'>>46766934
first';

'>>46766943
Anon, please...';

'recapbros...';

'>>46766958
Three autosages. Three!
at least there's still the flowchart';

'>>46766974
doesn't it only count if it's in the OP? I don't think you can trigger autosage if the recap is the first post in the thread instead of in the OP';

'>>46766989
oh shit, true; think I'll start doing that then';

'>>46766974
Recapfags take another loss.';

'[All entries of the HSE here in chronological posting order!]
>>45324110 | Part 1
>>45324120 | Part 2
>>45324127 | Part 3
>>45324134 | Part 4
>>45324150 | Part 5
>>45324163 | Part 6
>>45407358 | Part 7
>>45442424 | Part 8
>>45515189 | Part 9
>>45587647 | Part 10
>>45678494 | Part 11
>>45774613 | Part 12
>>45888588 | Part 14
>>46097700 | Part 15
>>46241111 | Part 16
>>46406705 | Part 17
>>46529625 | Part 18
>>46660119 | Part 19

[Last thread + autosaged chapters]
>>46643529 | 39-42-Keine (autosaged thread)
>>46654125 |
>>46654127 |
>>46654133 |
>>46666175 | 16-18-Mima
>>46666192 |
>>46666202 |
>>46673459 | 50-Patchouli
>>46674087 | 174-175-Yamashiro/Seija
>>46674093 |
>>46676032 | 3-5-Shou
>>46676035 |
>>46676049 |
>>46690634 | 10-Sanae
>>46690640 | 43-Keine
>>46692186 | 175-175-Yamashiro/Seija
>>46692208 |
>>46695802 | (Non-canon) Cirno
>>46695806 |
>>46701176 | 183-Hana
>>46706454 | 51-66-Patchouli
>>46706464 |
>>46706472 |
>>46706483 |
>>46706491 |
>>46706493 |
>>46706501 |
>>46706507 |
>>46706515 |
>>46706523 |
>>46706531 |
>>46706536 |
>>46706542 |
>>46706554 |
>>46706560 |
>>46706568 |
>>46712083 | 184-185-Hana
>>46712115 |
>>46715189 | 176-177-Yamashiro/Seija
>>46715198 |
>>46717533 | 45-48-Kosuzu
>>46717541 |
>>46717568 |
>>46717588 |
>>46721875 | (Non-canon) Nazrin
>>46721880 |
>>46723581 | 44-Keine
>>46723586 | 11-13-Sanae
>>46723592 |
>>46723601 |
>>46723611 | 31-32-Mokou
>>46723621 |
>>46727058 | 186-188-Hana
>>46727068 |
>>46727332 |
>>46728302 | (Non-canon) Cirnonanon ending
>>46728312 |
>>46729468 |
>>46729479 |
>>46729485 |
>>46739049 | 5-6-Mr. Hieda
>>46739059 |
>>46752564 | (Non-canon) Anon snippet to feed Doremy some good fucking food
>>46760525 | 7-9-Mr. Hieda
>>46760534 |
>>46760557 |
>>46760566 | 33-Mokou
>>46760574 | 14-Sanae
>>46761391 | 186-190-Hana
>>46761404 |
>>46761410 |
>>46761419 |
>>46761441 |
(1208 entries)

[for phoneanons that can't access the dead threads, here's the last thread. Link to all others in the 'all entries']:
https://warosu.org/jp/thread/46660060 26th thread';

'>>46766989
Yup, op is being autistic again.';

'>>46767340
more 10 chapters and our Hana will be the first to breach 200 protagonized chapters...';

'>>46767340
does anyone else find it really funny when there's all these different chapters and then there's suddenly just a massive block of patchouli posts';

'>>46764918
oh, that. Gomen, Anon-san, the keikaku must remain cloaked for dramatic impact...';

'>>46767358
200 chapters of bullying a teenage girl...
I'm tired boss...
and I'll make 200 more';

'how are you not done yet';

'>>46767489
we're waiting for the 2024 winter solstice to be lore accurate.';

'the HSE is now one day older than KMS
KMS was 219 days from the 25th of july to the 29th of february
the HSE is currently at 220 days, from the 29th of september to now
whether or not this is a good thing is up for debate';

'>>46761873 (me)
https://pastebin.com/zqS1Krp7
Last time I posted this, it was a phone post and my computer was still broken, but now that I have a new one(computer) I feel confident in explaining in detail why I think Koishi should be excluded from the Finale.
Point 1, functionality: What would Koishi’s role be in the finale, as she is only listed as [undecided] but has no suggestions from anyone. If you like me, wanted to lore-fag it up about Buddhism, nothingness, and dreams she could reasonably be given the role as the person who handles Sekai, as is, in cannon we already know buddhist training allows you to lucid dream.or makes reality more like a lucid dream(?) She also shares the role of forgotten/non-existent girl with Sekai and no matter what would be familiar with how a child like Sekai thinks.
But this runs into the problem of nothing being written between the two, so it would come out of nowhere, and the fact that Patchy and Meiling already have the roles of people handling Sekai. also the term ‘mind ki’ literally made me gag when I read it, I have no other problems with Meiling’s and Patchy’s story.
Part 2, motivation: Why? Why would Koishi intervene, she hasn’t been characterized as being in particularly in love with Anon or obsessed with him, and I don't think it's been properly established if she she even knows about the HSE? I know another Anon did write something about her and Satori abilities and Yukari manipulating them, but I think that was immediately dropped and not even Yukari has referenced it since then despite being involved in it.
Point 3, interest: Unlike with other characters, Koishi doesn’t really have any audience demand, even one guy actually liked Cirno. But I can’t remember her getting any vocal love, even that other guy who wanted to write Koishi, Satori, and the Underground was immediately pushed back against and we haven’t heard from her since. So there is no audience demand, but what about authors? I don’t know and can’t say, but since nobody has written anything for her in such a time I suspect they aren’t that interested in writing about her either.
The fact is, she has no reason she’d be needed, has no motivation to be there, and has seen little interest from the writers, why is she on the list?';

'>>46767575
the KMS was one storyline done by one guy, and the HSE dozens of both, so it's unsurprising eventually we'd live longer than the KMS. Good or bad, I'm still having massive fun~';

'>>46767575
Too be fair the KMS is written far better then the HSE.';

'>>46767620
Fuck, meant to reply
>>46763691 (me)';

'>>46767632
Thats the joy of a one man op, lot more QA';

'>>46767632
>Too be fair the KMS is written far better then the HSE.
Should be.
>To be fair the HSE isn't very well written.';

'>>46767620
Doesn't matter, koishi is there already joining Yukari and if another writefag wants to make something with the strangeness of its plot they can be my guest.';

'>>46767704
>Doesn't matter
Exactly my point, she entirely redundant and nobody has shown any initiative to write her.';

'>>46767758
Cool, good thing you are not arbitrator of content here';

'>>46767640
>>46767620
well, that's a very compelling argument, but man you guys are taking this way too serious. It's funny, though...
guess I'll move her a little to stop this lover's quarrel of you and the other Anon before we reach 100 replies without a chapter.';

'>>46767800
It's not a fucking demand retard I'm trying to make a helpful suggestion and clearly articulate my points on why I think Koishi doesn't fit in the finale.';

'>>46767825
Don't bother giving the troll an inch. Just keep on keeping on';

'>>46767831
No one cares, go arbitrate an english dictionary into Dutch or something';

'Would one of you be so kind as to give me a breakdown of the Alice storyline?
I haven't been able to read the story for a while. The last thing I remember is Anon thinking Shinki is Satan.';

'>>46767834
>>46767848
It's not trolling, yes I'm angry, but only because you're using another person's bad behavior to dismiss any constructive criticism.
There's a difference between someone make an argument and articulating their points about why something should or shouldn't be and someone just saying they hate something and it should be gone.
You're just being tribalistic, not everybody who has a problem with something hates it, but indeed people can have problems with something they want to improve upon and help with.';

'>>46767877
not much happened, as Alice and the Jobber Squad have been quite silent as Mimaanon/Aliceanon deals with Mima's apotheosis, but since Shinki and Anon talked and Shinki gave Anon the offer to leave Gensokyo after the HSE is done, Alice and the Dolls finished building Mima's shrine; Alice has been lazying around with the dolls on said shrine, with Dolly leaving to rejoin with Anon.
that's it, if I'm not misremembering.';

'I wonder if Marisa will ever get her talk with anon';

'>>46767994
her second talk, though. She already talked about her pregnancy with him -- and seeing I'm free, perhaps I do it today. Been itching to write more main cast stuff since I've spent so much time with other characters.';

'>>46767913
that's reasonable, and I did ask Anons to talk about changes in the bin, so I've changed that in the bin, though cannot speak for other writers if they suddenly decide that Koishi is an integral part of their storylines. The specifics of satori pregnancy, no one knows... For all we do know, the Koosh is about to enter labor.
hopefully no child is born during the finale, aside from Sekai, it'd be very confusing
eh, back to writing.';

'>>46767913
Assuming that you're not arguing in bad faith there is no point and the last thing we need is a purge of storyline just because one vocal autist has a strange hate bones against a few characters. I didn't even care for the koishi plot nor the myouren pregnancy, its just stupid to retcon everything just because cirnowriter touched kicked it off.';

'>>46767921
Thank you';

'>>46768138
I do have points, three of them. Points can argued against, refuted, made obsolete by new developments and writers writing something.
Sticking your fingers in your ears and dismissing things out of hand isn't a refutation of any of the points I made, and if the writers so wish too they can ignore my complaints entirely or move to rectify them.
By I don't know? Clarifying what's going on with Koishi, giving her a motivation, and something to do during the finale. Since as early as the posts about her joining Yukari people were only treating my posts as 'soft canon' and only keeping the concepts introduced without taking into account the whole story line or ignoring details I forgot to expound upon like Koishi dreams self which until last thread only had a sparse few mentions despite me knowing what was going on with that in my head. Even then it's only mentioned in a srot of meta humor manner, Kokoro getting mad at Koishi for not explaining it, i.e me being mad at myself for never expounding upon it.
And like I mentioned, the other posts my Koishi by that other writer were mostly negatively received and ignored by the larger story, so aside from some large scale 'soft canon' stuff there really is nothing clear about what's going on with Koishi.
I'm not asking other writers to 'fix' what I wrote, nor am I saying that it should be ignored entirely, but there are problems with it in regards to the finale they should be aware of and move to rectify if they're serious about it.';

'>>46767700
>To be fair the HSE isn't very well written.
WHAT!?! How could you even say that?!? You sick little pooper scooper!';

'late recap because we don't want ANOTHER autosaged thread!

“I'm completely and mentally stable.” Hana proudly said to herself. To her side, a Gap opens and a slim midriff and well-maintained pussy come out of it, a line of beautiful golden pubes adorning the clitoris; thighs creamy and perfect. “Oh, hey, look, a forbidden fruit that'll destroy my life!” Hana stared… Then began to cold sweat.

last time in the HSE:
>Anon rests~;
>Hana chuunis and continues her flashback of that time Yukari raped her -- it doesn't narrow it precisely, but what can you do? -- , and, in her destroyed mental state, she accepts all the depravity Yukari offers; they have sex and Hana immediately regrets it the following day. Story of her life...
>Mima visits the Myouren temple together with Shinki to, hopefully, cultivate faith for her cult. She has delightful talks with the people there and gossips like the old ladies they are, but achieves a sweet deal with Byakuren that'll for sure further her efforts;
>Patchy brews an entire universe in her library that is Sekai's soul and, to create the body, goes on an adventure to collect a lot of specific ingredients, meeting in the way a chunnying hag -- Mima -- that poses around with a knife as if she were a cool and young lass and, after 'talking' to Sekai, who is merely reading the passages randomly since that troll of a child sees the future, leaves and approaches the Kurodanis for the Voilé renovation. She meets Yams' children first, who take her to their home, and soon she meets the spider mama herself. They have very wholesome and sweet conversation topics that go from business to the meaning of life, something Patchy needs for Sekai's body. During that, Patchy comes to the understanding that, because of Sekai's overwhelming powers, the world's reality is slowly shattering and, because of their relationship, giving her glimpses of her other selves -- not a big deal until the Solstice, when all hell breaks loose—meaning Patchy experiences trust and fondness from beyond. She leaves soon after collecting the things she needed from Yams and making a deal about the renovations of the Voilé and, upon returning to the SDM, Patchy talks to Meiling, who gives her views on what life is. Deciding to go all the distance, Patchy gives the gold moon acessory, one of her most precious possessions, to the alchemic process that'll create Sekai's body. Very cute~;
>Goro has an epilepsy attack—the rumble of Sekai's glory—and experiences a bad trip before meeting with Sekai. They have an adorable conversation before Sekai asks him to always stay by Yukari's side, which leads to Sekai having a minor breakdown—she deserves it, poor eldritch goddess...—and is then comforted by her only trans father—Goro is not escaping the allegations—who promises to do so, ending with a trifold Ultimate Deal. Cute~;
>Keine sets up a festival in the Human Village, built by the Kurodanis and kept by her revolutionaries, as a means to stop any incoming attack from Mr. Hieda. As it goes on, she meets Toyosatomimi no Miko, who discusses a little and gives a cold view on what's to come after the revolution, and then asks to be part of her rebellion to prevent the bad stuff, which Keine accepts after considering Miko's points. Sanae, suspicious of Mr. Hieda's actions, goes to explore the festival, looking for information; she meets Kosuzu and they talk, though the conversation soon drifts to Sanae's envy towards the 'mu and her guilt of not helping Hana. Kosuzu helps her and, with a better mind, Sanae goes back to Mr. Hieda. After about five hours of festival and a concert by the Prismrivers, Keine and Mokou decide to kick things off and approach Mr. Hieda, a tense talk commencing that leads to the start of the war: Keine's death and Sanae's and her apprentices' eventual demise for daring to speak against the heinous acts of the man. Mokou has allegedly lost her mind;
>Shou goes to Eirin for a pregnancy scan, likely has her genes stolen and witness Hina going mental because she spent 10 seconds inside the HSE;
>Mr. Hieda recalls the good ol' hay days of gore and death after the passing of the Hakurei Miko, where he'd constantly fight Youkai; men were kidnapped by horny tengu and the Grimsokyo was in full swing. Phew, gladly that is past us and the HSE doesn't have Grimsokyo... wait...';

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

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

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

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

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

--

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--

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

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

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

'>>46768892
The black swarm shifted and changed into a drill shape, bright Danmaku lasers forming the ridges before launching itself into the Senkai’s barrier.

Suika’s form drilled into the barrier of the Senkais, already weakened by Kasen’s state and the damage inadvertently caused by Yukari and Okina, it soon gave way, a minuscule crack, all Suika needed, appearing across its previously seamless surface.

Dissipating the effect of her Spell Card card, Suika once again separated into a cloud of black miasma, rushing shooting Forward into it and entering Kasen’s Senkai.

The animals growled as she approached, prancing across the roof and staling the perimeter of the mansion as some of the beasts circled. The birds and cats gathered on the roof sward together surrounding a scythe-wielding hooded figure, who looked down at the Oni intruder.

Looking up at the person seated there, Suika instantly recognized her uniform. “So, you're her Shinigami friend right.” Suika eyed the box she held underneath one arm and measured the distance between them, Shinigami could control distance but Suika was among all Oni, the strongest. A being tantamount to a god, maybe this petty death job salary woman could prove a worthy challenge, but she doubted it.

“Yep.” Komachi gave Suika an anxious wave as they were both inspected by the animal of the half-abandoned Senkai.

“You gonna try and stop me from getting that box?” Suika remained unbothered as the animals stalked closer, the leader of the eagles, whom Kasen had certainly told her the name of but Suika couldn’t remember leading them.

“Calm down, I want to help Kasen just as much as you,” awkwardly and tensely she removed the box from underneath her arm, throwing it to Suika “Here’s the arm.”

“Well, thanks for the help, not like I needed it, but maybe you should try to save Kasen yourself next time.”

“I…” Komachi stuttered, remembering the words she had recited earlier. “The situation in Gensokyo is very perilous, you know this, as a Shinigami, I act in service to my Yama and the Yama kings.”

“So what? Just because the boss man doesn’t allow you to do something means ya’ can’t? Maybe you should take a look in the mirror and think about your life before blindly following orders.” Suika’s words were venom, a poison that seeped through Komachi’s veins.
To a spiritual being like her, it was as good as being punched across the face.

Komachi gave Suika a rotten look, she couldn’t refute what the Oni had said, it wasn’t that she lacked a response, she just didn’t believe in the rotten words that appeared in her mind.
Suika exploded into a cloud of black particles, flying away and seeping out of the crack in the Senkai she entered.
--

Goro gayley tapped a finger against his lip, deep in thought as he cast out his awareness into the structure of the now former Hakurei Shrine Experience. “Well, the facade does look to be a tree now, but inside its dimensions haven't changed to fit, in fact, I think they’ve expanded…”
“Great, just what we needed,” Seija complained, facepalming. “Those hags creating more problems for us.” Of course, coming from an Amanojaku, a statement like that was the purest hypocrisy. “Can you still find Yukari’s office?”

Goro’s eyes were blank and milky, blind to the real and physical world. Looking elsewhere into the systems that governed the former Hakurei Shrine Experience.

“Well, the tree has a sort of…” Goro tilted his head as he tried to make sense of what he was looking at. “Hollow? On the inside, it’s shaped like a cell, with the Shrine being a Nucleus of sorts, but at its edges, there’s this ‘non-existence’ but on the tree’s ‘outside’ face the ‘non-existence’ is at its center?” Goro wasn’t entirely sure that he was correct, this also didn’t look like either Yukari or Okina’s work, which made him even more suspicious.

“Okay, okay.” Seija interrupted, waving her hands to dismiss Goro’s ramblings. “I'm sorry for asking.” Her tone was half sincere, Goro had worried her when his eyes went white. “Do you have a way to get us to Yukari’s office? Yes or no?”

Goro clicked his nails against each other, examining the structure of the former Hakurei Shrine Experience. “…yes?”

“Yes?” Seija raised her eyebrow.

“Well…” Goro tapped his fingers together as he collected his thoughts, only having returned to lucidity moments ago. “It's a very tentative yes, but I think I can get us there, just follow my lead okay?.” Without another word, Goro began walking, eyes still blind to the physical reality around him and firmly planted upon the map in his head.

“Ugh…” Seija grunted in annoyance as she clung to the man, she half wished that hadn't even taken the request from Okina, but it wasn't like they had any choice in the first place and Goro was adamant about helping Anon.';

'>>46768902
Countless human villagers ran in panic. In just moments the village had exploded into chaos, and become warped. Only the most outlying sections or adjacent structures such as the Myouren temple had remained unscathed.

Seiga watched the masses churning, trying to get out of harm's way as soon as possible. The entire village had been surrounded by a barrier as well, a dark blue and spotted with stars, and while she had seen members of the Myouren temple retrieving the villagers and doubtless they had a way out of the barrier she suspected they wouldn’t want her escaping.

The barrier reminded Seiga of a similar trick that the water god assassin from two decades ago had used. Except the layers of the barrier were micrometers thick, interlaced with burning plasma, and traveled underneath the village, a part of her was tempted to move upwards to the branches of the trees, but she didn’t want to get caught up in another fight which didn’t guarantee escape.

In the end, she was left with one option, to break through the barrier at its weakest point using brute force. Coming ever closer to that said weak point and judging by the theme of the barrier, Seiga guessed it was that troublesome Vengeful Spirit that had assaulted her a short while back.

Floating into the air, Seiga could see her. A one-time magician turned Vengeful Spirit grabbed in blue and with flowing green hair. Behind the spirit, a hexagonal structure, that reminded Seiga of the black and white witch’s Hakkero, flew in the air, no doubt the thing keeping the barrier intact.

The two call-out at the same time.

“[Celestial Orrery]!”

“Yoshika!~”

Mima’s Orrery familiars summon in around her, planets against the backdrop of the star field with Mima as their sun.

Just in time for Yoshika to arrive, bursting from the ground and hurling herself towards Mima.
Mima barely dodged Yoshika’s bite, and Seiga smiled. Her biggest mistake in their last encounter was not having her spirit eating Jiangshi on her.

Launching a wave of Danmaku, followed by lasers at the vengeful spirit, trying to force her towards Yoshika. In response, Mima’s Orrey spheres forced a purple net-like barrier between the four of them, before launching themselves like a net towards Yoshika, forcing the Jiangshi away as she turned to Seiga.

Mima smiled, even if her plan of trapping the hermit in with her Orrery’s didn’t work she had managed to foil the hermit’s own plan of feeding her to a Jiangshi.

Having forced a gap between Mima and her Orrery, Seiga removes her hairpin and charges Mima. Although Seiga isn’t what would be called a melee specialist, her hairpin could make holes in any object, humans and spirits included. Even with it being highly unlikely she would be able to kill Mima, all she needed was a few seconds in order to carve through the barrier Mima had constructed around the Human Village.

Mima, realizing what the wicked Hermit is doing, swings forward with her staff twirling it and unleashing Danmaku bullets as she does so.

Seiga narrowly dodges the two swipes of Mima's wand, moving around and behind her as she holds her hairpin-like a dagger. With the distance between them only half a meter, Seiga takes her chance to end the fight in a single blow, stabbing forward with her hairpin.

Mima reacts, swiping at Seiga with a blood-stained knife, forcing the Hermit to retreat again, and then following up with two blasts from her orrery spheres, even as Yoshika continues to harass them.

Seiga sweat as she retreated along the perimeter of the barrier, Hermits were superior physically to a Witch, but her opponent had anticipated that, bringing a grudge-filled knife. Even without it piercing her skin, Seiga knew in her spin that the knife Mima wielded held a grudge both against 'humans' and 'humanity' nothing else would cause the reptile part of her brain to scream.

Yoshika throws herself towards the four orbs, losing half a foot in the process but manages to grasp onto an Orrery Sphere, wrestling with it, before shoving it into her mouth.
A smile breaks out on Seiga’s face. “Yoshika here!”
The remaining three Orrery’s not held in Yoshika’s mouth try to intercept her, firing lasers and bullets as she hurls her body towards her master.

But of course, Seiga never needed the orb intact. “Bite!”
Yoshika’s jaw slams into the miniature star, and Seiga can only think one thing as Mima’s orrery sphere detonates right next to Mima’s star field barrier, Seiga flexes her finger. "Consumed spirit release."

The barrier shatters with a boom, breaking off into glass-like shards of magic. Seiga forces herself through the explosion, scorching her features.

But before she’s able to escape the ghost's grasp, Mima shoots forward in a burst of energy. “Get back here!” she yells, grabbing the hermit by the hermit by her loose, burnt hair.';

'>>46768912
Seiga's eyes only have a moment to widen before she’s slammed down into the ground.
Mima “Now…” Mima takes a deep breath as she twists the burnt hermit’s hair in her hand, a red gleam in her eyes. “you're finally going to…” Before noticing that the Hermit had lost her hairpin somewhere along the way in their fight. “No.”

Seiga smiled as Mima put the piece together. “Surprise~”
In a flash Mima swung her knife, severing the Hermit’s head from her shoulders and cutting cleanly through the tree root behind her. The head smiled as it dissolved into mist.

The Hermit had used a decoy, her real body, her hairpin, the item in which she stored her soul, had not been in the wicked Hermit’s hair when Mima caught her.

Mima seethed as she turned back to her station, both the hermit and witch knew she couldn't commit to a chase, even if Seiga didn't know of the entire operation, she was canny enough to have a clue of what they were planning.

--

Ran trailed her hand along the wall as they briskly walked through the former structure of the HSE, while she was currently still Yukari’s Shikigami and Chen, in turn, was hers, they couldn’t risk disconnecting from Yukari until they were sure they were home free. But they also were severely limited in the abilities they could use as that would risk drawing Yukari’s unwanted attention.

Chen hummed smugly, wearing a laid-back and casual expression as she trailed behind Ran and Anon, completely confident in the abilities of her mother and believing entirely that they would escape without incident. Really this escape was all sorts of cool for her, for one thing, she wasn’t getting beat up by thieves trying to burglarize them. She had never forgiven Sakuya. Reimu and Marisa for that.

“The building’s new layout is certainly causing us some trouble” Anon dryly commented, as he walked beside Ran.

Ran shook her head non-comitally as Chen looked somewhere else, comedy never was his strong suit.

Taking another right turn down a needlessly elongated hallway, the three of them see a bevy of five otter spirits nearly on top of them, somehow without either them or the three escapees noticing the sound of each other’s footsteps. Four of them are the typical disembodied four-legged green spirits, frolicking around an anthropomorphic green otter spirit in a black suit and mask.

The leader looked up to Ran, her attention taken away from her subordinates. Just in time to see Ran rush forwards and for the Otter in the suit to be blasted back Ran suddenly sped up, releasing a shockwave.

Ran’s foot collided with one of the four-legged otters, kicking into another and causing both to be launched into a wall, exploding into a poof of green smoke on impact.

Immediately, the other two Otters tried to run to their boss, only for Ran to immediately catch up to them, obliterating each of them into a puff of green smoke with a kick.

The humanoid otter tried to hit Ran with its metal pipe, only for Ran to interrupt her with an elbow to the jaw, staggering the bipedal otter spirit. Followed by Ran delivering a gut punch, blowing a hole through the otter.

“Alright.” Ran sighs, shaking her smoking hand as the otter falls over and then disperses into a green mist.

Chen’s and Anon’s eyes widened at the sudden violence, while both knew that even a single person seeing them could risk Anon’s escape, neither had expected Ran to so suddenly decimate the first group they’d come across.

Ran flushes as she turns and sees the looks of surprise on Anon’s and Chen’s faces. She would have much preferred disposing of them in a more elegant manner but they were strapped for time and using gaps was too risky. “You shouldn’t worry about them Anon, either they’ll return to the animal realm or a new life.”

“Wa-Wow, what Aunt Yuuma said is true.” Chen’s eyes were full of stars. “You are a delinquent!”
“Chen! Don't say such things.” Ran decided she needed to have another talk to Yuuma about their shared past, and what exactly Chen was allowed to know about it.

Anon just chuckled in amusement.';

'>>46768919
--

Deep in the bowels of the HSE, along the edges of its inside, the center of its outside, and above an empty, barren non-existent island of sand. A wicked Goddess and her servants stood against a meddlesome Youkai witch. Pushed back slowly with pre-prepared defenses while they warred in the heart of the enemy.

Above them, a swirling mass of curses and impurity loomed, round like a sphere but with sharp edges, it’s semi-liquid skin taking on the appearance of scales as it’s hateful red eyes that looked down on the figures below.

The metastasizing of a curse of epic proportions.

-end-

>>46730769
Very similar style… Anon, that was me, anyways, yeah that’s canon to my ending, and cracking skies are cool, kinda like characters moving at imperceptible speeds and flashes of movement.
Also, the comment about Reimu and Hana’s purification rods is an addition I made last minute as a reference to ZUN’s recent on-the-spot explanation on why Reimu’s rod grew in size over the years, i.e. her Purification Rod is a living plant.';

'>>46767541
With the rate this fic is going, act 3 starting at the summer solstice is going to be a self fulfilling prophecy at this point.';

'>>46768970
it seems Ayaanon has died, the poor man...
but at least Aya was in a good spot, so that should one more character ready for the Solstice if our man doesn't return.';

'>>46768256
Yeah, a writer should take her and improve the story, her motivations is largely getting back at her sis and doing something only a hormonal pregnant youkai would do, dumb but managable.
Doesn't mean we prune it just because you don't like it, or because she had only the setup and no more chapters
This argument is just dumb, its like the fairy cunny debate';

'>>46768926
>ZUN’s recent on-the-spot explanation on why Reimu’s rod grew in size over the years, i.e. her Purification Rod is a living plant.
Really? Thats pretty interesting, assuming he wasn't just drunk and pulled a kaguya';

'>>46769382
it was a completely off-the-cuff answer he gave in an interview, so it's not exactly concrete lore';

'>>46769395
Figured, though it may be funny if that is actually the truth he has in whatever lore journal he has sitting in a forgotten dusty corner';

'>>46769411
so that's why she become more of a bitch here as she grew older, the stick in her ass kept growing too...';

'>>46769382
>pulled a kaguya
What do you mean?';

'>>46769426
No, tahts just ZUN's fetish for rude girls who bully you before clobbering you.';

'>>46769435
That 'Kaguya is millions of years old' he said once while a few beers in and never mentioned again.';

'>>46727489
>if Hana doesn't bullshit sex with her
Funny thing about that, I seriously considered it from the start when Hana was going to stay at the shrine, mostly as a possible way forward/means for Reimuwriter to add in some persepective and possible development in their relationship.
At this point it's just too late considering the next chapter will be Hana's closing day with the 'mu, taking refuge at Sanae's shrine(need to recap on all the mokou stuff to make sure theres no conflict), and a confrontation with Kasen(hopefully for the better)
Then after that I'll be ready for final prep/plotting with Hana with anyone whos intrested.

Well who knows, the Hakurei closed incest loop is still planned for an epilogue as I must write pain and suffering...
But really I wouldn't shoehorn in something like that before an epilogue considering Reimuwriter is here somewhere and active';

'>>46769681
>Funny thing about that, I seriously considered it from the start when Hana was going to stay at the shrine, mostly as a possible way forward/means for Reimuwriter to add in some persepective and possible development in their relationship.
... That'd incredibly fucked up, but a great way of testing Reimu's limits and if she'd be up to go the distance in disciplining Hana or, in her grief, would be powerless to stop the 'Ana, thinking she should give her everything she wants, even her body. Though I'm glad nothing of the sort happened, Eirin would have a hard time therapizing that...
>Reimuwriter is here somewhere and active
look behind you, Hanaanon.';

'>>46769745
>... That'd incredibly fucked up
and hot
>a great way of testing Reimu's limits and if she'd be up to go the distance in disciplining Hana or, in her grief, would be powerless to stop the 'Ana,
Exactly the plan, though considering that Reimu and Hana were hard set on 'recovery' at the time I instead wrote cute. In a different timeline however, where Hana wasn't written as 'feeling nothing' when looking at Reimu naked I might have pushed that as a test for the 'mu and a set up for the Hana Yakumo stuff. At the moment the next chapter will mostly be about Hana and Reimu's farewell and if Hana can not sperg for 5 fucking minutes till she can regain her freedom and go back home without terror... Or goes back home knowing full well what'll happen.

