Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Consigned Through Oblivion

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

Water was everywhere, I couldn't see anything, it was so dark, I couldn't breathe!

There is no air, there is only water, my lungs are being filled with water, it’s so suffocating!

Everything hurts! My lungs, my body, my limbs, my heart, and my head, it hurts hurts hurts hurtshurtshurts! Everything hurts! I shouldn’t feel all of this. I am the most satisfied being so I shouldn’t feel all of this. I don’t need anything! I don’t need anything! So make it stop… make it stop!

I don’t deserve this! It is not me who deserves this, it's all those low-life evil greedy corrupted right violation pieces of shit, those who hurt me. Why can’t they just not hurt me? Just don’t look at me, don’t attack me, just ignore me! Is it too hard for them to do what I requested? Those who can’t follow those simple requests need to die. They didn’t need to exist. They are right-violating bastards who ignore my feelings! So why, why can’t I get rid of that bastard who swings stick, that monkey with stupid-looking eyes, and that silver hair bitch?! Why? Whywhywhy…

*ba-dump* *ba– dump* *ba— dump*

Huh? Did my heart slow down just now? No, nonono! I should have the right to not face such an outcome. I am already extremely satisfied so I shouldn’t face such a humiliating death! Something as insignificant as death is below me. Those who face death mean that they are truly satisfied with death, but since I was already satisfied, I don’t need death to be truly satisfied. It’s supposed to be like that, so why do I have to go through this?! It hurts! It's painful! So make it stop!

This can’t be my end! My authority, why did it hurt so much just to use it?! I cannot die! Not my right to live too. I cannot die, I don’t need anything, so I cannot die, [Greed], do something, my [Authority of Greed]! I had never wanted anything so why do I have to be in this situation?! Those who dare to do this to me should all just disappear!! Every single one of them should just die!!! So I cannot die yet! I can’t let those who inflict me this much pain live when I die.

That is why I began to open my mouth to scream in utter hatred for those who had wronged me, but there was no sound coming out as water had muted my scream. With each silent cry, my hatred for the species as a whole who had wronged me had only grown.

If I were to be left alone from the start, I wouldn’t be in this situation, I thought. And so with each scream of muffled cries, I wish for the time when mankind truly comes to an end.

And with that last scream of hatred, I have died.

…………

……

…

Wait.

If I’m dead then why am I still have my consciousness? It makes no sense. What is this? Is this death? It was like I was floating amid nothingness, is this what death feels like? I can’t feel anything, my sense is all gone; my sight, touch, smell, and taste, all of them; and all my pain is gone also, yet I’m still capable of thought. And as far as I could tell, there is absolutely nothing around me, no air, no gravity ruling me around, no nothing. This place, whatever it is, seems to be better than the world I previously was in already.

If I were, to be honest at this moment, this world is perfect, perfect as it should be without impurity, without the annoying sound of the winds blowing along the wind, without the insufferable species called humanity, and most important of all, without anything intolerable.

Ah, such a perfect world.

…

After a while of floating in the nothingness, I feel like the notion of time itself didn’t exist in this world after death as I don’t even know how long it has been since I died. Even if I liked this world, it's just started to become stagnant without doing anything, you know? Don’t get me wrong, It's not like I want anything as I am the most satisfied being in existence. It’s just that as a human being, even as satisfied as myself, not doing anything is like forsaking the duty of a human being. Humans need to take responsibility, do they not? Even if those duties might be tiring and annoying, I would fulfill those duties to the best of my ability as not doing so will be almost like an insult to me and every other diligent person out there who is currently doing their job as a productive member of a society perfectly like they should’ve been.

However I will not complain, why should I? I’m already dead after all, that is why the duty of a living human is not something I should be bothering with anymore as I am already satisfied in this perfect world where I don't need anything. And of course, it's not like I wasn’t already satisfied as I had lived a content life… Or at least I felt content until a couple of people decided to ruin it for me. Nevertheless, up until that point, I was fully satisfied. Why shouldn’t I be? Life is finite and doesn’t last forever, and death is something that will come to everyone eventually, that is why one shouldn’t accumulate too much happiness in their life time as death is unavoidable and unpredictable, and because I know exactly that, I was extremely satisfied with my life as I had fully embraced and enjoy my modest life with my lovely wives that fate had graciously offered to me.

And if I were to voice out my opinion, the time I’ve spent here in this world is like a blessing as every moment here feels like a dream. A perfect dream, without getting bothered, without getting looked at with pity, without need, and without want.

This… might be what it's like to be a complete existence!

I feel complete like never before as I feel at peace in this void. I felt so content and satisfied, knowing that nothing could harm me. I didn't know that this was what I wanted all along… no, I didn’t want anything as it is entirely within my right to feel satisfied, it makes sense, it definitely makes sense as a desireless me wouldn’t go so low to want something like those greedy self.

It was supposed to be like that, it is supposed to be within my right to experience that satisfaction, so why? Why did in one moment of infinite, I get forcefully catapulted to somewhere I don’t know, leaving this perfect world behind? The experience of transitioning out of the perfect world is no joke either, as the sensation is torturous to say the least, it was like my entire existence had fundamentally changed. Seriously, just why did this happen to me? Why can't I just be left alone and mind my own business in peace? I didn’t know and I will never know as I disappeared from the void, and popped into existence a moment later onto a reality that I so despise.

Really, just who dares to violate my right to be at peace? I didn’t want any of this, as I am entirely wantless, so just how dare whoever brought me here, took me from the perfect world I have long sought? Do they have no shame to spit on my desire like that? A long time ago right before I died, I had an unfortunate meeting with that mean-eyed marriage crasher scum who dared to steal my bride away from me, then now it was this!? How shameless can they be to forsake my desire for their own? How greedy can they get to bring someone so innocent, which is me, into their ‘want’ of getting me here? This is clearly a violation of my right to free choice and free movement. I should have the right to choose my course of action and where I want to be. Those bastards, just wait!

And as I had my internal monologue, I began to look around me, trying to figure out where I was in the four great nations. What I found is a forest that expanded far and wide beyond my visions.

Seeing that, you can say that I was beyond pissed as I was being separated from my ideal perfect world, and don’t know why I’m back in this shitty place. I don’t know how I got here in the first place either as I should be dead… Wait, if I’m dead then why am I still alive? That makes no sense, many things make no sense. Why am I even here in the first place?

…Wait, maybe this is what fate has given me, the second chance to live?

That’s right! Maybe the reason for me getting thrown out of that perfect world I dreamt about, which I’ll assume to be the world after death, is because I hadn’t finished my duty as a living human being yet!

If that were to be the case, which is definitely right, then I will make the most out of it by following what I had long contemplated after I had died by those disgusting excuses of a human being, and of course, this is not out of ‘want’ as I had already embraced life as it is and don’t need anything else to be satisfied, instead, it is because I had been given a second chance by fate, and so I have to make the most out of it, no? As by not doing so, I wouldn’t be living up to the expectation of this second chance I’m being given, and for that, I will make the most out of this by doing the world a favor and cleansing the world and eradicating all those that I deem unfit for this world, leaving only those that rightfully ignore my satisfying self alone! This must be the reason why I’m here! This is a chance I refuse to let go!

Ah, talking about fate, as I was contemplating things about life and had been walking absentmindedly for a while now, I saw a young-looking girl nearby with blond hair, who wore a red ribbon on her head all while spreading both of her arms wide open as she’s… floating mid-air? I have to say that it is pretty impressive, for a human that is, to fly, as no known magic user can fly other than that jester who performs tricks I heard somewhere.

Still, I have to admit that she is a bit too young for my taste, but either way, this must be a fateful meeting, as I don’t believe in coincidences, like how I don’t believe that those who had violated my right didn’t mean to do so. Those who had violated my right in some way or another are just insufferable beings that couldn’t help but be selfish, and take pleasure in violating people's rights. It’s disgusting, it's revolting, and in truth, I hate fighting, but sometimes those kinds of people just leave me with no other choice.

I’ll just have to hope that the blond little girl in front of me wasn’t that intolerable, and that is when I started to walk calmly toward her with the purpose of acquiring my current location and killing her right after unless she is unexpectedly not greedy.

Needless to say, I took my sweet time walking there, as I wasn’t in a hurry. This is only natural as I am the perfect existence who is in charge of [Greed], as [Greed] I’m without a doubt without any need, as to be appreciative of the things that I have, I need to be an existence without the need or want. Without want there came simplicity, it was a gift that I have that allows me to enjoy every simple thing in life. Simplicity is a quality of patience, and being patient is a virtue, so it’s the key to a truly satisfying life.

So in the end, from a supposed ten seconds walk, it had turned into thirty seconds as I took my oh-so-sweet time walking toward the girl's location. If the girl didn’t see me before, she probably sees me now as when I was near the girl, her head snapped toward me immediately, looking at me.

Rude, did this girl know that looking straight at me, or anyone for that matter is disrespectful? Looking at me also means that she unconsciously classified me as someone who she could look at me, face to face, like we were standing on equal ground, which can be interpreted as a challenge to my authority. That is why this girl had already given me a bad first impression, as in my perspective, that is clearly a violation of my rights. However, since I’m both patient and kind, I will gracefully ignore that rudeness in favor of establishing a basic acquaintanceship with her. Who knows, maybe I wouldn’t have to kill her in the end and actually be acquainted with her.

And so I began to introduce myself with my arms spread wide open, emphasizing my presence, starting with my title followed by my proper name, as that is the most refined form of civility, “I am the Sin Archbishop of the Witch’s Cult, representing greed, Regulus Corneas. I’m here to ask you for the way out of this forest. Ah, don’t get me wrong though, it's not like I particularly wanted to get out of this forest as I am entirely wantless, it's just that living in this forest seems to be too improper for a decent human—.” Before I could finish, the blond girl interrupted me, which annoyed me greatly.

“Human? Can I… eat you?” The young girl spoke simply, while still spreading her arm wide open like she was mocking me.

Hearing and seeing that disrespect, I couldn’t help but curse in my mind, ‘Crap, is this girl the gluttonous sibling long lost sister?’. But even if that were to be the case, I wouldn’t let that personal offense go, and so I said, “How vulgar, I was here talking to you and acting like a decent human being, wasn’t I? And then you’re here asking me whether or not I’m a human? Of course, I am obviously a human, what would I be if I wasn’t human? An animal or a beast?? Wait, did you just insinuate that I’m no different than an animal? That is why you question me if I’m human, aren't you? That is why you ask me if you can eat me, didn’t you? Didn’t you?!” Getting to this point, I have a veins popping on the side of my forehead and began to jab one of my fingers toward her, pressuring her to silence.

“Now listen here you little shit, who told you that it was okay to degrade people like that? Because in my point of view, it was incredibly wrong and is not okay in the slightest! So just how dare you see me and label me as such?! I’ll let you know that this has greatly violated my rights and identity as a human being! Do you know that my identity was something I was proud of, and is one of my most sacred possessions aside from my right? So just how dare you viciously take that away from me and put an identity of that of an animal on top of my head! Do you even take my feelings into account, or did you just not care? It’s true that we just met but wasn’t it indecent to dismiss my feeling like that? All I did was be kind and nice to you, offering my name first like any normal person would do, but what you did is beyond the limitation of arrogance! Do you think you are high to treat me so low? But that is not the only thing you have done, you also even have the audacity to say ‘can I eat you?’. Bitch, I’m not a lump of meat that you can eat! How dare you lump me in the same category as a slaughtered pig that is about to be eaten. Don’t you see that you had just trampled on my human dignity and rights by doing such? You are not the hunter and I’m definitely not the prey! Don’t think so highly of yourself—.”

“You talk too much, human... I can’t follow what you’re saying at all, but I know that you are insulting me… No matter, I will eat you anyway~.” The young girl spoke her last couple of words with glee and lunged toward me at a decent speed, and without uttering a single word, she opened her mouth wide, ready to take a bite out of me. However, the moment her teeth hit my flesh, it shattered like it had hit an immovable object.

The girl covered her mouth reflexively from the new sensation of pain she is feeling, clearly not in a good position to talk. And so, brushing my clothes off a little, I decided to take that moment upon myself and speak up with a satisfied, yet angry expression on my face, “Huh? Don’t you see I’m talking? I was talking, ain’t I? I was talking so wasn’t it natural to wait for me to finish? But you didn’t do that, and even insulted me by saying that I talk too much, cutting me off in the process. Who do you think you are!? Don’t tell me what to do! Don’t you mouth off to me like that! I wasn’t talking too much, I was talking as long as it is necessary to make my words get through that tiny brain of yours and make you learn your lesson! Instead of insulting me, you should thank me for giving you such a valuable lesson! However, you didn’t do that and also proceeded to attack me! It was entirely unprecedented actually. Attack on my person is something that I cannot overlook. This even makes me wonder what in the world you have been thinking to attack me out of the blue like that. Don’t you have any shame to attack a fellow human being like that? Not only did you attack me, but you also tried to eat me. Eating me could be considered cannibalism! So it is only right that I shouldn’t consider you as a fellow human being. Every action human made always follows logic but your action didn’t show anything but, so you are nothing but a cannibalized beast! So, don’t you agree that someone like you, who has such disgusting and vulgar greed, should be punished accordingly?” After I said that, I swung my hand in a horizontal arc in the direction of the slumped form of the little girl that had bitten off more than she could chew earlier, cutting her in half in the process.

Sigh, did people not know that I also didn't enjoy needless killing like they do, right? As I’m not a sadist. It couldn’t be helped I guess as, “That is what happens when you violate my identity, my humility, my hospitality, and my rights. Seriously, is it too hard to ask you to not attack my personal capital, and just answer my goddamn question? Well, it's not like you can answer me anyway so I’ll just leave it at that, as I don’t have any intention in the slightest to speak to a corpse.” With that, I had finally calmed down after all the violations that had been done to my person.

