!u.ddykRmDU 2012/06/20 (Wed) 20:22 No. 505 ▼ File 134022375090.jpg - (283.17KB, 1024x768 , 134014397696.jpg)
"Hey, stranger. Mind spending some time with an young and innocent maiden?"
You quickly look at the small blond girl. She's kind of seductive, but she's still a girl, and that would be disgusting.
"Not interested.."
The girl removes her head, laughing at you.
"Oh, you little pervert. I didn't mean it that way! But it looks like you're lost, and you probably have an interesting story to tell.."
"Still not interested.."
The girl's smile goes wider.
"How about this? If you tell me your story, I'll treat you to an ice tea. That sounds lovely with that heat, right?"
You nod.
"Fine.."
"There we go!."
=====================================
"So, start already.."
Slowly taking a sample from the cold tea, you appreciate its fragrance. It's been a while since you had something that good. You guess she earned the right to listen to your story.
You point at the sky.
"During the night, there's a huge rock hanging from the sky. They call it the Moon." Lowering your finger, you point at the land exposed in front of you. "And this is Gensokyo, the former land of fantasy.."
You hear the girl nodding.
"Yes, I remember that. They created Gensokyo to imprison the worst youkai.."
"They did. But the border died along with the last Hakurei, and the youkai flooded the the world, finishing what we called the Human Age.."
"I remember that too.."
"Of course, there was casualties on both side. Humans fought hard, and youkai paid their conquest. When youkai tried direct approach, they were sent back home by firearms. When they tried to hide and ambush, they were smoked out and shot down. Of course, in the end, the humans were out of ammo, and they were promptly killed. But that's not my story, this is only what I heard, and I'm no going to suppose . What matters is that while the Hakurei border was breaking, a monk very strangely died. I know that her name was Byakuren, and that she wanted to help youkai, but when she felt that things were changed, she instead tried to help humans. It's still not clear how, but she was wounded during a fight, losing most of her followers. Finally, she tried to turn into a, um, "Sokushinbutsu?, by causing her own death by starvation.."
"I remember that too.."
"It's after this that her most loyal follower came back, only to see that things changed. Her name was Toramaru Shou, she was a bit clumsy and not very bright, but she was extremely loyal and totally devoted to Byakuren. She saw what happened to Gensokyo, she learned how Byakuren died, and in appearance, she was satisfied with it, calling it ?a noble death?, but the truth is that she felt that it was unfair, and, slowly falling into a blind rage, she summoned her god, Bishamonten, god of war.."
"Ha, Vaisvarana. It was bad news?"
"Yes. Bishamonten is a noble god, but he's practically living for war, and he's not too bright either. Bishamonten took over Shou's body to use it as an avatar, and decided somehow that the Moon was to blame for the Hakurei's death, and therefore for Byakuren's sacrifice. Bishamonten, using Shou's abilities to find treasures, gathered an army of youkai and humans alike, and he moved to attack the Moon, being helped by a celestial.."
"There's no doubt about it. If he really managed to unite the prey and the hunter, it was really Vaisvarana himself, not some false god impersonating him."
"Oh, yes, it was the real deal. I joined his army, offering him my abilities, and I was ordered to lead the human group. But in fact, I was never asked to fight, my main job was to protect the human from the youkai. In a way, I was in charge of the supply corps, while giving the occasional tactical advice.."
"Vaisvarana asking for advice? I don't remember that part of him."
"Bishamonten is a god of war. On a battlefield, he's one to be feared, but he's also too honorable. When he attacked the Moon, he was expecting a ?clean war?, as he said, without any civilians casualties. In short, he was expecting the war to be a series of duel, but that's not what happened. The Moon has several aces, the two of them being women. One was able to clear the battlefield by just moving her hand, while the other could summon many gods. Bishamonten clearly underestimated the Moon, and was defeated a first time. I clearly remember it."
"That's logical. Vaisvarana was used to war like that, as it was the case back in the days. Each general was fighting the other general in a duel."
