A day has passed and tonight will be another monthly gathering. The human village is hardly any different from usual, as the gathering is only for those of us who are mystical and unusual.
The difference in treatment between the two used to bug me but I have gotten used to it over the years.
I remember that powers in the [MHA] world could be cultivated to grow beyond what they first seemed to be, particularly during moments of great distress, so I assume that it would be like that.
Looking at the handful of villagers with abilities of their own yet neglect even the most basic forms of practice makes me think that they are either too lazy, too complacent or simply don't care.
'It is a pity.' I thought to myself, remembering the scene of a villager breaking a boulder to clear a path and another villager who has springlike limbs.
Most of them aren't born with a quirk so the atmosphere is often, if not always, ladden thick with envy directed to those that do whenever someone uses a quirk. Most notably during such gatherings since the they would use such a festive opportunity to show off their abilities.
Maybe it's because I have a telepathic link with my heads that I have a very, very miniscule empathetic ability. It allows me to sense emotional fluctuations to a certain degree but it's easy to sense large amounts of it, especially towards such enormous emotional quantity, making me find this air of envy highly unpleasant.
Hurrying my pace to leave this area so as to no longer bear the unpleasant emotions, I make my way the predetermined meeting location that me and the others decided on. We typically get to gather here first before making our way to Shinomori's place.
We all agreed to arrive there early than usual so we can go back before the sun sets in order to make it in time for the gathering.
Finally there, I see that I was the last one to arrive and the two of them are already rearing to go.
"Great! What took ya so long, Kizuki?!"
"Good morning to you too, Cirno. Sorry for waiting, I got a bit distracted."
"Is it the air again?" Inquired Daiyousei, I nod at her.
"It's always like this so just ignore it like you always do."
"Easier said than done..." I said, stroking the tips of the ribbon on my head. Doing this somehow helps to calm me down. I'd usually wear one on my wrist but since tonight is a gathering, Sekibanki is fussy about appearances and tied one of her ribbons on the back of my head instead.
Sighing, my gaze wanders down to see that Rumia Brought a ceramic jar of at least 10 Liters of sake. It makes me wonder whether she was plotting to make Shinomori drink to death or she thought that he was similar to the oni in gensokyo due to his strength.
Looking over at Cirno, she looks like she brought a package of what smells like sweets. Normally, something like this would be rare in an semi-isolated area like gensokyo but sugar isn't that hard to come by here since a lot of people like to eat sweets hence they worked hard to find a way to make the supply meet the demands.
Daiyousei is holding a hunting knife in it's sheath. She thought of bringing something practical to Shinomori who hunts and gathers for food occasionally so his skill doesn't rust too much.
Personally, I thought of giving him a better futon because of two main reasons. First, A good rest afterwards is essential to any form of training. And second, it is not appropriate for a young maiden to gift a single man a bedding, so the responsibility fell on to me. This is what we were told when we asked advice from Keine, who goes pretty old school in terms of romantic perspectives. I could have dismissed it but it doesn't really hurt anyone and most villagers of gensokyo are old school too, so it would've just made me look weird if I did.
Shaking off such thoughts, we went on our way to visit our friend and mentor.
The familiar trail that we always tread on, the scent of trees and song of birds and cicadas. It's hard to get tired of these things when you used to spend most of your time indoors. Although I still find the dirt road to be annoying because of its unevenness and how it can become unstable in rainy weather.
Arriving there, we greet him and give our gifts as a thank-you gift for imposing on him for the past month.
"You know you didn't have to give me these things, but I'll accept them just this once. Thank you." Seeing the guy that's strict during training get all shy was worth it.
Not minding anymore manners, we dive right in on our training. Me and Rumia with our physical regime, Cirno being Cirno, Daiyousei with her Danmaku, and we hardly even notice the time pass as the sky started to turn yellow.
We finished up on our practice for the day and were just about to go back, when all of a sudden we hear a sound similar to glass shattering and the abrupt violent shaking of the ground followed by a great gust of wind that pushed us back a bit.
I gathered my bearings before looking at everyone, who was thankfully alright.
All of them, even Shinomori, has their eyes wide in suprise while the other three quickly looked over at the distance, in the direction of gensokyo.
Seeing this, fear began welling up inside me as I turn my head in the same direction and immediately started to run, horror etched on my face. I can hear the others behind me while Rumia, being the physically strongest, is already ahead.
Minutes felt like hours and the sky now reddish-orange, we come into the scene of the Great Hakurei Barrier. Where an illusion of a forest and warding seals now gone, only replaced with a cracked hole the appearance of crumbling shards.
Making our way inside, what greets us is the chaos. The human village ravaged, as if a hurricane went through. From the torches and lanterns that were lit to light the way, now set the wooden rubble alight as the smoke climbs high.
