Shoot the Moon

[capt. h]

Day 1, 5:15 AM

?Launch conditions within acceptable parameters. Tragectory calculated, expected arrival time: 32 hours, 15 minutes. Cannon charge nearly complete. Farwell messages have been sent. Preparing fusion blast. Launch in 60 seconds.?

Utsuho Reiuji was a demon straight out of hell. Specifically, she was a raven youkai with the power of the sun. And tonight, she stared at the full moon just outside the Hakurei shrine, a few steps past Gensokyo?s barrier, where she made a strange orange rod on her arm glow bright and burn hot.

?30 seconds to launch.?

The rod became very hot, and started burning the surrounding area. A small, white orb appeared at the end.

?10 seconds.?

The orb became very large, and she was engulfed in flames.

?3. 2. 1.?

The orb opened up, sending a constant stream of white flames straight into the ground. The ground trembled and formed a crater beneath her as she rocketed towards the heavens, much to the displeasure of the Hakurei shrine maiden. Reimu, reacting quickly to the explosion right next to her house, immediately rushed to douse the flames in the crater Utsuho left. Everyone else in Gensokyo and the nearby outerworld towns merely saw a glow in the distance and a shooting start that traveled up instead of down.

"I'll make you proud Satori." And the shooting star vanished from sight.

[andrewv42]

And thus hell's invasion of the lunar plane begins.

[Smallfry]

Here we go @_@

[Sect]

Satori asked her to borrow a cup of sugar from her neighbors. She failed to specify which ones.

[capt. h]

Day 1, 6:00 AM

?Sir, we received reports of an unauthorized orbital launch.?

?Tell me everything we know soldier.?

?The party that launched the projectile, and what is contained in the projectile are both currently unknown. No party has taken responsibility for the launch and current satellite images only show a large ball of thermal energy, the heat is preventing any accurate assessment.?

?Who could have launched it??

?Unknown. The technology required to make such a device is not available to any known organization or government, including our own. It is simply too hot to have been made by any known party.?

?Do we know if it?s a threat??

?Threat level unknown.?

?Well, what do we know??

?The launch trajectory places its origin of launch in the middle of nowhere. It was launched from the Hakurei forest, next to the Hakurei shrine,? the soldier taking out a map and pointing to a very backwater location. ?There is no known entity in the region that could have made any satellite. In addition, the projectile?s flightpath places it in the moon?s orbit.?

?Understood soldier. Scout the launch area, I want to know how it was launched and who was responsible. Treat the unidentified flying object as hostile until identified, and shoot it down when it re-enters earth?s orbit. We can?t take risks when the technology surpasses even our own.?

?Yes sir!?

[Smallfry]

Good job Okuu! You've upset the military!

[capt. h]

Day 1, 10:00 PM

A man in green camo patterned clothing and hoisting a gun was spotted by the darkness. The darkness wasn?t very strong, in fact, she was little more than a minor annoyance to everyone who knew her, but she hadn?t eaten lost human in a long time, and one such human came passing her by. So the darkness did what it did best, she made it dark. She covered the moon over the man, which had the unfortunate side effect of making it too dark for her to see as well. But the darkness never let convenience get in her way.

Then, the darkness began to play. She let out a howl, and the man pointed his gun at the sound. Then, she let out a yelp behind the man, to which the man twisted to look around. When the man turned back, she stood in front of him, where there was only darkness before. This startled the man.

?Freeze!? yelled the man. ?Place your hands where I can see them and identify yourself.?

But the darkness wasn?t done playing. She stretched both her arms straight out, a card in each hand. ?My name is Rumia,? she told the man. She twisted her arm and announced ?Dark sign Demarcation?, and bullets came out. The man shot at the darkness, and the darkness was hit.

Then the darkness cried ?Meanie? and ran away in tears, and the man reported his findings, strange as they were.

[Smallfry]

MEANIE!!! HE SHOT RUMIA! All she wanted to do was play..