"Yeah, but things were different back there. After preparing a camp in the peach tree forest, we moved to meet the enemy. We finally meet them, and we were greatly disappointed as there were only those two women. The youkai started laughing, but I ordered my men to be careful. That was brilliant from me, because the older woman just moved her arm, and, in a blink, half our army was rolling on the ground, screaming in pain as they were missing their arms, their legs, or even their chest. When he saw that, Bishamonten was furious, and he ordered to charge. But before we could reach them, the younger woman created an image of a man holding a long katana. After that, I don't really remember. I was knocked down , and I only woke up three days later."
"She summoned a god. Probably one of those lunar god. I don't really know them.."
"Anyway, I tried asking what happened, and it appeared that after I was knocked cold, Bishamonten ordered to retreat to the camp. We lived here for several years, occasionally starting skirmishes with the lunar forces, but nothing too serious. When Bishamonten ordered another attack, the younger woman -the one that summoned that god- has gone for the Earth, to find her old teacher or her husband, I'm not sure. Being alone against a whole army, the other woman was defeated and forced to retreat to the Lunar Capital, abandoning her mansion to the youkai army.."
"Hang on, she was fighting from her house?"
"No. Her house was built on a strategic point, on the way to the Lunar Capital. To reach the Capital, it was necessary to capture the woman's mansion. And it wasn't an easy task, as it was located right in a bottleneck. Bishamonten gave orders to the youkai to attack the house, while we human were ordered to build ships and sourround the house.."
"I see. And what happened after?"
"We were outflanked. The woman was still alone against an entire army, and she had to retreat, but she still managed to sink most of our hastily made ships. I can remember it clearly, I had that woman in my sight, ready to shoot, and I see her just moving her hand, and the ship next to us suddenly sinks, drowning everyone. Even that ghost died that day."
"A ghost drowning... That's interesting..."
"After we captured the woman's mansion, we were quite happy. We should've been ecstatic, but I think we were scared too. That woman injured a lot of youkai before retreating, and she killed a lot of my men, so we were all thinking ?if just a single woman can do that much damage, how are we going to deal with the Moon's finest warrior??. I think Bishamonten was wondering the same thing too, because instead of pressing his advantage, he decided to settle down for a bit, healing the wounded, and trying to recover all drowned people, probably to give them a decent grave or something. So, again, things calmed down for a bit, and we were kind of happy. But, one more time, Bishamonten decided to attack, but this time, his target was the Lunar Capital. Except that this time, we were outsmarted. While we were taking it easy and resting, the moon woman created something to assist her. It was one of the Moon's most disgusting creature, a depraved and shameless hybrid. When we walked to the Lunar Capital, our troops began exploding, one after another. At first, we thought they were using mines, so we slowed down, and we moved more carefully. But our men keep exploding, so I suggested it may be a marksman or a sniper using of the Moon's finest weapon, but Bishamonten ignored me, and ordered us to keep moving. So we did, we were still walking, leaving our wounded behind us, trying to ignore them as they were screaming in pain. And when we finally reached the Lunar Capital, we understood that the one in charge changed. Instead of facing one single woman standing in the open, we were facing hundreds of lunar rabbits, all armed with a rifle, organized in a battleline."
"Modern war, hu? How did Vaisvarana reacted to that?"
"He ordered us to charge. I ordered my men to take cover and shoot. The youkai charged, and quickly ran away when the rabbits started shooting back. And while the youkai were running away, we humans held the line. I think that Bishamonten wasn't expecting that, and, losing his temper, he forgot everything and charged by himself. It was the most impressive thing I ever saw, that tiger youkai, a spear in his right hand, a pagoda in his left hand, he charged, taking every shot. It's when he reached the lunarian line that things became funny and that I saw the one commanding the rabbits. At first, I was surprised, because he looked like an old friend of mine, but he didn't reacted when I called him. Anyway, even whole charging like that, the battle was still lost for us, and using the confusion, I ordered my men to cover me when I hit Bishamonten on the head with my rifle, knocking him out. Then, I grabbed him, and I ran away."
