It's the crack of dawn. The Sun is just rising, lighting the land as it does. Two girls run toward a small forest, stopping by the entrance. "Renko, this is the place, right?" Holding on to her hat, Renko looks around and spots a red ribbon on a branch and smiles. "Yes, Mary, this is the place" she replied, pointing at the ribbon. The blond girl squeals with excitement "aren't you excited? We're finally going into Gensokyo!" Trying to hide her excitement, Renko simply replies as calmly as she could "yes, yes, I know. I can't wait! What wonders are in store for us? What will we see?" By now, Renko was unable to hide her excitement, and Maribel only made it worse by joining in, adding to the excitement. They both sit on a bench under the tree and open a paper containing a letter with instructions:
"Dear friends,
I have managed to "convince" one of my friends to open up a portal to Gensokyo, more specifically here in my shrine. The portal will only accept two humans to prevent any unwanted infiltrations. Just be quick about it and enter as soon as you see it. It's going to open by one of the benches near the entrance to the forest. Look for a tree with a red ribbon. The portal will open there early in the morning. DON'T MISS IT!
Your friend
The Beautiful and Sweet Shrine Maiden, Reimu Hakurei"
They closed the letter and waited for the portal to open with anticipation. At the Yakumo residence, Yukari had had too much sake and was blabbing complete nonsense and laughing at random. "Lady Yukari, please calm down!" said Ran, who was trying to teach Chen some math at the time. Ran then looks at the clock; it was 8:12AM. Ran opens her eyes wide and gasps violently and shouts "Lady Yukari, Lady Yukari!!!" Yukari tilts her head to Ran's direction asking "whet ish ith...? Pffft, hahaha... Ran." "Lady Yukari, you didn't forget your promise, right?" Yukari stops laughing, thinks for a moment then snaps her fingers "ahh yeah~... I waz zupposed to open a ghate for the two heeumanz" and with that, she falls asleep. Ran desperately wakes her up "Lady Yukari... the gate for the humans!" Yukari waves her arms around in an erratic fashion saying "I already opened it... let me sleep, okay?" Ran then looks outside, Chen still counting numbers, and thinks quietly to herself "I hope she didn't open it somewhere dangerous...*sigh*" then she heads back to the table to continue with Chen's studies. Outside, some people were coming by the forest, some jogging, others just reading the paper by the benches. Renko and Maribel look at each other very disappointed, then Renko sighs loudly and says "I think... they must have forgotten." Just as they were about to give up, they heard a strange noise. A strange tear had appeared on a tree, two benches away from the one they were. They noticed the two red ribbons on the tear. Renko shout "MARY! There it is!" Maribel gasps and they both start running toward the gate with speed. They were just about to reach the gate, when suddenly two boys pop suddenly from behind the tree that was just before the gap. The two girls try to stop in time, just as one of the boys starts posing saying loudly "see? The ladies come running when they see me..." The other boy sighed and slapped his forehead, but was suddenly knocked back by his friend. The two girls had just crashed against the boy, who in turn knocked his friend back, all four falling. When Renko and Maribel got up apologizing, they realized the two boys weren't there and with a loud "uh oh" both girls realized they just sent two boys into Gensokyo by accident.