That is also when I finally noticed something odd about the girl's corpse. The girl's presumed dead body didn’t seem to be spurting up as much blood as should have been expected from a decapitated body. In fact, there is no blood spilling out from her decapitated torso at all. What I saw instead of blood was darkness. Yes, darkness within her body, replacing all the blood and inner organs she may have. It's weird but I didn’t think much about it as it could be magic in the category of yin, though I don’t know what it is for. And so I turned around and began to walk toward a random location, as I didn’t care nor did I wish to know. There is also the fact that there is no normal decent human who would want to be around a dead body for too long.

But before I could leave, I heard a sound of a body twitching from the direction of the young blond girl that I had just previously cut. Turning my head slightly, I saw that the girl's body started to mend together with a disgusting sound of fresh fusing together.

Annoying, a healing ability? Did that lust slut and gluttony brat have a kid or something? Regardless of that, How dare this girl violate my right by not staying dead? By not staying dead like she should be after I gave her my full judgment as [Greed], she practically denies my judgment, my right, by not receiving the reciprocation from her own ignorance that’s full of greed! I can’t let this slide, so I said, “Now listen here you ungrateful piece of shit, I just deliver you my judgment, haven't I? So wasn’t it unjudged of you to not face the consequence of it? I don’t see it acceptable in the slightest to have you let out of this unscraped. This can be said to be a violation of my right to my justification and credibility as [Greed]. As [Greed], I can say for sure that your obscene greed can never be justified, so drop dead would you, as my satisfied self wouldn’t allow you to keep existing any longer in this world.” After saying that, I inhale and exhale toward the direction of the little girl who seems to be fully mended. The wind that came out of my nose caused the wind to turn into a shockwave of unstoppable force that shredded through everything in its path, including the girl which could be seen blowing back in a messy gore of flesh.

Seeing that, with a satisfying smirk, I looked at the prone form of the little girl. But that quickly turns into a frown as the girl starts to heal and stands back up again with no lasting injury. The girl also decided to speak up at that moment after all the beat down she took, starting with a giggle, “... Hehehe, I can feel that, human~. But it’s no fun if you’re the only one who got to attack, you know~? So I’m going to attack too.” After she said that, the surrounding light began to dim giving way to many balls of light that started to form in the air, and then those balls of light started to shoot toward me at an incredible speed, seemingly vaporizing everything in its path. When it hit me however, it dissipated in the air like water evaporating in the face of flame.

“Tck, you didn’t die? Why didn’t you die? Why do you stand back up again like it was no big deal after everything I said? Don’t you think that is a violation of my right for you to not listen to what I have to say? You dare not to break three of my rights, but four?! How low of a scum can you be!? How many rights do you have to infringe upon me until your greed of a pig can be satisfied huh? Just how many times will you force my hands to attack you for your aggression? Such twisted mind, coming from a person with twisted greed. To force me to this extent, when I don’t even know who you are. Learn some basic human decency, would you?” I said angrily while standing there facing the attack head-on, not worrying in the slightest against something that many would consider as their grim reaper.

“... Is that so~? I am the youkai of the dusk, Rumia~. I don’t know what greed has to do with this, human. But I will have my meal eventually~.” While she said that, the beam of light that had been produced by her previously started to turn into hundreds of blades, and all of them started to head toward me at a speed that normal human eyes could barely be able to perceive.

Seeing this as a minor inconvenience, I swipe it away like I swipe a fly, this simple action causes an unstoppable air pocket that swipes all the blades away. “You see that? You have no hope of touching me or eating me in that matter with those weak attacks of yours. So give up, would you? It was a waste of effort, you see? Someone as insane as you would understand, right? That this is such a waste of my time and yours, so just follow my request and die, would you? And what is that weird title you’re spilling? ‘Youkai of The Dusk’? Are you trying to challenge my authority by flaunting your title?! I’ll let you know that is a violation of my authority! Just how dare you violate another one of my precious rights huh!? And what is a ‘youkai’ anyway? Is that a word that you made up? If that really was a real, actual, word, then I would have heard of it, no? So, from that, I will assume that your title is also nothing but a lie that you made up. Just how dare you spew such lies?! Do you know that by lying to me, you are violating my right to my understanding?!” After I said that, I swung my hand down violently in an arc, with the full intent of killing the girl. The result was the girl splitting into two parts, but it seems that her flesh is capable of stitching back together, as she became whole again a second later.

“I don’t know what you mean, human... I don’t see why I can’t eat you either~, your attack just doesn't have sufficient meaning[1] behind it to actually kill me, so I can definitely eat you if I tire you long enough, even if it was going to be a pain to do so…” After she said that, a couple of invisible air pockets struck her into pieces, but those pieces quickly healed back to Rumia. “Ahhh, I got cut into pieces again... And what do you mean by not knowing what a youkai is, human? You are fighting one right now. I am a being that takes form from the darkness~. That is what a youkai is, a being that takes on a form. You should—.”

“Eh? You are not human? I see, I see. That makes sense as you are so eager to eat me and that is not what a normal human would do. But that’s still not enough of an excuse for your previous action against me! Also, can you stop addressing me as human? I just told you my name, hadn’t I?! So wasn’t it natural for you to use that name to address me?!! Calling me human is like you putting me on the same pedestal as other humans out there, and wasn’t that rude? I am my person, you know? So I am entirely different from those other humans you had just labeled me with! Don’t you think that by labeling me with everyone else, you’re violating my right to my individuality?!” As I said that, I breathe aggressively, causing Rumia to be grinded and broken into bits and pieces thanks to my authority imbedding itself to the air I exhaled. At the same time, many beams of light from Rumia had dissipated upon contact with me.

After a few seconds, Rumia healed back up again like nothing had happened, “Ahhh, this is getting annoying~. You are the most annoying meal I have ever met...” After she said that, she opened her arm and spread it wide, like she didn't already have, and produced many more small orbs of light that lighted the night sky. With those orbs suspended, the surrounding light began to dim as well, making the night darker than it actually is and effectively camouflaging the many orbs in the sky. With that being set, they all fall at me at the same time causing a rain of light shower on my person.

With that bombardment, the dust had risen. When the dust subsided, there came a perfectly fine me, with not a single damage shown on my person. It seems the bombardment is ineffective, though the only thing that seems to be affected is my face being twisted into one of extreme anger and one of extreme dissatisfaction.

“Ark! Annoying! You're so stubborn, you know that?! Don’t you understand that your attack is ineffective against me? So why bother to keep attacking me, me, me, like it was no big deal?! And how dare you say that I’m annoying? Shouldn’t I have the right to freely express my opinion? So the annoying one is you who is opposing my opinion, no?! And what was that unrelenting attitude against me? Just drop dead already as that should be within my right to ask you to do so. Is it too much to ask you to just die for my satisfied self!? Actually, you know what? This is simply enough! To make me reach my breaking point had already told me everything about you and how greedy you are! I will not allow someone like you to exist and roam the world any longer! Your existence up until now is nothing but inexcusable, so I will personally get rid of your presence as just your mere existence is a violation to not only mine, but anyone right at that matter! The fact that you had yet to stop your continuous violation against my person says it all!!” After I shouted that, I grasped as many grains of dirt as I could possibly take with one hand and threw it at the girl, all while imbuing it with my authority.

This causes all the particles of dirt that had been previously thrown to be stopped midair, then a fraction of a second later in one instant, it moved again at an incredibly fast speed through the girl, completely shredding her in the process, and turning her into nothing but a mist of something that was previously her flesh.

With that, my expression had shifted into one of satisfaction, as if that simple action had satisfied me in the same way as if someone had killed that one fly that had been bugging them for hours, “Ah, that is how things should have been. Those who didn’t leave my satisfied self alone should die and disappear so that they can’t violate my rights again. It’s only fair, they denied my rights, I will deny their rights to continue living. It is only fitting, after all, every action has its own consequences, and this is the consequence of denying my right.” With that being said, I turned around with a satisfied smirk on my face, confident that whatever a ‘youkai’ is can't possibly survive that attack.

With that self-assured thought, I started to venture through the forest all while the sound of a flapping of wings grew prominent in one instant and disappeared with the sound of a click.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: Favorable Variation and Many Annoying Unfortunate Situations

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

It's been quite a while since I started walking through the forest canopy, and there is nothing new. A few birds and animals then and there, but that's about it, and I had not found a single intelligent life form ever since.

And while I was walking calmly toward who-know-where, my thoughts started to drift to the encounter I had with that intolerable floating little shit. The weird thing about that encounter is that I somehow was able to use my authority to the fullest without it becoming too much of a nuisance to my heart and person, which can be said to be one of a few things that are truly a violation of my authority.

Like seriously, just how dare whoever it is to put restrictions to [Greed]? This is unforgivable, so to get rid of this restriction, I put my heart to my lovely wives that fate had graciously offered to me as a sign of a good job and well done with my duty as a sin archbishop. That is what husband and wife do, isn't it? Two become one flesh, that is. So it's fully within my right to put my heart into them, burdening them, as the wife in any relationship should take on some of the burden of their lovely husband, like how a husband should take on some of the burdens of their lovely wife. I believed that every relationship should go two ways, as give and take is the most basic thing in whatever relationship one could have, as once the relationship only goes one way, those relationships are nothing but bitter and shouldn't be called as such.

Anyway, going back to the problem at hand, which is not really a problem as a perfect existence such as myself shouldn't have any challenges, saying that I have challenges was already an infringement upon my rights, therefore this is not a challenge but a mere annoyance that is quite beneficial to me.

Many things can be the cause of me not getting any drawbacks from my authority, and the first thing that comes to my mind is that one of my lovely wives might possibly be nearby. But that possibility quickly got scraped off as I should have felt their love if they were truly nearby as our heartbeats would be intertwined.

The second possibility I came up with and is the most unlikely, is that I might not have a heart in my body anymore... who's kidding? That can't be possible, so this idea had to be scrapped as well.

Now for the third possibility that I can think of, which is the most likely in my opinion, is that maybe fate had a hand in what had happened to me. And if that were really the case then I see no reason to complain as I do not shy away from something that is being given to me, especially what fate is given to me, so why shouldn't I accept it? I believed that most unbelievable, and unexplainable, things that happen are due to fate, as fate is the running force of the universe. And since that seems to be the case, it's definitely fate at work here that caused this to happen to me as there is nothing that can explain it.

And finally coming up with an answer that can satisfy me, I continue on my merry way with no destination in mind.

— — — — — — — — — — —

Sakuya Izayoi P.O.V

It had been a while since I sensed the anomaly in time inside the Youkai Forest, and I didn't know if I should be worried or vigilant as this is too close to Mistress's home. But what I do know is that as a maid, I would have to relay this information to my Mistress as any information should be relayed to the Mistress first as she is the head of the household.

However, because I know that the dawn had just pass, I know for a matter of fact that the Mistress is currently sleeping in her coffin at this time schedule due to her Vampiric nature, but even if that were to be the case, I still have to dutifully tell her about the current urgent situation that suddenly appeared out of thin air, and I could only blame it to that gap youkai. And so when I planned everything out, I began to stop time around me, making the world freeze in the color of gray, and after that, I began to walk toward the Mistress chamber.

When the time stops, I can also feel that the anomaly in time is still capable of walking in my time stop. This matter should also be relayed to the mistress, as someone who is an anomaly in the world flow of time is not a laughing matter. Even if it's true that someone like that is walking everywhere around Gensokyo, this is an outsider, someone who doesn't know any rules about the place I may add is nothing but trouble. It is true that the Youkai Sages will be on the move if anything bad happens, but I still have to keep my mistress's wish of 'I want to solve an incident too!' first before everything else, after her safety of course.

And so I continue to walk in this frozen world toward my Mistress chamber... Blissfully ignorant to the fact that this simple act of stopping time will violate the Anomaly in question.

— — — — — — — — — — —

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

Not even a minute after I came up with a satisfactory answer for the new favorable change in my authority, everything suddenly froze around me. The only thing that is not being affected by this frozen world is myself.[1]

What is this?

Looking around, everything around me just ceased to change. They all just simply stopped moving, even the wind stopped blowing. I don’t know what this is, but I know that this is not a natural occurrence, and so I began to rant internally.

What the hell is this? Why is this keep happening to me! Can’t I just go on with my business in peace and not get pulled into some nonsensical thing when I wasn’t even trying to look for it? Is someone deliberately targeting me? If so then what did I do to deserve this? Just how dare whoever it is to freeze the world as they please like they have the right to do so. Don’t they ever have a concern that someone might be able to walk in their frozen world that they had caused to happen? Or did they just simply ignore that fact and continue to do that? I would have ignored it if it wasn’t violating my rights! Even for someone as desireless as me, I still at least have the right to see beautiful things, but ever since this freezing thing happened, all I can see is gray! Everything just turned gray. The leaves that were supposed to be green are now sported a dull gray color. It’s like looking at a canvas before adding any color in, and without color there is no look of beauty. All the life in everything just simply turned dulled, as all the color just got drained away, and It wasn’t beautiful at all. It is so melancholic that it’s depressing, so just how dare whoever it is to freeze the world up, stealing the beauty from it, and violating my right to see beautiful things!

… But since this does not hinder me in any way, except for some mere annoyance, I will gracefully ignore this violation against my person for now. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t want whoever did that freezing up the world thing to not disappear though. After all, it would be righteous if they’re at least being punished for their action against me.

And with that, I continued to walk in this frozen world where the only one who can walk in it is myself and the one who caused it to happen in the first place. And after walking for a while, my growing dislike toward the person who froze up the world is only increasing, as walking on gray grasses and seeing only gray trees (that looked like everything is dead) is only pulling on my nerves. But that moment of irritation didn't last long as after a while, about 10 minutes, I had found something interesting that had dissipated my growing displeasure, and that something is many small children flying in the air with wings, which is something that I had never encounter on my century years of life. Though those small children seem to still be frozen like everything else.

Seeing this I decided to talk to them when they become unfroze as I need some information about where I’m currently at, and of course, I don't really need it but it would save a lot of my time which is quite precious if I said so myself. Though I have to ask when I look at these flying children, just what in the four great nations are they? They are not spirits, they are definitely not any races I knew of, and they are absolutely not Mabeasts. Hopefully whatever this race wasn't that intolerable compared to those other races that I had unfortunately encountered in the past like those rude elves and half-elves, luckily there are some good ones in those groups that I married to. Talking about wives, I wonder what fate will give me next? I just have to hope that they are not assholes who hurt my feelings like that white hair half-elf bitch.

