, soothing movements that dispel layers of fear and tension from me, a droplet of sweat falling off onto the paper below. A handful of rays of sunlight peer into the quiet room, their light showing my hand pressed on the wood to be… trembling.

I don’t know how it got out, only that it did.

Nor do I know if it even got out to begin with. That dirty Moriyan frog never once showed that she knew what she was speaking of, only that it existed. Had she just come naturally to a conclusion? No, that’s unlikely; with how thorough she and the wind goddess can be… They had information with backing to it. They wouldn’t have played a gambit knowing I could take their precious, incestuous failure of a girl that easily.

Something leaked it out. Something I missed.

Something I have no control over…

… But who—

“Yukari-sama?” Ran’s voice startles me, eyes flying to the kitsune standing at the door two meters behind me, ears and tails standing up in alert. I hadn’t heard her opening the door, my right hand clutching hard to my belly, inexorable in protecting Sekai. “Am I interrupting you, Yukari-sama?” Tense, like a bow ready to shoot. My weapon.

I take a moment to steady myself, hand never leaving my Renko—my Sekai. “No. Speak.”

Like the good robot she is, Ran calms herself promptly upon assessing the mood of her master, a slight smile taking over her face as she declares: “Flandre-sama has asked me to tell you something of utmost importance.” She approaches, slit eyes jumping to my table briefly, curious with the sight of the scribbled-on paper, ink strokes progressively losing their elegance as they went on, signs of desperation and confusion. Her question comes as a blank, albeit inquisitive, stare.

In the tip of my tongue stand the words, ‘Someone has breached my secret about the Kappa Switch and I'm in the dark about it,’ but the moment I try to speak them…

… My heart constricts with shame.

Voracious shame, like a burning green jade. Ran, with that one glance, already memorized everything she has seen in this sheet of paper and must be carrying out calculations in her head either to understand their significance or to aid in my research of how that information got leaked… So much smarter, so much more capable is the computer compared to a brain composed of flesh and electricity. It burns, that shame. Burns with the movement of my hand gently clutching my precious Sekai.

Burns like the many times I’ve watched them together.

How can the man love a computer—a thing—defend them even—that cat dared to cry, like she isn't just a soulless automaton responding to her programming—, but not me…?

Ran simply stares stoically, unmovable and waiting patiently for my input, her tails down and arms conjoined. If I gave her the order, she'd die standing here from thirst and hunger, waiting for my input.

Should I tell her? She’d find within hours the source of the leak.

Burns like the greenest of clovers.

… A burning that diminishes as I clutch tenderly to my Sekai, the question going from a sudden behemoth to but a worthless cockroach.

“It’s nothing of your concern, Ran.” A Gap opens and swallows the paper. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Leak or not leak, the secret of the time-stop is safe with me. No Satori or Himekaidou could’ve known of it—no one else but me—and when the time comes, Okina will become my defenseless prey. If anything, a kappa drunk on cucumber juice must have mentioned it to a spy, and it made its way to Okina.

Above everything, my Sekai’s existence is proof of my inevitable victory. She travelled through time itself, professed her love to her mother—gave me a sign in my darkest hour.

So what if this emotionless vixen has captivated a man locked in a prison for his own good? Whatever is happening between them, their circumstances utterly taint it beyond just cold scripts and automated routines. It’s a falsehood born of Anon’s initial and futile struggle to resist me. He found ‘love’ in a machine that can only mimic it.

No, what he and I have, his pure, deep-seated hatred and my unbridled devotion to our family and happiness…

Now that’s the true path to a meaningful relationship~

The same goes for every single woman that has even entered these doors looking to make use of his body. Not one of them holds a candle to me.

I am the only one he passionately hates and, eventually, will passionately love.

Isn’t that true, my Sekai?

I scrub the nagging question off my mind with effortlessness as Ran predictably does the same, the robot, bound to follow her master’s every order, resuming her words with a hum of joy upon my gesture of ‘continue': “Flandre-sama has asked that you show up as an esteemed guest at her royal tea party. She has invited only the noblest of her dolls, which, in her words, would ask of you a great deal of etiquette.”

Ah, so my to-be first daughter asks for her mother's company? What a wonderful, giddy feeling to calm this maiden heart! “My, my~a tea party reserved only for the most distinguished ladies~? Should I count my lucky stars for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Ran?” The shikigami giggles a ‘perhaps,’ a sense of peacefulness befalling me as I march to my sweet Flan’s beautiful bedroom in the HSE, this little episode already forgotten.

