“TENSHI IS IN THIS STORY”

FINALE


Where it ends.



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Lanternlight flickered across the pale flat panes of her cheeks as he turned.

The charcoal-black flagstone grated under the soles of his boots. Walls dark glistered alight. The flame winked then flashed as it caught more oil. A huff of hot air came out between the shutters, reminding him how chill otherwise was the black hidden place. The boy lowered the lamp to the floor. Brass clattered on the rock. The small person on the chair gave him no favour of startling. Still she sat, still and ever still, her bare toes suspended inches from the ground; gagged and bound and helpless. An image of pity, but there was none of that left in him.

The boy reached for the knot of her blindfold. The kiss of her pale hairs was as cold as frozen threads, and like as pleasant.

The eyes that looked on him when he peeled off the cloth were the same hard agates which had glared their mute disapproval as he’d sprung upon her in her own bed, pinned her down, gagged her mouth and roped her wrists. And even when he’d thrown her over a shoulder as killed game, when he’d gone around to scatter the dresses he’d seized from her wardrobe as she dangled on his back, even then she did not a thing: never once kicked, never groaned. The silence perturbed him more than screaming ever would have. As so he had gone, the cats of Rin’s family had carked him for a time, trailing him and tracking through the halls, and nestling in the clean garments he’d littered around for false leads; but erelong their interest had waned and they’d left the boy and his woman alone to their queer play. And with their glowing eyes vanished, with their plaintive meows gone, he’d turned his feet about and brought the little woman here. And he’d sat her on the stolen chair, and went to light the lamp, and now, oh now at last, he was here. The ice in his voice when he had cast aside the blindfold and spoke to those violet eyes!...


“Will you scre

​

Ｓｏｍｅｔｉｍｅｓ， ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ ｅｌｓｅ ｈａｐｐｅｎｓ．

Ｍａｙｂｅ．














．．．Ｒｉｇｈｔ？














Ｉ．．．

Ｌｅｔ ｍｅ ｔｈｉｎｋ ａｂｏｕｔ ｔｈａｔ ｆｏｒ ａ ｍｏｍｅｎｔ．




________________________________________________________________________________

You are Parsee Mizuhashi, a Persian (hashihito) who became a bridge princess (hashihime) for the sake of a wicked pun, although it's also likely that it actually goes the other way around. You're no longer sure which is which.

That's it, though. While the whole Hell - Hell whole? - knows you as the sulky, jealous overseer that tends to that fancy bridge yonder, they tend to overlook your single passion in this dark, musty place: cracking awful puns. You could even say that it's more than a mere passion interest to you, considering that your species and/or your cultural identity is somehow based on a play on words.

As usual, today's not a very exciting day to guard the sole passage between the surface world and the Old Hell. Even though you're going to turn away any coming visitors anyway, you can't help but feeling a bit lonely being here by yourself. Sometimes you just wonder if you and the bridge you're guarding are separated at all, both of you having to stand in the middle of nowhere for all eternity.

Well, you then quietly assess, the bridge is probably better than you, since she can't feel angry - nobody crosses her anymore, after all.

And there's no "have to" on your part to guard the bridge too, you further thought. This is a self-imposed task you're placing on yourself, isn't it? If you want to, you can totally go to the surface or deeper to the Old Hell. Maybe you should...

[ ] ...go higher, find that spider and insult her mother.
[ ] ...go lower, find that oni and see if she'd like to play card games.
[ ] (Write-in*)

---

*For the write-in choices, it's essential that there's a pun, horrible or otherwise, that underlies Parsee's activity. Otherwise, she might just lose interest. It's probably good for you to explain the pun in spoiler tags too, since I may just not get it. I'll explain the puns if you ask.

>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.

"You're right. Thank you." Alice takes her hand back soon though, disallowing you from savoring the moment of praise as she l

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."

"It's because you're so full of such lovely emotion, Kouji!" Aunt Koishi hugs you tight, and slides up, and nuzzles your cheek so that you can feel her hair rubbing against you, too. Your fingers get all twitchy, and it makes you feel even warmer and nicer. "The bestest bullets are the ones with feeling!"

"The bestest?"

"The

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 ca

Finally, you all are gone. Intruders, fighters, you don't belong here. A life of peace and harmony I hoped to live seamlessly here was destroyed, if only for a moment, all because you had something you deemed important. You overlanders.

