Touhou Seikiden ~ Oriental Prophecy of the Holy Knight

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

[i]"Gods, demons, and humanity now form the natural trinity,
but holy knights from lands afar have found strength in an evil star.
Demons burn in sacred light, and so the dark ones must take flight.
Thus, gods and humans bear the blade until the night can cast its shade.
So fall alone or fly together, courtiers of the wind and weather.
Shine the sun and call the rain. The phantasm shall rise again."[/i]

One gap later, Yukari Yakumo was nowhere to be found.

[spoiler=Content Warnings]
Homophobes and religious types, run away before it's too late. Everyone in Gensokyo is gay, and also a demon (except Marisa).

Perhaps I should be more specific -- Japanese mythology obviously runs wild in this fic, its being a Touhou story. Ancient holy conflicts abound.

There's shipping in this. It's not Malice. So yeah.

Other than that, this actually clocks in at a K+. How unusual.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Prologue: Oriental Prophecy of the Holy Knight]
Under the moonlit Oriental sky lay many ancient and powerful empires. The people of China laboured under a steadily crumbling Communist regime, while the nation of Japan fought ideological battles within its own borders. North Korea was subject to an increasingly paranoid madman, while South Korea quietly minded its own business as it supplied its mighty allies.

But another empire, more fantastic than any of these worldly ones, lay beyond the tori of an abandoned Japanese shrine.

The world of Gensokyo.

The fantastic elements of the world -- gods, youkai, magicians, fairies, et cetera -- were spread all over the world, albeit very thinly. But never could one find such a place as Gensokyo, no matter where one looked. The product of a youkai's imagination, a human's dedication, and a goddess's blessing, that world was drastically different from any other since its creation in Meiji 17. Nowhere else could gods, humans, and youkai live together under the same barrier. And quite a barrier it was -- a trifold barrier, simultaneously divine, mundane, and demonic, separated Gensokyo from the considerably less pleasant outside world.

It took more than two centuries -- a sizable length of time, even for youkai -- a great deal of careful manipulation by a particularly devious half-nurarihyon, a very eccentric but rather brilliant shrine maiden, and a special set of trading cards to do it, but eventually, the land of Gensokyo knew peace. From the towering Youkai Mountain, where the tengu and kappa could exchange services with the uncommonly humble gods perched atop its peak; to the depths of the underground, where a hell-raven swallowed Yatagarasu and provided the phantasmal paradise with nuclear fusion-based energy; and from the clouds of heaven, where a too-clever celestial and Gensokyo's youkai creator exchanged barbs (while largely ignoring their remarkable similarity); to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, where refugees from Gensokyo's lunar rivals sold medicine and confused travelers; Gensokyo knew peace. Even the humans and occasional half-youkai making their way in the Human Village (actually the largest settlement in all Gensokyo) no longer lived in fear of being devoured by hungry demons, and even the demons themselves no longer lived in fear of being exterminated by paranoid humans and indomitable shrine maidens.

Truly, it was a phantasmal paradise.

Needless to say, though, that paradise was occasionally threatened. And this story is one of a particularly brutal threat.

<<>>

"Marisa?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you still here?"

The moon had risen in Gensokyo's sky, underlined by the torii of the Hakurei Shrine. Two girls stood near that torii in spite of the cold winter air.

"C'mon," said Marisa Kirisame. She called herself the Ordinary Witch of Gensokyo, though to most fairies and plenty of youkai, she was the dreaded Monochrome Magician. The fear she commanded from the lesser youkai of the land -- and the grudging respect she drew from a few of the stronger ones -- probably wouldn't have occurred to most, looking at her youthful, energetic face. A single golden braid lay on her shoulder, snaking out from beneath a pointy, wide-brimmed black hat hat; the rest of her hair streamed out behind her.

"When was the last time I stayed here overnight?" Marisa protested.

"Never," said the other girl. "And I'd really rather it stayed that way."

"Aw, c'mon, Reimu. There's a first time for everything."