All depends on where the Mokou stuffs at, I haven't kept up with the storylines related to it for like 2 months. I don't think there should be a conflict given the festival happened later and this is happening two days after birthday party.';

'>>46766934
>“Hana Hakurei is the daughter of Reimu Hakurei and her husband, Anon.”
As if that's ever going to happen.';

'>>46769048
I took a break while the Book of Patchy was being written. I gotta name those dang eggs once I'm caught up on all the reading from last thread.';

'>>46770240
tengu shenanigans is not leaving the menu, noice~';

'>>46770240
Glad to see your still alive. I do enjoy your Aya';

'“Feels functional, but function doesn’t mean it won’t explode sooner than later…” I mumble to myself and scratch my hatless scalp, even this small effort bothering the twin freeloaders in my belly—your mama is trying to do magic, ze, sheesh. Patchouli attentively stares at the table emblazoned with a dozen hand-drawn esoteric inscriptions and sigils on its surface, paying only half mind to my work as her other hand continues gesturing and moving to give life to another sigil and so another star to the universe floating just above our heads.

It was… quite the overwhelming surprise entering the Voilé and seeing the entirety of a manually built universe just floating there—worst of all, not knowing exactly what its purpose was—but that's just Gensokyo: you never fully know the answer to whatever wonder is happening around you, but man look at all those pretty lights~

“Countless things in this world are in constant peril of unexpectedly exploding, but that hasn't stopped great people from pursuing such things… Will it stop you, Marisa Kirisame?” She lazily turns the page, her brows suddenly frowning as her purple eyes scan the paper, shifting to me for a brief moment. Patchouli Knowledge seemed amused.

What the…?

I hum, my curiosity spiking and my skin tingling, the seeker of mysteries—or more likely, adrenaline—pushing me to get answers… And I could get such answers from that odd book, which calmly floats to Patchy's side.

… For the chance of being vaporized alone, it's not worth it, but also the complete disgust that fills my heart at the thought of again stealing from Patchy and so losing her trust…

A little peek, though, shouldn't hurt.

As Patchy lets the utterly complex sigil she holds float up—golden, black and white, spiky and undulating like a crashing wave; somehow, it feels vaguely familiar—and turns the page, she sighs. “No, Marisa Kirisame, a 'little peek' would be very bad. Control yourself.” H-Huh, how did she…?! Patchy stares at me intensely, and I'm about to try defending myself, my heart rate skyrocketing. “Don't fret—you'd regain your mind before attempting it, so I'm not mad at you.” She pauses, as if pondering something beyond me on the papyrus of that book, before sighing and resuming. “I'm… proud of your change. Good work.” She said those words without an ounce of feeling in her face, and I blinked, utterly confused.

Because that face is the face of honesty.

Suddenly extremely cozy inside, I had to avert my eyes from her, cheeks rosy and smile silly. C'mon, you middle-aged dumbass, it's just some compliments! No need to act like a teen again! Composing myself again and giving the finishing touches on the table, I mumble, “Y-Yeah, uh, sorry for that… And thanks.” The week magician nods, strands of hair falling on her face due to the movement—I wonder where's her hat. Perhaps she's not feeling wearing it today? She looks undoubtedly different… I wouldn't say she's softer; Koa can attest to that after being nearly set on fire for trying to flip the very threads of the handmade universe, but… More open to hearing others? Something along those lines. It is nice, and I look forward to the day when I can bring my children here to learn from her without worrying that they will catch fire for looking the wrong way at a book.

Speaking of those little devils, I step back with a huff, forearm cleaning the sweat from my forehead. “Guess it's done.” I consider the two dozen books pilled around us, floating in clouds of soft magic and open on specific pages—a chaotic mishmash of diverse spells to form a ritual that, when conducted, should help me the way a mercurial concoction whose only intent is ending life would never help.

With a satisfying thud, Patchouli closes the mighty book and puts it away, sending one final sigil to join its thousands of brothers and sisters. The woman hovers by my side, examining the table and the various apparatuses that siege it closely. “I must say, 'twas a stroke of genius only a buffoon could pull off.”

I stared, puzzled. “Was that a compliment, or…?”

“It was a compliment.”

“Nice, ze~” I clap, my eyes closing as I do my best to ignore the hurt on my swollen feet and stiff back from the various movements and arching I had to do during the construction of this ritual—all soon to be eradicated.

After all, this is a ritual to temporarily separate me from my pregnancy.

My heart is frantic just thinking about the crazy process, sharing it with the pride of putting it all together—not that I was lacking in free time or help: Alice and the others won't let me do anything substantial due to my late pregnancy and, without the entire Voilé free for me to explore, I'd never have access to the plethora of fascinating knowledge just hidden beneath books I once considered much cooler reads.

… Man, why didn't I apologize to her all those years ago?

“First test.” Patchy mumbles to herself, and, abruptly, a calm but very pregnant rat appears on top of the table.

H-Huh…?';

'>>46771483
—
“Why do you have a pregnant rat in the ready…?” I ask, staring as magic chains lock the small thing to the table and begin feeding the magical sigils, no squeak wafting the air. Soothing magic, probably.

Patchouli gave me a weird look, indecipherable but for ‘surprised’. “Why wouldn't I have it? I prepare myself for every circumstance, and keeping breeding grounds for test subjects regarding alchemical and biological processes is something every magician studying the nuance of the magical world regarding the body—humane or not—should at the very least take into account.” It's sobering that no counterargument comes to mind, though I find myself wondering if this relates to her many illnesses. Patchy hums, gesturing with her hand towards the table. “Besides, how were you expecting to test the integrity of this ritual?” I scratch my nape, and she turns her eyes away, likely deeming it an unnecessary use of brainpower. An actual living being will probably fare better than the mycelium I was considering using… “No magic works immediately after it leaves the pages of books and ideas, Marisa Kirisame; you should know that better than anyone else.” Her voice carries the intonation of a teacher and, for a moment, I wonder if that's exactly what's happening here…

Well, a master that stops learning is nothing but an amateur, so I nod and stare back at the rat, all but one sigil brimming with magic—the one right in front of us. “Yeah, guess ya are right…” With her satisfied nod of approval, I sit down—finally, phew~—and begin to pour magic over the unlit sigil, as taught to me years ago by a strange and awfully dressed ‘vengeful’ spirit. Patchouli stares sharply at the process with an almost nostalgic expression—she will be the one executing the ritual on me if everything goes according to plan.

The destroyed, though well-kept Voilé fades, as slowly does Patchy's presence, all the reading of books still floating around me returning to my mind as clear as day. The main sigil helps with the manipulation and plucking of souls—must be careful not to reverse it, otherwise it turns into a rune that kills souls—and the two larger sigils that nurse it help with visualizing not only the mother's body but her developing children's. Conduction of soul and body comes next, and Patchy's hand tenderly presses against my back. It was a surprise to know recently she's been learning control of Ki and can act as the sole conductor of the children's vital energy rather than using cold, hard magic to perform the procedure—a test of her 'germinating skills', she’d called it.

Many more steps are silent or happen in the shadows, sigils glowing more or less in accordance with their need for magical empowerment, and as transition occurs and lost souls start to flutter above the chained rat, the silent table almost sings. The hard part finally begins as those eight souls and bodies leave their mother prematurely, anxiety booming inside. I can feel Patchy tensing as she uses her body to guide the children towards a small jar containing this shining, bluish effervescent liquid—a mixture of water and magic, serving as a small womb for the children.

If something were to fail, it'd fail now, during the most delicate and uncharted part of this whole process…

… But nothing happened. The eight souls and bodies were effectively and totally transplanted inside the jar, eight different—all faintly radiating—droplets of life swimming in the captivating, glowing bliss of ignorance. I opened my eyes and looked straight at Patchy, knowing before our eyes even met her reaction: Patchouli Knowledge was flabbergasted. “It just… worked.” She mumbled in a daze. Smugness creeped into my face and instantly vanished when she gave me a death glare.

—Then something seemed to click in her mind. That huge book fell onto her hands and, at random, she flipped through it… All that tension melted away from her face in a sigh, the book disappearing.

I stared, perplexed. What the fuck was that…?

“When your children come to this world, Marisa Kirisame, do me a favor.” She takes the bottle with the white souls and considers it. “Teach them that mistakes are a necessary evil in the magical world, despite being… 'yucky'… It'll save us both the seething rage.” A deadpan intonation, coupled with a dangerous gleam in her eyes, means all I can do is slowly nod. Satisfied, Patchy puts the jar of souls down and begins studying the integrity of the magical symbols.

I should’ve focused on that, but I got distracted by the mama rat, who shyly approached the jar and just… stared at it.

… My hand tenderly caresses my protuberant belly. “Say, Patchouli,” I call her. “How did it feel to use your Ki to manipulate those souls-da-ze?”

“An ant against a massive tree.” Immediate answer, huh… “All I did was carry one single leaf—with you, it should be a thin stem.” A shadow of a grin emerges on her face. “… It’d take a master ant to carry the entire tree, don’t you think~?”';

'>>46771489
—
For Patchouli, who was virtually competing with herself, one test was insufficient; each one proceeded without a hitch. Restoring the children to their mothers, testing with larger animals and their offspring, and even transplanting the children to other mothers—though we only tested that once and decided not to try that offense against mother nature again—the battery of tests ended without one big magical explosion or flood of gore.

Patchy didn't seem to be coping very well with that fact, and it all had to do with that powerful book she occasionally summons. Respecting her wishes—and I don’t want that death glare again—I decided not to pry, but man, curiosity is killing me…

Thanking Koa for the tea and whole loaf of pure bread, I began munching for much of Patchy's concern and the succubus' amusement. “Lady Patchouli, staring is rude—pregnant women have cravings…” She offers, the week magician watching with clear judgment as I pour four tablespoons of sugar into my tea. “A-At least is not as bad as the women of Makai…” I awkwardly peered at Koa, who went red in the cheeks. Yeah, I don't want to know whatever the fuck she's talking about.

Exchanging some final words with Patchy, Koa soon saw herself out, the magician draining her tea before addressing me, her eyes keen. “Are you prepared, Marisa?”

We've done a lot of tests; none went wrong…

… But the possibility of something just exploding in the magical world simply because it feels like it is never a round zero. Laughing after swallowing a chunk of the bread, though, I say. “I was born ready, da-ze~!” The forced lie buffets her face and ricochets; something inside stirring… I recall Reimu's face by that pond and I swallow dry, my eyes darting to the jar over the table that we'll use to store my children—one hand caressing my belly. “… It's the safer choice.” Patchy keeps staring in silence. Listening. It urges me like nothing else. “… I'm not as young as I used to be, you know? Even before getting pregnant, I was starting to notice it. I can still fly, fight—act like the badass I am… But my age is catching up: I'm committing mistakes I never did before, my reaction time is not lunatic-tier anymore, and…” I clutch my belly like it will grow legs and run away. “The Winter Solstice m-may be my last battle, so I need to make sure these silly little guys are safe… That's my responsibility as their mother.” My eyes burn, but I remain still; strong. “Can you believe this, Patchy…? Me, becoming a mother! And I, I… Mima doesn't want me fighting in the Solstice. We'd have a nasty fight if she knew that I'm planning to fight anyway… But want to know something-ze? I don't think I care.” It's the hormones of pregnancy. Nothing else explains these tears that strand down my face under the penetrating gaze of Gensokyo's harshest magician: “… Even if I die in the Solstice, I know they'll still have you. I simply do. You'll find a way to bring these kids to life, Patchy, and they'll hear that their short, old and very foolish mother fought bravely for their poor father… They may then hear she was one of Gensokyo's most notorious thieves and that she died with so many regrets… But they'll be proud of their mother nonetheless, won't they? I want them to be proud of me, because then I think that I'll… I’ll finally be proud of myself…” I glance towards the hovering universe brushing against the roof of the Voilé. “Heh, so silly, ain't me-da-ze—?”

“I'm proud of you, Marisa.” Simple words, said with a simple smile.

… Fuck, my bread is all drenched and salty now, and I cannot talk so I shakily nod. It's enough for Patchouli Knowledge.

About thirty minutes later, recovered and feeling much better than ever before, almost light—not really, ouch, ouch… I walk for ten seconds, and my feet are already killing me—we decide it's time to conduct the process, determination placating my frantic heart as I lay on the wooden table and feel my magic humming on my back. Tensed discomfort settled inside my stomach like a frozen boulder, weighing me down and draining my strength… It was crippling anxiety like none I have felt since I was a young girl with flamboyant ideas and odd hair choices, trying my hardest to cast my first ever spell…

… I exchange a glance with Patchiouli and know that nothing is going wrong.

The chance is never zero, but for the people you love—even those you haven't even seen the faces of—you brave those chances.

Somehow, I feel like Patchy understands me perfectly.

Soothing magic soon calms my mind and my eyes wander to the handcrafted universe above me, fluctuating and groaning ever so frequently, such grandiose display way beyond that of an ordinary magician—still, as I watch the lights, my eyes pick up that sigil of gold, white and black Patchy made a while ago, the thing floating around and making connections with its peers…

I smile for whatever reason, arms clutching my belly as darkness welcomes me.

It’s nice not being alone, isn’t it~?';

'>>46771496
And Marisa Kirisame never woke up again. Too bad, so sad...';

'>>46771631
RIP, but could have been much worse.';

'Alright boys, time to dig into the HSE again. Starting from the jan 23 thread...';

'>>46772301
have fun! Some moments of these last 7~ threads are:
>Yukari develops a fetish
>Kasen is too fucking horny
>Gundam
>Reimu mindfucks Hana by being a normal fucking human being for once in her life
>DBZ: Battle of Gods, but with a troll of a child
>Book of Patchy
>Dolly and Shanghai chapters, peak
>Keine visits Gensokyo's coolest middle manager
>Aya is one post away from giving everyone a live birth fetish
>Okina should be locked behind bars
>Mima battles chinese propaganda (hot evil women)
>literally a Gakuran spinoff
and more~';

'>>46766934
>Thread #27 of the HSE';

'>>46772381
2.
MORE.
THREADS.';

'>>46772360
>>46772381
>Dec 18 2023
I'm losing my mind.';

'>>46772471
>Been monitoring these threads since bloody October
Reality just hit me like a truck good lord
Little Timmy has basically gone though his entire year of 4th grade meanwhile I'm still strugglin' to finish this story about a robot and 2 nincompoops.';

'>>46575492
“Mistake #98: Not taking advantage of my non-negotiable maternity leave.”

As of the latest update to their employee benefits, ‘maternity’ was defined as “the moment implantation begins until the very second (inclusive to one-thousandth) the last egg leaves the employee’s body, including one 24-hour grace period.” As Aya spent many of those hours passed out and covered in birthing fluids, it wasn’t long until she had to report to Megumu for her next story. The optimistic side of her hoped it would be another article for her motherhood column. The sensible side of her knew it wouldn’t.

Before she could unfurl her wings, the smell of stale beer and wet mud hit the tengu’s nose like a bullet. The small excuse for a lawn Aya had was densely packed with as many empty bottles and half-eaten scraps of discount sushi as it could fit. Not a single crumb fell out of what constituted a property line on Youkai Mountain. Aya, still legally considered retarded by society for another hour or so, walked around the perimeter of her lawn before planting herself at an angle facing the sheer side of the mountain. A maple leaf in her right hand, the tengu closed her eyes and let it flap; She felt every slight twist from the wind running from each vein down to the stem. The flow imprinted clearly in her mind, Aya swirled her fan through the air, drawing the current around as she turned about her left leg, building pressure around until it was fit to burst, then accumulating even more. She planted her right foot firmly in front of her then thrust her arm forwards, guiding the zephyr towards her house. The powerful gust sent shimmering glass and dull refuse careening into the trees below, no longer the responsibility of the Shameimaru household.

A quick check around her home revealed a ruined shirt covered in food and who-knows how many layers of vomit and a few other party favors still tucked away near a trunk for gardening tools. With a sigh, Aya picked up the rest and threw it into a garbage bag for later. Damn. She still couldn’t get everything in one blow. If Anon saw this sorry sight, or her kids hatched…

-who cares what Anon would think?! It’s not like he can manipulate wind! Controlling the flow of the all-encompassing atmosphere would be nothing less than a miracle to humans like him! Aya didn’t even need to impress him in the first place! She wasn’t some lovestruck loon, she was a beautiful tengu Anon would be lucky to call his wife and lover! A-And it’d be years before her kids would have any right to judge her skills, and she’ll be blowing only the third leaf off every tree in a mile radius by next week!

… Why was she still fighting with herself over nothing in her backyard when her vacation ends in an hour? Snapping out of her delusions, the tengu finally went to work, making a mental note to put an end to these stupid mental battles forevermore. She was a tengu, dammnit, she was above these silly mental reassurances!

Walking right into Megumu’s office, Aya saw the boss she knew and loved? Respected? No, that was still too much praise, even for a midwife. Shuffling through papers without a single glance thrown her way was the daitengu Aya knew and approved of, not a trace of her baby-crazy behavior to be seen.

“You’re right on time, Shameimaru. You’ve heard about the trouble brewing between the Hieda clan and the schoolteacher, right? You’ll be investigating Kamishirasawa. I’ve already assigned Himekaido to gather information on Hieda himself, considering how well she did in incriminating the hermit.”

Right down to business, then? Fine by Aya, the sooner she could get this done, the sooner she could do anything other than standing on her feet. “Sounds simple enough. Anything else I should know?”

“Fujiwara no Moukou and one of those night sparrows —the one that sells grilled lampreys, tasty ones — have been seen around her as well. Someone also reported Kamishirasawa wearing a cape with a symbol of peace on it, so we probably have a fully proselytized cult on our hands.” A smirk started to crack on Megumu’s face, the kind she wore when a good story was developing. “Now go get that scoop before this powder keg blows. Anyone making a firebrand out of that walking bonfire is just begging for an article.”

Geez, dealing with Mokou too? Might as well throw hot coals in her face now and get it over with. Maybe just a quick papparazi shot would be enough, especially if she got one with Keine wearing her cape. “You got, Iizunamaru-sama. I’ll have the pictures and a transcript ready by tonight.”

Of course, Aya had one more impediment. “Oh, and Aya? Could you give your oldest a little pet for me? I want little Takezo to know his daitengu will look out for him.”

(Part 91)';

'>>46772571
Rage blazed through Aya’s mind in an instant, followed quickly by a fuzzy feeling of unbridled smugness. Turning on her geta, Aya grinned devilishly at her boss.

“Really? That’s so sweet, but MIDORI is the oldest!” The daitengu was taken aback as an instinct far surpassing any notion of shame, status, or politeness emboldened the crow. “You can tell exactly by the way her shell starts sloping a tenth of a millimeter sharper from the middle that it’s Midori! But you put Takezo in the incubator all the way to the end, even though he obviously came out second!”

Megumu stood up from her seat, still on the back-foot but prepared to defend herself. “Now Aya, the cuticle-”

“Takezo’s cuticle is slightly thicker than Midori’s because of the leftover fluid! You should have noticed, it’s at got at least 7 milliliters more in it!”

Megumu’s wings began to shudder, betraying the calm expression she forced onto her face. Suddenly, they straightened out as confidence twisted the daitengu’s face into one of righteous superiority. “Kehehe… if you’re just going off of cuticle thickness, then who came out last, Tomoe or Waku?” Deathly serious, she pointed a finger between her subordinate’s eyes as if scolding her for breaking a printer. “I know for a FACT that the exact same amount of cuticle hardened around Tomoe and Waku, and not a single spec of it went opaque!” Sweat dripped down the daitengu’s forehead as she presented her challenge, ready to put her subordinate in her place.

But Aya was ready to meet the challenge. Similarly red-faced and breathing deeply, she shot back. “It’s the smell. Waku’s smell is a little bit weaker than Tomoe. Tomoe was born third, and Waku came out last and fastest!” Aya slammed her palm down to punctuate her final answer. How could any tengu have the gall to call herself a mother if she couldn’t tell the difference between her four wonderful eggs?!

A shadow loomed across Megumu’s face as she struggled to keep up her cocksure grin. Aya could see her boss calculating every variable behind her eyes, yet coming up with the same four results. Then, stepping away from her desk to place one firm hand on Aya’s shoulder, Megumu spoke with the kind of calm, controlled confidence only a master daitengu could muster after such an exchange. “Don’t worry about it anymore, I’ll let your oldest son know myself. Now go get me pictures of a hakutaku.”

Satisfied with her victory, Aya left the office while she was still full of adrenaline. Megumu was going to be doting on Takezo, huh? Well, he’ll be pretty embarrassed when he sees her-

Megumu never sat back in her chair.

Aya shouted at her boss from the hallways, uncaring of the overworked printers in other rooms “Don’t go in my house when I’m not home!”

“Just get to work, Shameimaru!” That bitch, she didn’t even try to deny it!

“Don’t even think about letting Tsukasa touch them!”

“She’s not allowed to, she doesn’t get it!”

With that small assurance, Aya flew off to the Human Village. She pushed aside the thought of Megumu smothering her eggs by thinking about the rumor mill that surrounded Keine. Pregnancy, abortion, lies coming from either her, Hieda or both — She’d be finding out the simple the truth soon enough. Either way, she felt a little bad for the teacher. There’s no way Keine would ever know how it feels to be Mother of the Century, since that title already belonged to Aya Shameimaru, Mother of the Bunbunmaru, Midori, Takezo, Tomoe and Waku.

(Part 92)';

'Hahahahaha, finished reading the last thread and holy shit I can't believe I missed the thread civil war starting. I always feared I would come to the finale late, and when I saw Aya's name in that one anon's finale I started screaming inside! One hell of a thread to read posthumously.
But, writing again felt good. It's fluff (it always is) to maintain consistency. I've got one more Aya mention to address with more fluff and then I'll actually expound on the bombs and the Moriyan goddesses and the chunii that drew a pentagram on her face. It will look like plot, but it's actually fluff, do not be fooled.';

'>>46772575
>>46772571
It is just like Tengus to autstically argue over the status of the first born by precision measurements.';

'>>46771496
Nice to see these continue to bond. They'll be all but family when their children are born. Both of them are mothers of Sekai so they have that. But with Marisa's own children coming from the same father as Sekai (although in a much more natrual matter) her children would be siblings to Sekai, making Patchouli their aunt, or maybe their stepmother? Of course you have Aya's hatchlings and all the other children, they're directly step-children of Marisa's. Then you have Hana and Reimu of course. Everyone would have a relation to them through their father so that means....

Maybe it's not worth trying to plot this out.


>>46772575
Tengu society must be a bureaucratic nightmare. Everyone is trying to one-up each other with minuscule details and having to follow the laws down to the exact lettering. Hopefully Aya Kaczynski will change all of that.';

'>>46771496
So sad 'risa died of ligma.';

'>>46774260
Too be fair we all knew it was gonna either be that or ODing on mushrooms that would finish her off in the end.';

'>>46774454
I figured it'd be that her food was placed on too tall a shelf';

'>>46772575
>>46772571
A-Ayaanon, the symbol on Keine's cloak—the crooked swastika—was removed by Mokou because she didn't know the story behind it when she knitted it there... Keine ponders it now for symbolism’s sake, as a way to encapsulate a betrayal of her initial convictions. Eh, it's incredibly minor detail and I didn't do the best job of passing it, so it doesn't really matter—since it's Tengu info, though, maybe it's their heightened eyesight that saw the unknitted symbol?
anyway, very fun chapter! The cock fight made me laugh, and I weep for every poor mother tengu working under those maternity rules. Great names too, though Aya should prepare herself for bouts of jealously poor Midori will feel of 'Tomoe'. Such a ridiculously cool name...';

'>>46776565
>spoiler
The very last part; some tengu caught a glance that night but didn't get the best look at it or hear their conversation, so all Megumu knows is Keine could be using one of the thousands of swastikas developed across the world (but what she cares about is the new, small group adopting a symbol and Keine wearing a wicked cape. That's the money shot.)';

'>>46777096
that works well, Tengu are voyeurs after all~';

'>>46771496
—
I woke up as if I had slept for years.

No nightmare plagued my dreams—I was right there. For years on end, I was right there; if I'd just pushed her like Ran Yakumo did, carved the problem instead of thinking it'd magically disappear all because she cried a little and apologized…—and as my eyes opened to the glory of the quietly creaking, handcrafted universe above, I said: “Fuck, man…”

“You're awake.” Patchy's monotone voice pierces the veil and, slowly, I move to the edge of the bed—table—dazedly staring at my surroundings as I stretch myself… Unlike these past months, movements came and went relatively easily, feet gently yet staunchly touching the cold ground of the Voilé, the usual jolt of pain and sluggishness nowhere to be seen.

I looked down, and my stomach was as flat as a board.

The experiment was a success.

I separated myself from my babies and now my body is as if I'd never been impregnated.

I should be happy, shouldn't I…? Yet, I unconsciously touched my flat belly, a harrowed feeling sprouting inside, my voice coming out weak and sore. “Where are they…?” I ask, turning to Patchouli and getting on my feet, almost tripping over the lack of an extra weight inside my belly, feeling desperate as my heart races. These eyes ignore the sheer magnificence of the universe above, the thousands of years of accumulated knowledge of the Voilé, and even my clothes that now hang onto me as if I were a child trying on their parents' clothes—focusing only on what matters: my children. “A-Are they safe, Patchouli? Where are they…?” I stumble toward the other magician embarrassingly.

Patchy… sighs. “Calm yourself, your sad, hormonal excuse of a proper woman; you look as pathetic as described.” My ears are deaf to the insult but not to Patchy's actions, one hand letting a sigil float up as the other languidly extended toward me, the heavy book floating to her side. “Here they are, your, hm… 'Silly little guys'.” Above my hands opens a sigil and, innocuously, as if not containing my most precious possessions, falls from it a jar of souls on my palms.

A flood of deafening questions assaults my brain and makes my heart thump to the point it aches; anxiety riddens me so completely my legs feel wobbly; I want to vomit and cry and…

… All erased as I let my eyes meet them.

I blink.

In the effervescent liquid, three white and beautiful souls swim calmly. Ah, so that's why it was such a struggle carrying your asses around~

I giggle.

I laugh out loud.

I cry.

I hug them tightly and never let go.

… My three kids~

“Reimu will get so maaad-a-ze, ahahaha!” My ecstatic voice resounds through the Voilé as I say that. “One?! That's weak! Two—makes me wanna laugh! I got three! Three siblings for Hana; three dumbasses to teach magic to!” I don't know what comes onto me, but I spin around, hair flailing like a golden, fiery whip. Not even Patchy's puzzled gaze can stop me; my red cheeks and broad smile instantly replace my questions and anxiety with plans, ideas, and fantasies for our promising future. Die?! When I got to teach three kids how the Master Spark is undoubtedly the best way to go about Danmaku? HELL NO!

Marisa Kirisame is living, and if fate dares say no, she'll say: MASTER SPARK!

And may fate commit suicide.

I collapse onto my back, surrounded by books and strewn pages, arms outstretched, gazing deeply into the jar against the backdrop of the cosmos, happiness palpable. So very pretty~ “That was quite the display.” Patchy says, floating to my side, that heavy book under her arm—I should name that thing; I'm in the mood right now~heh, I'll need three names. “It's all temporary, and by my admittedly hasted studies, the children won't grow inside the artificial womb; if you want them to actually continue to be developed, we'll need to… insert them back inside you.” I nod along, barely paying attention to her. “Leave the floor; we must conduct tests… Hm, in actuality, it doesn't matter. I put my throat on the line that all is fine and we'd only waste time with such measures.” She says, a spec away from pouting, inexplicit rage in her eyes at something—or someone—beyond my understanding. “… Are you feeling okay?”

“I've never felt better~”

She hums. “Hm, guessed so.” A more serene note takes over her face then, the lack of hat causing a few purple strands to fall on her face—it doesn't seem to bother her. “What are you intending to do?” There's a genuine curiosity in her tone.

“Surf on my broom; swim a bunch—show Anon our children~” I press a finger on the glass and move it around, the souls inside swimming after it; my heart feels as full as a young Reimu after exploiting to the max a Geidontei eat-all-you-can-for-free golden ticket.

Patchy nods thoughtfully, her gaze moving to the universe above us. “Marisa Kirisame, a mother—what a world.”

Smug, I say. “You may be one too someday~”

Instead of sending me a death stare, she hums, rage hesitantly replaced by a soft smile. “Unfortunately.”';

'>>46778511
next will be her talk with Anon and so, the 'Risa should be set for the Solstice, though still suitable for fluff and such.';

'>>46769322
Thanks for agreeing, also this is /jp/ cunny and whether the fairies have fucked anon is serious business.
Personally I don't think they would not be able to, their less citizens or people and more pest, not to mention they don't have any money and their low durability.
Although to give credit to the Anon I was arguing with I probably should have phrased the introduction to my three points about Koishi better, as I think it comes off a slight antagonistic.
Also this is the one good image of a pregnant Koishi I could find.';

'>>46778607
>Also this is the one good image of a pregnant Koishi I could find.
I'm more focused on Yuugi's hair. It looks adorable like that.';

'>>46778511
Man, triplets? No wonder Marisa hasn't been able to do much when she's carrying that much weight around.';

'>>46780414
Anon seems to have a weirdly high amount of twins and triplets and the like when he has kids. Hana being a single child might actually be kind of a miracle.';

'>>46780437
Such is the hakurei god's blessing';

'>>46780437
or maybe he's really predestined to become a God of Fertility, family and fatherhood. The Hakurei God certainly is proud, though.';

'>>46772575
>>46772571
we need a true answer! Don't hide it from us, Ayaanon!';

'>>46780437
maybe its ordanace that the Hakurei line will have at least one female as its first born because the Hakurei god likes watching them when they're alone';

'>>46780437
>Hana being a single child might actually be kind of a miracle.
Might also be because Reimu's health/mental state just stopped her from being pregnant again. Stress and alcoholism can negatively affect fertility after all.';

'>>46780437
>Mystia had quintuplets
>Aya had a murder of four
>Marisa is having triplets
>Yukari and Reimu just one child
>rest is unknown
how one man singlehandedly saved Nippon';

'>>46778511
—
I might've thought all those things, but crippling doubt still lurks inside even here, flying against the wind and about 500ft off the ground, ass cheeks hard-pressed on the broom, golden hair flowing as if water and one hand holding the jar of souls on my shoulder. “Careful not to fall; it'd be really embarrassing, but all but expected-a-ze—it's your first flight, so no worries. I fell a lot too!” My laughter travels the wind currents, broom flying far away from my top speed… Man, that bothers me like nothing else.

