The Grand Crossover RP - Pathway to Origin [IC/PG-13/Moved to NCM for Finale]

Maeriberii Haan · January 29, 2015

“Everyone…

...why?”

Tenshi’s last words were that of someone who felt like they had been betrayed. By whom? Probably she was the only one there that knew.

But it didn’t matter now. Nothing really mattered now.

The color black started to envelop her. It was, more likely than not, a gift of a mercy kill to end her miserable life.

Like it was receiving a cannon shot, her head was blown apart by the black. And then, skin disintegrating, revealing flesh. Flesh revealing bones. Bones turning into dusts. It all happened in a flash. Even the black disappeared without a trace on the next second, revealing the bloody stump of her lower body part, which then surrendered to gravity, falling down to the grown with a light thud.

As she had known the moment her last attempt to defeat her adversary failed, it was the end of the line for her.

The sweet embrace of death perhaps was the only thing she deserved now.

Tenshi’s Story
End

“Eldest daughter, please wake up. You have slept for far too long.”

Uh, where am I?

....What did I do before this? But more importantly, where am I?

“How long do you plan to slack around there, Tenshi? Please wake up, will you?

...Great, and here I thought I could stop acting like your caretaker.”

Was it all really just a dream? Wait, what was it actually?

“Eldest daughter!”

The woman lost her patience, and unleashed a bolt of lightning from the skies above; piercing the ceilings above before it hit Tenshi directly and forced her to wake up.

“Ouch! Iku, is that really you?”

The woman merely sighed as she heard the slightly dazed Tenshi’s confused question.

“…Who the hell do you think I am anyway?”

“..Is this real life? Is this just fantasy? Am I caught in a landslide? Can I even escape from this reality?”

“…Can you talk somewhat more coherently? Has disappearing for months made your head emptier than usual?”

Still completely unsure about whether the entire thing was real or merely a dream, Tenshi went on and touched everything in her room awkwardly while still not being fully awake yet just to make sure it’s truly real life. Everything was seemingly solid. She could discern what was written on her books well even if she's not fully there yet, and water still tasted like water. This was real life after all.

Around fifteen minutes later, after being satisfied enough by what she had concluded from doing so, and after being properly, fully awake, Tenshi returned to Iku, who was still looking less than pleased by all of her antics.

“Heh, sorry for that, Iku.

I'm not exactly sure about the 'disappearing' thing, but I probably just forgot about it. Maybe something hit my head really hard so I forget? Anyway, why does this place seem quite empty?”

“Everyone’s off somewhere for quite a while now, to the Lunar Capital if I’m not wrong. As for why I’m the only one here…let’s just say I still have things to do.”

“What about Gensokyo?”

“Hm? Why do you ask? The land’s just fine. There was a small scale religious war once and an incident involving some rebelling youkai, also a great hunt for a rebellious youkai and another incident regarding rumors, but nothing quite major had really happened.

…”

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Iku’s sudden silence confused Tenshi by a bit.

“..If you’re planning to start creating another incident below, I’m afraid I have to paralyze you here and now.”

“..Ah, no, no. Not at all. I won’t try that again.”

This place..

It felt really familiar, but yet, I am perfectly sure this is definitely not my Gensokyo. What is this place?

This, is this just a dream? But everything felt like it’s completely real… I guess I should look around first.

“Hm, you looked like you’re spacing out right there. Should I make you something while you get some more rest?”

Iku’s tone suddenly changed into something more concerned over Tenshi’s wellbeing, quite a departure from her previous stern and outright irritated tone, but Tenshi didn't really mind it, it was Iku's general tone after all ever since she became personally assigned to watch over her. No matter how bad Tenshi had treated her, she still cared deeply for her even until now.

A small feeling of regret grew inside of Tenshi’s heart as she realized how much trouble she had been causing for the person in front of her in all of her time with her.

But, admitting it now would be…too forced. And then again there’s something else she needed to do first before thinking of everything else.

“Nah, I’m good. Anyway, I’m going to go for a stroll outside. I promise I’ll return before night falls.”

Without waiting for Iku’s reply or permission first, Tenshi ran towards the door, towards the outside the room, towards the edge of the realm, where she then summoned a keystone there to leave Heaven towards the world below her.

This world doesn’t feel like Gensokyo at all.
It’s as far as possible from the Gensokyo that I knew.
It’s only Gensokyo in name only.

The place was far less chaotic from what she remembered. No danmaku duels, no festivals, no weird mess ups, no incidents, nothing. Everything was oddly peaceful there, too peaceful. For a land that used to be defined by conflicts, duels, and incidents, it was completely out of character for everyone to stay put like this, to the point of Tenshi having to resist the urge to start another incident on the land just to stir it up a bit.

Well, but she wouldn’t, of course. Doing that would simply be stupid. Like, incredibly stupid. The Iku of this world would do horrible, horrible thing if she did, and everyone else would beat her up again.

Though, speaking of incidents and beating people up…

“I’m sorry, Reimu currently is really sick, and she has locked herself inside her room so no one can disturb her while she’s recovering.

And trust me; you really don’t want to bother her right now.”

In the front porch of the Hakurei Shrine, there was a little oni, the little pandemonium, Suika Ibuki, lazing around while drinking sake from her infinite gourd. Tenshi knew that Suika often visited Reimu to play even after she moved to Heaven (all thanks to Tenshi's own mistake), or just to hang around her shrine, but she expected Marisa or Reimu herself more to be the one that would greet her there. Or Yukari.

Well, thankfully it’s not that hag.

Merely remembering her name stirred something inside Tenshi. Was it anger? Probably, but it was something quite hard to describe. She quickly returned her focus back to the issue at hand. Reimu suddenly being ill was quite weird, and her act of keeping things under wraps like this was even more concerning. Reimu’s the type of person to be completely open to others, never bothered to hide anything about herself. Hence, her acting secretive like this was completely suspicious. Tenshi suspected Suika to hide some information from her regarding Reimu, and she was prepared to blast her way through to find the truth, but-

“Uh..anything wrong?” Suika, who noticed Tenshi just standing there while thinking, asked her. Tenshi realized that she looked a bit too funny while spacing out like that to stay dignified, and decided to just leave so she could think more regarding the issue.

She did manage to reach something close to a conclusion, at the very least.

“..I think I’ll just go now. Thanks for the explanation.”

Yeah, this must have something to do with Yukari.

After all, half of the mess that happened in Gensokyo is her fault anyway.

Next stop, the Human Village. It was as bland as naming could be, but it described the place perfectly. It was simply a village filled with humans (the only one, even), which was a minority in Gensokyo, unlike the outside world. Hence, the name was definitely fitting. As she entered the place, more oddity came to her attention. The place was remarkably quiet, even though it should already be the time when the market started opening, and even if the markets stopped their activity for some reasons, the streets were usually bustling with people and undercover youkai anyway.

But eh, whatever.

That had nothing to do with her main goal there anyway. Her proper destination could be seen after she had walked for around fifteen minutes more in the village itself; a traditional, medium-sized mansion, and even though it looked quite exquisite and beautiful for a human construct, the garden was barely maintained, tarnishing the building’s overall beauty.

But, complaining about improper gardening aside, Tenshi knew that someone that might be able to answer her questions should be living here. And thus, after taking a deep breath, Tenshi knocked on the front door.

“Give me more!”

Not long after, Tenshi was now at the local bar in the village, drowning her frustration away with several bottles of sake. The bar, quite expectedly at this point, was completely devoid of customers. The only person other than her there was the bartender, who was less than amused with her presence.

Damn, why was everyone suddenly become sick? Is this a sign of a disease outbreak?

Is this some sort of conspiracy to keep me in the dark?
Or am I just overthinking it?

“..Uh..miss? It’s the eight bottle of sake that you have finished. And-“

“Shut up, and get me more bottles! Here, I’ll pay with this!”

Tenshi, who was slowly getting intoxicated by the alcohol, threw a small bullion of gold coins that was tied to her belt to the bartender’s direction, who just shook his head seeing how the girl acted, before serving her more bottles just as she requested.

“Well, if that’s what you want, miss. But please, just don’t do stupid things inside.”

“Like hell I will!”

Man, this guy’s acting all high and mighty here, as if a human like him has any authority to question a Celestial like that.

I think I need to show him some..some..manne-rzzzzzzz

Carried away by her thoughts, suddenly Tenshi unceremoniously fell face first on the floor from her chair. It seemed like she actually couldn’t handle that much liquor despite her insistence. The bartender sighed, before preparing himself to handle the case just like a normal bartender would handle it.

“What’s with little girls on this land and drinking way too much alcohol anyway?”

What kind of meaning do you want?
What kind of truth do you really seek?
In this desolate life of yours
What kind of mercy do you really wish for?

Ugh….

As Tenshi woke up from her sleep in a daze, she found herself inside of her room once again, still wearing her pajamas. She tried to move her body to get up, but it was painful to even move an inch. It was as if she had been beaten up severely before falling asleep, or just strained herself too much before that.

“..Why did I end up in here? Last thing I remember was that me being in...ah, I see. Maybe I did get thrashed from all the binge drinking I did when I’m frustrated and later on, Iku brought my knocked out cold body here some time afterwards.”

She tried to get up from the bed once again, but with her muscles still aching terribly, she ceased her attempt not long afterwards, deciding to just get some extra rest while she can. Though, she wondered where Iku was right now-

“Eldest daughter, you’re finally awake!”

Just as Tenshi thought about her, Iku walked through the door of her room, carrying a cup of hot tea and some freshly-cut peaches in a china platter, which she then placed besides her bed. None of the irritation from yesterday seemed to remain, replaced with an unusual amount of concern. Tenshi felt like something was off. Her wandering around just for a day, getting thrashed in a bar, it wouldn't be too unusual, right? Or did something else happen when she's out cold?

“..I’m worried about you.

You have disappeared for far too long. Even your father feared the worst since every single one of his search attempts failed to locate your whereabouts. It was as if you’ve taken to another world.”

“..Uhh..I’m just gone for a day, right?”

Hearing Tenshi’s unintentionally insensitive reply, Iku went furious.

“One day? Are you kidding me? You have been gone for months! Where, for heaven’s sake, where have you been, Tenshi?!”

..?

“...I don’t get it.”

“Is simple Japanese too hard to understand for you?

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”

..Have something happened when I got thrashed on the bar?

..Or... maybe this is yet another Gensokyo?

Still completely confused about her situation, and deciding to not stay there longer and potentially accidentally insult her caretaker more and more, Tenshi forced herself to stand from her bed, and walked towards the door despite the aching pain on her muscles. Without even changing her clothing first, she opened the door and walked outside.

“..I do not wish to talk about that, or anything else right now. Please, don’t ask me about it.

Sorry for this, really.”

“But-“

“And I really need to go somewhere right now. So well...see you later, Iku. And thanks for taking care of me all this time.

Sorry for being quite an annoying kid to you all this time too.”

“Sorry, Reimu’s kinda sick now. But hey, wanna do some danmaku battle? Also, nice pajamas you got there-”

“Nah, not in the mood right now, Suika. Then again, I’ll wreck you up badly like last time if we duel now.”

“Hey! Come back here you…..!”

“Sorry, have something more important to do than dealing with a freeloading oni.”

Saying that, a gigantic fist that came from behind her almost hit Tenshi if not for her dodging it at the nick of time, and it was a signal for her to get out of the place as fast as she could.

“Miss Akyuu is-“

“Sick, right? Alright then, I’ll go ahead and take my leave now.

Also, by the way, go have someone tend the garden.”

“Ah, welcome. What would you like to buy, Miss Celestial? Also, nice pajamas you got there. Tryin to have a sleeping princess vibe this time?”

“…Just call me Tenshi. Also, don't mind my clothing, I was in a hurry.”

She was there, standing in front of it. The shop that was filled by multitude of objects from the outside world, Kourindou, and its half-youkai owner, Rinnosuke Morichika. She hadn't actually been here before, so a lot of the objects felt quite alien to her aside from the small few she already had in her place. Where was Marisa though? She hadn't seen here around for a while, and she usually liked to hang around on this shop.

Rinnosuke was seemingly waiting for her to find what she wanted to buy, but Tenshi was not here to shop.

“Hey, anyway... Don’t you think Gensokyo felt kinda weird as of late? Things are seemingly way too quiet lately. It's like the place was swept by an epidemic or something”

Tenshi decided to go straight to the priMerry issue she had. Rinnosuke was quite knowledgeable and compared to the others, he's the most neutral and reasonable to her too. And it seemed that Rinnosuke immediately made a response to that direct question.

“..So you realized it too, huh?”

“Hm?”

“Well, maybe not as much as how I realized it, but I’m glad someone else was also disturbed by these oddities. Anyway, have you seen something quite unusual about the Hakurei Barrier lately?”

“Huh? I haven’t checked it yet. I apparently has just resurfaced after disappearing for months, remember?”

“Then let me save some of your time. It was gone.”

“Wait, what?”

The Hakurei Barrier was the single thing that made Gensokyo exists. Well, one of two, but still…

Without it, then..?

“What about Reimu? Why didn’t she do something? And how does Gensokyo still manage to stick around without it?”

“Well.. Reimu’s not in this world anymore.”

“..She’s dead?”

“..Uhhh, no. She just disappeared several months ago.”

”What about-“

“As for that last question, it’s something that even I don’t have the answer to it yet. Everyone else just seemingly went on to ignore that fact, but everyone felt worried about the future of this place too. I hope my answer was satisfying to you, Tenshi.”

After politely leaving Rinnosuke’s shop to look around and find more information, Tenshi tried to think once again regarding what Rinnosuke had said.

No one tried their best to ignore the disappearing barrier without doing anything about it. Tenshi clearly still remembered how she almost knocked the barrier down when she created the earthquakes around 4 years ago, and everyone immediately went up in arms about it, beating her up senseless until later on when she managed to beat them all back. But that said, even until now, people here still mostly despise her for what she had done back then, and despite her trying to change her attitude times after times, she pretty much failed in making others like her more.

Hence, seeing everyone being less than concerned regarding the fact that Barrier had disappeared kind of stirred something inside of her. Probably frustration.

It just…it’s just unfair.

She’s probably the number two most despised person on the land, only second to that amanojaku, but unlike that contrarian, Tenshi didn’t want people to hate her. Well, in the end it’s all her own fault for starting that incident, after all. Tenshi knew it, but she was still really frustrated by that fact.

Tenshi woke up inside her bedroom once again. It already felt like a routine for her to relive the situation over and over again. She wondered about how much would she repeat this over and over again until she figured out what happened. At least this time, she already knew about what she should do next.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve been gone for months, I need to fix my manners, and now I need to go outside for sightseeing. See ya!” Tenshi said to Iku, who had just entered her room, before dashing as fast as she could outside, not even bothering to summon a keystone as she jumped straight down from the edges of Heaven.

Iku was unable to process what even actually was going on inside of Tenshi’s head at that time.

“Seems like Rinnosuke was right. The Great Hakurei Barrier has disappeared. Completely gone. I wonder though…

What will I find if I go through the place where the boundary used to be?”

“Hey, what are you going to do now there, you no-good Celestial? Planning to mess with the Hakurei Barrier, huh? Have you learned anything from the last time you almost doomed Gensokyo? Since it seems that you haven’t, then I, Marisa will be the one to stop you in Reimu’s place!”

As she inspected the barrier near the Hakurei Shrine, a familiar voice greeted her. It was Marisa Kirisame, the so-called Ordinary Magician of Gensokyo. Well, she’s perfectly human, but the firepower she can dish out was on a whole different level entirely than what humans should be able to dish out. Her ego is far above other humans too, to go with her sheer firepower, though at this point Tenshi couldn’t really understand why she didn’t turn into a proper magician youkai instead of staying as a true human like she did.

Well, giving her profile aside, she had arrived on the scene, and she looked less than pleased about Tenshi’s presence there. This time though, it seemed that she’s unaware about the fact that the barrier was completely gone. Which would mean this was another Gensokyo once more.

“Uh huh. Seems like you’ve missed the note, so let me tell you a secret then.

The Hakurei Barrier’s completely gone now, but it’s not because of me, so please stop aiming your magic reactor at me. Also, Reimu’s not sick, she’s gone. Check her room now if you don’t believe me.”

“…What?”

“Also, I don’t have time for a duel right now. So, goodbye~”

Turning her attention away from Marisa, Tenshi walked into the point of where the boundary should had been if it was still around, giddy with speculation of what would she find across it. It didn’t take too long before she was able to see what lie beyond the boundary.

As she stumbled with the edge of that Gensokyo, she noticed that the Gensokyo was surrounded by void.

Yukari’s void. And beyond the void, she could see other Gensokyo floated freely in the space as spheres, quite a bizarre thing to see, to say the least. It didn’t surprise her, but still, it was definitely not something she hoped for.

“So, somehow, I fell and got trapped inside one of these Gensokyos. This must be what Yukari meant back then. I guess, I need to start finding a way to get out from here.”

Left with not much choices on her hands, Tenshi closed her eyes and took a leap of faith towards the nearest Gensokyo sphere, hoping that maybe, one of the Gensokyo would have something that would make her able to return to the outside, and to finish her business there.

Though speaking of it, what was it?

But before she could reach the other Gensokyo that were floating in the nether space, a blast of light engulfed her from behind, and once again, her consciousness became dark.

A wave of familiarity could be felt by Tenshi as she woke up for the nth time in a strange place, though it was definitely not in a good way, since she found herself in the middle of a stone pathway instead of her room like usual. Though, the feeling was more like, a feeling of familiar dread creeping towards her very being, touching her subconscious with memories she wished to forget, though it wasn’t clear what it really meant at that time.

Her bad feeling was confirmed after she decided to walk further and further along the stone path. She found herself staring towards what looked like a graveyard complex, a huge one at that at the end of the pathway. No one else seemed to be there at the moment, so Tenshi decided to take a stroll around the place to see what it was all about.

There were oddly only four very large tombstones in the complex instead of something more normal, like the smaller looking family graves. Relatively freshly lit incenses were visible in all four of them, signifying that people had visited the graves not long before she arrived there, though she still couldn’t see anyone around.

A closer look on the tombstones surprised Tenshi, though. It was the complete lack of names engraved on those tombstones, and not even any sotoba to indicate who were buried in these graves could be seen as far as she could check.

It was clearly a mass grave complex, and realizing it, Tenshi wondered what kind of catastrophe had hit the land to demand a mass grave like this, especially how these mass graves seem to be more in line with how the outside world do their mass graves. She then noticed what looked like a monument standing firmly at the very end of the stone road, consisting of an arch and two stone tablets facing towards the opposing directions.

The monument’s arch was depicting a dove holding an olive branch on its beak, a figure that Tenshi never expected to see in Gensokyo from all places. She knew about it from a book that she read on the library in Bhava-Agra, and it was, as far as she remembered, a western symbol, quite anachronistic to the eastern Gensokyo. And it was meant to symbolize-

To her horror, Tenshi realized what was the entire place about when she recalled about the meaning of the dove as a symbol of peace. A war had happened in this version of Gensokyo. That explained why Tenshi felt the familiar atmosphere here, since her Gensokyo was also-

“This…is my Gensokyo, isn’t it? This is home, isn’t it?”

Still somewhat refusing to accept the fact that this was her Gensokyo, Tenshi stared at the monument, not moving. Doubting whether she should do it or not, after standing still with indecision for several minutes, she reluctantly decided to check the stone tablets to see what they actually were, even if she had some ideas already about their function.

Her guess was right, just when she was wishing her hardest that she was wrong. Realizing that the tablets contained the names of the people that died on the war, she immediately backed away as far as she could from them. She still…Iku…she couldn’t forgive…she couldn’t forgive herself for Iku’s death, and she knew that if she saw her name on the tablet, she could easily break down right there.

No, she shouldn’t, she shouldn’t-

“I stand for life against death, and I stand for peace against war. Even in the outside world, the world that’s torn apart by wars after wars, peaceful sayings like that can still survive and be engraved in people’s mind.

Sadly, I don’t think I deserve to say any of those words after all I’ve done to this place.”

A purple-haired woman with quite an odd sense of fashion for Gensokyo appeared from behind Tenshi, shocking her for a bit with her monologue. Completely recognizing the voice, without even turning around, Tenshi summoned several keystones that surrounded the purple-haired woman, who was still looking at her calmly, not seemingly being concerned that she was surrounded by the keystones that was clearly prepared to fire at her.

