"Oh damn… Wrong target… hehehe… "said the strange magician in a somewhat apologetic tone.
"But... I really hope he survives the fall."
The magician turned her head facing Rumia after putting an end to the conflict.
Rumia was on the verge of death after witnessing such a power level. So much so that she turned as pale as snow and fell to the ground trembling.
The magician still had the idea that Rumia had been the culprit, which was partly true. But she was still looking forward to a danmaku battle.
She glared at her.
"Hm... it looks like it's just the two of us left..." Said the magician.
Rumia from fear was still unable to get up.
"W-w-w-wait a minute, this isn't what it looks like." Stuttered.
The magician moved a little closer.
"Don't worry, I believe you. However, …my mini hakkero has a mind of its own ze." She said while flashing a slightly intimidating smile.
After that, the magician started firing projectiles all over the place, causing a big roar. There were different colored bullets, lasers and stars flying everywhere.
Rumia was hit by a few bullets but managed to escape as the magician continued to fire stars in flashy patterns.
*****
Meanwhile, I was going around taking to the skies. Kilometers away after being impacted by the huge laser.
The last thing I remember is seeing how my body, about to get pierced by bullets coming from a little girl, started moving against my will. After that I became unconscious.
That voice inside me said a few words before I had that strange convulsion. But I cannot remember what happened afterwards. It is as if during that time it was not me living inside my own body, and the only thing I remember is a deep state in which I was where all I could see were flashes of light of different colors in the distance. I did not hear or feel anything. It was like a dream state…
Slowly I began to regain consciousness, and unlike any other dream where you wake up in your bed, I woke up way up in the sky above the clouds.
As I slowly watched myself falling into the ground, the voice spoke again.
"You have to somehow manage to survive this fall...-"
"I need your body to break from the seal imposed on me so I can be free. I don't want to have to wait another hundreds of years before I can get someone else's help."
"YOU CAN'T DIE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
The voice sounded distressed and upset.
Could this be what you hear just before the moment you die? I thought to myself.
I closed my eyes as I fell. Waiting for it all to be over soon.
*****
I opened my eyes again only to see in front of my face a large tree that was right in my path.
I crashed into its top and bumped into all the branches until I was suspended in the air by one that snagged my coat.
It seems that luck was on my side today.
I stayed there for a few seconds wondering what was going to happen. I mean, the branch I was hanging on was still too high for me to try to unhook and jump.
But from all of a sudden, the branch wouldn't hold any longer and started to break.
"Please don't..." I murmured.
The branch finished breaking and I fell out of the tree. Hitting my head against the grass and getting knocked out, again.
"This is definitely not my day."
*****
After a few hours, my body was found lying in the ground by a girl that was on her daily routine.
The girl came a few meters closer and managed to see my unconscious body with burned and torn clothes. Noticing this she ran to me worriedly.
"H-Hey..! A-are you okay mister human?!" she yelled.
She started groping me to see if I was still alive.
"Eh.... What should I do?" she murmured worriedly.
She noticed that I was still breathing, so she was a little relieved.
"Ah... I guess he's just unconscious. I should take him somewhere safer in the meantime."
So, she carried me and started walking towards an enormous mountain surrounded by a vast forest.
*****
During the trip I had a kind of dream in which there were people that I had never seen in my life.
The place seemed to be a house in a remote place in the mountains.
Suddenly through the door of the house came a tall blonde woman. She said that she had brought someone home. Suddenly, someone else ran towards the door. She was a little girl that seemed to be the daughter of the tall woman.
"I brough someone that's going to be part of our family from now on, Yukari."
Behind the woman was another little girl. This one had brown hair and little purple horns on her head. She looked depressed and her soul looked empty.
The woman mentioned something about a war. She said that when it ended, there were no survivors, except for this little girl. She said that she rescued her and adopted her.
The blonde girl ran to hug her and told her that they were both going to take good care of her.
After that the dream began to destabilize, I could not remember anymore.
I woke up in bed in an unfamiliar room. I opened my eyes and looked around a bit. It looked like a wooden shack and my bed was a cushioned mat placed on the floor. There were doors like those of a traditional Japanese house and a small balcony in front of me. I could hear the wind rustling the leaves of the trees and the chirping of insects. Through the curtains I could see that it was already nighttime.