Worrying about such minor endeavors when I have important meetings to attend? Pitiful!

Yukari Yakumo, you’re losing your touch~

>>48467564
>>48467560
plans and smugness have a great history of working well together when a hag prepares them~
next (probably) should be Chen's, though I'm unsure about it. If not, then Reimu's, the last one.

>>48467560
>>48467564
I find it interesting for a paranoid woman that thinks the whole world is against her, she's so delusional and arrogant she often ignores the obvious ( it took her so long to figure out that raping a man and abusing his daughter might make him hate you) and lets things get worse because she's so sure she'll win.

Dumb hags like her get bonked.

>>48473271
sadly, it all loops back to her two biggest traumas -- Renko and Yuyuko -- and how they resulted in her distancing herself from everyone yet at the same time yearn deeply for a family. She can see so very far and so very comprehensively, yet she misses that what she needs, all this time, has been right in front of her. I actually got inspired by this one scene in Breaking Bad where: Hank and Walt are outside by the car, and Hank has hold of a bag full of Walt's blood money. He jokingly says how heavy it is, and Walt says to his face there are millions of dollars inside that bag. Hank laughs it off like it's all a joke. If only he had opened the bag, the entire Heisenberg case would've been solved, but since he can't wrap his head around Walter, a meek and seemingly inoffensive man, being a crime lord, he ends up not opening the bag -- a scene that perfectly encapsulates their character dynamic; here, Yukari is incredibly meticulous with her investigation of how the info got out, considering many variables and pile driving her brain for the truth, but then the truth comes barreling to her face and even stands at ready to answer it should Yukari just ask, which'd cause Ran to give the faintest of reactions, enough to blow her cover. But Yukari can't wrap her head around not being in control of her robot after her threat in earlier chapters, and soon more ugly feelings come forth in the form of her jealously towards Ran and Anon's relationship; her inability to control everything and, as a decisive point, Sekai's existence as a proof that nothing that she does can be wrong, thus missing a component that'd have destroyed the forces trying to save Anon whole plan. Like the familiar love she seeks so desperately, the betrayal was just under her nose~
dumb hag
man, I'm fucking exploding with excitement for the Solstice. So close but yet so far!

internet fucked me over

>>48052842
-----------------
History is a strange thing, you never think you'll live through it. History is something that happened long ago, events that shaped entire countries and the chronicles of great people. It’s wars and important inventions, chronicles of great people and changes that swept countries. There’s no place in history for normal people.

But that’s not the case. The books and records might not mention the names of the soldiers that fought in the battles or how the lives of ordinary people that helped turn the wheels of civilization, but they still lived through it. Today, people still grieved over the lost of loved ones and worried over their futures, but over the coming years the wound would slowly heal and life would go on. In a few generations, that horrible night would be nothing but a distant memory, something only found in a history book and the lives of all the people that had died would be nothing but names etched in stone .

But that would be a long times away. For now, life went on as best as it could. With the village rebuilding quickly, things returned to a strange sense of normality. Once again, the streets returned to life as houses and shops sprang up from the ashes, the occasional youkai intermingling with the residents. It was like the fiery climax of the festival had so drained everyone of energy that all they could do was go along with the flow and cling to these quiet and uneventful days as something to cherish.

But work still needed to be done. With the battle over and order creeping back into the village, there was something that was equally as important as slaying an oni but much less exciting- paperwork. Someone needed to dig through the records and sort them all out the old documents and records and have everything handed over to the new government. So while all the others were out there, building up support or chasing down potential troublemakers, I was here in the third greatest library in Gensokyo- behind the Voile of the SDM and the Suzunaan of course.

Buried deep in a pile of old deeds- some of which are older then me- my attention is grabbed by someone entering the room behind me. This late at night there shouldn't be anyone left and Keine and Mokou are busy with some meeting, so could it be-

“Hey. There was still some food left, so I saved you a plate. You didn’t skip dinner, did you?” I breathe out. It's just Mokou.

Pushing some papers to the side, she places down a plate in front of me. Some fish and rice with a few vegetables on the side. Sdsfsdf

Realizing just how hungry I am, I take several greedy mouthfuls.”You know, if Akyuu was here she’d be so angry right now. She never liked anyone bringing food into the archives.”

“You’d think she’d have other things to be upset about.” Mokou offhandedly mutters.

“Akyuu? Probably not. She might have acted like it sometimes but she was no princess. If it came to stepping down for the good of everyone, she’d end up doing it. But if she were here, not like it would even get to this point”

“She had him on a leash, didn’t she?” Mokou huffed with her usual social grace.

