Sans has returned to his room at an inn on the edge of town. It's rather small and out of the way, but it's cheap, and the old lady at the reception is real nice too.
He kicks off his sandals and throws his jacket on a chair before collapsing on his bed. Slowly but surely drifting into a deep sleep, his thoughts focused on the mystery of the red mist.
It came out of nowhere, and it spread all the way over from kourindo. It seems dangerous, and is most likely magical in nature.
But sans feels mentally exhausted. This is definitely something that needs investigating, but the day has already been so cluttered.
So, he decides to take a little nap.
...Yes... Just a quick nap...
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POV: nobody in particular
At the gate of the village, two men in light plated armor stood guard. They haven't spoken since the pale gentleman had entered the city around 50 minutes ago
With the threat of the red mist that they have yet to see, the tension was rather high. Finally, one of the guards, the newer of the two, spoke up.
"Sano-san."
"...Mm."
"What do think that mist is all about?"
"...What do you mean."
Sano's face had been hardened since they heard from Shiki, and seemed in no mood to talk.
However Syno was deeply disturbed.
"Well, the mist, it can't be normal right?"
"Of course not."
Sano had never heard of a plant or animal that could do something like this.
"Then, do you think it's magic?"
"..."
Unless, of course, it was a yokai.
"Then that's cause for greater concern."
If it was a yokai that was making the mist, it wouldn't just stop at kourindo. They are inherently evil creatures that cause mayhem wherever they tread.
If it was a yokai, they would be spreading it to the village as they speak.
And as if it were some cosmic joke, sano saw something red out of the corner of his eye.
Far in the distance, a scarlet fog was encroaching on the human village. Sensing something terribly wrong, Sano squinted his eyes. Within the fog, he could make out silhouettes. Humanoid beings, some small with wings, others large and with claws.
Alarm bells ringing in his head, Sano grabbed his colleague, who belatedly realized what was in the fog, and ordered the gates to be closed.
In an instant, the entire village went on full lockdown as the mist brought dozens of mad yokai and fairies.
They slammed into the high walls with scarlet lights in their eyes, firing off magic at random, while the humans fended them off with bows and arrows.
For what it was worth, it worked. Single arrows wouldn't put a yokai down, but a large concentrated amount, sent them packing.
The confrontation lasted an hour, with the mist progressing greatly. Fighting while also avoiding inhaling the fog was almost too much for them. But in the end, they won against the horde.
At a cost.
Multiple people had been hit by magic, and or breathed in the mist, making them violently ill.
Over the next ten minutes, the entire guard attempted to recover their fallen comrades, with there being fourteen (non-fatal) casualties. But just because they won, it didn't mean the fog was gone. Infact, it was progressing just as fast. This news had caused immense panic.
It had turned into a full blown incident.
For the next hour villagers hid in their homes, as advised by authorities, and avoided inhaling the red mist, which had leaked through the village walls.
However, some heard the warning too late, and were afflicted with the demonic fog.
Among which, was the owner of a certain book rental shop.
The situation was extremely dire, and the towns people sought help. Even going as far as to request the help of resident witch doctors in the village.
Even then, they could only block the mist. To truly be rid of it, they had to dispell it. And only a shrine maiden was capable of such a miracle.
However, seeking the shrine maiden meant leaving town. And nobody was brave enough to venture out into certain death.
Either send someone on a one way trip, or be consumed by the fog.
In just three hours, the town had been forced into an such unbelievable ultimatum.
And after three hours, Sans woke up from his nap.
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"Mmng... Ugh.."
Sans groggily lifted his head from the bed. Moving his legs off the bed, he put on his slippers before moving to the window.
"Alright.. how long have I slept...?"
Opening the blinds, sans was not greeted with the busy streets and the various noises that accompany them.
Instead, he saw a dreary ghost town. Empty stalls, barren Streets, and an ominous red mist in the distance.
'Red mist...?'
!!!
Sanses eyes went black with shock, as he recalled the events of the past 24 hours.
