Touhou 14.7: Eastern Towers of Avarice ~ Golden Concerto
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Stage 3: Golden Gensokyo Torrents
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Gensokyo glowed with golden light.
It brought out the greedy beast of night.
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Gensokyo, Hakurei Shrine
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Home. Home at last. Reimu essentially flung herself at her shrine's step, groaning with pain as Kaito jogged up to catch up with her. Even if it was for a little while, she missed the wooden floor, the sliding doors, the little donation box, everything about her home. Home was where the heart is, after all.
All of the pain seemed to hit her at once as she flopped like a mermaid up the steps and onto the floor, coughing up puddles of blood from the injuries she sustained.
"Fucking fuck," were the two words that escaped her mouth after a few moments.
"That's one way to put our situation," Kaito replied curtly, setting Sukuna down and taking a seat beside his friend. "Didn't think it would get this crazy. Doesn't look like the beast is here yet; what happened?"
Reimu turned over to her side while the little inchling pulled out a hammer and sat down as if praying to the gods.
"Probably being held up by the barrier a little bit, but he'll be here soon enough. Gotta get help before then."
"Aaaand you haven't called this help... why?"
"Cell phones are an antique in Gensokyo."
"What?!? How do you guys even live without cell phones?"
"Sanae asked me the same thing when she got here, and I told her, 'Very carefully.' Life here doesn't work the way you'd think." Reimu visibly relaxed as all of those bones she broke put themselves back together again, the pain ebbing away as if a tiny miracle was granted by the gods. She took a moment to sit up as she explained, "Basically, Gensokyo is the dumping ground of most things people stopped believing in, so that demons and fairies and stuff like that aren't out of a job or dying out there in the real world. Things used in the real world often are rare treasures here, and vice versa. But since magic is mostly accepted and there are crazy things out there that people actually believe in, the barrier is pretty relaxed and just about anybody can come and go if they wanted. Wasn't true when my ancestors were ruling; might have been more of a recent thing... can't exactly remember."
Kaito stared at her for a moment before raising an eyebrow. "So magic- like red magic and stuff - is a real thing here," he said slowly. "You don't happen to know anyone who can summon Satan, do you?"
"I know a vampire. She's actually not all that threatening; she's polite and enjoys flower viewing parties every once in a while with her maid, Sakuya. Her sister, though? Broke the bones of everyone she meets. That's probably the closest you'll get to Satan that isn't actually dead."
"What a relief!" the thief replied with a smile. "One time, I dealt with a witch that used red magic, and by sheer luck, I managed to get out of her trap! Apparently, she really wanted my heart-"
The thundering footsteps interupted the pleasant conversation, Reimu jerking up and taking off into the skies. The golden beast was approaching, and fast.
"Can't catch a break, can you?" the thief draped in white asked as he peeked behind the shrine and saw the beast for himself, taking out his Card Gun and glaring at the mountain of stolen wealth.
The shrine maiden couldn't help but smirk. The scent of an incident rose; the thrill of dealing with threats to Gensokyo rushed through her veins. Years of incidents flashed through her mind in mere moments. All of the solved cases, all of the dramatic finales... Relived in minutes.
And so she replied, "Wouldn't have it any other way!"
Yin yang orbs surrounded her as they fired off barrages upon barrages of tags at Greed, sending a few bigger tags to create barriers to hold off his approach. The beast roared and slammed himself against the barriers, his sheer weight enough to break them. When one was broken, though, more too their place, and he found himself pelted with smoke bombs of all sorts to throw him off.
Yes, this would do. Hold him off. Wait until the news spread through the tengu. Let the incident be known. All these boring stall tactics only had one purpose, as it felt like ages passed before the beast finally reached the shrine, ready to engulf all in its path.
That reason became rather obvious when time seemed to slow down, and a streak of light crossed one of Greed's arm. When time resumed its normal pace, the entire arm was lopped off, distracting the mountain with worry before pink lasers and butterflies barraged its side.
Reimu grinned at the newcommers and shouted, "Took you long enough, you two!"
"Sorry, Lady Yuyuko was just finishing up a meal when Aya reported the incident," replied the swordswoman, Youmu Konpaku, as she went and struck the other arm. Bikes and eletronics seemed to flow out of the beast like it was his blood, although he easily reformed his arms.
"It was a super yummy bento box~" added the ditzy ruler of the Netherworld, Yuyuko Saigyouji, as she waved a fan and distracted the beast with colorful butterflies before kicking him in the head. "Sooooorrry, Reiiiiimooo~ I won't be late again!"
"Long as you're here, I'm good, Yuyu!" Reimu said happily, emphasizing her feelings with giant homing tag to Greed's face and a flying hug right around her ghost companion.
