Touhou 14.7: Eastern Towers of Avarice ~ Golden Concerto
Now Loading. Please wait warmly until it is ready.
Stage 2: City Streets Bathed in Gold
---------------------------------
The kaiju looked at us with hollow eyes.
Does avarice make us empty inside?
---------------------------------
It stared at them with a hungry look.
Reimu glared right at it, pulling out her gohei and watching its movements closely. Kaito seemed to be doing the same, but underneath the confident facade, the shrine maiden could see the slightest twitch of his hand. Not surprised; this monster was bigger than some of the other things they faced, and it was hard to keep a poker face when a kaiju was right in front of you.
"What the fuck is up with that thing?" Reimu asked nobody in particular. "Why did it decide to come here, of all places?"
"How should I know?" replied the thief indignantly. "It's not like I invited it here!" He took a breath and calmed himself before he continued, "Either way, it's looking at us. We need to find a way to distract him away from the building. I don't want anyone getting hurt."
"Good thing I know how to fight. Unlike you."
"H-hey!"
Reimu winked at him before taking flight, soaring from the top of the building and floating near the monster. The imps below seemed to draw bows, eager to shoot her down. Idiots. Probably didn't know that a best thing a Gensokyoite has is their uncanny dodging ability. The minute those arrows go flying, she'll be kicking them into next tuesday. The big guy, on the other hand... He's huge. And if there's anything she knew about huge things, they have the tendency to punch you and shoot eye lasers at you and take forever to deal with.
"Hey, fuckhead!"
Good, the thing actually understood her, turning towards her instead of eying the building like it was dinner. She started to notice a few things, though. Namely, the fact that it was growing larger and absorbing the cars around it. She didn't have time to worry, though. She took out a demon-dispelling tag and hurled it at the kaiju, hoping that would at least help distract him.
Turns out... that tag was a lot more effective than she gave it credit for. The beast was howling in pain, and now the imps were shooting at her. Those bows could only have so much ammo, though, so she weaved through them like a storm of danmaku. If she could 'time them out', then they'd be completely harmless.
It helped that Kaito was shooting them down one by one with his Card Gun. Not that Reimu asked for his help at all. Hell, if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be here dealing with it. Ah well, too late for that now.
Now to hope that Sukuna actually got out of there safely....
-------------------------------
"Hum de dum duuum, hum de dum duuuum~"
Inspector Nakamori opened his eyes, trying to rub the sleep out of them. It wasn't the first time Kaitou Kid had hit him with a sleep bomb, and it certainly wasn't the last. Sneaky devil; if only he had the chance to strangle the truth out of him-
"Woooow! The Blue Behemoth is so pretty!"
Things slowly came into focus, and he saw a tiny little... what was that? A mouse? A person? No, it couldn't be; people couldn't be that tiny! The thing was looking at him, though. He didn't have the Blue Behemoth...
He opened checked his hands and there it was: the blue gemstone that pulsed in the light. He didn't remember getting this... Maybe he did strangle Kaitou Kid after all?
Nakamori stood up and adjusted his tie before he boasted, "Well, of course! I was the one who kept it safe from Kaitou Kid! Thanks to my efforts, the jewel is safe! Hahahaha!"
The inchling stared up at him with childlike wonder. "Then you must be a real hero, stopping the bad guy!" she said with a smile. "So cool... I wanna be like you one day!"
"Well, I, uh..." Was he dreaming? He was dreaming, wasn't he? That... that thing was talking to him and called him a hero. Could she even become a police inspector?
Good thing he didn't have to think about it too long, as a security officer ran in and said, panic in his voice, "Inspector Nakamori! There's a golden kaiju outside! We're being told to evacuate right now, in case it attacks!"
"What?! That can't be right!" Nakamori stomped over to the closest window, grumbling to himself. "Kaiju only exist in the TouHou produced movies, not in real-"
His face turned several shades of white upon seeing a giant, golden arm and a storm of arrows flying up into the skies.
"Sir?"