Immediately, sans grabbed his jacket and his spell cards before dashing out the door. Running outside, sans teleported to the roof of the highest building he could see.
Looking towards the gate, he could see various signs of battle, and the red mist leaking over. Absolutely no one was outside, and he knew why.
'all he said was something about red mist before passing out.'
As the case of Shiki came to mind, he became overwhelmed with a sense of urgency as he teleported back to the ground.
Running in a direction, his eye flashed blue, and he appeared in front of Suzunaan Book Rental. Nearly bursting through the door, he called out for the little receptionist.
"Kosuzu! Are you here!?"
Sans was almost unacquainted with the volume and tone of his voice. And apparently, so was the brown haired girl, as little footsteps rapidly thumped from above.
Running down the stairs, what came into view was Kosuzu's tear soaked face.
"Sans!"
Upon seeing the kid safe, sans sighed in relief, the most immediate fire was put out.
Patting her head, sans inquired what had happened.
"What the hell's going on kid?? Why are you crying, what happened to the front gate?"
Kosuzu hiccuped and said, "T-the mist, it got my dad...! He's not waking up, I don't know what to do!"
Hearing this, sans' eyes narrowed.
"Alright listen, take me to your dad. I'll see if I can do anything."
Looking up hopefully, Kosuzu asks, "Can you heal him?"
"I cant make any promises."
Kosuzu nods, and leads sans behind the counter and up the stairs. Opening a door, sans sees a brown-bearded man lying in a bed. His face is pale, he's sweating and barely breathing.
He looks like he's gonna die.
"Sans, please do something! He's my only family!"
Kosuzu pleads with him, but sans doesn't know if he can do anything. He's not intimate with human biology. A veterinarian shouldn't do surgery on a human.
Even so, there's still one thing he can try. Putting out his hand over the man's chest, a green glow emerges.
Healing magic.
While he's not the best at it, and pretty much everyone he knows is better at it than him, he can pull it off too. But if it doesn't work, Kosuzu's father will die.
Sans checks his status during the process, and his health is dangerously low. Focusing more magic into his hand, the glow begins to fill the room.
Kosuzu looks on in wonder and awe, as her father that was on deaths door, begins to have life in his face again.
Suddenly Sans' concentration is broken and the glow disappears.
However, it wasn't for no reason, as the when the green glow disappeared, a red smoke was visibly leaving his body.
Looking at his health, it wasn't high, but it was stable. Sighing a breath of relief, he looks towards Kosuzu and gives her the verdict.
"He'll live."
Suddenly, she jumps on sans and hugs him tight. Sans remarks that she's surprisingly strong.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
She repeats thank-you's and words of gratitude, while sheeding tears of joy. Crying so much that sans is worried she'll die of dehydration.
This goes on for a couple of minutes as Kosuzu tearfully thanks sans with all her might. Sans simply ruffles her hair, before wiping her tears and peeling her off.
"Alright, that's enough. Are you okay now?"
Kosuzu nods her head. Her face is still slightly soaked, but she looks significantly less sad.
"Okay, now that that's over, mind telling me what the hell's been going on? What happened in the last couple of hours?"
Kosuzu looks confused.
"You don't know?"
"I was taking a nap."
"For last three hours?!"
"Ye."
Kosuzu looks at sans in pure astonishment. It appears sans' idea of a nap is slightly warped.
Regaining her composure, she shakily begins to recount the events that she heard from her father before he collapsed, clearly not quite over the fact that she almost lost him.
Sans is shocked to hear that the mist had spread so far. In just 3 hours, it had the entire village at its feet.
Hearing that, sans felt the situation was even more urgent than he thought.
As soon as Kosuzu was done telling him what happened, he stood up and marched towards the door.
"Wait?! Where are you going, it's dangerous out there!"
She expressed her worry for sans, but he simply waved his hand.
"Don't worry, I'm gonna go solve this."
Kosuzu wanted to stop him, but he seemed confident. Not to mention, the magic he showed just now. She had never seen anything like it.
Not to mention the look in his eyes. Kosuzu wasn't very experienced in reading people, but she could tell he was very determined.