At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu was pacing back and forth, grumbling. Marisa was at the shrine's porch calmly sipping on some tea, and eating some cookies. "She FORGOT!" shouts Reimu. "I am sure she's sleeping right about now. Oh~, when I get my hands on her I'm going to-" "Relax, ze." calmly said Marisa. "You know Sukima. She's probably waiting for you to get all worked up to come through at the very last possible moment." Reimu takes a deep breath then looks back at Marisa and says "you're right. She's probably opened the gap by now anyway." Suddenly, they hear two voices screaming not too far away. Reimu slapped her forehead hard grumbling "what a PA~IN!" The gap had opened just at the edge of the mountain where the shrine was. The two boys were falling to the forest below. "What the hell just happe~n!" said the boasting boy. The other boy looks as they fall rapidly to the ground and says "KYO!!! Under you; use that branch as a trampoline!" Kyo fell on the middle of a tree branch where the branch bent down and slightly cracked as Kyo jumped and used the next branch to spin around, then lets go to land softly on another lower branch. He looks around for his friend whispering to himself "dammit, his body couldn't take this kind of impact... AIL!!! Anilan, where are you!!?" A bit winded, Ail comes our from under a bush, his face and left arm full of cuts and blood all over but still able to walk, he calmly replies "I'm here. I used the smaller branches to soften my fall and was able to grab one branch before I fell. I see that you are well." Both laugh for a bit, then Kyo, as he comes down asks "where the hell are we?" Ail just shrugs, then suddenly a large wolf demon appears right in front of them. "Well, well! Two tasty looking humans ready for me to eat. How fortunate. Last night's hunt was terrible for me, so I am quite hungry. Kyo's face fills with panic, however Ail just calmly looks back at the large wolf-like creature. "I-It can talk... Ail that thing just talked" Ail calmly nods and replies "yes, I can see that... but you should call him a wolf demon." "How polite you are, little human, to your predator. Perhaps I'll kill you quickly and painlessly" replied the demon, however Ail calmly replied "you are most welcome, however, I don't recall saying you were going to kill me." "Ail! Don't encourage it!" shouted Kyo. At that very moment, the wolf demon charged at Ail. Kyo froze and blocked his eyes with his forearms, calling his friend's name. At that moment, Ail moved to avoid the wolf's jaws, then kicked it down with all his strength. Kyo opened his eyes and was left in awe, however celebrations had to wait as the wolf quickly got up and backed away. "You INSOLENT human. How DARE you-!!!" Countless sealing talismans and green colored stars fell on top of the wolf, blasting it and knocking it down. Kyo, very surprised, and Ail, with an impressed look in his face, both look up and see a shrine maiden wearing red and white, detached sleeves, and a large red bow on her black hair, next to a blond girl wearing black and white clothes and a witches' hat flying just above them. "Are you two alright?" asked the shrine maiden. Ail quietly nods while Kyo stares at them both, unblinking and mindlessly asks "where the hell are we!?"
Back at the shrine, Ail had his wounds treated and properly bandaged. Both Kyo and Ail were now kneeling inside the shrine, right next to a table with two cups of tea next to them. The shrine maiden looked a little mad, while the witch-girl would just stare at the two boys curiously. "She's not coming... oh, ho-ho, but just you wait, I'm going to throttle her when she comes." said the maiden furiously. The witch simply said "Da~ze" with a smirk on her face. Ail coughs, breaking the awkward silence from his part and introduces himself. "My name is Anilan Inmodo Leuch, but please, call me Ail, and this is my friend, Ka-" Kyo glares at Ail before he could continue. Ail just looks back and awkwardly smiles then continues "...my friend, Kyo." May I ask where are we?" The shrine maiden calms down, takes a deep breath and sighs. "Sorry... I forgot you're not from around here. My name is Reimu Hakurei, and this is Marisa Kirisame." Ail politely bows, Kyo hesitantly follows his friend's lead. Reimu continues "You are in the Harkurei Shrine, in the land of Gensokyo." Kyo springs up asking "Gensokyo!? Where the hell is that? You-you made the name up... this is a trick this-" As his friend kept on elaborating, Ail felt a deep sense of nostalgia, and for a moment, stared blankly at the floor, then lifts up his head and says "so we fell into a portal after all." The other three look at him and he continues "those two girls that bumped on us were trying to get to a portal after all." Reimu's eyes opened wide, grabs Ail by his shoulders and violently shakes him asking about the two girls. "Calm down, miss! Yes, there were two girls before. One had black hair and wore a black hat, had a tie and a white shirt, the other wore a purple dress, and a puffy white hat on her blond hair. They were running so fast... when they bumped on us, they sent us through a portal by accident." Reimu blankly smiled and though to herself "she opened the portal somewhere else... murder-murder-murder-murder". "That's Sukima for you, ze!" said Marisa while shrugging. Reimu glares at Marisa, her eyes twinkling. Marisa wisely shuts up and sips on her tea while looking elsewhere. Kyo finally calms down and says "well, I guess you can send us back then, right?" Ail felt as though he had been impaled by daggers in his heart after hearing his friend say those words. "It's not that simple" said Reimu. Kyo just slapped his face hard, then looks at Reimu as she continues "I had a lot of trouble convincing her to help those two girls get in. I don't think she'll help again." Ail quietly sighs, as if great relief just came to him. Kyo ponders for a moment then smiles and says "well, it's not that bad, I mean... having two cute girls like yourselves come to our rescue like that... why this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship." As he said that, Kyo wraps his arm around Reimu's shoulder. Ail smirks and sips on some tea, then moves two baby-steps to his right, then suddenly, Kyo was forcefully flying out the door, sliding on the ground and hitting a tree, finally coming to a full stop.