Reimu Hakurei glared back with icy red-brown eyes. If Marisa commanded fear from lesser youkai, Reimu -- or her distinctive card-like amulets, or the shrine maiden's outfit with the detached sleeves, or even the sight of her red-and-white colour motif -- commanded either deep respect or pure terror (or both), depending on the youkai in question. As the Hakurei Shrine Maiden responsible for the maintenance of the Great Hakurei Barrier, the wall separating Gensokyo and the outside world, she was the essence of Gensokyo and among the mightiest beings in it. She certainly didn't act like it, though; rather than simply exterminating the irritating human before her, she was reduced to the banter one might expect between normal high-school girls.

"Except the things that never happen," said Reimu.

"But this is Gensokyo," Marisa argued, "where the impossible happens. Heck, Kaguya's Five Impossible Requests just got completed, what, last month?"

"Yeah, by the one Kaguya wanted to marry anyway..." Reimu grumbled. She was quiet for a moment as she tried to come up with a rebuttal for that one -- but Marisa took the opportunity to fill the silence.

"So c'mon, let me stay here. You can make me sleep in a different room and everything. Trust me, I don't have any interest in you -- Alice is the one for me."

"You mean the girl whose least favorite person you are?"

"Oh, shut up." Reimu's comment had hurt, a bit, but far from enough to make Marisa give up -- or even momentarily flinch. "Ple~ase?"

"Alright, alright... Ruukoto!"

A green-haired robot maid rolled out to meet the girls.

I repeat: A green-haired robot maid rolled out to meet the girls.

And that's far from the strangest sentence you're going to read in this lovely story.

"Yes?" said Ruukoto, the green-haired robot maid.

"Prepare some room out back where Marisa can sleep."

"Out back?!" Marisa exclaimed. "Reimu, you wound me! You're going to cast me out into the wilderness all alone? The gods will smite you for your in-hospitality!"

"I'm their servant, in case you forgot," Reimu sighed. "And the building over there is a shrine. How many rooms do you think we have?"

"More than one, surely!"

"Not really, no. If you don't like it, you can always go back to your house. Maybe there's a bed in those huge piles of junk you have."

As the girls bickered, a sinister shape materialized just outside the torii. Two scarlet ribbons arced through the air, sourced from nothing, tying themselves into large bows. Once the bows were properly secured, a thin black line spread between them, held in place by the knots.

Then the line expanded.

The little tear in the fabric of reality opened into a darkness beyond twilight. Eldritch eyes suspended in the void blinked and leered out into the realm of mankind -- the only vaguely real sights in the yawning abyss of pure darkness.

Most high school girls, on seeing that, would be mortified. And to be perfectly honest, Marisa was rather scared once she saw the gap -- although not so much because of its nightmarish nature and more because she knew whose presence it announced.

It wasn't clear where the woman's leg began to enter the world of the living and where it stretched back into the void. Thankfully, the girls' eyes didn't have time to focus on it, for the rest of her quickly followed.

The woman's hair was truly golden, almost lustrous in the moonlight where it wasn't covered by her colonial bonnet or the shade of the white parasol she carried. She wore a terribly elaborate dress with very western frills, but adorned with a trigram along the front. A small smile graced her lips -- the expression of a person completely in control. And her eyes --

No one could ever truly agree on the colour of her eyes. Some days, they shone gold to match her hair; other days, they were deep amethysts, to match her name. But they were always bright, vivid, and utterly terrifying to look into for too long -- even more so than the eyes filling the void of her own gap.

"You're awake," Yukari Yakumo said pleasantly.

The youkai of boundaries, Yukari Yakumo, folded her parasol as she stepped up to the shrine's torii.

"That's good," she continued. "I wouldn't want to have to wake you up."

She rested the point of her parasol on the ground and bowed slightly. Then she picked it up again and walked inside the gates to join the human girls.

"What are you doing up?" Reimu asked suspiciously. Marisa wondered if she heard fear in Reimu's voice, or if the shrine maiden was merely being wary of what was sure to be an impending disaster. "You hibernate in winter, don't you?"

