1 【Chapter 1 】Gensokyo, a place where you can get shot by flying girls.

Prologue

I don't know anything about the world that surrounds me. I don't know anything about my past or why I was brought into this cruel world. The only thing I know is this cave where I've been chained… for a hundred of years.

My sister told me that there's a huge world outside the barrier. Why is she allowed to see the beauty of this world and not me? Why is everything so unfair...?

If you genuinely loved me, then why are you no longer here with me? Was that bond even real Probably not…

I'm tired of being a "good girl" and not having a reason to be alive.

Sister… why didn't you kill me back then when you had the chance. Why was I rescued for...?

This time I'll go outside to ask you these questions directly and I'll escape this stupid fantasy land that you created for us…

[Chapter 1 ]Gensokyo, a place where you can get shot by flying girls.

Hello there. Have you ever been walking home after a long day at school, and you suddenly end up lost in a place you've never seen before? Well, unfortunately, that's exactly what happened to me today.

I am a middle school exchange student trying to finish my studies. I have been living here in Japan for around a year, and I certainly knew exactly where my apartment was. But for some reason, today was different.

After I got out of school, I heard something that caught my attention. Following the strange noise, I took a detour away from my usual path home. No matter what I did, I could never catch up to the noise. I could always hear it just out of reach. After a while, I found myself past the outskirts of my city, in the woods surrounded by gorgeous grey mountains.

That's when I heard the sound clearly. It was like something, or someone, was whispering directly into my head. It sounded like a woman, just a gentle whisper. I couldn't quite understand the message I was receiving. The voice sounded very low and with some sort of static. But I could hear it wanted me to move a little closer towards the mountains in the distance, not far from where I was at the moment. After hesitating, I decided to go and take a look. I had the time.

I walked for a few minutes, and the scenery transformed into a thicker forest.

After living in Japan for a year, I thought I knew the landscape pretty well, but this was part of the forest that I had never seen before.

"I'd better go home now. This was a waste of time," I muttered to myself. The voice didn't respond to me, and the sun was starting to go down.

*****

20 minutes later, I realized that I wasn't retracing my steps correctly. But I was sure I hadn't gone in the wrong direction. Where was I?

I took out my cell phone and checked my location. "What the-…" I couldn't believe it.

"There's not signal in here AT ALL."

"Ahh man… I'm so lost…"

I decided to wander deeper into the strange forest with the hope of running into someone who could give me directions.

"Looks like I won't be home anytime soon…" I thought, hoping for a miracle.

"That's weird. There are so many mushrooms in this forest. I don't have any food left in my backpack, but eating those would be probably even worse than starving to death."

****

After another hour of walking, I sat down on a flat rock. Feeling hopeless, I looked down at the ground, hoping for something to happen.

And well… something did happen.

Out of nowhere, a projectile that looked like a blazing laser came straight at me. I don't know how, but I managed to barely dodge it just in time.

Heck, can't you see am lost? Why would someone start attacking me out of the blue?

"Hey! Be careful where you shoot whatever that laser was. I almost got hit by it!" I shouted, hoping to avoid getting blasted.

Then I saw a silhouette coming towards me. It looked like a small girl with a dark dress and a ribbon in her short, blonde hair.

After that quick first glance, her figure disappeared into the haze of smoke created by that laser blast. However, her footsteps rapidly approached.

"Ehhh..? Did I miss my shot?" Her voice sounded unusually smug for a little girl.

"You know… humans shouldn't roam around in a forest like this. Especially when

I'm hungry."

I just blinked. What was she even talking about?

"So, may I eat you?" she asked bluntly, followed by a soft but menacing laugh.

She came closer. She looked like a small girl about 1.30 meters tall with blond hair, a black dress, and a red ofuda on her head.

"Do you need something from me?" I asked with a frightened expression.

Her last words didn't really register with me yet.

"I'm Rumia, the Youkai of the Dusk," she started with a sinister, toothy smile.

"I have the ability to manipulate darkness. I can cover everything in pitch blackness, so the last thing you'll see… IS ME!!!"

"I don't know if that's supposed to be intimidating…" I thought. Her words were strong, but she just looked like a small girl despite her dangerous eyes.

"Err… the only problem is that when I use my ability to cover myself in pure darkness, I can't see a thing, and most of my prey escapes…" she proceeded to mumble to herself. Did she just call me her prey?

"How many people have you eaten so far...?" I asked, slowly growing wary.

"Eh… let me think… NONE!" she angrily stomped her foot on the ground. "I'm too lazy to hunt them down, and they always end up escaping." I backed away slightly as her eyes grew dark.

"But one day, our amazing and powerful team will rule the world! And we'll eat everyone, no matter what that silly shrine maiden does! Remember the name THE 9 GANG, because it's the last thing you'll hear! Kya hahaha!" she cackled.

"The 9 Gang? What kind of name is that? Don't tell me there's eight more beings like her…"

"Oh… a strong gang heh... sounds fun," I stammered, trying to sneak away.