Somehow, Kyo rapidly recovers, dashes back inside, but before he could say anything, Reimu was glaring at him. Something inside him told him to sit down and keep quiet, and so he did. Reimu and Marisa both stare at the boys now, to get a better look. Ail had short brown unkempt hair, wore a violet t-shirt, black knee-long pants full of pockets, and brown short boots. Kyo was very fit and had black spiky hair. He wore an unbuttoned red shirt, and under that a white muscle shirt, long white pants and black slippers. Ail notices Reimu staring at him. "What it is, miss Reimu?" Reimu snaps out of her concentration and says "are you... sure you're not from around here?" Ail looks down at his tea, saying "I-I'm not... I was born outside of this world... yet-" Kyo notices his friend was uncomfortable, so he interrupts the conversation "right, right; look, the thing is we have no homes here, so..." Reimu raises her hand to Kyo's eyes and says "you can stay here at the shrine for a few days... get settled in, but you'll have to work your butts off if you want to stay here... got it!?" "YES MA'AM" shouted Kyo, placing his hand on his forehead in salute. Ail nodded quietly when suddenly from outside a voice was heard. "Excuse u~s!" It was Ran and Chen. The moment Ran reached the shrine's doors, she sighs and tried to cover her face with her hand saying "she didn't..."
"So let me get this straight" said Reimu with a murderous look on her face, while Ran simply looked down ashamed "she got completely smashed, and opened the gate without thinking..." Reimu smiles again, however all in the room could feel her desire to cause harm, however, she exhales, rubs her forehead with her index finger and says "I'll deal with her later, I suppose." All in the room sigh, then Reimu presents the visitors. "Ran, Chen, these are Kyo and Ail, our newest residents for a while. Kyo was in shock, staring at Ran's tails, making Ran feel uncomfortable, while Ail was already stretching his hand to Chen's saying "nice to meet you, miss Chen", then extends his hand to Ran "nice to meet you miss... err... Ran?" He notices Kyo and tells Ran "please forgive him, miss Ran. He's never seen a kitsune before... or a nekomata for that matter." then he smiles. Kyo composes himself and grumbles "this... is going to be a long one." Ail simply smiles, pat's his friend on the shoulder and says "don't worry, we'll manage..." and so, on the next day, their life in Gensokyo began. Kyo would spend most of the time in the shrine, helping with many chores that Reimu "refused" to do by herself (mostly, she would sit on the shrine's porch drinking tea while Kyo did all the work). Ail would help organize here and there, then headed to town where he met Keine, Mystia, Reisen, Akyu and Mokou. Unlike his friend, Ail felt more at home with each passing day. He would do favors and services around town in the name of the Hakurei Shrine and get compensated with gifts of foods or money. He would also secretly donate some money at the shrine and quietly laugh at Reimu's expression every time she saw some money in the donation box. For a week, everything was going well. They met Cirno and Dayousei, the ice fairies, Alice, who seems most uncomfortable around the two boys, and heard about Aya, who's been writing about the two humans from the outside almost every day. All was well, overall, until:
"Kyo, miss Reimu, I'm heading to..." Ail stopped when he heard some commotion out back so he went to investigate. Kyo and Reimu were arguing. Apparently, Kyo has been raiding the food stores again. Ail goes and tries to calm them both down. "If you keep eating like that, I'm gonna kick you OUT of here, got that!?" shouted Reimu. "Well, I DESERVE a little more food than you, seeing as I am doing almost ALL the WORK around here, you lazy miko!" shouted Kyo back at Reimu. They butted each others faces, unblinking, ready to see who would strike first. Ail sighs and heads to them and see how to calm them down, however, Reumi had pushed Kyo hard, knocking both boys to the ground. Suddenly, under them a gap opened up, then closed as soon as they both fell through. At the Yakumo's, Yukari springs up from her sleep. "W-what the... maybe... I was dreaming?" then falls back asleep in seconds. Another gap opens in a dark damp cave and the two boys fall hard on the rocky ground. "Argh... that hurt" said Kyo. "where are we NOW?" continued Kyo, sounding annoyed. Ail was sitting peacefully on a rock looking up then says "don't worry, at least we are still in Gensokyo, however, seems we stepped into some trouble." Ail points up at two girls. One was inside a bucket and had green hair, while the other was blond with short hair and wore a black long sleeved shirt with a brown overall that looked like a balloon at what was the bottom of the dress. This one was hanging upside down. Both girls slowly lowered to meet the two visitors, the blond one speaks "my, my, two humans? How rare. Are you here to join the party? Everyone is welcome~!" The green haired girl giggled. "Well, these girls seem very friendly. A party, you say?" said Kyo who got shocked as soon as he looked at Ail who was kneeling on a futon, sipping on some tea, was immediately reminded of Reimu. "What are you doing" asked Kyo in disbelief. Ail simply replies "just having a peaceful moment here. Besides, she's a spider youkai. She just wants to eat us." Kyo's heart started beating fast, panic takes him again. "And you say this so calmly! What the hell!?" "Kisume" said the blond girl "we've been found out". Kisume giggles and replies "then let's cut to the chase, miss Yamame." Kisume starts throwing fireballs at Kyo, who grabs some rocks and throws them at her, making her lose her aim. "That wasn't very nice" said Yamame, to which Kyo replied "nor is trying to eat us! Ail, let's get out of here, NOW!" Ail just smiles and says "but it's so nice here. Oh~ I see. The spider and the tsurube-otoshi scare you, huh?" Kyo, slightly annoyed, replies "well they ARE trying to eat us!" Ail smiles as he looks at them and says "let's get rid of them, then." and with that, he shapes his hand like a gun and says "bang, bang, bang, bang. Pow, zap" Kyo was in disbelief and stared blankly at his friend, when suddenly both Kisume and Yamame started yelling "Ow ow ow, OU~~CH! Hey, how did you do that?" asked Yamame as she rubbed her cheek, while Kusime rubbed her forehead. Ail laughs saying "wh-wow~, I can't believe that actually worked. Hmm, I wonder..." he points his finger at Yamame and Kisume's ropes and made a buzzing sound with his mouth, then both youkai fell hard on to the ground. Ail sips some more tea asking "you two want some more?" The two youkai have had enough. Dazed, they both lift a small white flag.