"...Help me evacuate the rest of my men! We're leaving and informing the other police officers about this incident!" Nakamori then turned back and said, "And YOU are coming with us, you little-"
He stared blankly at the spot he thought the inchling was. She wasn't there anymore, nor anywhere else in the room.
...Maybe he needed to get his head checked sooner than he thought.
----------------------------------------------
The imps trembled before the shrine maiden, who had exhausted their ammo by dodging each and every arrow. Fearful were they, as they could see the wrath of god behind those eyes. They held their breath as she approached, praying that their death would be quick and painless.
Unfortunately for them, mercy was not a word in Reimu's dictionary.
That left only the massive, golden kaiju that stared down at her. She looked up, meeting his empty look for a moment before she struck, barraging him with talismans. It roared in pain and swiped down towards her, leaving a glob of gold where it hit. Reimu dodged just in time, but she wasn't fast enough to dodge the next punch. Before she could react, it held up its remaining hand and slammed it down, gold coins raining from the skies like they were fired out of a gun. It was difficult to dodge them all without damage: the spread was too fast, and there were simply way too many.
Kaito saw this and prepared to toss a smoke bomb, but he heard the yells of people below and turned his attention away. People were starting to fight over this gold, strangling and punching each other for cash raining from the heavens. He could see the glint of greed in their eyes, hypnotized by the money that could vault them towards better lives.
The same greed that he heard devoured the hearts of three villains on Ardea, a three way tango for riches.
The same greed that those seeking the Pandora Gem had, eager to take as many lives and gems possible to find it, eager for immortality.
He did not hesitate a bit to toss that smoke bomb in the kaiju's face, shooting a barrage of cards in his eyes. The gold coins were more spread out for the next wave, allowing Reimu to weave through them and counter with her own barrage of danmaku. Kaito was almost tempted to join the fray for good when something tugged at his ear.
"Bad thief, bad thief!" a tiny voice said. "You shouldn't steal things, okay!"
"Owowowowo, yes, I get it, cut it out!" he yelped, turning towards the source.
It was a really tiny person, no more than an inch tall. "Hi! I'm Sukuna!" she introduced herself. "I'm the one who returned the Blue Behemoth! We're gonna be best friends forever!
...Well, as long as you're nice to Reimu. Reimu is a very nice person."
"Except when she's beating the bloody crap out of demons, it looks like," Kaito said bluntly, his cape suddenly turning into a hang glider as he got a running start. "Time for us to take our leave!"
"But why? Can't you fight?" asked the little inchling, tilting her head to the side.
Before he lept off and took flight, he pointed towards the people below. "Even if I can fight, I really don't like the idea of roping innocents into our mess. I'd rather lure him away to, say, wherever you and Reimu live."
Sukuna stared for a moment before smiling at him.
"That sounds like a good plan, actually! Maybe Tenshi will be less bored if we give her something to punch?" She then turned towards Reimu and yelled out, "Reeeei! We have a plaaaan!"
Reimu may have responded, but it was drowned out by the monsterous groan of the golden kaiju as the cards were ripped out from his eyes and solid bricks of gold fell from the sky now, landing gently in front of police officers. Soon enough, Reimu had more than just gold coints to worry about: coins may hurt, but bullets could kill her if they hit her in the chest.
Goddamn monster must have bought them out with... whatever the hell that was, Reimu thought as the monster also absorbed a car on the parking lot and shot the entire thing at her from his body, not giving her a chance to dodge. She was slammed into a building, car alarm blaring, coughing out blood. I don't have the ability to tank any of this... And I can't do this alone!
Seeing Reimu in trouble, Kaito aimed his card gun and fired at the officers, trying to divert their attention away from her. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work: their eyes, glowin gold, were still focused on the shrine maiden, even as she slipped away from the car and took flight into the night sky, following after Kaito.
"I heard you had a plan," she stated. "Let's hear it."
"Not even a hello or anything to your friend? Cold."
"You're no friend to me."
"I was talking about Sukuna, idiot!"
"Who are you calling an idiot, you dumbass who got nailed with community service?"
"Well, I'm not the one flying around with a few broken bones, now am I?"