Though, her reaction seemed to be that of acceptance rather than a calmness caused by confidence that Tenshi wouldn't be able to hurt her. That was the moment Tenshi realized that this Yorihime was different from the Yorihime she knew of.

“…It seems like you are still quite angry at me and my people for invading Gensokyo without a clear reason. But please, even if I have no right to speak like this after all my sins here, please don’t taint this place with another drop of blood. That war was enough. And I..

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry for causing Gensokyo and its people to suffer. I know this apology won’t be enough for you, but…”

Her words pretty much sealed the deal on everything for Tenshi. This was her Gensokyo. The one that was torn to pieces by the war against the invading Lunarian. Without being able to hide her anger and frustration, Tenshi finally turned around to face the enemy’s leader, Watatsuki no Yorihime, the Lunarian princess, someone who normally wouldn't even consider apologizing to her like this. No matter how much Tenshi hated the person before her for what she did, Yorihime was right. She shouldn’t shed more blood in this graveyard.

But…

“..As if I can simply accept an apology like that from the likes of you!”

“…That is understandable. It would be naïve for me to think that I can be forgiven after committing that deplorable act. But, you forgiving me right now or not, Tenshi, there's another matter that I wish to bring to your attention ”

Sensing no malice nor any attempts to retaliate from Yorihime, Tenshi dispelled her keystones away, before properly facing herself to Yorihime’s direction.

“Sigh… What do you want?”

Tenshi was still holding her sword in a stance to indicate that she could and would attack the moon princess at any moment’s notice, but it seemed that she was willing to listen towards Yorihime’s words for now. After all, even Tenshi herself was already too tired mentally for a combat right now.

“I believe, a place like this is not really a proper place for us to continue this conversation. If you may, please follow me to the Hakurei Shrine.”

“Tch, whatever.”

Even with her not being able to fully trust Yorihime now, Tenshi finally decided to follow her, just so she could learn more about everything that happened after she left the world.

“That said, let us depart from this place.”

“This place…it has been rebuilt, huh?”

“…Yes. After all, even without the Hakurei Barrier, the reason why this shrine stood in the past…

…The people still need a symbol of hope - especially after the heavens itself, and everything else had left us alone here, in this forsaken world. And the one thing that that would perfectly symbolize it is this shrine."

The two was sitting on the front porch of the shrine, enjoying a cup of tea as they saw the scenery of the Gensokyo that was still recovering from the war. The two looked quite more relaxed with each other, but it’s still clear that there’s some sort of powerful invisible tension going on between them. Yorihime herself couldn’t really hide her melancholic expression as if she was recounting the events of the past; her gaze was aimed at nowhere.

“Yorihime…tell me everything that happened after I left this place.”

“Hm?”

“No, I mean, tell me everything about the war, and why do you still dare sticking around in this land you murdered.”

“Ah… How should I start...?”

After a brief silence, Yorihime continued to talk as if the hostile tone from Tenshi earlier did not exist, but Tenshi could notice that she’s really reluctant to continue.

“Everything, all of this was started by an accident and a huge misunderstanding.”

“…What do you mean?”

A misunderstanding was the last thing Tenshi could see as a valid reasoning behind all the bloodshed, and if such ridiculously trivial thing was the issue…

“Several months ago, Yukari started her experiments regarding the boundaries between universes, and she tried to access other universes by manipulating them. At first, she was successful in doing so, accessing the other universes and bringing in some quite intriguing discoveries.

But then, something went wrong. After a while, what started as a harmless exploration started to bring in distortions in space time to our universe, something that was later known to be attributed towards the activity of a girl named ‘Isamy’, or so Yukari said.”

“…Lady Isamy?”

“You know her, huh? I might ask you about her later on then.”

“Uh…I guess.”

“Well…let’s move on then.

The distortions were small at first, but as Yukari explored deeper and deeper into the multiverse for a goal she never actually bothered to mention to anyone, the distortions grew and grew, and it went on to become a completely and utterly dangerous thing that threatened my people’s residences.

Panicking, we suspected that it was yet another attempt for Yukari to attack the moon, and thus, we assembled our army as fast as we could, and noticing no signs of people from Gensokyo around, we then descended towards Gensokyo, demanding an explanation.”

“But you ended up invading us, annihilating us just because of that.”

Tenshi’s tone was clearly accusing Yorihime even if she said it as detachedly from her feeling as possible. But, after only a brief pause, Yorihime continued her story as if nothing happened.

“The shrine maiden, Reimu Hakurei, rose up and went towards me, inquiring closely regarding the reasoning of my people taking arms at a time like this.

…What happened next was quite unclear, but a shot was fired, Reimu went on and attacked us all, and not long after that, when our soldiers tried her best to stop her from demolishing our soldiers, she suddenly dropped down to the ground, presumably after another shot hit her.

That sparked the rest of Gensokyo to declare war against us.”

Hearing that, Tenshi felt her stomach churned. All of this, Iku… it was all just caused by a misunderstanding? And even Reimu only died because of... because of something as stupid as that? Tenshi was visibly shaking in anger now.

“…That’s it?

This war…this completely disastrous war was sparked by such a silly misunderstanding? People die meaninglessly for this silly misunderstanding?

You….!”

In a sudden act of aggression as her emotions peaked, Tenshi dropped her tea and lunged ferociously towards Yorihime. Immediately, she began driving her to the ground before she went on and start beating the Lunarian's face over and over with her fists. The purple haired girl did not even resist as she did so, seemingly accepting every single blow she received as Tenshi laid down the beating to her. One punch, two punches, three punches, Tenshi let out all her frustration and anger towards the lunarian using her fists.

“You…this is entirely your damn fault!

Bring back everyone! Bring…Bring back Iku to me, you murderer!”

Even if she knew it would not do anything to Gensokyo, nor it will bring Iku back to her, Tenshi was drowned by her anger and frustration, and for each punches she landed on Yorihime’s face, the more she was close to break in and cry, while Yorihime herself, even if she winced from the pain, she didn’t even budge, nor resist. Yorihime just accepted all the strikes.

Tenshi couldn’t think of anything else to do at that point. She was angry. Angry towards herself. Towards Yukari. Towards Yorihime.

All of this felt so meaningless. But-

“Damn it... Tenshi, could you stop that?

It’s no use for you to continue beating over her. Even if you kill her now, everything won’t magically fix itself at this point, nor will everyone that died return to live by doing that.

So please, just return back to your place.”

The voice, Tenshi knew the voice. On the verge of bursting in tears from her overflowing anger, Tenshi turned around to see a girl wearing a red and white shrine maiden’s outfit. But it was not Reimu. In fact, it was the girl once known as the Ordinary Magician, Marisa Kirisame. Though, the proud, playful tone from her usual self had mostly disappeared, and it was replaced with something calmer and reserved.

She was about to ignore her words, but something stopped her from continuing her attacks.

Letting go of Yorihime, Tenshi returned back to her previous position, burying the shattered cup into the ground as she did so before she moved her empty gaze back towards the scenery of Gensokyo once more. Marisa herself went on and tended Yorihime for a bit as she helped her to get up, but it seemed that Yorihime had become unconscious due to the beating. Sighing, Marisa carried Yorihime on her back and escorted her inside the shrine, and around fifteen minutes afterwards, she herself went on and sat on the position previously occupied by the purple-haired girl.

“Let me continue the story on Yorihime’s behalf, if you don’t mind. “

“Go ahead.” Tenshi answered, indifferently. Marisa just shook her head hearing Tenshi’s half-hearted permission before continuing.

“The war raged on, and despite everything the people of Gensokyo could throw at the advancing lunarians, it was finally clear that the Lunarian had an advantage over us, despite both sides losing a staggering amount of casualties during the war.

When the news reached the heavens above, they decided to take an extreme measure to stop the war, and what happened next should already be known by you.”

“Yeah…” Tenshi was barely listening at that point, as she tried her best not to remember the exact details of things that happened during that point.

“Though, on the aftermath of the catastrophe, some people still managed to survive, though we began to realize that the Hakurei Barrier had been destroyed for an unknown reason, and the surviving lunarians could not even attempt to return to their home at the moon.

Both sides completely regretting about the war happening, we decided to work together to start all over again in this broken down land. We gave the dead a proper burial, we tried our best to restore the land with the help of Suika and Yuuka, and we tried to rebuild the human village once again along with other landmarks that had been damaged or destroyed during the war, even though now the village itself was completely empty now, aside from a few houses.

The lunarians also settled in a place near what used to be the Forest of Magic. While some of us disagreed with it, since after all, they were the one that attacked us first in our eyes, in the end, we saw no points in furthering the hatred between the two sides.

As for myself, with Reimu’s death, I decided to take the mantle as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden. It’s…more of an empty title at this point, since there’s no Hakurei Barrier to protect, nor there’s any incidents happening with everyone being too shaken to start one right now.

Still…I just think that I’m protecting her legacy by taking her position.”

There was that, the confirmation that Reimu had died. Hearing about it felt more painful to Tenshi than what she expected. After all, no matter how much the shrine maiden hated her, Tenshi genuinely looked up to her and wished to be on her side. She wished to be the same as her. However, soon she remembered that she had met Reimu not long before somewhere, though she couldn’t exactly define where it was really the Reimu of her world or what the context of the encounter itself was.

Thinking about it…wasn’t it actually related to the-

“And then, around two weeks ago, Yukari finally reared her nose, as expected, everyone bombarded her with questions. A lot of people hated her after what happened, but we're not in a position to oppose her now.

And she was actually willing to answer all of those questions, in a more truthful manner than I'd ever expect from her. Aside from finally giving the context to the entire case, which made us despise her even more, she also talked regarding one last thing before disappearing without a trace once more, and it was something that quite surprised all of us.

She talked about you, Tenshi.”

“…Me?”

Tenshi was taken aback by Marisa’s statement. Why would Yukari, of all people, say anything about her? At first, Tenshi suspected that Yukari was just taking her moment of absence to badmouth her further in the eyes of the resident of Gensokyo, but what she had seen so far seemed to prove otherwise.

What Marisa said afterwards made her speechless.

“Yeah, she talked about you and your disappearance, what you did during the times when we couldn't find you. At first we thought you had thankfully left with the other Celestials, cutting off any connections to this land permanently as your kind seemingly had forsaken us to wither and die here. But, Yukari elaborated on how you were given a chance by a stranger to follow them for a hope to fix everything here.

Well, she also said that you did some…really questionable things as you went on your journey, but in the end, she told us that you fought to the very end…

And died trying.”

“I-I see.”

Right, it is the Origin War, isn’t it?

…

So I really failed there, after all. Guh, why could I really remember any of the details of it now?

Wait... No... Is this really...?

Then, the memories of the events of the Origin War flooded her mind completely just as she started to remember about the event. It was as if the dam that was keeping them contained bursted, as if she had unlocked the door keeping the memories buried.

The memories of her battles. The memories of her atrocities. The memories of her mistakes.

The memories surrounding her own death.

Marisa noticed that Tenshi's expression had changed as she went blank, and tried to shake her out of it.

“Hey, don’t look all gloomy like that! What matters now is the fact that you’re still alive and relatively well, against what Yukari had said to us.

Well, I guess you really are trying your best to be a hero. That's what you should be proud of, Tenshi.”

“Ah…about that…”

“Hey, don’t be ashamed, everyone wants to be play hero at times, and even me and Yorihime there are not immune to it. While some of the completely horrible acts you commit along your journey really shouldn’t have happened and normally I’d beat you up really hard for those acts, in the end, that’d be useless. What had been done can’t be taken back, and now, what mattered for us is that you’ve returned.

Well, even if you ended up with nothing, you still fought to the very end, and you even manage to return here somehow.”

Marisa let out a satisfied laugh as she tapped Tenshi's back as if she congratulated her for returning. But then, her tone shifted into something more contained as she continued her words.

“Though, there’s something I need to say to you, regarding being a ‘hero’.”

“…”

“And then what?”

“Then I guess… I don’t know. I don’t know what will happen next.”

“If so, will it be worth it then?”

“…I don’t k- It will. It will definitely be worth it.”

“Why are you so sure?”

“Because… Because… I don’t know. It's not important, anyway.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“At times, sacrifices must be made to reach your goal. One person is meaningless when compared to many.

The only thing that matters for anyone would be the end result of all that. It’s simple. In the end, a hero’s just a vessel of the will and hopes of many. And thus, sentimental values like that are completely irrelevant in the face of the people’s will.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You have no idea…you have absolutely no idea, me. What I have sacrificed, what others have sacrificed for this, for me…

You don’t…

There’s no way in hell I’ll back down after all of that!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“But there’s no other way! I need everything I can get, to be as powerful as I can be, to be able to seize the key and…and…

I’ll save everyone and remake the entire world caught in this mess to be a better one, for their sake!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“But, that will not stop me. To make everyone happy, I shall crush everything standing in my way! Even a god!”

“I..I don’t want to kill anyone, and I don't want to kill you. But, I need to keep going. I don’t want their death to be meaningless.

I...I am the only one that can do this, me. As a hero-”

“You…You are not a hero!

You’re merely a selfish brat, and that's it!”

Did I, did I really say all of that?

“Tenshi, are you still there?”

Marisa’s words returned Tenshi’s back to earth after her mind drifted through the fragmented memories of-

“It’s not what you achieve in the end that is important if you want to be a hero.”

“It isn’t?”

“Yeah. What’s more important is how you do the deed, and what lies inside of here.” Marisa pointed to her chest, though with Tenshi’s puzzled look at her, she then sighed and continued to talk. “Well, what’s inside your heart, how you truly feel when doing it.

Are you truly doing it for the sake of others? Or are you doing it just for a completely selfish reason? Even if there’s no such thing as a completely selfless reasoning, there’s still a difference between the two.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Say, why do you keep fighting to fix things back to normal?”

“It’s because…I…damn it! ...I just... I just want to be a hero! I just…I want to be like Reimu, that’s it! She was never alone, she had you and the others alongside her all the time, and I think…I think by being a hero people could stop hating on me.”

“You never really change, do you?”

Marisa let out a hearty laugh after saying that, but Tenshi herself could not bring herself to look at the shrine maiden, as her head was locked looking downwards and she was clenching her fists in frustration as she heard those words.

Everything about this made her feel like she's about to break down and cry.

“You’re wrong! I…I’ve changed! I definitely have changed!”

The words were of a weak denial, an attempt of her to refuse the truth once again. A tap on her back surprised Tenshi. She looked on the source, and saw Marisa smiling at her.

“Hey Tenshi, please calm down, and keep your ears focused on my words for now. “

Tenshi didn’t respond to Marisa’s words. Deciding that it meant ‘yes’, Marisa continued to speak.

“First of all, there’s something you really need to keep in mind

Reimu… she was always alone inside of her heart. It’s just how she is, really. No matter how many friends she has, she always feels like she’s completely detached from everyone. Even me, who had been with her far longer than anyone, can only get so close to her. She’s someone that’s alone even in the middle of a crowd.

Still, despite of that, she attracted a lot of friends easily, even if her attitude made her seem to be quite indifferent to them, or even a pain in the ass at times.

Heh, in a way, I see you as her opposite. A pain in the ass too, but instead of flocking around you, people despise you, despite you honestly desiring for them to do otherwise.”

Those words felt frustrating for Tenshi to hear. After years she was unable to make any friends no matter how much she wanted one, yet Reimu effortlessly made a lot of them even if she didn't even seem to want them. It's just so unfair. What made the two of them so different with each other?

Seeing Tenshi's frustrated expression, Marisa decided to continue her words.

“Really, it’s not about becoming a hero. What it's all about is understanding the hearts of others. You should be more considerate to others, Tenshi. Feel other people’s hearts, understand them, and don’t ignore what others are feeling. The world does not consist of only you, nor does it revolve around you alone. A true hero does not fight to be recognized, but they fight for others.

Though, don’t think that these words are meant to hurt you or anything, Tenshi. Even I, Byakuren, Miko, heck, even Reimu herself can’t be truly said as a true hero yet.

Not to mention, even if you haven’t changed yet, you shouldn’t fret that much about it. This is not the end of the road for you, Tenshi. You can still change.

Hey, deep inside, even in a selfish person like you, you really do love everyone here, right? If you have something like that inside, then-”

“But…I have failed.

I’m useless. I can only bring trouble to others. I’m just…I’m just a huge mess all this time. If only I didn’t take the offer. If only I didn’t do anything…things would’ve been better for us now.”

“Tenshi, damn it... stop saying those words to yourself!

Ugh, listen to me. Blaming yourself, hating yourself like that is useless! You’re really acting like Yorihime now. I can’t really blame her for what she had done, since she had her people’s life in her mind all the time, though, really, she’s not really wrong in feeling as messed up like this.

Even so, it’s useless! This won’t get you anywhere, Tenshi. No matter how many punishments you subjected yourself with, as I’ve said, things won’t change for the better.

Hey, now, you really should try apologizing and forgiving yourself.”

“…Why?”

“Yeah, I mean it. Hatred, loathing, all that stuff are not something that you should keep inside of your heart for a long time. It’s not a matter of you deserving that forgiveness or not. It’s just…

Those bad thoughts will weigh you down, and you won’t be able to change for the better as long as you keep thinking like that about yourself.

It’s just like the case between us and the lunarians. Even if to some of us from Gensokyo the lunarians does not deserve any bits of forgiveness for everything, forgiving them would still be the best way to go for the survival of both sides, for all of us.”

“…I see.”

“So yeah, as I’ve said, just keep this in mind, though don’t let this weigh you down.

Hey, anyway, I have some news for you so you can stop feeling that gloom and doom now. Was going to say this earlier, but you were busy beating up Yorihime instead earlier.

Everyone’s been waiting for you in the rebuilt Human Village. ”

“…Everyone?”

“Yeah, everyone. Everyone has prepared a small party to celebrate your return to Gensokyo after all this time. Yorihime was originally going to tell you about this before...well..

Speaking of her, she might not come since she’s…kinda in a bad condition right now.”

“…Well, about that…I’m sor-”

“Save your apology to her for later. She’s been way too harsh on herself lately. Can’t blame her for feeling like that, but you might want to try cheering her up a bit later if you're still feeling guilty about it. After all, I prefer having the jabroniy Yorihime around rather than the doormat Yorihime of now.

Seriously, I hate how everyone's been feeling down like this for months. I'd like to have the old Gensokyo return too, you know?”

Letting out a brief chuckle, Marisa then went up and stretched her muscles a bit after the talk session, before turning around towards Tenshi, smiling widely. She proceeded to lend her hand at the baffled Celestial. Tenshi was surprised by the gesture, though she then responded the gesture by forming a slight smile on her face before holding Marisa’s hand and got up from her position.

“Let’s go down there now then. I’d hate to make everyone wait, and after all of my mess, I shouldn’t make another one again here.”

“Great, that’s the spirit, Tenshi!

Oh, also….

Since I doubt you can return to Bhava-agra with Gensokyo’s current state, would you…live in the shrine with me? Don’t worry, after the renovation, the shrine’s big enough for several people to live inside it.”

“Y-you don’t have to-“

“Eh, don’t sweat it, Tenshi. You already did attempt to do a lot for our sake. And besides, to have more friends is what living is for, after all.”

“A-ah... thank you, Marisa.

…Thank you for wanting to be my friend.”

The End...?

Really? End? Is this really the end? Me, losing all hope, dying here.
Is this my story’s only ending?

All alone. All by myself.
Giving up.

Is…is this really okay?

“I….I refuse to have this ending!”

A light at the end of the tunnel.

As the voice spoke, the lower body part of the girl known as Tenshi stood up, as if something was animating it. It wobbled slightly, losing its balance for a bit, but it then managed to stand firmly. The stump where the upper body should’ve been could be perfectly seen.

I might have lost.
I might have nothing else with me.

I might have been fighting for nothing.
I might have failed in everything.
It hurts, it was rough, and I was sad.

But…

“I won’t accept an ending like this!”

As if it was a mechanical construct, the left leg moved itself forward while wobbling slightly, then immediately followed by the right. It looked a bit awkward at first, but what was looked like an uncoordinated movement then slowly shifted into a proper stride as it moved and moved forwards.

“An ending like this is in no way acceptable. I will not accept this role of being the heroine of a tragedy!”

As she spoke, bones and internal organs slowly formed from the stump of her lower body, without her stopping her steady but determined stride, ignoring the battle that had just happened behind her, as it was not hers to interfere with it, after all.