Kyo was in total shock. He didn't know what to say, or if that was Ail, even. Ail simply laughs and gets up saying "I LOVE this place. Common sense makes no sense here, this is so perfect!!!" "It's him" Kyo though and continued thinking "is this really Ail? Where and when... did he?" Kyo then notices Ail looking on and he knew that look. He knew Ail wanted to go in deeper, but Kyo would not have that "Oh no, don't you even THINK of going further in. Look, the exit is really close, so come one and..." Ail looked at Kyo, looking almost sad saying "there's something in there... I have to go." Kyo started shouting "you IDIOT, it's probably another trap! Well, whatever... I'm not going. You can go then, and have your butt served to some monsters. I am going BACK to the shrine RIGHT NOW!!!" and so Kyo turned his back on his friend and headed outside. Ail simply whispered "then please take care, alright" then went on, deeper into the cave. As Kyo reached the exit and headed to what he believed was the way to the village, he muttered to himself "that idiot. Ever since we came here, he's been acting differently. He's going out, having fun, meeting people... and monsters... it's like here... he's... Nah... I'm thinking too much. He'll come around, I'm sure." What Kyo didn't notice was that the afternoon sun was slowly sinking, and night was creeping over his head. Soon it was very dark, half a moon already high above, and a little hungry youkai was lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to attack her prey. Kyo returned from his thoughts and realized he was in danger, somehow sensing the little youkai, however he could see the mountain where the Hakurei Shrine is. He quickened his pace, however the little youkai realized what had happened and rushed along her victim. Kyo though to himself "crap, how am I supposed to fight, I can't use magic, dammit... but wait, what Ail said... 'common sense makes no sense here'..." Kyo then imagined himself having an extension on his arm that he could use to repel magic, and so punched the shadows, hitting the little youkai. "KAYH!" As if from nowhere, a little blond girl wearing a red ribbon and a little black dress fell on the ground rubbing her cheek. "HE~Y, what was that for?" said the little girl. Kyo nervously said "oh, I-I'm sorry little girl, I though you were going to eat me." The little girl gets up and giggles. "Is that so~!? Well I WAS going to eat you... but now my mouth is sore, thanks to you, you meanie!" Kyo was surprised and in shock and though to himself "this little girl is one of those... you..youkai? What is WITH this place?" The little girl stood up and started to float away with her arms extended. Kyo realized, for the first time that he wasn't home anymore, and so decided he needed to learn more of this world, starting with that little youkai. "Wait!" shouted Kyo, the little girl turns around smiling "what?" "What's your name?" asked Kyo, but the little girl replied a playful "is that so~!" Kyo apologized saying "sorry, I err forgot... my name is Kyo" "You can call me Rumia." Kyo smiles then asks "err.. Rumia? Could... could you accompany me to the shrine. Seems you know a lot about this... err Gensokyo and I'd like to know more..." Kyo felt very awkward asking this, but there was no other way, he though, of getting accustomed to this new world. Rumia smiled, nodded and saying "is that so~? Then please, ask away..." As they walked toward the shrine Rumia started to nibble on Kyo's arm as she answered his questions... suddenly she yells "Agh... you're bitter! Blech!"
Back at the cave, Ail was dodging the many bullets from a blond girl with green eyes who kept saying how jealous she was of anything Ail did. "Parsee" said a red eyes blond woman who had a horn on her forehead. "You're going to drain yourself... go rest, I'll take care of him." The green-eyed girl puffed saying "great, he outlasted me..! I'm SO JEALOUS!!!" "So, miss Yuugi" said Ail as he eyes his new opponent "what do I have to do for you to let me continue to that mansion you just mentioned?" Yuugi smiles saying "wow, you're some human. Haven't met many humans like you... except for the last two that came by some time ago... Well, how about this... since you can't use danmaku yet... how about... if you touch my horn... Simply touch my horn and I'll escort you to the Palace of the Earth Spirits personally. Deal?" "Sound easy enough" says Ail casually. "What's the catch?" "Very sharp, mister Ail... I'll be shooting my best spells your way" replied Yuugi. Ail, looking excited nods saying "sounds like a lot of fun... shall we begin?" and with those words, Yuugi immediately shoots a barrage of bullets at Ail that started to bounce all around. He had a lot of trouble dodging those, some even grazing him; then Yuugi starts throwing large rocks at him. Ail jumped high enough to land on one rock, then use the other rocks to get close to Yuugi, but she caught on just in time and stopped throwing the rocks. Both look at each others eyes smiling, then Yuugi surrounds herself with oddly colored crystals, then even more of those crystals surrounded the first ones, and then, just as Ail jumps inside the opening of the second set of crystals, countless bullets materialized, right where he was standing. "That was a close one..." sighed Ail, but quickly realized it wasn't over, and realizes the first set of crystals were heading his way. He couldn't duck, or jump to safely avoid the crystals, however he started to move as if dancing and found an opening between the crystals, which he used to graze his way out of that one. As soon as all the crystals were gone, Yuugi materializes more crystals, these ones red in color. Ail had little time to think, so as if still dancing, he got into the first circle of crystals, stretched his arm and touched Yuugi's horn with his fingertip. One crystal grazes his arm, but Ail did not even flinch, and as soon as the crystals were gone, Yuugi smiles widely, laughs and wraps her arm around Ail. "WAHAHAHAHA, I can't believe this. You are ONE crazy human... I like you." Ail, who was being squeezed hard by Yuugi, grunted "urgh... thanks... you' pretty cool too." "Oh, sorry" said Yuugi as she lets him go. "Well, let's go." Ail looked a little surprised and Yuugi continued "I promised I'd escort you to the palace, so let's go." Ail followed quickly. They talked on the way. Ail told Yuugi how he got here and why he was going to the Palace, and so they arrived...
