Have you ever been in a situation that caused you to look back and wonder just how the hell you'd gotten there? For me, it was when Reimu Hakurei confronted me in response to the killing of Yukari Yakumo. My name is Nue Houjuu. For a long time, I was something of a trickster, and eventually, it got me in trouble. Specifically, I ended up stuck underground for a thousand years. And it was just a byproduct, too; I was playing my trade on some Buddhist youkai when a bunch of crazy humans showed up and sealed their leader away in Makai. And then every other youkai there was sent underground. They didn't even know who I was; I just got sent along with them because I'm a youkai. Anyways, I managed to find my way to the inhabited underground, whereas the Buddhists were stuck in their flying ship thing-I was standing aside from their group, so they cast the spell again to get me down there, so I ended up in a different spot. Anyways, eventually some god fed another god to a bird or something, and that created geysers and all sorts of other stuff, and it ended up releasing the Buddhist group, which went on to launch an expedition into Makai to release their leader. I decided to have a little fun with them. They needed to collect the fragments of something called the 'Soaring Vault' in order to do it. I placed objects called Seeds of Non-Identification on as many of these fragments as I could. The seeds conceal what the objects they're attacked to are, making them appear as whatever the viewer expects to see. The Buddhists, then, still saw what the objects really were because they already knew, but others saw UFOs. I actually like the UFO image, and in fact, have learned how to form them as danmaku familiars. The apparent UFOs drew others in to see what was going on, which ended up causing problems for the Buddhists. And they were quite capable individuals; I evaluated them personally a couple times. They actually defeated the Buddhists, but found themselves stuck helping release the Buddhist leader, Byakuren Hijiri. Byakuren, it turns out, was formerly a human, but changed herself into a youkai in order to avoid death. She pretended to kill youkai while actually just moving them elsewhere, and was sealed upon the exposure of this deception. Upon her release, she turned the flying ship into a temple and began offering help to everyone, human or youkai. I actually benefitted from their efforts myself; they took me in after the 'incident solvers' decided to beat the shit out of me for the whole UFO thing. Byakuren's people knew what I'd done to them when they took me in, but they took me in anyways. It actually made me feel bad about what I'd done, and such a thing was new to me. I ended up remaining at the temple and assisting them in their efforts. I came to be one of them, and over time, I even found love. It was Byakuren herself who I came to love, and I didn't realize how much my time at the temple had changed me until I realized that she had come to love me. She never would have had such feelings for the person I'd been even just the day before her release from Makai, but I had come to care more for others. I still earned my trickster reputation, but in contrast to before, the tricks I played were, in the end, harmless. Or beneficial; for instance, there was a feuding married couple who became closer and resolved their differences as a result of going through a frightening but harmless trick of mine together. Anyways, Byakuren and I came to love each other, and the years brought us closer and closer to each other. I never did come to share her level of devotion to helping others, but I did come to agree with her general views, although there were, of course, things we disagreed on. We never entered into a marriage; both of us felt that love should not be subject to institutional practices, but rather allowed to just be. And for a time, it was. And it remained until the end, eleven years after the two of us first confessed our love for each other. One day, things changed, and that day led to this one, with Reimu confronting me after I had killed Yukari. "
Why did you do it, Nue?" "
She had it coming," I said. "Do you know what happened at the temple yesterday?" "
Darkness began spreading from it, but then vanished. I assumed it was just an everyday bizarre Gensokyo occurrence." "
It wasn't."
Byakuren's barrier faltered, and the darkness broke through. I struck the enemy from the side, but not in time to keep Byakuren from being hit. I knocked the enemy into the wall of the temple, but the impact didn't injure her any more than it would have injured myself or Byakuren.
I looked over the woman as she picked herself up. She was actually a beautiful woman. She was fairly tall, with red eyes and long, blond hair. She wore an ornate black dress, and wielded a large sword.