"Excuse me?" the princess pipped up, confused. "You guys need to stop, because one, that's not very nice, and two, we need to find a way out of this! So tell us the plan!"
Kaito grumbled something under his breath as the wind lifted him higher. He turned back and saw the kaiju and his new gang of police officers following after them. Perfect. He then grinned at Reimu and said, "We should take him to your home! I mean, it isn't far from here if you managed to get here within a day, right? And Sukuna mentioned something about Tenshi being there!"
Reimu gave Sukuna a disapproving look, although the inchling just continued to smile innocently. "Go on," the shrine maiden said.
"So the plan's simple: We hit him just enough to drag him over to your home, then we can launch a counterattack there, where we may have a few more allies behind us. Of course, someone's going to have to warn them that they're getting company."
"As if it would be that hard to warn them when we get there, Kaito. Seriously, we're really good at finding incidents and doing something about them. Unless you're the incident causer. Either way, it's probably a better idea than toughing out the internal injuries. I'm not full blown kobber material."
Kaito sighed dramatically before taking aim with his card gun again. "If only the Kobbers heard about this... They'd be on it faster than a dog can chase a stick!"
He only needed to shoot once to get the kaiju's attention. Just once in the middle of the forehead. The roar of anger was a good sign, as was the kaiju running after them. Reimu led the way, dodging the hail of vaulable items being flung haphazardly around her. Kaito had worse luck, but Sukuna was conjuring knives and danmaku to counter them all on her own.
"Oh, so you know how to use those, too?" he asked her as she pulled out a tiny little hammer.
Sukuna smiled at him and replied, "Of course! Everybody in Gensokyo does! It's how we do battle and stuff! Without killing anyone and stuff!"
"Put in place because a certain SOMEONE nearly kicked my ass," Reimu added with a bit of bitterness as she grazed past a few bikes and a china cabinet.
"So I'll protect you, Mr. Thief! And I'll protect Reimu, too!"
Kaito would have rolled his eyes, but Sukuna wasn't fast enough to protect both of them from a barrage of toy dolls. He yelped as his hang glider went out of control, nearly crashing into a building before it somehow corrected itself and soared without his help controlling it. He didn't question it, though; he just kept the kaiju's attention on them with Reimu's help.
It felt like an eternity before they reached the place Reimu claimed to live: A ragged old shrine in the middle of Tokyo. People passed by it with nary a second thought. As Kaito and Reimu landed on the ground, the thief wondered how Reimu even survived in a place like this.
She casually walked up the steps, although her breath became more and more unsteady as she got closer and closer to the shrine. Blood was dripping down the side of her lips. When she reached the top, she walked towards the gate and leaned against it, catching her breath as her companions caught up.
Sukuna asked her in a worried voice, "Reimu, are you alright? You seem really, really tired!"
"Can't say I'm surprised; suffering internal injuries, aren't you?" Kaito asked, putting his card gun away for the moment.
"I've dealt with worse," grumbled the shrine maiden. "Like death. But enough talk: where's Mr. Ugly Kaiju?
Kaito listened out for the loud, thunderous footsteps and replied, "Not too far. In fact-"
THUMP. The kaiju stopped in front of the shrine, much bigger than before. Cars and bikes and jewelry seemed to be making up a large part of his body, in addition to all that golden muck. The look in his eyes was as hungry as ever, yearning for more.
Reimu stared at him. She knew that look. It was the look she always wore when she looked in the mirror after staring at an empty donation box. It was the look Marisa had when she stumbled across Patchy's libary. The look Kanako had in her eyes when there was an entire mountain of faith to reap from Gensokyo, with little regard for anyone else.
"Greed," was the name that escaped her lips as the monster came ever closer. The golden monster that once lurked in her heart... Or maybe, it still did. Maybe that's why she could sympathize, even a little bit.
He drew ever closer...
And when he finally lunged, seeking to engulf all of them and make them as empty as he was, she grabbed Kaito and Sukuna, flying backwards through the barrier. And where she went, the monster followed...