“I wouldn’t say that. I think he doted on her because he knew of how limited her time was. He knew how important to was to be with her.” I respond, taking in another mouthful of rice.

Mokou looked away, a strangely annoyed expression on her face. Why would she get upset at- Oh. Touchy subject.

“I was heard something from of the former servants. Sometimes he would just come here and send everyone away. He’d just sit here all by himself. She said it got worse in the last few weeks. He’d spend nights here, talking to himself” For a few seconds, the image of a once proud and respectable man sitting alone in a dark room appears in my head. I shake it off.

“Huh. So he was like this for a while” Mokou muttered as she glanced around the room. “I don’t think we ever got around to discussing what we’ll do with this place. How useful is all this stuff, with all that’s going on now?”

I feel a brief pang of annoyance over the blasé disrespect foe books, but I let it pass. Not everyone understood.

“A lot of this is old records and such, the kind of stuff that has to be dug out and signed over to the new government. But there’s some of her interviews with youkai-” I made a mental note to look through them for scandalous secrets later “-and some of her others writings. She even had some youma books and books from the Outside tucked away. She even had some volumes of that pirate manga I read sometimes. Did you know it just ended a few years ago? I guess that was her father’s addition”

>>48476965

“So he was adding onto it?” Mokou asked, going over to one of the shelves and taking a book out a random. Her interest lasted all of five seconds before she put it back.

I swallow another bite of vegetables. “I can’t think of any other reason for it being here.
I guess he thought it would be a gift to her. Something to read that’s not another census. She’ll be way behind on her reading when she does come back so I suppose this was his way of giving her a head start”

“Well it’s not hers anyone, is it? She’s going to come back come back and her family’s prestige will be gone, everything’s so different, and she doesn’t even own the library where she can read that pirate thing or whatever..” Mokou ran a hand across some of the books, her eyes focused on me.

“I don’t think she’d be mad. In fact. I think she’d call her father an idiot for what he did” Mokou’s eyebrows raise a bit at that. “He couldn’t move on, prepared for a damned war. Even if the Hiedas are just another family in the village by the time she comes back around, she’ll understand. She’ll have to. All we can do until then is just keep things running so things aren’t a complete hellhole when she’s born”

Mokou laughs, taking a moment to calm down “You’ve got a lot of faith, don’t you? Saying things like that when the worst is behind us. Come on”

I wanted to believe that, and it was easy to. Coming within a hair of death isn’t something you forget, and the village had settled into a strange lull, there was still a shadow looming ahead. “Not exactly..” I admit.

“Hmmm? Oh..” Mokou sighs. “Yukari. If she’s around…” She trails off, no doubt thinking about something awful. “This plan of yours, you’re going to get rid of her, right? A few weeks ago I would have called you crazy, but now…”

“Yeah, I know. It’s ridiculous. She’s had so many chances to back down, to stop things from getting worse. But it’s come to this, ugh” The thought of future troubles, thankfully not in my wheelhouse caused a flash of irritation in me.

Mokou scoffed. “I mean, she started it. Abducting Reimu’s husband, forcing him to do all of...that. What the hell was she thinking? Is he really that special to her that she’ll tear down the whole word just to have him?”

I can’t help let my incredulousness show. Hearing that from her, of all people, geez.

She understood my expression and pursed her lips. “Okay, I know. But protecting someone is different. She’s gone batshit and there’s no way he loves her back. Why is she so obsessed with him anyways?”

“That, I just don’t know” I admit. “It was a surprise when he got together with Reimu, I never would have figured her for falling for someone, but it seems like he just got her, you know? They knew each other for less then a year, and they were already married. Maybe she saw the same things in him that Reimu did?”

“Maybe” Mokou said. “You’re not going to join in when they attack the place, are you?” She asked hesitantly as if she already knew the answer but wanted to make sure.