"Correct," said Yukari. "As you know, though Marisa may not, I'm obligated to spend the daylight hours and the coldest season dormant. The explanation as to why is very complicated," she assured the curious witch, "involving the metaphysical nature of Gensokyo and the convoluted power systems involved in my exceptional ability, and I don't have the time to go into it. Suffice to say, if I don't get enough sleep, there is a risk of the barrier crumbling.

"I've spent more time awake this year than usual, though -- trying to keep up with Miss Yasaka and Miss Moriya has been a trying task." She smiled a bit. It was rare for beings as terrifying and close to omnipotence as Yukari Yakumo to make any friends, and it was a testament to the absurd power of Gensokyo's inhabitants that she had any at all. Yuyuko Saigyouji, the ghost princess of Hakugyokurou, owed her peaceful life after death to the border youkai, and Suika Ibuki was a friend from times unremembered, but by far the most recent friends of Yukari's were Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya, the goddesses of Youkai Mountain. After a very brief initial clash involving nuclear fusion, the duo had managed to engineer a torrent of progressions in Gensokyo's technology level and generally have fun doing it, often at the expense of those who had to keep them from getting out of hand (id est, Reimu and Sanae Kochiya, Kanako's shrine maiden and Suwako's descendant).

For Marisa's part, however, she was just wondering how long it would take Yukari to start getting along with Tenshi, an irresponsible Celestial with a personality eerily similar to Yukari's own.

"I don't regret it, mind," Yukari continued. "It's been a very fun, very productive year. I've reconnected with old friends and made new ones, and Gensokyo is all the better for it. And the barrier is hardly about to collapse on itself if, say, I decide to stay up this winter. As the solstice is next week, I'd better make up my mind soon."

"You wouldn't." Reimu paled, though Marisa knew Reimu's brand of fear was that of more work to do and not that of the abomination before her.

"No," said Yukari, "I wouldn't. I was considering it, but then the recently-arrived Miss Hijiri told me a rather unpleasant prophecy. If my interpretation of this riddle is correct, I'm going to need to get to sleep before the sun rises. I am dreadfully tired, so that won't be a problem."

Marisa blinked. The border youkai didn't look tired in the slightest. It was perhaps possible that the faint glow in her eyes was a bit dimmer than usual, but she hardly saw Yukari often (not that she'd want to), and it was hard to tell in the darkness of the night.

"In any case," she said, "I'm here to tell you that prophecy. It'll be up to you to act on it this winter, for I must store my power for spring -- the reason for that will become clear when you hear the prophecy."

"I don't suppose you could just tell us what to do?" sighed Reimu.

"No, you should act according to your own interpretation. It's much more amusing that way, and better for Gensokyo besides. I advise you, however, to start as soon as possible. Bringing the witch along wouldn't be a bad idea either." She gestured to Marisa with her parasol, as if she were referring to 'the cat' or 'the broom' rather than 'the witch.'

"Alright, then," Reimu sighed. "Let's just hear this prophecy."

"Very well. It is called the Seikiden. That's 'legend of the holy knight,' mind."

"Gotcha," said Reimu. "Let's hear it."

Yukari spoke:

[i]"Gods, demons, and humanity now form the natural trinity,
but holy knights from lands afar have found strength in an evil star.
Demons burn in sacred light, and so the dark ones must take flight.
Thus, gods and humans bear the blade until the night can cast its shade.
So fall alone or fly together, courtiers of the wind and weather.
Shine the sun and call the rain. The phantasm shall rise again."[/i]

"Well, that's the Seikiden," she finished. "Now I really need to sleep..."

One gap later, Yukari Yakumo was nowhere to be found.
[/spoiler]

Posting now before I lose interest. Suggestions, critiques, character plugs, and plot recommendations are all welcome. Just post something, please.

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

Seventeen views? Srsly? You disappoint me, local Touhou fandom.

BUMPZORZ; ch1 pending.

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

*sigh*
Buuuump...

Chapter I out today/tomorrow.