Reimu's determination; a sea of tears spent; and Patchy's few but meaningful words. All come to mind in a rush and overlay what twenty years of passivity have caused me—flight slowing down as my brows furrow and mouth is flooded by acid. Nothing of everything should've happened had Reimu had a good fucking friend to call her on her bullshit; Hana and Anon would have had a good life if an egotistical brat had put her feelings behind her, saw the big picture and acted… But that brat didn't move; she didn't decide to overcome her past crush, and so she stagnated in deep, self-inflicted misery…

She had the ability to unfuck the world in her hands, but she messed up.

Coming to a complete stop, I move the jar of souls from my shoulders to my lap, finger trailing the glass and—though lazily; already tired-a-ze? These children, man—the souls follow… So weird, huh? Forty years old, at the zero eclipse of my adulthood and start of my, ugh, third age. I will be wrinkled and white-haired in no time, and you three ought to be barely teenagers…

I really am a late bloomer in everything, huh?

I had time—a lot of it—, and wasted it on a past that'll never come back, on holding grudges and fears that should've passed…

Had Marisa Kirisame moved, she could’ve lost against Reimu and so been reminded of how powerless she is and that she’s fated to be secondary; she would’ve lost Hana and Anon, two of the few she can truly call family…

She was afraid, and she lost everything anyway.

Hana might've accepted her back as sensei; Reimu might've forgiven her; and Anon is more than willing to accept you, my three silly little guys…

… But your mother is still afraid of fucking everything up, of losing all to that stupid Gap Hag and of returning to a truly empty house—such a house may be called a coffin for all she knows…

A life controlled by fear.

…

I breathe in, then out.

Placing my kids on my shoulder once more, I slowly stand up. I have a little trouble balancing at first—juggling all three of you around really did a number on my body, ze…—, but eventually I manage to stay upright, the broom sizzling with anticipation as the air currents blow a slow, gentle breeze through my hair.

Heart pounding in my throat, I launch myself forward, my bare feet clenching ferociously on the broom's wood—fear, fear, fear…

For Anon, Hana and Reimu; for my children—never a mistake—; for a future I can be proud of…

… It's time to cast that nasty parasite out.

The flight picks up speed gradually, my skin itching from bubbling adrenaline, my hand gripping the jar so tightly it might break, Gensokyo below blurring, the wind on my hair turning from a chilly breeze to whizzing inside my ears. Giggles leave me in bouts as memories flood together with the heightened velocity, similar to a ‘shroom trip—to my right is Youkai Mountain, the Moriyan visible for a brief second before disappearing amidst the rock formations and trees—memories of memorable fights, silly moments that ended with me having to run for my life…

Times when this big smile on my face was a common occurrence, not as rare as gold.

I grew older—dumber—and let that whimsical spark that kept me going each day be snuffed by some of the worst life can offer, never brave enough to face my problems directly…

Marisa Kirisame went from badass to loser so quickly that it was perplexing, and instead of fighting back, she simply accepted it out of fucking fear.

I hate it.

I hate it with passion.

Gritting my teeth, I made a harsh curve up and, like a missile, took to the clouds, piercing them—thanking the heavens I’ve maintained the passive spell in my broom that breaks down icicle crystals formed in the stratosphere—like an arrow as the sunsetting Gensokyo became again shining midday, speeds increasing the higher I flew, a throbbing heart chastising each day eating mushrooms alone in the dark instead of doing something to help the Hakureis; of taking so long to teach Hana… Of never confessing or moving past my crush on Anon, air becoming increasingly hard to obtain yet doing nothing to stop my frantic mind, trying to prove myself something beyond my control, gazing beyond the stars—

—I slip.

2,000ft above the ground, Marisa Kirisame slipped off her broom.

There wasn't slow motion or silence. I watched in utter horror as my broom kept going up before gravity took effect, my only dominant hand extending towards it in reflex…

… Letting my children free-fall.';

'>>46786409
—
There are few moments in life when you can confidently claim to be the stupidest person on the planet.

I am the stupidest person on the planet.

Gravity takes hold and I, the broom and my poor children begin an ever-quickening descent according to the laws of gravity towards becoming, respectively, a red splatter on the ground, a pile of wooden rubble and a soul-crushing mistake. The buffeting winds impair my unprotected eyes and leave tears on my pale skin, hair disheveled and swinging like crazy, yet all focus is on the tightly sealed jar and broom on opposite sides of my vision, limbs flailing all around, trying my hardest to stop the sudden panic.

The upside-down sunset serves as a backdrop for my harrowing screams of guilt, ears bleeding, and brain bursting with rage: Why did I do any of that? What was I trying to prove? That I, idiotically, can fly high and irresponsibly, ultimately endangering the lives of my unborn kids?

That the past cannot reach me and am immune to growing older, weaker…?

By a stroke of luck, my flailing arms managed to touch something solid—my broom! I desperately cling to it, and, under the many protective spells that layer it, the air soon becomes more palatable, and though my ears buzz and balance is all over the place, I do not slow down, feet pressing on the wood, pumping magic like crazy and violently rocketing me towards the small, shining glint that'd just crossed the cloud barrier, blood and thick, streaming tears suddenly flowing up from the speed, gums clenching together as if trying to crush something between my teeth.

Haven't I grown up? Am I not an adult?! Letting myself be blinded by nostalgia, by the sheer light of what I once accomplished…

The cloud barrier blew open as if the seas, Marisa Kirisame darting towards the jar far away containing her children, quick calculations agonizingly whispering they'd hit the harsh tree gorge before she could catch it…

At this speed, Marisa Kirisame will lose everything once again.

Reimu's words that night—forgiveness—; Anon's calm smile—acceptance—

Before a conscious thought makes itself known in my mind, one shaking hand reaches and rummages through a painstakingly familiar pocket.

Fear, inactivity, doubt, all which controlled my life for decades, sprinkled through this mess of a mind—I may die in the Solstice, may I not? I could've done more; I should've done more. I’m not good enough; I'll die alone—the tears abundant, yet the speed never once diminishing…

A preventable past; no pain needed to be burdened…

— 'I am proud of you, Marisa'.

… Still, that's it. The past. The unchanging past.

From the pocket, the mini-hakkero shines on the light of the upside-down sun; eyes flick again to the ground each second more and more on the nose, the broom shaking with intense, deafening speed. If I do this, I'll build immeasurable velocity and won't be capable of changing course or slowing down…

Only dodge.

These frail mortal hands cannot change the past, and time will not reverse itself. What’s done is done: horrendous mistakes; tears shed; laughter shared; love made; and so much more—what a long, long life!

For this ordinary magician, time is short as she; she regrets much of her long life—

My eyes focus entirely on my children, moments away from meeting death.

—But that doesn't mean Marisa Kirisame can't still build a future!

To this mighty wind, be cast all doubt, all fear and all worry!

Together was also cast the mini-hakkero, a tiny fragment of magic making it sparkle as lit gunpowder, one split second of silence…

… Then, the Master Spark is shot to the skies, ripping the clouds apart and sending the small thing clashing into the end of the broom—all that inertia transferred to the broom and doubled, tripled my speed!

I had one fraction of a second.

I caught my kids.

The rampant tree gorge of Youkai Mountain meets me.

My eyes completely dilate.

I dodge.

Flying at speeds I cannot even fathom, a massive shaft of light thrusting me forward and eclipsing the setting sun, I dodged the seemingly interchangeable blur of green, gray and brown that encompassed all my vision, mind not swift enough to pick many details as my hair flung around; arms clutching my children and my feet guiding the broom so fast I thought I was twenty again!

Branches at top speed often graze my cheeks and clothing, adrenaline muffling everything, not an ounce of brain power used aside from dodging…

… No, not all of it…

Because this fucking idiot brain decided to save some for a loud laugh, which echoed across the entire Youkai Mountain.

It was something only a lunatic could dodge~

The Master Spark soon died and, unscathed, I left the death trap to the sprawling clear skies of Gensokyo, huffing like crazy and holding for the life of me onto the jar containing my children… Next thing I know, I am smiling, one certainty swimming in my mind: I'm not dying on the solstice.

Marisa Kirisame will build a future for herself.';

'>>46786427
>>46786409
thought it'd be better to have some more tangible Marisa dwindling on her problems before following to the talk with Anon, so made this. Next is final, I promise~
also, the two major inspirations for these chapters were:
>Marisa surfing on her broom in ReiReimu;
>How to Train your Dragon 1, the test-drive scene;
and also, please ignore the small mistake I've just noticed, oh my dear god. It's constrict in "My eyes completely dilate", not dilate... fugg.';

'>>46786409
>>46786427
what kind of retard goes on a joyride holding her children's literal souls in her hand? not only did she not secure it to her belt (and I KNOW she has one, she's wearing one in 17.5), she doesn't even think to get Patchouli to put some of those indestructible charms that she has on all of her books on the jar. Fuckin jobrisa strikes again';

'>>46786507
>what kind of retard goes on a joyride holding her children's literal souls in her hand?
it was more of a lovely stroll before she decided to fucking style on her own broken ego, not really thinking any bad could happen; she then flew too close to the sun, got blinded by nostalgia and gravity did the rest
>she doesn't even think to get Patchouli to put some of those indestructible charms that she has on all of her books on the jar.
she for sure will after this one, or maybe Patchy made the jars indestructible without her knowledge and she sperged and made Youkai Mountain bald for literally no motive, who knows~';

'>>46786409
>>46786427
They're not even born yet and she's already endangering them. Maybe it's a good thing her home was cleared out, that place was not baby-proofed at all.';

'>>46787702
Gensokyo is a babyproof hell
c'mon, Seiga is out there for Christ's sake! She's like Adam Smasher on the Cyberpunk TTRPG for the babies of Gensokyo, who's there if the GM, who'd be in this case the Dragon God, is feeling like killing you in gruesome manner.';

'>>46717588


I felt relief flood my body as Sanae walked away. Sanae was a friend, I trusted her. To give her just a little push in the right direction was all I could do, but to know she was mulling over her allegiance to Mr. Hieda was enough. If she withdrew, then there would only the small army of men armed with guns, and bombs, and blades to deal with. Not exactly ideal, especially when there are so many innocents milling about, but they had nothing that could put down Mokou. It also meant that for leadership his men only had a delusional old man to look up to, hardly the sort of leadership that would convince a man to gun down his friends and family and get melted by an angry immortal. Maybe if it was the Mr Hieda of the past instead of the pale shadow he was now he could do it, if all those stories he or Akyuu told me were true. But he had to be exaggerating, all those old stories of him slaying youkai in personal combat just false, stories to make him look important.

With no customers currently, I have time to send off my message. Picking up a pen and some paper, I wrote down my thoughts. I hadn’t fully convinced her, but she wasn’t likely to raise a hand against us. I could just hope things went over well. If everything was smoothed over now, then there would be less friction when it came time to end the HSE. As I look over what I’ve written, I decide to add in another message to Mokou. For someone so old, she could be very immature. Who just comments about someone’s bust like that? I’m not even that big!

I let the paper slip out of my hand, where it floats down then picks up speed, drifting up and away over the heads of the crowd. But unlike a piece of trash in the wind, this had a purpose, a target. It flew up, against gravity and the wind to about where Mokou stood overhead. It’s amazing what a bit of magic could do. When Keine had pulled me aside a while back and asked if I could learn how to do this, I had doubts. To learn magic in such a short time seemed impossible, but with her guidance I had managed to . Maybe it was an extension of my powers. I had spent so much time around Youma books that I knew that pouring intention into writing could be a powerful thing. Letters written from someone long deceased, cursed magical tomes, and scrolls meant to seal in powerful spirits. No matter if it was written by an average person or a someone skilled in the magic arts, a text could gain a life of its own depending on how you wrote it. So being able to make a message do something as simple as head towards the recipient was just another use of my ability. Or I think so.

I gaze up at Mokou, making sure to huff so she gets the message. I see her laugh and look back. Guess she got it.

Turning my attention back to the stand, I feel a pit in my stomach. For once, there was another culprit to this familiar feeling. I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. Closing the curtains and flipping the sign to ‘Closed’, I make sure everything is in order before I set off to get something to eat.

Things were definitely on a roll now. The streets were packed, and it seemed like every stall I passed was busy serving customers. Youkai openly walked the streets alongside humans without seemingly a care between any of them. At this point, it was just a normal everyday festival, all fears and worries about the revolution forgotten.

I weave my way through the crowd, making my way closer to the stage. The crowd was much thicker here, all of them watching the show. From what I could see through the crowd, the Prismrivers were being quite showy, twirling the instruments around as they still played.


I squeezed my way past to Mystia’s Izakaya. Mystia and that man that was always around her-I should really catch his name one of these days- were working together so well that one could assume they’ve known each other for years, but the line was still hard for them to beat back. But eventually, my turn comes up.

“Oh, Kosuzu, what will it be?” the man says with a large smile on his face, raising his voice to be heard over the din.

“I’ll just have the lamprey” I say, sliding the coins across the counter.

“We’ll have it right out” he says as he writes down the order and takes the coin. Mystia gets to work, looking so focused as she cooks the meat, taking a bowl of spices her partner just finished preparing to season it. With how skillfully they work, the skewer is soon in my hands, and I leave the counter so the next in line can take my place. I take a bite as I scan for somewhere to sit down. Delicious as always.';

'>>46789824

I scoot through the crowds. I can’t find any good place to sit down. Maybe I should go back to my stall and eat there. I’d be careful not to get any crumbs on any of the merchandise of course. I round a corner, making my way to the stall when I faintly hear something.
“-z-”

Pausing, I perk up my ears to listen for it again, nearly getting bumped into by a man behind me.

“Suzu, over here!”

I turn my head towards the voice, taking a few moments before I spot my husband, our children by his side. I squeeze past the crowds and make my way towards him, a bit surprised to see them here.

“When did you get here? I haven’t seen you around” I ask, taking a bite from my skewer.

“Not too long ago. It seemed like it was going well so I thought we’d come over. It’s actually a nice festival” he answers, looking over the festival. It really was a great festival, one of the best we’ve had in years, although I would be biased in that regard.

I turned my attention to my children, eager smiles on their faces.

“Look! I won this!” Fumiko holds out a small plush doll. It seems to be of a tengu, although the large round head and big eyes make it hard to tell.

“That’s great, are you two having fun?” I respond. The two of them nod and answer back with “Yeah!” and “Uh-Huh” So good to see. The gloominess and confusion they last had over my confession had seemingly been forgotten. I suppose children really are quick to forgive after all.

“Are all of these people your friends?” Kato says teasingly, as some of the Kurodanis passed by.

“They’re not my- I mean I only know a few of them. I’m not friends with every youkai in existence, geez” I huffed back.

“You think this will be open for much longer? I was just about to take these two back home to get ready for bed” Kato said, getting some grumbling from Fumiko and Daisuke. “If it’s still running after that, I thought we might walk around together, maybe see Keine? I’d like to talk to her”

The Prismrivers seemed to be building to a crescendo, taking to the air as their music built up in intensity, getting gasps and turning heads from all over. They’re really showing off, but I suppose anyone would with an audience this big. This festival has been going on for hours now, but didn’t show any signs of winding down just yet.

“Yeah, I think it’ll continue on for a while more. I’ll close up my stall and we can meet up. Maybe we could we catch Keine when she’s not busy, I know she’s somewhere around here. You should see her kids, they’re adorable ” I respond. Years of lying wouldn’t be something so easily repaired, but a nice night out and a talk with someone as intelligent and charismatic as Keine would do wonders. If he could only just see my side-

The Prismrivers have finished their song, setting back down to the stage to applause from the crowd, a testament to our success this day. Everyone here had experineced the simple joy of good food and music, of playing games and spending time with friends and family, of maybe even making new friends. Bad blood and fear had been forgotten. IN this moment we were all just people, enjoying what life had to offer.

As the applause shows no sign of diving down, a stream of fire shoots up once again, filling the air with fireworks. It was enough fireworks to rival the stars in the sky, covering everything in a rainbow of color. But that wasn’t what really impressed people. Against the fireworks flew Keine, Mokou close by, her wings of fire sprouting from her back. The festival erupts into cheers and shouts, some “Good Lucks” and other words not so kind.

“Should our children be watching this?” Kato whispers to me after someone near us shouts up a suggestion for what Mr Hieda should do with his sword.

“Maybe not, but I’m staying here” I whisper back as I watch Keine and Mokou land on the fence, Mr Hieda and his men turning to face them as they drew near. A particularly strong burst of red painting the scene as if they were two heroes invading hell to face down a demon.

It was too far away to hear what they were saying, my mind racing to fill in the blanks. This was the critical moment, it all depended on on how far gone he was. For a while they talk, But then Mr Heida pulls out his sword, pointing at at Keine. Both Sanae and Mokou rush in, but they never make contact.

The gunshot made sure of that.';

'>>46789833
For a fraction of a second, I hope that it was a misfire, that it missed hitting anyone.

But then I see Keine tumble backwards, falling from the fence, hitting a stall with a wet crack before hitting the ground like a discarded doll.
“KEINE!!” I scream out. My legs start moving as I barrel my way forward, pushing my way towards whereI saw here fall. I hear my husband shout up before my, my children's voices, but I can’t pay attention to them. Shoving past people, ducking by them. I don’t care, I need to see her.

I break through into empty space, the crowd had parted from where she fell, I can see her now.

Maybe it’s not too bad. Half-Youkai like her are supposed to be tough, right? If it were just a flesh wound we could get her treated and then we could-

There’s a huge hole over her heart. She’s losing so much blood, it’s pouring from the wound and her mouth, her life unrelentingly draining from her. Her eyes were distant and hazy, eyelids fluttering as her gaze turns towards me.

I feel my gut fill with ice as I stare down at her. This isn’t something we can fix. I hear someone sob loudly, and I turn my gaze from Keine briefly to the source. Mystia had managed to make her way through. Her face was inconsolable. This was the woman that had every right to hate her, to call her a monster but had instead chosen to forgive her and help carry her burdens, and she was bleeding out in agony in front of her.

I grasp her hand and she manages to squeeze back- her grip is so weak.

Above me, everything erupts into chaos. Shouts break out from all over, some barking orders, others cries of fear and anger. From the corner of my eye I see a massive flash of light, I hear wood shattering, fire crackling. The cries only get louder as the glow of the fire spreads- some of the stalls had caught alight. I can hear them running, some of them just barely missing the three of us as they all run to safety. I feel an urge to follow them, but I just can’t let go of Keine’s hand and the thought dies.

“K-Keine, don't sleep! Stay awake! Stay awake! Please—a-all will be fine and…” I find myself sobbing out. Empty words but I wanted to believe in them so much. With my free hand I press my sleeve onto the wound, hoping to slow down the blood just a bit, only to feel despair as the checkered pattern becomes stained with a dark red, with no end in sight.

Her eyes start to lose focus- that fiery determination that I had looked up to was almost gone, just a faint ember was left, but still carrying some light.

“K-Keine!! Stay with me, please!” I yell out between sobs. Her eyes flicker towards me again, that ember still burning. She grasps my hand, her strength almost gone, staring right at me.

No words were spoken- she couldn’t speak anyways- but I understood.

But it can’t end this way. Keine had so much to do, so much to live for! She had Mokou to share her life with, a wonderful woman that would always love and cherish her. She had the revolution to lead, a better world to create. So many people were depending on her, she was the only one who could lead us and turn it into a reality.

Then of course she had her children. If she died now, she would never be a mother to them. She only experienced just a fraction of what comes with being one. There are bad moments, sure. Tantrums, messes to clean, and so much time and money needed to raise them. But there were also days filled with the pure honest smiles of youth, of passing on important lessons, all the growth you go through from nurturing and taking responsibility for a life. She’d never see them grow up, and guide them through the tribulations of life.

Mokou suddenly lands near me, sliding on the gravel and grabs onto Keine. I bolt back a bit, startled.

“I-I'll take you to Eientei! Hold on, Keine! Don't you fucking dare leave your family alone!” Mokou yells out as she lifts Keine up, but a howl of pain from her makes her drop Keine, once again hitting the blood soaked gravel.

All around us, a battle rages. Screams cry out from all over, fires spread almost unabated, Danamku lights up the sky as the Heida home is assaulted, gunfire echoing all around us. Mokou’s fire melts any shots aimed at us, turning them into molten slag. Some hit her body, but she hardly flinches as she body mends right away.

“YUKARI!” She shouts out';

'>>46789836
I feel my eyes go wide. Why would she call out for her? Doesn’t she know things will only get worse if she gets involved? She’ll ruin everything, and even if she saves Keine she’ll find some way to make your suffer for it!

“SHOW YOURSELF, YUKARI! Please, help her!!” Mokou shouts again, an edge of desperation in her voice. She tries to pick up Keine again, who’s crying in pain, life hanging on by a thread.

I find myself grabbing onto her arms, seeing Keine suffering more is too much.

“Mokou, please, stop!” I cry out.

Mokou tries to look at me, pure rage in her eyes. I meet her eyes. After everything I’ve seen since I’ve gotten involved into this damned mess, all the times I’ve feared for my life, I don’t find myself afraid of her. Mokou is only a woman that’s losing her love, not a monster.

Before anything can happen between us, a hand feebly reaches out and touches Mokou’s cheek. Keine’s and Mokou’s eyes meet and then-

She's gone. Her hand slumps down, and the fire in her eyes dies completely. Mokou cradles her for just a little longer before she unwraps her hands from Keine and guides her body to my arms.

“… Protect her, please…” She mutters before she stands up and wings of fire burst from her back and she rockets towards the Hieda State. I lower my gaze, keeping vigil over Keine’s corpse, wiping my eyes with a bloodied sleeve so the tears don’t stain her clothing.

Above me there’s an intense flash of light- Mokou must be on the offensive now.

Mystia slumps down next to me as she starts to sob, and I find it difficult to fight back my tears. Keine was dead and many more would join her before the day was done. Her dream would never come to be, all the work she had done, the sacrifices she had made all for nothing.

All I can do is stay on my knees as the whole world around me descends into hell.';

'>>46789843
>>46789836
>>46789833
>>46789824
ouch, wasn't expecting Suzu's family to appear; though it works well with something I have planned for the Suzu. Let's just hope these children aren't too traumatized by the end of this...
Always love the perspective Suzu offers, from the squad, to the party to the HSE and to here -- she sees events so humanely in what is otherwise a massive and unrelenting mess~
Thanks for the chapters!';

'>>46790061
>wasn't expecting Suzu's family to appear; though it works well with something I have planned for the Suzu.
Good to hear it!
> Let's just hope these children aren't too traumatized by the end of this...
They only saw an adult they looked up to get shot, they should be fine.

>she sees events so humanely in what is otherwise a massive and unrelenting mess~
That's one of the reasons I like writing her. She has the most mundane life out of all the cast, but it gives her a perspective on events that others might not have.';

'>>46789843
Poor kosuzu being stuck in the exact center of that shitfest.';

'won't someone think of Yammy's children?';

'Also double points if keines revolution fucks everything up so severely that yukari actually has to get involved, like Mr hieda's oni rampage against youkai causes him to cut the HSE in half or some actual shit because once again oni are genuinely stupid bullshit.';

'>>46791929
>"I've killed that same blonde youkai at least 20 times!!"';

'>>46791978
He missed. Every shot.';

'>>46789843
>Keine was dead and many more would join her before the day was done
Can't believe the first major character bites the dust before the Solstice.';

'>>46791929
I'll unironically be pissed off if any of the Kurodani family gets killed. It'd be an entirely pointless death just to inflate the kill count for the festival and would serve absolutely no purpose to the story except to hurt Yamame, who's in-universe story finished before the HSE existed at all and who was basically just dragged into this by Keine. She serves basically no narrative purpose to the main plot, and she's already going to be coming out of the festival with even less faith in humanity, so there's no reason for her to also have her heart torn out by having one of her children die. Losing her husband was enough.';

'>>46793208
It would lend seriousness to the plot because I guarantee keinenon is gonna deus ex machina keine back to life via that blue moon shit from a while ago and undo all this shit, so nothing is gonna stick.';

'>>46793612
It can't be called a Deus Ex Machina if it was obviously foreshadowed and we we're given the method of how it works.
Also I don't think killing a spider would do much at all, they aren't very important and the stakes are sufficiently raised in the Kiene story line as is.';

'>>46793208
>Losing her husband was enough.
WAIT WHAT
When? I'll admit I haven't completely read through KMS yet but I don't recall the protag dying. Did the HSE retcon this or something? Swore he was sill alive in this canon and even made a cameo';

'>>46794062
In both initial tribute to the KMS in the Chen chapters and Book of Patchy, they discuss the death of Yams husband as a main factor of their plot, with Chen being scared of Anon's short lifespan and that they've met too late in late to make it count, then getting comforted by Yams; and Patchy getting the meaning of life from Yams, who deems it as love.';

'>>46794083
Aaaaah, okay
Probably should've been obvious but recently everything has been starting to blur together for me';

'>>46794156
it's okay, 1,200+ chapters is quite the ride. Any future doubt just ask, I'll peruse the ancient texts~';

'>>46786409
—
No hallucinogen is better than adrenaline—I'd know—and when your blood is saturated with it, logic gets really messy. Still, despite some crazy side effects, the rush doesn’t last long and your brain soon resets.

Mine just did.

I want to bury my head and pray to any God—in- and out- side Gensokyo—that no Tengu reporter saw why I was flying that fast before tearing on Youkai Mountain’s side a crater the size of a house…

Not that I wouldn't do it again to save my babies, but that's beside the point.

… So embarrassing…

You live and you learn, I guess. Today I learned not to broom surf while carrying my kids… without a belt.

The little devils wait on the bed as I quickly exchange my clothes, hair fresh and moist from a bath, an overwhelming sense of joy bubbling inside despite the embarrassment: My feet feel all plain and firm; supporting my own weight isn’t hell itself; my spine doesn't teeter constantly on the verge of snapping; and rinsing my breasts doesn't feel as if burning coals were smeared on the towels. Not to say about my mind—purpose is a flame renewed, thirst to fight is boundless and…

Man, I feel so light~ “Sucks that I still have to carry you three for more, what, four months after the solstice? Eh, guess is the least I can do as your mother.” I speak to the jar, dressing in my usual black and white, a backup bona fide witch's hat neatly tucked on the top of my head.

Done, I move to check myself in the standing mirror.

Ah, there it is~! A world of beauty packed snugly inside measly 4'9 of height; forty years of age, but so what? Mother of three magicians to come! Alice's shampoo is much better, so my hair shines, even in the faint candlelight… And yup, shaved and smooth. I grin as I fix the white ribbon of my hat, feeling somewhat nostalgic as I stand here in front of the mirror, the bluish light of my children's jar glowing behind me and invigorating my heart and mind. There was a time I'd look in a mirror and see an insurmountable failure; that I cried and was comforted by Hana, images of a future where she and Anon stood by my side and, together with my children, we'd form a family…

… Excuses were given, weren't they? Lies were told. I tried justifying my past—two decades of inactivity, half my whole life—and sobbed my way into Hana's heart, begging for underserved mercy.

Love is still real, of course. I love Hana, such a great and stubborn girl; she reminds me of myself. I love Anon, a wilting flame that persisted blizzards…

… Reimu, my first ever friend.

For them, the Master Spark of earlier today destroyed that future of lies, scattering it like ashes in the fierce wind of Youkai Mountain.

'I am proud of you, Marisa.'

That dream of a family of five doesn't exist anymore.

A barren, winding loneliness seeps from the now-empty space where the dream was plucked, though, gleefully, it was being quickly filled by the effervescent blue light of the three dumbasses behind me.

… It hurts.

On silent nights, it'll hurt.

It'll keep on hurting; such pain doesn't fade overnight.

But my pain is not individual: Reimu told me hers; Hana shared hers after the hell of the birthday party ended; and Anon's is always inescapable.

Hana needs more than a sensei; she needs someone to help her; Anon needs more than someone egotistically pursuing after whatever future they want with him; and Reimu Hakurei needs her best friend fighting by her side—as if I’m letting your ass die.

I'll offer all I denied them for the past twenty years.

Being that person to them—friend, teacher, a shoulder to cry on and support, maybe a lover if he decides that's what he wants—lessens the pain.

Looking in the mirror, I can't resist the urge to pace back and take my children in my hands.

“Do you love everything on there?” I ask the souls of my babies, eyes resting on the reflected image of a small yet confident mother hugging fondly her children. “I know I do~”

—

The red-white miko outfit fits well, and though it is as short as I remember, I do not feel exposed or guilty inside it. If I'd describe the feeling, it's like being completely intangible, a distinct feeling occupying my mind as I pass through the Torii gates and see Anon Hakurei sitting peacefully on the fake shrine’s veranda, a small smile on his lips as Dolly happily swings her tiny legs back and forth, munching on a small piece of chocolate.

I walk forward towards him, pondering that distinct feeling: bubbles of emotions I’ve experienced in this uniform—jealously as green as emeralds, crippling guilt, inaction that has destroyed lives…

All… gone.

… Of course, I'm still human; those feelings will rear their heads again eventually. There's no fighting against that.

But when they do, Marisa Kirisame won't just turn and run away—not anymore.

For the people important in her life, she'll fight tooth and nail.

I meet Anon's eyes. They're wide and horrified, staring at my flat belly. “W-What happened?!”