Anyway, as my decision was set on talking to the flying children, I began to reach out my hand to one of them, holding on to them and using my authority on them, and when that happened the child began to move again. When the child got out of that frozen state, the child, or the girl in this case, seemed to not notice anything out of place as she began to move along her previous trajectory before she had been frozen, but she seemed not able to as my hand still gripped to her shoulder tightly, preventing her from moving any further.

That is when I began to speak to make her notice my esteemed presence behind her, even if that gesture is unneeded, "Excuse me, could you help me? Though saying that it would help me would be a little too strong of a word as I don't really need help as I am the perfect existence, it will however save me a bunch of time if you can answer some of my questions."

With that being said, it had successfully captured the flying child's attention who was in my grip. But what I did not expect was that the small child started to giggle at me incoherently and started shooting some small laser beams at me point blank.

*Pew-Pew*

Of course it has hitted me, but it doesn’t affect me in any way. It is only natural as nothing in this world can affect me due to me being the perfect existence. But even if it was like that, my face couldn’t help but morph into an expression of confusion as if I couldn't comprehend what just happened, which is a natural reaction as getting shot at when trying to initiate a conversation is something so unexpected, "Huh? What? Did you just attack me just now? Now, now, who teaches you to behave like that? Doesn't someone teach you that doing that is—."

*Pew-Pew*

Before I could even finish however, a couple of beams had shot toward me again, but same as before, it didn’t affect me in any way. That is when my mood started to take a nosedive, and so I said, "So that is how it is. Has no one taught you manners, little girl? As it is very rude to attack me when I walked to you and asked you a simple question, no? *Pew-Pew*. It is true that it was your choice to answer my question or not, I can't tell you what to do after all, but I asked you politely, didn't I? *Pew-Pew*. So wasn't it natural for you to give me the same politeness I showed!? But you didn't do that and proceeded to assault me!! *Pew-Pew* *Pew-Pew*. If you don’t stop shooting fucking now you little shit then I will guarantee that you will not like what I’ll do to you next!!" But even after I said all of that, the little shit is still shooting beams at me.

And so at this point, my veins couldn’t help but pop on the side of my forehead and my mutant anger couldn’t help but turn into rage. In this fit of rage, I decided to get rid of her accordingly by throwing her toward the boundless sky without canceling my authority that I had been imbuing to her a while back, and because my authority still affecting her, I allow it so that she will move in that direction forever without ever-so-slightly changing her speed. With that, I got rid of the problem.

Who could blame me really? Even if I don't mind children like I don't mind pets, if they start to become annoying and constantly being a nuisance, and being disrespectful to my right, I will get rid of them accordingly, you know? And so I decided to get rid of that annoying little snot once and for all as I don't want to risk my rights getting violated by talking to her any longer.

After that, I simply grumble to myself and walk away while saying, "Sigh, who raises that brat? Thankfully I will never meet that kid again though." And after 20 seconds of walking away from those groups of annoying children, the world became unfroze again.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: Human Village and Human Interaction

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

After the world started to move again, I also started to move as well through the forest with a purpose in mind, and that said purpose, which wasn’t really a purpose as I didn’t desire anything for I am already perfect, is to simply walk out of this forest. But that doesn’t mean that I don't like this forest though as the scenery in this forest is filled with serenity unlike any other common human settlement out there where it is only filled with violence. And the only sound I heard in this forest canopy was only my own footsteps which are kind of peaceful to hear unlike those annoying whines of a selfish individual, which can only increase my liking toward this environment even more.

You can even say that even if I decided to stay in this forest, I would be satisfied either way as I did not need something as foolish as love and affection to have the need to find civilization for my own comfort. But, I cannot simply go and live off my life as a hermit now could I? And don’t get me wrong, it is not because I’m not satisfied with that kind of life to decide such, but it is because as a human being, I still have some obligation, no matter how small, to help out another human being who is in need. And so as generous as I am, I will not take my independence and live alone, instead out of concern for others, I will help out those of my preference that fate had led me into so that they do not get caught on to the idea of love, as with love they would be unable to become independent, which is not a way for people to live their lives as independent is linked to satisfaction of a person. And so to save them from such a fate of being unable to become independent, I would have them as my wife, not out of love, but out of my generosity as I will give them their framework of living so that they would be able to be fully satisfied with their own respected life with me as their lovely husband.

And as I was thinking about how it’s a good idea to go out of this forest for the reason I just described previously, I eventually saw a light peeking through the many trees before me after a long time of pondering, causing me to end my internal dialogue short even if I had something more to add for the thought.

Seeing the light, I quickly made a decision, and I began to walk toward the light as my decision was now set on going to find civilization for the reason I had generously thought earlier. After I stepped through the light, what I walked into was a clearing without anything in sight except a large village surrounded by a wall, which is not far from where I’m standing. If I were to describe the village, I would describe it as a smaller Kararagi as I could see its unique architecture even from here. And after that observation, I now believed that I was somewhere on the Kararagi border, which wasn’t that far from Priestella city, the place I had previously ‘died’.

Knowing that I began to curse those who killed me when I did nothing wrong. The only thing I did at that moment was my job, and who can wrong me for simply doing my job? It turned out to be that bastard, that bitch, and that knight, when I was working, those three dickheads just popped up and killed me. But since I am now alive and kicking due to fate reviving me to continue my duty as a living being, I can't simply let them go now, could I? And so this time I will definitely not show my mercy on them like last time. Now let's see if their pathetic self can survive me now! All I have to do now to get to their greedy self is to cross the Tigracy River, and I’ll swear that their karma will be paid! But lucky for them that justice would not be served for a little later as I don’t know where the Tigracy River is from my current location, but that is okay as for a patient man like I am, I can wait. So I will take a resident in the village I saw first before fate guides me to them eventually.

With that decision made, I began to walk calmly toward the village in front of me. While I was doing that, I began to think about what kind of people I would meet and hope that they are not rude. If they are rude then I will get rid of them accordingly like how I exterminate that excuse of a village that once called my birthplace. If I do decide to get rid of it in the end, however, then I will not complain about not having a place to stay throughout the night either as I don’t need something like sleep as I don’t need anything.

Actually I was beginning to be curious if there is actually a person who is not violating my right as there is none I could remember so far in my lifetime that did not once disrespect my rights, my wives included. It is sad actually that most people in the world are either rude or don’t understand something as basic as common courtesy. And so with a little hope, I began to walk toward the village.

…

The walk between the outskirts of the forest and the entrance to the village did not take long, an hour at most. And of course, I can travel through those two distances in a blink, but I chose not to do it as I am satisfied. To live in satisfaction is to savor every moment of my continuation, meaning that those who rush things like they don’t have much time left would never be satisfied as they wouldn’t have time to savor every moment of it, so I will not do such a disgusting thing.

Anyways, when I was at the gate of the village, I saw that there was a single guard standing in front of the gate, with a spear in hand, who was seemingly there to specifically guard for any intruder or dangerous individual. Naturally, I wasn’t worried as I am neither of those, for I am a respectable young man, saying otherwise is like a lie to my character and individuality, which can be said to be a violation of my right.

The moment I was in front of the gate, the guard saw me, and a few seconds later, he began to look at me with suspicion… Just how dare this bastard judge me?! It would be understandable if he judged me after I did something suspicious, but this is an entirely different matter as he had judged me, looking at me like I am someone that needed to be wary of, when I practically did nothing to ward off this suspicion. He is practically painting a wrong image on my person, which is beyond disrespectful!

— — — — — — — — — — —

Guard P.O.V

Working as a guard is a dangerous job.

By being a guard, not only do I have a high risk of meeting a youkai, I also have to fight against one if they have bad intentions. Though luckily those bad intentions youkai are mostly unintelligent ones, however that doesn’t mean that intelligent youkai are not dangerous though, as there is some youkai, like that one particular green-haired youkai, who often visit the village to buy flowers, that will not hesitate to kill someone… or that is what I heard from the rumor about her anyway, which I don’t believe in that rumor one bit due to the fact that if she really not hesitate to kill someone like the rumor said, she wouldn’t be allowed to step even a foot inside the village (courtesy to the guardian of the human village) as those who are allowed inside the human village are only those who are without a doubt not dangerous, like oni who often visit the village at night to drink sake with the villager.

And so knowing that, I began looking at the man, who was approaching the gate of the human village, in both wary and suspicion, as any normal person would react the same when seeing someone coming from the direction of a youkai forest, where most youkai live.

The man who I saw approaching was unremarkable in every sense. He is so unassuming that if you were to throw him into a sea of crowd, he would be lost in it almost immediately. Another thing about his appearance is that he is just… too white in a sense of the word. His white long sleeve shirt, his white pants, his white hair, and his pale corpse-like complexion, just make him look like someone sickly or someone who is not from the land of living, and so when I saw his appearance, it made me quite a bit wary as he might as well be a ghost, but that is just my speculation, so I might as well be wrong with him being a ghost… But some wariness does not hurt, right?

And so when I saw a ghost-like man walking up the gate of the human village, I began to warily exclaim, “Halt, state your business here and show me your identification!”

After I had exclaimed that, the man in white began to speak, “Now, even if you are a guard, judging by your attire and posture, don’t you think that butting into other people's business is a breach of their privacy? I believe that it is also within the realm of common sense that unless you are directly affected by whatever my business is, you don’t have the right to know what my business is, no? And, did you really ask for my identification? How dare you! Asking for my identification like that is an invasion of privacy! It is also a violation of my right as it is very intrusive and disrespectful!” The man in white spoke in a fashion that made everything sound so reasonable, even when it wasn't.

You can say that I was speechless after hearing that, after all, it wasn’t everyday to hear someone question your job and tell you why the way you were doing your job is wrong in a sound argument that somehow feels unreasonable.

It is unreasonable because as a guard, it is tied into my duty to ensure that the people who are coming into the village are not dangerous, and so for that reason, I need to see people's identification, or any kind of permit if possible, so that I can identify any potential security risks, and because of that, it is unreasonable to deny me to do just that.

The feeling I’m having right now is comparable to the annoyance when talking to an entitled person, and so, I began to repeat what I exclaimed earlier, but in a more harsher tone, to the sickly man, to indicate that I wasn’t joking around and wouldn’t tolerate anymore excuses, “I will not say twice! State your business here and show me your identification. If not then I'll assume that you’re a malevolent youkai and I will have no choice but to force you out of the premises of the village!” After I said that, the man in white seemed to be progressively getting angrier and angrier by the second from the look on his face, which started to give me quite a chill for some reason.

“Tck, don’t you hold any respect for other people's rights? As a guard, don’t you know that upholding people's rights is important because it ensures that everyone is treated fairly and with respect. But from what I see of you readily assume that I am this ‘youkai’ without any proof nor evidence and accusing me of being one when I didn’t do anything to ward off those suspicions, you had already proven to me enough that you didn’t care about the rights of others individuals. Rights are important because they are a fundamental part of what it means to be human and they are the cornerstone of a just and peaceful society, you know? As that is why they must be protected, so as a guard, you should know that as it is within your responsibility to keep conflict from spillin—.”

Seeing the man keep talking and talking, spewing out a bunch of unreasonable faults in me and a bunch of absurdity, that are seriously driving me up the wall, I decided to cutted in right there and then as I couldn’t deal with this person anymore, “I don’t know what you’re getting at, so stop trying to avoid—.” But before I could even tell him to screw off and stop being annoying and give me what I needed already so that I can get it over with, in a polite way of course (as I don’t want to get fired from my job now have I?) the man in white cut me off mercilessly, which I’ll say to be very annoying as he’s now also started to become very hypocritical.

“Now, how dare you prevent me from making a valid argument! You, not only did you violate my right to my privacy, my justification, and my freedom, you also violated my right to my free speech by preventing me from communicating my messages! Just how dare you not allow me to finish my sentence making it seem like my thoughts and opinions do not matter!? Do you have anything to say for your aggression against me?!” A frenzied look started to form on the man's expression, which rang many alarm bells in my head for some reason.

I don’t know what that reason are, but I will trust my gut instinct for now as it had help me survive multiple youkai encounters in the past, and so I started to ready my spear to protect myself from this bad feeling I’m having, then I began to exclaim once more to the man whom all my bad premonition had designated from, and also whom I now seriously thought to be a youkai judging by his uncooperative nature, “This is enough! You are a malevolent youkai ain’t you? Leave the premises of the village immediately as I couldn’t risk someone as dangerous as you walking around the village without any permit and without knowing your intention!!”

“Enough you said? Don’t you think that you had missed reading the situation a bit as in my point of view, It is supposed to be me who should have said ‘enough’! You have no right to end the conversation abruptly, and silencing me from expressing my thoughts and opinions. This is a clear violation of the other person's right to freedom of expression! You also keep insisting that I’m dangerous when I don't show that I am, and you keep insisting that I’m this ‘youkai’ when I didn’t even show any kind of indication of being one! You really are not fit to be a guard, so just die will you?” He said while radiating off quite a dangerous aura that made me shiver a little.

Just what is this man? He seems to be unremarkable in every sense, but his vibes betray that unexceptional nature and give me a sense of dread as he continues talking in a dizzying amount. As I was thinking that, my grip on my weapon tightened, but before I could do anything, the man spoke once more.

“Don’t you think that when someone violates the rights of another person, it is only right that they are punished for their actions as it is completely unfair for one person to be able to violate the rights of another person without any consequences? I think that it is completely unfair so now accept your punishment for the crime you caused, and accept your death as that is the words of fate!” After he said that, he began his motion of raising one of his arms up vertically.

When that action came to pass, my field of vision started to split apart, and it wasn't until I felt the cold and painful sensation between my spine, my sternum, my neck, and in the middle of my face that I had finally realized that I had been cleanly cutted into two pieces.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: Shrine Maiden and a Witch

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

Tch.