"Yeah, we're the strongest youkai alive!" she proudly proclaimed before her stomach rumbled softly.

"Ack, I forgot I was about to eat you, stop talking already!"

"So, human, let our danmaku fight begin!" she hovered towards me.

To be honest, I was a little scared. At first, I thought she was just playing around, but it seemed like she might actually be a real threat. And also, I had absolutely no idea what danmaku meant in this context! I thought it was a type of video game. Someone please wake me up from this messed up dream already!

Rumia flew up in the sky, covered in a black sphere. I couldn't see her anymore – hopefully she couldn't see me.

"SPELL CARD!" shouted Rumia aggressively.

A lot of small and colorful bullets appeared in the sky around her, twisting and

tumbling around in a beautiful, but deadly, pattern.

"WAIT WAIT WAIT- WHAT ARE THOSE FLYING PROJECTILES?!…"

"NIGHT BIRD!" she finished declaring her attack.

Then the bullets started coming towards me. How was I ever supposed to get out of this! Once again, I found myself wishing for a miracle.

I started to panic. What should I do?!

I tried to jump away, but my body wouldn't move out of fear. Hundreds of magical bullets were about to tear me to shreds, and I could only stare at them as they drifted right towards my face.

"Agh… I better do something… PLEASE MOVE!" I yelled in desperation.

Right after that, I heard a voice… That was the same voice that brought me into this mess of a forest.

"I gave you an advantage over other humans," She whispered right into my ear. "Strong enough to defeat a youkai. Use it…"

My sight focused from all of a sudden, and I kept my ears peeled for any more instructions on how to survive.

After hearing these words, the energy flow inside my body intensified. My heartbeat was increasing at an abnormal rate.

I felt my eyes straining, popping out, and my vision faded to gray. It felt like… It felt like I had been struck by lightning.

Is this the end…? It was the most painful experience of my life. I was so confused. I couldn't explain what was happening, and I was hoping this was just a bad dream, only a nightmare. The pain was unimaginable, unbearable. Between my panicked blinks, I felt blood drip from my eyes.

I started gasping for breath as I fell to the ground. I could barely see the bullets exploding as they hit the ground, my vision fading to blackness. "Heh… what an unusual way to die," I muttered to no one.

I started closing my eyes for the final time, but a force beyond my own strength

forced my body back up again.

Trying to move my muscles, I found that I had no control over anything. It was

like I was a puppet, being steered around by someone else.

Right when I was about to get hit by a bullet, my body teleported, dodging it.

Even though I couldn't stop myself, I still felt all of the pain. The last thing I remember before passing out was hearing that same voice again, whispering to me that she would use my body to get me out of this.

Finally, Rumia stopped shooting bullets, looking around blindly. "Ehhhhh?... Did

none of the bullets hit him? I can't see a thing!"

My body coughed involuntarily, and she heard it.

"But he's still there! I'll have to try a stronger spell card!" she cackled with glee.

Rumia started shooting bullets again. This time they looked bigger, like little orbs, and there were way more of them. They zipped towards my rattled body with a different pattern than before.

"This time I'll strike you down! You can't escape me, the most feared youkai!"

Now there were hundreds of bullets coming right towards me. But once again, my body teleported just as I was about to get hit by them.

"WHAT?!? Where did he go? He was just sitting there a second ago. There's no

way he vanished just like that, it's not fair," she huffed, crossing her short arms.

I moved backwards, faster than my eyes could even process, and Rumia couldn't see me. Feeling my body gain energy, the voice flatly stated, "Overdrive Mode."

Immediately after that, as if I were a bolt of lightning, my body pounced towards Rumia while she was distracted. In my heart, I knew she was going to be destroyed by that punch. There was no way anybody could survive that.

I could clearly see the confusion and fear in her eyes, but I couldn't stop myself. The being controlling me continued forward, raising my fist and zipping right at the small youkai of darkness.

*****

Elsewhere in the forest, someone else wandered around, going about their daily business.

A certain witch dressed from head to toe in black and white twitched as she heard sound of danmaku bullets and decided to investigate on her broomstick.

"Huh… Sounds like someone's beating the crap out of someone else. I'll show them true firepower, ze." Easily, she navigated to the battle.

"Attack first and then ask questions later! That's my motto," the witch smirked,

drawing her mini-hakkero and pointed it at Rumia.

"Seems like Miss Dusk Youkai is attacking a defenseless human. Don't worry, I'll end this quick, ze."

She pulled out of her pocket an odd artifact. It looked like a small hexagonal box with a whole in the center. And as she pointed it towards us, a bright light began to emanate from it.

"Love Sign-…"

And out of that small artifact, an enormous multicolor laser was fired towards us.

"MASTER SPARK!!!"

My fist was millimeters away from Rumia's face, but the one controlling me didn't expect a counterattack from behind.

My head turned to the side only to see a blinding light coming towards us, destroying everything in its path.

This time, my puppet master couldn't contort my body fast enough, and the huge laser sent me flying several kilometers into the sky.