First, it was her spine forming from her waist, assembling itself and standing, and it was then followed by her ribs shooting themselves from what should’ve been her chest and the bones that formed her arms. As they formed, her heart and lungs formed inside of the hollow space between her spine and her ribs, followed by other organs forming everywhere else on their proper places, and they looked like they were floating on nothing in the exposed structure that was her abdominal region. It was then followed by the spine continuing upwards to form her neck, and on its tip, her skull slowly formed, presumably with the brain inside of it.

There’s no way I’ll accept this.

Yes, I’ve lost. Yes, my Gensokyo, everyone's Gensokyo might not be able to be saved anymore due to me failing.

But, if this is the end of it all, then I refuse!

There must still be something I can still achieve other than dying miserably here!
I’ll throw this ending into the trash can, and I’ll start over if I have to! This is a retake. A redo.

It would end here?
This dream, my dream, it will end here?
My story would end here?

Who...who had the right to decide that anyway?

“At least, I haven’t decided yet! If I can, I’ll change the ending to my story!”

As she continued her movement, muscle tissues started to envelop the skeleton and organs that had formed first, slowly but surely covering most of it in its red color, and as it did, her scarlet eyes formed back on her eye sockets, still looking empty and lifeless, yet it was as if someone could sense something from it that made it seemed that it was determined on doing something. And then, with that done, her skin, and everything else followed, covering the red exposed flesh, and returned the body as close as possible to normal. Her long, flowing blue hair grew back from her scalp, and it was followed by everything else to form the girl known as “Tenshi”.

It was, in a sense, a rebirth.

This might be a dream that someone was having. Right now, she might simply be a part of that dream that someone was having, a dream that someone else wanted, or a dream that someone else thought about. The end the story was near, the bells were ringing, there were only a few pages left on the book, and they might have thought, ‘this is okay for the end’. They might have lost hope about her. Heck, the person that was dreaming might have wished for this story to end like this, as a tragedy. This was the end of the line for them. This is the sad ending of the tragedy of a foolish young girl that thought she could be a hero and be accepted by others.

I wouldn’t accept that.

It couldn’t be the end. This is simply a conclusion someone else gave.
A conclusion that Protheus gave.
Or might it be someone else?
It didn’t matter a bit!

Even if that was the last chance I had to save everyone…even if there’s no more point for me to continue this journey, I won’t accept this as my ending!

No matter how would my story so far would look as a tragedy,
No matter what the reasoning given,

For this one last time, I’ll be the stubborn little girl again, and I’ll refuse to accept this!
If this entire journey, if my entire goal is merely a childish dream…

“Then I’ll turn this dream into reality with my two hands! Dreams are what will become reality after all!”

And finally, it was life. Passion, desires, emotions, everything returned back to Tenshi as her stride turned into a straight-up dash towards the crystalline bridges in front of her. Her sword, which she left behind on her ‘dying’ spot, disintegrated and reappeared back on her right hand, without her looking back or slowing down due to her mind had been focused on one thing, one last thing that she needed to do before she could die in peace. She rushed through the bridge as fast as she could, and went right towards the chambers where a pitch-black mirror waited for her at the end of it.

To take back what I’ve lost, I’m going to start this all over again. I’m going to start myself all over again. Even if it’s game over for me, I’ll start a new save file from now on.

I don’t care if this is not the story someone else wanted – because this is what I wanted.
I don’t care if this is the story no one wanted – because this is what I wanted.
I don’t know how many times I’ll die again. I don’t know even if I can reach the end at this point.
It’s not about whether I could or couldn't do it, but it’s about whether I’ll do this or not.

This is not the end.
This is the beginning.

The beginning of my new story.

Without doubts, without hesitations, Tenshi ran forward as fast as she could, running towards the

pitch-black mirror that reflected her true self. No more things holding her back as she held on to the faint dream she had, Tenshi went through the looking glass with a confident look on her face.

And inside, she would only be able to find darkness.

“If you were to make a sacrifice in order to save a great many people, but not a single one of them thank you for it, how would you feel?”

“Surely, you see now. Your perceived selflessness gave you a sense of pride, and it is this which drove you into battle against me, even though you never had a chance to begin with. You fought well, but in the end, the truth prevailed. Now you see the result of what happens when you try to act like a hero.”

Protheus was right. He knew that Tenshi was not sincere in her cause. Even if he used it as way to mess with her, it didn’t change the fact that he’s right. The truth hurts, but it was something that couldn’t be denied anymore.

Instead of fighting for everyone’s sake, she fought for a childish, selfish desire. A desire to play hero. A desire to be accepted. A desire to have friends.

In her way to do that, she destroyed other lives. She refused friendships and alliances. She wanted to save others but all that she did was just bringing pain and suffering to them.

She’s a hypocrite. It was the truth about her. A murderer, a hypocrite, a selfish brat, an idiot.

They were all a correct descriptor of her now. But now, the girl known as Tenshi Hinanawi decided that she would try for a reroll. A new start. Even for a complete mess like her, there must still be something that she could achieve. Something that others would find to be useful. Something that might even give her another chance to redeem herself and fix her mess. And that was why she had to keep moving forward. With that in her mind, she embraced the darkness that greeted her behind the mirror.

And her consciousness becomes light.

Opening her eyes, Tenshi found herself inside of a vast white room, seemingly stretching for eternity to all sides. She wondered what kind of trial would be stored within it, but before she could finish her thoughts, a punch landed on her face and drove her flying across the room, right towards the wall. The force of the punch was decently strong, but Tenshi managed to stop herself from breaking her own body on the wall.

Across the room, a familiar figure stood, still frozen in the position she had when she punched her earlier. The figure was breathing heavily, as if the punch took quite a toll from herself.

“You…you have forgotten about it. I was too scared to stand up against you all this time to remind you…but enough is enough! You have forgotten your own words to me!

Your promise!”

“Wait, what do you mean by a promise?”

A promise. It sounded quite a bit familiar, but she couldn’t really recall giving any promises to the girl in front of her, her other self. Seeing no reasons for her to fight her, Tenshi shrunk her sword and placed it between her hairs like a hairclip as she walked towards the cyan-haired girl in front of her. For each step she took forward, she attempted to recall more and more of what was her shadow referring when she said something about a ‘promise’.

It took a while, but the girl finally figured out what was her other self referred about. It really had been a while since that happened. It was a promise made in a dream. A dream of a dream, a dream of reality, a dream of herself. Tenshi smiled slightly when she realized how far she had strayed from her path all this time, as the details of that meeting became clearer and clearer inside of her head.

“..If you oh so believed that your deed is right,

...Then, why was it right?

A pain in the ass though you were, there were yet people grateful to you. Are you planning on ever repaying those people?”

As those words were said to her, that was the moment Tenshi realized that her shadow was right about her. She was a selfish, immature brat. She was a hypocrite, wanting to be useful and memorable, yet only managed to annoy everyone. Her mind was too clouded by anger and denial before to accept the fact.

Reaching out to the girl before her, Tenshi replied to her accusation with a smile.

“…Hey, thanks for making me realize something.

You know what, you are right. I've been acting selfish all this time. Wanted for myself to be useful for the ones I cared, yet do nothing but giving them burden. And that is not right at all.

But now, there is but one thing I can do. That incident... I decided to try fixing it all. I will try to cast aside my selfishness, I will try finishing my own mission now. Not for Isamy, though parts of this were thanks to her since she saved me back then. But this is for Gensokyo’s sake. I wanted so that everything would turn out okay.

So we can have ourselves a proper ending.”

“Hmph, you seemed to have accepted your own falling. You seemed to have accepted me as a part of you. I guess what’s left is to finish this once and for all, me.”

“.........Yeah. Let's stop all of this nonsense, me. I am definitely you, and you are definitely me. Or parts of me, I’m not so sure on that.”

A feeling of satisfaction? It felt nice to be able to admit all of that, and even if she had no ideas on how she would back up her words, Tenshi felt some sort of emotional catharsis from how she was able to say all of that to her shadow.

“Ah, me. My life in the past, I realize that those was kind of a waste... it really all that there was to it. But still... me. I have to say, I still think it was for the best, even now. Because no doubt, it was a blast. Now the question is, why...?

I really felt like I was living.

I did have some enemies and people who hated me. A lot of them. Except I also still had a few people supporting me too. And...really, I think it was having those friends cheering me on that I enjoyed the most. As I’ve said before, I decided to create a new start for Gensokyo, and my life.

This entire war seems like a good starting point for that.

With that all said, please lend me your help! Give me your effort and power for one more go, me! One more mission to solve, one more incident to finish! Gensokyo’s now pretty much down and out, but I can change that!

I'll be a winner this time! I'm sure about it!

So, what do you think?”

“You..you’ve forgotten everything! I’ve tried my best to show you that you’re straying way too far than I liked, but...

You’ve forgotten everything about it!”

Right now, Tenshi was standing right before her other self as she listened to all she had in mind about her. She thought about a proper response to say for a few seconds, but, in the end she decided to let her heart guide her lips.

To sound the true words from inside of her heart.

“Yeah, you’re right about all of that. And for forgetting everything, I’m really sorry, me. I tried my best to change, yet…I forgot the most important things that I need to change. In the end, because of that, I ended up as a failure. I lost everything, even my goals, my reasoning, all of that was lost due to my own stupidity.

I’m such a fool...

But…would you even forgive this fool, me?”

“…Idiot…

…You idiot!!!!”

Her shadow went ahead and attempted to launch another punch towards Tenshi, but it stopped in mid-air before it managed to hit her bare, exposed skin. The shadow held her punch back moments before it hit.

Her fist was visibly shaking.

“…I hate myself for being like this. I hate the selfish me. I really hate it. All of my mess, many of the messes that others had to suffer, I was the one at fault about them. But, I…I don’t think hating myself further and further after this would do me, or anyone any good.

And so, I wish to start over from now on. I’m not sure how many time do I have left in this world, but I’ll start over. I won’t accept the ending where I died as a failure that hated myself deeply for what I’ve done as my ending. So, me. If you’re still willing to, after all the mistakes I’ve done, are you still willing to forgive this idiot?”

Tenshi put her right hand forward, offering a handshake towards her other self.

A brief silence ensued.

“... You idiot…

...I’ll forgive you, just for this one last time.”

“So, this will be our one last go, huh?”

“Yeah.”

The other her wiped off the tears from her face, before she fixed her hat and her clothes. Tenshi herself was still standing silently there as she watched the other her readying herself, but moments afterwards, she threw her gaze upwards towards the blank sky above her.

“You know, me, I wonder…”

“Hm? What is it?”

“I think I saw you on the Pathway itself, opposing me, trying to kill me. Was it really you, or am I just starting to get more and more insane?”

“Ah, so you’ve crossed path with her.”

Hearing Tenshi’s question, her other self was looking quite amused for a moment. Tenshi raised her eyebrows at that reaction. Seemingly she really had some knowledge about that.

“To put it simply, she’s a part of me, of us. At least she used to be. It’s a long story, though; so, would you like me to fill you in about it?”

“It won’t really hurt, I guess. I might meet her again, after all.”

“So I guess, to put it simply, she's... well, she's an empty shell made using me as the template. A clone perhaps? But more or less, she was born from us. She was formless with barely any consciousness at first, but Yukari had her assume the form of one of your alternate selves without enough remains to stay conscious inside of your head.

That summary's still quite confusing, isn't it? Then... let me go in more details on what I know...”

Tenshi attentively listened to every words that her other self talked about about the short-haired girl she stumbled on the pathways. She nodded accordingly when asked whether she understood or not. It was somewhat of a lie and both of them knew it, but her other self understood that Tenshi was having a hard time taking all of that information at once. In the end, when she felt like she had told Tenshi enough, the other self immediately urged Tenshi to leave, and she complied with the order.

Emerging on the other side of the mirror, Tenshi found herself facing towards a vast sky, and she noticed the staircase somewhere on the distance, pretty clearly her next destination. Protheus was nowhere to be seen, it seemed, and after taking a deep breath, Tenshi started her descend.

The sea of clouds immediately blocked out her view of what was below her, though it didn’t mind her much. As she passed through them, much to her surprise, the clouds suddenly took her form, and started to lash violently at her.

Hearing them made her smile a bit, as the specters was simply saying the truth about her, and she listened closely to their words to remind her of who she was before, and how should she change.

Though, the expanse below her was the thing that took her focus the most when she noticed it. A reenactment of the final moments of her Gensokyo, seconds before her father and other celestials pulled the keystone that kept Gensokyo together, tearing the land apart.

Seeing the scenery before her, she felt a rush to try warning everyone below about the incoming catastrophe, but her common sense then kicked in, and she reminded herself that everything below her would simply be a fabrication of the pathway rather than anything she could affect. With a heavy heart full of regrets as she saw the scene of her world's destruction unfolded, Tenshi continued on her way. At one point she was unable to take it anymore however, and ended up choosing to rush towards the exit instead without having her gaze shift anywhere else.

‘Are you content with your present self’?

“Well, first of all, I am simply me, myself, Tenshi Hinanai. I am my truest self; I am both the bad and the good inside of the individual named Tenshi. I was a loser and a failure, yeah, but I’ll change that, that’s for sure. I’ll be a better girl than I was a moment ago! I’ll be a new me, just you see.

So…I’ll have to say no. I’ll only be content of my current self if there’s no way I can change anymore.”

“Merry? I’m afraid I’m not the Merry you’re looking for, miss.”

“Hey, stop playing around with me like that, Merry. I know full well everything about you, and it’ll be real easy for me to recognize you from miles.”

“But I’m not-

Wait, what are you doing inside of this forest anyway, Renko?”

“See? If you’re not Merry you won’t even know my name!”

Well, the girl, Renko was right on that account. Yukari didn’t expect to really know about this stranger’s name, and the fact that she said it perfectly like that would probably a sign that she did know something about the brunette in front of her. Thinking a bit, Yukari then decided to play along with Renko for a while.

“Well then. Guess you want us to cross this forest together?”

“Of course! I’m dead worried about you crossing this alone. I-it’s not because I’m scared of going alone or anything, really! And after all, the Sealing Club’s could only properly become the Sealing Club if there’s the two of us here, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

Answering with an agreement without really understanding what Renko meant, Yukari tried her best for her to sound as authentic as possible to not offend Renko by pretending to be her “Merry”. And so far, it seemed that Renko had swallowed her lie wholly, a fact that made Yukari somewhat pitying her apparent naivety. Though, before the two could continue crossing the forest, a sudden hard seizure hit Yukari.

Last thing she saw was Renko turning around and panicking, and then, nothing.

“Merry! Wake up! Please wake up!”

“Uh…my head hurts... what happened?”

Yukari opened her eyes to find herself lying on a bed with Renko on her side with a worried expression on her face. Yukari, still trying to grasp her situation, was barely able to register the words that the girl said towards her.

“Renko, Renko, you there?”

“I’m here, Merry! I’m definitely here! Oh, thank god you’re awake! I was scared of losing you again.”

“I-where are we?”

Yukari was not fully awake yet. Parts of her consciousness were still above the clouds. Swimming. flying freely in the sea of dreams and memories. Renko noticed this fact, of course she did, and she, just like she usually would, sighed and proceeded to answer Yukari’s question.

“I’ve brought you to this one tower in an opening of the forest. I don’t know what this place really is, but at least it has some bed for you to rest in.”

“Well, this place doesn’t look like-“

It was then Yukari realized that she knew something was off with the room the two of them were in. It’s not the room itself, but…it’s more about…it’s more about…

“This place looks familiar.”

“Ah, so you noticed this too. Looks just like our room, right?”

Those words were the omen of something bad. Seeing the room surrounding her, slowly memories of her time with Renko seeped into her head. How the two of them spent their times together, going after the mysteries of the world. How the two of them slept together in the same place, playing with each other, drinking with only each other as their company.

She also remembered how she was separated from Renko, disappearing into a sea of gaps near a strange yet familiar shrine. What were those memories, anyway? Perhaps it's all just something the pathway tried to implant on her mind? Whatever I was, Yukari felt that it would be too dangerous if she stayed inside of this room for longer.

“…Let’s leave this place at once.”

“Huh…what’s the matter, Merry?”

“This place…there’s something really off about it.”

“...I don't get it.”

“Why would a random tower have a room really similar to ours?”

“I guess, that’s a good point. Yeah, I think I get it now. Are you sure you can move yet, though?”

“I'll be fine, so don't worry about me, Renko.”

“There’s really no-one here for me, huh?”

Alone. Being Tenco, she couldn’t help but sigh when she realized the fact that there was no one there inside of the forest for her to talk to. Nothing, nada, completely devoid of anything outside of silence. The attempt of the entirety of the Pathway of truth to hammer down the point that she’s merely a fragment of Tenshi was still fresh in her memory.

Why, why would she even be compared to that…to that…to that mess?

It’s just, she couldn’t comprehend why everyone would like her to accept that fact? Why it even mattered in the first place? She knew everyone else are going through important trials and everything for their character development, and she was simply forced to accept a stranger’s identity as her own, as if it was the most important thing to happen in the world.

Were the pathways simply went out of their way to screw with her or something?

“Ugh…”

Thinking about that made Tenco’s walking path to be messed up as her mind went into disarray, and without her realizing when and how she reached the place, she ended up in an opening. A snow field. A snow field with an old, decrepit tower standing in the middle of it to compensate the lack of trees there. The snow field was vast enough, and Tenco once again lighted up a fire on her left palm, and used it to keep herself from freezing to death on the cold weather as she looked around the area.

Not long afterwards, she noticed the presence of two girls that were hastily escaping the decrepit tower, though only one looked to be worried about anything, while the other was less burdened by anything by the looks of it. Not going to waste the presence of two more living being to accompany her, Tenco rushed forwards, not showing any signs of shame as she shouted to the two to wait for her.

“Heey, please wait for mee!”

Yukari and Renko turned their attention to the source of voice coming from behind them. It was coming from a cyan-haired girl with a decorated hat and white shirt that was rushing towards them.

Well, Yukari could guess about the identity of the ‘mysterious’ girl, even with Renko not knowing anything about her. Even with her slightly different clothing and hairstyle, her identity was completely obvious, so much that even the completely dry Yukari would’ve laughed freely now if not for doing it would cause her much pain.

“Tenshi Hinanawi, what are you doing here of all places?”

“I’m not Tenshi, damn it! My name is Tenco!”

“Yeah, sure, let’s go with that.”

Yukari’s clearly sarcastic reply didn’t seem to come across this ‘Tenco’ girl, and the cyanhead proceeded to come towards her and Renko. Renko was seemingly still quite confused about what was happening in front of her and why Yukari acted familiar around this newcomer.

“Wait, are you really Yukari?”

Twenty meters, and ‘Tenco’ seemed to just realize who she was talking with.

“Kind of. Somewhat. Something close.”

“Hey, who’s this 'Yukari' she's speaking of?” Renko asked. Yukari was surprised by a bit, but then she shook her head realizing her mistake. Renko, this Renko only knew her as ‘Merry’, after all.

“It’s a nickname my other friends had for me. Don’t worry much about it, Renko.”

“Wait, wait! Please wait for me!”

Five meters. Yukari decided to just sit down on the snow to wait for ‘Tenco’ to catch up with them, though Renko seemed to prefer standing while she watched and waited the cyan-haired girl to arrive.

Speaking of Renko, Yukari really doubted about what she actually was. There were too many things that were off about her. First of all, the cold should’ve bothered her if she’s just a normal human as she said, or even disabled her at this point if she counted the time when she dragged her unconscious body to the tower. Another thing would be the simple fact that she didn’t seem to notice the fact that Yukari was riddled with bruises and wounds, lost her left arm, and had a body in such a condition where a normal human wouldn’t be able to survive. She could say that the girl was just a construct of the pathway, but was there something more to her than that?

Asking Renko directly about this would be rude though. Like, why would any variations of ‘Hey, may I ask whether you’re actually human, or something else?’ be polite to the receiver? Then again, Yukari had actually enjoyed Renko’s accompanying her so far. Not to mention, she had saved her when she had the earlier seizures. If an enemy or other dangerous entities saw her at her weakest like that, she would've been very dead at this point.

“Yu-yukari…”

“Hmm…”

While her thought drifted, ‘Tenco’s voice made Yukari realize that she had closed in the distance between her and the two of them. With her being able to see ‘Tenco’ closely, suddenly, an urge to say something to the blue hair rose inside of Yukari's mind. Something really caught her attention regarding the girl's nature.