Can’t I at least have the pleasure of meeting someone who did not disrespect my right? Can’t they all just realize that violating people's rights would lead to conflict and violence, as it ultimately leads to more oppression and suffering, rather than less? And so that guard deserves what’s coming to violate my right like that and causing some unnecessary violence.

I looked at the guard blankly, who was undoubtedly dead. The guard was there lying on the ground, lifeless, seemingly being separated into two parts. Both the left and right half of his body were facing the ground. There was a pool of blood around him, and his intestines were spilling out from his two separated stomachs.

Anyway, after I had delivered my judgment to the guard and reprimanded him, I began to walk toward the gate of the village with my full intention of going past it, as that should be within my right to do so since I should be able to go anywhere as that is my right to my free movement. But before I could do so, I heard the voice of a young girl in her teens that is filled with rage, at the location I had previously left the guard after I delivered my punishment to him not even 10 seconds ago.

“You!”

Turning around, I saw a teenage girl wearing a weird-looking cloth, with red and white as its prominent color scheme, that looked like it had come straight from Kararagi culture.

“Huh? What did you just call me? Even if calling someone ‘you’ is a form of communication that is very direct and to the point, it can also be seen as a violation of the person's rights of individuality as by calling someone 'you,' you are basically treating them as an object or a thing, rather than as a human being with their own unique identity! When you call someone 'you,' you are taking away their individuality and treating them as less than human, which don’t you think that—.”

“Shut up, now tell me why did you do this?” Said the girl who seemed to be angry evidenced by her furrowed eyebrows.

Tch.

Another one? Seriously, what is it with my luck today that kept making me meet these rights violators? No matter, if it really comes to it, I will get rid of this girl who doesn’t seem to know how to respect people's authority.

And so with an impassive face, I began to rant to her so that I could get my points across about how she had just violated my rights, and I will also berate her and tell her 10 reasons why she should never violate my rights again since I got the chance. “... Now, not only did you violate my right to my individuality, you also even dared to cut me off?! I was talking ain’t I? So why did you not let me finish!? I’ll let you know that this is a violation of my right to my free speech! Don’t you know that by cutting me off, it is like you are trying to put me, the one who you are interrupting, down and making me feel less important? How dare you lower my value like that?! Don't you know that lowering other people's values is wrong? And also shouldn't it be common sense that it is important to respect other people's right to speak, and to listen to them when they are speaking? And what did you want me to tell you? If you are going to ask me to tell you something, state what you want me to tell you, as I don’t have a state of mind to figure out what you want of me! And what’s with that attitude when you ask me something? Don’t you think that—.”

“... Okay? My question is, why did you kill him?! Now answer the question.” Impatient, the girl angrily said that.

“— Now like I said earlier, don’t you think that it was rude to cut someone off when they are talking?! Don’t you think that by doing such, you are practically saying non-verbally that, ‘I don't care about what you're saying’ and ‘I don't respect you enough to pretend I do’? I do believe that such behavior is an infringement upon my right! Also, why are you angry at me? If my memory serves me correctly, I had never seen you before, so you should have no reason to be angry at me. Don’t you think that it is rude to direct your dissatisfaction at me, someone who did nothing wrong? You should—.”

“Yeah yeah. Just answer the question already.” She deadpanned at me, veins popping on the side of her forehead.

At this point, I began to lose my patience. “— This is the third time that you had cut me off before I could finish talking! Don't you know that if you hadn’t stopped me, I would have told you what you asked of me, right?! But you didn’t wait and even had the audacity to cut me off! You even go a step further and demand me to answer your question. Don’t you know that asking someone questions can be a violation of their rights if the one who is asking the questions is asking their questions in a way that is intrusive or threatening? But since you want an answer so badly and I have a question of my own, I will answer. I killed him because he is a scum who is better off dead! This is his compensation for his inexcusable behavior against me. If someone did something wrong, don’t you agree that they should receive the full reciprocation of their own action as a reminder so that they wouldn’t do it again? Now it’s my turn to ask you questions, as you had questioned me once and so wasn’t it right for me to return your question with one of my own? Who are you?”

After I said all that, she seemed to be quite angry and irritated, which is an understatement, then she said, “I am the shrine maiden of paradise, Reimu Hakurei!” With her name stated, and without any other questions asked, she suddenly throws something at me. And before I knew it, there were countless strange pieces of paper that had something written on them flying at me at a subsonic speed.

I don’t know what that is, but the results are still the same regarding what it is anyways as I knew for a fact that those fragile pieces of paper wouldn’t affect me in any way. When all those attacks touch me, as I had expected, it gets torn apart by a shockwave upon contact with me. That is when I began to open my mouth to speak to the girl while my veins were popping, “Huh!? Did you attack me just now?! Why did you attack me, you bitch?! Who gives you the right to attack my person, huh? What kind of person are you to attack someone when they are literally just standing there answering your question without any complaint even when you are demanding those questions out of me!? Don’t you understand that is a violation of my rights? There is also the matter of—.”

“I attack you because you are causing problems, so don’t act like you did nothing wrong!” That is what she said while throwing many projectiles at me. Annoying.

“— Urkkk! Cutting me off again and again and again, are you intentionally trying to get under my skin?! Control your impulse and stop interrupting me! And what did you mean by ‘Don’t act like you did nothing wrong’, huh? By saying that, you practically imply that I did something wrong in some way and act like I didn’t do it, which is false information! I did not do anything wrong, and so by saying that I do something wrong, that is clearly a violation—.

“— Of my rights right? Now shut up.”

“You… YOU!! Did you mock me? How dare you mock me! Who gives you the right to purposefully, intentionally, dehumanize me by making fun of me?! And why did you make fun of me, huh? Is it because of the way I talk? Or are you making fun of the way I think, you bitch? How cruel of a human being can you be to hurt others by belittling them. Do you have no shame? Do you have no heart? How awful can you be to consciously hurt others with your attitude? This is even worse than hurting others unconsciously! What did I even do to you to deserve this treatment?!” With that being said, I kick the ground fiercely, making a piece of the earth I dug up with my feet to fly toward the girl, but it seems that she manages to sidestep to avoid it in the blink of an eye.

“‘What did you do’? You kill people, that’s what! You are nothing but a criminal!” Reimu shouted that and continued to throw stuff at me like it was going to do something. Just… just how dare this bitch!!

“Me being a criminal my ass! Calling me a criminal when I did nothingnothing wrong is beyond disrespectful. Don’t you respect my rights? Don’t you think that this is clearly a violation of my right for you to not consider my right and attack my personal capital directly?!” With that being said, I attack again, but this time, I swing my arm vertically fiercely.

And with that arm swinging up, the place where my arm previously passed got distorted, or you can say, the place where my arm previously was broken apart and made way to a spatial cut that can cut through anything and everything toward the direction of the girl in red and white. However, the likely outcome of Reimu getting cut in half never happened as she dodged the incoming invisible unstoppable force of wind before it even reached her, hell she dodged it before I even swung my hand down as if she knew the future or something. (A/N: Reimu's famous intuition. I’m not making this up.)

“... Now that is dangerous.” The girl muttered while looking behind her at the damage I caused with that simple swing, which is a big ravine-like damage that doesn’t seem to have an end to its depth. However, I didn’t care about that trivial matter.

“You you! Not only did you mock me, but also dodge your just punishment and your reciprocation of your own action for dehumanizing me not once, but twice?! Don’t think that you can get away from this!”

“Nn~h… *Mutters* T...s is g…ng a…ng. (This is getting annoying)”

“What are you muttering about just now? Mind speaking it out loud? It's highly disrespectful to murmur something under your breath that others cannot hear distinctly, as those mutters can possibly be a downright rude or unpleasant remark. Which is very disrespectful, if I said so myself. Being disrespectful to my person is something I can’t allow, as that can be said to be a violation of my right!” After I said that, I exhaled, causing an unstoppable air pocket to launch toward Reimu. And in an instant, she got torn apart.

But instead of getting torn apart into an unrecognizable piece of flesh, the girl seems to be torn apart into countless pieces of paper instead??? What the heck? Did she just turn into paper? But before I could go on with that thought, those papers started to shoot toward me at a speed I am barely able to react. Before it could reach me, I twisted my hand a little, causing a violent whirlwind of unstoppable force that completely annihilated all the papers that were coming my way. And after that’s being dealt with, I heard the red and white girl's voice behind my back.

“You sure are a handful. Now, let's see if your supposed invincibility can handle this. Brace yourself, even if you are a human, it will still hurt a lot! Spirit Sign "Fantasy Seal”!” After the girl talked nonsense about me not being able to handle something, which is pure bullshit as I can handle anything, she suddenly was surrounded by many orbs of luminescent light. And with those circling the red and white girl, those orbs suddenly were in front of me before I could even blink, even if I didn’t need to blink in the first place. With that, it hit me and my world turned white. It also knocked me back through the wall and into the village and a building and another building after that.

In the end, it took a good 10 seconds before I hit the ground causing a crater, followed by an explosion that rocked the area. And because I am now inside the village, the surrounding villager, who heard the loud explosion and saw me laying down in the crater, quickly backed away from the place I was at. Seeing that, I began to rant, “Tck, those shitty excuses of a human being running away in the face of someone in need? Not helping someone in need is selfish and heartless. They should all strive to be better than that! Humans should be kind and compassionate, and always be ready to lend a helping hand! That is what it means to be human, and by abandoning me, it’s like they didn’t consider me as one of their own! That is clearly a violation of my—.” “Love Sign "Master Spark"!!”

And that is when my world turned white again for a good 10 seconds and I was dug further into the earth.

“I came here just in time! If I didn’t come here runnin’, Reimu probably would hog all the fun-ze!”

What the fuck? No, the better question would be, who the fuck??! Just how dare whoever this bitch, who came out of nowhere, violate my rights?! Who gave her the right to attack me anyway? I don’t get it? Wasn’t whoever this bitch is, who attacked me, think too highly of herself to think that she can violate my rights like I’m lesser than her!? Fuck her!!! Screw that red-white bitch too!! Lowering someone's value like that is clearly an infringement upon my rights!!

And while I thought that, those two rights violators also began to talk behind my back! The audacity!!

“Marisa? What are you doing here?”

“Well, ‘bout that. I came here to find that guy I saw on the newspaper that’s causin’ trouble-ze. Is it that annoyin’ guy I just blasted out with my Master Spark earlier?”

“Aya sure works fast… and yeah, that is the guy. Wait, did you just say that you used Master Spark on someone you weren't sure if they’re your enemy?”

“C’mon, it's not like you ain’t doin’ the same-ze!”

“... You have a point. Anyways, just in case that guy is still alive, be careful with his attacks… Also, he didn’t know about Danmaku so don’t bother using it against this guy.”

“Soooo, no need to follow Spell Cards Rules? Gotcha!”

Tch. Talking behind my back like it was no big deal when I can hear them? How low of a scum can they be? Talking behind someone's back can also be a form of harassment, and words can hurt others, didn’t they know that? When someone hurts others with their words, they are practically violating their rights! And so these two fucker who just violate my rights need to die! These two sinners who didn’t care about the rights of others and viciously stomped on them need to die!!

And so with that righteous thought, I began to imbue my authority to everything around me, every grain of dirt, everything around me in the 50 yards radius, or half a block, just more than enough for me to get out of the hole I found myself in due to those fucker and just more than enough for those fucker to taste what it’s like to get bury under the dirt. After that, I raise both my hands up followed by an angry roar. And with that movement, the earth and everything that is in the influence of my authority shot up into the air while coming apart, and with those suspended 20 meters above ground for a moment, all those individuals grains of dirt started to rain down toward the ground in every direction for the hope of hitting that newcomer and that red and white girl whom both I don’t know the location of.

“Woah!”

“Holy! He survived my spell card-ze!?”

After I had thrown those dirt up, I could hear some surprised yelps from the two. And with that hole dug out, I also jumped out of it to prevent any more humiliation. When I got out of the hole, I got a good look at the surrounding area, which is filled with holes, collapsed buildings, ruined roads, and probably some casualties in my 50 yards radius. And trying to find those right violators, I found out that my attack didn’t injure them at all as they are too high up in the air for my attack to hit them, which makes me think. Is every damn person in this weird part of Kararagi can fucking fly?!!

Ahem. Anyways, after I saw that they had avoided my judgment, I began to berate them for doing such a disgusting act, “Now now! Avoiding my judgment is like you are essentially telling me that my opinions are not valid and that you are not interested in them, you know? Avoiding judgment is like avoiding accountability, which is horrible, and not what any respectful human being would do! And also don’t you think that it is wrong to attack someone so innocent?! You blonde too, why did you attack me when you and I clearly didn’t know each other, huh? Doesn't everyone have the right to their life and the security of themself? This means that everyone has a right to be free from violence and to live in security, so wasn’t it horrible of you to attack someone who only wants to live in peace? By attacking someone, you deprive them of their physical and mental integrity, as well as their dignity, you know? That is a violation of their human rights, as well as their right to live free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment! And from any rational perspective, it is also a violation of my rights!!” My voice echoed throughout the ruined surroundings.

…

And what followed after that was silence… Maybe they are lamenting?

“What is wrong with him, Reimu? I think he is going crazy thinkin’ that he did nothin’ wrong-ze!” The newcomer, who had blonde hair with a puffy hat, looked at me funny and said that while pointing at me annoyingly.

“Marisa, he isn’t going crazy, he is crazy from the start.” Reimu deadpanedly said.

Maybe not, they are just mocking me silently! How dare they! They are deliberately saying things to upset and hurt me for the sake of amusement and satisfaction, which is wrong! And so, I believe that I have a right to defend myself by any means necessary for this attack on my person! Thus, I began to reach my hand down to grab some dirt from the ground, planning to throw it at them for my retaliation!

However…

“Marisa!”

Things didn’t go as planned as the red and white girl seemed to be able to notify the blonde in time with her seamless intuition before I could even initiate my attack, making the blonde able to dodge my attack just in time before it could hit her. As for the red and white girl, after she notified the blonde of the incoming danger, she was barely able to dodge my attack herself after that.

