“TENSHI IS IN THIS STORY”

PART TWO

Where Tenshi may at last be put into prose
and where comes to completion the journey of “Garion.”


※ ※ ※

NOW A TIME CAME when even his feet gave under him of the day’s wear.


The young, stern-faced man halted and heaving fell beside a stout dripstone spike bulging from the rugged stone of the cave-floor. The caves had those in many: even as mushrooms sprout after rain, these also grew in each such place where water seeped from atop through the porous rock. ‘Twas the only sound in these dark passages; the water came down in drips from the jet-black ceilings and almost sonorously crashed on the cold stone floors. And it came to pass just so, that one such drip had made its life-goal to reach where none had reached before: down the young traveller’s collar.

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

168 posts and 48 images omitted. Click Reply to view.

>>

!foOlREAVlE 12/05/18(Fri)23:40 No. 9368 File 133738441581.jpg - (168.37KB , 840x720 , 113d1a09770bb3c1ff7cff41cd5564ae.jpg ) [iqdb] [X] He was more careful now and did not. And of steel cast did it remain. This was no while for lark and blithe frolicking; mindful was our boy of that. A true chance lay yet within this intrusion; yet ought he to tread lightly should he wish seize on it. Nay, he must. Over-late, yes over-late had he been in his planning; now hounding it came to snap at his heels. But with this girl a new chance did present itself on the mind. ‘Twas his now task not to squander. And firstly to prevent the wrath of his hostess... “Angel,” his voice whipped, keen as quicksilver, “enough play!” The ruby-red eyes went as wide as saucers. “Cassy?” “Shall I?” he said. “Have a care for your words! You are yet but one foot in danger; step not another pace, if you might. This is scarce the proper time for these games. Are you hurt or no? Say!” “N—No,” she stammered. “Not nowhere too bad, no.” Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>	Anonymous 12/05/19(Sat)03:26 No. 9369 So much for not pissing Satori off.

>>	Anonymous 12/05/19(Sat)04:17 No. 9370 >>9369 It was a lose-lose situation. We did what we could.

I ran. It was all I knew at that moment; the feeling of lead feet and heavy breathing, the pain and terror wracking my body as I moved. One foot after the other, I ran as fast as I could.

The tears were flowing down my cheeks, pressuring me to close my eyes or wipe them away but I couldn’t. Stopping was impossible when I had to keep moving. Tiny scratches littered my arms as I swung them from side to side, smacking aside branches and other foliage as I barged my way through the forest. My eyes flickered side to side, watching for towering tree trunks even through my tear fogged vision.

I tripped and stumbled plenty of times, my clunky boots catching on all sorts of bushes and roots in the darkness of the night. I had landed on my face countless times, dirt filling my mouth and forcing fresh tears to fall. I sobbed and whimpered but didn’t cry or scream my frustrations even as I pushed my bleeding arms underneath myself. I simply got up and kept running.

My mind raced as quickly as my legs did. Why is this happening? Why me? What happened to momma? Why are they doing this? Why? Where are they now? They’re coming, they’re coming! Why? WHY? THEY’RE COMING!

The branches above me shook so I screamed in absolute panic and pumped my legs harder. The branches above continued to shake. I felt them above me, flying or hopping or something right above me and ready to pounce and dive and swoop on me just like they did to daddy, cackling with glee as they ripped and tore at the screaming pile of flesh. I would have been gone forever so I ran faster and faster!

A sudden grip on my leg startled me, tripping me and sending me to the forest floor once more. I sobbed as fresh pain shot through my limb, a claw having ripped away at my exposed calf. I flipped onto my back and stared up at the creature in horror.

Its eyes were a sickly red – demonic and hungry. Its dark form was large and hunched, clawed hands and crooked legs unnoticed because of those eyes, those eyes! Wide, pointed teeth gleamed in the moonlight that managed reached through the trees as it spoke.

“Ahaha, don’t worry little girl. I’ll take real good

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

All the bullets you want? Now you're excited, too! The warmth inside of you feels all tickly, and it jitters all around just like her warmth does, but you can feel another warmth coming down from Aunt Koishi, and keeping all the bubbles in you from pouring out. It makes your chest feel all tingly, and hot, and you just feel all... all...

You feel all good, and your warm feeling runs all the way up your arms and out your hands, and the bubbles dance all around your fingers. Aunt Satori's warmth slides around her arms, too, and it tickles you like Mama Okuu's feathers. Mama Okuu's feathers...