“Renko, may I leave for a bit with this girl? I think, I need to speak to her about something. Don’t worry; I won’t disappear again this time.”

“But-“

“Hey, it won’t be long. I promise I’ll return to your side as soon as I can.”

“Well, if you say so then. But it’s a promise, alright? I'll hunt you down to the seven corners of the earth if you don't return.

I don't want to lose you again...”

“Yeah, it’s definitely a promise this time. Since when I break any promises when it comes to the two of us, Renko?”

Dad · January 30, 2015

Meruem

He could feel them. All of them. The various presences within this dense forest. Every fiber of every being that existed in this set space and time, he knew who and what they were. It was quite literally impossible to compromise this being's existence without him noticing you first. Surprise attacks were out of the question. And as his eyes continued to hover over Killua and Gon, everything that was not within his immediate view could still be 'seen'. He looked up and around, observing his surroundings carefully. Taking a palm full of snow, he raised it to his face, sniffing it. He held the snowball out to Killua and Gon, curious about it. "What is this substance?" he said, musing over the cold slush. "In my brief life, I never did get to witness all of your world." Meruem turned around, his back now to the two young boys. He could see far enough away that the lake farther down the path was clear enough that it was almost as though he was standing directly in front of him. His eyes dilated as he commanded, and his senses were more keen than ever. Still, he could not help but wonder why he had stumbled back onto a living plane.

"What is this place?" he wondered aloud. "And why has it summoned me?" Meruem scanned the area, observing the various Counter Corps and Divine entities, as well as the pieces of that pathway that had taken life. Looking down at his palms, he could understand that he was not in a true physical body, but yet, he stood before one of two boys he had encountered before. He turned his hands over and over, examining himself more closely.

He turned back to Killua and Gon, and took Killua by the hand. He began comparing the boy's hand to his own. Meruem's skin was pale, and almost transparent. Killua's skin was normal, albeit cold due to the weather. Letting Killua go, he watched the boy stumble to the ground. He could feel his heartbeat spiking. He was panicking. Meruem got down to Killua's level, staring him in the face. "Why do you fear me? Do you understand it?" Killua did not speak, but scrambled backwards, into a tree. He snatched at the bark, clambering to his feet.

"Gon. We need to go. Now."

Meruem grew saddened, and admittedly agitated. "You would run from me? At no notion of hostility, you would fear me?"

Killua stared into Meruem's eyes, angered at this false ignorance. His face turned a frown, and his stare turned into a glare. The boy snatched Gon by the hand and turned his hair up with the words, "God speed!" Before Meruem could register what had happened, they had disappeared into the forest.

The creature sighed, standing up right. He too vanished.

BGM: Run This Town

He had appeared in front of Killua almost the moment he attempted to dash away. This incident would repeat itself several times. Killua frequently attempted to break free of Meruem's aura, let alone break his line of sight. But his senses were too keen. Even at his fastest, Killua could not escape. Eventually, Meruem grabbed Killua by his wrist, and wrenched him away from Gon, separating the boys. Meruem glared at Killua, still holding his wrist. Pulling the boy closer, Killua's heart began to beat even faster. "Calm down," Meruem said finally. After repeated tries and finally forcing Killua to face him, Meruem was growing annoyed. "If you continue to run, I will only become more irate. I do not wish to kill you. Not yet," he said throwing Killua backwards.

Killua fell onto his ass again, but managed to crawl up onto his feet. He returned Meruem's glare, as a question struck him. "What's with you?" he asked. "You were a tyrant. You drew in millions of innocents for your own feast, but now you're attempting to toy with me?"

Meruem did not answer right away. His eyes turned to Gon again, then back to Killua. "I am not interested in you, lightning child," he said coldly. "This body is not my own, so what little fight I may draw out of it must be entertaining. I am more interested in your friend," he said looking over to Gon again. He scanned the boy up and down, assessing his strength. While Meruem could not sense much, he was sure there was a dormant power lying withing that tiny body. He proposed another question to Gon. "What was it within you that killed someone like Pitou?" He walked over to Gon, and stood behind him now. Meruem placed a clammy hand on Gon's head, squeezing ever so slightly. It was not enough to kill Gon, but it was enough to cause a headache. He was attempting to literally access Gon's memories, by putting him in pain. "Will you show me, boy?"

Killua darted over, breaking Meruem's grip. "Leave him alone!" With a shoulder, he shoved Meruem away, hard. The Ant was thrown into a tree, which then collapsed onto his head. He slowly got to his feet, picking up the log and snapping it with his tail.

Sighing, Meruem sat on the snow now, folding his legs over one another. Killua stared at Meruem, his eyes filled with hate. "You despise me, yet you do not know me. You are threatened, when I only seek information. Is it human nature to hate those who are different?"

Killua retorted immediately. "There's a big difference between being different, and being a monster."

Meruem did not like this. His eyes changed from red to purple, rolling over and sliding back into place. He placed a hand on his knee, and the other now held up his chin. With a hint of malicious intent in his voice, Meruem hissed at Killua. "I do not like being labeled. Especially by someone who's heart will stop soon," he said staring into Killua's eyes again. Killua stood in front of Gon now, arms out spread. Meruem did not move. Killua's aura intensified, lightning coursing over his body. Meruem did not move. Lightning began to concentrate in his hands, and travel up his arms. Meruem did not move. Killua stopped himself, waiting for Meruem to take action. He regretted it. Killua's entire view of the world literally changed when he found himself staring up at the sky through the canopy of forest trees. An incredible pain ran throughout his head and back, as Meruem was now folding his legs again, sitting back into the snow.

"I will ask again," Meruem started. "Why do you fear me? Do you understand it?"

Killua groaned, sitting up and grabbing his head. "Because of what--" his eyes met Meruem's, and Killua retracted his words.

"Because of who you are," he said at last. Killua waited for Meruem's reply, as a cold look crossed the Ant's face. Meruem frowned, suddenly inflicted with impossible curiosity. "That is something that has stuck with me since my death," he said resting his chin back into his hand again. "Who am I?"

Meruem did not move, but continued to speak. "I was labeled by my mother as a King. I was worshiped by Ants as a savior. Yet, the only one to understand me was a child who could not see. A human child. So what does that make me? Am I a god?" he asked aloud. "Was I meant to deliver your people to my own? Was I truly meant to rule as a king? Or was I meant to be a weapon?"

Killua could not grasp Meruem's state of mind. He was scatter brained, and confused. "You are a weapon. Don't you understand that?"

Meruem grew irritated again, staring at Killua still. "Then you do know what I am?"

"I know what your entire race is."

Meruem began to stand up. "And what is that? What are my people?"

Killua smirked, dangerously, also standing up. "They're no different from you. You may be the strongest, but you're all a frightening species. You're nothing but monsters."

Meruem's frown returned, before he disappeared. He had grabbed Killua by the head, taking him into the air, to the top of a tree. "You attack my species, attempt to exterminate them, and turn them into trophies. But we are the monsters?" Killua chuckled, his mouth bleeding. He spat blood in Meruem's face. "Yes. You and the rest of the ants. The only good Chimera Ant, is a dead Chimera Ant." Then, charging a free arm with lightning, he punched Meruem in the chest. Meruem looked down, then back up to Killua, insulted. He dropped the boy, then leaped after him.

He came down with a kick, placing his foot in Killua's chest, and used his immense aura to propel down faster. They crashed into the snow, causing a great eruption of snow and leaving a crater in the land. There, Meruem stood with his foot in Killua's chest. That was when he noticed something different around him. The other boy had not moved. He had just witnessed everything, but did not attempt to help his friend. Meruem assumed this was a lack of empathy. Perhaps, after killing one of the Chimera Ants, specifically Pitou, this boy could not feel pity for his friend. Meruem proceeded to wail on Killua, every punch to his face and body creating a shockwave that shook the forest. He stopped, only for a moment, to talk with the now dying Killua. "If this is human nature, than perhaps it is better for the Chimera Ants to have succeeded. We can only save the humans from themselves. Digesting them, and making them reborn into a better, more intelligent species."

Meruem pointed a finger at Killua's chest, as he could sense the boy's heartbeat slowing. His fingernail pierced the boy's chest, and began to dig towards his heart.

Reinforce · January 30, 2015

Ayame

Pathway of Truth: A4

Looking at the two, Ayame smiled a bit more warmly, before she spoke.

"That sounds fine, though I will need you to carry me then. I'll welcome anything that can get me through these pathways quicker."

Walking over to stand next to Rhadamathrys, she waited, rather glad that the bloodlust she'd felt coming from the man had faded away without getting her dragged into a meaningless battle.

Darcy

Pathway of Remembrance: C14

Thinking over her past, Darcy found herself coming to a conclusion surprisingly quickly. With what she knew of the pathways though, she took a bit of extra time to make sure that it was definitely what she believed, before finally offering up an answer.

"Even though I've learnt a lot through my life that I might not have had things gone our way, I'm not satisfied with my past."

With her answer spoken, the barrier blocking her progress vanished, and she could walk forward to enter the pond, and get dragged back into the White Room she'd started in. Walking forward with confidence, Darcy opened the final door, making her way into the dark tunnel at the start of truth.

Ending Location: E1, Pathway of Truth

Chandra

Pathway of Truth: C6-C7

The instant Jace's thoughts crossed to thinking about the fact he'd helped her get free, she heard them, and of everything it made her even angrier that she'd needed his help to break free of the mental interference. Angrily continuing forward, she could tell what both were attempting to do. The creature that was summoned though, she'd never seen anything like it, and Jace seemed to have somewhat figured it out with what he'd said next.

"I'm not sure, but if that's the case that creature could be very dangerous."

As Jace began his own spell, she could identify and tell what he was casting, in spite of the transparency of the flame that was summoned. After all, it was a spell he'd first copied off her, and a rather unique one at that. Reaching in for her own magic, the spell she wanted burst into life quickly, a Ghostfire to match the one her ally had summoned, but enhanced in power through the unique properties of her gauntlet before it was brought into being. With a flick, her spell flew off at the cloned blue mage, even as another spell was prepared.

"Burn bright, Magma Phoenix."

In front of her, a bright red bird made out of lava emerged, and flew towards the unusual creature in an attempt to ram into it.

Maeriberii Haan · January 30, 2015

"Die, die, my darlings! Die, die, die!"

“Uh, could you-“

"Two hundred and ten! Two twenty! Two thirty! Die bastards!”

“Uh, please-“

"Hey Reimu! If I get to a thousand points, we have to celebrate! On me!"

“Wait, please don’t-“

"I almost forgot about those! Four hundred points!"

“Ugh.”

Still carrying the wildly-shooting Revy on her back, Reimu turned around to see a swarm of fairies was coming at them. Sighing, Reimu then closed her eyes and started to float on the air, with Revy still on her back. From her, several multicolored orbs of light around her size materialized, rotating around her and Revy like satellites.

“Spirit Sign: Fantasy Seal!”

Like a barrage of giant bowling balls, the spiritual orbs homed in to the swarm of fairies, rolling over them like they were made of cardboard, before creating a massive explosion near the location of impact. With the attack done, Reimu, with Revy still on her back, returned back to the ground, slightly exhausted from pulling the attack, but she then proceeded to continue her walk like nothing happened.

“As I’ve said, please don’t move –that- much while you're latching on my back.

It really tickles.”

It took the two around ten more minutes until they reached the giant mirror at the edge of the cherry blossom path. When the two arrived at the mirror’s location, Reimu decided that it would be the best location for the two of them to rest for the time being. Revy was definitely heavier than she thought, and Reimu might be able to look more into her injury and probably do some first-aid treatments.

“We’re stopping here for now. Not for long, just a short rest then we’ll continue.

The attack from earlier exhausts me more than expected apparently.”

Deciding that a spot under a nearby cherry blossom to be the perfect location, Reimu then gently dropped Revy there, and had her lean towards the tree’s trunk. She then set up a barrier around them to keep off fairies from their position, before she herself sat down on the ground, trying her best to relax. Though, something immediately came to her mind, and Reimu decided that this would be the best time for her to ask it.

“Hey, Revy. I’ve been wondering…

Can you tell me more about the Counter Corps and the people in it, our companions, so to be said? It’s just, I’m not exactly joining the group under the proper circumstance, and I haven’t really talked much with them, even to Lady Arturia.”

Even if Reimu was sure that the Counter Corps is supposed to be the ‘good’ side in this conflict, it’s just…she wasn’t even sure about their actual goal aside from stopping Protheus and the Divines from opening the Door. If they would try to restore the worlds that were ruined by the conflict too, then Reimu could have an actual reason to align herself with them properly. After all, that was what Yukari wished, as far as Reimu knew it.

Fighting together with others might actually be better than fighting alone for her now.

The Warden · January 30, 2015

|_)Witch of Courage, Lydia(_|

|_)Pathway of Truth: A4(_|

Lydia returned Ayame's warm smile, though she could only hazard a small smile when regarding Rhadamanthys. "The wind can carry me, but I don't think it'll be able to work for you, errr... you? Metalhead here will have to take you I'm afraid, even if he is a Divine" she replied, clearly not happy with the idea of a CC being carried around by a Divine, granted, there was something Lydia suddenly remembered.

"Hey metalhead" she began, snapping her fingers whilst trying to find the right words. "If your world is gone, why are you still siding with a crazy like Protheus? You obviously can't trust him, so, what's in it for you?" she inquired earnestly.

Love of Ghibli · January 30, 2015

Butlerok & Dorian: Path of Truth

Butlerok was definitely amused when he saw that his attack landed on Kenpachi. Though it was somewhat of a buzzkill that he noticed that his opponent was clearly distracted by some other force. While his body fell down to the ground he decided to actually speed blitz over to the location that he landed. There he witnessed the whole sight of the pink haired crying and Dorian looking very very confused. Butlerok tilted his head at a slight sign of disappointment in his master. You made her cry? Why? You know that there was no need for that correct?

Hold on! Dorian exclaimed. You can't be serious! All I did was tell her about how we even know this eye patch dude. How was I supposed to know that she didn't know about any of this. Dorian didn't want to make anyone cry. He was simply trying to have a conversation. Sounds like no good deed goes unpunished. Of course at this juncture the both of them had to bare witness to the motivational conversation between Kenpachi and Yachiru.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry Kenny!" "I'm sorry that you died for me! I'm sorry that I put myself in danger! And I'm sorry that--"

"You don't need to apologize, Yachiru," "Because I wouldn't be here today, if it weren't for you."

"Keep fighting Kenny!" "Keep fighting for me! For Kuchiki! For Strawberry!"

"For all of ya!" he said as he dove at Butlerok. "Let's get this over with," he said as he got closer. "I still owe someone else a fight!"

Oh this is just too cute. Dorian thought. He looked at Butlerok and as the two people made eye contact Dorian nodded. Butlerok smirked as he was about to let another side of him loose even if it was for second. As his opponent dove in closer and closer he would notice that Butlerok's forehead started to split open in three places and the eyes of the Kishin revealed themselves. At this moment Madness flooded the immediate area. The air was so thick with the tainted wavelength that the Black Rukh became quite visable. But that wouldn't matter as Kenpachi would now see the face of random nightmares that came from thoughts long past. The problem was that Yachiru being so close would also experience these same nightmares.

Standing in a pool of blood and what appeared to be cherry blossoms the two of them would see the constant death scene of their friend Byakuya Kuchiki. Despair and madness was one of the only that the two of them would bare witness too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rhadamanthys: Path of Truth

Rhadamanthys was slightly amused that the first person decided that she would accept his offer for transportation. However the second one was just more belligerent. Rhadamanthys tilted his head as he had to just assume she was wielding some kind of super weapon because as far as he could tell her head could quite easily be separated from her neck. It was pretty interesting though, in her litany of insults she did ask some question about his world being destroyed and why he aligned himself with Protheus.

Good question. The answer is two fold. First it is clear that most members of whatever my faction is called have there own agenda. I am no different. Secondly, based on what I've witness from both sides the side with most strength appears to be the faction with Protheus. Rhadamanthys was about to continue with his explanation, but something malevolent came across his senses. It was a very familiar sense and with that he finally realized where his comrades were. Instinctively he grabbed Ayame and speed blitzed down through the forest at amazing speed. His aura and cosmos were him actually destroying the forest around him. He was honing in on the malevolence when he came to edge of the forest. The aura was strong but he couldn't really see anything other than more forest. There was a mirror on the ground which he should have noticed, but he was so distracted by the current situation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gyouken Ren: Path of Rememberance

While walking down the path of snow and cold Gyokuen wasn't really noticing any of the stone statues that were supposedly haunting her. Granted she could see the despair of black rukh floating in the distance. Then as she flew in closer she could hear shockwaves resonate throughout the forest. Clearly something interesting was happening. As she closed in on the sound she noticed some green creature literally torturing a little child. While she was definitely interested in the event she tried to stay a safe distance as not to attract so much attention. Based on how the Rukh were not emanating from the green creature Gyokuen realized that this was just a construct made from the paths...Interesting. Very Interesting indeed.

Dad · January 30, 2015

Kenpachi & Yachiru

Before he could connect, blackness surrounded him. Kenpachi stopped, looking at his feet. They were covered in a thickness that he did not understand. "Is this blood?" he wondered aloud. Then, Kenpachi heard Yachiru cry out.

"Kenny!" He turned to her, and Kenpachi's past now stood before him. "Wha--" He was watching his fight with Byakuya happen all over again. But this time, Byakuya was victorious. The world around him was distorted, warped, and misshapen. He circled around his dying past, as he watched Byakuya, victorious, suddenly fall to his knees. His past self vanished, and Byakuya fell backwards, into a rotting cherry tree. He was covered in blood, and someone stood over him. The man held a strange blade in Byakuya's chest, and it looked as though Byakuya was trying to push him away. Then, the man standing over Byakuya pushed the blade in, and Kenpachi watched his friend's head tilt.

"Byakuya!"

The figure standing over the deceased captain turned to him, and showed it's face. "It was . . . no. It was you?"

There, Kratos stood, covered in black ash, blood, and the dying leaves of Senbonzakura. This truly was madness. Kenpachi dashed at Kratos, bellowing. "I'll kill you!" He raised his blade high, but the figure dispersed into dust. Swinging down, Kenpachi barely managed to stop himself. He had nearly just killed Yachiru. She was on the ground, cowering. "K-Kenny? Why would you--" "Yachiru?" He was confused. What was going on? He picked Yachiru up, and she began to slowly back away from him. "Yachiru, what--" "You're scaring me."

"But, Yachiru, I--"

"Just--don't hurt me again, Kenny," she said crying again.

Kenpachi lowered his blade, standing upright. He looked around, but the world had not changed. He looked down at Nozarashi, who began to quiver. Something was very wrong. Kenpachi began to grow enraged. His best friend had now turned on him, and he was stuck in a world that was not familiar. Then, Byakuya's corpse reanimated itself, and died once more at the hands of Kratos. Kenpachi's rage built, and Yachiru sat, her mouth of her hands, in horror. Kenpachi waited for the corpse to reanimate itself again, but this time, as Kratos stabbed Byakuya, Kenpachi joined in.

"Kenny--!"

The corpse turned its face to Kenpachi, with a big smile. "Head Captain," it whispered.

BGM: Anthem of the Angels

Kenpachi smiled back, a tear dropping from his free eye. "It's been some time, Kuchiki." The corpse's head turned away, looking straight ahead. "That is for the best, Head Captain. You and I should speak no further."

"Kuchiki. I never had a chance to apologize. You've been gone for so long--"

"You still dwell on what you can't change, even with a future in your hands."

"Hmph." Kenpachi stood up straight, drawing his blade from Byakuya. That was when he made a realization. Byakuya's corpse should not have been able to be cut by Nozarashi. Unless--

Kenpachi turned to Yachiru, and dashed straight at her.

"Kenny?"

He picked her up, and raised Nozarashi behind her. Bringing down the blade, Kenpachi saw a ripple form in the world behind Yachiru. Nozarashi reacted, sensing Kenpachi's thoughts. Byakuya's death scene began to materialize in front of him again, and this time, Kenpachi raised his eye patch in response. The corpse turned to Kenpachi again, still smiling. Kenpachi said nothing, but swung his blade at the dying Byakuya. With this raw power, behind Nozarashi, behind Kenpachi, he tore enough of space that he could see the crystalline bridges outside of this madness that surrounded him. But it still wasn't enough to break free. He put Yachiru down, and put both hands on his blade. Nozarashi screeched, and Kenpachi brought it down with as much power as he could muster.