How the heck?! Seeing that these right violators were able to dodge my attack, albeit barely, agitated me to the point where my face turned red in pure outrage due to the utter bullshit I just witnessed. And so I began to speak once more, “Again?! Again!!? Are you intentionally and unsympathetically discarding my feelings and trying to irritate me with your ungrateful and annoying act? Don’t you respect my feelings? How dare you violate my right to be respected as a human being by bothering me to this extent!?”

What I got for a reply after I said that is, “CAN YA STOP BEING ANNOYIN’ FOR A SECOND-ZE?!!” from the blond.

And, “It’s no use, Marisa, it's like talking to a brick wall, so let's just not talk to him and beat him up instead.”

Okay, that's it!! That… is… simply… it!!

— — — — — — — — — — —

(A/N: This is additional stuff to the chapter that didn’t fit in anywhere, so I will put it here.)

Bunbunmaru Newspaper

Season 119, Satsuki issue #4

Dangerous Individual Proclaimed The Rights of an Outsider

On X the Xth, even if the spring had just passed, an extremely dangerous individual was spotted in the Youkai forest proclaiming his right and annihilating nearby Youkai for a slight misconduct against him.

*Insert image of Rumia's unrecognizable body that started to heal*

For that reason, it is cautioned to not approach this outsider, if you do encounter him, however, be careful, or else you may not return in one piece. I had also written what I had gleaned from him during his righteous tirade.

“Those who didn’t leave my satisfied self alone should die and disappear so that they can’t violate my rights again. It’s only fair, they denied my rights, I will deny their rights to continue living. It is only fitting, after all, every action has its own consequences, and this is the consequence of denying my right.”

How this man was able to go past the boundary is unknown. Maybe this is the work of the gap youkai? If so then for what purpose? Is the unknown man an enemy or an ally? Many questions with so few answers, and so I flew to ask Hakurei Reimu the moment after I spotted the mysterious man.

“It’s not the work of Yukari! Yukari would never endanger Gensokyo even if her life depended on it! Now get out of the way, I need to teach that guy a lesson for disturbing my morning!”

Those are the words of Hakurei Reimu who is currently trying to find the whereabouts of the mysterious man. If we find any more information regarding the mysterious man, we will quickly address it in the next volume of Bunbunmaru Newspaper.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: Nature vs Fantasy

Reimu Hakurei P.O.V

Urk, can’t I just sit and relax in my shrine in the morning without any interruption for once? However, knowing Gensokyo, I was half expecting youkai to be causing trouble in some way or another in my peaceful morning, but a human, much less an outsider, causing trouble? I wasn’t expecting that in the slightest. Neither did I expect Aya, the obnoxious tengu reporter, to come and annoy me to answer her questions in the morning so that she can cover a news story.

If it wasn’t for Aya coincidentally coming across this potential minor incident on one of her scouts and notifying me about it, I wouldn’t even be here. But even if I don’t want to go investigate it and rather sleep, I will still do it out of necessity anyway as it would be a problem if the population of either youkai or humans were to go down, even if it is just slightly. And good thing that I’m here since the cause of the potential minor incident in question had already killed someone in cold blood by cleanly cutting them in half. I’m a bit angry at first of course, but maybe because youkai had killed people all the time, and had done something even worse, that I had gone numb to it? But anyhow, I think he is currently fuming, I don’t know why though.

“How dare you say that I’m annoying!! And you, red and white, too! How dare you say in front of me that you'd rather not talk to me, and rather beat me up instead!? Not talking to others despite them talking to you shows a lack of respect for them and their opinions. Everyone has a right to be talked to and listened to, and when we violate that right, we are disrespecting them as individuals. And there’s about attacking me too!! Wanting to attack my person is like you are trying to put me down and making me feel inferior! How dare you!! Don’t you think that—.”

Ah, that’s why. I don’t know whether I should be exasperated or frustrated at this as I don’t know what is the deal with him, but as I said earlier, talking to him seems like a waste of time as it only makes things worse. And so after getting tired of hearing him speak, I decided to just attack him while he is talking, following Gensokyo rule #1, attack first then ask questions later, with my ofuda(or in Regulus words, a paper with strange writing on it), Marisa also seems to follow my attack with her wide array of star base attacks and lasers, while saying something like “Finally some action-ze!” and “I don’t want to hear this Rinnosuke doppelganger speak another word-ze!”. Eh, Rinnosuke? Oh right, he does look like him.

But back to the situation at hand, everything seems to not be affecting the outsider at all. I don’t know how that works, but I will try to figure it out so that I can put this guy back in his place.

“You you you!!! Not only did you lower me as a person, but you also decided to cut me off when I was talking!! Don’t you know that when people are talking, they have a right to speak without being interrupted? Cutting me off when I was talking is a violation of my right to speak, you should know that it was a common courtesy to not cut people off after all as it is both rude and disrespectful! It also is frustrating for me who is trying to communicate without wanting to be interrupted! Cutting me off is also sending a message that you are not interested in what I was saying. It was like you were saying that I wasn’t worth your time! Just how low do you think I am, huh? Just how high do you think you are to look down on me!!”

Geez, he’s still going? While he was still speaking, my hands didn’t stop moving at all and is still throwing stuff at him in any way I could think of, like aiming at his head, his torso, and other parts of his body specifically as he has to have some weakness, right? Maybe there is some condition that needs to be fulfilled to have his invincibility to work? But that seems the more unlikely the more I throw stuff at him. Marisa also seems to be relentless with her attack, as she seems so determined to break his invincibility spell or whatever it is.

But no matter what Marisa and I throw at him, he is completely undamaged, his cloth is not even one bit disheveled, and not even a speck of dust is on him even though dust is all over the place from all the explosion.

Maybe this is his ability?

Ability is something that is uncommonly manifested in people and is entirely unique to them. Maybe he has something similar to that? But that is something that I hadn't already dealt with as things like that are everywhere in Gensokyo, like Sakuya's unfathomable ability to manipulate time and Yuyuko's uncanny ability to manipulate death.

“And the fact that you are throwing stuff at me and expecting it to do something to me shows just how condescending you are! This is an act of disrespect and a way of putting me in a lower position than yourself, so just how dare you look down on me, me, me!? This is an infringement upon my rights, it clearly is! Do you even know who I am!? Hey, do you even listen to me?”

"... Huh? You said something?" That is my reply. With that reply, I could hear a snicker behind my back, and could see the man's visible anger.

“... You, you!! Tch, you know what? I’m not even going to be surprised. Oh right, we haven’t even been properly introduced yet, have we? I suppose it is to be expected to some extent, given the circumstances, but it seems manners have been foregone nonetheless. Even if you are rude and being disrespectful to my rights, I can’t allow myself to stoop that low, so allow me to make up for this. I am the Sin Archbishop of the Witch’s Cult, representing greed, Regulus Corneas. Now, remember the name of someone who will crush you! This wasn’t out of arrogance, it was out of fact!”

After he said that, he crouched down and used both of his hands to plow down the earth, seemingly trying to flip up the dirt toward me. This simple action caused the ground to shatter, digging dirt up into the air, and making it come toward me like a great tidal wave, seemingly becoming a preeminent wave of destruction that is moving up toward me without a single change to its speed like the law of rhythm had been completely violated.

Every grain of dirt seemingly turned deadly, judging by how it can pass through houses like it wasn’t even there, turning them to powder. Luckily that the destructive wave of destruction didn’t go into the village and was facing the outskirts of the village instead, or otherwise, it would cause a great deal of destruction.

“Now he's done it!” After saying that, I stop throwing my ofuda and ready my yin-yang orb, materializing a couple of it behind me.

“Oh, he made Reimu angry-ze! Ain’t like I’m blamin’ her, really, since I’m also startin’ to get angry myself!!” While Marisa said that, she stops shooting her magic and readying her weapon.

While I and Marisa were readying for the incoming wave of destruction, the wave was ever closer to our current location. With that couple seconds between life and death, Marisa attached her weapon, the mini-hakkero, to the back of her bloom, then blasted off a giant beam that is smaller than her Master Spark, but big nonetheless, from it, repelling her to a safe distance as expected from one of the fastest in Gensokyo. The big laser beam that is being blasted off from her mini-hakkero is also shooting toward Regulus, but it was completely reduced into practically nothing by the dirt particle before him.

As for me, I simply stay in place, close my eyes and isolate myself from reality by using my innate ability to make myself ‘floating’ away from everything. And so when those dirt particles that seemingly didn’t follow any of the natural laws finally reached me, it was completely, harmlessly, phase through me, as I had ceased to exist in that reality, or you can say, ceased to exist in that plane of existence, making myself completely immune to any and all things. And when it completely passed through me, I opened my eyes and let several yin-yang orbs behind me fade back into existence, 7 of them to be exact, and swung them toward Regulus with my gohei in a way that would push him outside of the village.

“Grr, you bitch!!” That is the only sound that could be heard of him before he got pushed back past the wall of the village, going outside of it. And immediately after that, I ‘floated’ after Regulus' disappearing body in the distance.

When he was a great distance away from the village, however, he just skidded to a stop mid-air. His velocity seemingly just stopped like it never had one to begin with. He is now just floating there, stucking there, denying the universal law of gravitation. The yin-yang orbs that had been pushing him were also stopped, and simply got rejected from his body like it wasn’t meant to be able to interact with him, and it just simply broke apart and some part was even completely disintegrated before they could return to me like a boomerang.

“Now that’s different…” I trailed off while getting out a couple of my sealing needles.

After that I heard the voice of someone so condescending, “Do you see now? Don’t you just see your incompetence of not even making a scratch on my person? You can never hope to injure me, nothing will especially now, so just stop trying, will you? You are so ridiculously inadequate that it’s not even funny! And now, what will you do? On that note, don’t you think that you should take responsibility for what you have done to me?”

With that voice filled with unpleasantness washed over me, the man that seemingly is violating several of the natural laws had disappeared. He just vanished, it wasn’t a matter of how fast, he just simply disappeared.

With his sudden disappearance, I reflectively tried to look around me to see where he went and I found him to be on the ground, and in the next moment, the land simply just shattered then he vanished again and is lurking over me condescendingly with many particles of dirt on his hand that can be used as a weapon of mass destruction. With my intuition telling me to dodge, I listened, and ‘floated’ along with the wind to dodge it. The position where I was before is where the particle of dirt on Regulus' hand had gone to.

After that, I heard the annoying voice of the man once more as he was descending down to the ground, “Obnoxious! Why can't you stay still and receive the reciprocation of your own action for once? It's like you are indirectly stating that you are above the rules that everyone else has to follow, which is not a good message to send! Don’t you think that you are being a little bit too greedy? Change your priority and just don’t just only care about yourself!”

“What? Ummm… Acting on your own desire is a way of life, you know?” I retorted.

But it seemed that Regulus wasn't satisfied with my answer, as he raised one of his hands up after I muttered those words, which caused the place where his arm previously was to shatter. At that moment, an attack that no one could see was let loose.

However, in the instant that it had left his hand and my gut instinct warned me to dodge, the invisible force of wind that I cannot see just swerved to avoid me judging by the whoosh sound I heard passing my body. When that happened, Regulus' face was also twisted into pure outrage when he saw that in front of his eyes.

“This, this!!! Just how miserably irritating, bitterly frustrating, and maddeningly irksome!! Dodging my attack like that, are you trying to mock me?!”

“What? Is that what it seems like? I didn’t do anything though.” Showing my genuine confusion, Regulus' face turned red, and was again moving his arm to create another unstoppable blade of wind.

And again, my premonition rang out, then something that I couldn’t see swerved passed by me. Or to the casual observer, if they could see Regulus' invisible attack, they would see that I had dodged the wind so fast, so natural, that it seemed to me like wind had swerved to avoid me instead of the other way around.

“You're definitely mocking me!! How dare—.”

Before he could finish his piece, however, a couple of black objects had just dropped on his head and were literally rejected from his body, making them drop down right under his crotch and they exploded with a burst of blue-ish flame. Those explosions were big, bigger than a two-story house, and had an extreme force that leveled the surrounding area evidenced by the big crater and how debris is flying everywhere.

After that display of explosions, Marisa swooped down with her bloom while saying, “I hope that's work-ze. That is the most powerful explosive in my arsenal!”

“It probably isn't going to work Marisa.”

“Hey! Don’t dash my hopes like that!”

I looked deadpannedly at Marisa for a moment and decided to completely ignore Marisa's playful remark and tell her what she missed when she was preparing her bombs earlier, “... Nothing can hurt him, or that is what he said anyway, so it’ll be useless.”

Hearing my words, Marisa pouted a little and left pondering, “That… that is not possible-ze. Everything has a weakness, even Sakuya herself has a weakness of being unable to rewind time, so there is definitely a way to hurt him.”

“Keep thinking I guess? I want to get this over with.” I responded while manifesting a couple of yin-yang orbs behind me, which seemed to be a good idea as when the smoke of the earlier explosion was cleared away, the man in white was standing there free of injury and free of contamination. It even makes me wonder if this state of unchangedness is his ability.

“How dare you do this to me, me, me and then go happily talking afterward? Don’t you think that it was rude, and downright disrespectful to do that when I was here standing? How dare you think of me as nothing but a pebble on the road, like I didn’t matter, like I wasn’t worth acknowledging? Get off your high horse you shit and don’t look down on me!”

Sweatdropped, I said, “You really are saying what you want, huh?”

“What is that laughable inferiority? Me, the most satisfying existence in the world that without a doubt not lacking in any aspect, wanting something? Don’t mess with me! I don’t want anything and will never need anything!!!” After he exclaimed that, he crouched down and began to grab a fist full of dirt again. However, since I’m there to see that all familiar action, I swung my yin-yang orbs at him before he could do anything, but he didn’t seem to care as my action didn’t deter him at all evidenced by how when the yin-yang orbs hit him square to the face, it didn’t seem to do anything to him at all. All the previous times I threw stuff at him, he seemed to be at least staggering from my attack a bit from the force, but now, it seems that it’s impossible to do that again.