Shiny, glittery, sparkly black, and very soft. They feel extra warm when Mama Okuu puts her big, big wings into big, big hugs. The feathers are big, too, big and kind of like really pretty leaves with the branchy part that gets all scritchy and scratchy at the end when she picks out her old feathers so that you can play with them! Sometimes you can see the softy feathers under those, the ones that curl, and tickle...

"Kouji, dear," Aunt Satori says in a whispery way, "open your eyes."

Yes, Aunt Satori! You open your eyes, and...

So pretty!

It looks just like Mama Okuu's feathers do! Sparkling and black, and big, and it even has the little scritchy part! It floats right above your hands, inside a little ball of all the warmth that Aunt Satori helped pull out of you. When you think about it, it spins, and points, and lots of the little, even softer feathers from Mama Okuu flutter-fly around it. This is your bullet? It looks so nice!

"Yes," Aunt Satori nuzzles against your hair, and it feels so nice you giggle. "It's a wonderful first bullet."

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

※ ※ ※

There was neither star nor moon when they cleared the confines of the twisting caves.

And suddenly there were no dark walls, no more black ceilings hanging ponderously aloft, a weight of a thousand tonnes of earth and stone bearing down on one’s head from every square inch above. And the world was tall and wide, beautiful and limitless. The evening was in full wane now, and the night was in reign, cold, though warmer still than the deep underground.

Garion breathed deeper the cool rain-scented air.

A long time had passed since last he had seen the trees and the mountains, the grass and the sky. A long time it had been since he walked in the surface world; and such was his wonder that he paid but the scantest attention to the yawning chasm whence they arose, which loomed now behind: a rent in the green expanse of beech- and oak-wood. The eyes of the blond man and his roguish cat-eared chauffeur, however, were locked ahead: where a distant hill loomed and glowed, like a star borne from dark earth.

And what a star that was!

The hill itself sparkled with dozens of lamps and small fires, but even at its foot snaked a comet-like tail of even more lights: tens, hundreds of stalls and attractions spread along the meandering highway that joined the shrine and the town and the rest of the Land. And now that grey highway glowed with cheer and merriment, and even from so afar the music and the talk of dozens of adults and children alike could be heard, carried for miles by the wind.

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

>Calm. Like you could go to sleep like this.

Soothing. Relaxing. Calming. This is what it feels like. For some reason, you almost forgot what it was like to receive a hug when you were on the brink of collapsing. It's not long afterwards that it dawns upon you, you're really tired. All this running around, worrying, screaming, both your body and your mind have reached their limit, and they need to shut down and rest. There's more you want to do, but after a while of struggling, you submit to the feeling and decide that you can do this stuff when you're not feeling like insanity is knocking on your front door. The hug is just so nice, you can't help it; you drift off asleep without much warning, wondering how long this period will last before your life is turned upside down yet again...

---

"Ah...she fell asleep." You say this shortly after noticing that Satoko became rather comatose. Even shaking her a bit doesn't seem to wake her. She's really out of it.

"Leave her be, Souya... she needs the rest." Alice walks over and picks Satoko up from her chair after you stand back, and takes her upstairs into a bedroom, presumably. You just stand there, feeling quite helpless in it all, like there's really nothing you can do about it, and you're merely forced to watch those you care about suffer because of it. Such an empty feeling. "You know, that was pretty brave of you." Your attention is regained when Alice seems to have come back down from upstairs.

"Huh? Oh... uh, thanks. Why do you say that though?"

"Hugging someone out of the blue like that, especially someone like Satoko. I don't think even I could have done it myself." You look down towards the floor a bit.

"I don't really think that's true... you care a lot for Satoko, and she just... really needed that, I think." After a short moment of silence, you feel Alice's hand rest on the top of your head.

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

[x] Ask Kaguya:
-[x] About the Royal Family and how it works. Is she Yorihime's cousin or something like that?
[x] Try to contact Renko or the fox lady.
[x] Try to contact the reanimated Miko.
-[x] Ask for information and/or assistance.


“Okay. So one more thing, Kaguya.”
“I'm listening.”
“You said something about Yorihime being part of the Royal Family, and you're a princess yourself, so are you blood-related?”
She chuckles for a bit.
“In a way, we are. But 'Royal Family' is rather a loose term, as it applies to every lunarian noble.”
“So it doesn't mean anything?”
“Actually, it means something. How to say it? Lunarian nobles who aren't part of the Royal Family are more or less outcasts.”
“Oh. So Toyohime and you aren't related?”

