Just another day.

[theshirn]

RANDOM SCRIBBLINS AHOY

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

THIS IS A TEASER I GUESS BECAUSE IT'S LATE AND I'M TIRED I'LL WRITE MORE LATER OR NOT

It was just like any other day.  A few clouds scudded across an otherwise beautiful blue sky.  A light breeze ruffled the grass and lightly tousled hair as it skipped across the sunny plain, green with spring and the promise of summer.  Off in the distance, a river sparkled, and further still, smoke rose into the air, black and foul and greasy.  Another town aflame, then.  Just another day.

The drifter closed her eyes for a moment.  It was so nice, here.  The smoke was too far away to be smelled; if she closed her eyes she had an idyllic, peaceful little haven here among the ravaged lands.  It had been quite a while since she'd known even a brief moment of peace like this between all the destruction.  Sighing, she opened her eyes.  As always, there was work to be done.  She brushed her long silver hair out of her eyes and readjusted her belt.  The comforting weight of it was all she could rely on outside her own skill and determination.

Youmu sighed again and and stood, hitching her swordbelt into the proper position - Roukanken riding her left hip and Hakurouken on her right.  She could have the blades out within a fraction of a second, and sometimes she'd needed to.  Ever since Lady Yuyuko's disappearance Youmu had been on her own.  For a while, she'd believed the rumors - that the ghost princess had ascended - but Hakugyokurou had almost immediately started falling apart afterwards, despite the half-ghost's best efforts to hold it together.  Pleas to the Yama had been met with sympathy, but as she had explained, her affair was judging souls; once judged, she had little power over them.

The excess energy from the spirits of the netherworld began to bleed out, changing Gensokyo as it was known.  For one thing, it enlarged it.  Yukari and the Hakurei shrine maiden had done their best to combat the energy, but without Lady Yuyuko properly ministering to the souls of the dead they became an unstoppable tide.  Gensokyo now covered the entirety of Japan - though the world inside no longer resembled what it had once been.  Their efforts had not been wholly in vain, though - they'd managed to rein it in eventually as the souls become more diffuse, and even were able to reroute some of their energy into reinforcing the Great Border itself.  This had the unforeseen effect of overwriting reality as it had stood - the people assimilated by the new border had been convinced they had always lived in Gensokyo.

But many of these new people were different nonetheless.  The fragile balance of power between human and youkai was wrecked, and conflict began.  Many of the youkai, even some of the older and more powerful ones, had been killed or driven into the wild.  The hierarchy of gods had been toppled, as faith fluctuated wildly.  The Hakurei shrine maiden brought what balance she could, but Reimu had been severely overtaxed and eventually communities formed that would completely ignore her.  Large numbers of the humans began proving adept with magic, some growing formidable indeed.  Some of the groups began to war with each other, often with devastating consequences.  Consequences like today.

Youmu began walking.  Flying had become dangerous of late.  Anyone flying was asking for people on the ground to take potshots at them.  Everyone walked.  Youmu smiled bitterly.  With all the progress in magic the new people had made, it only served to make things more of a pain.  Ahead, screaming was now faintly audible, and another explosion echoed with a low rumble.

Just another day.

[Matsuri]

See, I told you I'd get around to reading this! No more need to : | at me, okay? :<

I like it, so far. I'm interested in where you're going with it. =O

[Hanged Hourai]

I'd like to see more of this, please.   :3

[theshirn]

The smell of burning buildings thickened in the air as Youmu approached the remains of the village.  The conflict was over for now, it seemed; most of the houses had burned down to cinders or been put out by the time she approached it.  Several charred corpses lay among them, some of them small.  Youmu's lips tightened, but she made no other signs of the anger and distress she felt within.  It would do no good to these people.

She approached an older man who was sifting through the embers of what likely had been his house.  "Who did this?"

The man turned to her, looking haggard.  "I don't know who he was.  It was a man, a mage, dressed in red and black.  He called for the elder and demanded something from him, I don't know what.  Then he killed him, and did this..."  The man trailed off, hollowly.  Youmu nodded.  Shiren again.

"Thank you.  Justice comes for him."  Without another word, Youmu turned and departed.  There was no need to ask where he went; Youmu was familiar with Shiren's particular brand of magic, and it hung heavy in the air, drifting away to the north.  She'd faced off against the magician before - Shiren commanded an impressive amount of power for a human, but brute-forced his magic rather than learning to channel it properly.  He was good at things like explosions, and burning villages, but had little range outside them.  Youmu had captured Shiren once before and turned him in to the Human Village (as it was still called, even though there were plenty of other, larger villages around now), but apparently he'd escaped, and was out causing havoc again.

Well, that would end today.

The half-ghost followed the trail northwards for a mile or so, edging into a small copse of trees.  The trail spread out there, becoming diffuse.  Youmu frowned, looking around her, and only barely dodged when a pulsing blast of red light lanced out at her from the branches of one of the taller trees.  She looked back at the smoking patch of ground for a moment, and jumped.

Sudden sunlight pierced the copse as Roukanken came flashing out, taking off branches in a long arc along her leap.  Youmu landed at the top of the tree, watching as branches fell to the floor below, and as a red and black figure jumped, landing in a roll and coming to rest upright.  "Come out and fight me, ghostling!"  Shiren laughed harshly, his angular face and cruel eyes upturned.  Youmu closed her eyes for a moment and dropped to the forest floor across from him.