"When did it get so late?", I thought.
I wanted to get up and look around more carefully. But just as I was about to get up, I heard the voice of someone who was in the same room.
"Oh, I see you woke up already." Said a girl who was sitting on a chair next to my bed.
She had green hair, a wine-colored dress, and a big red bow on her head. She also had a sort of ponytail under her chin with another red bow tied to it. It doesn't sound scary, but after being attacked by a little girl in the middle of the forest, I didn't know what to think of the people in this strange place. So, my first reaction was to freak out.
"Please don't eat me-!", I screamed in fright when I saw her.
The girl was surprised to see my reaction and put on a disappointed expression. She sighed and said:
"Eat you? Why would I do something like that? I've only been taking care of you while you were unconscious. I found you lying at the foot of the mountain and wanted to get you to a safer place."
I was still a little insecure towards the girl. But I pulled the pillow away from my face and took a closer look at her. She looked like a normal person, her clothing aside. She didn't seem to have any intention of hurting me, so I decided to answer her.
"Ah-.... I see. So that's what happened, didn't it?" I nervously replied.
I felt a little more relieved, but I was still confused. Nothing that had been happening recently made sense.
The girl got up from her chair and walked to the balcony to close the curtains.
"You don't look like you're from around here." she said as she glanced at me with a look full of curiosity.
"I'd like to answer that question with certainty. But the truth is, I don't have the slightest idea where I might be. I've had some things happen to me recently that are hard to believe." I muttered in a somewhat subdued tone. "I suddenly go from having a normal day to being on the verge of death twice in one day."
The girl went silent for a couple of seconds and sighed.
"This is going to be a little complicated to explain, but right now you find yourself in a place cut off from the outside world. This fantasy land is known as Gensokyo, a place where hundreds of beings inhabit that for many are considered urban legends of Japanese folklore, which are also known as youkai." Explained the girl as she returned to her chair.
"A fantasy land isolated from the outside world full of mythological beings...?" I thought as I questioned the veracity of this.
The girl continued with her explanation.
"According to what I've heard, hundreds of years ago this land was just another part of Japan. But the supernatural beings that now dwell here terrorized the humans. But the humans, with their large population and strategies, managed to wage war on the youkai, so one of the sages of Gensokyo, started with the plan called "Youkai Expansion Project", which consisted on creating a barrier that would divide the outside world from this fantasy land so that there would be no more conflicts. And this is the place where we find ourselves."
I paused to think for a bit.
"It still sounds crazy, but at the same time I don't think I'm dreaming, it feels too real." I thought.
"I guess you're coming from the outside world, aren't you? asked the girl.
"Well... according to the explanation you gave me, you could say yes. I just still have no idea how I ended up in... Gensokyo."
"Hm... The only possible way for an ordinary human to get here is to break through the Great Hakurei Barrier, where your only entrance is the Hakurei Temple. I guess you had to have entered through there."
"Now that you mention it... near the outskirts of the city, there was a temple I passed nearby. It looked ancient and I didn't see anyone nearby. But I didn't go in there anyway, I just followed along the mountain around it until I ended up here.
"I guess there are several entry points near Hakurei Temple." Said the girl.
"I see..." I murmured in a somewhat worried tone. "And is there any way out? When I tried, it was like I was going backwards without realizing it and I couldn't get out of the loop."
"Regarding that, you can't walk out Gensokyo just like that. Many humans who end up here accept that they are now part of Gensokyo and live their lives in the human village. So… as for now, I suggest you stay here until we find a way for you to get out. I don't want you to get eaten by youkai." Replied the girl.
"Yeah… Now that I think about it, that small girl intended to eat me."
"Thank you very much. I'll try to follow your advice. I guess is the only thing I can do right now…"
"It's the least I can do." She said smiling with a warm and kind tone.
"Ah...by the way," I said with a somewhat nervous tone. "I didn't ask you this before, but what's your name?"
"My name is Hina, Hina Kagiyama." She said kindly. "I am a misfortune goddess."
"Misfortune?" I wondered somewhat confused.