[capt. h]

Day 2, 1:25 PM

Utsuho Reiuji was quickly approaching the moon. She was incorrect in her landing calculations by about five minutes, and she was landing several hundred miles away from her intended landing zone, but these were in the acceptable parameters for her mission.

38 seconds to land, and no sign of the moon slowing down, she aimed her arm cannon straight down and shot a steady stream of energy into the moon?s surface. This created a molten crater beneath her, where she would begin to implement her plans. Hitting the surface of the moon, she began glowing hotter and hotter, increasing the size of the fires around her.

She made a second sun. It was a small sun, but growing with each minute, embedding itself into the surface of the moon. Looking up at the earth, she smiled and a tear came to her eye. She declared something in a rather long winded monologue, but no one heard her. For one, there was no one there. And two, without air, nothing she said could make a sound.

Then, her proclamation done, she set to her work. The moon around her burned hot, and she made it hotter and hotter. Within minutes, the moon around her looked like home to the raven. Which to everyone else, looks like hell.

[Smallfry]

I don't even understand any more.

[capt. h]

Hm, I need to know what you don't understand to know if it's because I'm confusing, or because I'm waiting to reveal a plot point later. I'm holding back on chapters because I haven't decided the chronology yet, and it could change (right now I'm posting in chronological order rather than by story arc), but things might clear up if I add the next two.

EDIT: I guess I'm asking, is the story confusing, or are Okuu's actions confusing? The latter is supposed to not make sense yet. Heck, it might not make sense even after I reveal the motive; as long as the motive is good enough for Okuu. I'm adding another paragraph. Too much conservation of detail.
______________________________________


Day 2, 10:15 AM

Satori was worried for Okuu. The hell raven had a tendency of getting in trouble when she went missing for more than a few days. In fact, last time she tried to destroy the world. But at least last time Okuu did it from the courtyard.

This time, the hell raven went missing for more than a day without so much as a note. Even Orin, Satori?s cat demon, was getting worried. Satori went around the underground city placing ?Have you seen this Hell Raven? posters while Orin moved to the surface, placing the posters around the human village. She got a few  glares; the overworlders did not trust the residents of former hell very much, most likely with good reason. Most the residents were oni, a race of youkai that makes even the other youkai tremble, with the other residents possessing even more fearsome powers. Orin?s job placed her with the latter. She carted corpses all day long to feed the fires of hell, and a youkai with that casual an attitude towards, as Orin called it, the walking corpses above ground, caused a bit of concern. It didn?t help that she asked the overworlders if she could cart their corpses. Orin wasn?t sure why though, she was always pleasant about it. At least she did better than Satori, who didn?t seem to understand that reading minds and then telling everyone the thoughts was not a good way to make friends. Noting a couple of strange activities even for overworlders, and a few very strangely dressed men, Orin placed the last of the fliers. She then walked home and joined Satori in front of the fires of hell (which was also the fireplace).

?Do you really think she would go up there Orin??

?Meow.?

?Yes, I agree. I still worry about her though.?

?Meow, meow.?

?It?s not her safety I?m worried about. Hell has a bad enough reputation as it is, we don?t need her to commit accidental genocide on top of it.?

?Merrow!?

?Or deliberate either.?

?puhrrr.?

?No, we have enough corpses as it is.?

?purr.?

?I hope so.?

[capt. h]

Day 2, 1:45 PM

?The U.F.O. has landed on the moon sir. It appears to be getting even hotter.?

?Is it a threat??

?This level of damage to the moon should have no appreciable affects on earth. It is not currently bright enough to be visible from earth without a telescope. This will change with the phase of the moon.?

?Analyze the threat it poses. What are the results of our investigation of the launch area??

?We have conflicting and strange reports sir. Some soldiers report a town that is too primitive to cause the launch. In fact, the town is technologically at least a century before the current times. Other reports state that there is nothing but trees at the same coordinates. Some of the strangest reports detail attacks caused by what the soldiers called ?demons? that wanted to eat them, many of which had wings. Photographs and video feed indicate that these demons can fly, but our calculations concerning those wings indicate that flight should be impossible. There were even a few who flew without wings.?

