Another Misplaced Sikuma Prologue

It was a dark night. Ail, who now wore a brown cloak over his clothes, adorned with a round green crystal around the neck, was running through the forest, looking scared and breathing heavily. Behind him, many footsteps followed. Ail decides to fly away, but just as soon as he was above the trees, Remilia gets in his way. He prepares a spell card, but just then, Yuyuko, Yuka, Eirin, Kaguya, Siki, Kanako and Okuu and Orin surround him. "I'm not gonna do it, so let me go!" shouted Ail. Kanako chuckles and says "look, it's not that serious. Something simple and that's it!" but Ail shouts back "no way! Siki, I can't believe you, of all the people here!" Siki gets closer and says "look, I never actually CAUSED an incident, never the less..." Remilia gets closer and says "we ALL had to fight Reimu as final bosses, and YOU are strong enough to be one too." Okuu was just smiling and looking around blankly and confused so Orin says "only then, will you trully belong in Gensokyo to our eyes. We ALL did it, so why not you!?" Yuyuko gets close to Ail, pats his head and says "do something simple. You're a good person, so do something that's good, but Reimu won't like." Kanako then gets closer and says "either you do it, or we'll do it FOR you!" Ail thinks for a second and says "but wait, didn't I fight Reimu during the snake-like shadow incident!?" All shake their heads and Eirin says "that was just a little scratch. You NEED to battle her as a last stage boss." then Kaguya adds "bah! So much for him. He's just a big chicken, so lets leave him be!" Yuka grabs Ail by the shoulder and with a smile on her face she says "look... if you don't do it, me, Suika and Mima will hunt you down everyday and make your life hell!" Ail shouts back "Mima and Suika would NEVER do that!" and from below the trees Mima shouts back "Oh yes we will." Ail looks down and there they were, just under him and pointing at him with her staff, Suika beside her, grinning a very evil-looking grin. Ail gives up and sights loudly saying "FINE!!! I'll do it... And I think I got JUST the thing too." All around him smile, except for Okuu, who was still staring blankly and smiling, she asks "Orin, why are we here again?" In heaven, Tenshi was looking down and saying to herself "they'll call me, you'll see... or maybe... they just forgot?"

It was a beautiful sunny summer morning at the Hakurei Shrine. Reimu had just woken up along with Renko and Maribel. Each had a broom on their hand as they stretch in the sunlight. "Right" says Reimu. "I'll take the front, Renko, you take the back." Renko salutes Reimu saying "right!" "and Maribel, you take the left" continued Reimu. Maribel smiles, giggles and nods, then starts sweeping the stone path alongside the shrine, smiling and looking at the trees and the clouds. Reimu sighs then heads to the front of the shrine. About 10 minutes later, Maribel heads to Reimu and says "I'm done... want me to help here?" Reimu says "I'm just about done here..." then they both see one of the village elders who just finished climbing the stairs, complaining about his back. They both hurry to the old man, who whacks them with his stick, again complaining about the long walk and the stairs. After calming him down with a nice warm cup of tea,the old man explains "...I was the only one able to get out of the house. The ice froze all the doors shut. Please miss maiden, this must be the work of a youkai. You must look into this." Reimu sighs lightly and says "sure, it's my duty anyway. Besides, when a youkai misbehaves, I'll be sure to make it pay!" In front of the large red gate, Reimu readies herself, but just before she lifts off, Maribel comes running to her "Miss Reimu! Can I come with you!?" Reimu looks at her a bit worried and says "you'll follow me, even if I say 'no' just like last time. Fine. Genjii~!" From the lake behind the shrine, the large turtle comes flying, then lands next to Reimu and Maribel. "Genjii~!" exclaims Maribel as she rushes to hug the bearded turtle. Reimu smiles at him and says "could you give her a ride with me? Oh, and could you keep her safe?" Genjii smiles and says "well of course. Off to another adventure?" Reimu smiles and says "it's a pain, really, but it IS the Hakurei maiden's job, I suppose. Renko, accompany the old man back to the village." Renko shouts "sure thing!" then thinks to herself "then I'll go visit Akyuu." As Reimu, Genjii, with Maribel, lift up to the skies, Reimu thinks to herself "I wonder where the heck is Mima? I really could have used her help!"