Because being "under" someone is something that you humans strive to avoid.
Because being "under" someone is deplorable to your selfish hearts.

I know that the youkai in your realm would never be like that It doesn't matter whether I am underground or not; we're all equals, whether it be food, or as friends. It feels weird, but after being trapped down here with nowhere else to go, those who I’d been taught were enemies are the ones that I now trust.

A loud voice interrupts my thoughts.
"Hey, Naikan!" It's that boisterous oni again. She's probably at the entrance to my burrow; her voice is so loud I can hear it in my bunk.

She was the first to befriend me, and only because I was interesting to her. But, I wasn't acting this way to please her. I choose always to act on my own thoughts, and to reveal myself with my actions. There's nothing I don't hide.

I reply back. "Did you need me for something, master?"

"Get out here, loner," Yuugi exclaimed. "It's like you're trying to kill yourself or something! I haven't seen you in days!"

Ah, of course. Yuugi likes to exaggerate, if only for an effect she wanted. A few days of seclusion never really hurt anyone.

"I have Tadashi ready to go too! Hurry up!"

I subconsciously rub my arm. It's still sore from the last time I tried to physically refuse. The best I can do is talk her down, but my mind is too tired. I probably haven't talked to anyone in a long while, so I guess a little interaction won't be too bad for me.

"Alright, master, let me change." It sickens me how different my voice and my mind intoned.

I sat up from my bed and headed to a higher burrow. I wasn't sure yet if I was going to change yet or not.

[ ] Wear casual wear; no need to dress fancy.
[ ] Dress

[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?”
“Think about it. We're noble. Marrying with common blood, even if it's lunarian blood, is highly frown upon. I'm fairly certain that Lady Yorihime and myself are first cousin, or something like that.”
“Is it hard to enter in the Royal Family?”
She looks surprised for a moment, and then, she laughs, totally innocently.
“My, you're really decided, aren't you? I bet that 'giving up' is not part of your dictionary.”
“...”
“Don't look at me like that. It's really uncommon for an earthling to be that determined. No offense, of course.”
“And about my question?”
“Well, there's no real law, only unspoken rules, so I can't be totally sure. First, you must obviously be lunarian. And second, you must have some perk useful to the Royal Family.”
“A perk? What do you mean by that?”
“I'm not sure how it works, you should ask Eirin about that, but most lunarian nobles are special. For example, Yorihime can summon gods to assist her if needed. That aside, she's also very smart, and very skilled with a sword.”
“Ah, I see. And Toyohime?”
“Oh, her. Well, I never really talked to her, but I heard that she's very lucky, and that she could always manipulate the boundaries between the sea, the mountain, the Moon and the Earth.

“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.”


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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.

The man jolted whence he was sitting and let loose a startled oath. The untoward word carried away unto the dark in long rumbling echoes. Then again he drew a deep breath and once more settled down for one more minute of rest.


The man was tall and bluff, but youthful; he was clad in a heavy rough-spun cloak buckled at the front with a chipped steel-cast crest. The sandy-gold locks of his hair glowed in the light of a rickety wick lantern he carried hooked to his belt. There a fat pack of gear and supplies was strapped to his broad back and a severe look stalked in his haunted, steel-grey eyes. The pack was laden with cloths, with ropes and clamps and hooks. The eyes were fixed on the darkness afore.

Then the young man pulled out of his pocket a torn-edged piece of rumpled parchment. The parchment was criss-crossed with many words and overlapping lines: winding and snaking about one another even as these stone passages. The man traced of these one more, then he pocketed his note, or map, and stood. The flame in his lantern guttered shortly at this present movement.


Then the wanderer squared his shoulders, dusted his clothes and started back toward whence he had come.



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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.


“A sight for thirsty eyes!” said Rin with tangible excitement.
“Truly,” Garion agreed in an awed voice.


They did not join the festivities directly, however.

A quarter-league from the highway Rin called Koishi and Utsuho to pull in and land in the thicket a goodly ways from the roadside. At first Garion was inclined to ask of the mischievous pet-girl to tell the reason for this abrupt detour, but the question was answered when Utsuho opened the top of her colourful robe to display the crimson orb embedded in her torso.

Then Rin laid a strangely incandescent hand to Utsuho’s chest, and the orb sank into the winged one’