"Shiren.  You know this cannot be forgiven."

"Forgiven?"  He laughed again.  "My dear ghostling, I don't care about your forgiveness.  There are more important things at hand than your petty crusade for vengeance."

"It's not for vengeance."  Youmu drew Hakurouken as well.  "It's for justice."

"Call it what you will," Shiren sneered.  "It makes no difference to me."  Power gathered around him as he brought his fists forward with a sharp punch, hurling another spearlike blast of flame.  Youmu sidestepped and rushed him with both blades.  The rogue mage raised his arms to ward off the blow, a pointless gesture, as the swords fell.

And stopped.

Youmu's eyes widened briefly, then narrowed again, and she pulled back, coming to rest in a guarded position as Shiren began laughing yet again.  "I don't think so, ghostling!  Not this time!"  He hurled another gout of flame at her, which she jumped over.  "Your weapons won't work on me, I'm afraid.  Now, prepare to die!"  A dark red light began pulsing around his hands as he raised them, trembling with the strain of containing that much power.  "Say goodbye!"

Youmu shut her eyes and switched.

She hurled a blast of raw force at the back of his head, knocking him flat.  The power around him bled away as she switched again, returning her main focus to her human aspect as the ghostly half floated back over behind her.  She always had full control over both, but could only truly view things from one perspective at a time; the other became indistinct and harder to comprehend the world with.  Walking over to the unconscious magician, Youmu dug her boot into his ribs and turned him over.  Still alive, good.  As satisfying and right as taking his head right now might be, she had questions, and Shiren had better pray he had answers.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Badass.

[theshirn]

It's late and I'm tired, so something short for now.  I hadn't been planning this until it got written.  Welp.


Shiren stirred, ever so slightly, and then went still.  Too still.  Youmu knew someone faking sleep when she saw it, and delivered a painful kick to the ribs.

"Get up."

The bound magician grunted and rolled over.  Youmu placed a boot squarely on his chest and looked him in the eyes for a moment.  "I have questions."

Shiren laughed, which dissipated into a hoarse cough.  "And you want me to answer them, ghostling?  Guess again."  Youmu glared at him and stomped down with her boot, eliciting a choking gasp of surprise.

"You will answer me.  Too much is at stake here."

"At stake?"  Shiren rasped.  "Little ghostling, I couldn't care less if the whole world rested on this.  I've nothing to say to you.  Now take me to whatever wretched prison you have in mind this time, instead of dawdling here, yes?"

The half-ghost shook her head.  "I'm not taking you anywhere except the Netherworld this time, Shiren.  After last time, I can't leave you anywhere safely.  Tell me what I want to know, and-"

"-you'll make it quick, at least?" the rogue mage smiled wryly.  "Not much of a difference there.  Do your worst, then, I've nothing else to say."  Shiren closed his eyes.

"-and I'll take you with me, instead of killing you."

Shiren's eyes opened, and he stared at her, bewildered.  "You mean...to work with you?  On your insane little crusade?"  He began giggling as Youmu nodded.  "You'd trust me?  After all that I've done?"

"Of course not."  Youmu replied.  "I'd keep a very close watch on you at all times.  A step, a hint, anything even slightly out of line, and I kill you...but it's better than dying here, isn't it?"

[theshirn]

The half-ghost inspected the village critically from the top of a nearby hill.  "You're sure this is the place?"

Shiren slumped to the ground next to her, panting.  "I already told you, no.  This is one of the places it could be.  I don't know if-"

"But you're sure this is one of the possible locations?"

The rogue mage grimaced. "Yes, I'm sure."  Youmu had set a blistering pace, and the mage's chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath.  "A moment?"

Youmu glanced down at the man, sighed, and nodded.  "A short break, then."

Shiren lay back and took a drink from a flask of water.  "If the blasted crest isn't here, it'll be in one of the other accursed villages that dot the valley.  It could take weeks to comb them all, you know."

"And what were you going to do instead?"  Youmu ventured mildly.

"Well...for one thing, I wouldn't spend a day in each one!  I'd check and-"  Shiren trailed off again, muttering under his breath.  "In any case, we shouldn't spend too long, or your whole plan will be useless."

"There's someone I wish to see here.  I'll make it short."

Shiren scratched his head, then shook it.  "You don't say much, ghostling."  He wiped the sweat from his face and stood.  "Well, we'd best be on our way.  Together?"  The half-ghost nodded, and the unlikely pair began making their way to the village below, Youmu leading the way down the grassy hill.  As they neared the town, Youmu raised a hand and yelled, a single held note that rang out clearly in the spring air.

A figure with long red hair detached itself from the gatehouse built into the palisade around the town.  "I hear ya, I hear ya!  Will ya knock that off, you'll get everyone starin' at us!"

Youmu smiled, the first time Shiren had seen her do so.  "Good, I was afraid you might not make it."

"Well, 'snot like I've got anything better to do these days," the other woman snorted.  Her smile creased into a concerned frown as Shiren brought up the rear.  "Who's he?  He doesn't feel right, Youmu."

"He's with me, Komachi.  I'll explain later."

"If ya say so," Komachi replied doubtfully, before clapping Youmu on the back heartily.  "So, whatcha up to?"