-------------------
Once, I built a tower of avarice in my heart
But soon enough, it would all fall apart...
---------------------------------
It stared at them with a hungry look.
Reimu glared right at it, pulling out her gohei and watching its movements closely. Kaito seemed to be doing the same, but underneath the confident facade, the shrine maiden could see the slightest twitch of his hand. Not surprised; this monster was bigger than some of the other things they faced, and it was hard to keep a poker face when a kaiju was right in front of you.
"What the fuck is up with that thing?" Reimu asked nobody in particular. "Why did it decide to come here, of all places?"
"How should I know?" replied the thief indignantly. "It's not like I invited it here!" He took a breath and calmed himself before he continued, "Either way, it's looking at us. We need to find a way to distract him away from the building. I don't want anyone getting hurt."
"Good thing I know how to fight. Unlike you."
"H-hey!"
Reimu winked at him before taking flight, soaring from the top of the building and floating near the monster. The imps below seemed to draw bows, eager to shoot her down. Idiots. Probably didn't know that a best thing a Gensokyoite has is their uncanny dodging ability. The minute those arrows go flying, she'll be kicking them into next tuesday. The big guy, on the other hand... He's huge. And if there's anything she knew about huge things, they have the tendency to punch you and shoot eye lasers at you and take forever to deal with.
"Hey, fuckhead!"
Good, the thing actually understood her, turning towards her instead of eying the building like it was dinner. She started to notice a few things, though. Namely, the fact that it was growing larger and absorbing the cars around it. She didn't have time to worry, though. She took out a demon-dispelling tag and hurled it at the kaiju, hoping that would at least help distract him.
Turns out... that tag was a lot more effective than she gave it credit for. The beast was howling in pain, and now the imps were shooting at her. Those bows could only have so much ammo, though, so she weaved through them like a storm of danmaku. If she could 'time them out', then they'd be completely harmless.
It helped that Kaito was shooting them down one by one with his Card Gun. Not that Reimu asked for his help at all. Hell, if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be here dealing with it. Ah well, too late for that now.
Now to hope that Sukuna actually got out of there safely....
-------------------------------
"Hum de dum duuum, hum de dum duuuum~"
Inspector Nakamori opened his eyes, trying to rub the sleep out of them. It wasn't the first time Kaitou Kid had hit him with a sleep bomb, and it certainly wasn't the last. Sneaky devil; if only he had the chance to strangle the truth out of him-
"Woooow! The Blue Behemoth is so pretty!"
Things slowly came into focus, and he saw a tiny little... what was that? A mouse? A person? No, it couldn't be; people couldn't be that tiny! The thing was looking at him, though. He didn't have the Blue Behemoth...
He opened checked his hands and there it was: the blue gemstone that pulsed in the light. He didn't remember getting this... Maybe he did strangle Kaitou Kid after all?
Nakamori stood up and adjusted his tie before he boasted, "Well, of course! I was the one who kept it safe from Kaitou Kid! Thanks to my efforts, the jewel is safe! Hahahaha!"
The inchling stared up at him with childlike wonder. "Then you must be a real hero, stopping the bad guy!" she said with a smile. "So cool... I wanna be like you one day!"
"Well, I, uh..." Was he dreaming? He was dreaming, wasn't he? That... that thing was talking to him and called him a hero. Could she even become a police inspector?
Good thing he didn't have to think about it too long, as a security officer ran in and said, panic in his voice, "Inspector Nakamori! There's a golden kaiju outside! We're being told to evacuate right now, in case it attacks!"
"What?! That can't be right!" Nakamori stomped over to the closest window, grumbling to himself. "Kaiju only exist in the TouHou produced movies, not in real-"
His face turned several shades of white upon seeing a giant, golden arm and a storm of arrows flying up into the skies.
"Sir?"
"...Help me evacuate the rest of my men! We're leaving and informing the other police officers about this incident!" Nakamori then turned back and said, "And YOU are coming with us, you little-"
He stared blankly at the spot he thought the inchling was. She wasn't there anymore, nor anywhere else in the room.
...Maybe he needed to get his head checked sooner than he thought.