The woman had attacked us without warning. We had actually seen this woman before, although she had undergone changes. Her appearance was different, as was her behavior. And her power, previously weak, had become immense. She was Rumia, Youkai of Darkness.
I positioned myself in front of Rumia. "Why are you attacking us?"
Rumia just laughed. "Oh, you don't realize it? You were so helpful to that fake, weak 'me' that had my body for so long. You're helpful to everybody, and I can't help but expect that we'd find ourselves fighting before long. I'm just taking the initiative."
"We would never attack," Byakuren said as she rose back into the air. "We do not attack people, and we fight only when necessary to protect others."
"Oh? And you haven't heard the stories of Rumia, Queen of Midnight?"
The name actually was one I'd heard before. "I've heard of the night queen of times long past, but your name was never attacked to those stories."
"Hmm? disappointing. Are these stories told now, or do you just remember them from the past?"
"They are from the past," I said. "Your deeds are known only by myself and a few others, and all of those who knew of you personally are long dead."
"Huh. Well, I suppose I'll just have to start anew."
"How bad is this?" Byakuren asked.
"Fairly," I said. "If the stories are true, this woman was a terror for a long time before she was finally defeated, and she needs to be stopped right now."
Rumia gave another laugh. "Oh, yes, you're right about that. Oh, but there's just one little thing: are you even capable of standing against me?"
I answered by forming several UFOs, green ones. I have four types, and they're color-coded; the green ones fire beams, and of the four varieties, they're the ones most useful in real combat, the others being well-suited only for danmaku battles (although the rainbow ones can cause some havoc in a real fight if used properly). Rumia erected a barrier of darkness to defend against the UFOs. I charged my trident with energy and threw it at her. She deflected it with her sword, but not before it crashed through her barrier, and as I called my trident back to me, the blasts knocked Rumia to the ground. Byakuren followed up with some beams of her own, along with the rest of the 'Devil's Recitation' move I understand she picked up from Shinki during her time in Makai.
Rumia lashed out with tendrils of darkness, ensnaring Byakuren. Or trying to; Byakuren destroyed them with a blade of light as I hit Rumia with a concentrated blast. Rumia fired blindly as she slammed into the ground again, failing to hit either of us. Byakuren opened fire again, but Rumia rose above her shots.
"Not bad," Rumia said. "You two put up a pretty good fight. You can't stop me, of course, but at least you're making this fun."
"Don't be so confident," Byakuren said. "The light of dharma will defeat your darkness!"
Another laugh. "Oh, really? Well, how about you give it a try, then?"
Darkness seemed to pour out from Rumia, quickly enveloping the entire hall in absolute darkness. I made my way to Byakuren just as the blackness reached us. I have good vision in the darkness, but this was so strong that even with her right in front of me, I could barely see her at all.
Byakuren and I positioned ourselves back-to-back and spun in a circle, looking for Rumia. "A wasted effort," she said, her voice seeming to come from everywhere. "Nothing can penetrate my darkness."
"We'll see," Byakuren said, and began to radiate a bright, brilliant light. Or that's what it was supposed to be, but in this darkness, even that light was feeble. Byakuren was putting everything she had into it, and yet she couldn't make any headway against the darkness.
More laughter. "Oh, try all you want," Rumia said. "Nothing can pierce my darkness, and soon, all of Gensokyo will know this."
That was not good. "You're going to do this to all of Gensokyo? Why?"
"Why not? I've never had a full world of darkness before. I couldn't have transformed the entire outside world into such a place, but while I was sealed, someone was kind enough to separate Gensokyo into its own world. Once I have my world of darkness, I'll have to thank whoever it was. Unless she's dead, of course."
"It won't matter," Byakuren said. "Your plan will not succeed."
More laughter. "You talk big for someone whose efforts right now are pretty much useless."
Byakuren focused more energy into her light, giving it everything she had. "Don't? think? you've won. I won't? give? up!"