?So the region has unparalleled camouflage, and has far surpassed us in the fields of biological enhancements and aerodynamics.?

?But strangely sir, there is no evidence of any electrical equipment in the reported village, nor even any sort of indoor plumbing. We pulled local reports concerning the region, and they are consistent with our soldier?s reports. Prior to this incident these accounts were minimally investigated, due to the supernatural nature of the accounts and lack of definitive evidence.?

?We must to know what the situation in the region is. Even if the villagers don?t possess the technology, someone in the region does. Figure out how some soldiers saw through their camouflage and others could not, and find the party responsible. There is a clear and present danger, so you are authorized to use lethal force, but only if confronted. In addition, we need some members of their organization alive for information. One of their genetically enhanced soldiers would also speed up our genetic engineering research by years, so try to capture their soldiers whenever possible.?

?Yes sir!?

[Smallfry]

I don't understand Okuu's actions. Why does she want to blow up the moon? 

[andrewv42]

Because it's made of cheese, of course.

[Smallfry]

Because it's made of cheese, of course.

THAT'S A FILTHY LIE! If it were made of cheese, It would have been mined in 1969!

[capt. h]

I don't understand Okuu's actions. Why does she want to blow up the moon? 

I have covered Utsuho in Autobiographies of Interesting Characters if you want a peek (spoilers?): http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,7685.0.html

But you're right, it's not clear enough and I think it's too vague, because even when I reveal the reason, there won't be enough warning for the reader to enjoy it. So I added a line to the end of the first chapter, to give readers a better understanding of her mindset.

[Sect]

I have covered Utsuho in Autobiographies of Interesting Characters if you want a peek (spoilers?)

:facepalm:

Duh. I completely forgot about that. She's about to find out that certain residents wouldn't be very happy about having a star 'neath their feet, though. And how are the soldiers from Country A sending back reports after falling through the barrier?

[capt. h]

:facepalm:

Duh. I completely forgot about that. She's about to find out that certain residents wouldn't be very happy about having a star 'neath their feet, though. And how are the soldiers from Country A sending back reports after falling through the barrier?

Since it's a matter of setting rather than story, I won't use spoiler tags. To leave Gensokyo, you have to exit at the edge of the border. It's at the Hakurei shrine. In fact, the reason Reimu got involved in the incident in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was that the outside world would get involved if the scarlet mist passed the Hakurei Shrine, rather than the mist itself being any source of danger. At least, that's what the prologue says. Outsiders seem to leave via the Hakurei shrine as well.


http://touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Embodiment_of_Scarlet_Devil:_Prologue

http://touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Perfect_Memento%3A_Encyclopedia%3A_Outsider

I won't pretend to know the details, but it seems like you can just come and go as you please, as long as you do it at the Hakurei shrine.

I'm glad you brought that up because this is actually a good point that I wasn't going to include early enough. I'm going to have to bring the border up again a lot sooner than I planned. I know I can't expect anyone to know that. The problem with creating the rules in advance is I seem to be forgetting to cue the reader in, or at least I'm not doing it fast enough.

[capt. h]

Day 3, 6:00 AM

Watatsuki no Toyohime and Watatsuki no Yorihime were the protectors of the moon, and the leaders of its military forces. The pair protected the lunarians from the impurities of earth for centuries, and they and their army of lunar rabbits kept outsiders away from their home by hiding the true moon behind the fake, scientific moon. Toyohime uses her power of transportation to move freely between moon and earth, the scientific moon and the lunarian home, while Yorihime summons gods to protect the place.

Toyohime didn’t like surprises. It was her job to protect the moon, and right now someone shot the scientific moon. That by itself would be a non-issue since the lunarians reside in the fantasy of the moon, but whatever shot the moon stuck around, and it annoyed her.