At the Garden of the Sun, Ail was standing right next to a large dark blue gap that was expelling a snowstorm. "Man... why did I do this?" asks Ail, thinking out loud. "Great, she's getting closer. I best be ready." and just like that, there was Reimu high above his head, Genjii and Maribel behind her, Maribel waving at Ail, saying a casual "hi~!" Ail waves back then Reimu says "wait a minute! This isn't Sage 6... it's Stage 5!" Ail looks confused, then opens his eyes wide saying "AWW~ come ON! I went to great lengths to get this right!" Reimu thinks for a minute, and while she names the bosses, she counts with her fingers "let's see... Rumia, Keine, Mystia and Mima, Medicine and Yuka... and now you... By the way, Medicine and Mystia were mid-stage bosses." Ail thinks for a second and says "why can't it be just 5 stages?" Reimu looks at Ail casually and says "it's a rule." Just then, Marisa arrives saying "AI~L! That was awesome! Your little incident made the town so cool and fresh. Can you do that at my house too, ze?" Ail grabs Marisa and give her a big hug shouting "Marisa~~!" I'm so glad you're here. Can you play with Reimu for a bit? I need to check something out back there..." Ail leaves, pulling his gap along, leaving Marisa blushing, looking surprised and confused, then she looks at Reimu who says "so, Marisa's the Stage 5 boss then?" Marisa opens her eyes wide and says "hey WAIT A MINUTE!" A loud explosion rattle the entire garden as Ail keeps going farther away and saying "maybe I should escape while I have the chance..." but Reimu had caught up already saying "well, the Final Stage boss... at last. Look, let's make this quick, alright!?" Ail looks at her then says "wait a minute, you already beat Marisa!?" Reimu smiles and says "without using a single bomb, or losing a single life... take a look!" Suddenly Ail realizes he's in a small rectangle. To his left there was a small grid with the words Score, Life, Bombs, and Graze. Life had 8 stars, bombs had 6 stars, graze was at 2,478 and Reimu's score was at 2 million and still going up. "O~kay" says Ail, looking puzzled. Reimu shrugs as Ail flies up to meet her and says "SO, you made it this far. I am impressed. However you are TOO late! The village is now covered in snow, and I'll be able to build the larges snowman ever built, MUAHAHAA~" Reimu looks at Ail casually, but doesn't say a word. Ail whispers at her "did I sound menacing enough?" Reimu smiles, a sweat-drop falling from the side of her head saying "eh... so-so."

Ail starts shooting countless lasers at Reimu at great speeds, however she dodges these looking almost sleepy and constantly shooting at Ail. "Hey, no fair!" shouted Ail. "Why can I only move in a set pattern?" Reimu yawns and says "it's the rules." and just then, Ail notices a life bar above his head. It was now red. Suddenly a spell card appears on his hand. He shouts "Earth Sign, Forestall Heartbeat" Many green and white crystal danmaku are shot at the rhythm of a heart beat and shaping a heart, then falling down on to Reimu slowly, spreading randomly, then large blue energy balls home in on Reimu, at the same time, two blue lasers, one on the left, the other on the right, swiftly close in on Reimu, leaving small room for her to dodge, however she just keeps on shooting her charms and homing charms as well, and dodges all with ease, beating Ail's first spell card. "Already!? FINE, you asked for it!" shouts Ail as his next life bar shows up. Ail shoots at Reimu his focused shots with homing lasers. Being the final boss, there were a LOT of lasers, and one of them takes Reimu by surprised, making her drop a few power tabs. When she reappears, she looked mad. "HEY! That was NOT FUNNY!!!" shouted Reimu, glaring at Ail." Ail laughs and says "WOW I actually beat you?" Reimu smirks and says "I STILL have 7 lives left!" Ail gulps as Reimu pulls out a spell card and shouts "Fantasy Seal - Concentrate!" 8 Balls of energy, each of a different color, home in on Ail, blasting him hard. Ail then says "OUCH! HEY! I can't use my barriers to block!?" Reimu chuckles and says "and there's plenty more where that came from!" Reimu still had 2 Bombs left. Ail's life gets red again, then another spell card materializes. He shouts "Brightness, Blinding Heart!" Many rings spread around, followed by large blue light balls, all moving quite fast. All the rings had a few small openings, and Reimu used them to graze, however one of the balls of light got her. "Blast it, that was careless of me" said Reimu in an undertone. She continues to dodge the rest with ease, beating Ail's spell card. Ail was looking a little beat and says "fine, next wave!"