Heh, time to crack up the news~';

'>>46794224
—
I stare inside the jar in awe, Dolly floating to my side, reflecting my complete bafflement. Many years in Gensokyo desensitized me to weird stuff—one particular day comes to mind: Hana had just been born and I and Reimu would usually sit on the veranda with her on our lap, letting the baby see nature and get used to it. Suddenly a piece of the ceiling falls and it just… phases through Reimu, who 'floated' above it, then picked it up and tossed it away before resuming explaining to Hana what pollen is… Reimu didn’t even know what pollination was—but in this jar, evidently, resides the soul of three of my future children. “I… don't know what to say.” I admit it with one dumb smile, looking at Marisa lying on her back, head resting on my lap with a solemn smile.

“I think they have your eyes~” I laugh out of the blue, and one hand reaches up to tangle my hair. Marisa's visits have taken the same turn as Yuuka's since the day she revealed her pregnancy. It is good to have one of my closest friends back; it makes the days full of waiting much more bearable~

Dolly, curious, knocks on the jar, and the souls inside swim towards her as if having a mind of their own…

Well, they do—but not at the age of… minus one?

Huh.

“Heh, I can see it in your eyes—thought the same, but they're just reacting to our auras. Patchy theorized that it might function like a survival instinct, and if they don't like what they see, they'll run; otherwise, they'll follow. So rad~”

“Oh, so this means they like us…” I blink, a sudden wave of mellow joy overflowing from the depths of my mind—a feeling comparable to hugging Chen. “Nice, nice~I like them too.” Marisa laughed freely, even beating a hand on her knee, much to Dolly's confusion… It has been nearly ten years since I last saw Marisa Kirisame exhibit such a carefree expression of happiness. It does bring back memories. “… You are very happy, aren't you?” A pinch of envy is swiftly and easily drowned out before it can grow roots. This miserable place will never taint the pride I feel when those close to me achieve their own happiness.

Just a little more…

… Just a little more, and it's all over—the thought comes with me clutching harder the jar containing my children—

—Marisa's hands gently climbs and press against the back of mine; together, our hands call the three little souls inside who come stumbling over one another, competing to be the one closest to their parents hands; feels like an omen about the future… My hold softens as Dolly cradles her tiny hand over one pair of our hands, her porcelain cheeks flushing. “Happy? Yeah, maybe… But it's empty without yours.” She opens her eyes, meeting mine. “If these three jerks can grow up to meet their cool doll aunt and their free as fuck father—then I'll be truly happy.” Her grip firms over mine, and the feeling is that of trust, no matter how tiny her hands may be. “Don't even think it'll happen any other way.”

I chuckle, concealing the fuzzy feeling in my heart with a fake, smug smile. “If you say so~”

… Still, as the chill breeze blows and Marisa snuggles on me for warmth, my legs enjoying her golden, long hair, one nagging doubt of the future haunts me, one that before the HSE I’d never considered, my mind ironclad against hell, recalling those feelings beyond myself: Ran's and Aya's confessions; Alice's and Yuuka's love; they try to hide it, but I can see it…

Are they in love with the rescue of a man, or are they rescuing the man they love?

For those cited, I've already answered the question.

… But not Marisa.

The question rumbles as I glance at our hands together, nostalgia flowing as years of friendship; of her being there when things were harsh; coating smiles left and right on Hana's face with her training… The admission of her failures, those tears she shed in front of me as I begged her to not kill these three souls we tenderly hold in our hands right now.

The question is nigh deafening as I turn my eyes downwards and meet her golden ones, staring at me with esteem; confidence—despite the biting cold of our situations, those eyes smile when they meet mine…

“Say, Marisa, what has gotten you so happy?” I glance back at the jar. “Beyond the obvious, of course.”

She giggles a little, watching amused as Dolly sits on her flat belly to hear the history, always the curious doll. “I think… I've finally woken up, Anon. Not alone, of course; I had help from an unexpected place, but she helped… I've failed everyone, especially you and Hana—left you and your family to suffer and never took responsibility about it… Not anymore.” She smiles; her touch is soothing. “I welcome myself back onto your lives and will do my best to help—you cannot deny it~”

This is the woman who, for years, helped when very few tried. A very broken and sad woman who's managed to pull herself up from the ditch of pent-up past mistakes and ruined lives…

… Yeah, I guess I know my answer.

“You’re more than welcomed, Marisa Kirisame~”';

'>>46794231
>>46794224
and done! The 'Risa is ready for the Solstice~!
if anyone curious, the first part was a direct callback to Marisa's first chapter outside the HSE:
>>44861980
and a little fun fact: the handholding was supposed to be a kiss, but then I remembered they aren't married yet and kissing would be bad. Phew, crisis averted.';

'>>46794231
I'm gonna be upfront, I kind of like Marisa surviving and still being there with the group, she doesn't have to win, but God damn would it be shit if she got less then nothing out of this whole thing.';

'>>46795835
I mean narratively she at least has enough plot relevance to act as armor until at least the end of the Makai plot, and at most until the writer split up for everyone making their own ending.';

'>>46795835
considering everything, she has one of the best chances of survival behind Anon, Patchy/Meiling and Hana. She might even pull Reimu off her retarded suicidal desire and complete her arc in not letting the people she loves go down a bad path/suffer again
>she doesn't have to win
perhaps she wins that pool Anons were talking about last thread and readeranons proclaim her ending the canon one, she is a non-meme favorite after all';

'>>46795924
She's had one of the best character arcs in the HSE of trying to be a better person overall instead of simply making excuses or running away from her problems. Actually owning up to her character flaws.';

'>Had the entire day free, literally nothing to do
>Not a single word written
>At one point close every single tab except my google docs tab for maximum focus
>do nothing but draw blanks for a good hour
>seemingly losing enthusiasm, feel myself accidently skimming over other's post more and speed reading more frequently
I'm going to kill the man that invented fatigue, slacking & anhedonia when this is all over';

'>>46789843
>“SHOW YOURSELF, YUKARI! Please, help her!!”
I like to imagine that this moment Yukari was reclining in her sweats somewhere eating veggie chips and drinking diet coke(its healthier and she has to watch her diet now). Heard that shouth, squinted into a gap, saw that nonsense, closed the gap, and rolls over to order some baby clothes off Amazon; specifically a 'Mama's rocking goddess' onesie';

'Hoping to get some help with the current timeline and arcs

Bday:
Aya lays her eggs
Kasen finds the sabatoge
Shinki visits Anon and does the funny with the sword(?)
Hakurei God awakens

Day after:
Hana sperging and general pain
Keine has the meeting with Heida and Suzu dream meets with Akyuu
Festival prep(?)
Seiga and Mima fight(?)
Aya is no longer legally retarded

Day(s) after
Sanae is hired out by heida and Kanako commissions porn
The robot rises
Various Ran povs where she meets the agents in their rooms';

'>>46797224
Are you asking about when those events take place?
>Shinki visits Anon and does the funny with the sword(?)
Pretty sure it's implied they did this right before going to the birthday party which is why they come late.
>Festival prep(?)
I don't think this happens on the exact day after the birthday.
>Seiga and Mima fight(?)
This takes place after the birthday but unless it's specifically mentioned in chapter I don't think happened the exact day after.';

'>>46796212
Harsh days, man, but sometimes the best thing to do in such occasions is just write. Don't think that you need to do so, or about what it should be, just plainly write and get your mind going. Blocks like those always murder enthusiasm, that's for sure
good luck mate, rooting for you!';

'>>46797224
looks more like this

[the day of birthday party]
>Birthday party (night-before dawn of next day)
>Kasen goes to see what happened to the sword(night-before dawn of next day)
[the day after the party]
>Hana on the Shrine (before dawn-night)
>Yukari's IUI(morning)
>Yukari stays with Yuyuko(day-night)
[two days after the party]
>second day of Hana in the shrine (before dawn-night
>Keine's plan and such(morning, Aya interviews Keine/evening, Hatate blitzed a newspaper about Mr. Heida/night, the meeting ended)
>Yukari unfucks the sword in the lake(morning)
>Yukari and Anon meet Sekai(day)
>Chen and Flan mess around with the jaku duo(day)
>The Anon's Frens meeting(night)
[3 days after Birthday Party]
>Hana leaves the Shrine
[4 days after Birthday Party]
>Sanae is hired by Hieda to protect
[5 days after Birthday Party]
>Festival prep(morning-afternoon)
>5 hours later, war breaks out(afternoon-night)

taken from >>46202378';

'>>46797788
>Hana leaves the Shrine
Wait I thought those Hana comes back to her house chapters were a flashback?';

'>>46798316
I've barely tried to keep track of the timeline at this point so I just include and make reference to whatever I can remember seeing in recent posts';

'>>46798316
they were, I'm speaking about Hanaanon's intent with his next chapters as he said here: >>46769681
sorry for not being too clear about it...';

'flowchart of last (plus autosaged) thread coming through! Took a little while, but such is life~
https://files.catbox.moe/q0i519.png
for writeranons to guide themselves (really) and readeranons to ponder how much time has passed in the stickverse~';

'>>46797788
I see, thanks. Helps out a lot.
My og plan was to have have Sanae prepare her shrine with Kanako and Suwako to act as a second base for her and achieve some sort of temporary protection like Aya has. Had a few issues with the idea and now that the big H is around I might reconsider the nitty gritty of it. It was mostly set up for the kasen confrontation, loose ends, finale prep, and healing.
That said, now that I'm caught up I'll have to consider how it'll touch upon the festival stuff. Considering this is kind of a huge deal and all, and takes place both at Hana's home and her planned refuge, I kind of have to weigh her in at some point.
I just don't want to derail or ruin anything planned, so some if Keine writer is around i'd love some feedback';

'>>46797503
kek I love this pic';

'>>46799349
>I just don't want to derail or ruin anything planned, so some if Keine writer is around i'd love some feedback
hi, don't worry about that; the festival was made in a way characters can interact with very widely, from watching to trying to approach it, so whatever the 'Ana wants to weigh in shouldn't ruin anything, and I love writing around other writers, it's great for creativity. You're a skilled writer too, so I have no worries whatever you write will be easily perceivable as a natural course of either Hana's character or the festival by itself—though I've written Sanae in a way she understands Suwako and Kanako are protecting Hana; Yukari likely is watching and so Sanae won't be calling them for help.
If you need more specifics, I'll be posting the next batch of chapters for the festival in a few days that'll lay the basis for act 2, with a structure of:

>Mystia perceiveing damage outside the Hieda State; a random soldier perceiving damage on the inside of the Hieda State—massive fire rapidly make escape impossible;
>Sanae tries to stop Mokou;
>Miko organizes the people, helps with efforts to save and fight against the attackers;

anything you want or need me to add, like Sanae having an inner monologue about Hana's situation with Suwako and Kanako, just say the word, give me the details and I'll do my best to implement it organically~';

'>>46797503
I would argue against the "just write" mentality, while in general it's a good idea when trying to make something of quality and that works cohesively with what the rest of the writers are planning or writing, and doing so has brought the HSE it's best stories from a quality and audience reception perspective.
While the mindset of "just write" has only really produced controversial quantity and necessitated the exorcising of certain stories which are totally unworkable in any of their qualities with the rest of the HSE like the Cirno story. This isn't any sort of moral judgement or anything, it's just the observance of the reality of the project and the direction Anons want to take it.
If you do want to “just write” then it would be better to hold no illusions of it working with the rest of the HSE and write something of either no importance or maybe something else entirely.';

'>>46800014
it's a good argument, but I was speaking about the apparent writer's block Anon found himself in, and just writing as a way to get himself rid of it. Naturally whatever he writes out of the gate will be of doubtful quality as you elaborated, but will be writing, which is the first step to writing something good, as should get his ideas to bloom and develop into something better that, upon rewriting and more rewriting, should come off as much better than what he had initially.
The same goes for programming, drawing, and other activities where a nasty block can halt your productivity and destroy your motivation to continue.';

'>>46800014
>>46800108
Yeah this is correct. Making trash quickly first lets you susus out the issues and make a better piece that you actually spend time refining.
True for most fields.';

'>>46800108
This absolutely. I wrote two full posts worth of Aya-Chen-Yuuma stuff the night after I posted the egg story with plans to pick it up again in the morning. Then I reviewed it and realized it was god-awful, had nothing to do with anything, and worst of all: wasn't interesting.
But, it did help me think of better things to write about and come up with events with actual substance to it. Sometimes you need to let all the muck and grime out of your brain before the good stuff starts flowing.';

'I have never needed to fight my way out of writer's block in the HSE, nor edit anything. I just write.';

'>>46799589
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind!

I have two main thoughts about the festival and how Hana would weigh in. First though was she is 100% emotionally tapped, even if the farewells and hanging out at the shrine go well. Her involvement would only be spectating for as it's a human matter, 'if the village wants to welcome some low level riff raff into their midst officially its on them'

The climax changed that thought, since the second thought was: How much of her Hakurei ideals would she uphold in this context? Her racism has abated generally, but these are also the riff raff that have been personally profiting off her father's suffering, and boy is she stressed... To top that off, Sanae is in danger, Keine just bit it, and even if their relationship isn't overly warm Hana remembers her fondly, Mokou is torching villagers and whatever(big nono), Heida just turned(big nono), and now youkai are openly attacking humans(A Hakurei should support humans no matter what, right? especially the ones that are staying in the village)

Essentially the more I read the more hyped I got as I considered what I could and should do. This isn't really supposed to the crux of things for Hana, but it'd be a good development moment for the Moriyan girls, seeing if Hana would get haunted by the spector of the crimson slasher, Reimu rushing in a little too late(?), and a good bit of jobbing to easily avoidable situations.

As far as the protection thing goes; if the two jobbers are watching Hana that works well for what I have planned. Including the big H and maybe Mima would work as well for finale stuff after I lock Hana onto a track.

Hey I just thought, given the situation they'd have to be watching often, and especially towards the night... Poor gods might see a little too much...';

'>>46800541
Assuming your Lemontene anon it really shows.';

'>>46800604
You're overthinking it, if the crown prince is on Keine's side than Hana would probably be.
The prince is basically the archetype for racism and Hana doesn't have any reason to like Mr heida.';

'>>46800604
the Hakurei Shrine Maiden's role has always been as a balancer rather than actually being solely a champion of humanity. At this moment, Hieda needs killing because he's tipping the scales too far, and and Mokou needs killing until she gives up because she's trying to push the scales too far the other way. Hana and Reimu could even team up to beat up everyone else until things calm down. It'd be a nice reminder of how strong they could be together as well as how the Hakurei Shrine Maiden is vital to Gnesokyo.';

'>>46800632
Mr. Hieda didn't learn from Fortune Teller's example. Hana needs to teach those villagers what Hakureis do to humans that don't know their place.';

'>>46800649
I'm sure that'll work out great with all those half-youkai kids in the future.
Another possible spin off where Hana is the antagonist of the sequel because she's trying to keep apartheid alive.';

'>>46800604
I see, so she'll come as a type of spectator and will be conflicted about what to do as things go down... You know, I think I have the perfect conversation partner to put her with that should appropriately challenge her views and, maybe, come back to the Frens Reunion she's still recovering from. Her first ever Danmaku opponent and Gensokyo's weakest Youkai~
So, does this seem good:
>I'll write the chapter batch, Sanae will have some thoughts about Hana and she being protected by Suwako and Kanako, meaning she can't call them;
>While that you'll write Hana with them; the festival happening and, at some point, someone relaying the information that shit just went down and the Human Village is fucking burning; then write her reactions and if Hana will or not go there, with Suwa and Kanako staying by her side constantly
If she goes:
>I write a little interaction of her with Mystia
>then, you decide what side you take the Hana depending on her personal thoughts about the situation, likely with input from Kanako and Suwako who don't want to pick a fight with Miko and Mokou, focused solely on protecting the Hana from Yukari, who'll be watching
>By that point I should already be posting the end of part 2, and will proceed to part 3 with Hana's decision... not telling the details about part 3, though~
Feels like a good insertion of the Hana where she has a focus and space to develop her character but not overly mingle with the Festival's plot, since the main purpose of it is to give characters that won't be appearing in the Solstice -- aside from Sanae, who was just underdeveloped -- a spotlight.';

'>>46768138
Imagine defending idiot plots and the worst write fag here, only to be btfo by them.
These are the type of slopshit enjoyers who like fairies, at least the two fags you bat for have the common decent to admit there shit and not mindlessly defend their own drivel.
The only bad thing about these is the amount of times the the fairy shit been mentioned in other stories and the fact the archive fag hasn't removed them all yet.
Can't wait until we have the author polls and someone edits together the HSE posts removing all of the non-canon and slop shit.
Nothing will be lost from it and in the end those you fags who defend the worst writer here can reast easy you’ve all wasted your time, won't be missed, and that we’ve only gained something from the exclusions of the shit you defend.';

'>>46801330
>reast easy
Wow, someone to take it easy!';

'>>46801535
I'm just happy that the White Knight anon was finally told off, hope he has fun knowing he's wrong.';

'>>46801317
Sounds like a good time to insert Yukari molesting Hana and the Moriyans like usual being too useless to do anything about it.';

'>>46802255
sadly we've had our sanctioned Hana/Yukari rape last thread, meaning we're entering a period of about... 5 months of cool down before the next Hana/Yukari rape, as per contextual rules of the HSE.
long way to say Yukari doesn't care about anything going down in the village and is very focused on buying baby stuff with Ran in the Outside World.';

'>>46800806
Hana would be a good older sister to her many, many half-siblings. It might make her job harder sometimes but she'd never hurt them (unnecessarily)';

'>>46801317
>Suwako and Kanako
Since you're not having them fight, I'd like to poach them.
I'd like to use them at the end of the Aya storyline. It also ties into Okina politics, since the Moriyan goddesses at this point know about the Abyss of Doors plan and Aya has do a second bombing run around the mountain for 'reasons'.
My excuse for separating Sanae and her moms is like this (and I'll actually write the goddesses stating it into the storyline): Sanae is a living goddess, but she's getting up there in age and needs to start acting like a proper goddess. Kanako and Suwako know siding with Hieda is a poor choice, but let Sanae do what she decides to in order to teach her the consequences of indulging human wishes and why goddesses have to maintain a separate existence from humanity. Sanae does her stuff, but has to do it alone. Let her learn from her own mistakes, that kind of thing.
This also allows Kanako and Suwako to become accomplices to domestic terrorism and makes plays concerning the power balance in Gensokyo, something Sanae might possibly maybe object to.
I'd like to place it chronologically during Mr. Hieda's Senile Moment, since that would increase the risks for Sanae in this situation as she can't rely on the Moriyans for backup. But, I could move the Aya ending backwards a bit or just leave out Kanako and Suwako entirely if that works better. They aren't going to get into a hugh scuffle themselves, but they'll be talking with daitengu and they'll definitely be aware of anything going on in the Hakurei Shrine through the mini-Moriyan shrine there.
Lemme know if that's fine or if I'm spouting pure delirium.';

'>>46802414
I have nothing against it, even am hyped considering your chapters of Suwa and Aya were incredibly fun; the timing is nice too as Mr. Hieda will be free until the start of act 3, and don't plan to use either Kanako or Suwa, only Sanae.
Can't speak for Hanaanon, though.';

'>>46798846
I noticed some problems with this one, don't worry I fixed them.';

'>>46802534
https://files.catbox.moe/muzvh4.png';

'>>46802534
>>46802538
You missed excising the koishi plot line from the satori tree if you were making a shitpost to cull out all of that guy's side plots.';

'>>46802735
Thanks for the tip off, and it's not a shit post, the purpose of the flow chart is to.
>>46798846
>for writeranons to guide themselves (really) and readeranons to ponder how much time has passed in the stickverse~
Which that version wasn't helping with, it's an actual error with the flow chart.
https://files.catbox.moe/z80cwq.png';

'>>46802394
hopefully she doesn't fuck the poor things...';

'>>46801317
>she'll come as a type of spectator and will be conflicted about what to do as things go down
Thats the ticket, largely doing slice of life or other minor things with her mountain moms during the interim day and finding out about the nature of things. By the time things kick off go ahead and write whatever interactions you please, and we'll see if a bird brain can get one up on our favorite horny teen with an itchy gohei hand.... I'm looking forward to it!

>likely with input from Kanako and Suwako who don't want to pick a fight with Miko and Mokou
Gotcha, as for her actions I have a few ideas, but generally I'm focusing on how much of a crimson slasher she'll fall into as a stress response. You know, the original conflict she faced in her OG story? From there I'll see if she'll have the focus to try and genuinely be helpful. Maybe with efforts to restore the balance, like making sure the yooks don't be yooks while the village is weak, or maybe she'll break JP's face after finding her newest doujin... or if she'll wind up playing support and having a bonding moment with Sanae and the 'Suzu, Either is likely, or I'll find some third option to spite you.';

'>>46805352
>bonanza
fun fact: bonanza/bonzaa actually comes from 万歳';

'-Chapter 4: Youkai Mountain-
Cirno spun around in the air, dodging the crimson red slash of the Oni who intervened in the god squad’s, responding with a blast of an icy laser that the sword-wielding Oni carried.
The two of them flew through the destroyed sky of Youkai Mountain as the horizon was slowly put back together.

The angry Red horn Oni bated at the air again, Cirno barely moving out of the way in time. “Stop moving you pest!”

“Wow, you really are a crabby one aren’t you?” If she could’ve, Cirno would have held in her smile, but either way, she was happy that Suwako’s training was paying off in spades.
“Crabby! I have every right to my anger, bring me Reimu Hakurei, I WILL HAVE MY VENGEANCE, GIVE ME REIMU HAKUREI!” Cirno rolled her eyes. Like she was going to give up the location of one of her friends to some random crazy lady who came out of nowhere to assault her, as if.

“That's nice and all Miss, but I don't even know who you are.” Although while the Oni was doubtless threatening, Cirno mostly just felt awkward, since she wasn't used to being on the receiving end of these types of monologues it was both a new experience and something which gave her perspective on.

“Cirno! Big bird at twelve o’clock!” Suwako yelled over the commotion, Cirno was half surprised she returned so soon. Although that was good news since she’d been sent to interfere with Megumu while Aya was escaping.

Again, Cirno split into four, just in time for three of them to dodge the talons of the Tenma. They only had time to register the passing of his shadow after he was already nearly ten meters out, the Cirno he had picked up promptly exploding in a [Perfect Freeze]. Tengu were fast most people couldn’t really visualize how fast, although Cirno had enough experience fighting and being beaten by just about everyone to know how fast the Tenma was moving, fast enough it looked like he could move in the strange angles Reimu or Yukari could.

The three remaining Cirnos suppressed a collective shiver as they moved in unison, letting her attention drift from the massive bird as Sanae and Shou once again caught up to him in a flash of movement.

“PAY ATTENTION TO ME!” Kongara yelled, taking advantage of Cirno’s distraction to launch a beam from her horn, killing one of the Cirno’s in a fiery explosion and causing the other two to turn back to her.

“Sorry, sorry.” Cirno really did forget how fragile she was when compared to everyone else in the fight, luckily even with the Oni’s appearance, they would be finishing this whole thing off rather quickly.

“Yeah, we don’t know what Reimu did, but it couldn’t have been that bad.” Cirno didn’t really understand Kongara’s motivation, failure just meant you’d have to do better later, yeah swearing vengeance is cool and all but some people just took that sort of thing way too seriously for her tastes.

“Fools! Any offense to me is a crime, no matter how small, for I am KONGARA! The-”
The remaining two Cirno’s decided to tune her out, and hope that no one else got caught up in the fighting. Even if she couldn’t play the most important role like Reimu was, she was happy keeping people tied up.

--

“Hmmm…” Koishi hummed audibly as she starred out of one of the many great stained glass windows of the Palace of Earth Spirits, outside the protests had died down. Now it looked more like a procession of some kind, and maybe a bit of a Buddhist one. Although they didn’t feel anything like Byakuren and didn’t remind her of the temple.

Part of her wished she had taken Aunn with her, the ability to detect and identify religions and religious things would’ve been useful, but Koishi barely knew the dog.
“You’re worried.” Kokoro was standing next to her.

Koishi gulped as she surveyed the surface of the mobs' mind. “Yes.” Sometimes, words were better at communication than thoughts for Koishi, thought, was an unfiltered stream, and only those with pure desires or had a nature contrary to lying.

She could be misreading the situation, intellectually she knew from her research into them, she knew that a vast majority of people, even Oni, did not act out immediately in response to';

'>>46807180
She could be misreading the situation, intellectually she knew from her research into them, she knew that a vast majority of people, even Oni, did not act out immediately in response to
resentment.

Although to be fair a vast majority of resentment and curses were so minor as to be not worth mentioning to anybody but the sort of person to describe themselves as a ‘champion of purity.’

“Koishi…” Kokoro came closer and squeezed her hand, Koishi didn't need to read to mind to understand the message.

For a moment they stood there, holding each other’s hands in front of the stained glass window.
Blushing, Koishi let go of Kokoro’s hand. “Anyways, I should probably go see big sister about this. See you later Kokoro.”

“You too Koishi.” Kokoro nodded, before turning her head to look back out the window.
It was only a short walk to her sister's office, piles of paperwork littering the older but shorter Satori’s desk.

Various cats wandered in and out, both to be pet and to help with the paperwork that had accumulated both during Satori’s recent brief medical leave and crisis. Unfortunately for Satori, Koishi was someone utterly hopeless with paperwork, only skilled in fighting and youkai magic.
Bounding into the room full of nerves, Koishi held her open third eye forward, telling her sister in a moment about the semi-religious commotion she was suspicious of.

“So I suppose you’ll be heading out to investigate?”

“Well who else is? Kokoro has to help with Yuugi's job and Orin and Okuu already have something to do, a little adventuring is right up my alley.” Satori gave her sister a blank stare, while true she was still hesitant to let her sister out of her sight, but then again Koishi was still the single most dangerous individual in the underground, probably even more so now than ever.
Of course, none of this mattered, it was a formality really. Koishi was just being polite by informing her sister and not actually asking for permission, she wanted to feel like she was useful to her.

“...okay Koishi, come back soon.” Satori shook her head, before turning her eye back to her paperwork.

“Sure thing little big sister!” Koishi jumped up, happy she finally had something to do, and slipped out of the door silently, although a bit sad at her sister's thoughts. But this was something they just had to deal with, family could be difficult, doubly so when you could read minds.

That had led to the courtesy they extended to each other, and to Kokoro; the courtesy of pretending to not be able to read the other’s mind. It hadn’t been anything formal or rather they only read each other’s emotions and minds to come to it. But Koishi was a bit surprised that her sister, so smugly proud of their ability, would accept it, in truth it made her a bit happy.
--
Okina dodged a stream of bullets from Yukari, spinning in the air above the island of nothingness as she sat on her stone chair, having disposed of her wheelchair earlier by throwing it at Yukari.

“Mai, Satono.” Okina snapped, commanding her servants with a snap of her fingers. “Your assistance please.”

She had been forced to play on the defensive ever since she arrived, she needed both her servants to help deal with Yukari’s preparations for their fight but at the same time both were incredibly vulnerable to Yukari’s attacks.

No matter what, this was a fight Okina couldn't win on her own, so, of course, she didn't plan to.
Okina’s eyes narrowed as she felt the Hakurei and the Makai girl repair the damage done to the Great Hakurei Barrier, ‘any moment now.’

As Okina launched another wave of Danmaku towards Yukari, another pre-prepared bomb exploded into Okina’s barrier vaporizing her Danmaku, and followed up by homing bullets. Okina sent a pulse of mental and physical energy outward dissipating some bullets and slowing the larger ones in an attempt to regain momentum, but before she was able to, a beam lanced into her barrier, forcing her back.

Oh Well, she guessed there was nothing else to do than buy time as Yukari worked her way through her barrier. “Oh, Yukari! So focused on me, I’m honored that The Yakumo Yukari considers me worthy of her attention.” Her theatrics were plain and overblown, especially by the standards of a seasoned performer such as herself, but the situation needed no other approach. “But haven't you overlooked something missing from your little exhibit? I’d hate for something bad to happen.”

“Shut your mouth and quit your lies, or do you have anything of actual substance to say.” Yukari’s words were biting and confident, holding an air befitting of a sage.

“Your Shiki, do you truly not understand? Has her betrayal gone unnoticed by a fool such as yourself, in fact, she should be escaping with Anon right now in fact.” Okina smiled. “Or have they already escaped I wonder?”';

'>>46807188
Yukari’s eyes widened as she seethed in barely-contained rage as her attention briefly went elsewhere.
--

Reimu looked at the destroyed sky, before looking back to the horizon she, Hana, and Alice had repaired. "Alice, stay here and keep working on the barrier, this should be good enough for now."

"C'mon Hana, let's go see what that tree's all about." Reimu wanted to complain about Yukari being trouble some, but in this situation, that was pure hypocrisy.
--
“Are we there yet?” It hadn’t even been fifteen minutes and Seija had already started complaining, unlike Ran, Anon, and Chen, their journey was remarkably uneventful thanks to Goro’s access to the building’s systems. Moving in time to avoid patrols and having a much faster path to their destination inside the transformed HSE.

“Ugh, are we there yet?” Of course, Goro's abilities weren’t perfect, he had run into a couple of walls while blind to the real world and led them down a few dead ends as the geometry and layout of the HSE got less consistent the fewer people were around, but all in all, they were making great time.

“ARE WE THERE YET?!” Goro still didn’t answer, eyes firmly planted on the map in his mind. “Hello Goro!” Seija, yelled, jumping in front of the man.

Goro almost jumped back in surprise as his attention suddenly returned to reality, seeing the angry Amanojaku in front of him. “Yes, yes, sorry I just got distracted again…”
“We’re almost there, it should be just around here…”

“Ah-” Goro gasped a bit as he turned the right corner of the hallway which now led to Yukari’s office. Staring back at him were the blazing gold eyes of the executive of the Kiketsu Family, Yacchie Kichou, as she failed to force open the door, hanging off of it as her hands grabbed at the door knob and she braced a foot against it.

Just as soon as Yacchie had seen them, she moved.