And seeing that my Yin-yang orbs did nothing to stop him, I picked Marisa up by the brim of her dress and flew to the place I felt like it was safe, which seems to be the right call of action as the previous location I and Marisa were at got punctured by many tiny particles of dirt.

Regulus, who saw me and Marisa dodged his attack again, is apparently losing it as he again tries to annihilate me with his who-the-heck-know ability. But since in all likelihood this has been going on for a while now, someone has to be taking notice of all the commotion we cause, which someone really did as at the moment Regulus was about to grab a fist full of dirt again, a voice of a woman rang out, “Ending Sign "Phantasmal Emperor”."

And with that, Regulus, the man in white, is being flooded by divine light.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: History and Time

5 Minutes Prior.

Keine Kamishirasawa P.O.V

Today is a good day, it wasn’t particularly cloudy today, and there wasn’t any sign of trouble I could see. In the morning I even checked the dragon statue that can prophet a future incident before it can even happen and saw that it was green, indicating that today will not have any incident that can affect all of Gensokyo, and so today I do what I usually do and teach the future generation of the human village of the danger of the youkai as a proper history teacher. You can say that as someone who is also the guardian of the human village, this is my way to protect these humans from the malevolent youkai by passing down the history of them.

“... Now let's talk about Gashadokuro. But before we talk about it, can any one of you raise your hand if you have ever heard of this particular youkai before.”

After I questioned the class, only one kid raised their hand.

“Ah yes, Kenji-kun.”

“Umm, I think I remembered that Gashadokuro is a giant skeleton or something.”

Hearing that answer, I smiled and replied, “That is right Kenji-kun. From the scroll of ‘The Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons’, it is said that Gashadokuro is a giant skeleton that was formed when people, warriors to be specific, are not being given a proper funerary rites. They are the type of youkai who go out at night and eat humans just for the fun of it.” After I stated that, I began to poorly draw a giant skeleton on the chalkboard behind me. “This is Gashadokuro, this particular species of Youkai had not been seen since the creation of Gensokyo, but if the warrior of our village did not got their rightly deserved funeral, this youkai might come back to bring back the terror of the Gashadokuro once more—.” But before I could finish my long lecture, there was a faint explosion sound in the distance that I could hear.

With that startling noise, my eyes instinctively traveled in the direction of the sound I heard, even if I knew that my eyes would only meet with the school wall. And what follows after that is yet another sound of an explosion.

Hearing that, I started to panically look back at my students, and when my eyes met their current state, my panic-filled gaze immediately turned into worry as all my students seem to be there frozen in their seats in fear (the fear that mostly stemmed from confusion), and seeing that fear in their eyes, I couldn’t help but clench my fists in anger at the person who causes the commotion to happen in the first place.

But I will force that feeling down for now as I need to take care of the children before me, and so I began to say in a calm and collective voice as if I was in control of the situation, “Dears, please calm down. Everything is going to be alright. I will take care of this so please follow the protocol that we have been practicing up until now.”

After I said that, they seemed to be a bit reluctant to follow my safety precautions, but maybe because of their fear, they all comply with my safety protocol anyway in the end. But even if they all comply, they all still have the desire, no matter how small, to run home to their respective guardian for comfort, which is quite obvious from the look on their face.

Seeing that, I bit my lip a little, knowing that I can’t help them any more than I already have, and so I began to say begrudgingly, “… It will only take a couple of minutes so please wait here for the time being. It's going to be quick so please be patient and be a good boy and girl, will you?” After I said that gently, I left them with my most trusted faculty members in the temple school, and quickly went to check out the commotion outside in the hope of clearing up the commotion faster for the sake of the children and everyone.

What I saw when I got outside of the temple school was chaos as people were running around like their worst fear had come true, and what I presume those fears are is the fear of youkai attacking the village, which is understandable as the fear of youkai ran deep in their veins.

That fear is not unfounded, however, as it is within youkai nature to cause fear and terror, killing and destroying, and they do it as naturally as they breathe. Even if there are rules that were established by the Youkai Sages to make youkai not attack the humans of the human village as it is crucial to their existence due to them needing faith, like fear, to survive, their indomitable nature still sometimes gets better of them to cause unimaginable chaos, and for that, I took it upon myself to protect this village.

Seeing this turmoil, I began to take control of the situation by announcing my presence via shouting with a voice filled with both power and authority, “Everyone please calm down! Can anyone tell me what is going on?” After I said that, everyone in the area seized what they were doing for a moment, and after that momentary halt, everyone's face began to gradually brighten in hope, but even so, there is still a hint of fear lingering on their faces.

And a moment after, one man, who I know so well around the neighborhood, began to walk forward and began to address what’s going on in the place of others, “O-oh, if it wasn’t Miss Keine. The thing is, there is a white hair guy who is flying and destroying a section of the village just now. You got to do something, Miss Keine!”

Another villager steps forward and adds, “I-I was there when the man caused an explosion. The shrine maiden seems to be fighting the man.”

Shrine maiden, huh? So she is finally doing her job for once. Normally she will not do anything unless something big happens. Anyway, “Thanks for those pieces of information, I will definitely do something about it, so please get in the shelter and I will take care of the rest… I already have things under control.”

Which, I really did as just now, I had erased the entire history of the human village, erasing it from the face of reality as history is reality when seen from a single point of view. But even if I say that, erasing history is just concealing history from outside perception. Still… If only I had known about this and I would have erased this from happening in the first place.

“O-oh, thank god. Things like this haven't happened for a very long time now, so I got a bit worried.”

“Rest assured. As the guardian of this village, I will not let any harm fall upon you guys.” After I reassured him and everyone in the surrounding area, the man pointed me toward the direction where he last saw him, and after that, I began to fly in that direction.

And when I was at a mid-way point toward that pointed direction, I stopped my flight and looked at the destruction before me in shock. What I saw was a scene that could not possibly be produced by any normal means, it was a picture of every house in that area getting punctured by something, I’m not sure, causing the area to have an uncountable number of holes that even I can’t see the end of. I even saw a couple of unrecognizable villagers' corpses lingering on the ruined road. With that being presented in my views of vision, I grew angrier and angrier as I continued to fly toward the village gate.

After I flew a bit further and reached a gate, my anger reached its peak as I saw another brutalized corpse, but this time I was able to recognize them as one of the village guards. And what I see further away from this sight of carnage is the figure of the shrine maiden, the witch lookalike, and the white haired man standing on the clearing that was quite a distance away from the gate. Seeing the white hair man, I swiftly grabbed a spell card, knowing that he was responsible for the massacre. Eventually, I declared, “Ending Sign "Phantasmal Emperor.”

After I use the spell card, it begins to shine for a second and creates 3 very condensed energy balls in the air next to me that continuously create many slowly-moving lights of high frequency making the man in white to be completely engulfed by a divine light of ethereal blue when it hits him. The spell card also makes many energy-like projectiles around me that shoot in all directions.

While the 3 condensed energy balls are doing their work and producing a lot of high-energy visible light, and many projectiles is also being kept manifesting into the physical world beside me, I flew, but not too close, to the location of the shrine maiden and the blond witch, who was surprised at the turn of the event and who were dodging my spell card that didn’t distinguish between ally and foe.

When I was in a good distance between them, I began to speak to the shrine maiden while suppressing my anger toward the white hair man for the time being, “Oh, if it wasn’t the shrine maiden who sided with the youkai.” After saying that, I began to direct my attention to another presence beside her and said, “... And, I assume you are her friend.”

Hearing me, both the shrine maiden and the witch turned their heads and looked at me, and the shrine maiden began to speak, “Eh? Who are you?”

After the shrine maiden questioned that, the witch beside her also began to add her own input as well, “Maybe she is comin’ to help us-ze?”

Seeing that they are confused about who I am, I began to introduce myself, “Oh pardon me, I am the guardian of the human village, Kamishirasawa Keine.” After I stated my name, my attention began to shift elsewhere, “… Let's talk later, as we seem to have a more pressing matter that we need to attend to.” And that pressing matter is the white haired man who is currently bending my visible light attack with the most frustrated expression I have seen today.

— — — — — — — — — — —

Marisa Kirisame P.O.V

As I was fighting this white hair guy with Reimu, he suddenly got hit by a blinding light that would definitely blind a normal person. And not only that, but I also seemed to be in the crossfire as I was also at risk of being hit by other smaller balls of energy that fly toward all directions, which included mine unfortunately, in a pattern of danmaku.

After a moment of dodging these danmaku, a voice of an unfamiliar woman rang out in a cool tone, “Oh, if it wasn’t the shrine maiden who sided with the youkai.” I could hear her pause for a second, and speak again, “... And, I assume you are her friend”

Hearing that, I began to look in the direction where that voice came from and I saw a woman with long whitish blue hair who seemed to be focusing on Reimu and on me while she was still shooting danmaku at us indiscriminately, which couldn’t be helped really as spell cards produce a designated pattern of the magical bullet upon use.

Anyway, while I was dodging the woman danmaku, Reimu seemed to not be bothered by it at all, which to be honest, if my past self were to see that, she would be very jealous and bitter ‘bout that as Reimu didn’t train to gain that power at all, but now, I just see this display of strength and ability as my goal to strive toward. And because Reimu doesn’t seem to be bothered by the unknown woman danmaku, she nonchalantly said, “Eh? Who are you?”

After she said that, I began to follow her example and began to speak out as well amid the bullet curtain because I don’t want to lose to Reimu, “Maybe she is comin’ to help us-ze?”

The moment after I said that, the mysterious woman seemed to remember something and began to introduce herself, “Oh pardon me, I am the guardian of the human village, Kamishirasawa Keine.” After she said that, something seemed to catch her attention, causing her to say, “… Let’s talk later, as we seem to have a more pressing matter that we need to attend to.” Hearing that, I began to focus on what she is focusing on, and upon seeing what she is focusing on, I began to think about how I need to prepare an even bigger Master Spark as what greets me when I look at the direction of the place that had been floated with divine light earlier was the completely undamaged human-rights-appreciator guy, I forgot his name.

“You you you! Who the fuck are you!! Why did you attack me me me when I didn’t do anything to you?! Just why the fuck did you assault me when I didn't do anything!? Tell me, just tell me what did I do to deserve this treatment? Nothing! Yes, nothing! Attacking me like that for no reason is downright evil! It is such a senseless act of violence! It is an act of aggression that does not solve any problems and only creates more problems!! Apologize to me now! Apologize, bow down, prostrate! If you do that I might consider your apology and accept it!”

There he goes again, another long rant that I need to listen to. How did Reimu deal with this? She just stood there like the rants didn’t affect her at all, and seeing that she still kept her cool, I began to doubt if she really is a human as even I, who is a human, started to have a hard time holding my cool after listening to him for this long. Hell, I didn’t even have a state of mind to talk while listening to this guy as it would be instantly drowned by him.

And while I was doubting Reimu's humanity, the silver-haired girl began to speak in both seriousness and anger, “I will not be respectful or even apologize to someone like you who murder innocents! As the guardian of the human village, I will have to ask you to surrender peacefully!”

“Tch, talking all and mighty like you have the authority to order me to do something. And me murder innocents? Don’t mess with me! They are not innocent at all as they violated my rights! Rights are something every human is born with, discarding someone's rights is like discarding their most sacred possession! Discarding my rights is like discarding the baseline level of my basic human dignity! For that reason, those inhuman sons of a bitch deserve what’s coming to them! And what’s this about surrendering? Are you planning to put me in custody? You bitch, shouldn’t I have the right to my liberty!? So shouldn’t I be allowed to roam whatever place I want to be? You don’t have the right to discard my right to my freedom like that!”

“... You done? I thought that you have something good to say, but instead what I hear is words from a delusional madman. So you are not a youkai but a human? An outsider perhaps? Regardless of that, it still wasn’t enough of an excuse to cause a massacre!”

“What the fuck did you just say? Me, a madman? Bitch! Did you just call me a madman!!? Don’t lump me into that category and don’t ever refer me as such! Don’t you know that by calling me something I’m not is a violation to my right to my individuality?! And also, don’t dare call my action a ‘massacre’! Massacre means an act of senseless slaughtering of a lot of people, which is not what I just did! Killing the scum of the earth is the right thing to do and makes the world a better place so it is not senseless, and thus you shouldn’t call my pure act of goodwill a ‘massacre’, you should call it a 'purification’ instead!”

…

“Did he just try to justify his action as an act of good will-ze?” I said in incredulity.

“*sigh*” Reimu exhaled audibly and began to say, “That is why you shouldn't bother talking to this guy.”

“... I can see your point, shrine maiden.”

After Keine said that in an uncontained disdain toward the white hair man, Reimu began to speak up again, “Oh, by the way, this guy didn’t know about danmaku so you don’t have to use it against him. You also don’t have to follow the spell cards rule either. And maybe also close your ears whenever he talks or something as it’s quite annoying and it’s not like he will actually ‘listen’ to us.”

“I will consider that.” Keine responded in acknowledgement.

“Yeah, like Reimu said, miss Kamishisa-and-whatever-the-rest-of-your-name-is, he will not listen to what we have to say so we should just kick his ass instead to let our words pass through him!” I smirkingly commented.

After I cheekily said that, Miss long name shot an annoyed gaze at me for a second but didn’t say anything, which I internally pouted. Anyway, when we were having a small chit-chat, the man didn’t seem to like that as he began to reach down to the ground to grab many grains of dirt to try to kill us again.

I didn’t let him of course and beat him into it by using another Master Spark, but since I know that just a master spark wouldn’t be enough to hurt him, I decided to Double Spark the crap out of this guy. Thus I announced, “Loving Heart "Double Spark".”

After I chanted that, the mini-hakkero began to grow in a multi-color light, and after a moment, it ultimately produced two sparks from it, making it double in size, blanketing the whole area in front of me, efficiently stopping the man from grabbing another handful of dirt.

And while I was doing that, Keine didn’t slack either and began to prepare her attack just in case my attack didn’t deter him, and that is what happened much to my shock as my freaking giant magical laser can’t penetrate his unbreakable defense at all!