“Of course not! I’ve had enough danger for the rest of my life, and I’d drag everyone down by forcing them to protect me. All I can do now is just rely on them”

“That’s what sucks” Mokou exhales as she leans against a shelf “Knowing that all you can do is sit back and just hope it all turns out right. It’s so stressful, dammit. That bitch is holding a sword above our heads and I just have to sit on my hands, just waiting. I know the people that are going against her are strong, but this is going to be a war, and there’s no guarantees”

“I know” I respond, the tightness in my stomach suddenly making me not hungry. “We all knew how dangerous it would be. But I just didn’t know how far she would be willing to go. Everything that she’s done, all the lives she’s threatened. It’s grown out of control and it needs to end. I have faith in them”

“Yeah…” She muttered, looking up at the ceiling. “It’s going to be rough, isn’t it? I know what will happen if Yukari wins, but if she’s gone, this place is going to be a madhouse isn’t it? We’re got our hands full already, but the vultures will really start to move in to fill the vacuum”

“Now look who’s been negative” I respond, but I couldn’t help but agree. “Keeping everyone in line, fuck it- let someone else do it. The Moriyans or Miko love the cloak and dagger stuff. I say we focus on the village and the children”

>>48476975
“The kids…” Mokou mutters out. “It’s ridiculous. The whole thing. It was enough to just have Aki and Mochi, but now they’ve got one hell of an extended family. What the hell am I going to tell them when they’re older?”

“Now you’re thinking like a mother.” I say “They’re still in diapers and you’re already worrying about something that’ll come down years down the line. Children make you concerned about these things, don’t they?”

“Well yeah!” Mokou grunts out. “They’re my kids! Of course I got to worry about them! It’s not enough for that hag to be sneaking around, but I just want them out of whatever mess might come out of this”

“I get that. My own are already starting to ask questions about what’s going on, and it annoys me that I can’t answer all of them. But it pays to be honest to them. They pick up things more quickly then you think, and if they find out you’re misleading them it can hurt them. They’re complex and worrying about how you’ll care for them is just a sign they matter to you. But there’s one thing I know for sure about them”

*Oh?” Mokou leans forward, ready to hear some motherly advice

I smile, the trap was sprung. “It’s a lot more fun getting them in then getting them out’

Mokou coughs, her eyes wide. “Suzu!” She blurts out, a hint of a laugh in her voice “You shouldn’t just say things like that!”

“Couldn’t resist” I say with a chuckle. Getting Mokou flustered isn’t something you usually see.

“Suzu, I swear..” Mokou huffs.

I compose himself before speaking again. “But honesty, I think you'll be a good mom. This isn’t something you can learn from a book. It’s something you just have to go with, you have to learn as you go.”

“Sort of like being in a fight” Mokou says thoughtfully. “You can hear all about how it feels to be in a battle, but nothing gets you ready for having head blown off”

Part of me wants to contest that most people don’t get used to having their head blown off, but I decide it’s better off not asking questions. Still, what kind of life has this woman been living until now? “I suppose so. It’s exciting, confusing, and maybe a little scary. It’s a lot of things, but worth it. You’ll do well, and you always have me if you need any help”


“Thanks Suzu” Mokou leaned back again. “I really do mean it. If you ever need a place to stay, just ask, okay?” She crinks her neck, biting her lip “Just in case, you know.”

“I mean, if she wins, she’ll probably just kill us all anyway” I try to say it lightheartedly, but I feel my stomach twist into knots. “But if we win, we’ll just have to deal with whatever comes up. It’s our responsibility now”

She looks away, a strange look flashing on her face. Guilt? “I know that. But all of this-” She waves her arms around, indicating all the “This-ness” of the problems facing her. “None of us are politicians, and Miko can only do so much. We got to keep everyone in line, that Hakurei girl might snap any day now-” I suck in air, and wisely decide not to tell her she’s probably much closer then she was expecting “-on top of everything else. Damn, Keine is doing her best to remain composed, but it’s a lot for her”

She’s right. The last few months have been a raging river; for Keine, for me, Hana, for almost everyone. Hell, I wasn’t sure how I had survived this long. How many times had I feared for my life, or dreaded going to bed thinking I would wake up to see my life ruined? I knew I was far from one of the ones that suffered the most of all of this-the presence of the memorial garden and that damned building still standing attested to that- but things have taken a turn for the worse. Being angry and scared was only natural. Maybe we aren’t enough. Maybe after the dust is settled someone will come in, make us kids clean up our toys and stop playing around and tell us how to do things, or things will collapse the moment the truth of the HSE gets out. If I had Akyuu’s knowledge and creativity, I could list a hundred ways this could all go wrong.

But I wasn’t Akyuu, was I​? I’m just a mother and a librarian, and I knew what to say.

“Did I ever tell you why I like books?”