Goro closed his eyes, bracing for pain and hating how sound worked inside of the new HSE, anywhere else they would’ve heard each other before rounding the bin, but now-

CLANG

A clash of metal meeting metal reverberated throughout the room and Goro opened his eyes. Before him, Seija held out a blinding red blade shaped like the wing of a scizor in one hand, and in the other a silver dagger streaked with blue. Having caught the sudden lunge of the Kiketsu Matriarch with frightening speed. “You do know I’m right next to you right?”

Goro nodded, slightly embarrassed but more happy to have not been clawed at by Yacchie.
For her part, the matriarch narrowed her eyes. “Great, everything was going fine until you two decided to show up.” Of course, it wasn’t, her last-minute betrayal was poorly thought out and Biten was busy dealing with Yuuma in the Animal Realm.

“That’s okay, we can take you out while we’re here.” Seija sweat as she and Yacchie she was definitely the weaker of the two of them, even with Yacchie being a mastermind type she was still a dragon of sorts. luckily for Seija, she always kept a few liberated items under her sleeve.
Yacchie growled, her eyes shifting to Goro and Seija. “Same here, disposing of Yukari’s little pets won’t be a problem at all.”

--

He existed, well barely, a thin existence held aloft my grudges and the transgressions of his ‘mother’ Yukari Yakumo. He was a fetal, a dragon curled in a membrane of curses and hate, with his real form, a cursed sword in a cursed lake of sorts, being inactive.

How he envied them, his brothers and sisters, how he loved them, how he would kill them for their existence being a crime just as much as his own. A sign of his affection, a gift to the cursed and beloved.

Looking down onto the non-existent island, a thousand thousand eyes stared, while his million million grudges pointed their edges at the existing world. He would spew those grudges forth from his mouth if he could, kill the targets of his hatred as he so desired. But he didn’t exist, well he did, he existed more than his sister who could not be seen.

He could not see her beauty, warmth, family, non-existence, like him, the culmination of the actions of others. He scowled as he looked down at his ‘mother,’ and of course, the other ones as well, although the Gap controlling Youkai was the only one he counted as his mother in any real sense

At one thing he did smile, Grudges were precise weapons, scalpels, and small mechanical instruments. Purpose made for doing one specific task, and while she wasn’t one of his ‘mothers’ in the memory of the black and white one, he could see it, the solidification of the Witch’s grudge against humanity.

A weapon only useful for killing ‘humans,’ an overly broad category, helped by the genuine disdain of her past self towards humans, both as a group and individuals.
It was better than, he thought, that he held genuine disdain for the ‘inhabitants of Gensokyo.’

The hateful god smiled.';

'>>46807199
Aya ducked, barely avoiding a thrown sword that embedded itself into a tree.
The caws and barks of the Tengu patrol chasing her were baying for her blood. Which although understandable due to Aya’s mass terrorism.

Her escape and bomb planting had mostly gone off without a hitch, emphasis on mostly, somehow that Pipefox and Hatate had found her out. Well, that wasn’t entirely unexpected, she had acted pretty dumb due to circumstances out of her control, but it still felt unfair to be ambushed at the last moment and have to make a more frantic escape than was planned.
“Pull back! We still have the shrine to deal with.” Luckily for her, Momiji hadn’t been found out and was continually trying to help save her friend's life.

“Belay that-” Before Megumu could finish speaking, a massive white snake launched itself out of the ground, Suwako and her Mishaguji had arrived.

“You youg’ins certainly know how to have some fun, dotch’a.” Suwako smiled as another one of her serpents threw itself at the Tengu.

Aya almost gagged as she heard Suwako playing up her own country accent, but of course, still running away from the wolf and crow Tengu took priority.

Aya reached out, grabbed the handle of the back door against the cliff face, and dissipated into the Land of the Back Door.

“Haahaaa…” Aya sighed in exasperation as she collapsed onto the floor of the Land of the Back Door, a mad smile on her face all the while.

“Well if it isn’t the lady of the hour.”

Chisazu rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Look, don’t ask.”

Aya just had to know, this could be a big scoop, Okina just being perverted again, something to do with the outside world. Although in reality she was still coming off of the adrenaline from earlier and overthinking an easily dismissable situation, Okina was just a weird after, “But-”

“Okina really likes mobile games,” Nazrin answered as she played with the phone in her hands.

“And I’m in charge of handling her dailies.” She smiled with a bit of pride at the last part, giving her more forgettable counterpart a smug look.

The rat, for her part, returned Nazrin’s smugness with a glare of venom as she hobbled back over to the wooden desk, covered in papers.

Aya was confused, she knew Okina was a perverted god, but sober paperwork and mobile games from the outside world really didn’t fit with her mental image of Okina, which was more of a machiavellian mastermind, evil clown, and perverted old woman. Well, having two mouse(?) maids burdened with chores did seem like something someone was getting off to somewhere else, but Aya didn’t want to think too much about the nature of her reality.

“Well, uh, now that I’m here, do you need me for anything?”

Chisazu looked up from her paperwork, raising an eyebrow to Aya. “You know how to answer phone calls right?”

-end-
Notes
Really speeding past a lot of things I feel like, but I also don't care enough to give them time, oh well that opportunity passed me by a whole ago so it's not like it's worth caring about.
Didn't really expect Chisazu to show up, but then I was shown the FGO Daikokuten unit and had to make that joke. Besides, it gave me something to do with Aya I didn't really know what to do with. Also Kongara being treated as a joke isn’t supposed to poke fun at Lemonanon, I just needed an extra reason to keep the Moriya’s busy and she seemed like a funny complicating factor.
>>46802414
I had the same idea with those two, anyways I hope you have fun writing them, the Moriya’s are pretty great even if they haven't gotten a lot of screen time.
Next chapter might be mostly Koishi since the events of hers are happening mostly before everyone else’s and it’d be nice to catch her up.';

'>>46807052
I searched it and got a pop band called “Bonanza Banzai”, nothing about any linguistic connection; I wonder if you're just cleverly advertising something you like...
good music, tho, heard a little while writing here.';

'H-Hana...
... why are you an edited 3D WiP model?';

'>>46810161
The Hana fever spreads...';

'>>46810161
You know exactly why, anon.';

'>>46810161
This might be a little controversial but I always thought the green and black Hanna design was better ';

'>>46810363
I prefer the simpler design of the brooch + green ascot, puts Hana apart and are easily recognizable while not too shitpost-esque, though the thought of her and Anon just looking like this in a relatively “normal” Gensokyo is extremely funny.';

'>>46810756
True, but it's not serious enough. All can be said about having funny things be and happen for the sake of humor but for a story that's trying to take itself seriously it isn't a good choice.';

'>>46810161
Courtesy of the lunar capital, lewd HSE Hana animations.';

'>>46811237
It's still funny to me that the lunar capital acts as an off to the side peanut gallery mirroring the thread gag effectively got killed when sagume got dragged into the goro/seija travel arc.';

'>>46812867
It's better that way, it wasn't especially funny in the first place and it takes away from the seriousness of the main story.
Besides we don't need writers writing random cutaway gags to the moon when all it's doing is mirroring the same conversations hat people have here, good thing they haven't reappeared.';

'(1/3)
—
I hug Hana, barely six years old, who sits on my lap with her favorite cup filled with hot cocoa in those little hands as she watches intently the snow-covered landscape outside, Aunn coiled up on her feet as the massive blanket taken from the kotatsu encapsulates us all here, sitting on the ground in front of the window…

We're waiting for Reimu.

Things are harsh, as expected: the Hakurei Shrine already doesn't get many visitors at this time of the year, and the blizzard that came with the Winter Solstice doesn't help; meaning money, thus food and supplies, are way shorter recently and Reimu needs to get more and more jobs so we don't starve…

She left a day before the blizzard to deal with a Youkai problem and still hasn't returned.

My hands clutch Hana's midsection, eyes tensing if for a moment: In typical fashion, Reimu took nothing with her, just ate and drank sake before leaving—and, to my awareness, she can only float above things while calm… Reimu is never calm when she's hungry. “Dad?” Hana calls, her voice a tad trembling, eyes never turning away from the knee-deep blankets of snow and consuming darkness the magically illuminated torii gates can hardly ward off. “… I want mum.” Hana says for what feels the thousandth time, yet the same despondency sparks inside, a feeling I easily detach myself from as one hand climbs and gently brushes Hana's hair: these problems are not hers… She needs a happy childhood—it is the least I can give her.

Still, as the hours go by, a weight settles inside, pulling me down in a way I've never thought I'd feel again—even after all the pain, abuse and more, I still haven't stopped lovi—

—suddenly, the world rumbles.

Hana cries in confusion as a crimson light abruptly crashes down on the front lawn. Aunn jumps alert, breathing heavily and focusing her eyes outside, tense as if a rod. I clutch Hana for dear life, heart screaming: a Youkai attack?! Today…?

R-Reimu is nowhere near; of course I'd be today!

I need to run, hide—protect Hana at any cost!

Just as I am about to rush to the back of the shrine and get Genji, a small word takes my word to a halt. “… M-Mum?” Hana whispers, those big eyes on whatever crashed in the snow. Aunn and I share a perplexed glance before we stack on the window and take another peek outside, the lifted dust and snow dissipating just enough for me to make, in the dim light of the Torii gates, a silhouette…

I'd recognize that red bow anywhere. She’unconscious, too.

“It’s just her… Aunn prepare the futon—and stay here, Hana; you don't want to greet her with a fever!” Gently dropping the girl on the floor, I pick up a towel on the way out with a sigh. So my concerns were unfounded, huh? She likely drowned in sake to stay warm, as she usually does, which is why she is unconscious… I wonder if she'll ever change.

Well, no gain in pondering that now.

I braved the outside frost, my arms and legs immediately numb despite being covered in many layers of clothing, eyes on the shrine maiden sunken in the snow. Hopefully the money she gained didn't wet; she gets so upset if even a meager penny—

—I pause.

It's weird at first; confusing, too…

… Why… How did she…

Then, a wave of utter and complete fear and haste as I rush the rest of the way, nigh jumping over Reimu, forgetting Hana is watching this. H-How did—

… No time for questions!

With strength born from labor, I lift Reimu in my arms as if she were that bride again and head inside the shrine, eyes wide and heart racing. Hana's piercing wail of terror shakes me to my core even before I get into the shrine. “MAMA!!” Aunn came running back to the living room upon hearing that loud shriek, yet I ignored all, shutting the doors behind me and sprinting to the kitchen, eyes making sure whatever I'm seeing is real: Reimu…

She's missing her right arm.

Cut at about the middle of the biceps, it was simply gone. H-How did that happen?! Isn't she one of the strongest around? Who'd manage to do this to her…?

The question stirs inside as I lay her down on the kotatsu blanket, Aunn running off in tears to grab the futon as I frantically turn on the stove and fill it to the top—it'll drain precious resources to keep the fire alive, but that doesn't matter—, Hana's breathless cries as she kneels to the side of her mother claw at my spine with no end. “I-Is mum gonna die?!” Hana asks nervously, and I find myself looking at the wound again, stomach churning: I don't know… But to give Hana anything but hope would be a crime. So, struggling to form a fake smile, I'm about to say—

—“I just… Mother just needs her rest, Hana.” Reimu weakly utters, an eye half open.

“MUM!” Hana yells in tears, jumping on top of Reimu and clinging there as if a monkey, bells ringing; t-that'd disturb the wound, causing pain, and in this state, Reimu would—

—she laughs softly, muttering 'ouch, ouch, ouch's as her only hand tenderly encapsulates our weeping Hana, her fleeting smile warm as the sun…

… What the hell.';

'>>46813407
writing a little special for Mother's Day, rest later today~';

'Trying to figure out which writer has written what has me in a paranoid spiral that's only gotten worse since finding out how many characters Keineanon is doing.';

'>>46815014
heh~
writing helped me a lot in getting my certificate and through work, so I may have gone overboard';

'>>46815014
Using an AI model in order perform a forensic analysis of the story posts is probably the best way, sans writers publishing the entirety of their notes and writings on the HSE using google doc's publish to public feature.';

'>>46815562
pfft. I'm just going to publish a blatantly incorrect list saying shit like lemonteneanon wrote patchouli and hanaanon was actually writing sagume and all the writers will pop out of the woodwork to correct me anyway';

'>>46815716
Generally bait works better if a person doesn't know it's bait, but considering the time quality takes they'll all have forgotten by this the winter solstice when we finish this.';

'>>46815716
Please make sure to include a bullet saying the anon that wrote the Solstice Special never read SnK or the Rumbling or the Ways
Because I never did. I asked itt how Sekai is a reference to SnK, but didn't clarify I wrote that bit, so somebody else explained to me how she's a thematic parallel to Ymir, whatever that is. It's fucking surreal having someone explain to you how you referenced something you didn't know. I blame causality.';

'>>46815826
>your solstice special and the circumstances of causality
>the post she first appears to Anon/Yukari is fucking insane >>46000000
>the start of her play with Meiling and Patchy is the 1000th chapter
I blame the child, she's alive and pranking us...';

'>>46815716
>lemonteneanon wrote patchouli
this is actually true! The patchy posts are of such high quality that it sucks the life out of me and takes multiple weeks just to recover.';

'>>46813407
(2/3)
—
“Say, Anon…” An abrupt voice jolts me out of my stupor, and I turn to see Reimu sitting on our futon by the lit stove, a collection of warm oranges and yellows gracing her silhouette and Hana's against the darkness of the shrine, our small girl sprawled on her mother's knees and sleeping soundly under a bunch of blankets, tenderly holding onto Aunn, who also sleeps, their faces touching slightly. My back is against the kitchen's wall, and the kotatsu's blanket is over my shoulders, keeping a little distance away to give Reimu some space. As my drowsiness subsides, I see her missing arm—not a dream, Jesus... “Would you give me a second chance?” She asks, uncaring about her arm but rather having her eyes on Hana—eyes that bore a mother's warmth uncensored.

Those final words, however, ring all the alarms in my mind.

“W-What are you… R-Reimu, what happened? W-What are you talking about?” Is this some sort of trap…?

The lack of arm, cut so thoroughly as if by something sharper than any sword, makes me wanna puke—

— “The pain I caused you is great, and you've been hiding it all for quite a while now, haven't you?” I freeze, hands clutching tightly to the blanket, heart frantic and sweat makes my skin itch. “All Because you want Hana to grow up happy. You'd go to any lengths to protect her childhood; give her the happiness she deserves… Our little daughter.” Examples from the past overlaid her words: often desperate cries for forgiveness for every disgrace she would bring forth.

Reimu just stares at Hana, her only hand gently caressing the threads of brown, her face calm. No disgusting begging, no manipulation clear as day that I'd fall anyway—but… there's love there. Love that I saw before adorning her finger with a ring. “Reimu, I…” There is massive pushback, both physical and mental, and my breathing becomes tenser with each passing second, the only sound being the soft crackling of the fire. This body knows what'll come if it disrespects her or tries to 'betray' her. It's so sudden, too; I still feel the phantom sensation of her body in my arms… And the seconds pass.

They pass and pass in stillness.

Puzzled, I look at Reimu, a feeling unknown overtaking me…

Why is she…?

… She patiently waited, meeting my eyes and smiling briefly, her hand stopping caressing Hana's hair. “There's no need for haste, Anon—despite, ugh, fruits~” She stutters a little, the shadow of a Reimu I knew appearing in that awkward smile, playful eyes on Hana. “Haste is just no good… Especially now,” she sighs, swinging what remains of her arm. “Well, I guess you'll have to get a job at the village again.” I blink. H-Huh…? “You could work at the Geidontei, your food rocks; or perhaps try the Suzunnan—that poor waif, Suzu, works so hard~—; or maybe teach at the Temple School? Nah, not good that last one; you'd surely embarrass Hana by being super supportive.” She snickers and, before I can understand it, I giggle too. “Or just outright manual labor; you're on the strong side, after all… Anything you choose is good.”

Simple words, but a unique, odd thrill rises inside—one I‘d forgotten I could feel. “I… I will see what I can do.”

“The shrine needs some renovations, too, so I guess I'll be the one fixing it—should start the heavy reforms by spring, so this winter will be dedicated to smaller stuff… Do you wanna something? Like, a painted wall?”

Silence permeates, thick as molasses. Reimu doesn't demand an answer; just waits calmly…

I stare at her, ruminating on those words she'd said before about forgiveness and second chances. Merely tasting the concepts towards her floods my mouth with bitterness—years of abuse, of the loss of the dream of a happy marriage, of isolation…

Why would I give her any kind of forgiveness if not out of fear of what may happen to Hana? What may happen to me?

Reimu doesn't deserve forgiveness…

… And yet, the way she holds Hana and Aunn, the kind and sweet smile on that face, a posture straight and confidence behind movements unseen before—gone was the paranoia—and the way she makes my heart still pound…

“What happened to you?” I ask, anxious.

“I died.”

… I stare, flabbergasted.

“But I came back. I'm still flesh and bone, not a spooky ghost~” I don't laugh. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have. “… All I had in my afterlife were thoughts of my family, of the sins I committed, things I wish I'd done; love that I should've given… There were so many regrets that I decided to come back and, ugh, do b-better, I guess?”

I blink, stupefied. She guesses, huh…?

… Wow…

My hands join and I stare at shadows, echoes beating those walls—of pain and rape, of a life that'd crumbled to dust. My fingers, unconsciously, ran around and ended up rubbing the surface of my wedding band… I take one glance and, in the fire, her wedding band refracts a beautiful hue.

Tired, all I can do is sigh, “… Green.” Her ears perk up. “Our room’s walls would be prettier if they were a mossy green.”

Reimu smiles.';

'>>46817702
>Green';

'>>46818029
feels very cozy and perfect for redemption baby making';

'>>46818102
Reimu and Anon getting back together is one of the worse ending ideas. Please reconsider.';

'>>46818200
this but the opposite';

'>>46818212
How about you stop huffing green paint fumes.';

'>>46817702
(3/3—p1)
—
Some days I can't help but think things are wrong.

It's a weird feeling that comes from really down below and tickles my spine, and not in a fun way. I asked Ms. Keine about it, Marisa-sensei and even Kasen-nee, but none could tell me what the feeling could've been—others dismissed, saying I was just having stomachache, which is a lie… well, not always; Marisa-sensei's ‘shroom soup is delicious, but the aftermath is unfun—, I thought about asking either mum or dad on multiple occasions, but the weird feeling would just stir…

Perhaps I'm just weird?

The kids at the playground say I'm as weird as my parents, especially when I told them they don't sleep in the same room; don't smack their mouths together or are all cuddly-cuddly—apparently, you must do all that to be parents…

… Meh, what do those idiots know? They aren't even parents!

Laughing by myself, I finish collecting the flowers—hanas~—, humming and placing them in the basket me and mum made together last week. Dad must be working right now—I wonder if he'll get any cool commissions; it's so nice to watch him knit things for clients—and mum left to visit Aunt Remi… I don't like Aunt Remi. She's younger than I in appearance but she acts so high and mighty, always talking with difficult words and expressions; not even mum can understand half of what she says! Aunt Suika is much cooler~still; if they're both out, it means it's just me and Aunn in the shrine, the perfect opportunity to employ our plan!

Lifting flight, I go towards the shrine, humming this weird lullaby mum often sings to me, my eyes growing with fondness as I see the shrine in the distance, clean and nice—the way mum and dad like it. Aunn waves to me as I descend; some visitors—a family—wave too before dropping donations, to which I thank them a lot. They then request a little tour of the shrine and, as a maiden in training, I deliver. They leave with smiles~ “Guh… Their kid pulled my tail, and I almost bit him…” Aunn sulks, letting her 'visitor face'—as mum and Aunt Sanae call it—fade into a pout.

I huff, petting her head. “We'll ask gran Suwako to curse him for that later!” Aunn perks up, tail swinging and eyes screaming 'really?!', too cute to not hug close, my basket of hanas swaying a little.

Noticing it, Aunn moves to sniff the wild flowers. “Oh, what a nice haul~are we making them now?” She asks, almost jumping in place from excitement.

“Yup! Do you remember Aunt Yuuka's instructions?” We rush to the stairs by the donation box and, as we sit, I put the basket in between us.

“Ugh… K-Kinda?” She picks up a flower and tries to bend it a little, her sharp claws getting in the way. She seems vexed when the flower just jumps out of her grasp.

I pout, “It's not so hard, Aunn!” Picking up a flower, I start to—

… Oh, it jumped off my hands…

W-what?!

Aunn stares, and my cheeks go all red.

W-Well, at least we have the entire afternoon to figure it out!

—

“Is Remi still in, uh, 'war' with Mystia?” I ask, a calm smile on my face as I carry two bags, the one in my back containing my knitting materials—full of white and black hairs… It seems Chen, my knitting apprentice, fell asleep on top of it again, ugh—and the other I hold containing some food I got at Mokou's.

Reimu sighs, scratching her head with the bandaged right arm. “Bullseye—two Youkai, hundreds of years old… Feuding like two children. I think I'll go insane sooner or later and throw this to Marisa.” I chuckle, Reimu giving me the side-eye but snickering anyway. “That aside, the day wasn't as tough. Paid a visit to Yukari, Yuyuko and Ran to see how they're doing; nodded along as Yukari explained her new boundary tech or whatever, cuddled some with Ran; and then slept the day away after eating with Yuyuko… I wonder why my job is so demanding~”

“Some of us aren't that lucky.” We laugh together, finally reaching the Torii gates—

—and are immediately met by two giggling missiles. “Mum! Dad!” Oh, cannot forget the highlight of the day~

I hugged Hana back as Reimu did the same with Aunn, petting violently on Komainu's head before we switched. “How are you two doing? Had any fun?” I ask, gently lifting Aunn in my arms—she may be a statue, but that doesn't matter to the power of love!

“Yeah!” They yell together, throwing their arms up; they look at their wits end, as if they'd just spent hours focused on something and barely made it through, and as we reach the donation box, I ponder if that comparison is not so far off: littering the ground, hundreds of petals…

… But on top of the donation box, lay four flower crowns.

“We made these for you!” Aunn explains, hopping off my arms together with Hana and collecting the things. “C'mon, kneel down—you're tall!” I share a gaze with Reimu, who doesn't even hesitate before kneeling to receive her flower crown, the things amateurishly made and kept together by hopes and dreams—the colors match, though—, yet instilling a pride so intense inside it surprised me…';

'>>46819149
(3/3—p2)
—
Still, I can't help but wonder: It's no special day, just another chilly afternoon-almost-evening of another fall; no birthdays in sight, no important dates come to mind either. Total blank. “Thank you for it, Hana, Aunn; you two look very cute… But why did you make these crowns anyway, girls?” I ask, touching mine carefully as to not undo it—that'd be a massive blunder.

Hana and Aunn shared a glance as if saying, ‘is this guy for real?’, Reimu giggling to herself as if already on par with the answer, her crown slipping down a little off her hair. Unconsciously, I stepped in her direction and fixed it with my free hand, the shrine maiden whispering a faint ‘thank you’. “We just thought we'd all look nice wearing them, so we made it! You two look beautiful, too!” It's Hana who explains; Aunn nods along and pumps her fists a little at the compliments…

Huh. That's unexpected.

Life in Gensokyo always makes you expect the most convoluted and explosive responses to even the smallest things… And Hana and Aunn just decided they wanted to see us all wearing cutesy flowering crowns for no other reason than that it'd be nice.

… It's charming. Refreshing.

“You thought right, then. I'll be showing this off to everyone tomorrow~” Reimu says, the biggest smile on her face as, with each hand, she pinches one of Aunn's and Hana's cheeks, the girls grumbling in fake—not much, maybe, perhaps—pain.

… I can't really describe the feeling that rises inside as I watch, mind returning to that fateful night, the murderous blizzard of winter; how frantically I struggled to keep Reimu alive, the hours I spent watching over her sleeping so vulnerably…

The words we exchanged and how suddenly yet thoroughly my world changed after that day.

It's been years; no offense was committed and Hana's smile is a constant, her childhood proceeds and happiness gleams behind her eyes.

We built a life—a good life—together for our family.

… Reimu changed.

Finally, when Reimu tells them they'll be the ones doing the cleaning of all these sprawled petals, Hana and Aunn sprint away, begging for mercy and yelling about how boring a task it’d be. I chuckle to myself—we always say that, but we always end up cleaning things ourselves. “These two, I think we’ve spoiled them too much~” I say, pacing forward—

—A breeze buffets just as I am doing it; those hundreds of colored petals lift as Reimu turns to look at me.

It’s sudden, it’s impossible to stop and it just… happens.

Amidst this abrupt rainbow of fragrance and iridescent colors, our eyes meet, her red jewels impossibly deep yet ever focused, containing tales and mysteries uncharted; her hair pitch black, alluring, now ornamented by this beautiful crown of flowers; her skin fair; her smile this small yet remarkable little thing…

Her hand bears a wedding band twin to mine.

It's like I'm young again, and none of these hidden scars exist. But they do, and that I'll never forget; they're imprinted on my body and will never leave…

These scars will walk with me my whole life.

… Still, I am more than my scars; more than the fire and the chains that were burned on my skin—I am a father, and this woman is the mother of my only child. In the back, that child giggles lively as she talks to her proclaimed sister. “Excuse me, Ms. Shrine Maiden…” I utter, a weird levity taking over my lips as the breeze that sways her uniform and the hundreds of petals subsides, letting them remain still in the air for a moment. Reimu raises one eyebrow. “… Would you like to be my girlfriend?” The sense of déjà vu is as dizzying as the beating of my heart, and as Reimu's eyes first narrow before enlarging to the size of plates in realization, all I can do is burst out laughing.

“What are you saying so suddenly, idiot?” She huffs. “Stop joking and let's go fetch those two and set up the table; they must be hungry…” Reimu starts to walk inside, catching the pulling edge of the shoji door. “… Try asking over tea tomorrow.”

And so she enters, leaving the door open for me.

The Hakurei Shrine, home of the Hakurei miko: Reimu Hakurei, my ex-wife; Hana Hakurei, my only daughter; and Aunn, my precious and incredibly applied komainu…

Once walls that wept with memories so horrible, with crimes and mistakes committed. They'll never be forgotten, not while imprinted on this body… But today, after so many years and under the melody that is Hana's happiness, they're forgiven.

I enter with no hesitation, closing the doors.

… Home of Anon Hakurei, too.';

'>>46819156
>>46819149
and that's my Mother's Day special! Decided to take a more broad approach instead of commemorating the day explicitly, focusing on the role a mother plays in the family and its importance while dabbing in some fluff. Part 1, How Reimu missing affects the family; Part 2, how Reimu affects Anon, the father; Part 3, how Reimu affects Hana, the child.
if anyone wants more context about the ending/didn't understand: Anon isn't asking her out, in-universe he's just making a silly joke about their first meeting in the OGfic. Symbolic, it means that Anon has forgiven Reimu and will giver he the second chance she asked in part 2, even if their relationship shall never be the same because of the scars she left on him.
hope you guys had a good Mother's Day~';

'I know you are here reading this so thanks for wasting my time, you ass.';

'>>46819160
So this mother's day special comes from Koishi Yakumo-Komeiji going back in time to correct the timeline?';

'>>46819160
Good story, was real cute to see that call back to the OG and those two dolts acting like kids.
It was a slow day for stories itt, thanks for your work!';

'>>46819988
I wouldn't know, that lore is too deep for me...
>>46820035
thanks~
>It was a slow day for stories itt
I wish I could've written more and not have had to write chap 1 just after waking up and scrambling until 2 past midnight to finish the storyline, but I got to spend a bunch of time with my family playing UNO, so good trade-off.';

'Nobody anticipated this outcome...

The rifle in my hands points forward, firing bullets that travel through the infernos' harsh smoke, hitting whatever comes in their path. The Hieda state is burning behind me, the fence is on fire, and people are burning; cries pierce the air as those enormous bullets—much larger than ours—whiz through the smoke, blowing up the wood and fortifications, occasionally bursting a man open like a balloon. The skies rumble from the magical carnage between the immortal and the shrine maiden, but I dare not look anywhere else, lest I’d be unprepared to dodge the danmaku bullet that'd nearly evaporated me.

I sit against the ash gray wood, men running around carrying ammo, moving corpses, or simply screaming orders, and I pant with wide eyes, clutching my rifle as I automatically reload the hulking thing without looking.

… No one wanted this.

We assumed we would be fighting for that poor man in that building full of nasty Youkai and defending our village from bloodthirsty monsters. We were forced to watch the festival for five hours as everything we believed in was destroyed—no monsters, no blood; only people, who roamed and laughed, doing things we would do as well with those we love, who'd walked alongside them…

I'm so fucking hungry; some ladies looked so hot and cute, too. But Mr. Hieda warned us against, rallied us to protect our village…

Mr. Hieda set the village on fire.

Why did we do this?

Innocent villagers were killed by our bullets, by our bombs—by our actions, and now there's no turning back; if we stop, they'll kill everyone—

—the man to my side is shot off the fence defense, half his upper body gone amidst a show of rainbow-colored lights. Rage attempted to rise, but against this utter fear of death, of despair facing the infernos that cloak the once peaceful, cheerful village I called home, and hopelessness, it was fervently ignored: what even happens if we win today?

So many of ours are dead already and a bunch more are wounded…

… It's been merely ten minutes of fighting.

We are fucking doomed.

With tears in my eyes, I grab my rifle and stand up, looking through the iron sights for something, anything, to help me cope with these overwhelming feelings. Eventually, I spot through a clear breach in the smog this one blonde and brown youkai quickly leading a group of humans—children clinging to extra spider-link limbs coming off her back—away from the state and avoiding the raging flames.

The village, fucking meaningless samurai honor, my life—a prospect of anything…

… It's all gone now; nothing else matters…

I aim square at the Youkai’s head, the inside of my samurai mask uncomfortable from the tears and harsh breathing, steadying for a moment… Then, I pull the trigger—

Might as well make sure they feel my pain.

—a whizzing ball of Danmaku meets me during it, tossing me off the fence just as the shot echoed. For a moment, all was immediately messy and blurred, ink-darkness filling my vision…

… Why am I staring at the sky?

Everything feels so cold, too.