Then, like an opening in the sky, the nightmares lashed out at the light before Kenpachi, as his aura held open the punctured space and time to allow him to step free with Yachiru. She jumped away from Kenpachi, stumbling into the crystalline bridges once more.

"Kenny--"

"Go."

"But, Kenny--"

"I'll be right behind you." His massive reiatsu spiked, and Kenpachi turned his back to the bridges. "I'm sorry, but I can't stay." Kenpachi's mind lingered on Kratos. He hadn't told Kenpachi that Byakuya died at his hands. Kenpachi was furious, and he could feel his reiatsu boiling, hotter than before. "Perhaps another time," he said as he swung Nozarashi at the ground in a wide arc.

A massive explosion erupted at his feet, ripping the already broken land of the pathway in two. Rock, rubble, and debris kicked everywhere into the air, temporarily providing a loud of smoke for Kenpachi to disappear behind. He vanished, snatching up Yachiru as he darted down the rest of the pathway.

Yachiru turned her face up at Kenpachi.

"Kenny, what happened?"

"We need to settle something."

"Settle--?"

"Kratos."

"Baldy?"

Kenpachi nodded. "He lied to me." Yachiru turned her face back ahead, as they came into contact with another mirror.

"I thought you were gonna--"

"Stop that," he said immediately. "I would never hurt you. You know that." Kenpachi stepped through first, with Yachiru right on his heels. Unfortunately, his time with his former friend had not come to an end. Once more, Byakuya stood before him, Zanpaktou drawn. "Kuchiki."

"Head Captain."

The Warden · January 31, 2015

|_)Witch of Courage, Lydia(_|

|_)Pathway of Truth: A4(_|

"Oh for god's sakes" she grumbled as Rhadamanthys took off with Ayame in tow. The wind picked her up as she launched after Rhadamanthys, his destruction of the forest giving plenty of room for her to fly as she followed him. "He respects strength, and that's why he's a Divine huh? Makes sense really. He's a meathead. Exactly, they only respect strength. It's how our original wielder finally managed to cow us into working for him. By proving he was stronger? Yeha, before him we spent our days ravaging and destroying for the hell of it. And now you live in my head, looks like you've come full circle."

The force of the aura and cosmos was overwhelming as she finally caught up with Rhadamanthys. Her own powers were venting out just so she could barely make it through the energy in one piece. "Mind telling me what's going on?" she demanded angrily.

Maeriberii Haan · January 31, 2015

The first thing Tenshi felt as she entered the pathway was the chilling breeze that touched, enveloped her bare skin with its cold embrace. Being a hardened Celestial, the temperature itself shouldn’t really pose a problem for her, though she still somewhat wished that her entire article of clothing was recreated when she died and got crushed several times earlier.

But again, public decency came last on her mind at this point, and it’s not like anyone would really make this into a huge problem anyway. Sooner or later, she’d probably find something for her to wear. But for now…

“This would be enough as a form of protection.”

Some sort of sphere made of spirit formed around her entire body, encasing it and protecting her from the harsh condition outside. And, with that issue handled, Tenshi continued her way, passing through the vast snowy field, through several stone statues that marked the end of the snowfield, and into the thick forest beyond it.

Noticing that the breeze seemed to have been reduced in intensity inside the forest, Tenshi removed her sphere from around her since it was somewhat obscuring her vision, and proceeded to look around the forest.

“Remembrance, huh?”

“Yep.

It’s the place where memories of the past reside. Beyond these trees are the things that had been left behind by people. People that has been forgotten. Events that has been buried by the sands of time.”

“…”

That voice. Tenshi knew that voice, and hearing it, she was then immediately consumed with guilt as her mind drifted back to the moment when she committed the sin towards the owner of the voice.

“Tenshi, why?”

“Please, don’t hate me for this, Gengetsu.
I shall use this power granted by you as the foundation for the bright future I shall create. Don’t be sad like that. This way, you can still help me as a friend even when your body perished.”

“You’re insane!”

“I’m not insane. I’m a visionary.
But non-enlightened people usually get confused between the two, so it’s understandable when you say that.”

“Your resistance is futile.
Now, die in peace. For the fate of our beautiful future.
I shall honor your sacrifice.”

“…I…I’m sorry, Gengetsu.

I’m sorry for everything.

I’m sorry for killing you.

I-”

“Heh, you’re still pretty pathetic at asking for forgiveness from others.

I’m not in the position to forgive you of what you did to me. After all, I’m simply a fragment of your memory, a golem created by the pathway.

Still, I don’t really have a reason to hate you.

So I guess let’s just have a simple chat as I guide you through this forest.”

“…Wait, what was that?”

For a brief moment, Yukari could feel that she was being watched, being read, being analyzed by something. The feeling immediately disappeared though, and Yukari refused to think about it more as she had a more important thing in her mind to think about at the moment.

Right now, she and ‘Tenco’, so she said, were walking side by side around the forest near the clearing of the tower, having explained to each other regarding their circumstances there, though, what followed after that was an awkward silence that lasted for a while as the two of them stole glances to each other to see the differences from the supposed person each of them should’ve been to each of their eyes.

Yukari herself noticed that, despite of what her first impression told her, this ‘Tenco’ had quite some differences from the Tenshi that she knew, not counting different physical appearance and hair tone. Though to be fair about her hairtone, it seemed to change from time to time between cyan, light blue, and blue, the last one being Tenshi’s. Probably due to the lighting in the forest or something, but it’s just a trivial detail so Yukari was not too concerned about it.

Then again, she did have told her about her story so far which drove the point that she’s not quite Tenshi, but Yukari suspected that she’s still hiding something, but well, it’s not really important.

Yukari herself had realized when she talked with Tenco that her mood had significantly been improved since she met Renko on the pathway, even though Yukari herself still had no ideas about who exactly she was and who was this ‘Mary’ supposed to be, and her probable relation to her.

Eh, the pathway would probably reveal the context sooner or later.

“Now that it has been established that I’m not the Yukari that you knew, do you have any other questions?”

“Ah…I’m not sure.”

“Well then, I'll take that as a no, and I guess it’s my turn to ask questions.

First of all, you’re-“

Before Yukari could even finish her sentence, Tenco jolted away from her, before replied harshly to the unfinished question. The sudden hostility from her surprised Yukari, as it was seemingly a complete turnaround from what she had assumed to be her usual personality.

“Ugh, I’ve said it again and again, I’m not Tenshi!”

“Uh..what? What does that even have to do within the current context?

I was going to say something else.”

Hearing Yukari’s explanation, Tenco’s face became red with embarrassment, and she continued the walk while looking down, trying to hide her face from Yukari, who was simply shaking her head seeing her odd behavior,

“A-ahh....

Then…I’m sorry for my sudden outburst. Please bear it no mind.”

“It’s okay, don’t worry much about it.

Anyway, let’s return to my question, I'll try to reword it better.”

It was perfectly clear from the moment she first looked at the girl who walked beside her at the moment. Her mannerism, her very being, all of it pointed towards a single, irrefutable fact. After millenias of experience, of course Yukari would be able to recognize the signs right away.

“Well, Tenco...

Do you happen…

…to be in love with someone currently?”

The sudden personal question surprised Tenco enough for her to stop in her tracks, with her facing Yukari in disbelief for a while. What followed was around ten minutes of more awkward silence as the two just stood still on their position, until finally Tenco uttered her answer to the question.

“…I think, yeah, you can say it like that.

There’s this one idiot…I don’t know, no matter how much I loathe her, she was just…

She probably is completely pissed up at me right now, but still….”

So, she’s a tsundere, huh? How…typical.

Sheesh, girls these days…

Sighing, Yukari then replied to Tenco’s conflicting answer with the best of her ability to answer it.

“You know, it’s not really good if you’re acting passive-aggressive towards the person you love like that. Be more caring, though don’t make it obvious until the time is right.”

“Uhhh, why are you-“

“Ah, teen romance. Talking about this makes me feel younger.”

“O…okay, I’ll keep what you say in mind.”

“On a more serious note…

What’s with your constant refusal of being called Tenshi?”

“…It’s none of your business!”

The hostile tone returned to the blue-haired girl when Yukari touched the matter once again. Yukari thought for a bit for the probable reason behind this hostility and refusal in talking about the topic, though from her earlier attempt to describe what kind of mess had Tenshi done in the war, which was also one part of the reason why she joined in the war itself, Yukari thought that probably it was simply because of her not wanting to be associated with someone she saw as horrible as that.

Still, there’s no reason for her to act like this, unless...eh, it couldn't be that.

“Ah, what’s with the hostility?

It…might not be something that I should say to you, since I’m effectively a stranger to you and all, but well, honestly, it really doesn’t matter. What others call you doesn't really matter.

It’s not really a big issue. You’re really being too worried about this, Tenco.”

“But…I don’t want to be treated as one and the same as that…as that miserable mess!

And everyone kept on saying that I’m one and the same with her, even the pathway itself forced me to accept it!

Can I…can I just be myself in peace?”

“Then just do so. No matter what others say, you are who you are after all.”

“But-“

“Sigh…

You should just think of more important things. You said that there’s someone you loved, right? Focus on them. You said you want to save someone, right? Think about how you would save them.

Life is too valuable to be wasted by thinking on trivial things like that.”

The rest of the walk was spent in utter silence as the two didn’t even look at each other after Yukari attempted to talk to Tenco regarding her issues, Not that much longer, they returned to the opening around the tower, where Renko stood, seemingly annoyed for waiting too long.

“Geez, what did you two talk about for this long anyway?”

“Ah, it’s not-“

“Let’s not talk about it.”

“Eh, if it's personal matters, then I guess it can't be helped.

Well, at least you're back here now.”

“...Renko, Tenco, could you feel that?”

“Hm? Feel what?”

“There’s….something or someone, exerting its pressure to all directions from somewhere on this forest.”

“Now that you mention it, I think I can feel it too. The air also felt somewhat heavier to breathe in.”

“I think I’ll go check the source of it.”

“I’ll come with you!”

“Renko, please don’t! It’s probably too danger-“

“Mary! The Sealing Club will only be the Sealing Club when there’s the two of us! If you go I’ll go, if I don’t then I won’t let you go too.

There’s nothing too dangerous if we’re together, after all! That was what you said!”

“Yeah, fair enough. Just be careful, alright?

Also, Tenco, would you-“

“I think I’ll just rest here for now.

I’m currently feeling really tired after my journey on the pathway so far.”

“Well, if you say so then.

Take care, and please don't do anything stupid or reckless without my supervision.

Also, good luck~!”

The moon was shaking.

The object, while it was not exactly a “moon” as much as a far smaller flying rocky sphere that looked like Earth’s moon, was for all intents and purposes, served the “moon” of the pathway. While it was not exactly clear if one saw it from the surface of the pathway, there was something…indescribable latching into the moon, planting itself firmly on it like a tree or a parasite.

The moon continued to shake.

Curved lines formed on the surface of the ‘moon’ as quakes continued to happen on it, and while at first it looked like the lines had no proper patterns or goals, much like a normal fissure caused by the earth’s movement, it was then made clear when the cracks and lines started to meet with each other and combine into one, cohesive structure.

Something was carving the moon.

It was not an event that would be noticeable to most, but then, the cracked parts started to shake more and more, before, just like a flower, it blossomed.

The moon became a rose.

What used to be known as the “moon” of the pathway had turned into something else entirely. A gigantic rose made of rock floated above the pathway. Blue undertones could be seen between each of its petals, but it was not clear about what it actually was.

It was the rose of the pathway, the rose of the pathway that symbolized things that was left behind, things that had been forgotten. It was the no-one’s rose.

Then, another cracking sound could be heard from it. In the middle of the stone rose, the remaining petals bloomed, separating themselves from each other, revealing the last thing that was hidden behind them all this time.

The moon opened its eye.

“Sis, look! The moon….

I did it! Look at what I’ve done!”

Love of Ghibli · February 1, 2015

Butlerok & Dorian: Path of Truth

When the Madness was let loose Dorian closed his eyes to mitigate the fear of actual sight. Nevertheless he was still effected deeply buy the Madness. Butlerok on the other simply stood still and watched the show of Kenpachi and Yachiru's termoil. It was quite entertaining seeing only their actual motions as he could not see what they were actually seeing. They must have some pretty troubling secrets for him to almost kill her. Butler said inside himself aimed at the Captain Commander inside his own head. It's not over yet...Genryuusai stated boldly. The Black Rukh slowly encircled Kenpachi and Yachiru as a the Rukh around them were slowly being tainted by Madness. Soon they would both fall into the pits of depravity and despair.

Well that was the thought process anyway. Butlerok noticed that Kenpachi started to make controlled swings with his released zanpaktou. Then the unimaginable happened. Kenpachi took off his eye patch and power his way through his own nightmares. All eyes were completely shocked as Kenpachi's aura was strong enough to literally dispel the presence of malice that came from the Madness. Butlerok gripped his sword ready to devour this delicious soul that was literally briming with power. At that moment another hand grabbed Butlerok's. He looked to his side to witness Dorian panting free of his own Madness still with his eyes closed. At that moment Kenpachi split the earth and created another great divide to separate him from his opponent. Butlerok raised an eyebrow as he wasn't clear on how this was supposed to stop anything. Dorian pulled Butlerok's hand backwards so he would not pursue as Kenpachi escaped.

Did he just part the madness with his own will power? Dorian inquired. Yes...Yes he did. Butlerok said as he started laugh hilariously. So the Counter Corps acutally have members that strong. Impressive. Butlerok took a moment of analytical reflection. I can still defeat him though. He spoke quite objectively. What makes you so sure? The color of his Rukh didn't change when he overpowered the Madness. What? When we started fighting his Rukh were white as snow. It wasn't until you made that girl cry that his Rukh actually started to turn black. Once again, I'll take like 45% of the blame for that. Either way whatever their own personal nightmare was; it tapped into a place of negative emotions and thus making him sink subtly into depravity. A person like that...its probably vengance related. Butlerok tilted his head to the side. It seems that Hades has some idea of what this is about. Apparently has something to do with a bald warrior named Kratos. This is the same warrior that I had Rhadamanthys fight when on that small dying planet. Rhadamanthys may be interested to know about this.

Well I'm sure if we wait here he'll find us. Especially now that you've awakened. Yes, since that is the case, how are you able to stand so close to me. That specter body doesn't have your original perfect balance so I was prepared for a very different reaction. Well to be honest I've gotten really used to the whole Madness thing. Don't get me wrong it still hurts, but through cosmos I am still able to keep going. Such a neat trick think this whole cosmos theory. Anywho I'm sure Rhadamanthys will use logic to find you.

Ending Location: C9

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rhadamanthys: Path of Truth

It seemed as if the beligerent one had caught up to him at the end of his path of destruction asking about why he did he take off in such a hurry. How interesting, could she not feel it? Was she so dense as she immune to the encroachment? How could she not understand. Though to be honest the fact that he felt anything on the other side of the mirror at all is purely incidental. His Divine Heart increased his senses exponentially so he could track people across worlds and distances. Though not having the mental energy to dismiss her Rhadamanthys simply said the first thing that came to his mind. Which inside the path of truth is simply going to be the truth.

Clearly that presence that you don't seem to sense is the Madness of my comrade. But because of his nature he would never actually release such. This means that he is engaged in battle with very...very strong opponent. He then loked at the two ladies. So far I've met one of your members who hads such power. Meaning the Butler could be stealing my prey. I must get to his location with haste before he can still what is mine! Now something is off about this forest and I need to find it! He said as he looked around frantically.

Ending Location: A6

Tesability Black · February 1, 2015

~The Divine - Path of Truth - Jace's POV~

Jace found himself swallowing in illness and flinching as he felt the wave of rage that wasn't his own sweep over him from the pyromancer, almost cutting off early his own invisible flame, still slightly surprised that he could still twincast the spell...or was it even a twincast? He tried to get up, but apparently placing any weight placed on the wounded knee caused him to project a wave of pain he was pretty sure others would catch every time he experienced it.

The large creature summoned, its full attention was on the pyromancer and her new airborne ally, trying to slash it out of the sky by sending blades of water towards the bird and the fire wielder, forcing the Ghostfires to create massive amounts of steam that was still rendered visible to the naked eye. However, unless Jace tossed a spell at it, the large creature otherwise ignored the mindmage strangely enough.

This, to put it simply, was pissing off the mage in black.

"What are you doing," the unnamed clone shouted the creature. "Why are you attacking the fire insect?! You're supposed to att---!" Midway into its outburst, the creature it summoned did something you really don't ever want to see a summoned creature do.

Turn around and launch the summoner a few feet aways with a resounding backhand smack, sending the dark double through a few already corroded trees.

"I will not lay harm upon the one who carries the Guildpact within his soul," it flatly stated in response, now staying still and glaring at the black copy of the mindmage with black, unblinking eyes.

The unnamed double pulled itself out of the myrid of splinters created from the chain of impacts, glaring at the masked creature with intense anger shown in its yellow eyes.

"You insignificant...!"

This exchange was definately up there with some of the wierdest things Jace had seen within the Multiverse as a whole, causing him to scratch his head from under his hood before turning toward Chandra.

"Did that creature really just send it flying," Jace asked of her, as if having a hard time believing his eyes.

The Warden · February 1, 2015

|_)Witch of Courage, Lydia(_|

|_)Pathway of Truth: A6(_|

As patiently as she could listen to Rhadamanthys ramble, Lydia could do nothing but glower at him when he mentioned madness and the Butler. This metal-plated jack-ass was aligned with the Kishin who screwed with her head momentarily back in the Desert Seth. And he was just casually referring to him like an old friend? Well, clearly he was insane enough to hang around the guy, considering his failure to understand an incredibly simple complex almost made her laugh out loud, almost. "Don't you get it metalhead? We're in the Pathway of Truth. And clearly in the Pathway of Truth, lies have no place. If we're asked something, either we'll say the truth outright, or just refuse to speak. There will never be a middle ground here, nor any place for lying" she explained without any sense of restraint.

"I mean really, a child could figure out something so simple" she added vehemently, clearly not going to say that she only figured it out when she was talking to those nosy fairies from earlier.

Reinforce · February 3, 2015

Chandra

Pathway of Truth: C6-C7

With a wave of her hand, Chandra directed the fire bird away from the masked creature, redirecting it to swoop directly at the double. At that point, Jace turned around to look at her, asking the same question that had appeared in her mind.

"Did that creature really just send it flying,"

"It does appear so, though it is difficult to tell with all this steam."

With her own Ghostfire basically ready, the fire mage threw a different spell, Firebolt, before throwing the invisible flames behind it, using the fireball to hide the traces of the Ghostfire in the air as the spells flew at the double.

Ayame

Pathway of Truth: A6

As they flew, Ayame could start to detect faint traces of malevolence and madness, which seemed to grow much stronger once they'd crossed the mirror into the ruined fields on the other side. The other two started bantering, something about the madness coming from a comrade of Rhadamanthrys. Ayame was only partially listening though, while focusing her aura sense on the madness coming from ahead so she could figure out how to block that aura from affecting her. The comment about lies not being able to be told on this pathway made sense, though she hadn't noticed it herself because she'd ignored all the fairies asking her questions.

Gαr · February 4, 2015

Gon, Path of Remembrance

Gon and Killua walked through the dense snow before Killua asked another question. This time it was about Pitou. The thought of the Chimera Ant nearly made him stop in his tracks. Before he could answer, he really did stop in his tracks. The feeling that stopped him was so suffocating he thought Pitou was back, but it was so much worse. The initial shock of the encompassing feeling that was bloodlust and anger quickly turned into fear. The Chimera Ant King Meruem rose from the snow and stood before them. He accosted and questioned Killua, and Gon could feel his best friend's fear through the thick of the King's power. Killua took Gon by the hand and tried to get away, all the while Gon slowly felt a presence loom behind him.

It was not Meruem's ever present power, however it was very familiar. Every time Meruem cut them off, Gon felt the presence grow. It was dark and think and ever expanding and Gon would've fallen into it if Meruem's presence wasn't anchoring him down through sheer force of fear. Finally, the King separated the two friends. He tossed Killua around before he finally turned to Gon. Meruem placed a hand on his head causing Gon to stiff and send a slow and spreading cold feeling down his spine, asking him about his power used against Pitou. For a moment, Gon forgot about the presence behind him. Killua managed to separate the two and stand between them. Killua was protecting his best friend from the most powerful being in their world, having a back and forth verbal volley. Hope began to build in Gon until Meruem attacked.