----------------------------------------------
The imps trembled before the shrine maiden, who had exhausted their ammo by dodging each and every arrow. Fearful were they, as they could see the wrath of god behind those eyes. They held their breath as she approached, praying that their death would be quick and painless.
Unfortunately for them, mercy was not a word in Reimu's dictionary.
That left only the massive, golden kaiju that stared down at her. She looked up, meeting his empty look for a moment before she struck, barraging him with talismans. It roared in pain and swiped down towards her, leaving a glob of gold where it hit. Reimu dodged just in time, but she wasn't fast enough to dodge the next punch. Before she could react, it held up its remaining hand and slammed it down, gold coins raining from the skies like they were fired out of a gun. It was difficult to dodge them all without damage: the spread was too fast, and there were simply way too many.
Kaito saw this and prepared to toss a smoke bomb, but he heard the yells of people below and turned his attention away. People were starting to fight over this gold, strangling and punching each other for cash raining from the heavens. He could see the glint of greed in their eyes, hypnotized by the money that could vault them towards better lives.
The same greed that he heard devoured the hearts of three villains on Ardea, a three way tango for riches.
The same greed that those seeking the Pandora Gem had, eager to take as many lives and gems possible to find it, eager for immortality.
He did not hesitate a bit to toss that smoke bomb in the kaiju's face, shooting a barrage of cards in his eyes. The gold coins were more spread out for the next wave, allowing Reimu to weave through them and counter with her own barrage of danmaku. Kaito was almost tempted to join the fray for good when something tugged at his ear.
"Bad thief, bad thief!" a tiny voice said. "You shouldn't steal things, okay!"
"Owowowowo, yes, I get it, cut it out!" he yelped, turning towards the source.
It was a really tiny person, no more than an inch tall. "Hi! I'm Sukuna!" she introduced herself. "I'm the one who returned the Blue Behemoth! We're gonna be best friends forever!
...Well, as long as you're nice to Reimu. Reimu is a very nice person."
"Except when she's beating the bloody crap out of demons, it looks like," Kaito said bluntly, his cape suddenly turning into a hang glider as he got a running start. "Time for us to take our leave!"
"But why? Can't you fight?" asked the little inchling, tilting her head to the side.
Before he lept off and took flight, he pointed towards the people below. "Even if I can fight, I really don't like the idea of roping innocents into our mess. I'd rather lure him away to, say, wherever you and Reimu live."
Sukuna stared for a moment before smiling at him.
"That sounds like a good plan, actually! Maybe Tenshi will be less bored if we give her something to punch?" She then turned towards Reimu and yelled out, "Reeeei! We have a plaaaan!"
Reimu may have responded, but it was drowned out by the monsterous groan of the golden kaiju as the cards were ripped out from his eyes and solid bricks of gold fell from the sky now, landing gently in front of police officers. Soon enough, Reimu had more than just gold coints to worry about: coins may hurt, but bullets could kill her if they hit her in the chest.
Goddamn monster must have bought them out with... whatever the hell that was, Reimu thought as the monster also absorbed a car on the parking lot and shot the entire thing at her from his body, not giving her a chance to dodge. She was slammed into a building, car alarm blaring, coughing out blood. I don't have the ability to tank any of this... And I can't do this alone!
Seeing Reimu in trouble, Kaito aimed his card gun and fired at the officers, trying to divert their attention away from her. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work: their eyes, glowin gold, were still focused on the shrine maiden, even as she slipped away from the car and took flight into the night sky, following after Kaito.
"I heard you had a plan," she stated. "Let's hear it."
"Not even a hello or anything to your friend? Cold."
"You're no friend to me."
"I was talking about Sukuna, idiot!"
"Who are you calling an idiot, you dumbass who got nailed with community service?"
"Well, I'm not the one flying around with a few broken bones, now am I?"
"Excuse me?" the princess pipped up, confused. "You guys need to stop, because one, that's not very nice, and two, we need to find a way out of this! So tell us the plan!"