One samurai enters my vision; then one of the nurses rushes to me, wide-eyed, rapidly touching my right arm. When she pulls away her hands—they're all smudged in red—she speaks something I cannot hear, but those lips can be read: “He's gone—leave him.”

They leave me with no hesitation.

I blink, perplexed…

… I'm really dying in a pool of blood and mud, huh? Not on a bed surrounded by a loving wife and a few children, with a smile on my face. I don’t even feel pain—just the awful, plunging stench of spent gunpowder, blood and acidic iron.

This is how Keine-sensei felt?

Ah… I used to love her classes; she was always so eloquent and straightforward, helping me despite the difficulty I had learning all those numbers and letters—no wonder I ended up here—effortlessly showing motherlike smiles and saying how proud she was because I managed to add the silly numbers into a bigger and sillier number.

She knew how to guide dumbasses like me.

I watch as her wife or whatever fights Sanae on the skies, a battle so fast and so otherworldly I find myself laughing a little: we completely knew what we were going against and still followed Mr. Hieda through… Those Youkai ladies sure were cute. I wonder if that Lunasa gal has a boyfriend; she has such a melodic voice; blondes are my type and I dig the romanticization of sadness her notes had—maybe if I just try to go and ask her out…

The sad attempt at lifting myself does nothing; a situation unchangeable, and I stay there to watch as the reddening skies are pierced by an abrupt golden blaze that takes the shape of a cylinder, weird runes or something swimming inside that beautiful gold—a beacon to a moth, a soft voice in the back of my mind whispering: safety…

… Maybe it’s Heaven.

“PREPARE THE MORTARS!” Mr. Hieda's voice cracks through my numbness. The jerk is gonna bomb heaven…?

Guess I really should’ve asked Keine-sensei in marriage when when I was six…';

'I run by Suzu's side, my eyes wide as plates and ruffled wings pressed hard against my back, Mokou's shields of fire cloaking us in the form of small, orbiting embers—the moment any bullet threaded too close, the embers would track and explode the metallic projectile into slag that'd corrode the ground below, the smell unbearable, but that doesn't matter! All around us, the world burns, the festival—my Izakaya, the Prismrivers stage, everything—crumbling into a noxious pile of rubble, the air blistering and smoke heavy, lungs suffering as our run demanded greater effort by the second…

Suzu ran in front of me like a madwoman, covered in sweat and her hair all disheveled, the bells chiming endlessly… Because on her back she carried Keine's body, the consuming flames and poisonous smoke mere obstacles. I tried questioning her why, but all I got was a stare that reflected the same determination Keine emanated. This revolution is over without Keine, the one who cared for our dreams and safety… But deeds live on, as does inspiration—gulping down the temptation to cry tastes like acrid smoke.

There's still people to help! You have three children!

Be strong, Mystia!

I look around as people run in desperation amidst the raging flames, silhouettes in the crisp smoke, exacerbated by the rotten smell of burnt flesh—

—eyes suddenly lock on a vision of a spider youkai carrying a slew of children on her extra limbs, a group of men and women following as she leads the way through the inferno. That's Yamame Kurodani… “Mystia!” A familiar voice comes from her group—Yuu, and he bears the wildest eyes I've ever seen.

However, in the corner of my vision, a silver glint shimmers through the smoke, the world falling deaf for but a moment…

I recognize it.

Those glints hunted my species for generations.

The ball of Danmaku is created without proper thought aside from reflex, but aim aligns with incisiveness nonetheless, the thing thrown a moment too late as the bullet—just another of many—explodes. In the corner of my vision, I spot Yamame’s body jolting forward with a spray of blood… Her shoulder was burst, but she was still alive, breathing.

Suzu stops to look at me after the sudden change in atmosphere, Mokou's embers exploding bullets of retaliation. The stare we share is weird, almost as if I can talk to her over this explosive cacophony and asphyxiating smoke of basalt.

… Panting, she glances towards Yamame's group, some concerned kneeling down to check on the non-fatal wound, then to Keine on her back. “I need to find my family…” She mutters and I, a mother too, can only nod. Suzu reciprocates and, by the next second, she resumes running to 'safety' and I change course to Yamame's group, Yuu meeting me, brain expecting frantic words or questions—

—he lifts me in a tight hug. B-Bwuah?!

“Good Dragon God, you're alive! Don't ever do that again, you goddamn birdbrain! I thought I'd have to take care of our children by myself!” He chastises me before putting me down, his tone betraying the gravity of the situation. Just what is this man…? “No time; can you give me a hand here?” He rushes to Yamame, children's cries filling the air as her back limbs lose strength and she kneels down to keep the kids from plummeting.

“It's not bad, but she needs this closed soon…” A human man says, sweat covering his brow as he studies the Youkai's wound. The other people take the scared and shocked children in their arms or, in the case of some brave heroes, ransack the environment and rapidly build a makeshift cover amidst rains and heat waves of lead. There aren’t enough of us, so some children and those wounded stay on the ground. My embers move and orbit in a broader circle—there's not as many as before; it's reaching its limit…—protecting us from stray bullets.

“I-I'm okay; I just need…” Yamame tries, but frowns deeply in pain as the doctor, mumbling for her to not move too much, wraps a torn piece of cloth around her pungent wound.

Yuu kneels down to the spider's side. What's he…? “We need to find a safe place; that's—” A beam of pure, golden light suddenly shoots to the skies; ‘safety’ whispered in my mind. “—Huh, that does it~”

And, suddenly, he divides into three in front of everyone.

I blink, utterly perplexed.

… Those are the three men that hit on me that night. One picks up Yamame, struggling a little with the weight of all the extra limbs; other picks up various children; and the last picks up two of the most seriously injured humans, who don’t look surprised—too much for one day, huh?

The one with the children walks up to me, a smug look in his face despite the panorama of sulfur and death. “What's with that stare? Humans can have powers like you too, silly~” He passed me two of the little ones. “Let's move to the convenient golden heaven, people!” So, carrying half the group, he leads us to safety.

He’s one guy that’s three at the same time…

… My cheeks go red.

N-No time for that—our revolutionaries need help!';

'The desire for safety—for something as simple as a mother's embrace—attracts both humans and Youkai, with the shikaisen preventing smoke and flames from entering its interior. I remain in the center, eyes closed and still, pouring magic into the two spells cast simultaneously. A couple of people I'd managed to save lie around the area, either unconscious or sitting whenever they could to rest, discussing with each other what to do or just staring blankly at the looming shadows of sulfur outside the golden walls; three in particular—an unconscious man and two children—are the closest to me for reasons that soon should be breaching the walls of auric light.

… It was disappointing to lose Keine Kamishirasawa so soon after our agreement, but she still did what I wanted in this festival—make sure her revolution treats me as an ally—so it doesn't matter much to me; her departure can be mitigated with some handwork. Before, the structure of the village was too rigid for me to ingrain, but after today, it'll be as malleable as faith…

Still, the Human Village is mostly composed of, well, humans, and though the revolution might be lost, it'll drag the Hieda Clan with it to the depths of Hell—Fujiwara Mokou should make sure of that, albeit it'll be some heavy work to clean the nasty sentiment that she'd a hand on the death of the revolution: not acting as bodyguard to the leader and producing all this fire—taking with them the bad blood. Keine had the perfect qualities to fill the void: she's human and, to a degree, loved by both parties—but without her in the picture, I need someone else with equal qualities…

I open my eyes, watching as Kosuzu Motoori enters the barrier. She looks awful, drenched in blood and sweat, hacking cough dicing her throat and her hair scorched a little…

Yet, her steps never abated, parading to humans and Youkai that'd found their way to my mini-Senkai a sheer courage and determination born from belief.

My… Perhaps this was a cult indeed~?

Should make things easier.

Suzu's eyes land on the three by my feet; new life there as anxiety morphs into throbbing relief, “K-Kato, Fumi, Dai…” New life washes over her, and she runs over to us, muttering under her breath and ignoring the stares. She kneels—gently dropping the dead leader to the side—her clothes scraping the ground as tiny, trembling hands swarm her family, feeling them, making sure they are alive. She shed stressed tears, delighting in the certainty that her family was alive.

While she has her moment, I kneel by Keine and offer a quick prayer—but that's not the only thing I do; though I make sure to be sneaky about it~—then, upon finishing the prayer, stand up and place myself behind Motoori. “Kosuzu-san.” I call her attention away from her unconscious family, giving the librarian time to clean up the tears and recover her strength before turning to me. “Do you know who I am?”

“You're… Toyosatomimi no Miko, right? Keine said you were with us…” At the mention, her eyes jump to the dead woman and narrow slightly—guilt, maybe? “S-Sorry our revolution ended like t-th—”

“Ended?” I ask and bop my head to the side, cutting off the librarian. She stares at me, confused, each of her hands holding one of her children's cheeks. “Keine might've died, but look all around you: there's still people here. People whose future were destroyed, with faith in their former leader that won't fade… People that want to build a future, too.” I approach one step, now to her side, hands hidden behind my back. “Do you think their dreams died with Keine? Do you think she'd like to take such dreams with her to the grave…?”

“N-No…! Of course not!” The bite in her voice is sudden but appreciated—though it doesn't last. “… But what can I even do? All has gone up in flames…”

I pause to give her a moment of quiet while I let the surroundings speak for themselves. Bullets bounce off my golden walls; the fire crackles and heat waves are visible despite the intense light; smoke rises and consumes everything in the darkness.

The poor librarian hears it all…

“I believe, Kosuzu Motoori…” Her fatigued eyes turn to me and, despite the dejection and loss, that determination she had while carrying Keine remains the same. Good~ “… That not all is lost yet.” Without preambles, I present my hands to her, those eyes widening. In between my fingers, I hold Keine's black cloak, drenched in dry blood, yet regal anyway under the golden light. “And YOU can bring these people the hope they've lost.”

“M-Me…?”

“I can’t do it—these people don't know me; I've been with them for mere hours. You, however, were there from the beginning. For these people, you're a pillar… And who better to take action than the one that stood by her side?”

The battered librarian keeps staring at me as if a doe in the headlights; no words spoken but with a pounding heart I could hear loud and clear.

… Hm, maybe another push is needed? “Say, Kosuzu-san… Why, through hell, did you carry Keine's body?”';

'>>46824408
>>46824401
>>46824394
first part of laying the ground works (some 'know your enemy'; 'we lift together~'; and Suzu bullying, because what she needs in her life is much more stress and pressure!), second part of the batch with the Sanae chapter(s) + second part of Suzu/Miko should come either later today or tomorrow~
thanks, Kanako...
sorry if you spot somewhere missing a 'w', that push-key in my keyboard has been fucked as of recently and the replacement one hasn't arrived yet, nor my reviewing skills are flawless.';

'>>46824394
>>46824401
>>46824408

The situation really is going to hell in a hand-basket. Multiple dead or injured; including Yamame, the village is burning down, and Kosuzu getting more stress piled on her. Not like things can get any worse!';

'>>46825978
I'm just hoping the kurodani situation doesn't mess with patchyanon's job offer for them, because I can't see it going anywhere if Yamame's distraught over her children dying';

'>>46825978
man, and here it's just mainly one extremely pissed off bitch vs. a delusional old douche with murderous tendencies.
Can you imagine the solstice where we'll have an even more pissed and even worse bitch vs. an even more delusional ten thousand times older hag with murderous tendencies?
Fucking Gensokyo is cracking open like an egg...';

'>>46826075
after some careful creative reconsideration, and not peer pressure and the strange man in front of my house with a gun and a Yamame fumo, no Yams kiddo has bitten the dust, so it shouldn't affect anything in his storyline beside commentaries about how fucked up the whole thing was~';

'>>46826093
Good. can I use your bathroom before I leave? I have a flight to catch to see that guy who talked shit about spiders in the last yamame thread';

'>>46826112
sure, just make sure to not disturb the roof spiders in the bathroom! They work day-night to keep the place free from bugs, and deserve to be treated nicely!';

'>>46824419
—
Danmaku duels boil down to making beautiful patterns and gracefully destroying your opponent.

Truly, you can stall out your opponent's spellcards, and with enough time, you learn to dodge like a lunatic, always searching for small gaps and shooting without looking much. Finesse, observance and, above all, dodging: That's Danmaku, and I taught all my apprentices such style because Gensokyo never needed anything different… “MOKOU! Stop this!” I yell, dodging for the life of me stakes of flames that collapse from the skies like a falling skyscraper, fire surges thrown widely and still barely dodgeable by my apprentices that orbit our battle from a 'safe' distance, casting Moriyan seals and barriers to stop the deluges of fire and though they dissipate long before reaching the village down below, embers and flickers feed the already existing fires from the first two explosions—at least Mokou is still sane, despite being incredibly pissed off…

Sweating from the pain of my broken arm, I clench my teeth and look into Mokou's wide, murderous eyes once more. She stares past me and out into the Hieda State, fires roaring and spreading quickly to the rest of the village, villagers fleeing in desperation to the unscathed HSE.

… A sliver of purple on the edge of my vision, far away, watching from the roof of the brothel, pumps through my body. A vulture to a carcass, just awaiting the perfect moment…

At least I know Hana is safe with Suwako- and Kanako-sama—it means I can’t summon them for help without putting her in danger, but it is what it is…

Ignoring my broken arm and aware of my apprentices, their eyes laced with fear and astonishment with Mokou's wild fighting style, I try talking—

The immortal plunges, trying to get past me once again, but I meet her midway through with Gohei in hand, that flaming hair of propane white swaying in blazes as she dodges and counterattacks in the same movements, tornadoes of fire with each movement—this presence, she'll die! “NO!” I scream, turning slightly to my apprentice who tries to use a spellcard on Mokou’s back—the millisecond of distraction all a woman who's been fighting for a thousand years needs.

My world shakes as her elbow sinks into my stomach, lifting me in the middle of the air, her other hand grabbing my face as if a toy, unbearable heat spreading and—

… Hesitation.

—reflex clicks and a short and rather unprofessional miracle explodes the surrounding air as if heavily pressurized, propelling Mokou away from me and lacerating her body into ribbons, the same for mine, though on much lesser scale as the immortal took the full-blown explosion, small itchy cuts covering my flesh as if I had crawled out from a pit of sharp paper… B-But am alive, and that's what matters.

Mokou is a shredded hunk of burning meat, floating weirdly as her blood and guts pour into the rubble down below. “Sanae-sensei!!” The apprentice that tried to attack Mokou rushes towards me—Sayori, the same idiot who fought Mr. Hieda yesterday. Ugh, teenagers: they lose once and feel like they need to prove themselves… “Are you okay?!” She ask, the rest of my apprentices sieging me and staring either at my wounds or morbidly at the pulsating clump of red—

—Which, expectantly, explodes, Mokou there again a moment later, her eyes furious as wings sprawl to their full span. Her revival is too fast; I need to kill and be right on her face to have just enough time to seal her away…

My body hurts like crazy—there's a cut in my eyeball. In my fucking eyeball! I‘d be bawling like a baby if it wouldn’t ruin my cool reputation as a gentle yet strict teacher. Exploding air particles is an awful idea…—mind numb and slightly fuzzy… My apprentices can contain her attacks, but that's it; Mokou will eviscerate them sooner or later. With Mr. Hieda, they'd be kept as hostages… With the revolutionaries, they'd be k-killed on sight.

This situation is becoming really hard to control…

… Calm down, Sanae. Calm down. You're a trained shrine maiden, a living goddess! No matter how much you want to cry from the unbelievable pain, you've got an incident to solve!

And Mokou hesitated just now. That could be used against her. But how…?

“Nothing of this needed to happen.” She suddenly speaks, my apprentices jolting a little and clasping firmly to their goheis. She looks down with tired eyes, her hands—trembling hands—plunging into her pants’ pockets, the sky around us red from the raging inferno. I was so focused on the fight that I did not even notice the light cylinder in the background until now… “I listened to Keine, Kaguya… I shouldn't have. I should've killed him. This was preventable… But it's already too late. The mother of my children is dead.” Her eyes moved bitterly to the HSE. “You're protecting her murderer; her friends are suffering because I’m not there to help them.” My heart is frantic; w-what can I even say…? “Tell me, Sanae, why shouldn’t I kill you and your maidens right fucking now?!”';

'>>46826350
for Hanaanon: you should be good to go from here, only have a Suzu/Miko chapter to wrap up part 1! Yukari is enjoying the show; Hana mentioned -- epic --; Sanae bullying~! Though you should have a word with Ayaanon, he's interested in using Suwako and Kanako eventually, as he says here >>46802414.
I won't be using them, only Sanae.';

'>>46826350
Mokou has a point here, Sanae fucked up big time by signing up with the crazed Oni bastard.';

'>>46826365
Reading loud and clear, got what I wanted lined up and I've already started writing. Nothing of what he said would stand to be an issue, as long as they'd be willing to be Hana's lifeline. Essentially, like the 'mu can summon any god she wants; 'ana would be enter into a miko contract of sorts with her parental gods to summon an avatar of them instantly, or something. Basically a Yukari alarm and spell card in practice, but a sign of their friendship and family status as well.
Eta tomorrow, it'll be the bridge for the festival stuff.';

'>>46826495
nice~
>spoiler
that sounds interesting and practical for someone like Suwako to do, also somewhat funny considering it should completely eclipse her link with Mima -- poor goddess of jobbing...
waiting warmly!';

'>>46828011
>also somewhat funny considering it should completely eclipse her link with Mima -- poor goddess of jobbing...
Mima's first miko stolen from her, a true God of the job squad';

'>>46829038
Mima and her inclusion were always kind of redundant and silly anyways, I think you could cut her down pretty easilly and make Kasen the one to fight Seiga.
Bonus points since Kasen would have a strong reason to personally hate Seiga as well due to the whole Yoshika situation.
Most other magic things could be folded into Patchy, Marisa, or even Alice.';

'>>46829528
>Mima and her inclusion were always kind of redundant and silly anyways
So was like 90% of the Round Robin additions to the plot.
It's pretty silly to complain about superfluous additions when the entire project can basically be described as a bunch of ideas shotgunned onto a base of "Yukari kidnaps Reimu's husband to start a whorehouse" with the plot emerging from the initial storm of whimsy wackiness somehow creating a clear narrative arc to follow. While I get that a certain amount of "shooing out the clowns" has to happen to keep the tone for act 3 intact, this isn't exactly a tightly edited novel that can't afford detours. Especially since this is at minimum something being written by like half a dozen anons collaboratively writing what they want to contribute.';

'>>46826350
>there's a cut in my eyeball. In my fucking eyeball!';

'>>46829743
I think it's fair to complain, and I'm not saying that Mima should be removed, but the problem with this type of open source writing is people just adding whatever they want to for fun and the projects biggest problems has come from that.
In an ideal scenario, starting from the top Mima would've been excluded. This isn't even a complaint about her since I enjoy her, it's a statement of fact and my suggestions of what you would do by removing her are just that.
Suggestions for a hypothetical scenario where this was started all over.
Also considering how slow updates have gotten it's more lively we have at most 6 Anons writing the main story and one sperg throwing a fit writing their own ending.';

'>>46829780
I think 6 is overestimating. I think 4 and then the cirno guy sperging and writing his own ending.';

'>>46829829
>Hanaanon, Ayaanon, Keineanon, Suzuanon, Patchyanon, Mimaanon, Takaneanon
it's seven, actually.';

'>>46829863
That feels like an over estimation, especially considering this post.
A bit disappointed about the Okuu mention though, hopefully Cirnoanon's argument for excluding Koishi the one good thing he ever did for this project convinced the writers to drop her, the undegrounders.';

'>>46761441
Birds chirped and shrine maidens yawned, the usual morning scene at the Hakurei shrine. Though the world had already woken up it seemed Hana had missed the memo. The red-and-white girl lazily sat on the veranda, a cup of hot tea in her hands and shawl on her shoulders.

Despite the clarity of the morning sky and crisp warmth radiating from the sun, Hana’s head was foggy and busy battling the lead that still weighed in her eyes. She probably only had a couple of hours to sleep last night, by the time she slipped under she’d been letting out her frustrations for what felt like an eternity. That exhaustion seemed to only be partially abated by the morning, it was almost as if her blanket developed into a youkai overnight; judging by how she had to fight it.

In the end, the smells of breakfast and the perpetual annoyance in her mother’s voice finally did its magic, and she found the will the will to climb out of her futon. The scramble right after; of her taking off her crumpled Yakumo outfit and folding it back up, almost walking out with her locks still tied in those slender violet ribbons, and rushing to let in the cool breeze before cleansing herself did little to help in the long term.

A bonus, if there was one, was that at least she was too tired reflect much on her embarrassing behavior. It was refreshing letting the feeling that ‘if someone figured out I spent all night doing that…’ fade into the static of her gathering mind before it rose to the forefront.

A sip or two of tea later she heard her mother call out from the living room behind her, like a puppet Hana responded and arose from her stupor on the porch. She let out a yawn as she awkwardly stumbled with half-asleep limbs, ‘Right… Thanks mama~’.

For a second Hana froze. Her eyes were already staring at her mother. Her mind breeched the murky waters of fatigue almost instantly.

Reimu didn’t seem to notice, her apron-covered yukata-clad form was busy transporting two trays, who diligently held steamy bowls of breakfast. For that moment, where time seemed to stand still, Hana dared to hope her mother didn’t hear that. After all, it was just some off-hand comment half mumbled! She probably didn’t even listen to her reply, her mother was aloof like that at times, and so-!

However, luck would have no such mercy; Reimu’s eyes seemed to register her words and for a second her eyes flickered to Hana. Hana forced her stiff limbs to move, to not make her look weird or even worse: so the sinking feeling she felt on wasn’t show on her face. It was fine though, wasn’t it? Mother probably just heard the sound but didn’t even process it, that happens all the time, it happens all the time so-!

The trays clacked down gently onto the sturdy wooden table, her mother barely seemed to register her anymore. After placing the trays down, Reimu slipped off her hair cloth and shook the loose pony tail she wore. A soft smile cut through the annoyance that took residence on her mother’s face, and Hana could herself grip the sides of her miko outfit with a pinch, “Hanana-chan~ Mama made one of your favorites, an oyakodon bowl with fermented plum on the side!”

Feeling her face flush red at her mother’s sing-songy words, she scowled and felt vaguely like a kabuto mask, “Y-you know I hated you calling me that when I was eight, w-wh-!”

A rarity, a beaming smile blasted her mother’s perpetual glare away as she gracefully sat on her end of the table and mused, “Sorry! I haven’t heard you call me mama in years, you must be more tired than you look!”

The tone was apologetic, her smile and tone disarmed Hana, s-she didn’t know… o-of course she didn’t know the story behind it, Hana didn’t tell her the details like that… Hana worked to maintain the scowl as she tip toed her way to the table, “T-that’s right I’m tired, the futon was too lumpy and- and”

Like switching masks her mother’s voice took that natural authority despite her smile not abating in the slightest, “Hanana-chan, the foods getting cold”

This damn woman! Who does she think she is?! Hana was about to turn and leave, about to storm out, about to tell her off right here and now. Before she could do any of that her body seemed to have moved on its own, and Hana found herself sitting at her spot at the table.

With a grumble she cursed her bodies betrayal, it was only matched with the grumbling in her belly as she grabbed the chopsticks in front of her. Taking solace in the fact that her face probably couldn’t get redder she gave a quick thanks before swallowing her pride, and the first bite of her breakfast. Damn it, it was good…';

'>>46829930
a lot of those writers switched characters over time, others used to write all of those except a few';

'>>46830051
I'm aware, but the posts also shows a trend of writer consolidation, people can pick up characters as well as switch them.
Although the only character which someone is still writing for who should probably be dropped is Reisen, after that I think we're all in the clear.';

'>>46830069
I doubt the Reisen arc will even happen, writer seems to have vanished. Shame.';

'>>46830099
Shame? What was even going on with that, it's probably better no one is touching it we don't need to many things being involved in the messy finale.';

'>>46829780
>a hypothetical scenario where this was started all over.
De facto I don't think a hypothetical scenario like that would ever work out. The HSE (fic) is like this because it was a community project built up by like (at most) a dozenish anons adding their own characters and ideas and getting them built up together. So much of what makes the soup is a mishmash of a dozen stories being told in concert. I don't think you can really extract the core from that without the melange of stories all told in one setting.';

'>>46830110
>What was even going on with that
No one knows, it was never written';

'>>46830125
Too many cooks spoils the broth.';

'>>46830141
That is not the way of community writing projects, besides we regulate ourselves just fine. The project you want is not this project, please keep that in mind before you waste another 100 posts yelling into the wind';

'>>46770274
Speaking as someone with flat feet, those shoes look like hell to wear.';

'>>46830099
I couldn't really decide how to progress things after a point due to Reisen not really having much of a connection the plot outside of being Eientei's envoy and then my hands got full writing the Suzu. I'll probably get out an update for her so that anyone that wants her can pick her up.';

'>>46830191
Fair, at this point it'd be hard to shoehorn in a new character beyond writing for fluff and fun';

'>>46830141
This broth only came out because a bunch of cooks decided to have fun in the first place and build off a dumb idea of Yukari kidnapping Anon and making a whorehouse.
Also, I have to ask at this point, why are you trying to act as a back seat mod for a project you don't seem to even write for? Because it seems like you're consistently trying to target the whimsy out of this place.';

'>>46830153
For one, just because I want a better HSE, doesn't mean I hate the HSE. For all my complaining currently only the ciore stories are left with a handful of Anons the the project is all the better for it. The HSE I want is already the HSE we have right now even if I have problems with it and dislike the HSE of the past.
>besides we regulate ourselves just fine
Now yes, but before it was way to chaotic with people just doing whatever they wanted and everybody else just accepting it. At least the writers have finally got their act together and the worse elements are being removed.

>>46830191
>'ll probably get out an update for her so that anyone that wants her can pick her up.
Better to not write it then, there was already a discussion up thread about that sort of thing and randomly throwing in new elements.';

'>>46830220
writing so that 'anyone who wants her can pick her up' should be the same as saying 'if no one picked her up she'd be in a finished state anyway' which is fine. It just means she's not left in the lurch for no reason, and it definitely doesn't mean throwing in new elements.';

'>>46830038
I wonder if this chapter was influenced by the Mother's Day post, what an adorable little piece~
Hana is getting more comfortable around Reimu, and Reimu herself is even cracking jokes! The thing in the forest wasn't just a blunder~
thanks for the chapter!';

'>>46830215
Right? This asshole has been backseating and trying to fuck with things as much as he can, he has already bullied several writers off of this, and will probably continue to do so.';

'>>46830215
Because I like it? I'm genuinely interested in the project even if I don't like all of it, a handful of better writers is all I want and it's what we have now.

>>46830688
While two is technically several, you're acting hypoerbolic, other people have complained about the things I complain about and in ruder ways as well, and while I do have some minor complaints it's nothing worth voicing and I'm glad to have the writefags we do have instead of the ones I don't want.';

'Since we're currently experiencing a little meta derailment, I feel now would be the time to confess that I've been constantly flipflopping on dropping out from the HSE for like the past 2 weeks now.
I wasn't sure on bringing this up publicly but after reading the last 50 or so posts ITT, I think it might be time to swallow my pride.';

'>>46830038
Lol, reminds me of a younger me and my recovering alcoholic father. We get along pretty well now after some bumps on the road.
Despite everything that happened it's not surprising hana still wants to have her mom be a good mom, even if she refuses to admit it';

'>>46831028
it's a shame, but I get it, anon. This has been going for nearly three quarters of a year now and the majority of that time has been spent in the 'we'll be finished soon' mindset and watching people argue over the story in the threads, so eventually your mind is ready to tap out.
Happy trails if you do tap out, and I hope you keep writing in the future even if I don't know which character you were writing here. Out of interest, is there a specific reason that you're not interested anymore or is it just general disinterest?';

'>>46826350
—
Her answer didn't come immediately, those large eyes jumping to anything but the blood-soaked cloak and, naturally, I kept my silence. Things like this cannot be forced; applying pressure is a delicate process. Besides, everyone has pride, even the meekest of humans; to challenge it too much could shatter relationships… Hm, still, what should I do if Motoori decides she's not up to par? The requirements are few but specific: one cherished human that can be easily puppeteered into a position of power and with no real or small control over such power, to which I can perfectly fill…

No one comes to mind, which is a shame; having all this hard work wasted because of the lack of a compelling figurehead would be criminal…

Yes, it wouldn’t be right: the many efforts of the dead cannot be thrown away, and if it means resorting to unsavory strategies, then so be it—the thought clenches my heart with guilt, but I do my best to ignore it and so keep concentration on pouring magic onto the barrier and lure of desires.

Above, perhaps from the heavy smoke, rain starts to fall, my hands molding the shields so to have a cone-shaped roof, water droplets swimming down the walls of light in a visually hypnotizing fashion; more people enter, too, most in groups of humans and Youkai, mountains of wounded—limbs torn, holes through their bodies, immolation—awaiting field treatment, the few Inaba around working skillfully despite sluggishness from pregnancy.

I and Kosuzu watched it in silence…

… Finally, she speaks. “I don't know…” I glance at her, still kneeling on the ground, before moving back to stare at the communal efforts. Who, a year ago, would've thought? “E-Every moment I carried her, I was lashing out inside, thinking I was committing a mistake. Mokou's embers wouldn't last forever, and I-I could've died at any time… If Keine were a ghost, she'd be begging me to let her body go so I'd run faster…” She attempts to laugh at the end, but the accumulating tears make it futile; they get her on her feet and soon, albeit weakly, Kosuzu lifts the dead body and moves it to a more respectable spot. “B-But I couldn't, because…” She cleans up the tears, bells jingling with her small movements, one hand grasping tenderly the right of the dead woman—a desire, latent, pulses into the air, and I hide the sudden temptation to sigh; poor, poor Motoori. “… I t-think she'll come back to us!” Kosuzu looks at me shakily, and I can see the lingering shock of seeing her world go up in flames behind her eyes. Bitterness fills my mouth.

A coping mechanism; denial; survivor's guilt; delusion—doesn't matter. Not here, in hell, where it's all the same.