"Well, good luck little human. Umm... be careful in there. You might find something you might not want." said Yuugi as she headed back. Ail nodded and thanked her for escorting him there. He then turned around and tried knocking on the large doors of the palace, but they opened up before he could, so without thinking it twice he went inside. After what felt like an hour or so of walking around, her came face to face with a pink haired girl, who had a black headband on her head, and was wearing a light blue shirt with yellow heart-shaped buttons, a light pink skirt, and had a red eye with weird strings flowing from it placed on her chest. She was also holding a black two-tailed cat. "Welcome" she softly said " to the Palace of the Earth Spirits... Anilan Inmodo. My name is Satori Komeiji" Ail was surprised for a moment, but said nothing at all. "I see... so you prefer to be called Ail. Then Ail..." continued Satori "why have you come?" Ail speaks to her through his mind "I am not sure, myself... I felt a strong impulse to come here, and I fail to understand why. Satori slightly smiles and says "I see... you're not from Gensokyo, and yet you've never felt more at home. You are looking for answers, are you not?" A tear drops from Ail's eye, down to his cheek, then he nods and speaks to Satori through his mind again "I have never felt more alive, and ever since I stepped into this world, I have been doing things that would have been impossible in the world outside. I have even felt as though I am flying sometimes." Satori widens her eyes a little, revealing her dark pink eyes and says "that's because you probably are. Sometimes fate likes to play a cruel hand. By now you should realize you are not fully human... you are half youkai..." Ail's eyes widen. His knees feel weak as he kneels hard on the ground, holding his chest as if in pain, then says "so it's true..." He lowers his head and starts to sob. Satori kept quiet for a moment, then said "that happiness swelling inside of you gives you power, I see." Ail raises his face, smiling so hard, it was as if his smile was covering his face. He then jumped high, then landed softly, and in a slightly calm tone of voice he says "this is the answer to all my questions... the why's, the hows, they're all answered! Thank you miss Satori!" Saying this, he rushes to her and hugs her tightly. Satori was very surprised. Not only did this human catch on to her mind reading so quickly, he also wasn't appalled by her powers, and the fact that he enjoyed talking through his mind made Satori quite happy to be around a human for the first time. "I'm sorry, miss Satori. I guess I was overcome, heheh." said Ail as he backs away a little from Satori. They both laugh, but suddenly, from the darkness comes a girl with long black hair, black wings on her back covered by a white cape with starry designs inside, a green bow on her head, a white shirt with a big red eye on it's chest, and a short green skirt. He also noticed she had some sort of cannon-like rod on her right arm, a rocky-like shoe on her right foot, and her left was being surrounded by atoms. She pointed her left arm at him as he backed away slowly. "Master, did he hurt you!?" said the girl as she started to summon power to her. Ail could feel this power and was, for the first time since entering Gensokyo, frozen in fear. He softly says "the power... of a black sun?" The girl releases the energy straight at Ail, expanding the energy as she did, giving him very little room to move...
To be continued...
Characters and scenario all belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail and Kyo were created by Willie G.R.
JUN 16 2009
written by
Willie G.R.
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