"You can't do anything. You're fighting a losing battle. Your power just can't match mine."
"Don't forget about me," I said. "Byakuren's not alone here."
"True. And you were putting up quite a fight. In fact, you even may have had a chance at beating me. But that was in an unaltered Gensokyo. Now Gensokyo is becoming mine, my own world of darkness. And within my realm, nobody can stand against me."
Byakuren kept trying. "Then I'll have to? banish? your? darkness!"
Yet again, Rumia laughed. "And you still think you can? There's nothing you can do here. Your power just isn't enough to match mine."
Thick tendrils of darkness shot towards Byakuren. Byakuren's light burned them down, but Rumia kept sending energy into them, and they withstood Byakuren's light. I tried to protect her but the tendrils just ignored me, moving around and ensnaring Byakuren. I attacked them, but as Byakuren's light was failing to destroy them, I also failed.
"Nue," Byakuren said.
"Byakuren?"
"Rumia's? right. I? can't match her."
"Then what do we do?"
"We could? do it? as? one."
I understood immediately, and ran one of the tines of my trident across my hand. "Then draw upon my power," I said, and pressed my bleeding hand over Byakuren's mouth, allowing the blood to fall within it. Doing so allowed Byakuren to draw upon my power in addition to her own. That may seem overly simple for such a thing, but the action means nothing on its own. Byakuren and I are connected emotionally, and I was willing to do anything for her, as she was for me. And intent was there, too. None of those would have sufficed on its own; the link we formed requires all three.
The effect was immediate. Byakuren's light gained the brilliance it should have had all along, and the tendrils ensnaring her burned away. "Now, Rumia, I shall banish your darkness!" Her light expanded, and Rumia's darkness was pushed back. But Rumia, of course, didn't take this lying down.
Rumia's darkness couldn't penetrate Byakuren's light, but her other attacks could, and since Byakuren needed all her focus to keep her light going, she couldn't dodge very well, although she did what she could. I came to her assistance, blocking and deflecting what I could and forming UFOs to take the hits from what I couldn't. But my ability to do so was limited. Byakuren could only match Rumia's power by drawing on mine, so I was wearing out fast. Fortunately, though, Rumia's darkness went first, at least within the temple. It remained outside, but within the temple it was gone. And that was enough; the rest would fade once we'd dealt with-
The pain was sudden, and it was intense. It was not mine, but I felt it anyways, and I cried out in pain. But it was also brief; I was feeling it through the link, and the link was quickly severed. As the pain vanished, I spun around to see Rumia with her sword run straight through Byakuren's chest.
Without my power to sustain it, Byakuren's light faded, but Rumia was not currently producing darkness, so the temple interior remained free of it for the time being. I could see Rumia clearly, and I charged. I slammed into her and threw her away, then pulled her sword out and threw it at Rumia. I doubted that she could be injured by her own weapon, but the point was to remove it from Byakuren.
I expected Byakuren to be okay; she's even harder to kill than most youkai. But as I removed the sword, she fell to the ground. I dropped to the ground myself and knelt down beside her. "Byakuren! Byakuren, are you okay?"
The question was answered by Rumia. "She's dead. Not fully, yes, but it cannot be avoided now. My darkness could not penetrate your light-that was fairly impressive-but I could. And I used my sword as a conduit. The darkness is within Byakuren now, and her life is a good as over. She'll be dead in less than a minute, I'd say.
Byakuren reached out to me, and I took hold of her hand. "Byakuren! Byakuren, fight it!"
She could barely even speak. "That's? not? my? role? now. That task? passes? to you."
Byakuren stuck her other hand into the wound on her chest, pulling it out covered in blood. "Byakuren, what are you doing?"
"I'm dying, Nue, but even so, I will not leave you."