Kaito grumbled something under his breath as the wind lifted him higher. He turned back and saw the kaiju and his new gang of police officers following after them. Perfect. He then grinned at Reimu and said, "We should take him to your home! I mean, it isn't far from here if you managed to get here within a day, right? And Sukuna mentioned something about Tenshi being there!"
Reimu gave Sukuna a disapproving look, although the inchling just continued to smile innocently. "Go on," the shrine maiden said.
"So the plan's simple: We hit him just enough to drag him over to your home, then we can launch a counterattack there, where we may have a few more allies behind us. Of course, someone's going to have to warn them that they're getting company."
"As if it would be that hard to warn them when we get there, Kaito. Seriously, we're really good at finding incidents and doing something about them. Unless you're the incident causer. Either way, it's probably a better idea than toughing out the internal injuries. I'm not full blown kobber material."
Kaito sighed dramatically before taking aim with his card gun again. "If only the Kobbers heard about this... They'd be on it faster than a dog can chase a stick!"
He only needed to shoot once to get the kaiju's attention. Just once in the middle of the forehead. The roar of anger was a good sign, as was the kaiju running after them. Reimu led the way, dodging the hail of vaulable items being flung haphazardly around her. Kaito had worse luck, but Sukuna was conjuring knives and danmaku to counter them all on her own.
"Oh, so you know how to use those, too?" he asked her as she pulled out a tiny little hammer.
Sukuna smiled at him and replied, "Of course! Everybody in Gensokyo does! It's how we do battle and stuff! Without killing anyone and stuff!"
"Put in place because a certain SOMEONE nearly kicked my ass," Reimu added with a bit of bitterness as she grazed past a few bikes and a china cabinet.
"So I'll protect you, Mr. Thief! And I'll protect Reimu, too!"
Kaito would have rolled his eyes, but Sukuna wasn't fast enough to protect both of them from a barrage of toy dolls. He yelped as his hang glider went out of control, nearly crashing into a building before it somehow corrected itself and soared without his help controlling it. He didn't question it, though; he just kept the kaiju's attention on them with Reimu's help.
It felt like an eternity before they reached the place Reimu claimed to live: A ragged old shrine in the middle of Tokyo. People passed by it with nary a second thought. As Kaito and Reimu landed on the ground, the thief wondered how Reimu even survived in a place like this.
She casually walked up the steps, although her breath became more and more unsteady as she got closer and closer to the shrine. Blood was dripping down the side of her lips. When she reached the top, she walked towards the gate and leaned against it, catching her breath as her companions caught up.
Sukuna asked her in a worried voice, "Reimu, are you alright? You seem really, really tired!"
"Can't say I'm surprised; suffering internal injuries, aren't you?" Kaito asked, putting his card gun away for the moment.
"I've dealt with worse," grumbled the shrine maiden. "Like death. But enough talk: where's Mr. Ugly Kaiju?
Kaito listened out for the loud, thunderous footsteps and replied, "Not too far. In fact-"
THUMP. The kaiju stopped in front of the shrine, much bigger than before. Cars and bikes and jewelry seemed to be making up a large part of his body, in addition to all that golden muck. The look in his eyes was as hungry as ever, yearning for more.
Reimu stared at him. She knew that look. It was the look she always wore when she looked in the mirror after staring at an empty donation box. It was the look Marisa had when she stumbled across Patchy's libary. The look Kanako had in her eyes when there was an entire mountain of faith to reap from Gensokyo, with little regard for anyone else.
"Greed," was the name that escaped her lips as the monster came ever closer. The golden monster that once lurked in her heart... Or maybe, it still did. Maybe that's why she could sympathize, even a little bit.
He drew ever closer...
And when he finally lunged, seeking to engulf all of them and make them as empty as he was, she grabbed Kaito and Sukuna, flying backwards through the barrier. And where she went, the monster followed...
-------------------
Once, I built a tower of avarice in my heart
But soon enough, it would all fall apart...
I can't believe I didn't guess it was Greed until now. I really like your idea of Greed as being a literal statue (or mountain) of avarice made up of and maintained by its physical worldly goods.
ReplyDelete