This can’t be a simple defense ability!

And after my Double Spark, Keine began to throw out her attack after me by declaring its name, “Great Fire "Flower of Edo".”

When that name is utter, fires start to appear little by little, fizzling into existence gradually and progressively until it becomes what it describes to be in its name, the great fire that encompasses the big part of the sky that can be seen hundreds of acres of land away like the great fire of edo that was comparable to the fire once generated by the gods of fire Shukuyū. The sight of this (near-)impossible spell card makes me gawk.

This is much much much stronger than her previous spell card considering the fact that she actually listens to Reimu advice of not having to follow the rule of spell card against him.

But this is not a time to gawk as that said great fire is also reaching toward me at a terrifying pace, I feel like if I were to get caught in the fire, I wouldn’t be able to escape it, thus I ready my mini-hakkero and try to escape it using one of my spell card, “"Blazing Star"!”

With that spell card being said, I ride along the wind by firing a Master Spark backward, using it to repel myself upward toward the sky, effectively escaping the great fire of edo. The Master Spark I shot backward is also hitting Regulus, so this can be said to be hitting 2 birds with 1 stone. And while I was doing that to escape, Reimu seemed to have already used her fantasy nature to escape the fire of Shukuyū long before I did.

Following that, I began to look back after the effect of my spell card was over and without any time wasted, I cried out another spell card from this relatively safe distance, “Star Sign "Dragon Meteor"!”

With that spell card declared, yet another Master Spark fell from the sky, enveloping the man's location like a star falling on that location. After that attack, I began to gradually float down to the ground, but still away from the fire.

After everything I and Keine threw at him, I seriously began to doubt that his defense still holds on from all those firepowers. Hell, I even began to doubt if he’s still alive in there since If a normal man were to take those devastating attacks, they would no doubt be reduced to cinder 10 times over by the mere heat and powerful stream of lights, not to mention the actual direct damage.

Yike, I sure don’t want to be him right now.

But I quickly retracted those words as after the smoke cleared and the great fire of edo disappeared, I saw the man standing there on the smoldering ground perfectly fine, like nothing had happened, with his intolerable smirks looking up toward me and Keine that seemed to be saying, ‘Huh, is that it?’, and all while giving me and Keine that look, he also began to speak, “Now now, don’t you know that treating someone as a target dummy is a form of psychological torture? As when someone is constantly under attack, whether it be physical or verbal, it takes a toll on their mental health, and so shouldn’t you consider mine? Treating me as a target dummy like that is a violation of my right to physical safety! Don’t you ever wonder how they feel, and how I feel when I was constantly being under attack? Don’t you think that someone who never considers other people's feelings and also discards people's right to their safety should be punished for their actions? I don’t know you but I think that it is fully justified for me to get my just revenge, so now accept your—.” “Great Barrier "Hakurei Barrier"!”

But before he could finish talking, however, he was engulfed by a giant square dome of relative size and another smaller one. The two domes came from Reimu, who had been silent up until now, waiting for an opportunity to strike, and is also who is currently inside the enclosed space she created.

The giant cube that covered Regulus' entire being is a barrier technique that consisted of stacking two barriers inside one another to incomprehensibly erase the very thing that kept the universe from becoming a singularity. It was a barrier technique that made everything inside the barrier become something akin to a world with no boundaries, a world where there is no difference between anything.

Don’t ask me how that works as I don’t know myself.

After Regulus got caught in that barrier, where time and space are being turned over and inside out, Reimu who is inside the barrier itself, began to manifest a scarily amount of yin yang orb and began to shots many tendrils of energy with them that swayed left and right in an exotic fashion that upon hitting the first barrier, it began to come out from another opposite side of another barrier, and repeating the same motion over and over again, which is extremely confusing to watch since a phenomenon of turning space inside out isn’t something scientific in nature.

Just thinking about all the ‘how’ is hurting my brain!

And like it wasn’t enough, another voice rang out, “"Deflation World".”

And afterward, a glittering knife whistled through the wind toward the great barrier. Normally, the knife would simply go on its intended path, but this wasn’t so simple as wherever the knife go, another exact same knife would manifest behind it, following the same trajectory, and another exactly the same knife would appears behind it, and so on and forth, until that exact same knife is all over the sky, more than I could count, that are all making its way toward the direction of the great barrier.

This isn’t something cheap that can be created by throwing a bunch of knives, in fact, the over hundred of knives in the sky were the product of 1 knife and 1 single throw. It is a spell card I knew so well from someone who is so familiar. It was a spell card that compresses the world flow of time, which is essentially the same as compressing the entire universe instead of letting it inflate, making the past and future to exist in the present, so those knives in the sky are just essentially the same knife from all times that is being compressed to exist in the current moment.

And the one doing the impossible is not even 10 meters away from me who sported the perfect picture of an elegant maid, and it was then that she began to speak, “As a request from the mistress, I will lend a helping hand on defeating this Anomaly.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 7: Nature of Regulus Ability

A Minute Prior.

Sakuya Iyazoi P.O.V

I had been spending time flying through Gensokyo for a while now, and I can say that the travel was fairly irritating as many fairies had tried to get in my way for almost the entire duration, but because youkai was nowhere in sight for the reason beyond my knowledge or understanding, it kind of make the situation that could be said to be undesirable to be turned into something tolerable instead.

But even if that were to be the case, having to get through pests is quite unpleasant. It would be great if I could stop time, but since the Anomaly can move in it, I don’t want to risk anything and choose not to. And I can’t complain, after all, the reason I went through all of that in the first place is because my mistress wanted me to deal with the Anomaly in her place since the sun had already risen. She is a bit disgruntled with her decision of course, but she can’t do anything about the sun so she said that next time she will definitely participate.

With that musing, I notice that I’m getting closer and closer to the Anomaly location if what I’m currently sensing is anything to go by. Normally, I don’t have such a convenient ability to locate someone, but this is a special case as the one who I can sense is very noticeable, his presence is like a single droplet of black ink on a white paper, it was that stood out in the fabric of space since it’s a literal distortion in space itself, so it was quite easily been seen by me.

I don’t know the mechanism behind that phenomenon that the Anomaly is causing, but I can only imagine that it’s not something good. It’s like having a literal sun walking on the surface of the planet, it is too dangerous to be left alone.

While I am thinking that, I have arrived at my intended location. And what greeted me as soon as I arrived was a green expanse, where there is nothing, even trees, only grasses, and someone who I was both familiar and unfamiliar with in the distance.

So the incident investigator is already on the move. That is quite quick… of… them… hmm? An empty plane?

Now that I noticed that, it quickly becomes apparent to me that the village is gone as the area where the human village was supposed to be was nothing. Not a single thing was there, and what took it places was nothing but a grass plain, a simple plain of space. It’s quite unnerving to see the place that empty. And seeing that, I mused, this is not just a potential incident, this might already be an incident. Having thought of that, I begin to look at the situation at large.

From what I could see, Marisa and a woman I don’t know are floating quite near to each other, give and take around 30 meters, and so it is safe to say that they are teaming up or something. Then further from those two, there is Reimu and a man, who I don’t know, in the enclosed barriers that I think Reimu created, fighting each other, though the man seems to not be moving and just stands there taking all the things Reimu throws at him. And upon closer look at those barriers that encased both inside, I can see that the inside of this duplex barrier has a different flow of time than the outside, which is quite impressive. And because of the difference in the passage of time, it also makes nothing able to go inside or out, just like the great hakurei barrier that sealed Gensokyo off from the outside world, but less complex.

Seeing such a barrier and the person inside it, I notice from my senses that the guy who Reimu is fighting against is the anomaly in time that I have been sensing ever since before sunrise, and thus knowing that, I began to come up with a plan that will contribute to the fight as that is what I’m here to do in the first place. I will also try not to come up with any plan that will destroy the barrier that Reimu created since I don’t want it to lose its purpose.

With some time of thinking without worrying about time as I have unlimited time due to me accelerating my thought process, I began to initiate the plan I thought of and began to throw out one of my powerful spell cards: ““Deflation World”.”

“Deflation World” is a spell card that allows me to generate knives in an instant without having to lay them out myself with time stop, which is perfect for this occasion as stopping time is not a good idea at the current moment since the Anomaly can walk in it. After that I make the time of those knives stop, making those knives simply stuck in the air as if they had frozen in time in the present.

With that, I had laid out the foundation of my future attack as now, with a thought I can move those knives from its frozen time to deliver a fast strike without any time delay to the Anomaly. And with that being done, I approached Marisa, who saw me coming toward her, and then began to say, “As a request from the mistress, I will lend a helping hand on defeating this Anomaly.”

With me saying such, a boyish smile started to appear on Marisa's face as she looked at me like I had come at a perfect time. “You come at the moment we need some extra hand-ze. Come come!”

While Marisa said that while waving both of her hands, I still didn’t move from my spot, instead, I began to say with a bit of suspicion, “Before that, are you the one who made the village disappear?” My eyes never left Marisa, and Marisa couldn’t help but feel a little bit uneasy and have her smile falter after I said that.

What I learn from knowing Marisa is that if something is ever missing, an object, a person, or a thing, Marisa is the first one I will suspect. As I thought that in silence, Marisa's voice steer me off of it a moment later.

“What disappears-ze?” She looked confused for a second from my statement earlier, but that quickly turned into a ‘what the heck’ expression as she looked at her surroundings a bit. After that, she turned her head back to me stiffly and quickly said to me, who is steadily approaching her with my knives in hands, in a slight panic tone, “I don’t know ‘bout that I swear!”

Hearing that loud shout of desperation (kind of), I halt on my step.

Judging by Marisa's reaction, I can see that she is being genuine and has no idea about what happened to the village. And based on her personality, this is definitely not an act because her acting/lying skills are nonexistent at best. And so, thinking of that, I didn’t push the thought of Marisa being behind the village disappearance any further and just nodded to myself and put all my knives away, then said, “Excuse my previous action then, Marisa.”

Hearing me say that, Marisa took a deep sigh of relief for a moment, and then Marisa's easygoing attitude came back as she smiled wearily, “Geez, how many times have I told you to not be overly polite.”

I tilted my head a little and said, “... I see, it's a shame that you can’t remember what I told you before about not being overly crude either, Marisa. Perhaps you should write it down.”

“Ouch, coming back with an even more hurtful insult I see, as expected of Sakuya.”

As Marisa grumbles to herself, I straightforwardly ask her a question, “Marisa, may I know the current situation?

Hearing my directness, Marisa responded back with, “Ah yes-ze. So there isn’t much happening. The guy seems to have something that protects against everything we throw at him. Even Reimu throws some punches but he is still fine after that, can you believe it?” Marisa said frustratedly.

“Is he really causing that much trouble? How strong might he be?” That is my honest thought. I might know that he leaves a distortion in the fabric of space-time in his very presence, but other than that, I don’t know the full extent of the Anomaly power unless I face him myself, so I will not say that I understand his strength.

“Yes! His clothes weren't even harmed by my master spark! I even shot my sparks of love three times for the measure but it still didn’t do anything to him at all-ze!” She said that while putting both of her arms up for dramatic effect.

“Now that is surprising…” This is an understatement as Marisa Master Spark is an attack that displays quite a tremendous amount of power, and so it is quite impressive that the Anomaly, who was completely unknown to me, was able to withstand something like that that can be considered as ultimate firepower. With that information on the Anomaly's durability, now I can slightly gauge the extent of his power.

And after that moment of contemplation, I continued, “... Do you think this is a work of his ability?”

Hearing that, Marisa begins to put on her ‘thinking pose’, “Ummm, I had never seen any kind of magic that works like that, soooo there is a very likely chance that his impenetrable defense is the work of his ability… Ummm, lemme guess, he is capable of having an unchanging state? His hair didn’t even sway when the wind was blowin’ toward him-ze!”

“A solid guess… The Anomaly is quite troublesome, I see.”

“No shit. Also, why do ya keep callin’ him an ‘Anomaly’ anyway?” Marisa asked curiously.

Hearing Marisa's inquiry, I decided to answer her since she will be fighting the Anomaly with me anyway, but when I was about to answer her, the whitish blue hair woman who was near, but hadn’t come toward our direction up till now (maybe out of politeness?) decided to come in at that moment, “Sorry for the interruption, but I think that I should hear that as well?” The one who said such a word in civility is a girl who looked around my age that sported a blue dress and a hat that looked like some kind of building.

“Of course,” that is what I said in a polite tone, but then my attitude quickly changed and I then continued to say in skepticism, “But before that, who could you be? Are you perhaps the one who made the human village disappear?”

After I said that, the woman seemed to be surprised, though she quickly gained her composure and said, “... I don’t know what you’re talking about, there is no village established here from the beginning.” She stated that as if she stated facts, even though I clearly remember that the village existed. Is this woman lying?

But I didn’t get the chance to ponder though as Marisa spoke up at that moment, “Eh? Keine, aren't you the ‘Guardian Of The Human Village’-ze? What do you mean there is no village?”

So, she lied. Knowing that fact, I pulled out my knife and pointed it at the whitish blue-haired woman, and all while I’m doing that, I began to ask the whitish blue-haired woman again who had just supposedly lied, “You lied just now, I see. Are you the one who made the village disappear? If so, may I ask you to return the human village back? It would be quite an inconvenience to find a replacement for the source of our maintenance tools, after all.”

After that left my mouth, the woman seemed to be choosing her words carefully, and shook her head a little after thinking of the right response, “... No, I will not return the history of the human village just yet, not until the threat is neutralized. The human village's history is under my protection.”

“... I see.” Afterward, I say no more and begin to put my knives away.

Seeing such, Marisa from the side just asked me, “Why ya so nonchalant about this-ze? I thought you would… I don’t know, throw knives at her or somethin’.”

“I’m not barbaric like you, Marisa. And… my main focus is not the disappearance of the human village, my main focus is the Anomaly. I have to follow my mistress' request to the end, so I can’t get sidetracked.”