Byakuren placed her hand over my mouth, and I swallowed her blood. Then she pulled me in, placing my head against her wound. There was more blood, and I swallowed it as well. I could feel the life fading from Byakuren, but I could also feel her power. Although it was no longer hers; she was passing it to me. Then the two of us embraced, and I didn't move until her life was gone.
I got to my feet and faced Rumia, who'd been laughing throughout the entire scene. "You killed her."
"Yeah," Rumia said, "I did. Now, where were we? Oh, yes, world of darkness."
Rumia attempted to form her darkness again, but I began to shine with a light even more brilliant than Byakuren's. What we had done had allowed her only to draw upon my power, but she had given me all of hers. She had passed to me the entirety of her being, something that would have killed her had her life not already been lost. All that she was had been added to me.
Byakuren and I had been in love for over a decade. This may seem to be a short time in comparison to the length of our lives, but it was enough. Our feelings were real, and we knew they would last. But now Byakuren was dead, and the one responsible was just laughing. Had been laughing the entire time. She was enjoying this, enjoying the pain she had caused me. I saw her, and the pain was supplanted by a desire. A desire to give her what she had earned.
In other words, I was
pissed.
I charged. Rumia fired a powerful blast at me, but I brought up an energy barrier to block it. Rumia added power to her blast, but she couldn't match my power, not after Byakuren had passed hers on to me. I slammed into her and drove her into the ground. She tried to blast me away, but I hadn't dropped my barrier.
As I had done to her earlier, Rumia charged her sword with energy and used it to break my barrier. And as she did, I grabbed her sword arm and tore it off. I could not have done this so easily before, but Byakuren had enhanced her physical abilities through magic, and that had passed to me along with the rest of her being.
Rumia screamed in pain. And I didn't let up. I tore her other arm off, and then I just hit her. And hit her. And hit her more. By the time I stopped, she was beaten beyond recognition, but she was still alive. "You are the one who killed her,but there's more to this than just your actions. So tell me one thing before I kill you: what changed you?"
Even as beaten as she was, Rumia still managed a laugh. "This is me. The only 'change' was being sealed away within myself, leaving nothing but a child."
"A seal. Then it was broken. How?"
"By someone whose name I'm sure you know. And probably the only one who could to it, too. It was too strong to break, but what is a seal if not simply a barrier between the world and that which is sealed? A seal is a barrier. A border."
A border. That meant? "Why? Why would she release you?"
One last laugh. "I didn't ask. So, are you going to kill me or what?"
I thrust my trident through her neck and ripped her head off.
"Yes."
"
Rumia is the one who killed Byakuren," I said, "but Yukari is the one who was responsible." "
And that's why you killed her," Reimu said. "Fine. Let's move on to the how." "
Oh, that was fairly simple. She has all kinds of nasty border tricks she can use, right? Even down to manipulating the border between life and death. She can recover from fatal blows, and she can kill an enemy in the same manner. The way to kill her, then, is to take her by surprise and make sure that your first hit kills her instantly." "
She would have known you were approaching. She would have sensed you." I nodded. "She did. And we did speak before I killed her. But do remember that illusions are sort of my specialty." "
And you expect me to accept that? She would have known if she was seeing an illusion. She would have sensed it." "
And she was, I think, just as certain of that as you seem to be. Which, of course, I was able to use to my advantage. She didn't think I could fool her, and before Byakuren's death she would have been correct, but with the power Byakuren gave me, that changed."
Yukari was waiting as I approached. "Ah, Nue. What can I do for you?"
"You can stop pretending that you don't know why I'm here."
"Oh?"
"Cut the shit," I said. "You're the one who broke Rumia's seal."
"Well, not really. The seal remained intact; I just shifted things to move what was within it out."
"I don't care about the details. You're the one who did it."
"Indeed I am."
"Why?"
"Why not?" Yukari replied. "I thought it'd be interesting. I never encountered Rumia in her 'Queen of Midnight' days, you see. I'd heard the stories, of course, but that's all. I was quite curious to see if they were in any way accurate."