"... Just, stay safe okay?"
Stopping in front of the door, he simply replies.
"... Okay."
Although sans said that, he had a feeling he wouldn't get out of this scratch free.
Walking outside the book rental, he looked towards the front gate of town. While the mist was lethal to humans, he had no idea if it'd affect him as well.
Can't go through it, so go around it.
Taking a shortcut nearby, sans came to an empty space and held out his hand. In a flash of monochrome light, his main weapon descended.
A dragon like skull with voids in its eyes. It was the size of a hotdog cart, so it should be a suitable ride.
Hopping on, sans commanded it to rise, and it did.
"It's been a while since I did this. I haven't even used Blasters since the night I got here. Let's hope it listens well."
When sans pats it on the side, it suddenly whirs to life. Clutching onto it's eye sockets, sans braces himself, and zooms off.
Watching the village pass by like a slide show, he comes to the gate where the yokai assault happened. There were burns and and arrows all over the place.
Looking at that scene, sans' attention goes to the mist lingering like a blight. And for the first time in a long time, he frowns.
Flying past the village walls, sans hovers way above the mist. However, he briefly comes to a stop. Looking over in the direction of Marisas house, sans wonders if she needs help.
"Well, she's probably already on the problem."
Indeed, if sans knows Marisa well enough, she's probably already investigating. Deciding that, he goes the other way.
He received a clue earlier that day.
The destination is Kourindo Antiques.
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"La-di-da🎶 getting herbs and getting grass🎶 kicking gum and chewing ass🎶 no wait, I meant that the other way around."
Marisa was coming back from a little foraging for dinner. She was carrying a basket full of (probably) edible 'shroom and suspicious looking grass.
She was in a particularly bright mood as she also found an ingredient for a potion she had been whipping up for a while now. All she had to do was get back home.
As she arrived at the clearing her home was placed in, her eyes widened, and she dropped the basket she was holding.
Below her feet (she was on her broom), was a red mist that reached chest height. But that might as well have been her entire body cause she was so short.
When she rose up to get the scope of it, she saw the village in the distance completely overrun with the fog.
"What the fuck?!?!"
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.....
....
...
..
.
Sans arrives at Kourindo, but there's a bit of a problem.
It's completely submerged in mist.
"Is the guy here even alive...?
Looking down at the shop, there's no way it wouldn't have gotten inside by now. Curious, sans descends.
Of course not without some precautions.
See, sans learned something from healing Kosuzu's dad. When he used healing magic, it didnt just restore HP, it was dispelling the mist from his body.
For some reason, the healing magic repels it. So sans got an idea.
Reaching his hand down, it slowly began to glow green. And as if it were a dream, the thick cloudy mist dispersed.
Happy that his hypothesis worked, sans cranked up the intensity. He sent out a pulse of healing magic, and all the mist in the area vanished.
Touching down on the ground, sans desummoned the blaster and approached the front door.
Not expecting much, sans knocked on the door.
But to his surprise, a voice resonated from inside.
"We're open!"
Slightly shocked, and rather suspicious, sans opened the door.
At the far wall there was a desk, sitting there was a white-haired man with gold eyes and dressed in blue robes.
He was looking at sans with curiosity reflected on his glasses.
"Uh, heya?"
"Hello. Are you looking for anything specific?"
Sans shook his head. "Nah, just investigating. This IS Kourindo right? And you're Rinnosuke?
The man at the desk perked up. "Yes that would be me. Are you all finally looking into that awful mist? It's been driving away all my customers."
"Yeah, would you happen to know anything about it? You seem pretty unaffected."
"Yes, for someone like me, it's little more than a foul odor. But I'm afraid I don't know it's origins."
Sans' raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'someone like you'?"
"I would just so happen to be half yokai, and i am not unfamiliar with dispelling foreign bodies." He seemed to be bragging slightly
"Huh." Sans was slightly surprised, he didn't know someone else had figured it out before him.