"Maybe it's not what you have in mind. I take it upon myself to rid others of their bad fortune and offer them to other major gods."
"Ohh... so you help others without them noticing? I said somewhat surprised.
"You could say hehe."
She stared at me for a moment with some doubt in her gaze.
"And you are?"
Try as I might, I couldn't remember some things as important as my name. It's like my memory having entered this place was partially lost. I know I was in school before I came here, but details like my name, where I came from and how I lived before I can't manage to remember them in full.
I thought for a moment.
"Since I came here, part of my memory faded, and I can't seem to remember my name." I told her in a worried yet subdued tone.
Hina looked at me with a bit of concern.
"It's okay, you might be slowly getting your memory back. Although I didn't know that was a side effect of entering the barrier though..."
Hina seemed to have come up with a promising idea.
"Oh, I know, tomorrow we can have a small training session and show you around a bit. Among youkai the battles are non-lethal, since there are a set of rules so that we don't hurt each other. So, if you come with me, you won't be at risk." She said somewhat excitedly."
I had nothing else to do, so I gave in to Hina's idea.
"Sounds good to me." I smiled.
"Ah... uh... he he he he, I'll also get you a couple of new clothes, since the ones you're wearing right now are all burnt and torn. She said as she laughed.
I don't remember why my clothes are so damaged, but I guess it's better to get another one in better condition.
"Understood, thank you very much." I said laughing.
Hina got up from her chair and headed for the door.
"Well, it's late already, better get some sleep and tomorrow we'll see. Also, the bathroom is down the hall. Good night." She said kindly.
"Thank you, seriously. Good night." I replied.
Hina closed the door and went to her room.
*****
It was past midnight, and I still couldn't sleep. I was trying to close my eyes and fall asleep, but there was something inside my mind that kept me awake. Maybe there were too many thoughts in my head that I couldn't identify that made it impossible for me to sleep.
In an attempt to close my eyes and fall asleep, the voice inside my head spoke again.
"What do you think you are doing? I brought you here to help me find my body and get rid of the seal that was imposed on me. No time for naps, get up from that bed and head outside this instant." She said in a serious tone.
I turned pale and broke out in a cold sweat the moment I heard her. I tried to ignore the voice, but suddenly I heard a finger snap and things got even worse.
I got that feeling again... My head was going to explode, and my eyes were going to pop out. My body was being taken over again and I couldn't control it. The pain was still unbearable, and my vision was getting more and more blurred.
Suddenly, my body was lifted off the bed. My eyes had gone completely white and I had lost consciousness again.
I made my way to the balcony, opened the curtains and stood on the wooden railing.
"We have to do this quick, lest SHE'S watching us right now." Murmured the voice.
In a matter of a split second, my body leapt skyward and I shot off like a bolt of lightning into the sky.
*****
Right after leaving Hina's house, a tall, blonde woman appeared on the balcony.
She stared at the trail of light I left as I flew away. She stood there thinking worriedly and hesitantly.
"This being is strangely familiar to me... I can't help but think that this may be the beginning of a new incident." she said worriedly.
I traveled several kilometers in a matter of seconds from Hina's house located at the foot of the mountain, to one of the borders of Gensokyo. Everything was so quiet at night and I could spot many odd places. Like an enormous bamboo forest and a traditional Japanese village.
I landed hitting the ground hard.
The voice inside me seemed confused.
"Is this the border of the Great Barrier? I don't remember there being a temple nearby." She said in a somewhat surprised tone.
"We must go investigate."
My body began to walk some stone stairs leading up to the temple.
Once at the top, I could see a Torii gate and a temple with a donation box in front.
I walked over to look.
"A donation box, eh?" said the voice.
I reached out my hand to see what was inside.
But just as I was about to touch the box, a projectile came at us out of nowhere.
I was able to react in time and managed to grab it before it hit us. It was a piece of paper, but looking closely, it was an ofuda amulet.
"Looks like we're under attack, let's finish this person off first." She grinned.
In the hallway where the donation box was located, a girl dressed in red with a red bow on her head and a purple ribbon tied to her collar appeared.
"It's just the shrine maiden, let's finish her off as soon as possible!" the voice exclaimed.