"Boredom? You did it just because you thought it would be
interesting?"
"Of course. And it was, although she was defeated sooner than I'd expected. It was good while it lasted, though."
"That's all it was to you? Just a piece of fucking
entertainment? Your little
show got Byakuren killed!"
"Yes, it did. I didn't expect someone who'd fight to kill, I'll admit. I've just gotten so used to danmaku, and it silpped my mind that Rumia was sealed long before the spellcard rules existed. The child that remained was used to them, of course, but the true, original Rumia was used to battles to the death, so that's exactly what she fought."
Yukari was seriously pissing me off, but I kept it under control. I had to; Yukari wasn't someone who could be beaten in a straightforward fight. "and she killed Byakuren. But you don't fucking care, do you? No, all that matters to you is that you were fucking
entertained!"
"Well, yeah. Isn't the self what everyone thinks about first? Even you aren't angry because Byakuren died; you're angry because her death also hurt you."
"You're wrong. Maybe I used to just think about myself, but not now. Not after knowing her. But you don't care."
"And just what, exactly, do you plan to do about it?"
I did not answer her with words. I answered her in the form of decapitating her by throwing my energy-charged trident through her neck. She had made a mistake; the one she had been talking too was not the real me. She had expected me to come, and I used that against her. I placed a Seed of Non-Identification on a familiar, and since I was what she expected to see, I was what she saw. And thanks to Byakuren's power, I was able to energize the familiar in a way that would fool Yukari's senses into thinking that the illusion was real. I was able to channel my voice thorugh my familiar, too, and since Yukari expected to see me speaking in conjunction with saying things, that's what she saw. The illusion was where her focus was, which allowed the real me, fooling her senses again-once more thanks to the power from Byakuren-to sneak in behind her and take her by surprise.
At one time, Reimu would have attacked me without hesitation, but ever since a similar attitude had come within a centimeter of getting her friend Marisa killed, her attitude had changed, and violence was now something she avoided if at all possible. So instead of attacking, she asked me a question: "So what now?" "I'm the only one left," I said. "Shou, Nazrin, and Ichirin were killed by Rumia. Murasa was already dead, but it was her devotion to Byakuren that anchored her to this world-no pun intended. When Byakuren died, Murasa joined her in passing to the next life." "
Right," Reimu said. "Um, that doesn't really answer my question. What are you going to do now?" "
I am going to continue Byakuren's work in her place. It's what she would want." "
Yeah, but she wouldn't have wanted you to kill anyone." "
We always did disagree on the issue of redemption. She believed that anyone could redeem herself. I, on the other hand, think that while that may technically
be true in that every soul has the ability to be redeemed, some people simply aren't willing. Some people will simply never change, and when one of those people causes problems, removal is the only solution. But that is not the kind of thing I will be doing. I'm going to restore the temple and lead it in her place. Is that going to be a problem?" It may be hard to imagine Reimu just accepting that, but more that Marisa's almost-death had happened to her in the past eleven years, and she had changed considerably. "Not if it's all you do," she said. "But I'm warning you: if I have to confront you again, I'll have no choice but to assume you're one of those people who won't change, and that you'll just keep on being problematic. And if that happens, well?" "
I'm not concerned with what you think," I said. "I am going to carry on Byakuren's work, and that's that." "
Then do it. Just make sure I don't have to confront you again."
And there's my entry. I really want some good feedback, so yeah, this is a good opportunity. I'd expecially like feedback on the fight scene, since I always feel that I don't do those very well (and Orphan's going to have the next three chapters in a row with big fight scenes, so yeah).
Anyways, there are a few things in my story here that could count as the 'accomplishment' that's the theme for the contest, but the one I had in mind from the start was the killing of Yukari; the rest of the story grew out of the questions of why and how.
Also: Yes, I do think that Gods Bound By Rules (the second music track I linked to) is an excellent theme.