She could not understand why earthlings insisted on invading the moon over and over again either. She thought that they learned their lesson from last time. Some people just never seem to learn though, and since there was an attack on the moon, she had to respond. Though this attack was different then she expected. The fireball hit the moon pretty hard, but instead of making a crater and dissipating, it continued to burn, and in fact got bigger with time. If it had just burned up the lunarians could have ignored it, but it stubbornly refused to leave the scientific side of the moon. And thus, she needed to cross the border between the scientific moon and the fantastic moon to get rid of it.

“We’re going out Yorihime.”

“To hot to handle yourself?”

“Literally. You’ll need a god to counter this level of heat.”

“Do you think the sun goddess could handle it?”

“You tell me.”

[Smallfry]

Maybe try explaining who Yorihime and Toyohime are in case someone hasn't read the book.

[capt. h]

Maybe try explaining who Yorihime and Toyohime are in case someone hasn't read the book.

Short answer: Mary Sue OC's from Silent Sinners in Blue, and the lunarians being sent to stop Okuu.

Story answer: Watatsuki no Yorihime and Watatsuki no Toyohime. The pair are responsible for protecting the moon, and pretty much represent the high-level forces of the moon's military. Toyohime has lots of power to travel, pretty much Yukari level provided she passes through the true moon on the way there, and Yorihime can summon gods. They have a few odds and ends that unusually go beyond the whole "manipulation over a single conceptual entity" that most touhou characters have, and people familiar with the characters would probably be annoyed if I didn't bring up Yorihime's sword that can paralyze opponents and that Toyohime has a fan of mass destruction that can purify everything for miles wherever she uses it. They reside on the fantastic moon (a bordered up place on the dark side of the moon). Okuu is on the earth side of the scientific (normal) moon. They're also sisters, but I doubt that's important for the story.

Long answer: http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Watatsuki_no_Toyohime
http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Watatsuki_no_Yorihime

[capt. h]

Editted previous section.


_________________________________



Day 2, 11:05 PM

“Get off my shrine,” a girl dressed in red and white commanded, from the front of the Hakurei shrine.

“Sorry ma’am, but civilians are not allowed to remain in the area. You must evacuate.”

“This is my shrine, and I’m not leaving.”

“Leave immediately, or we will use force.”

“I was thinking the same thing. Spirit sign: Hakurei Illusion”
With that chant, dozens of orbs appeared around Reimu.

“Hostile encountered. Preparing capture.” A soldier shot Reimu through the arm, and her spell was broken.

“That is definitely not within the spell card rules.”

“Use another spell, and we will shoot to kill. Please come with us quietly, we need you to answer some questions.”

“Suika, help!”

“…Suika, wake up already! And stop drinking so much all the time, I really need…” a soldier placed a cloth over Reimu’s mouth, and she passed out.

“Hostile subdued. A horned target is present, currently unconscious. Prepare to pick up two targets.”

[Smallfry]

Silly Reimu. Shoot them instead!

[Happerry]

What? Sorry, but Reimu going down like that is just kinda belief breaking on my part. She can shrug off being sunned to the face in the fighting games but can't manage to defend herself from one simple bullet? I also find it hard to believe a trooper could chloroform her so easily. If nothing else she could simply fly up, even ignoring her ability to toss out weaker blasts like she does in every game where you can hold down the fire button.

[Serena]

They still used Danmaku in the fighting games, though; the soldiers are using guns. Also, this is at night, so maybe she was still tired or something, and the soldier guy just snuck up on her.
Still, I was looking forward to Reimu blasting everyone in the area though...

Either way, I like where this is going. Okuu is always awesome :3

[capt. h]

The spell card rules were created to reduce the fatality rate of magic battles. Reimu is nothing more nor less than an 18-ish year old human with no experience with outside world weapons, was shot through the arm making it effectively usless, and was assuming the inherently non-lethal spell card rules with their inherently slow moving projectiles. She has tremendous attack power, but in a game type where 1-hit means a loss and against weapons that shoot projectiles too fast to see, normal spell card battling is not going to work.