The presence he felt earlier was back and more dark than ever. With each successive attack by Meruem, Gon sank deeper and deeper into it, his fear changing into something else the more the King's beatdown resembled Gon's absolute destruction of Pitou. Finally, Gon let go and immersed himself in his anger. Gon's aura exploded as a dark shroud before in slowly enveloped him in the darkness that was his anger. "sᴛᴏᴘ ʜᴜʀᴛɪɴɢ ᴍʏ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅ."

Gon's voice stopped being Gon's. The outside of his aura was like ink marks in the air, and as it closer to the center, it thickened until it was just inky blackness. The center of the mass of darkness was Gon. But it wasn't Gon, it wasn't even Gon-san. This was an all new level of Gon. A level of Gon that would have been impossible to reach. A level that can only be reached through messing with an Enhancer's loved ones. This Gon was like a manga sketch that was more ink than paper, more power than person. His aura was leaking off of him, but they acted like two completely separate entities. Gon crouched in his iconic Jajanken stance. "sʜᴏᴡ ᴍᴇ ʀᴏᴄᴋ..."

Dark Nen formed over his fist, but his aura stayed the same size. The Nen ball kept getting bigger and bigger until it abruptly compressed into a sphere darker than him and that was saying something. "...ᴘᴀᴘᴇʀ."

The ball flew from Gon's palm at blinding speed, hitting Meruem dead center with no signs of stopping. The Ant was blasted threw tree after tree and when he was a safe distance away, exploded into the size of a mini nuke and the shape of a black hole.

Love of Ghibli · February 4, 2015

Rhadamanthys: Path of Truth

Oh something was off alright and that something had to be obvious. Sure the loud one kept yapping about truth, but he had easily already noticed that. The problem was that through the use of Cosmos he could clearly "see" Butlerok in his released state, but it was like the Kishin was in a parallel world. Which didn't make sense because these pathways didn't allow for dimension warping. He actually tried to at some point while in the Pathway of Death. Nevertheless he accidentally stepped on something solid. He looked down to see a mirror. While it was a long shot it was something definitely worth trying. He looked at the mirror and then in that same instant he didn't even realize he had been transported to the other side. He looked up to find himself alone yet in some baron wasteland. What was important though was that he felt the Madness even stronger than before. He immediately used his cosmos and with it he immediately spotted both Dorian and Butlerok in the distance. They were far, but definitely reachable. Though in all fairness he still had to wait for the two women he was accompanying.

Ending location A6

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Butlerok and Dorian: Path of Truth

The two companions were simply waiting and looking at the vast chasm that came from Kenpachi's attack. Butlerok snickered because with the information from Hades, Rhadamanthys was about to have some competition for killing the bald warrior known as Kratos. Ragnarok was simply floating around in his true ripped muscle form panting like a dog because he hasn't gotten the chance to release the Madness for a long time now. It was refreshing to say the least. Even though it was causing Dorian immense suffering Ragnarok didn't care. The only problem was that Butler's personality was still so strong that he could restrain himself from going after Kenpachi. It was definitely its own kind of buzz kill. Then again, Ragnarok looked up and looked behind himself as he sensed potential food in the distance. It was like he smelled the savoriness of a benevolent soul. Once again, good things come to those who wait.

Dorian was busy trying to focus his cosmos...while it was easy to do for the first minute or so standing this close to Butlerok required some immense concentration. Dorian held on...until he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck. He looked in the distance to his left. Oh Rhadamanthys has spotted us. Interesting maybe if he is here then I won't have to suffer this much anymore. Besides I activated his Divine Heart for Hades so he should have be able to use Hades' cosmos.

Ending Location: C9

Tesability Black · February 4, 2015

~The Divine - Path of Truth - Jace's POV~

Jace was trying to keep himself from subconciously picking up on the minds around him, to prevent the steam from becoming completely useless to Chandra and the two summoned creatures, even if it left him metaphorically-blind for the moment. However, there was one thing that was slightly creeping him out.

Even if he did want to, he couldn't sense his double.

"I believe your precious 'shield' once explained how elements worked in his realm at one point," the black twin taunted before a grunt left his throat as the bird's talons narrowly ripped through its sides. "Did he ever tell you about the one element that's immune to psychic power?"

Just as the mindmage was about to try to figure out what the double meant by that, it started moving its hands and arms from side to side, both gloved and ungloved hand beginning to glow. It confused Jace for a split as to why until he remembered someone that did the same once before.

When his strange guardian used a 'move' called Metronome before summoning from the sky those strange falling rocks, recalling being warned that about anything could happen before they appeared.

As soon as that thought crossed his mind did the air become suddenly colder, bitterly-cold, almost-unbearable to the touch. Finding himself shivering, feeling as if he was becoming frozen to the bone, he looked back toward the black twin to see it with both hands in his general direction, redirecting the mist surrounding them all to focus around him and freeze the area surrounding him, cutting him with tiny blades of ice. Letting out a growl of his own, he tried to move his hands, his ungloved hand starting to turn faintly blue. He forced himself to start to try and twincast the strange move before refocusing it towards the nameless double...

The area around them both was already cold, surrounded by harshly-moving ice formed from the mist. Jace's sudden doubling of the move caused the air to almost freeze-solid around the twin, whose skin was starting to turn blue.

"How...did you...twin...Blizzard..." it managed to say before it fell forward from being frozen from the inside out, passing out upon the ground, but not disappearing from view. Jace himself also fell over onto his side after the cold from both sources subsided, barely keeping himself awake, the leg that he twisted his knee on feeling almost like it wasn't there to begin with.

"First a toe, now possibly a leg," he muttered harshly to himself, thinking that the sudden flash of cold and how intensely frozen it got around him may have caused a second wave of frostbite in himself...

The strange masked creature, apriehensive though it was, did not dare to move towards the chilled mage, for its magic was not suited for creating warmth.

Ending Point: C7

Dad · February 4, 2015

Revy

Reimu had proposed a question that, in truth, sort of perplexed Revy. Because, to be fair, Revy wasn't sure why she was even a part of the Counter Corps. Sure, she didn't like blatant bastards who thought killing kids was cool, but she was a bounty hunter for Christ's sake. She killed for pay. But did the Universe see her in a different color? She had to think about it for a moment.

"Tell ya the truth Reimu, I can only tell you about the few I've actually talked to," she began. "I mean, when I got here, it was like something out of a movie, compared to my world. I mean, space ships? People with super powers? Hell, I'm still baffled at what you can do. But, Arthuria seems like a nice . . .girl? Woman? She seems mature. And if she's the one that brought me here, out of that whirlpool, she saved my life. If she deems me one of the good guys, then I'll do what I can to stop the Divine." Revy leaned back, stretching and relaxing herself.

"I dunno if you could call them companions, the rest of the Corps," Revy said as her face turned to the sky. "I mean, sure they've been gathered for the same team, but there's no telling who could actually be working for the other side. But the few I've met--Kratos, the big, scary looking dude with the tiny female friend, the shorter kid with white hair--they seem like good people. You just have to remember that everyone is likely here, not just to stop this Protheus dude from wrecking the multiverse, but for their own selfish reasons too." When Revy thought about it, in truth, she was only here because she didn't have a choice. "After being through what little I've been through, I'm glad I'm here now. I'm almost a completely changed person," she said sighing. "I've never been this open. And I damn sure never saw myself falling head over heels for a bald guy that doesn't wear underwear," she joked. "Talkin' about Kratos here. But, Reimu," she started up again.

"Are you just scared to talk to 'em or what? Cuz', you're a good story teller, and you're pretty cool too. I would think you hit it off good with, well, everyone in the Corps." Then Revy felt like she was pushing too much. "Sorry, I don't mean to be a jabroni. But if you got somethin' on your mind, I'm right here." She offered Reimu a smile, before turning to her guns. She pulled them from their holsters, and began to change clips, and clean them.

"And uh, sorry for tickling you," she said beginning to laugh. "I didn't know you were ticklish."

Meruem

He reacted at last. When the air thickened, Meruem drew back his finger from Killua's chest, not yet stabbing his heart. Killua spat up blood, coughing, as his head turned over. "Good," Meruem said as he watched Gon's power suddenly explode. It was much more intense compared to when he had fought the elderly Netero. It continued to grow, and expand, until everything surrounding this boy was black. Not a normal, night black. This was more of an inherently wrong, almost evil black. Meruem could taste the rage in the air, emanating from Gon. "Have I angered you?" he mused. Then, the booy had formed a large black ball in his hand, as me muttered something about rock. Meruem tilted his head, wondering just what he would have the joy of witnessing.

"...ᴘᴀᴘᴇʀ."

Just then, Meruem was sent flying, crashing through hundreds of trees, before the impact of the blow pulled him in, and exploded. He could feel the world around him distorting and burning. He laughed manically as he began to fade from existence. "Is this what slay you, Pitou!?" he called from the black hole. "We must discuss it more over a game!! Ahahahahaha!!" he cackled. But Meruem wasn't ready to die just yet. Three quarters of his body were missing, but his heart was still barely in tact. He crawled, one arm over the other, slowly back towards Gon and Killua. Dying, he smiled menacingly, the thought of leaving Killua behind without finishing the job taunted him. With the last of his strength, Meruem gathered aura into his hand, concentrated it, and forced it into a single finger tip. He fired a beam from his finger, so massive, it could easily be mistaken for a solar flare directly from the sun. Orange in color, it burned through the forest, tracking right towards Killua and Gon. In Meruem's dying breath, he cursed the existence of his species. "For what purpose did we exist?" he wondered silently. "Naught."

The blast would never reach Gon and Killua, dissipating with Meruem back into the ground of the forest below.

Killua

There it was again. That same baffling, frightening power that Killua witnessed as Pitou died. He could barely keep his eyes open, choking on his own blood. He could feel his broken ribs and bruised lung. His face was swollen, and his body was in shambles. Still, Killua smiled. He managed to speak a few words, before passing out from shock. "Gon . . . you . . . idiot," he joked. The world went black, and Killua lie in the snow, worsening by the minute. The cold of the environment was slowing down his blood, and even more so because he was not moving. But while he dreamed, it would be of his journey, and how he wanted it to end.

Kenpachi

He didn't utter a word, as Yachiru stood to the side, placing a barrier around herself.

Byakuya looked and smiled at Yachiru. "Fear not, Kusajishi. I have no intent of harming you," he said clearly. But Yachiru did not drop her shield. For a moment, everything was silent, as Head Captain and Former Captain stared each other down. Byakuya's smile faded, as he sighed, looking at his Head Captain. Kenpachi frowned in return, as he realized Byakuya's death was partly his fault.

"Do you resent me, Kuchiki?" he asked finally.

"How could I not?" he answered honestly. "You left me behind. I lie there, dying, wondering, if my comrades would return to my side."

Something was off.

"Then, I was greeted by the warm hand of a beautiful woman. She saved me that day. And I have been subservient until now."

No. This was incorrect. This was a trick. Kenpachi grew angry, tightening his grip on Nozarashi. "You ain't Kuchiki. And for screwing with my memories," he said tightening his eye patch on his face. "I'm gonna make sure you suffer."

"But Head Captain," the fake said. "How can you be sure?"

"Because Kuchiki would never serve anyone other than his family or his superior officer. That was his way. And even if some jabroni saved him, he wouldn't simply kiss her ass. So I can easily see through that piss poor disguise," he said angrily.

Byakuya frowned, as he was figured out. "Chire," he said softly. "Senbonzakura." His weapon shattered into hundreds of wilting sakura petals, and lashed out at Kenpachi. They swarmed him, surrounding him completely in a storm of miniature blades. "Is that real enough for you, Head Captain?" it hissed at Kenpachi. Just then, a fist burst from the Senbonzakura blades, and grabbed the fake by his throat. The petals dispersed, and Kenpachi could be seen without a scar.

"You might even have his Shikai," Kenpachi said as his grip grew tighter. "But you're not Kuchiki." He threw the fake to the ground as hard as he could. He placed a foot on it's chest, and commanded it to speak.

"Well, well, well, don't we have things completely figured out," the fake taunted Kenpachi.

He didn't laugh. "Yes. We do," he said matter-of-factly.

"Then why are you still in this world, Soul Reaper? You're trapped. And until you beat me--"

"Beat you? You've already lost," Kenpachi said taking his foot off of the fake Byakuya. "This is an illusion, isn't it?"

"Yes and no," the being replied. Its shape began to change, and now it took the form of Hitsugaya. "See, the thing is, it's more of a game. And you have to solve the riddles." Shape shifting again, it took on the shape of Aizen. "But everything you are about to experience, is very real." The Aizen fake reached for it's hilt, but was too slow. Kenpachi had already stepped behind him, grabbing his hand. "Oh, you're much faster than I perceived," the fake said again. "Then perhaps, the only way to defeat you . . ." the fake began to change shape again, and took on a form of Kenpachi's own. His voice, his appearance, and even his Zanpaktou were now exactly the same.

"Is to be you," the fake said.

"Nice try, but I've been through this once before. And the original always wins," Kenpachi said standing back.

"Wrong. You've never been through this."

"Try me!"

Nozarashi hissed at itself, and hissed back at itself again. Meanwhile, a little pink blob began to form behind the fake Kenpachi, as the two clones began to dance with their blades.

Kenpachi met his fake with equal footing. Somehow, after copying him currently, the fake was equal in strength to Kenpachi. He couldn't shove the clone off, or ignore him. Then, something unexpected happened, as the pink blob forming behind the clone gained life. A Yachiru fake. But it was impossible to tell them apart.

"What the--"

"We never travel alone. Not without her. Remember?"

Kenpachi snarled, dodging around the clone and striking from above. His attack was parried, and the clone kicked him away. Meanwhile, the Yachiru fake had made her way over to the side of the real one, and stood inside of the original Yachiru's own shield. Yachiru didn't like this, and attempted desperately to shove the fake away. "Hey! Get out! This is my bubble!" "No way! You have to share!" "I'm not sharing Kenny, and I'm not sharing my shield either!" They tackeled each other, and began to roll over and over rapidly. Kenpachi turned his eyes to them for just a second, and lost track of the original Yachiru. "Yachiru--gah!" The clone kicked Kenpachi backwards, causing him to stumble.

Finally, the Yachiru clones also stopped tumbling, but they were perfectly identical They had each other by the throat, while the false Kenpachi had the original on the ropes. "Where are you looking!?" it said as it swung Nozarashi down at Kenpachi. He rolled out of the way, and leaped to his feet. Kenpachi countered with a sweeping kick, knocking the fake off of its feet, and then kicked it further away, buying himself time to figure out which Yachiru was which.

"Someone better answer me honestly," he said turning to the two Yachiru.

"She's the fake Kenny!" they said in unison. "No, she's the fake! Stop it! Stop copying me!"

"Enough!" he said angrily, only seconds before being tackled by his opponent. The two ran cleanly into the Yachiru pair, and now the four of them were mixed up. Kenpachi made a sudden decision, ignoring the Yachiru duo and going straight for his fake. "I'll deal with you both in a minute," they both said at the same time. They dove at each other at the same time, and in like manner, both Yachirus attempted to stop the fighting by jumping in the way. The difference being that Kenpachi's fake did not care for his own Yachiru. And he kept going. Kenpachi of course, intercepted this slash, falling to a knee. "Kenny!" the Yachiru pair cried out.

"And every time you protect her, you will be the victim. You cannot save her! You cannot protect her forever!" the clone said at last. He daringly pointed Nozarashi at Kenpachi. "You're through here." But Kenpachi raised his head one more time, his eyes now the same color as his aura. He snatched Nozarashi from his clone, and crushed it in his bare hands, standing to his feet. The clone froze in pure fear.

"Yes, I can. I can, and will protect Yachiru. Always."

"And that--that will be what kills you!"

"And that is the only way I will die. Saving her!" As Kenpachi spoke, his aura washed over the clone, and began to crush it. The clone fell to its knees, its skull being pushed in. "You don't get it do you?" asked the clone. "The more selfishly you possess her, the more likely she is to die."

"She is not a possession. She is my friend," Kenpachi said kicking the clone over. Its chest cracked and began to sink in as Kenpachi got closer. He leaned down, putting his face close to the clone's. "And until you all realize that I would go to any lengths to protect her," Kenpachi raised Nozarashi, and stood straight up. "You will never defeat me!" He decapitated his fake, and watched it's body melt into the rotten ground.

The fake Yachiru cried behind him, and the true Yachiru consoled her. "He won't hurt you," she assured her clone, who had begun to dissipate into dust. Yachiru raised her head to her own Kenpachi, smiling. "Ever again." Her clone raised her vanishing face, wiping a tear away. She smiled, before uttering her last words. "Thank you."

Maeriberii Haan · February 7, 2015

"Are you just scared to talk to 'em or what? Cuz', you're a good story teller, and you're pretty cool too. I would think you hit it off good with, well, everyone in the Corps."

Should I say my actual position in all of this to her? Would telling her the truth be the right thing to do?

I mean…yeah, most of them seemed to be in the same circumstance as me, and they seemed to fight for the same reason as I do. From what Revy said, most of them seemed to be quite kind and nice too…

Dammit, this is hard…

Clouded with her own thoughts, Reimu responded to Revy’s sentence with complete silence. After all, she was in quite the awkward position at the moment. Reimu was reminded to Yukari’s words that she should not actually work with the rest of the Counter Corps and to oppose them when it’s necessary. If she answered, she wouldn’t even be able to lie to her, and spilling the beans on her actual position now would be completely dangerous. But, even with that in her mind, now she wondered whether it’s even necessary for her to heed Yukari’s words, after-

"Sorry, I don't mean to be a jabroni. But if you got somethin' on your mind, I'm right here. And uh, sorry for tickling you, I didn't know you were ticklish."

“A-aah-

N-no worries about that, yeah. Just…don’t move a lot like that again, alright?”

Thankfully for Reimu. Revy dropped the question, and Reimu was saved from answering something that would only make things more and more awkward between the two.

“I’ll be fine, really. Guess my circumstances aren’t much that different from the rest of the group, which is pretty great.”

Saying that without elaborating on the context, Reimu then got up, and stretched her body after the brief rest below the shades of the tree. For now, she had decided to just wait before she actually decided on anything big inside here, though at least what Revy said gave her quite a lot to think about more. Hey, if they’re the good guys and worked towards the same goal that Yukari wished for, there shouldn’t be any harm in keeping on fighting alongside them, instead of antagonizing them in the end. Yukari would definitely understand, Reimu was definitely sure of it.

Speaking of her, Reimu’s still wondering about the reason why she didn’t bother to actually come directly to the arena, especially since what was in stake for her was too important for her to just trust Reimu with it. After all, with her power, she could reach the end with ease.

But eh, that’s not important. With the best cheerful, spirited expression she could muster, she turned around to Revy.

“Heya Revy, ready to continue? I’ll carry you again if necessary.

We’re still quite far from the end, so let’s get going!”

“Finally, I got the spotlight again.

Man, that really took quite a while, huh? Wonder what happened.”

Still riding on Cerberus, Kazuya travelled through the desolate land that lies behind the big mirror that he had just passed not that long ago. He looked around to see whether there were any allies or enemies around him, but all he could see was nothing but dead trees and rotten fairy corpses that decorated the bleak scenery. The wind and the pressure in the air were quite strong, and he was pretty much forced to hold Cerberus as tightly as he could just to not be blown away by the wind.

But yeah, it was pretty much that. So far, Kazuya had barely met any of the other participants in this so called “war”, and probably aside from the Naoya and Atsuro construct and the fairies, he hadn’t actually seen any other living beings during his time there. Everything just felt weird, and while it could probably just be attributed to his fortune that he didn’t meet anyone so far, Kazuya felt somewhat lonely. It’s just, even with him having passed one of the pathways and being halfway across the second, he didn’t seem like he had done much there, if at all. He had little to no idea about what’s going on, what he must face, what lies beyond, and what was on stake there. All he had in mind was that if he could push forward, his world might be saved from yet another pointless conflict between the demons and angels.

“Yeah, I don’t really in a position to have much choice here.

I just have to keep moving forward, and hopefully things could become sensible soon.”

“You know that you’re not even supposed to be here at this point, right?”