>>48476983
>(
Mokou snaps her attention towards me, not bothering to hide her confusion. “Er, No. You didn’t”

“They’re the perfect way for someone to put a piece of themselves out there and immortalize it. It doesn’t matter if it was written hundreds or even thousands of years ago, or if it’s written by someone in a country you’ve never been to or about something you’ve never heard of. Anyone literate with something to say and the means to do so can write a story, a book, anything! That you can just pick up a text and learn so much so amazing, even without my powers! And there’s so many! Did you know there are authors out there with hundreds of books? Then there’s all the different genres and topics, and did you know that in the Outside World they say that humans have been around for millions of years yet written language is much more recent? Just think about that, so many lives and stories lost forever because they didn’t have the means to immortalize themselves. Makes you wonder what they would have written about, you know-”

I breathe in and look at Mokou. Her look of confusion has progressed to one of bafflement “ Your point?”

Oh. I really was just rambling on. “Were was I? When someone writes something, they never can be sure of the impact it will make. They just put it there. Sometimes it just fades into obscurity. Other-times it lives on, even changes the world. This might sound silly, but I think life is a bit like that”
“Hmmm?” Mokou questions, still lost.

“Well- um…” I find myself losing my train of thought and I look around for anything to help me regain it. I find my gaze falling on one of the shelves, I’m pretty sure that one had old reports on youkai activity. I feel the light go on in my brain. Perfect. Getting up, I head over to the shelf and pick up a scroll, opening it up to scan the contents briefly.

“This is a report on youkai movements in the village outskirts written decades ago. What do you think they intended by writing this all down?”

“Is this some kind of test? Are you Keine? I don’t know, they wanted to warn people?” Mokou says.

“Yeah, that’s right” I didn’t have to use my power for that one. “This library is a filled with things like that. There’s texts on Gensokyo’s history and youkai, books written by youaki, even other texts as well. So different, yet all part of a greater whole. I think society is like that in a way. If a library is a collection of hundreds of different books by many different authors, like how a society is a collection of many different people, yes?”

“Uh-Huh…” Mokou muttered. Shit, maybe my analogy wasn't working.

“Well, you see, it’s like how a library is a collection of books. Each book is a reflection of someone’s life, some of them are important and others are not. So-um- in a civilization you’ve got kings and peasants and such-” I look up. I’m definitely losing her.

I take a moment to breathe in. “But the truth is, I’d be one the less important books!” I blurt out, surprising myself at how my mouth outran my brain.

Mokou’s eyes widen “Suzu?” she stammers.

“Yes! If I were a book I wouldn’t be Sherlock Holmes, or the Kojiki, I’d be the first work of an author that only gets a single printing, but that doesn’t matter! I’m a mother, a revolutionary, a librarian! Even the smallest thing can have an impact, just like how you can trace the genealogy of genres back and see the spiderweb of influence , so are our lives! What if those rumors about Keine never started in the first place, or if I never bothered to look into things? So much would have changed! Don’t you see? Even a obscure book can impact someone’s life, and the actions of the forgotten people can influence others! We don’t know who wrote the Epic of Gilgamesh, but we sure do know about it today”

“Uh-” Mokou tries to interject.

“I’m not as important as Yukari, but I’m sure as hell I’ve done more good in the time I’ve been on earth then all the time she’s been breathing! Like authors we can never really be certain just what kind of impact our lives will have on others, but we can try to at least do good. None of us can read the future but we might as well try. Did you ever hear of Oedipus? Greek Mythology? His parents heard a propechy he would kill his father and fuck his mother, so they abandoned him to prevent that. Guess how that turned out for them?”

“Woah- what?” Mokou gasped out.

Shit, I was rambling again, wasn’t I?

>>48476995
Finally got this out. Next up is to finish this part, and Suzu meeting with the rest of the squad. Then the Suzu will be SuzuDone ( For Real)

>>48476983
>“It’s a lot more fun getting them in then getting them out’
She's is a sex pest...

>>48476995
>>48476983
>>48476975
>>48476965
I'm so glad Suzu as a character never felt isolated from the others in the group, I'd like to say. It certainly was a fear of mine right at the beginning and towards the escalation, but chapters like these really do show how in tune she is with the others in the Keine storyline, especially with her importance to the team -- don't think I've ever said it here, but the way I see it, her role in the group is “Herald of Humanity”, Mystia's “Herald of Youkai, Mokou “Muscle”, Miko “Brain” and Keine “Spark” --, Suzu says it best herself
>"I’m a mother, a revolutionary, a librarian"
Unexpected conversation also, Suzu desperately trying her best to teach Mokou the concept of underdog is funny.
Another funny thing is how much these chapters are teeming with foreshadowing! So much so I'd think my storyboard and script for the 2nd book was stolen~
>“It’s a lot more fun getting them in then getting them out’
S-Suzu, please...
>>48477008
Will be waiting warmly! Thanks for the chapters!