________________________________


Day 3, 10:00 AM


“Reimu Hakurei, of the Hakurei shrine, what is your relationship with the other girl we captured.”

“Why should I tell you anything?”

“Because you are our prisoner and are being held as a terrorist threat,” the interrogator responded.

“hmf.”

“muffin?”

“Yes please.”

“Only if you answer our questions.”

“Now that’s unfair.”

“Well?”

“Fine. The other girl you captured is an oni. Weak to beans, strong beyond belief; you don’t want to mess with her. Her name is Suika Ibuki, and she resides with me”

“How do you enter and exit Gensokyo?”

“Through the Hakurei shrine. That’s where the edge of the border is. Everyone knows that.”

“Now tell us what you know about the lunar launch that occurred next to your home.”

“The what now?”

“The shooting star next to your house.”

“Oh, probably just some youkai playing a trick. They’re always wreaking my shrine.”

“A youkai being a what?”

“It’s a generic term for a magical being. You aren’t from Gensokyo, are you?”

“Just answer the questions.” The interrogator wasn’t sure how to deal with this. He wasn’t good with the delusional ones, but that’s what psychiatrists were for in his
business.

 “I’ll ask the questions.”

“And I want that muffin you promised me.”

The interrogator sighed, and left the muffin on the table. In a flash, the muffin was in Reimu’s mouth. This would be a long day.

 “Who is the leader of your organization.”

“There is no organization.”

“I mean, who is your employer?”

“Youkai cause incidents. I resolve incidents. And occasionally, someone throws some money into my donation box.”

“So would that make you the leader?”

“Not really.”

“Who hires you to resolve incidents? You know, fills your donation box?”

“Villagers come by and fill my box, though a bit more sporadically than I appreciate. If anyone, Yukari forces me into the job, when she’s not causing incidents herself. It’s always Yukari’s fault, and when it’s not, Yukari is actively involved.”

“Tell me about this Yukari.”

“Muffin.”

“What?”

“This is going to take a while, and I’m hungry-”

A siren cut Reimu off, and the intercom boomed.

“Code red, Prisoner Ibuki is escaping the medical wing. Send all available backup-”

“I want my gourd!” a little girl’s voice interrupted.

[Sect]

DAMMIT JUST GIVE THE ONI HER GOURD! Or vodka or something.

Seriously, why even bother interrogating them? Just give Reimu food and Suika alcohol and they'll be your best friends (or, at least Suika would be your best friend, Reimu would just be less hungry).

[capt. h]

Day 3, 10:00 AM

Suika woke up in a strange room in bed, wearing a different set of clothes than she was wearing the night before. While neither of this was unusual, usually she would at least know someone in the room.

“Where am I…”

“You’re in a hospital. We had to pump your stomach. I’ve never even heard of someone surviving a blood alcohol content level of over 1.0”

“Yeah, yeah, now give me back my gourd.”

“You can’t have any more sake miss Ibuki, not until we’ve cleared out your system.”

“I’ve been drunk for centuries, and it hasn’t hurt me before. Now give me my gourd.”

“I’m sorry, but your gourd is undergoing tests to see how it can contain more than its mass in sake. I can fetch you a drink, but not until your healthy.”

“Don’t make me sober. You wouldn’t like me when I’m sober.”

“Please Miss Ibuki.”

“No please. Get me my gourd. Now.” Suika commanded, “Or I’ll destroy everything until I find my gourd.”  she got up, picked up the bed, and threw it through the wall.

“Code red. Prisoner Ibuki is escaping the medical wing. Send all available backup.”

“I want my gourd!” Suika commanded over the intercom, before the doctor’s message went to static.

[Serena]

?I want my gourd!? Suika commanded over the intercom, before the doctor?s message went to static.

oshi-

Yeah, that whole "kidnapping Suika" thing was never going to go well.

[Kyo Tanaka]

Don't mess with a drunk's drink, or the consequences could be dire.

Looking forward to what happens on this story.

mainly for Suika...