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

114 posts and 38 images omitted. Click Reply to view.

>>

Ddyk!u.ddykRmDU 12/03/22(Thu)22:26 No. 8938 >>8937 I'm going to write a sequel, but Moriarty won't be the main character. It'll be like Game of Thrones, on the moon. After I'm done with my shorts and Richard's story, of course. I also need to find a decent name for that story, and to write several family trees for the Lunar noble houses, along with japanese-sounding names. Or maybe nicknames, since earthlings apparently can't prounounce genuine lunarians names. That'll take time. But for now, the official ending is: And they lived happily even after.

>>	Anonymous 12/03/23(Fri)00:52 No. 8939 >>8938 About that. Are you ever going to finish Richard's story?

>>	Ddyk!u.ddykRmDU 12/03/23(Fri)10:21 No. 8941 File 133249810125.png - (510.56KB , 640x480 , th021.png ) [iqdb] >>8939 Even if it takes me month to finish it, I will finish it.

Please refer to >>/shrine/33238 before reading on. Thank you. And now for your unscheduled update.

==

※ ※ ※

It was later that Garion rose finally from the steaming water of the bath, braced now, warm and invigorated.

As he climbed from the sumptuous tub and sauntered, dripping, to wipe himself on one of the downlike towels, he recalled again yet that which had transpired after the concise exchange between him and his hostess; for it caused him great perplexity – so great in reality he had spent all bath turning it over in his mind.


“I'll take these to your room,” said to him the tiny woman. She had stood by then, and helped him remove his rucksack and coat. Shamed though he was, Garion was weary, and he did not push her away, though he might wish. “Go and bathe,” she ordered next, even as she still undressed him; “you smell, Garion, and I wager you are dead on your feet from all the hiking and tramping. Cold, too, I bet. Get it out of your bones. And don't be afraid to take your time. I'll go to the kitchen and see if I can round up everything you'll require in the meanwhile. See me there when you're done. I'll be waiting. Why? I thought I'd like to watch as you work, Garion, that's all. I might just learn something myself... well, among other things. Oh, and please, don't let it bother you—not at all. I can wait. I'm quite good at that, actually – wouldn't you agree? No, don't answer, please; I wouldn't want you to wrick your tongue assuring me of your best intentions. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that my sister has returned—finally, I might add—and so has my other pet, Utsuho – so that'll be all five of us eating tonight, counting you. A lot of work to make food for that many, isn't it? But don't worry – I won't fit in all that much, I don't think. I've been feeling as if I had a brick sitting in my stomach ever since last night. I wonder why. No, don't speak; I don't really care to know. Anyway, that's it. Go, Gari

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

254 posts and 82 images omitted. Click Reply to view.

>>	Anonymous 12/03/03(Sat)16:21 No. 8727 >>8715 Huh. I was thinking more along the lines of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW02c5UNGl0

>>	!foOlREAVlE 12/03/03(Sat)19:20 No. 8728 File 133080242786.jpg - (18.45KB , 533x72 , Clipboard02.jpg ) [iqdb] >>8727 Oh man, musicals! Love em. Just wait for my My Fair Lady reference. Also, hope you're satisfied, Herr Doctor.

>>	Anonymous 12/03/04(Sun)10:14 No. 8742 >>8728 I am satisfied. No more V2 for you.

>Well, only one way to get rid of something like this...

Urgh, one thing's for sure, you can't stay here in Rin's presence. Not right now anyways. Your mind is in an awkward phase right now. It would be best to leave her be for now since she seems intent on sleeping a while. You should check on her later though as she still seems a bit under the weather.

You walk out of the bedroom and gently close the door shut tight. Afterwards, you head out into the living room and lay out on the love seat, feeling rather exhausted. This is all too much for you to handle. You swear you're about to burst. It's horrid enough there's some serious moral issues going on here. I mean, what are you gonna tell Satori? Hi I'm fucking your pet cat? You swear, if you ever muttered that phrase in the human village, you'd be hanged. Not hung the way you are now, of course. You can't believe Rin has degraded your standing to this. Your urges, your desires, your...lust. You could go on and criticize the girls you know, Marisa for being too childish looking, Alice for being too lanky and proper, and Keine-sensei for simply having two gigantic marshmellows you could suffocate in. Rin's body is practically perfect. Admittedly, it's probably the first female body you've seen naked in a very long time. But...still.