Kaito smiled at the two before the golden beast reared up again, holding his arms up as high as they could go. Greed clapped his hands, summoning a tidal wave of muck and valuables that swept away all in its path: shrine, girls, and thief. Kaito shot at him, but was a moment too slow; the beast jumped out of the way (jeez, how could that glob even jump?) and slammed down near the girls, gunk and gold bars flying everywhere and smacking them in their faces. Kaito quickly got back on his feet and fired off more cards, but one of Greed's arms formed a golden shield that protected him from the barrage.
Reimu and her friends flew out of the gunkpile, bruised. In Reimu's case, she wasn't harmed too much, but she was madder than ever. "You fucking swept away my shrine, you piece of shit!" the shrine maiden yelled, calling forth colorful orbs around her. "I'll kick your ass!" The Fantasy Seal crashed right into the beast's shield, but the lights blinded him for just a moment. One moment was all it took for Youmu to take advantage and thrust her sword into his eye and Yuyuko to attack from behind with a fan of lasers.
Greed roared with pain, clutching at his face as gold and valuables leaked out of the newly made wound. The shrine maiden took this chance to fire as many talismans at him as possible. Sword slashes and angry energy butterflies assaulted him from every angle, not helped by actual bombs flung at him. When he had enough, he swept his mighty arms around and around, not hitting any of his targets, but sweeping his arms around the ground.
"The hell is he doing?" Reimu asked. "We're all the way up here!"
"He might be making a tornado," Youmu pointed out, her eyes tracking the beast's movement. "Although it might be too slow for that."
"Maybe he's doing a dance!" Yuyuko said cheerfully. "You know, 'swing your arms from side to side~' "
"Uh, he's not doing the Mario, if that's what you're asking, Lady Yuyuko."
Too late. Yuyuko was already swinging her arms and having fun dancing in the sky. Reimu would have laughed, but she noticed both her and Kaito watching the beast intently. Or rather, they were looking at where his arms went.
Before Greed could finish another sweep, Kaito shot cards at his face. Greed, on reflex, went up to guard it, while Yuyuko glared at the beast, holding up one of her fans to hide her lips.
"You noticed it too, didn't you?" she asked the thief. "How he became bigger with each sweep?"
Kaito smirked. "Doesn't take much to notice that, Lady Yuyuko," he replied.
"What are you guys talking about? He didn't get any bigger!" Reimu yelled out. "He couldn't have!"
"Then tell me, Reimu: where'd all the stuff that gushed out of his body go?"
Reimu was about to snap at Kaito, but instead took a moment to look around. Her eyes widened when she noticed that all the bikes, the china plates, the gold... All of the stuff he flung at them, gone. Back into the body in which it came. Not only that, bits and pieces of her shrine seemed to be missing...
Wait. If he only absorbed valuable stuff...
Reimu became as pale as Yuyuko as she flew over to the shrine. "SUKUNA!" she cried out. "Sukuna, are you alright?!"
Pop, went the little inchling as she flew up out of the shrine in a little tiny bowl. She didn't look too happy, though. "I'm okay," she said, "but I dropped my hammer when the thing swept away the shrine, and I think it went into the golden river thing!"
Reimu bit back her anger for the moment. "Right, then get somewhere safe; things are about to get really ugly."
Sukuna nodded and flew off a fair distance away, leaving Reimu to give the monster her best deathglare.
"I brought you here to Gensokyo, and the first thing you do is cause trouble," she said quietly, in icy tones. "You attack my friends, you damaged my shrine, and now you took the pride and joy of my friend's clan of inchlings...
I'm through playing around."
Greed may not have possibly understood a word she said, but it isn't hard to understand than giant, glowing orbs to the face means pain. He staggered backwards before trying to punch the tiny shrine maiden, only for another barrage of Fantasy Seals to nail him in the face. Greed brought up the Miracle Mallet into his hands and tried to smash Reimu with it, but she grazed the blow and unleashed another barrage of danmaku for him to chew on.
While Reimu had the beast distracted and Yuyuko started cheering for her, Kaito looked over at Youmu and said, "Hey, got a minute?"
The half human, half ghost floated down to the thief's side, eyebrow raised. "Yes, but aren't we in the middle of something?"
"Oh, sure we are! Listen, though: are there any big bodies of water around here? Lakes, rivers, waterfalls?"
Youmu dodged a stray blast from Reimu's spell cards as she thought. "The closest one would probably be the lake in front of the Scarlet Devil Mansion... but why do you ask?"
A lake. Perfect. A sly smile crossed the thief's face.
"Help me lure him there and I'll show you why~"
That certainly didn't ease Youmu's worries, but if it could help... She flew up and bapped Greed on the back of the head with the hilt of her sword to get his attention. The beast turned to her and tried to smash her with his arms, but she flew out of his range. He inched closer and tried again, and again, and again, but the girl was too quick, too nimble to be touched. Reimu was confused about this tactic: usually it was better if Youmu outright cut him up.