Gengetsu and Tenshi continued their stride across the forest, occasionally chatting with each other. While for a split second Tenshi thought that she sensed a sudden surge of power from afar, it shortly disappeared, and Tenshi concluded that it’s not something to be concerned about. Her attention then returned to Gengetsu, who was still patiently waiting for the answer to her question.

“If you’re talking about what I’m thinking you’re talking about, then yes.

I definitely shouldn’t be here right now, for all intents and purposes.”

“Then why do you even bother? Why do you keep moving forward?”

“Because…there’s still something that I should do before I stop.

No way in hell I’d just stay still and quit if I’ll just end as a complete failure.

There’s still something that I can do in this mess.”

“Well, if you say so then. But are you really fine with this?”

“Yeah. I’ve decided that it’s not yet the time for me. I’ll survive this, don’t worry about it much.”

“Heh, that's a nice spirit you have going on there.”

“Say, have you seen Iku? If you of all people appeared here as a part of my memory, then there’s no reasons for her not to be here somewhere.”

“Ah, right. Iku Nagae, right? The woman with that fancy frilly scarf?

I’ve seen her actually.”

“W-where?! Please tell me!”

Hearing that Iku was actually somewhere there, Tenshi’s excitement rose. Iku would definitely like to say one thing or two to her one last time, and she would still need to apologize properly to her for all of the mess and headaches she had caused to her.

“I won’t say~”

“…Uh…why?.”

“She said that she’s waiting on the best time to appear before you. Or something like that.”

“…Geez, being cryptic is definitely not her style at all. Sure you’re not just plain lying to me?”

Gengetsu shrugged hearing Tenshi’s comment.

“Eh, she might always have this side inside all this time after all, and I’m no liar. So yeah, you’re stuck with me for now.”

“Guess it can’t be helped, huh?”

“Yeah, just be patient about it. They did say that patience is a virtue, right?”

“You know Iku, think I know about what I want to do with my life.

Someday, I think I want to go on a journey, exploring the world outside. I want to be free and enjoy the eternity the gods have blessed to me.”

“Hm? It’s not often you’re musing about things like this, Eldest Daughter. Well, at least that sounds infinitely better than you lazing around here and creating a huge mess for us like you always do.”

“Dammit Iku, what’s with that remark?

Still, I was simply thinking about this after I read a book last night. Well, it was less a proper story and more beautiful images with some texts detailing on what’s happening in the image, but yeah.”

“A book, huh? What’s the title?”

“It was…I forget, but while it was written like “Tenshi”, it was read in a completely different way. It’s something like…”Someone’s Story”, if I remember correctly.

It’s about a young princess that leaves her kingdom with her caretaker in a journey to find a sacred family’s sword, while she tried to prove to her father that she could be someone fitting to be his successor.

Y’know, probably another coincidence, but the main characters looked much like us.”

“Ah, I see.

Still, you’re really sure on it? Or will this be another one of your ‘wishes’ that promptly got forgotten by you on the next day? Your father might not even agree with you about this.”

“Why would I forget something like this? Also, I think I’ll go talk with him if I really should. He’ll definitely understand.”

“Geez, I really did completely forget about that, huh?”

Tenshi smiled a little while she remembered a part of her past. Even with her promise to Iku that she wouldn’t forget about that wish, in the end she still managed to get it buried deep out of the reach of her memory. Iku would definitely realize this and be quite disappointed on her. Still, now that she remembered about it, that’s one more thing that she would need to do once this incident’s all solved and fixed, if she survived this of course.

“Uh…earth to Tenshi…?

You’re spacing out now.”

“A-ah! Sorry about it, I was just remembering something, an old promise.”

“I see. Well then, I guess you won’t tell me more about it, right?”

“Nah. I’d like to keep this one a secret.”

“An outlaw…?”

Tenshi read the announcement on the newspaper she found scattered near her more and more closely. Apparently there was this certain amanojaku that was causing some sort of mess, and everyone decided to try punishing her to the point of breaking the Spell Card rule just to be able to apprehend this offender. That made Tenshi smile a bit, painfully. It was close to what she had experienced when she started her own incident several years before. Though in the end, even after everyone had beaten her up, she managed to beat them as they tried to set up a party to beat her up all over again.

Still, reading it somewhat intrigued Tenshi. Currently, she was travelling around Gensokyo without her father or Iku’s permission, just after she had a heated argument with the former. She was pretty frustrated herself about the entire thing, and she felt that a way to let loose of that frustration would do her well.

Picking up her sword, Tenshi dropped the newspaper as she took flight in search of this one troublemaker.

“Yah! Even if you’re strong, you can’t cheat as much as I can!

Suck it up, loser!”

“Geez, way to rub it off on me.”

After a long Spell Card duel, surprisingly Tenshi was soundly defeated by the girl in front of her, Seija Kijin. Of course, Tenshi was quite furious for being beaten by someone that could definitely constitute as weakling when it came to raw power, but Tenshi couldn’t help but respect her opponent’s ability to turn things to her favor.

After all, the girl before her had beaten most of everyone in Gensokyo at this point, bar Yukari. Even though due to that fact, she shouldn’t really be too stuck up with the fact that she had lost, Tenshi couldn’t help but be completely frustrated by it, and her expression showed it.

“Gyah, you there are really strong, but lemme hammer something to your empty head.

You have no such thing as skill! Your entire strategy is to spam more and more, bigger and bigger attacks at me, and since it only consists of that, of course I can beat you easily! You even lack finesse when using that fancy sword of yours! Like, damn, you’re pretty much just swinging it around wildly like it was a stick or something.

Gee, to actually be honest you’re not even a challenge for me, my dear.”

Yeah, that dastardly girl, Seija was right.

Especially clear to her now as Protheus had managed to utterly defeat her, Tenshi regretted to only remember that weakness of hers after the moment where it would be useful. She was always using only brute force in her attacks. Even if she thought of some tactics and tricks during a battle, all that it’d boil down was how much force she could fire off at once to overwhelm her opponent. No skills, no finesse, no brilliance, just pure force. And thus, when facing something with far more brute force than her or having better combat skill and experience than her, as it had been showcased with her battle against Protheus, she would only have a miniscule chance to win, if at all. Tenshi thus chalked sword training and learning about more ways to use her power as another thing to do after she was done with the war of Origin.

Of course, if she survived that is.

“Tenshi, you’re spacing out again.”

“…Oops.”

“Well, anyway, don’t you think this forest’s a bit too quiet?”

“Hmm…now that you mention it, it does feel like it’s too silent.

I couldn’t even detect the other participants nearby, and aside from the spike of power earlier, the entire forest was too silent.”

“Might just be our luck.”

“Hopefully it’s just that.”

“Father, it-it hurts…”

“Just stay still and endure it, Tenshi. After a while, this won’t hurt anymore.”

“I-I can’t-! Father, please-”

“N-no way in hell that’s my memory!

Pathway, please stop screwing with my head.”

"Uh...?"

"Mind your own business!

I-I mean, just ignore me for now."

“Tenshi, you sure always dream of weird things, don’t you?”

“But Iku…what did he actually do to me there? It just...it just looks so gross and squicky.”

“Best not to speak of it. It's not the kind of thing you should know.”

“Iku, pleaaaase…?”

Several minutes of silence followed. Then, in a gesture that quite surprised Tenshi, Iku turned around to face her. Her expression was quite weird, but it might be something close to a mix of bewilderment, exasperation, and mischievousness, though there was no way Tenshi could correctly determine what was she implied with the expression.

“Well, since you said please, I guess you can follow me. I’ll explain in great detail all about the question you asked.

But, are you sure about wanting to know this?”

“Y-yes, definitely!”

“There’s no turning back, you know?

Well, since you’ve agreed, let’s get going.

Also, please promise that you won’t tell anyone.”

And then, Tenshi foolishly followed Iku, around fifteen minutes before one of the most unforgettable (in a bad way) moments in her life.

“Geez, she could be really messed up at times, huh?”

“Yea-

Wait, how the hell do you know about what I’m currently thinking about?”

“I’m a figment of your memory; it should technically be fair game for me to also have access to it I wasn't bothered enough to access the rest before, but you kept on spacing out so my curiosity got aroused..”

“Fair enough, I guess.

But yeah, that prank was really awkward and gross, and due to it, I stopped talking with her for like, three years.”

“Heh, you really know how to keep a grudge, huh?”

“Let’s just not talk about that incident again.”

Gengetsu chuckled seeing Tenshi’s entire reaction to the whole thing, and the silliness of the ‘incident itself, though when Tenshi stared at her in disapproval, she decided to stop, though she was still smiling widely due to it.

“Heh, how often does this kind of thing actually happen between you and her? Not the incident, I mean the pranks.”

“Not really that often, after all, she did have her occupation for her to worry about, and pranks would just make her position awkward if she went overboard with it.

But you know, even with that incident, the other incidents, and some other instances of her playing a prank on me to get even for my mess-ups, she was, pretty much, the person that honestly cared the most for me and my wellbeing all the time, even more than my family. She looked to be quite distant from me, but I can sense that she’s always on my side, taking care of me.

And all this time, I pretty much just become a burden to her.”

“Seems like you need to personally reconcile the problem with her when you met her again.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, you sure this is the right way?”

“Actually, no. I’m just following a straight line as best as I could.”

“….So we’re lost in the middle of this forest?”

“Apparently.

Should I blow up the place so we can see the other side?”

“No, let’s not.”

“Yeah, that would definitely be unnecessary.

For now.”

“Is this really what you want?”

“Of course, of course it is!

Because of her…because of her-“

“Your heart said otherwise, however. You don’t have the conviction to do this inside there, hence why you kept on repeating those words.”

“,,,Shut up!”

“Really, you should stop torturing yourself like this. Just let this go, and-”

“Just…just shut up, will you! Dammit, you’re not my mother so stop ordering me around like that!

If I can overcome here, my problems…I mean everyone’s problems will disappear too along with her!

I’ll paint the forest red with her blood if I have to!”

“Actually, who is this ‘everyone’ you’re talking about?”

“…”

“But seriously, this entire thing is silly and felt so forced. Even if that blonde hair said to follow your heart, right now you really just ignored that advice. You kept on following what you are, not what do you want to become. You’ve given in to your nature, to your “programming, if I may say, ignoring your heart and feeling.

It just sounds pathetic, really.”

“Finally…something that’s not another lines of trees!”

“Heh, Gengetsu, even though you’re made by this forest, you got sick of it completely faster than I do.”

“Getting lost like we did earlier kinda does that to people.”

“True, I guess.”

After the endless sea of trees, the sight of an open snowfield was quite refreshing for both Gengetsu and Tenshi, and the two immediately rushed into the open. While there was an old, decrepit tower that might or might not be important to the plot standing in the middle of the snowfield, the two of them ignored its presence for now, and decided to lie down on the pile of snows, resting. Tenshi couldn’t help but grin widely as she felt the coldness of the snow crept into her skin, embracing her with its love, as she closed her eye-

And then, in a flash, something happened. What was it wasn’t clear, but she then couldn’t feel her right arm anymore. Following that, the feeling of something warm crept over her body, and the late sensation of extreme pain followed it. Tenshi then rose up and looked around to see fresh blood had painted the place she laid before red. Gengetsu was nowhere. Tenshi then looked at her right, and realized what happened.

Someone, or something, had severed her right arm, and had taken it away along with her sword.

“Took you long enough to arrive here, Tenshi Hinanai.”

The voice was coming from the tower’s direction, and Tenshi looked at the source to see a familiar figure was standing there, holding her severed right arm and the sword it held, while grinning in a way that unnerved Tenshi.

“The other Yukari I’ve met in this pathway had said that I should start trying to be more true to my feelings.

I guess it’ll be fair if I follow that advice, and end your pathetic life right here. I’m simply following my heart’s desire here, see?”

“That doesn’t even make any lick of a sense, to be bluntly honest.”

The cyan haired girl didn’t seem to notice Tenshi’s reply, and went on to look at her severed arm and the sword it held more closely.

“You’re relying much on this sword’s ability, as far as I can tell. It’s something that only someone with Celestial blood can use, right?

If so…for me to be able to use it...

I guess I have to do this!”

Tenshi had no actual idea what was actually happening before her eyes at that moment. That girl in front of her, Tenco, suddenly moved her left arm to her right shoulder, and in a flash, she somehow tore her own right arm from her body, and tossed it aside to the snow. She then placed Tenshi’s arm to the stump in an attempt that looked like she was trying to attach it, and somehow, the stump and the arm became connected, as if something glued it to her body.

“Well, as you’ve said, small sacrifices like this shouldn’t matter in the long run as long as it could make you reach your goal."

"Why do you start to think like that?"

"So, this is it!

Tenshi Hinanai, this place shall become your graveyard!”

Tenco pointed the Sword of Hisou at Tenshi, issuing a challenge. Her killing intent could be clearly be seen and detected by Tenshi, who simply sighed as she faced her other self, preparing herself for whatever was coming to hit her.

Should we really repeat the mistakes of the past again and again?

“It somehow feels like I’m escorting a convict to their execution field. Yeah, it was exactly as unpleasant as it sounded.
Thankfully, I think I wouldn’t have to ever feel that again.

But well, you know, you’re far crueler than I expected.”

“She needed to face this.

Even with the current situation, it would be unlikely for her to be killed especially after all she had been through.

If she can get past this, then-“

“Then what?

Why couldn’t you just forgive her and let her go in peace without having her go through all this mess?

She’s honestly trying her best to change now, even if it’s too late for her. This just seems to be an unnecessary act of violence. A torture, even.”

“It’s because…

…I couldn’t. I couldn’t just forgive her for everything. I-“

“She’s still a child, don’t be that harsh to her.”

“She needs to grow up!”

“But forcing her to suffer this is not how should you guide her! You’re an adult, so act that way! Go there, stop this mess, forgive her, and help the two of them to sort this issue as I know you could before either of them gets killed due to your selfish, childish grudge!

Geez, right now, I’m seriously wondering about who the real demon is between the two of us.

This would seriously just end badly.

You know what? I’m out.

Good night.”

“Well, that ended quite quickly, faster than what I expected.”

From behind some bushes, Yukari and Renko watched as the source of the disturbance in the forest had dissipated into the air, while two boys were looking at the dissipating individual, one of them, the black haired one, clearly being the one that had defeated the source of the disturbance in the forest. Yukari recognized the white haired one as the boy that Reimu was going with earlier, and she was tempted to go forward and ask him about her, but she noticed that the boy was deeply injured.

Yukari didn’t even know whether the boy would survive or not after catching a glimpse of his wound from her location.

“Merry, what should we do? The white-hair seemed to be injured quite badly. Can we at least do something to help him?”

“…I don’t know.

It…might be for the better if we stay still here and watch for now.”

“But-“

“We can’t do anything about him, Renko.

Besides…”

A woman was sitting atop a gaping hole in reality as she watched over the bright moonlight. Of course, she had noticed the fact that the moon had been defaced by something, and it looked like a rose with an eye in the middle of it for now. It was quite something to behold, and the woman decided to not disturb whatever was going on at the fake moon. After all, she might not really have an eternity to enjoy it, so savoring every seconds of the beauty would be the best for her.

For now, she was unable to continue past the barrier leading her to the White Room and the next pathway, for some reasons. The pathway asked her a question, but no matter what kind of answers she gave to it, she still couldn’t get past it. She tried using her powers to force through the barrier, but the barrier proved to be too much for her without her attempting to use more force than necessary, which would just tire her before the main event.

As she continued to try thinking of the answer that the Pathway really desired, she gazed at the floating rose once again, smiling slightly.

“At the beginning, there was ‘the origin’, and then concept of boundaries came into existence, separating that ‘origin’ into smaller and smaller pieces, creating the reality as everyone know it.

I wonder, will this story truly lead to that point? Or will something else entirely lies beyond the end of the beaten path?”

Kōsuke Ueki · February 8, 2015

Pathway to Remembrance, Tsunugai

The Paladin watched from a distance as Ratchet was more or less given a reality check. The feeling of not wanting to lose anymore people than he already has. He wasn't the only one to know of that pain. He knew of it before he became a Paladin. But even now, he has kept moving forward, living for their sake. It's the only right thing to do when you lose those you've cared about. Even if you end up all alone in your journey, at least you'll still be alive. Keep living that life to the fullest, for the sake of those who lost theirs.

When Ratchet and his allies had left, Tsunugai began to hear footsteps again. He wasn't sure who or what was following him, but he knew that they weren't any of his allies. Maybe it was certain members of the Divine messing with him, or maybe it was something apart of the Pathway itself. Either possibility seemed equally likely. Regardless, he kept on moving, passing the Tower altogether, not wanting to waste anymore time.

Not even 5 minutes pass, and the footsteps could be heard again, this time louder than before. Considering that things had only begun to escalate, Tsunugai was tired of just waiting for something to happen. He needed to get this done and over with so he can keep moving again. "Alright, come on out. I know you're there, so just show yourself already." But when Tsunugai said that, who came out of the darkness was the last thing he'd expect. Then again, this was the Pathway to Remembrance, so who came out should have been expected.

It was a small group of people, all of different walks of life in Emeralda. One of them was a fairly old man. He was a retired blacksmith with a...shaky history, to say the least. Tsunugai remembered him. He was good friends with him up until he hit his teens, in which he didn't see him that often anymore. The other was a man in his early 30s. He had on a more advanced version of the typical guard armor that was usually worn by generals in Sapphiria's Royal Guard. At the time, he was accused of mistreating denizens and contradicting his duties. But nobody has ever been able to convict him due to "lack of evidence". Tsunugai never liked him, and didn't really bother even standing up to him to prevent becoming another of his supposed victims.

The next person was a girl in her early teens. She was a beautiful woman. But she was also a rich brat. She always got what she wanted and was stuck-up as a result. But for some reason, when Tsunugai saw her...she seemed to have an extremely similar face to Arturia, just if she were a teen, and a rich snob. Why he had any interest in her is beyond him. The last one was a young boy, not even ten years old. He was the local troublemaker for years, stealing and vandalizing other people's property, and even destroying valuable artifacts in public. Tsunugai was about 13 when he knew him. At the time, the kid was only seven. He was able to get back his mother's necklace from him, and was very tempted to put him in his place. But it's not like he had enough to deal with in his own personal life. So he had let him be...sort of.

Amongst this group, two things came to mind that Tsunugai knew off the bat: He knew them all to certain extents...and they were the people first few killed, which showed that Yagato had killed many people of all ages for a few years. This was hard for Tsunugai to bear, since he hadn't seen these people for so long, and the fact that he was reminded of what he was forced to do made things even harder for him. But...at the same time, this would be his only chance to clear his conscience somewhat, even though they were only memories. But regardless, he knew that something needed to be done.

"Say what you need to say." That was all Tsunugai needed to say. "There was a reason why you did what you did." said the old man first. "You saw us as terrible people, who would be better off dead so more of the world could prosper. Nobody would miss us, and nobody would even care that we were dead." He tried to keep a straight face, but the words hurt more than he could imagine.

"The only thing you got right...was that you are terrible people. If I wanted you dead, I would have been a completely different person to all of you. If I didn't make that deal..." The general then cut him off, his face as stern as ever. "What deal? What could you have possibly done to change the fact that you killed us?" Tsunugai was silent for a moment, his tone becoming more serious. "I didn't kill you. Yagato did." "You ARE Yagato!" Tsunugai then snapped. It was one of those moments where he couldn't hold in his emotions anymore. "WRONG! I was a vessel!"

This surprised the general. So much so that he remained silent. "I...I was weak...I was selfish. I didn't care about anyone else, about the lives of others, nothing. All I cared about, was keeping my family safe and alive, so I could have someone to protect. That 'plague' that brought fear across Sapphiria? That was Yagato's doing. He was killing people before I ever made that deal with him. I nearly died that day, but I gained the chance to keep protecting the only family I had. I didn't care about the risks. I made a deal with the devil, and I eventually paid for it in full. He took advantage of my emotions. He brought them back, only to use my body to kill them. They were added to Yagato's long list of victims, and I was too late to save them. If I knew that I could regain control over my own body, if I knew that what I was doing was wrong, I would have ended this before it truly began. I would have been able to save you all! BUT I DIDN'T!