… There was, however, the same determination burning like embers against a fierce blizzard, the rain above intensifying to include thunders. “It wouldn't be the first time; I saw it happening at Eientei; at that night with Mr. Hieda and his s-samurai…” Her tears stop streaming and, at length, her eyes land on the cloak in my hands. “If someone could squeeze from the Yama a second chance at life, I think it'd be her.”

Hope born from delusion; hope to keep going.

Eiki is incredibly averse to the idea of second chances and only grants them to people she deems worthy or are purely white, but Kosuzu doesn't know that—better, doesn't need to know that—meaning hope pulses and the desire will keep on burning despite the attempts of the blizzard.

Useful.

“You thought highly of her, didn’t you?” I say, looking over at Keine briefly—you had good friends, didn't you~?—before resuming. “Okay, I believe you.”

Kosuzu doesn’t react, just blinks in sheer disbelief… Then, “H-Huh…?!”

“Your desires speak truthfully of your experience, so I choose to believe our revolutionary leader shall return—I'll even send a message to Eiki~” A gleaming ball of light births from in between my protuberant locks of hair, shooting up to the skies. It’s made up of nothing but a pound of magic that’ll scare Eiki by popping behind her; sad that I won't be there to see, but oh well. “So, until Keine walks amidst the living again, I think you should hold the fort. Our enemies don't have infinite ammo, and these walls shall hold on until I deem it necessary; we'll let them waste everything they have, then we'll attack them with all the rage this revolution has built for its entire existence… But to make it work, we'll need a leader—a leader that doesn't need to fight, yet a leader that'll keep the people's spirits up! Someone to shine brightly and show them a smile; confidence—we need you…” I move behind her and, reckoning the moment is perfect, apply the final pressure, laying the blood-soaked cloak on her shoulders. “The fight is not over yet, Kosuzu Motoori.”

She freezes, tense as a rod, gawking at the regal cloak. A flicker of heavenly magic makes it flutter majestically. “It's… v-very heavy.”

“As it should be—it bears all of these people's futures and by wearing it, so do you. Don’t worry, I’m here with you~”';

'>>46832216
last chapter of this part~! Will take a little break before the next, mainly to let others catch up, and will finish my other small storyline (as seen below, decided to push the Okuu chapters since one Anon was feeling disappointed~)';

'Dragons are resistant to nuclear attacks. Crazy, huh? Like cockroaches.

I like to kill cockroaches, the smug bastards.

“Hm… An overwhelmingly big nuclear explosion didn't destroy these chains or even bothered you, and the weird sword in the lake drained all the radiation I spread—very cool, though~new way to dispose of waste!” The dragon under me merely huffed, his massive head resting on one of the stone spikes surrounding this lake that's appeared out of nowhere. Orin told me not to mess with it because it’s Yukari's boring magic or whatever, but still! Disposal site that neutralizes radiation and disperses it safely?! That's, like, incredible! But there's the dragon and the weirdos who got mad at me. Eh, what can a girl do besides nuking the threat? The existence of a dragon so close to the palace could, theoretically, negatively impact Koishi-chan and her babies too… “How the hell am I getting rid of you…?” I ask the dragon, his elongated body spanning the entirety of the spiky hills surrounding the lake shifting a little, probably to scratch an itch somewhere along it. “Are you resistant to alpha radiation, by the way?” Taking after him, I scratch my wings too before lying on his iridescent scales. “Like, everyone kinda is… Until you ingest it. Maybe if I poison that waterfall with a BIG dose of alpha radiation and you drink it, then you'll die?” Again, the dragon huffs, heavy movements of the weird chains that bind his neck making cascades of dust. That's not a 'no'! “Hell yeah, that may work!”

The chains clank again as one of his hands—paws? Something in between?—moves, and the entire world seems to hold its breath as it approaches me. The red eye doesn't feel fuzzy or eerie, so no danger, but I can't help but wonder what he's—

—one of his claws gently petted the top of my head for a while before rescinding to its resting position under his chin.

Hey… That was very nice~

“Heh, I'll make sure to give my all and produce, like, a THOUSAND years worth of alpha particles~! I got you, Mr. Dragon!” Another huff, though it feels… amused? “You know, when I say I'll kill someone using radiation poisoning—like the fairies—they always scream or try to fight back. It's very funny.” I laugh aloud at the memories of screeching fairies before they are vanquished by overwhelming force. “But, even when I threw a sun at you, you didn't try to stop me… Do you want to die, Mr. Dragon?” I ask, puzzled. Never considered that: why would anyone wanna die? Life is so damn fun~!

His sudden silence, though, is upsetting… Confused, I move forward, sliding off his forehead and end up sitting on his snout, tailing his narrowed, kinda sorrowful gaze. He watches the people—either on the shore or walking on the water—rebuilding their weird shrines to Yukari's sword and peering back at us in awe, some even bowing…

Mr. Dragon is sad 'cause of that? The people can see it for sure, but don't stop anyway… What a bunch of losers!

“Can I evaporate them?” I ask, about to reach for the arm-cannon strapped to my back, but Mr. Dragon merely huffs, negating with his head—the movement shakes the mountains—something I don't understand inside those gigantic eyes. “Bleh, my head hurts… Trying to understand an assortment of huffs and give each different meaning is a pain!” I complain with a sigh, head spinning for real. Mr. Dragon laughs at my expense; the sound low, rumbling and quite apocalyptic… I pout. “You jerk—I'll make the alpha radiation taste incredibly sour ‘cause of that!”

As Mr. Dragon's laughter fades, he seems less sad~

“Another day, another Yukari scheme…” A sudden voice calls my attention to the familiar people that approach: the small oni, Suika, and the giant one, Yuugi. “Ya got caught on it this time, huh, Koutei?” Suika finishes, landing on Mr. Dragon's—Koutei, I guess—nose. “That purple bitch…” Koutei nods in agreement, and so Suika glances towards me, a big, silly smile adorning her big, silly face. “Yo, Utsuho-chan~nice seeing you fooling around with Koutei here! It wasn't as nice seeing that massive sun from the city, though, and dealing with the panic was a pain.”

“It wasn't that bad,” Yuugi muses, drinking from her plate. “It'd be fun to wrestle a nuke someday, though—I don't understand an ounce about nuclear energy anyway~” I make sure to remember such words for posteriority.

“The only weakness of the Underground is our lack of sun; you should be glad I graced you with one for a minute or two,” I shrug, watching as they sit around me, an amused sigh coming from the small oni and a thunderous laughter from the big oni. “Eh, whaddaya want anyway? We were talking about killing each other~”

“Sorry for interrupting the gripping subject matter, love birds,” Suika jokes, putting her sake gourd down. “Just wanted to have a little talk with Koutei about Kasen, nothing much. You can stay to listen if ya want, but I warn you that it may be boring, heh.”

A talk with a dragon being boring? Man, Suika must be REALLY drunk…';

'>>46831028
that's a shame, but it's always best to think about yourself first. See ya around this Mongolian bulletin board if you do decide to leave the project.';

'>>46832216
That dastardly Miko, manipulating people like that. The Suzu Suffering never ends, but at least Miko (marginally) believes in her.

>>46832243
I like how Okuu's first reaction to meeting a dragon is figuring out ways to kill it. It's a good thing she's friendly overall.';

'-Interlude: Procession of Fools-
Koishi walked along with the procession of Oni and vengeful spirits, smiling as they gave her a wide berth. Even if the surface of their minds were full of fear, hatred, one-sided grudges, and other emotions she didn’t care to return, she couldn’t show it on her face. Of course, nothing would happen if she did, she was magnitudes stronger than the strongest Oni in the procession.

Looking at them closer, and their minds as well, it did seem religious to Koishi. Some type of new-age pseudo-Buddhist grudge veneration distantly reminded her of something Marisa had brought up one time, although it probably wasn’t important.

Koishi walked along with them for some time, humming to her own tune until she made it to the procession's destination. One of many deep underground caverns, filled with Oni in religious garb and huddling around the edge of something she couldn’t quite make out at the cavern’s center. Nonetheless, she could feel its presence.

The crowd parted ways for her, hushed whispers as they approached the blacked pool. Koishi felt a slight presence behind it and continued forward, ignoring the Oni around her as the coils that connected her to her third eye spun and coiled around her in interest.
Koishi bent downsitting on her knees as she reached the edge of the lake. looking into the inky blackness speckled with star-like bits of shining white. Her third eye screamed at her, this was something she’d never seen before. Deep and hateful, childlike, and distant, the faintest hints of a simple mind.
But she remained outwardly smiling. Inwardly she was fascinated by what she was looking at. “You.” She demanded, not moving her gaze from the pool of blackness. “I know you’re there mister Oni priest, it’s not nice to loiter.”

“Yes, I-”

“Komeiji, Miss Komeiji. I am the sister to the Lady of the Underground, you are to address me as Miss.” Koishi said, channeling the handsome side of her sister's personality, and really there were few feelings better than when you held something over someone and could vaguely threaten them.
Even if Koishi preferred to be straightforward in contrast to her sister, she could do a little investigation of her own, even if it involved more threats.

“...Miss Komeiji-” the strained look on the Oni’s face was wonderful. “I speak on behalf of all the congregation here, we mean you or the place of earth spirits no harm miss Komeiji, nor any harm to the palace residence. For many years the -blahblahblah. It is the opinion of this congregation -blahblahblah. It is The right of the Oni-blahblahblah.”

Koishi rolled her eyes and turned the Oni out. She didn't need his words, only his mind. Peering inside the Oni’s mind, it was clear how this situation came about, the Oni were always a bit downtrodden and this one had always wanted to help fellow Oni for the good of the group, a rather rare mindset for Oni, so when Yukari had came and offered to help in exchange for some assisting Yukari.

Koishi found it funny, a ‘devil’ being taken advantage of in a devil's bargain.

Koishi nodded as the Oni finished talking, before turning her back to the congregation. Looking at the empty blackness there was only one thing left to do. “I’ll be out for a bit, don’t try anything okay?” Koishi said, addressing the entire procession of Oni, of course, all they could do was get themselves hurt, even with what she had planned next her ID would be perfectly fine defending her body like it had been doing for all those years.

Without a second more to lose, Koishi dipped her hand into the malefic ooze, and her mind left her.

--

Koishi jolted awake at the sensation of falling, a brief moment of panic before reflex overtook her and she righted her position and began flying.

Koishi immediately took notice of her surroundings, above her was a massive orb, black and rippling, doubtless the other side of the subterranean lake she had dipped her hand into. Distantly below her, there was a barren, sandy island.
Between the two she could see that chair god and Yukari doing battle, gaps ripping into the air and streams of red and green energy flashing, all the while the chair god was flanked by her servants, barely managing to keep up with their master.

“Huh?” Koishi’s eyebrows perked up as she noticed the two, beginning to slowly descend towards where they did battle, before noticing that her hands were see-through. Koishi smiled to herself. “Ha! I success!” Koishi pumped her hand in the air before looking back to where the Sages were doing battle, she didn’t try to read either of their minds. It didn’t take a genius to tell that the pond was some sort of weapon Yukari built to use against Okina.
Smiling to herself Koishi looked down onto the barren island distantly below before her eyes shot open upon seeing a small figure on the island below waving to her.';

'>>46834420

Descending, she could see the fight between the two sages heat up, with Okina retreating as Yukari pushed her advantage. Koishi suspected that this place had been set up in advance, maybe if she could’ve found a way to get her ‘physical body,’ or what passes for one for a youkai. She would have joined in against the witch, even if Yukari's mind was booby-trapped, Koishi’s main strength was her sheer physicality, despite also possessing a monstrously strong ability.

Shaking her head, Koishi waved to the girl in brown on the island as she came within speaking range.

“Hi, momma!” The small girl said, her brown hat flapping as she jumped up and down, waving her hand in excitement at Koishi's approach
“Momma?” Koishi questioned as she stopped floating downwards, not a meter off the ground as

“Ah well.” Sekai got a bit nervous. ”You see-” The strange girl proceeded to go off on a rambling story,m involving events that did and did not happen, scandals and solicitations of which Koishi was already sort of aware, an interesting series of events that led to the emergence of two non-existent child intelligences. The discovery of one led to the creation of the other, and as all matters in Gensokyo eventually wrapped back around to: Youkai politics and money.

“Well..” Koishi realized throughout the girls’ ramblings that she couldn't read the girl's mind as her third looked at the space where the non-existent girl would be. “Could you call me Koishi?”

“Ah yes, sorry Koishi,” Sekai said, bowing a little sheepishly as Koishi finally landed on the desert island.

“No, it's okay Sekai you- you didn't do anything wrong.” Koishi soothed as she approached the girl on foot, stopping half a meter away.
Sekai shook her head in affirmation. “I know…* Koishi didn't believe her, she knew what it was like to constantly be in self-doubt and had known enough children that they often would fault themselves for something bad or another person’s anger even if it wasn’t their fault.

‘Just like you, just like you blamed yourself, Just like you ran away,.’ Koishi had her down, doubts, and whispers that wormed their way into her mind, she had failed once and wouldn't fail herself or anybody close to her again. ‘I can help her.’

Koishi nodded. “Well, okay Sekai. Let's start from the top, I know Yukari has something to do with it, but it’s okay. You can tell me what happened.“
Sekai rubbed the tears away from her eyes and then began describing her predicament. Or more exactly, Yukari’s plans, especially regarding her brother. How Yukari considered them both her ‘children,’ how the fighting had been going, and the eventual emergence of both of the twins into real space. Or as real as the space in Gensokyo was anyway.
And how bad she felt for her ‘father.’

Koishi lowered her head, apologetically. “she really couldn't help Sekai with preventing any of this. She could kill the ball of hate above them, but the thought of that made her stomach drop. Even if he was a weapon, the child above her incubating hadn't done anything wrong.

There was nothing either of them could do at this stage, Sekai would emerge fully into the real world and so would her twin brother. Besides Koishi didn't want to kill a kid, let alone two.

“Aaahhh.” Koishi rubbed her hair into a frizzy mess in frustration, “Why do all these problems have to be so complicated, I just want someone I can beat up.” it was all she was good at, all her skills were marketable and tended towards combat.

Sekai, tears having dried, gave Koishi a kind smile as she held her hand. “It's okay, I'm sure everything will work out.”

Koishi rubbed the head of the small girl, smiling. Turning to the sky she saw a gap tear through the nothingness, countless seals and talismans on its other side. “Well, it looks like a certain someone’s finally arrived.”
Sekai’s eyes widened as Reimu Hakurei exited the gap and swung her gohei at Yukari.

-end-';

'>>46834423
Note: a small half sized chapter this time, an interlude to catch Koishi up and my last story post for this thread. Although the ending of course takes place during/after the next chapter when Reimu arrives.
Sorry for having Koishi basically take Patchy and Meiling's place here, but I didn't think I could do them justice, and also am pretty, probably overly neutral when it comes to the cast of the SDM.

>>46831689
Yep, honestly I blame myself both for joining the project at all and bringing so much stuff people dislike into it and not making my own ending months ago. I primarily joined this project because writing is fun for me but I’ve never written anything public before, and wanted to join in a fun and active community writing project which I didn't take too seriously. As the project became more serious and attrition wares on the Anons, I began to lose interest.
At the very least I’ll have my own ending, if I didn't write one and left the project with my work unfinished I’d never have closure.
Looking back on it, I probably would've had more problems with the HSE if I took it seriously from the beginning, so at least I don't feel bad about writing primarily for fun even if that sort of attitude as well as my inexperience in writing caused a lot of problems for other people.
Although I’d hardly call this a learning experience of any sort, mainly because I haven't learned anything. Have I improved as a writer?
Maybe, but I don't have any goals or ideas what I'm supposed to work on, most of the critique I’ve read hasn't been constructive, just saying a person saying something is trash, executed badly, has no depth, and that I’m a bad writer. Which is cool and all, I’ve said I disliked things without expounding upon it before, and I am a bad writer.
But without clear points I can't reflect on my work. Which is why I tried breaking down my problems with including Koishi in the finale into three points, inspired by the guy who actually responded at length to me last thread.. Of course I don't think people are trying to be constructive, which is fine they don't have to be constructive, but it doesn't exactly help me learn anything. Although “don't overthink things” and “don't do things your unsure of to please other people” are things I did “learn” but those are both very generic lessons people repeatedly have to learn across their entire life and I’ve learned before as well.';

'>>46833903
the Suzu is a strong lady, I'm sure she can withstand the pressure of having dozens of lives suddenly be put on her shoulders, including her family's and various pregnant women and children just after witnessing a murder (unironically), Miko couldn't have chosen a better middle-aged woman to hype!
>I like how Okuu's first reaction to meeting a dragon is figuring out ways to kill it.
it's just that irresistible 2hu urge to kill everything for the funnies of it speaking~';

'>>46831584
>Lol, reminds me of a younger me and my recovering alcoholic father. We get along pretty well now after some bumps on the road.
unexpectedly wholesome, glad for u and your pops man';

'>>46838198
Koishi...';

'Hypocrisy could be seen as a form of impurity, but only if others knew of it. Shamefully, the mistake lies between me, Doremy and the sands of time: I, Sagume Kishin, interfered with events on Earth, lending the powers of my sacred tongue to mere mortals—whether they liked it or not, it’s of no concern—altering the course of history forever. If I were any other person, there wouldn't be a trial, only fervent calls out for execution, but alas, why do so? Why, after thousands of years, do I position my pure reputation and unrelenting gathered faith on stake…?

My gaze shifts to the first word of this entry in my private diary, and a sigh eludes me. I may judge those around me and be perplexed by their fervent interest in the storylines unfolding at the heart of this puzzle, the HSE, but now I realize I was just as prone to losing myself in the convoluted yet fascinating nature of human and Youkai reactions to the most bizarre situations—a teacher destroying the status quo and, in doing so, destroying herself and all those who believe in her—the ultimate test of fire? A woman of many sins, redeeming herself through sheer willpower and thus wielding power over a magician of many mistakes who discovered unprecedented strength to build a future; A child struggling with past and future, torn between hedonism and the path covered in nails that is called change of self, a demon constantly lullabying the many traumas of her life; A secret goddess and her madness; a lost woman in her own world of lies; a slave tormented by all facets of her life; and more...

Yet, the one that moved me beyond the restrictions set over thousands of years ago and made me commit a sin nigh cardinal was the cursed child, Hata no Sekai.

How to describe, how to describe…?

… True purity, that’s it.

A hideous amalgamation of the worst Terra, Earth, and its many names can produce; of infinite sets of quality and no distinguishable mental, with attachments too powerful; of cunning like the edge of a knife, but tainted by a childishness that makes me want to yell at every line and action she has—I do not, of course; the thought alone is dangerous—all those traits combined should have made her spitting image of impurity.

It did not.

Somehow, she, the picture of impurity, is one of the most beloved aspects of the calamity that brews down on filthy Earth. It has gotten so bad that one resident of the Luna Capital has tried smuggling themselves to Gensokyo just so they could imprint their echoes on Sekai and so claim her as a resident of Luna. Preposterous! Simply insane!

But after what I did, who am I to say anything?

Still, the idea of seizing the powerhouse that is the unborn goddess child has evolved from whispers to propositions, primarily for our own safety.

… It'd take Junko one step inside the HSE for Sekai to inherit her pure hatred against our race, and so make the strongest goddess that's yet to live our nemesis…

Sighing, I close my diary with a nod of denial. It's an unrealistic assumption at best and downright paranoia at worst. Junko has no interest in the HSE, so we must be safe, yet the trepidation lives in people's minds since the whole of Luna Capital stopped to bask as Sekai battled her two mothers. It sure has made the issue of investment in the happenings down below way worse…

I should go have a walk, even if it's Wednesday, in accordance with Terra's calendar; the stress is getting the best of me.

Leaving my house to the vibrant and clean streets of the Luna Capital, I play in my mind's eye a game: how long until I— “Shut up, you know it's unrealistic!” Yorihime yells, gesturing with fists closed—almost trembling—to her sister, the two women responsible for our defenses, displaying flushed cheeks.

“It is not; happy endings are not unrealistic! I do believe Sanae will survive her confrontation, Keine will revive and together they'll destroy the evil—”

“Ah, c'mon, that's such a pussy ending!”

—hear someone discussing the HSE. Record time today, it seems. Though something feels off between the sisters…

“Gah, you're always like this!” Yorihime continues the banter, her expression livid and brash. Rabbits and other residents stop to stare. “Why can't you accept that the earthlings are stupid and will get themselves killed?! You don't want to see the important characters die; you don't want to see any rape scenes; and thinks all should end in rainbows and roses! Do you hate fun, sister?!”

Toyohime, offended, struck back with a pointed finger towards her sister. “You act as though I am the issue, so why do you find their suffering so enjoyable? I know why: you are a bully, sister, even using your influence to make the media stop airing stories you find uninteresting!”

What…?

“Shut up, you're the same!” Yorihime looked at her wits’ end. “I know you've been bribing them to focus on the fluff and cutesy stuff rather than the nitty-gritty!”

H-Huh?!

The Watatsuki sisters…

… Why…

Why are they taking this so seriously?';

'Deciding that the crowded streets weren’t the best of places, I approached the quarreling sisters and, as gently as possible, placed my hands on their shoulders, silencing the abysmal display of emotions right in the heart of the Capital. Their faces had lost all color; no amount of good fortune or learning how ridiculous their little squabble was in my eyes could soften the stare I gave them. “Follow.”

“She started it—”; “She's been a bully—”

Deadpan, I stare at both sisters. “Follow.” Without saying anything more, they followed, and before long, we were standing on an ordinary rooftop, the night high with Gaia painting the skies in green and blue, surrounded by millions of stars, the backdrop to my disappointment on full display—arms crossed—both sisters kneeling on the ground, each bearing an expression from one extreme of the pendulum: the abrasive Yorihime pouted, seemingly feeling justified by her arms also crossed; Toyohime, on the other hand, stared back at me with calm righteousness, her hands on her thighs. Princesses, heirs to the throne of the Lunar Kingdom… Quarreling and using their influences as royalty and protectors to change the distribution of their favorite soap opera.

Pinching my nose, I sigh—just what Yorihime needed. “What?”

“She's disappointed in you, sister.”

“At us! Don't try to dump all the blame on me!” Toyohime was about to follow, but I beat my foot down, stopping the more… casual princess.

“Why?” I ask, careful to watch the lines of fate. “Why does it matter so much to you?” ‘To the point of fighting like two bratty little children’, but refrained from adding that part. Yorihime seemed to be preparing an answer but stopped herself… “Irresponsible.” I finish.

“I-I didn't do much; I just… Y'know, asked them to stop transmitting that trash about fairies and irrelevants; I want the good stuff, gore and drama, the storylines—main and side—that matter!” Yorihime explained herself, much to her sister's visible chagrin.

“You're being unreasonable; some of us like to see the trivialities in between the more heavy subjects. Some even add context to certain events—” Yorihime was about to say something, but I signed a 'no' with my hand and she bit her tongue. “Thank you; that's why I decided that our dear media should be getting a substantial sum of peaches should they put more emphasis on the little things. They breathe life into the world instead of presenting it as a closed race of events.” Toyohime pouts. “Besides, you could've simply not read or watched what you don't like, sister.”

“We don’t need to know every second of every person in the HSE; that’s just bloat and filler for the sake of filler—I’m not letting that slop taint my daughter’s history!” Wait, what…?

“The future of MY daughter-to-be will be an odyssey with all its ups and downs, no stone unturned. Simply trying to delete everything you have no fondness for shall make it a sorrowfully uncompleted atlas.” That emphasis in the word 'daughter', the death stare Yorihime throws at her sister, coupled then with the challenge offered by the often unassuming and calm Toyohime, each ready to jump at the other's throat…

I can already feel the migraine coming.

These two idiots really do care a lot about the HSE, huh? So much, they've been tampering with it to garner what results they think befit better their views and personal likings…

“Shut up! Sekai would never choose someone as boring as you—maybe to pick on you, but even that has its limits~” Yorihime bites.

Toyohime returned the obvious bite. “Your personality would render the girl insane in mere days; you're just the gatekeeper, but much lamer~I am like the librarian, but far more adequate to fill the role of mother.”

It's not often I curse the inability of Lunarians to produce offspring like humans and Youkai can—pure beings must go through a process much longer to have children, and even then, it takes centuries for a pure Lunarian to be born. The existence of the HSE has exacerbated jealousy of the relatively simple process of human reproduction tenfold.

The little quarrel would've continued if I hadn't beaten my foot down, their eyes turning to me. “Enough. Your discussion has fair points.” I pause. Nothing…? Nothing. Good. “But your way of doing it has caused damage to your relationship and reputation. It's embarrassing and unfit for two Lunarian princesses.” Eyebrows lowering and frowns show that they're listening, my expression calming a little, conscious about my next words. “If you love the HSE so much, discuss it politely and know when it's useless to pursue a discussion.” The reverse of that would be 'if you don't love the HSE…', so things are okay. I look between them, both squirming in their own ways, before, together, uttering:

“Fine.”

Ugh, it's done… For now, that's it.

… Still, better keep my eyes peeled; I doubt the sisters would try it, but nerves are getting really high. Must keep the Lunarians from interfering with the events on Gaia.';

'>>46841478
>>46841470
TO REMEMBER: it's as canon as you want it to be, and won't interfere with the main storyline!
the Lunarians work as a funny foil for the thread, so wanted to poke fun at both sides of the recent conversation about chapters in the HSE while writing some Sagume, though noticed that the conversation has become better and bearing actual points instead of just temper tantrums. Nice~
and in this line, for the writers that remain in the community project, know I love you retards like you wouldn't believe. It's been incredibly fun writing with all of you, be it through threads that lasted 3 days and heavy procrastination, through hits and misses, everything; this project wouldn't have been as fun as it still is without you here!
sorry for the sudden sappiness, just am as invested in this as Sagume is, the project has been a blessing to help me with stress
Will get back to writing now~!';

'>>46832243
Torturing fairies to death seems pretty out of character for Okuu, she's an over enthusiastic and easy to manipulate fight fag with the power of the sun.
I get what you're going for here, she's acting like a kid with a magnifying glass killing insects, but Okuu never felt like the type to do that sort of thing, she's too innocent for lack of a better word.
It's not something she would think of unless someone put her up to it, plus the mentions of the fairies screaming seem a bit much. There's also the fact of where she would get the fairies, we see some dressed up like zombies in SA due to the incident and fairies being attracted to incidents, but other than that one time she wouldn't have access to fairies if she wasn't on the surface and I think her dumping alpha radiation into fairies would eventually catch the attention of someone who'd tell her to knock it off.
The way you characterize the two Oni is interesting? It's not bad, but I prefer Yuugi to be the serious one and Suika the less serious one.
Afterall Yuugi did stick around with the Oni and is employed while Suika is a hobo.';

'>>46841491
it's understandable criticism, first time writing Okuu so still am feeling her character.
Wouldn't say she tortured the fairies, just came to them and pulled the fucking sun out of her pocket, which should've scared them; and the fact they return (assuming Okuu knows they return), should make her feel like it's okay to do if there won't have big consequences.
about where she'd get fairies, it's just a small reference to memories of phantasm that I wasn't considering returning to
and I don't remember having her say anything about dumping alpha radiation onto the fairies, though guess the radiation poisoning line conflicted with the intended line of using overwhelming force to kill them. Probably should've made a better distinction there, muh bad.
Still, will try to strike a better balance between innocence and nuclear annihilation next chapter!
>Suika and Yuugi
I am of the same opinion, though Suika was kinda just fucking with Okuu when talking about the city and the sun, that's why Yuugi says it wasn't as bad, as she had to deal with the panic and Suika is joking around about it; though unsure if I passed that very well since they came in scene during Act 3 of the chapter.
will explore better their reactions to Koutei & Yukari's actions in the next chapter!
thanks for the helpful review!';

'>>46841604
Due to the events surrounding her mentions of fairies, overwhelming force, Koutei, and Alpha radiation I got the mental image of doing the same thing she was there being of doing to Koutei to the fairies.
I.e forcing them to drink irradiate water';

'>>46841489
I know this is meant as a comedic aside on the moon... But this kind of feels like set up for making the Lunarians the "extra stage replacement" now that Sekai's birth has been absorbed as part of the act 3 arc.';

'>>46842252
it felt like mostly retreading the first sagume post to me
let's be real, there's not going to be an extra arc. Even getting to the end of act 3 is looking dicey at this point, and no one's got the energy left to write a bunch more on top of doing endings';

'>>46842252
Not really? Sekai's inclusion is just a metaphor for the HSE project itself as the sisters want to mold her the way they want to and end up fighting over it when it's clear that it's not up to them.
The lunarians have zero presence in the story, so pulling a "yup, Yorihime and Toyohime are pulling up to Gensokyo when all 2hus are battered from a mega battle to swoop Sekai and Sekai, likely weakened from the revival, will be unable to defend herself and so need call up to her parents to protect her" wouldn't properly work.';

'>>46842269
>spoiler
seems real, considering Sekai worked out much better in the storylines she was tagged with rather than being reserved to the very, very end, such a loveable character; and on top of that she'll have a presence throughout the 4 arcs of the finale AND a role in the Final Set with her fate manip/tree spawning
It does seem an extra stage shouldn't be necessary to wrap hers, Yukari's, Hana's, or Anon's storylines, all that'll conclude in the final set.
I'd love to discuss this with the other writers, seems like something we should have a look on.';

'>>46842252
Nah, it's her. Gengetsu rape time will make Yukari look like a virgin. Dream World will cross into unreality and the HSE. Mugetsu will adopt the sword. Anon will be fall into the Blood Pool and the touhou that saves him will marry him in an epic finale.';

'>>46842372
Sekai will probably end up being a set piece for the climax/act 3. Then the ending happens.
If there is an extra stage I'm imagining it to be something completely different, like a joke ending, post-credits scene, or a look at how the characters are doing x amount of time later.';

'>>46842538
in my mind and probably no one else's, sekai is the climax of the HSE story, and then Hana/Yukari/Anon/Reimu is the emotional climax of the whole project. because I'm a nerd for this sort of thing I probably would barely even have them fight if it was up to me and it would be THE conversation that all of them could never have before
all the endings come after and could be set whenever and wherever down the line.';