Then she remembered: the beast could regenerate. It would have been worthless, anyhow. And if the beast regenerates from collecting valuables, what better way than to lure him away from them?
So Reimu, instead, started using her barrier spells, conjuring barriers to try to push the beast away, towards wherever Youmu and Kaito were going. She was soon joined by Yuyuko, although her idea of pushing was by conjuring phantoms to actually push him away.
Little by little, the group got ever closer to the lake through their collaborative efforts: Youmu and Kaito grabbing his attention, while Reimu and Yuyuko pushed. When they were near the edge of the lake, Kaito whistled, getting the beast's attention on him now. It's time for the final push.
From his pocket, he pulled out a brilliant gem, blue and bright. It shined in the moonlight, almost pulsing like a human heart. Greed couldn't help but look, hands reaching out for this stunning rock.
"You want it?" taunted the thief as he held up the fake Blue Behemoth. "Then go get it!"
He tossed the gem up and over his shoulder. Time seemed to slow as Youmu, Greed, and Yuyuko watched the gem fall from the sky
And into the lake.
"MIIINE!!!" Greed boomed, ignoring everything around him as he lept up and dove into the lake. "MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!!" They could all see the bits and pieces of the golden muck that made up Greed's body dissolving in the lake. All the stuff he had collected while rampaging through Gensokyo and Tokyo either sank out of his body and to the bottom to the lake, or floated on up to the surface. Reimu saw the Miracle Mallet float up and soared down to grab it, and watched as the sad, pitiful kaiju shrink as he struggled so hard to get something that only looked valuable on its surface.
Soon enough, he floated up. Not as a kaiju, but as a pathetic blob of mud that clung so tightly to the fake Blue Behemoth.
"mine" he still chanted, even as Reimu grabbed it with a look of disgust. "mine mine mine mine mine"
"Oh, shut up," Reimu grumbled before wrapping the blob in a talisman and putting him in her pocket. She then turned to Kaito and Youmu and said, "Good thinking, you two! If we had kept at it like we were before, we would have gotten nowhere."
Youmu pointed over to Kaito and said, "Well, it was more of his idea to lure him here..."
"What a clever boy he is!" Yuyuko squealed before pulling everybody into a group hug. "But it's through our teamwork we did it, right? Yaaaaaaaaay! We should celebrate with a big party~"
"Heh, only expect the best from me, Kaito Kuroba~" the thief said with a grin to match his giant ego. "Nothing to it!"
"Says the one who couldn't tell a real gem from a fake," Reimu sniggered.
"Least the fake came in handy, huh? Gotta make use with what I have!"
"Sure, sure. Well, lets get some help putting the shine back where it should be, then we can party hard!"
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And so, Reimu did invite everybody to her shrine, after repairing it, to have a night of fun. She sealed the blob away in Makai, leaving him to enjoy his little fake rock. Kaito, Reimu, and everybody else partied the night away, drinking and telling ghost stories (much to Youmu's dismay), and having good food together.
In Makai, though...
"How pitiful, how you value such a worthless gem.
Pitiful how your strength was outdone by cleverness.
Much power, you have. Power enough to destroy all of Gensokyo. But no mind to wield it well. A mere shell of a person, you are.
I seek that power. Power to take all that you desire. Take me in, and I shall be the mind to lead you to a path of glory, and of riches. A path in which you can cut down the annoying blades of grass that hamper you with ease!
I... Ame-no-Murakamo... shall help satisfy your greed, and rain death upon those who wish to take what is rightfully yours!"
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PRESENT DAY, LAS VEGAS
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"Any sign of that dumb blob thing, Kaito?"
"Nope, not at all. I'm sure that if he escaped from the seal and wants all the cash he could get, it has to pass by here! No doubt about it!"
"Ugh, and I thought it would hold up. Then whoop, it fucking breaks in Feburary and he runs the hell off. And Yukari was too busy being a lazy shit to do anything about him! Dumb hag!"
"No use worrying about it now. We'll have our chance to get back at him, I just know it! So for now, stop getting so angry and irritated. Can't be good for your beautiful complexion~"
"Shut your damn piehole or I'm locking you in an aquarium."
"Y-you wouldn't! You couldn't do that to me! No, you can't do that to me! You know I have a giant phobia of fish-
... That look tells me you would."
"Damn right. Now shut up and go to your volunteer job at the animal shelter! You still have 900 hours to work on for community service! Chop, chop!"
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Thank you for playing the Golden Concerto Demo!
Please wait warmly as we finish the full version.
Look out for the last three stages during the Roleplaying Season~
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