"Alright, but about it's origins. Y'see, I got hint that the fog was first spotted out near your shop this morning. You know anything about that?"
This question was a test. Sans was thoroughly analyzing how he responded to this question. If he showed any signs of being responsible for this, he'd know.
But to his surprise, he didn't bat an eye. Instead he stroked his chin in contemplation.
"This morning? The mist has been here for two days then. It first came from the north-west, and completely took over this area by the next day. It completely blocked out the sun, so I don't have much awareness of how much time has passed."
Considering how naturally he answered the question, sans had no choice but to relent, and instead ruminated over the words he just said.
"You said the mist came from the north-west?"
"Indeed, I went out scavenging for anything that might have slipped through barrier, as I usually did, and that's when I came across the wretched scent. Ugh, it smells like blood."
'Huh. North-west...? Blood...? Sun...? Hold on a sec..!'
"Wait! Was there any major land marks in that direction?"
Rinnosuke tilted his head. "You mean the misty lake?"
That might be a good place to check along the way, but not quite.
"No, there was something else wasn't there? Like a building?"
"Oh, you must mean the vampires mansion."
At the word vampire, something clicked in his head. He couldn't have known the mist smelled like blood, since that would have gotten him sick. But that one small hint made all the difference.
Not to mention, during his time in the village, he once saw a geographic map of Gensokyo. He barely remembers it, but he noticed how across a large lake, there seemed to be a large manor.
A manor that was North-west to the town.
A manor that belonged to a vampire.
Sans was certain, the one responsible for this incident was the resident vampire.
Remila Scarlet.
"Well then, I'll have to thank ya pal, you might have helped in bringing this damned mist to an end."
"Oh is that so? Well then, I'm glad to know that I'll be seeing customers soon."
Upon saying that, Rinnosuke thought for a second before putting on a salesmans grin.
"Say, since I've helped so much, mind putting in a good word to your friends?"
Sans paused, then laughed.
"Heh, sure. It's only right to repay people when they help."
"Exactly."
Sans held out his hand for a handshake, which Rinnosuke took. Unfortunately, he left his whoopee cushion at home.
"The names sans, nice to meetcha."
"Nice to meet you too sans."
"Cya 'round Rinnosuke, stay safe."
"Will do.
Swiftly moving out of the shop, sans summoned his ride and dashed off towards the misty lake.
He didn't think he'd be seeing the vampire in person so soon, but unfortunately, it's not for very good reasons.
Sans was making good pace, as the misty lake was now in sight, when out of the corner of his eye, sans sees a familiar blonde girl pointing her hands towards him.
"Rumia?"
"Huh? EEP!"
She pauses when she sees the person she was just about to attack, and stutters out a response.
"H-hey s-sans..!"
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing!! I was just... Going home..!"
"Oh okay, for a second there I thought you were gonna attack me again. I would have to give you a bad time for that right?"
"Urk... Yeah...! So I'll just.. go."
"Cya."
Watching the girl fly back down into the foliage, sans chuckles to himself. Getting back on track, he continues in the same direction unhindered.
The bright full moon shined down on the comedian, but he payed no mind to it. He was fully focused on what he was about to do, and why he was going to do it.
No more would he let himself, or others suffer from his inaction, he's seen enough of that already. When he thought of the poor book girl's tear soaked face, he felt strength in his hand and clenched it hard.
He'd resolve this, no matter what. If not for himself, then for his friends.
The shining resolve he had kept since arriving in this world had filled him with DETERMINATION.
Feeling that burning sensation that wasn't at all unpleasant, he was reminded of something Marisa said.
Making sure to have a good grip on the blaster, he pulled out a blank spell card.
"Well, why the hell not?"
Pushing as much mana into the card as he could, the card began glowing a saintly silver. Feeling it drink up a significant amount of mana, sans almost panicked.
The glow was so bright it almost looked like a second moon had appeared. Later he would find out it wasn't just him that saw it.
When it finally died down, sans peeked at the card and grinned so hard he felt like his face was tearing.
Soul Sign - A Past Life's Resolve
*File Saved*