"You were either desperate, either stupid."
"Probably both, but when he woke up, Bishamonten couldn't care less. The war has changed, and he was facing an unfamiliar situation, where his combat skills weren't important. After that, he trusted us a bit more, but it was all for nothing, because no matter if you give an youkai a rifle or a hatchet, he won't be able to figure out which end is the shooting end and which one goes against your shoulder. So in the end, most of the youkai used their own abilities to sneak behind the enemy lines and caused havoc while we human were the bait. And, well, it could work against a normal opponent, but we were facing highly-trained rabbits using sophisticated firearms, while we were using old weapons raided from Japan Self-Defense's storehouse. We were very quickly kicked out of the house, losing our opportunity to attack the Lunar Capital directly, and, we were pushed into our original camp location. And when, that disgusting hybrid set the forest on fire, forcing us to camp on the beach. Caught between the Sea of Tranquility and the forest, we were doomed. But then, something unexpected happened. Someone found a letter while looking for food in the forest, and it was adressed to Bishamonten."
"Interesting.."
"That letter told him that the hybrid would be moving to plan his next attack against us. By using that information, we ambushed him, and we captured him. Bishamonten was furious after him, and he ordered the hybrid to be interrogated by an oni.."
"Woah.."
"It went badly. I don't know who started it, but they all started calling him ?the hybrid?, so I guess the nickname stuck to him. After all, I'm not going to give you details, but the oni supposed to interrogate him broke his back, leaving him disabled. Unable to walk, the hybrid was useless to everyone, so we threw him away and we returned to the beach.."
"..."
The girl doesn't say anything, but you know what she's thinking. Torturing a prisoner and leaving him to agonize isn't something you should boast about, but she asked a story.
"He disappeared later. Someone said she was taken away by the gap youkai, another claimed that he killed himself by going in the Sea of Tranquility to drown himself. Honestly, I don't know. We couldn't find any traces, not even a footprint. It's like he just vanished. But the important thing is that the Moon was now deprived from its most brilliant tactician, Bishamonten was pleased with that fact, and he prepared a fourth attack.."
"And then?"
You take another sip of tea. It's getting warmer.
"The woman who fled to the Earth came back with her husband, to assist the Moon during the last battle. I couldn't help during the battle, I've been wounded earlier, so I spend the whole fight trying to heal while the youkai were fighting, and apparently it turned from a certain victory to a slaughter. We lost.."
"And what happened then?"
"Nothing. The woman's husband negotiated with us, and we left.."
"You're not giving me a lot of details.."
"I don't really want to talk about that. It's been a war, after all. It makes an interesting story, but there are still small details that I don't really want to remember.."
"So you're fine with giving me details about how you tortured someone, but a negotiation is a painful memory?.? The girl snidely remarks.
You shrug.
"Circumstances.."
Still smiling, the blond girl stares at you.
"What happened after that? Why aren't you with the other veterans, boasting about how many enemies you killed?"
You shrug again.
"That tea is delicious, but not enough for me to give you the whole story, sorry.."
She laughs.
"Would you tell a poor goddess how she can hear the whole story, then?"
"If you tell me where I can sleep without being killed by an youkai, I'll come back to tell you the rest of my story.."
"What about Byakuren's shrine?"
"Don't really to see Shou's face again. Especially after spending 50 years serving her god."
"The Hakurei shrine?"
"Can't go here either.."
"Well, maybe the village? After all, they could use a veteran such as you to defend themselves.."
You smile warmly.
"The village then. I'll come back someday to pay you back. So long, and thank for the tea.."
Leaving the girl here, you start walking away.
"Don't be a stranger! If you look for me, call Suwako Moriya and I'll be here!."
You wave.
"I'll remember this! Thanks for everything.."
It has been a nice little chat you had here, but now, it's time to run again. Things are changing, but for the best. There's a world to rebuild, and you want to be a part of it. But just a small part.