"What do you want me to say...? You want me to apologize? To ask for your forgiveness!? To beg for redemption as if my life was dependent on it...!?! There was NOTHING that I could do...! Do you not understand that...?" Tears were flowing out of his eyes. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...!" He was on his knees at this point. The tears were nearly freezing on his cheeks. Nearly a minute of crying had passed. Suddenly, the boy placed his hand on Tsunugai's shoulder. He immediately stopped crying, looking at the boy in shock. "We're not the ones you should be saying sorry to."

Tsunugai didn't understand what he meant. But he would realize it a few seconds later. Two more people began to walk up to Tsunugai. He recognized them immediately. It was his "parents". Even to this day, he had not forgotten their faces. Regardless, there were no words to be said, at least at the moment. As the sorrow that overcame him began to subside, Tsunugai slowly rose to his feet once more. But when he did, they gave quick smiles and proceeded to take completely different forms. He had reached out, not wanting them to go away, but it was already too late.

His "parents" had became something else entirely: His Paladin allies (The first two, anyway): Rose Ada and Velvet Annerky. While the shock of his "parents" disappearing before he got to say anything was still prevalent, he had calmed down the moment he saw his allies before him. Though, he had to wonder why they appeared. What about Cyrus? Or Seth? Why these two? There was a reason behind all this, and he wanted to know what. But he remained silent, still trying to recollect his emotions accordingly.

"You know we don't blame you anymore, right?" said Rose suddenly. Tsunugai's eyes widened slightly, realizing what she was saying. She was right. When they found out that Yagato was apart of him, Tsunugai didn't know what to do. He remembered everything at that point. It was overwhelming how much was coming back to him. He was afraid his allies would shun him, that he wouldn't be fit to be a leader anymore now that he was at risk of unleashing Yagato when brought within an inch of his owm life. He thought they'd accuse him of keeping such a big secret to himself. He thought of all these scenarios in which his allies would no longer respect him to any length. But in reality, such a thing didn't last that long.

They knew there was more to the story, and Tsunugai was the only one who can tell it in full. Tsunugai felt like he was reliving that same moment of sharing his despair with his allies by being honest with some of Yagato's earliest victims. He wasn't able to hold back his emotions to those that he felt like he could have saved had it not been for his selfishness and no willing to grow a backbone. Taking a risk at defying Yagato would have led to those apocalyptic consequences. But actually, the death of his "parents" were those consequences. Regardless of what Tsunugai did, his "parents" would have died either way. The only difference being that he would either be alive or dead.

"You realized your mistake, even though it was already too late. You knew you couldn't make up for the mess Yagato made, but you could at least work to prevent it from happening again. That's why we accepted you as our leader. You saw that you can become greater than what you had become. You may have chosen a selfish path at first, but you eventually chose the path that shows that we are all human. No matter how grave or tragic the consequences, mistakes will always be made. And there is still a lot that you need to learn. Either way, you have changed. You wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for the person you were, and the person you have become."

Velvet always seemed to know what to say...well, at least when he started to get used to his allies. He was also right. Tsunugai may be a Paladin, but he is also human. He may have made mistakes that took the lives of many, but he still made a choice. He couldn't control what came about with the choices he made. He could only choose and hope for the best. That was the one thing that Tsunugai had forgotten. Even though he had done all these bad things for the sake of keeping his "parents" alive, he wasn't the same person he is now. He's learned from his mistakes. And even if people don't accept him, he didn't care. He knew he changed, and the past that he is currently aware of was behind him now.

"Thank you. I'm grateful to have known you two." Rose gave a small smile towards Tsunugai, not needing to say anything. "Likewise." replied Velvet. Tsunugai proceeded to continue walking through the Forest, everyone that had appeared before him following behind.

An hour or two had passed, and he had more or less reached the end of the Forest, the next section of the Pathway awaiting him immediately afterward. There was a lot to still go through. What else awaited him in Remembrance? He didn't know. But he had to keep moving. Even though it was important to realize who he himself was, there was a still a war needing to be won. And one way or another, someone will have to open the Door of Origin and put an end to everything. He didn't know the outcome of the War, but he would worry about that when the time came.

The Paladin left the Forest with a new revelation of his past. And with that, he entered the furious snowstorm ahead of him, his determination revitalized.

(Location: B9)

The Pathway to Remembrance, Richard Mason

There was a fair amount of silence for the remainder of the boat ride across the giant lake. Richard wasn't THAT great at conversations of any kind. But he was glad to have made some sort of interaction with his newfound allies. He definitely had the opportunity, but he didn't take advantage of it for the most part. He always talked to Tsunugai on occasion, and that was usually it. Why was he his mentor? Had he forgotten already? Ever since he learned of who Tsunugai was, what his past was like, and how he was being influenced by something else, he knew he had to do something. But is he entitled to be called his mentor?

Some time passed, and as Richard was rowing the boat, he had accidentally touched the water below him, albeit barely. But it was enough for memories to start flooding into his mind. The pond was capable of curing amnesia and unlocking memories lying dormant within a person. And when he saw these memories, he was absolutely terrified. Well, for a moment. It was a very short memory, but it was the night before the dream he had, which eventually led to something in reality. He saw his mother and father, but something was wrong. It was something so small, he wondered as to how he forgot it. Or maybe it was unintentionally locked away into his mind.

Either way, he remembered what happened. His mother and father were crying, looking at an old photo of what appeared to look like Richard when he was only a few months old. But why? He was alive and well, so what was the problem? Unless...it wasn't him as an infant. What if it was...someone else? Immediately after, he saw the image of a silver-haired man he didn't recognize, at least from first glance. But he recognized two things upon further inspection. The man's attire was that of the long lost Assassin's Guild. Also, his eyes matched that of the infant in the photo.

Richard had put the pieces together in his mind, and came to a shocking conclusion. I...I had an older brother? he thought. It seemed hard to believe, but it made sense. So...did that mean his brother was taken away from them long before his birth? It only made sense. For the most part, most of the assassins were taught to kill from birth. Many infants were born in the guild, but that didn't stop them from creating more killers by taking away newborn infants. It all made sense then. His brother had only been born, and was taken away by the assassins without question. But then he wondered if he survived the end of the guild by the werewolves. If he did, did he become one of them? It's one fate that seemed so likely, but yet it was too much for him to even consider it. At least...for now.

Richard made sure not to show much emotion, or any sign that something was wrong. He would worry about that at a later time.

Soon enough, Richard and Revy made it to the other end of the lake, and the Bounty Hunter had rushed him as they were nearing the end of the Pathway. Considering the fact that the two would have to part ways, he merely watched as the Bounty Hunter attempted to climb the snow covered stairs. When she had reached a certain point where she couldn't be seen, Richard began climbing as well.

By the time he made it to the top, Revy was calling out to him, but he couldn't hear her, possibly due to the fact that she was able to complete the Pathway. She eventually disappeared, making it clear that it was now Richard's turn. As he got closer to the pond, a question soon popped into his mind.

‘Are you satisfied with your past’?

He thought about this for a good while. The word 'satisfied' didn't seem to fit his feelings towards the past. He couldn't change what had already come to pass. And why would he? If he did, would he still be the person he saw himself as now? Or would he become someone else entirely? It didn't matter. Either way, he began to give his answer.

"Satisfied? I wouldn't say that. There's nothing for me in the past anymore. And I can't change it either. Creation cannot come without destruction. The life I thought I wanted to live was crushed before my eyes. But at the same time, a new door opened up for me, an opportunity to become something greater than I never would have with the life I was living. If there was a way to change the past without major consequence, I would do it. But I know for a fact that such an opportunity does not exist without consequences bearing it.

"I was given the greatest despair that nobody should ever have to face. But it made me who I am today. I had become empty when I lost those I cared dearly about, and it gave me room to change into something better. I learned that when you lose someone you care about, following in their footsteps wasn't the right thing. I had so many opportunities to end my life. But I didn't. Because I knew it wasn't the right thing to do. The two most important people in my life, who raised me up to become something greater than I ever would have imagined, didn't raise me to give up when you lost nearly everything.

"So to answer your question: No. I am not satisfied with my past. But I have accepted it as the catalyst towards where I stand and who I am today. I am Richard Mason, and that will never change anytime soon."

An invisible barrier than dissipated before Richard, and he ended up walking into the pond subconsciously. Not sure what was gonna happen next, he began to be dragged down by an invisible force inside the water. He couldn't resist it, and as such was forced underneath the pond.

Richard opened his eyes, and realized he was in the White Room once more. As such, he now had two choices left for the Pathways. He examined his choices and wondered about what to deal with next. Remembrance was a lot to deal with, but he had to go through three. There was no going around it.

Considering that Death might be the most difficult to deal with, Richard decided to have it dealt with right away. As such, he opened the door, entering the Pathway of Death.

The Pathway to Death, Richard Mason

A feeling of uncertainty came over the warrior, as was expected, but not only about the future, but about traversing the area itself. As such, the thick darkness around him didn't help much either. He was glad that there was still lighting to guide him, but he could tell that it got dimmer as time went on.

Richard had began to hear the voices in the Pathway, but their whispers were so faint, he couldn't make out any of them at the moment. But as he kept progressing, they began to become easier to hear, to the point where he could hear them without straining his ears too much. Most of what was being said was to be expected.

You have failed everyone.

You are no leader.

You have lost everything.

You have chosen the wrong path.

But then, certain voices began to tell him things that seemed to hit him hard, even though he continued on regardless.

You will die.

You cannot save him.

'Him'? What did the voice mean by that? He cannot save Tsunugai? To some extent, he already has saved him. It didn't make any sense, no matter how much he tried to understand.

However, out of anything being told to him so far, one voice caught his attention, nearly stopping him in his tracks.

She must win...

(Location: C1, heading to B2)

Reinforce · February 11, 2015

Chandra

Pathway of Truth: C7

The air grew a chill, flowing around and directed at the other planeswalker, before he managed to twincast the move as well, severely increasing the already frigid air, and freezing his double. Even as the extreme cold slowly started to die down, Chandra rushed forward, pure heat radiating off her body as she crouched down in front of the man in front of her, hands already reaching for his chest so she could radiate heat directly into his body and warm him back up. On Jace's other side, the Magma Phoenix swooped down, landing nearby and allowing it's innate heat to cut through the cold air and rapidly heat the immediate area up.

Ending Location: C7

Ayame

Pathway of Truth: A6

Once she'd crossed to the other side of the mirror, the faint traces of malevolence and madness were no longer mere traces, but rather a pressure upon her mind, pushing on her sanity, and worse, on the lock holding the shades that were all that remained of the shadow realm at bay. As that seemed to be where Rhamathrys' comrade was located, or rather the cause of, she'd do best to stay as far away as possible as she went through this area, unsure if her mental fortitude would hold up close.

"If your comrade is responsible for the madness I can feel, It'll be better for me to part ways now rather than go towards him. I'm not sure my mind will hold out if I get too close to that. Thanks for the flight though, that was fun and faster than I could have gone had I run too."

Ending Location: A6

The Warden · February 12, 2015

|_)Witch of Courage, Lydia(_|

|_)Pathway of Truth: A6(_|

Lydia was not far behind the two as she passed through the mirror into the dark alternate world. She could just feel the grim desolation all around, a stark contrast to the bright and sunny field of cherry blossoms from before. The only more noticeable factor here was the sheer Madness leaking out of Butlerok from somewhere nearby. She could feel it assaulting her mind, but the Dizasters were doing quite well in blocking it out, so she could clearly think. Hearing Ayame was going to leave, Lydia felt it best to go with her. "If you don't mind, I'll go with you. Honestly I don't want to go near the Kishin if I really don't need too. The Dizasters are blocking the Madness out for now, but I don't want to see what happens when I get close to him" she remarked.

Turning to Ayame, Lydia declared: "I can't help you fly with the wind, but I could probably levitate a chunk of earth for you to sit on. It'll beat walking any day."

Love of Ghibli · February 12, 2015

Rhadamanthys: Path of Truth

It was purely logical that both of the maidens would bail once they made it to the other side where Butlerok's madness was unfiltered. Rhadamanthys simply bowed his head as the two groups proceeded to go their separate ways. Once he walked a couple meters away from the ladies he simply disappeared into his speed. He flew as fast as could not caring who or what got in his way. Within tens of seconds he managed to actually catch-up to his two comrades.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Team Dorian: Path of Truth

As Rhadamanthys stepped right in front of Butlerok and Dorian, Dorian let loose an instantaneous sigh of relief. It was definitely needed. His theory about Rhadamanthys being the new Hades was correct and as such Rhadamanthys' cosmos will naturally shield specters from the effects of the Madness. Oh this is definitely needed Dorian said. Welcome back Rhadamanthys. Dorian put on an awkward smile and quitely laughed. Rhadamanthys tilted his head as he witnessed the personality transformation in Dorian. Well it seems like the plan worked. You are yourself before the baptism...

Tesability Black · February 13, 2015

~The Divine - Path of Truth - Jace's POV~

His eyes had been closed and he had been trying to keep from hearing the thoughts of those around him, so the mindmage wasn't braced for the influx of warmth that entered through his chest through a pair of slender hands, slowly defrosting him from the inside out as another burst of heat surrounded him as well.

"Th...thanks," he managed to say once the wave of cold stopped causing him to shiver. While his right leg had been what was starting to freeze on him, the influx of warmed blood from his heart helped to gently reverse the chilling effect, allowing him to gingerly move it again. With a fair bit of shake as he did, Jace managed to stand up on his own, almost falling once or twice as he regained his balance. "I s--s-still say frostbite's n-not a fun way to go," he muttered under his breath, flexing the five toes on his right foot as he did.

He didn't truly dare to try to walk until half a minute had passed, when he didn't feel as much of a popsicle anymore. It was then that that he noticed that the unusual summon was still here, still cautiously watching the pair, which possibly meant...

"Beleren."

...that it was still alive somehow.

"And I don't appreciate being referred to as an 'it', just like you wouldn't appreciate someone calling you a 'thing'." Though he was immediately ready to counter whatever the black double could throw at him, there was something that set him somewhat off his guard.

As the double stood next to the large being, Jace could see both hands holding each other while being held in front of itself, just as he would when he wished to not show hostility. Now that he got a good look at the twin, there was something else he noticed. The odd lines that appeared appeared on his face, neck and the rest of his body didn't appear on the copy. "I should mention now that Gemini's intrusion has had a large hand in how I acted earlier, combat was never supposed to happen." Any semblence of enjoyment from the earlier session was now gone, as if it was never a part of the double to begin with.

The mention of the name, however, confused Jace, since he did--- The sudden break in thought yet again had Jace holding his head between his hands, getting a bit sick of not being allowed to even finish his own thoughts at times. Though the break did make him wonder if he did know someone who went by that name, but just didn't know the name?

"Just because you yourself don't know the name of someone doesn't mean they don't go by that name to others," the double pointed out, the large creature nodding in response.

"You have been around this 'Gemini Rivetter' without realizing this fact, Guildpact. Hostility can create a powerful barrier at moments."

"I am getting really sick of that title," Jace found himself muttering under his breath before raising it back up to normal volume. "But how, I can---" An aggravated growl left his throat as yet another break in his words and thoughts occurred.

"Maybe you can't sense every mind near you," the double offered. "He showed up at the same time as another."

...wait a second, Rivetter?

As in Neos Rivetter?

Jace would have never guessed that anything like that bastard would be linked to his guardian for close to a full year now...

Love of Ghibli · February 13, 2015

Team Dorian: Path of Truth

Dorian simply shrugged at Rhadamanthys observation. Well that was part of the plan correct? Dorian inquired. Rhadamanthys simply snickered as he realized that he could actually lie again. Though it was somewhat liberating to forcefully tell the truth. What took you so long? Once I released the madness I thought you would easily find us. I was escorting two members of the enemy faction through the path. They were going to accompany me to your location, but this aura deterred them. So allowing Ragnarok to be himself is actually counterproductive to feeding. Hey wait a minute! Let's not get ahead of ourselves do you know how hard all these fights have been while holding back for the sake of "others." Ragnarok exclaimed. True, but if we are to proceed with the plan then we're probably going to need as many people as possible. What do you mean? The last two major boss battles we did all of the leg work. Correct...but at the same time we didn't finish either of them did we? Come the next major battle we'll have to take a back seat and just provide support. Dorian explained.

Which brings us to the next problem, the Counter Corps. So far I don't think they have that many members that can pose a legitimate threat to the Divine. What about the two anger management was talking about earlier? Ragnarok added. Simple, the fact that he escorted them means he didn't fight them. He didn't fight them because they weren't worth fighting. Would that be a correct estimation of what happened? Rhadamanthys nodded. While one was civil and possessed a mild aura with some knowledge of combat the other was quite the opposite I can only assume she has some kind of secret weapon at her disposal. Interesting well letting them be is good...WAIT! Rhadamanthys interrupted. You two must have fought that bald warrior I did battle with back on the dying planet.

Butler gave a weird smile that literally covered his face ear to ear. Well no, but that baldy is relevant! Ragnarok replied to that indirect question. Explain parasite! Butlerok released a large portion of Black Blood in a puddle behind him and they began to take three different shapes. The first man is the warrior you fought known as Kratos, its seems he is the center of a very big controversy among the members of the Counter Corp. Back on what you call the dying planet Kratos killed the second figure known as Byakuya Kuchiki who is a comrade of the third warrior known as Kenpachi Zaraki. I don't get what's so strange about all of this. Rhadamanthys said in boredom. Be patient we're building up to it! Well we did bury the lead a little. This third warrior, Kenpachi, is the one we fought... which is interesting because he is also the very soul we consumed to become a Kishin when before we met you. Rhadamanthys and Dorian looked confused as they were able to follow the story up until this point.

Well you see, some random dude, not long ago someone came to us asking for the eye-patched guy's soul. Since old man captain baldy made sure we kept it in contact we gave it up and that's how it added the obese sloth to our roster. As Ragnarok finished his statement he mysteriously exploded in blaze of purple and red fire. That probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. Dorian said sarcastically. While whoever it was that took Kenpachi's soul from us they apparently didn't tell Kenpachi about the death of his friend. After being exposed to our Madness Kenpachi came to the revelation that Kratos had killed Byakuya Kuchiki and he hunts to kill Kratos. How intriguing. IMPOSSIBLE! You mean to tell me that the only capable fighters on the opposing faction are trying to kill each other. That's funny. Rhadamanthys just stood still with his eye twitching while Ragnarok continued to laugh without caution. Little did he know that was Kenpachi who kill Sephiroth.

While the crew stood waiting they looked to the other side of the gorge as they sensed a series of different surges of power varying in size. As they looked across they would see four cloacked figures waiting on the other side. Dorian stood up to do some kind of stretching before looking at the hooded figures. Well it was about time they showed up. I'm guessing these are problems representing you guys' present self. Yep. But why are there four enemies? Well I would guess that the extra one belongs to Hades or Genryuusai seeing as they remain entities inside of Butler. Shouldn't that be five then? Ragnarok counted. Valid point Dorian replied with a shrug. I feel sad though. Why?

Because I don't anyone here has a real problem with their present self, do you?

No. No. No. No. I thought so. This is going to be quite therapeutic. Dorian said as and the others got ready for a fight.

Ending location: C9

Reinforce · February 13, 2015

Ayame

Pathway of Truth: A6

"Sure, you can come with me. I'd prefer to stay as far away from that Kishin as possible too. Better not to risk staying near the madness aura for long if we can avoid it."

Looking around even as their other temporary companion flew off, Ayame took in the sight of the ruined world, before choosing to accept the offer for a ride.

"A chunk of earth to sit on as we continue on would be great thanks, I've been walking and running around a lot already in these pathways."

Once said chunk of earth emerged, Ayame sat down on it so they could get going again.

Ending Location: A6

Chandra

Pathway of Truth: C7

Thankfully, it seemed like Jace had recovered and was able to stand up and move around decently well again. Jace's double was standing around now, apparently not wanting to fight any more, which was good at least, though he did get angry at being called an it in Jace's thoughts. While the name confused the blue mage, Chandra was just glad to finally have a name to put to the shapeshifting face, as trivial as that was.

"So this Gemini Rivetter is linked with your guardian, and probably has been for far longer than you've known Neos. Well, if your double is no longer interested in fighting, we can probably keep going through this path."

With a gesture, her Magma Phoenix vanished to conserve her mana, even as she started to walk forward down the pathway again.

Ending Location: C7

Sign In

The Grand Crossover RP - Pathway to Origin [IC/PG-13/Moved to NCM for Finale]

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Archived