Ail's next life bar materializes, and he suddenly starts shooting a wave of white lasers all around him, followed by orange balls that trail along the lasers, giving Reimu very small room to dodge in. He starts moving around, but every time he did, the lasers would stop until he stopped moving. Reimu kept barraging him with charms, depleting his life bar, then another one forms up. This time, Ail shoots many small blue and white energy balls accompanied by extra large orange ones, all scattered and uneven, then small blue and white lasers, all heading down to Reimu. She dodges all these with a lot of trouble, constantly being grazed, then suddenly she got hit, however she used her own spell card just then, shouting "Fantasy Seal - Spread!" 8 light orbs scatter around in a circular manner, breaking Ail's shots and leaving room for Reimu to dodge around. Reimu depletes his life again, then a large red bar forms on top. Ail was a total mess by now, but he grabs the spell card and shouts with all his might "Mad Waves, Raging Splash!" To his left and right, a total of four sets of extra large blue and white danmaku balls form up in straight lines,and under those countless blue crystals, all scattered unevenly toward Reimu quickly, then the extra large shots follow downward, spreading sideways as they did. Soon after that a watery wave heads toward Reimu, releasing countless more blue crystals, all falling scattered. As the water waves reach Reimu, a few gaps form, giving her space to dodge in. Ail shouts "Aww, COME ON!" Reimu casually looks at him and says "hey, it's normal mode!" Reimu beats the spell card, then another one forms on Ail's hands. He shouts "Blast Sign - Expansion that Soothes!" Ail surrounds himself with 30 medium orange energy balls that spin rapidly around him. He flies around, trying to get Reimu, however she uses her bomb again "Fantasy Seal - Concentrate!" and gets Ail with 8 balls of energy. Suddenly, the energy around Ail starts to spread around, still spinning and trailing many white danmaku balls that aimlessly float down, swaying like feathers. Reimu somehow dodges these and continues her assault on Ail, finishing his life bar. Ail breathes heavily and says "we-we're not done here!"

Reimu looks at Ail and says "so... one more life bar. Bring it one, little man!" A spell card materializes on Ail's hand. He raises it and shouts "Light Sign, Holy Dance" Ail is surrounded by a large orb of light that protected him from Reimu's attacks. 8 straight white lasers surround Ail, trapping Reimu between two of them, and slowly move around to the left then the right. A trio of white energy balls that formed a triangle start pouring down from Ail's light energy, moving slowly down, then after a bit, the lasers move a little faster and light blue petal-shaped danmaku fall in straight lines. Reimu loses another life, now only 5 remain. She continues to dodge these, and almost got hit again, but she uses one of her bombs to survive. After 30 seconds, the spell card times out and Ail blows up in mid0air. Maribel and Genjii both wear sunglasses as they watch the boy explode. Back down on the ground, Ail was sitting, his clothes in tatters, his face singed and dirty. He smiles and closes the gap. Reimu helps him up and says "if I had known you had holy magic with you, I'd have brought my needles and broken that blasted barrier to bits." Ail smiles, but Reimu grabs his left ear and asks "no~w, why did you do all this?" Ail rubs his ear when she lets him go and tells her about the reunion of final stage bosses and himself last night. Reimu rubs her eyes with her left hand's index finger and thumb then says "and you went along with it, just like that? Somehow you even got Mima to play Stage 3 boss... well never mind. I beat you without using continues, so the rules say, there must be an extra boss around." Ail looks at her confused and just then Maribel approaches him saying "wow, that looked like fun. I wish I could use magic like that too... but all I have is these small pink hearts" and she shoots some at Ail accidentally, but Ail ducks just in time. Just then, a large indigo gap opens behind them and sucks them both inside. When Reimu turns around after seeing Genjii's face, the gap closes, Reimu shouting "WHAT THE HELL~!?" Just like that, another gap, this one blue, opens and a woman falls face-down to the ground, the gap closing immediately after this. "Oh great" shouts Reimu. "NOW the extra boss comes, huh!? Wait... uh-oh!" The woman gets up, rubbing her nose asking "whoa, what happened. Wait... this isn't the capital, where-? The woman sees Reimu and shouts "YOU!!?" Reimu, backing away, her eyes open wide, and says "Yo--Yorihime!?"

To be continued...

Characters scenario and Spell cards belong to ZUN
Ail and "Light Sign, Holy Dance" spell card were created by Willie G.R. (similarities are strictly coincidental. Assistance by snapshot2010)

JUL 13 2009
written by
Willie G.R.