The sounds of screams and cries fill the air accompanied by the cackling of the flames. Some of the humans are helping those that are trapped and some are helping to take out the fire. There are even some people I've never seen before causing even more chaos and attacking anyone on sight, adding numbers to the casualties.
Despite this however, the situation is somewhat being kept under the control of those with quirks among them. Deciding not to help as it seems to be alright, we hurriedly make our way through as we follow the trail of destruction.
As we get closer, the sounds of battle reverberate louder and louder.
There, we bear witness to the scene of Reimu confronting a towering man with a powerfully muscular physique, imposing features, short white hair, and luminous red eyes. He is wearing a dark suit over a white shirt, one without even a scratch or a speck of dust.
In comparison, The condition of Reimu was bad, her shrine priestess uniform was torn and dirty. Her breathing was ragged and erratic but her attacks managed to keep the man at a distance.
Around Reimu were unconscious injured people, with her surroundings filled with potholes and smoking scorch marks. From the way the people are clothed, they are most likely the lackeys of the white haired man.
Suddenly, from the side of Reimu came a crimson red beam bolting towards the man.
He raised his hand and the beam was blocked as if an invisible wall appeared.
Reimu took the chance to catch her breath as she sees more beams coming from different directions, along with various inky characters bombarding the man.
As cloud of dust was stirred and I urged the three that came with me to hide.
Powerful blasts of compressed air was fired from within the dust cloud, aiming for Reimu as she quickly dodged. The rampaging wind cleared the dust to reveal the man with a wide grin.
"To think that in my pursuit of [One for All], I would stumble upon a treasure trove of quirks." His imposing voice seemingly boomed through the trees. "Surrender and submit to me, and I shall make better use of your gifts." He arrogantly states.
"You just have to show up today of all days... Good thing you're an outsider, because in that case, I don't have to hold back." She grins before ying-yang balls manifested behind her and fires wantonly.
From the forest came more heads and a dense inky flow of kanji, Sekibanki attacks from a distance along with Kosuzu, the well-known bibliophile who runs a bookstore in the human village and has the ability to control ink.
The two of them attacks from a distance knowing full well how weak their physical bodies are compared to their abilities.
Discreetly making our way as far from the crossfire as possible, Me and Daiyousei are holding Rumia and Cirno back respectively. The two of them want to help repel the outsider but the level of this battle is completely different from what we were used to.
Eye lasers, Ink characters and paper seals fly across the air. The Danmaku being fired overlap patterns with each other, making the usual gaps nonexistent.
Flashes of light and burst of air envelop the scene and I was awestruck from such display of strength.
The dangerous man smirks and laughs condescendingly. "Wonderful! Such wonderful quirks being used in such creative ways!"
His red eyes gleam with near maniacal light, yet his tone spoke with sane excitement. "I can hardly wait to know the taste of your powers... It appears I have to be a little more serious so I may savor your quirks sooner."
The muscular physique and imposing features started to thicken and grow. His aura changed from charismatic and momentus, to a tyrannical monstrosity.
Gone was the visage of the white haired outsider, what stood before us now is a towering giant 5 stories tall.
His right arm swelled and a chill went down my spine. With the utmost speed I can muster, I created as many heads as I can and made them carry us as far away as possible.
Cirno and Rumia, instinctively feeling the same danger as me, Created walls of ice behind us to block his attack and thick shadows to dampen the shockwaves.
BOOM!
A single strike. All it took was a single strike from the giant to instantly clear a linear section of the forest.
Worried for everyone's safety, I hastily moved my head to check. They appeared alright although disoriented with the loud ringing in our ears.
Looking over another direction, my sister is also carrying both Reimu and Kosuzu on her heads, the latter having been unfortunately knocked unconscious by flying debris.
They appear to have decided to retreat and await reinforcements as they quickly fly away, to which I have done the same and followed behind them.
My speed could not compare to her so I took the risk of flying beneath the leaves and hide from his eyes. This came at the cost of slowing me down even more as I have to avoid the obstacles in my path, and Rumia Cloaked us with her darkness.
We bolted to the direction of the Hakurei shrine in order to rendezvous with Sekibanki's group, and in hopes of Suika being at the shrine. Although the chances of that happening are small considering that the small Oni is a frequent drunkard, she most likely went to the gathering early to start drinking.
Suika has the power to control Density and Sparseness therefore, just the problem with the outsider's size, can be solved by either her becoming big or her forcing him to become small, or better yet, turn him into mist.
The giant wasn't so idle however, as he immediately started to look around, almost as if he can sense everything around him.
He turns his head and moves along following behind us while laughing, as I can vaguely feel his gaze and accelerated our flight speed with little regards to injuries.
Now that hiding was pointless, I ascended above the trees to fly faster.