'>>46842553
No that tracks, there aren't many other ways the ending could go without it being weird and something out of left field.
Which should be avoided.';

'>>46842553
I know it's not going to happen but this post just makes me imagine that the emotional climax is going to happen one minute before the HSE explodes, Hana/Yukari/Anon/Reimu are all in one room. Sekai activates the timestop one last time targeting the four of them as exceptions. They all talk it out in frozen time. Yukari gets one last chance for redemption, but like always fucks it up.';

'>>46842650
I imagine it going like this if this had actually happened. They're forced to all sit around a table in frozen time as everything's exploding around them and Hana finally gets to straight up ask all of her fucked up parental figures just what their deal is because at the end of the day, the real story here is whether or not Hana is capable of coexisting with them all after all the pain they've caused each other.';

'>oh, that fits so well in the flowchart
>yes, yes; that makes sense and can be arranged, just need to change the order in which things happen
>hell yeah, it'd be so cathartic! The characters will be at their quintessential selves~!
>.... Wait, half of those characters are mine and I have written extensively the other two...
>Meaning I'll have to write most of it...
Oh god, a writer's worst nightmare: having to write!
I'm beyond hyped to write the fuck outta of that, the Anon/Yukari exploration still is my favorite sequence of chapters I've written, with a close second being Reimu/Hana at the party
Putting all together for the pinnacle of emotional turmoil of the HSE sounds like heaven to write~';

'>>46841489
At least you aren't expressing gratitude for the ex-elements which took so long to remove.
On that note, the HSE is a collaborative work and Anons which break from the pack should the rewarded by being included in the archive, besides certain anons have accounts of their own where they should post their drivel instead of filling up these threads with it.';

'>>46843028
You're obsessed, and your backseat modding is doing more to kill this project than any amount of whimsical sidestories have ever done.';

'>>46843028
Holy crap you are still going out of your way to ruin shit for everyone with your backseat bullshit and harassment of the writers, fuck right off.';

'>>46843038
>>46843203
>>46841478
>[...]know when it's useless to pursue a discussion.”
Don't entertain the thread's resident retard, you've seen what that leads to.';

'>Be >>46831028
>In the middle of writing 2nd incredibly lengthy response to >>46831689 (scrapped first version)
>"Eh, this is getting way too dramatic. Your stuff is almost finished anyway just get your ass back in that hotseat and finish what you started."
This project is giving me some form of stockholm syndrome I swear.
Fuck it, dropping out is for chumps. I earned that character tag on AO3 least I can do is try and reach some kind of ending.';

'>>46843247
The writers here are so compliment starved that one loud jackass threadshitting over substories they don't like (and successfully managing to bully a weaker story off) makes them think they can dictate policy. Telling them to fuck off at least helps keep their threadshitting from escalating.';

'>>46843590
>(and successfully managing to bully a weaker story off)
lolwut?
You mean the Lunarian story';

'>>46841478
>>46841470
she's literally me fr fr';

'>>46819156
>These scars will walk with me my whole life.
>… Still, I am more than my scars; more than the fire and the chains that were burned on my skin—I am a father, and this woman is the mother of my only child.
Wow anon, that's the kind of characterization that will forever linger in my mind whenever I read fiction, great work.
>>46817702
Also if she's not breaking out of the afterlife for you, is she really the one?';

'>>46847500
>Also if she's not breaking out of the afterlife for you, is she really the one?
>Reimu on her way to slaughter her personal hell just so she can be revived and be sent to the distant past where she can give Anon and Hana the life they deserve
https://litter.catbox.moe/fa63uo.mp4
and a little Hana edit, of course~';

'>>46848517
Pretty cool, I can't imagine how much work all of the image edits would've taken, even that short clip of animation must've taken some time.';

'>>46851023
thanks~
>I can't imagine how much work all of the image edits would've taken
each is about 5 minutes depending on the image, more if I decide to clean the background/add something; with entire GIFs ranging from 2 to 40 minutes of edit. At least it's not as time-consuming as rigging models, that's for sure...
>even that short clip of animation must've taken some time.
about 6–7 minutes for the 30 edited frames + 41 of non edit, plus 1 minute to set it up together as a GIF. The usual. The entire video would've taken about half a day of work, though...';

'>>46851068
I'm glad to hear you aren't sacrificing life, limb, and body to bring us your edits.
I'm rather inexperienced in that field so I don't have a frame of reference.';

'>>46851101
it's an enjoyable hobby, and sometimes in my spare time/break at work I just scroll the boorus thinking, 'man, Hana would look funny in this/doing this', though I refrain from posting too much to not bloat the thread.
I digress, however, before I turn into a supermarket grandma and start gossiping about everything in my life~';

'>>46832243
—
It was incredibly boring.

The conversation started relatively well but rather than what I expected, y'know… dragon stuff—which directly correlated to cool stuff—they just talked about… Normal stuff! And I can't even understand what Koutei's saying because Suika manipulated the density of her draconian vocabulary, which was 0 words, into all words! That's cool and all, but she said she couldn't do it for me because of a string of words she'd spoken that were very complicated and long and so I've already forgotten… Eh, probably wasn't important. Sadness of not comprehending Mr. Dragon aside, soon I found myself dying of boredom poisoning as I watched Suika ask weird questions about Kasen, Yukari and the HSE—the what…? Oh, didn't Orin talk about something like that when she was plotting to kill a guy or something?—, to which Koutei answers with different rumblings, each travelling the Underground and shaking its foundations, be it softly or harshly, to the point Yuugi would sometimes leave to verify the integrity of things. Hope it's all going well with the furnace… Well, if something bad happened to it, everyone but me and Mr. Dragon would already be dead.

Yuugi that had abruptly appeared to my side laughed as, to entertain myself, I started experimenting on Mr. Dragon's scales, the mini-sun spinning about half the speed of light on my very fingertip being pressed gently against the iridescent green carrying enough output to devastate the entire Underground. Ruffling my wings in annoyance, I look at her. “Whatcha are laughing at?”

“Nothing, nothing—just amused. Sure you are not an oni?” She asks with a raised eyebrow, taking a seat to my side and bringing that sake plate to her lips. Down below on Koutei's snout, Suika continued her questionnaire. “Sorry for Suika. She's usually more carefree, but Kasen is involved and, well… She hasn't seen much about her these past years, so she's being very protective.” I blink. What the heck is she talking about? Our eyes meet and, after mumbling some half-assed words—'not being let into?' Into what…? Is she drunk too? I'm starting to hate drunkards, and the nuclear option is as enticing as ever—realization seems to dawn on her because she's laughing again. “Sorry me now~guess I just assumed you were sad for not… Eh, forget it. Want a drink?” She offered the plate.

“I don't drink; Satori-sama said it'd make my output go 5–13.”

Yuugi blinks, shrugs, and resumes drinking. The Underworld shakes as Koutei's voice echoes against the walls, the people below in awe. I pout harder, hands itching to reach for my arm cannon… Nah, it'd make Koutei sad, and I don't like to use overwhelming power against sad people, as overwhelming sadness can be quite a terrifying opponent. “Shame, isn't it?” Fixing her purple yukata and staring down at those jerks below, Yuugi speaks as she drains what seems like an endless supply of alcohol. “I tried to speak to them, but one thing force cannot destroy is faith: You punch them in the face; the next day they're back praying, begging for our ultimate downfall…”

“They should stop; Mr. Dragon doesn't like it!” I say, pouting.

“You're more than right, Utsuho-chan, but no one likes to be hopeless, so they seek comfort in anything—even if it harms others.” Her gaze shifted to Suika for a brief moment before returning to me. “Don't blame those bumbling fools; blame Yukari, who has brought so much pain to my sister and her friends.” Her words bore rage that lasted as much as alpha decay, a slim smile soon painting her face. “In that line, I was meaning to ask you: how much do you know of our situation? The sword, poor Koutei here, the HSE…?”

She drinks more, chains chiming—waiting…

… I cocked my head to the side, and she almost choked on sake. “Heh~I think that answers it. Satorin shouldn't be considering taking you with us if you're not on par with most of what's happening, which is a shame, but…” She eyes the mini sun I hold. “Guess it's the safer choice.”

I blink; w-what should any of this mean?! “Hey, explain this… stuff! I'm curious now!” I swing my arms around, the mini-sun threatening to reach mini-critical mass.

“Just wanted to make sure—ask your master, not like she can hide everything forever.” She brings forth a hand and, as if candlelight, snuffs the mini sun. Wow~! So cool! The little display quenched the sudden anger and utter boredom the last 20 minutes—felt like a lifetime—put me through, though curiosity still lingers inside, posing as a dam between this quiet and the temptation to put her statement of wresting a nuke to the test. “How's Koishi doing? Been busy lately with religious fanatics and couldn't be there for her usual nighttime story~” She giggles before guzzling even more sake.

“Ah, I’ve been busy too—last I heard was from Orin: Koishi-chan entered labor~”

And half that sake went flying off her mouth. “W-WHAT?!”

I sulked, annoyed. “What's so surprising about Koishi-chan getting a job? I’ve got one, too!”';

'>>46853967
part 1 of 3 of this mini-arc for Okuu done, should be over around when the others catch-up...
man, waiting always gets me tense
satori pregnancy is a mystery, meaning liberties can be taken~';

'>>46789843

I became aware of someone jostling my shoulder, awakening back to reality. The haze of despair clouding my mind lifting for just a moment. My eyes meet Mystia’s, her hand still grasping onto me. “Kosuzu, we need to leave, it’s getting too dangerous” she pleads just loudly enough to be heard over the gunshots, the fires crackling and the cries and screams.

As if it emphasize her point, I turn my head upwards to see pillars of fire raining down from the sky like judgment from heaven, although they dissipate long before they can reach the ground. But far from being a solitary occurrence, more and more streams of fire followed, being thrown out quickly and wildly, making the sky almost as chaotic as the ground. It was impossible to make out with details through the heavy smoke and blinding fire, but figures darted throughout the skies. I had only seen occasional glimpses of Danmaku throughout my life, by no means an expert; the whole thing was too much to process for me. But even I could tell this was different. This wasn’t like the friendly sparring matches, where it was more of an art and a sport then combat. It was brutal, desperate. It was a match between two sides, both looking to disable the other in the quickest and most efficient way possible. War. Even if they tried to prevent any collateral damage, it was still risky to stay here. We needed to leave, get far away from all the danger.

I stand up, coughing as smoke fills my lungs. I take a step forwards, shielding my eyes from the smoke as I look for a path out of here when my foot collides with something. Keine was still here, we’d have to leave her to make our escape.

The thought of her just sitting there, discarded like rubbish to be consumed by flames occurred to me. Then I found myself squatting down, trying to find purchase under her. Keine was a hero, and this wasn’t the end she deserved. I had failed her already. I could have chosen my words better, gotten Sanae to join us instead of staying with the Hiedas. I could have asked one of my friends to help us; Yuuka alone would have made all those men toss down their arms and beg for forgiveness just by presence alone. So much I could have done, a hundred ways I could have changed things flashed through my mind as I struggled to pick her up. My muscles protested, but I pushed past the pain. This last act was all I could do for her now.

“Kosuzu, what are you doing? We need to leave!” Mystia begged. I pause and turn to look at her, taking the respite to catch my breath. She doesn’t say anything else. With one more effort, I strain and manage to lift Keine up, awkwardly managing to drape her over my back. Then I begin the process of standing up, the heavy weight on my back making my knees buckle, almost sending me crashing to the ground. But with one last burst of strength my legs stop wobbling and I’m upright as I can be. I let my heart settle, breathing getting harder because of the smoke; we needed to get out of here.

I took a few steps forward, getting used to the extra weight. Then I started to walk. Then I ran.

I ran forwards to safety, Mystia’s footsteps behind me. Dodging burning debris, ignoring the smell of smoke and what I could only assume to be burning flesh, no easy path out, all I could do was just keep moving before I collapsed. Small embers circled around us as we ran, when a bullet whizzed above my head one of them darted up and intercepted it in an explosion. A gift from Mokou, but it would only protect us for one long.

Rounding a corner, the smoke clears and we see another group ahead. A blonde haired woman led the pack, extra spider-like limbs carrying children in them. Yamame? One of the men in her group calls out to Mystia.

Then Yamane stumbles forward, blood spraying from her shoulder. Before she had even hit the ground, Mystia had already turned and fired off a ball of danmaku. We lock eyes as Mokou’s embers intercept a volley of gunfire, the explosions deafening. I didn’t need to ask her the intention for the shot she had just fired off. This really was hell.

I turn around to Yamane, pleading to myself she was fine. Her shoulder was bleeding badly, but she was still breathing. The children were sprawled on the ground, some starting to cry, and I'm reminded of-

“I need to find my family…” I mutter out. Mystia gives me a nod, which I return.

A beam of golden light shoots up to the heavens, just looking at it filled me with a sense of hope. There’s where I need to be. Making my legs move again, I split off from Mystia.';

'>>46855316
I stumble through the former festival grounds, breathing coming harder, Keine’s weight seeming to increase with each step, and my body screaming at me to collapse and give up. But that beacon was getting ever closer, step by step. Just a bit more to safety, come on body; work with me here. I reach the golden barrier, beacon towering above me, and push through.

Instant relief. The air is cold and breathable, no longer chocked by smoke and embers. I suck in air greedily, each breath a blessing, not minding the hacking cough as I force out all the smoke I ingested.

With bleary eyes I scan around my new oasis of safety. Quite a few people have arrived before me, some in worse states then others. But standing tall and proud in the middle of it all is a woman, and at her feet are-

They’re not moving. Muttering their names I make my way towards them, kneeling down and lowering Keine to the ground. I reach my hands out to them; I had to make sure, if they really were-

Warm skin and gentle breathing. Nothing more then scuffed clothing and a few scratches. I let the tears fall. After everything that had happened these past damned months, the universe saw it fit to at least let me keep something. Finally having a moment of respite, I wipe my brow clean of sweat and dirt, running into resistance when I reach my hair; caked with who-knows what.

There’s so much to say to them, so much to make up for. But for now they needed to rest. Maybe I should join them; the hard and rough ground seemed to be as inviting as my futon at the moment.

“Kosuzu-san.” I hear a voice from behind me. Taking a bit of time to wipe the tears from my eyes I turn around to meet the source “Do you know who I am?” the woman asks.

“You're… Toyosatomimi no Miko, right? Keine said you were with us…” Saying Keine’s name fills me with guilt. All the plans she had for the future, ruined.“S-Sorry our revolution ended like t-th—”

“Ended?” Miko responds “Keine might've died, but look all around you: there's still people here. People whose future were destroyed, with faith in their former leader that won't fade… People that want to build a future, too.” She steps towards me, now at my side. “Do you think their dreams died with Keine? Do you think she'd like to take such dreams with her to the grave...?”


“N-No…! Of course not!” I snap back. All the planning we did, the sacrifices we made, even the good times we had at the festival. To see it all amount to a footnote in history is unthinkable. “… But what can I even do? All has gone up in flames…”

Miko remains silent. Flames and bullets try futility to pierce the walls of magic, the danger of the outside ever present.

“I believe, Kosuzu Motoori…” Miko says, bringing my attention back to her. “...That not all is lost yet.” From behind her back she presents something to me. Keine’s cloak. It’s caked in blood and dirt, and singed in a few places, but it was the very same one Mokou had made for her, the one she had worn all the way up to the moment of her- “And YOU can bring these people the hope they've lost.” Miko continues.

“M-Me…?” I stammer out, not sure if I heard correctly.

“I can’t do it—these people don't know me; I've been with them for mere hours. You, however, were there from the beginning. For these people, you're a pillar… And who better to take action than the one that stood by her side?” Miko doesn’t crack a smile or laugh at her joke. She’s serious about this.

“Say, Kosuzu-san… Why, through hell, did you carry Keine's body?”';

'>>46855316
>>46855372

Just a quick update for now, better to post what I got now and finish later then keep delaying things until everything is all done.';

'>>46853967
Koishi getting a job, KEK. I always imagined that Satori bud, they grow a second third eye then it falls off, grows it's own body and coils, then grows a human body.

>>46855372
Easy solution! Put the corpse ahorse and have Keine ride upon her gallant steed and she shall surely rise from the grave.';

'>>46855372
>>46855316
>Maybe I should join them; the hard and rough ground seemed to be as inviting as my futon at the moment.
kek, good joke, Suzu~as if you're getting rest anytime soon! The revolutionaries need you, Suzu, otherwise everyone is gonna die! No pressure, but of course.
Poor woman; from another angle she looks like a fucking hero carrying someone in her back, but in her mind she's about to collapse and seeking the safety that is her family, with regrets about being capable of having done more...
it fucks your mental, but should keep her going despite adversities. We need you, Suzu!';

'>>46856365
>Easy solution! Put the corpse ahorse and have Keine ride upon her gallant steed and she shall surely rise from the grave.';

'>>46858050
They could also put her in a cave and close its entrance with a boulder, both tried and true methods of resurrection.';

'>>46830038

The crimson worrywart sighed out a cloud of thin vapor, much to Hana’s chagrin. It was about lunch time and the sun hung high in the bright sky, it bounced off of the previous nights’ snowfall and eliminated the gloom of the season from memory. The glare also irritated her eyes, making the snow-capped grounds of the shrine an eyesore.

Ever since breakfast, her mother had been poking her and prodding with inane nonsense like, ‘Do you want a snack? Did you pack everything? You know that you can come back anytime, right?’ and blah, blah, blah… Was it the mama thing coming back to bite her? Or maybe mother was just jealous that she’d be spending time with aunt Sanae? Yeah, totally that! No way this wino would fuss over her like a mother hen, nope not Reimu…

That was why it was entirely justified that Hana do all but give her the stink eye, why she could answer her strict mother with curt and to the point answers like: ‘No, thank you, Yes, I got everything, n-no, I don’t want a lap-pillow till Sanae-san gets here! It’s not that I’m embarrassed either, I’m just not tired! Yes, I know I have bags under my eyes!’

Honestly, it was so tiresome… She wanted to go home already, she wanted to play with Aunn and walk around the market, not fight off her overly affectionate mother! It was all the weary miko could do to avoid her attentions by diving into a chore, which was why she found herself with a snow shovel in hand.

With a satisfying crunch she grabbed the ankle-deep snow using the wide and flat blade of the wooden snow shovel. She hefted the weight of the snow before throwing it off to the ‘front’ of her, using minimal effort to mostly let it slide off. With the world lines constraining she let it fall into a pile at the edge of the yard, a rather large pile. A pile that, if she wasn’t such a mature woman already, she’d consider diving into with all the gusto of a fox hunting a hidden mouse.

Fortunately, Hana was not a child anymore. So, when her chore was over with, and the pile reached about her full height, she was not at all tempted to dive straight into the loose, clean snow. That was why, now that the shovel had been put away and her mother was preoccupied, she found herself staring at that earth-bound cloud like it was a cake with her name on it.

The plan was simple, there was no line of sight from this edge of the yard and the shrine itself; blocked as they were by the storage shed. Her mother would be distracted for another twenty or so minutes at least, that leaves her around ten to fifteen to play, a couple to dust off and fix her hair, and a few more to compose herself. It was the perfect crime, and if she pulled it off right no one would be any the wiser…

No one that was, except the last person she wanted to see right now!

Right as she was ready to dive in, her legs bent as if to pounce, her arms over her head like she was to dive into a river, and a wide grin on her face like when Keine would hang her drawings on the classroom wall; did she hear a snicker from behind!

Body frozen and head moving like it was on a rusty hinge she turned her head to look over her shoulder, there stood her mother... and aunt Sanae…';

'>>46858920

As it turned out, Sanae had gotten an early start today. She finished up her morning duties quickly, a miracle in of itself, and before it was time for lunch she had set off from her shrine. Apparently, she wanted to get here early to discuss things with mother and Hana, a thing she succeeded on with flying colors.

Now that they were cloistered in the warmth and comfort of the living room, sipping on steaming cups of tea, Hana found herself once again befuddled by the hags of Gensokyo. One green and one red, both trying to discuss the next steps with Hana with the air and authority of those fully vested in the ways of channeling the gods themselves. Both failing to hide the snickers until Hana’s glare merely made it a sidelong smirk.

Hana sat with her arms crossed, the cup of tea in front of her sat nearly untouched as it steamed away. She tried keeping her expression neutral, but she after an unfortunate incident where a field mouse scurried across a corner of the room; she couldn’t help but wear an annoyed frown like a mask.

Sanae wore that apologetic smile she adopted when she gets caught up speaking about that anime and robot stuff, her mother didn’t hide her bemused smirk and glint in her eye. Hana tried to ignore them both as piped up, “It’s fine, but not another word about foxes or snowmen! I’m not a kitsune and I don’t eat mice!”

Her mother nodded quietly and sipped her tea, letting a skin-deep calm fall over her face; if the mischievousness in her eyes was anything to go by. After a moment she spoke, “Of course, I apologize for suggesting you should… go pounce on that mouse…! after it- after it scurried past you-!”

Sanae swallowed something down before opening her mouth in turn, “It was insensitive to sneak up on you outside, I’m really sorry for teasing you so much. Even if you were s-squatting like a Kappa about to sumo!”

Both women took a sip of tea through bit tongues after glancing at Hana’s frown, the silence that lingered after seemed to settle the room, outwardly at least. Her mother seemed to be biting back a grin, “So again… I was briefly informed of everything, but the plans to attack during the solstice are set in stone?”

The divine miko cleared her throat with a half-chuckle before brushing aside a lock of hair, “That’s right…” She adopted a business face, and on instinct so did Hana and her mother, “Well, after the party and all… After you left anyways, Hana-chan.”

Sanae seemed to focus on the future now, even Hana’s frown faded as the sobering memories of the recent past trickled into the shrine like a curse. Shame and regret bit at the corner of Hana’s mind as Sanae continued, “Well the whole discussion there got a bit derailed because Tewi-san interrupted with her nonsense, then Yuuka-san sai-“

Her mother cleared her throat, prompting Sanae to perk up as if she just remembered something. She clenched a fist and struck it into her palm, with a nod and a ‘right!’ she continued, “Anyways, to keep a long story short we agreed that the solstice is our best bet, you know about it, right Hana-chan?”

Nodding, Hana did vaguely remember some flyers being spread through the village for some winter event. Not like she wanted anything to do with it, so she tried ignoring it whenever it came up. The miko of frogs and snakes continued, seemingly satisfied with Hana’s half-hearted nod, “Right, so to keep a long story short it’ll all start with the signal and how we’ll be placed…”';

'>>46858928

Slightly surprising Hana, Sanae was able to switch between that seemingly airheaded persona and the motherly side she knew and admired without issue. She had a feeling she got the abbreviated version, but the plan was simple enough. Once the signal is struck, her friends and Okina’s cronies would start their attack to distract the guards and cause chaos. Once the big guns started moving around; Reimu, Mima, Yuuka, and the other heavy hitters would make their move.

Though Hana didn’t understand what a ‘big kaboom!’ meant, she figured her excited friend meant there was to be a signal. That was when the fireworks should start… whatever that meant, and Hana and some other surprises should show themselves. Passion aside, the plan seemed solid to Hana’s mind, it was to be an all-out assault where they’d rush into the damned building; smash it up to cause chaos for the filth there, then have… Aya? Rush into scoop Anon up and get out before things get too dangerous.

It sounded flimsy and a little complicated to Hana, but she couldn’t find anything to poke a hole in; nor was it her place really. Still, if Sanae is vouching for them, and Kanako has even more tricks up her sleeves she’d have to trust these Youkai with her father’s life. Her friends may be good, and she’d trust them no matter what… but having riff-raff youkai flood the village to do damage control? Letting so many hostile youkai run amok without warning anyone? A cold pit started forming in her belly, one that she wouldn’t let show; if it was all to get father out…

Before she got lost in the void of her worried mind, she heard Sanae’s voice grabbing her attention. She blinked as she Sanae tilted her head to the side, “Hana-chan? Did you hear me? I was asking if you had any questions, did you get enough sleep?”

Sanae reached over to the table at those words, brushing some hair into place where it got loose. Closing her eye for a second, Hana enjoys the of Sanae’s palm and realized that she might just be tired still, judging by how she wanted to use it as a pillow. Either way, Hana responded with a bit of forced energy in her voice, “No, but I’m fine. It’s just a lot to take in… I’m not sure I understand everyone’s plan, but if all I have to do is help fight, I can help break down any barriers!”

The energy in her voice seemed to fool Sanae at least, her mother’s face was more unreadable, as always. Setting Sanae with a smile, she tried ignoring her mother’s seemingly grumpy eyes. They did discomfort her normally, but right now she didn’t want to think of her and Kasen fighting to the death. Dragging Kasen’s family into this and forcing Hana to fight them after so long, mother jumping at this suicide mission… Hana kept the smile on her face as she tore her eyes away from her mother’s figure.

She’d have to do something about Kasen, it was her fault that Kasen was brought so low, her fault that Kotei was taken prisoner… She felt guilty, but didn’t let it show on her face, she didn’t think she had what it took to fight her, but there must be another way…

Chuckling in a way that strangely annoyed Hana, Sanae smiled at her words, “that’s right, all we need you to do is help and take down any traps we might miss. We’re counting on you!”

Hana felt a bit dissatisfied, like she was being brushed off to an extent. Crazy of course, this was Sanae we were talking about, but if she just didn’t want Hana in danger then of course she would put her far from things… With the decision that Sanae was just being too motherly, Hana decided she wouldn’t push for more. She’d just have to do things like the incident resolver she has to be, quietly and directly…';

'>>46858939
>>46858920
>>46858928
Hana bullying this soon into the day?! Way to get the spirits high~
>I’m not a kitsune and I don’t eat mice!
Fox'ana... That's just too much power, Jesus!
>She’d just have to do things like the incident resolver she has to be, quietly and directly…
yeah, she's jumping into the fray and grazing death as if Kaguya on Lunatic. May the Hakurei God have mercy on her poor soul...
'Twas nice to see Reimu and Sanae not be on each other's throats and have something like a common goal (protect the 'Ana), though it's kinda sad Sanae is still seething inside because of Reimu's change and her inability to help Hana in the party.
thanks for the chapters!';

'>>46858928
>I’m not a kitsune and I don’t eat mice!
This feels like a reference to something, but I don't know what, I do know a kitsune impersonated Marisa once.
One of the pipe foxes.';

'>>46859209
>Sanae is still seething inside because of Reimu's change and her inability to help Hana in the party.
Remember, it's only been three days! Give the poor goddess a chance... because the heida won't!
Thankfully the first meeting with Sanae and Heida will take place in the evening, so i'll have the chance to write around and enjoy some fluffy scenes with Hana and her godmoms';

'>>46859633
Don't trust them Hana! Those fools are just trying to use you for their own gain!
There's only one woman who loves you the most, who you should devote yourself to.';

'I hope this village stuff ends soon so the actual finale can start';

'>>46860609
the only one that cared for Hana before it became cool, the hag will win solely on the moral high ground!';

'>>46860645
It's not like it's stopping people from writing the ending, and only 2 write fags are working on it.
Really it's all on the handful of Anons who want to work on the ending stepping up and writing it, they've been putting it off for quite some time and I'm quite excited to see what they can come up with.';

'>>46860645
I like the village stuff, what's wrong with it?';

'>>46860686
>Really it's all on the handful of Anons who want to work on the ending stepping up and writing it
time is quite the harsh resource, I'd say. I've been ready for the finale for quite a while now -- am Reimu/Yukari/Kasen/Keine/Othersanon --, but not all the other writers have their characters ready too due to their own reasons, as seem with Hanaanon that'll be having the Hana have her talk with Kasen; Ayaanon that'll commit terrorism and Mimaanon apparently having something else with the squad
ah, if life had no responsibilities and a writer's biggest fear weren't writing...';

'>>46860609
don't believe the evil women! She's an emotional train wreck and ruins others' lives!';

'chance after chance, of rebuilding, of moving on and fixing her mistakes; of forgiveness... Each ultimately wasted, unresolved trauma so latent it grips her to never let go. I wonder if Maribel screams inside, beyond the boundaries of loneliness and the personal hell Yukari's created for herself; if she can peer far beyond the veil of the Gap, watching but unable to do anything to stop the atrocities...
what a hell of a life, from top to bottom.';

'>>46860714
nothing is WRONG with it, but it's a big climactic action scene right before the finale which is four parts of big climactic action scenes.
It's just a little off pacing-wise I think';

'>>46860886
Am aware of that which is why the arc won't last much longer (about one thread with my writing schedule), though I'm also counting with the Solstice blowing it out of the water since the Keine's storyline stakes are much lower, and the first planned fight/emotional challenge (Reimu/Kasen&Koutei/Marisa/Hana) already packing a major punch';

'>>46860724
>as seem with Hanaanon that'll be having the Hana have her talk with Kasen
Pretty much that, the village stuff is kinda being shoehorned in since it's all happening in the smack dab of the village and Hana's planned refuge.
Also, Hana had been ready for the finale for months... its just a new tagent of a story is created and now she's no longer ready...';

'>>46860645
The village stuff isn't delaying the finale, it's filling in the otherwise dead space until the finale actually begins.
On the irl winter solstice';

'>>46860997
>spoiler
Does this means... We're getting a second Christmas special and Hana's rematch with Santa?! HELL YEAH BABY!';

'>>46860987
It depends on how much time the writefags want to take, but a think a minute by minute in detail break down of every event up to and including the solstice would give us enough time for that and more.
Of course that probably won't happen.';

'>>46860997
>>46860997
I'm reasonably certain with the pace this project is going at, a summer solstice to winter solstice timeline for act 3 isn't even going to be that ridiculous of an estimate.';

'>>46859633
>some fluffy scenes with Hana and her godmoms
waiting warmly~!';

'>>46861397
Nonsense, just two more threads.';

'>>46866022
amen, Anon, amen';

'>>46866490
I'm joking, but it's summer in the good ol US of A here so the American writers should have some more free time to write .';

'Thread doko? Do I gotta bake?';

'>>46869592
Desu';

'>>46869592
I'll be home soon to bake, but you can if you do it want';

'baking~';