Even against all the repression you can't help but feel that maybe there is some sort of genuine attraction to Rin going on here. I mean, while you get along really well with Marisa, and talk occasionally with Alice and Keine-sensei, with Rin, it feels so...natural. Talking with her is pretty much always fun and never boring, and although you haven't taken Rin out much since the invident with Marisa, the times you did were an utter blast. You look forward to taking her to the human village again, even if she herself had to repress all her ugly talk about death around the people. You two started off on odd ends at first, but after you got to know each other, it got a lot better. Especially after you got over your stubbornness with not wanting to get along with her, brought on by the fact that y

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

It's the dawn of a new day. The morning sunshine leaks in, filtered mainly by your curtains. Your room is that of a highly victorian style, looking like it came straight from england.

Oh, right. England...you only just recently learned of the existence of the outside world. Yet you're already quite used to the idea. Gensokyo is only but so big. The world outside must be even bigger. Supposedly they're much more technologically advanced too. Gensokyo went through it's industrial revolution a while ago. Factories, clockworks and steel run the majority of the land now. Youkai are still as prominent as ever though, despite the fact that they used to be against this kind of revolution.

The central city, the capital Risou, is where everything happens. All the work, circulation, everything. You just happen to live in one of the upper quarter areas with your parents and little brother. Your house is actually several stories tall, but it's divided into three separate living quarters, other people happen live in the other two. You live in the quarter highest up, not to mention your room is on the top floor, so your balcony gets quite the view. Your parents are but ordinary workers, your father is an engineer, much like your grandfather, and your mother is a stay at home mom for the most part. You yourself are but 14 years old, with your little brother coming in at half that, 7. Your parents are somewhat young for having children such as you and your brother, but it was something of a wish of your grandfather.

You choose to think about your grandfather a little later. You need to get up. You hop out of bed and open the curtains. Another beautiful morning. The sun is still rising. The people in the lower quarters must still be living without direct sunlight. The streets, though small, are empty. Transportation in the capital is limited strictly to small steam powered trains, mainly used for mass transport. Any other method of getting around has to be done on foot without any help from wheeled mobiles and such, so the streets are fairly thin. As a result, a lot of buildings are often packed and knit closely together. You could probably throw something into the

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

This story has nothing to do with the historian.

---

Over the course of your lifetime, there are very few things you look back on and think "now that was incredibly stupid of me."

Add this one to the list, you think wryly as you look down into the pitch-black shaft below you.

For a moment, you think back to how you ended up in this predicament. This morning, you planned to explore a new cave you and your friends had discovered not too far from the village. It was an admittedly risky and dangerous hobby you all had, to explore these hidden nooks and crannies near the village that no human had ventured into before.

The adventure had gone smoothly overall, actually; you and your friends had had quite the fun spelunking through the natural caverns and underground streams. It was only when your friends went back home and you decided to stay a little longer to see if you could find anything else interesting when things went sour. You had found an opening from one of the large caverns leading further down into the cave, and followed the tunnel until it widened into this large vertical shaft. It was at this point that you had slipped on a patch of wet moss and went sliding over the edge. Only by a miracle did you manage to grab hold of an outcropping on the side of the shaft. This is where you are now.

Both of your hands hold tightly to the rock that spelled the difference between hanging there or being splattered at the bottom of the shaft. The illumination from your dropped torchlight is still plainly visible in the exit to the tunnel some three or so meters above you. It may as well have been three kilometers.

As you hang there in the dim light, you give thanks that you're as strong as you are; holding on with just your hands is only moderately a strain at the moment, but it's only a matter of time before your strength starts to give out.

Message too long. Click here to view the full text.

49 posts omitted. Click Reply to view.

>>	Anonymous 11/12/03(Sat)17:17 No. 8369 File 132293265079.jpg - (90.96KB , 600x540 , Ceiling Yamame.jpg ) [iqdb] >>8326 >Hanging Alas, that we shan't see our dear spider again.

>>	Anonymous 11/12/29(Thu)09:29 No. 8466 >>7970 Now finals are over, and half of winter break. Get back to work.

>>	Anonymous 12/01/18(Wed)06:53 No. 8507 File 13268696388.jpg - (69.27KB , 500x657 , Obviously.jpg ) [iqdb] Seriously, not one response? No "I'm still here," "this is on hiatus," or even a "fuck off and leave me alone?" Come on, man.