“... What do you mean barbaric-ze! I’m not crude, uncivilized, or live in the woods— wait a second…”

With that, Marisa now seems to be at a loss of a word and seems to be reconsidering her life choices.

But then I snapped her out of it a moment later by saying, “So about the Anomaly…”

With the topic being brought back once more, the bubble bursts and the serious atmosphere comes back, “You see… the reason why I called him an Anomaly is because his very presence is a distortion in the very fabric of space itself.”

After I said that, Keine spoke up, “Um… I might not teach children about such things, but, isn’t that kind of similar to a black hole?”

Hearing that, Marisa perks up, “Oh oh right! Maybe that is why my master spark didn’t work on him! He may be able to absorb light-ze!” Marisa said that excitedly, like she had found a final piece in a puzzle.

And staying silent, I put my hand on my chin and ask, “That's an interesting point, but may I know what this ‘black hole’ is?”

““Eh””

Seeing their confusion, I tilt my head in confusion as well. And it is then that Marisa starts snickering, “Phew–hahaha! Oh man, are you living under the rock or somethin’— ack!” But then she got hit in her stomach by Keine.

“Don’t mind her,” Afterward, she then began to say, “So you don’t know what a black hole is, correct?” Seeing me nod, she cleared her throat and began to lecture me, “A black hole is the distortion in space-time that happened due to a strong gravitational pull. The gravitational pull in of itself is so strong that light can’t escape. The core of the black hole is called the singularity, at the point of singularity time is stopped, well, it is more accurate to say ‘stretched’. That is the gist of it, if you want me to clarify anything, please tell me.” While she is saying that, the sound of Marisa laughing in the background can be heard.

After Keine finished, I just said, “I see… I’ll say that the Anomaly is very similar to the singularity you spoke of, however, the Anomaly time doesn’t seem to be ‘stretched’, just merely stopped.”

Marisa, who is currently wiping her tears of pain and laughter off her eyes, began to speak up after I said that, “Hmmm, so he doesn't have time-ze? So this is what Eins-somethin’ meant when he said that ‘time is an illusion’... Anyway, how does that work-ze? If you have no time, doesn't that mean that you just stuck there in time?”

Saying that Keine added her input into the matter as well, “Yes, I agree with Marisa. For someone to not have time and still be able to move… doesn’t that make no sense?”

I nod my head confirming her words, “Yes, it makes no sense at all. If I were to make myself have no time by stopping the time of my body, then I would be no doubt stuck in time like those knives I threw previously, and so for him to be able to walk around even as his time is stopped like that, that is impossible.” Then I paused for a moment, and then I spoke up again, “But… if he could really do that, then he will have to interfere with the rules of the world.”

— — — — — — — — — — —

Meanwhile, inside the duplex barrier

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

What the fuck is wrong with these people?! Why did they have to get me involved in something insignificant!? How much of a nitpick can they be? Picking at me because of a small thing I had done and initiating it to be something big?! Wasting my time on this trivia nonsense, this is clearly a violation of my right to use my time!! And what is this?! Why am I in this square dome looking thing? I don’t get it! … Is this equivalent to prison? If so, just how dare that red-white bitch put me in this prison?! Does she even have the authorization to do that to me?! And does she even have the authority to shoot things at me!!? Such nonsense, ABSURD!!!

With my patience gone, my retaliation started with me blitzing toward Reimu— who had been tormenting me for the past 10-20 minutes— in what seemed like an instant. With me being in front of the girl, her expression didn’t change as if my speed didn’t surprise her.

‘Dismissing me like that! How dare this bitch look down on me!!’ While I angrily thought that for just a second, I began to reach my hand for Reimu, planning to remove her existence entirely by throwing her to the moon or reducing her into a bloody paste, both options are very enticing. But… as my hand reaches her, my hands simply phase through her as if she didn’t exist.

“You are readable, you know that?” As she said that while my hand passed through her nonexistent body, my eyes of gold narrowed in anger, and the girl moved her hand. It happened so fast that I didn’t know what happened as the next thing I knew, I was being slammed by several rainbow balls of light, knocking back a good dozen of meters, however, I am still completely unharmed. And seeing me unharmed, she clicked her tongue, “Tch, getting caught off guard didn’t work either. You really are resilient.” Afterward, she let out even more bullets to try to chip away at my defense. But what those really only did to me is to further anger me.

“You, YOU!!! DIE! You hear? Die! You disgusting piece of shit should just rot!!! Hurting me and treating me like some hard rock that needs to be broken away, I wouldn’t allow you! So go die you human rights violator piece of shit!!” After those screams of hatred I made, like having an intuition, the girl started to float away up high. The moment she is doing that, I swipe my hand sideways as hard as I can toward the location where she is no longer there.

And after the side swing I had thrown, the sound, the wind, the bullet, the atmosphere, the duplex barrier—that are supposed to be impenetrable due to the difference in time flow— and everything, it all breaks apart. Furthermore, what’s beyond the duplex barrier got cut as well, like the distant mountain.

With the distant mountain having been cleanly cutted in half horizontally, the upper part of the mountain that got cut fell down to the bottom just like in a game of daruma-otoshi, making it seem like nothing happened to the mountain except for some unnoticeable difference in its height. The duplex barrier that got cutted previously also quickly reforms back.

“Dodging again and again! Just stop dodging your punishment! Escaping the consequences of your actions only prevailing it, so just stand still already and receive your punishment for violating my rights! You are wasting my valuable time!” As I yell that in outrage, I reach out my hand, trying to grab something, anything that can be thrown at Reimu, the target of my anger and frustration. But finding none, I simply opt to just grab at the air, putting force into it, squeezing it, and throw it at Reimu like a physical thing.

With my authority influencing the very air itself and with that said air being squeezed right under my palm before being thrown, what this helps to create is a very pressurized air—due to the squeeze of air molecules— that is heading toward Reimu.

When the pocket of pressurized air gets close enough to Reimu, I cancel my authority, and the pocket of air bursts, releasing the compressed air inside it, creating an explosion. The explosion itself is deafening, and it can rupture the eardrum of a normal human. I figure that if I can't kill her with my hand, I will just have to kill her the other way. But… despite that, she was somehow able to dodge the burst of explosion.

This is getting ridiculous at this point!!

“ARRRRRGHHHHH!!!” With that scream of frustration being let out of my mouth, my authority froze the time of the sound waves, or the sound of my scream, that was in the air, creating a devastating sonic boom of unstoppable force toward Reimu. But Yet, Yet again, she was able to substitute her body with her papers!

Just how was this bitch able to dodge my attacks again and again?!! Just how long will it take to finally get rid of her? Why did this bitch just not die!? Why!? Just why did she just not stay still for once? And who?! Just who gives her the right to violate my rights again and again!? The gall of this bitch to attack me! The nerve of her to hurt me, and also even have the audacity to mock me! How dare she keep swinging that stick (gohei) at me like it’s going to do something! How dare she keep swinging that stick again and again and again like… l-like that hard-to-kill red-haired stick swinger! Just die already! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!

Now, my attacks are reaching the point of irrationality. Anything I can use, I will use it to attack; the air, the ground, and even the sound that I made, I’d use it as my attacks to get rid of the bitch in front of me. I don’t care anymore, I simply just want this bitch to die!

— — — — — — — — — — —

Reimu Hakurei P.O.V

This is bad, very bad.

Previously this Regulus guy just didn’t do anything and took everything I threw at him, but now, he simply acts without any self-restraint and destroys everything. I might be fine as I can put on a stalemate, but Gensokyo might not. And so gritting my teeth, I needed to ‘float’ up an idea now so that I can subdue this guy fast.

…

And then it dawned on me, if this guy can’t be hurt by physical and spiritual attacks alike, then the power of god might work? Faith power came from a divinity, the stronger the divinity, the stronger the power. Due to the Hakurei Family being somewhat important for maintaining the barrier that kept all youkai from fading away, the whatever-god-behind-hakurei-shrine should be somewhat powerful, right? So I think that this might work… And so with that idea being constructed in my mind, I began to try to fuse the power of faith from the whatever-god-that-is-in-the-hakurei-shrine into the gohei… I might not have trained to be able to do this, but there is a first time for everything, and there is a saying ‘desperate time called desperate need’ so this will do.

“Err here goes nothing, I called thee, the God who resides within the Hakurei! Fuse this purification rod with thy blessing! … Is that how it goes?” After doing such, my gohei began to shine in a golden hue.

Taking that as a sign of it working, I then begin to launch myself at a subsonic speed toward Regulus, who is currently spilling curses. Afterward, I begin to prepare to smack my faith-filled gohei at him. When my gohei about to reach Regulus, I cancel my Fantasy Nature, albeit only for a moment — since if I did not do that then my attack would just simply phase through him like how everything phases through me — and with that, I smack my gohei, full force, at Regulus head.

But… with a loud thud, my gohei cracks. What’s more is that my faith-empowered gohei didn’t even leave a mark on Regulus' head, and so with my eyes widened in surprise, I began to try to reactivate Fantasy Nature again and move back to build up distances… The key word here is ‘try’ as while my gohei was still in contact with Regulus' head, my body refused to move. Not voluntarily, my body simply refuses to move. My body refused to breathe. My eyes refused to blink.

What?!

As my body froze due to an unknown means, Regulus' voice filled with disdain and hate reached out to me, “YOU SEE NOW?!! You see now right? Right? Don't you just see the pointlessness of your actions?!! Didn’t you see what I’m capable of? Or do you seriously need me to dumb things down for you for the third time—or is it forth, now? Look, it's really not that hard to understand that I’m superior to you in every sense! Seriously, how could you not understand that simple concept? So why do you keep trying and trying and trying and trying, huh? Just lay there and DIE! DIEEEE!!!”

With that unpleasant voice stop, I am being thrown to the ground. But, instead of stopping at the ground, I continue to fall, fall and fall. Never stopping, never slowing down. Remaining constant and unchanging. While falling down and unable to do anything, I just thought to myself,

Crap, I didn't plan on taking a trip to the underworld today…

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: Duration of Finite and Infinite

Reimu Hakurei P.O.V

I am currently falling through the very earth. Digging through it like a drilling machine, but the only thing that is different is the fact that there is no resistance.

As I’m digging through rocks, dirt, gravel, and whatever that is underground, I begin to think, ‘When am I gonna stop falling? At this rate, I will be in the underworld that I had heard about. No, the better question would be, will I ever stop falling?’ Thinking of that, even if my face didn’t show it due to it being frozen for some reason, I am quite alarmed and annoyed at my current situation.

Which is a given because I can’t do anything right now, not even twitch my muscles, blink, hell even breath. I don’t know how my lungs didn’t suffer from lack of air, but now it’s not the time to ponder. I need to figure out a way to stop myself from falling. Previously, I tried to use fantasy nature to float out of this situation, but that didn’t work, so you can say that I’m in quite a tough spot.

It seems that every function of my body, even the use of my ability, stops working entirely. This troublesome aspect of that white hair guy ability leads me to think that he has some kind of ability to make something unchangeable. Making anything become an ‘unchangeable object’, that is what I’ll call it. A fearsome ability that makes anything stay the same from the very moment it gets affected by the ability to the time when they get out of it effect, and that might be why I can’t use my ability since using it means affecting my body. However, it is strange… if I indeed am the ‘unchangeable object’ shouldn’t I be incapable of thought? Or, maybe the white hair guy, Regulus, was it? Were able to choose what can be changed and what cannot? Is this guy so sadistic that he chose me to be able to do nothing but think?

As I’m thinking that, I reach the underworld, which now I can see a big palace in the distance. Anyway, what do I do now? Where is Yukari when I need her? My intuition is telling me that she is planning something…

— — — — — — — — — — —

Meanwhile, on the surface.

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

“Ugh, at last that bitch is gone! Seriously! I can’t stand her incessant presence that didn’t know her place! She was just so Irritating! Simply frustrating!” Shouting that, I stomped my feet on the ground a couple of times to vent out my frustration, and then continued on my cursing, “Seriously, not only did that bitch keep dodging her punishment again and again and again, she also attacked me and verbally assaulted me! ME!! The nerve, the nerve of her, it’s right that she disappears! It is deserving of her to get thrown straight to the ground by me! Truly, I did not make the same mistake twice! The last time when I threw someone to the otherside of the sky, that bastard managed to come back, so this time, I threw them to the ground. This way, I know that that bitch, that shit, is gone for good!! Taste what it’s like to die pathetically all while clinging on to life.” Having said that, I huffed and turned my head around to take my leave from this claustrophobic inducing place, but what greets me after I turn my head are the barriers that still encompass me.

Upon seeing the barrier, I clicked my tongue, and began my rant again, “Tck, looking at this just makes me wish to kill that bitch all over again! Just how dare she… she… she the ballet dance practitioner, putting up this barrier all while violating me with her restless dodging at the same time?! The disrespect! This is definitely an explicit way of looking down on me! Does that bitch really think that this flimsy looking barrier will hold me? The arrogance of her!!! What rights does she have to do this to me!?” After I yell that, I begin to take heavy steps toward the barrier, and upon going closer to the somewhat transparent barrier I can make out 3 people outside.

Huh? Oh right. That red white bitch brought friends too didn’t she. How annoying. Even after death, that bitch is still violating my right to be at peace! Regardless, her friends have to pay too! Given the circumstances, it’s only fair that everyone in that red-white bitch group should also be held accountable for her actions. It’s only reasonable, after all, if the king should be held accountable for their subject action, the opposite should also be true! My logic is perfect as always!

— — — — — — — — — — —

Sakuya Izayoi P.O.V

This might be the first time I think that the barrier is being a nuisance instead of it being beneficial.

From the outside perspective, the duplex barrier is like two see-through mirror stacked inside one another, but in the added effect of having the inside of it look kind of distorted, and so it’s only natural that the people who are outside, which include but not limited to me, Marisa, and Keine were able to see what happen between Reimu and the Anomaly.

Let's just say that seeing Reimu getting slammed through the ground was not pleasing to see in the slightest. Marisa seems to be in the same opinion as I can hear her gritting her teeth, clenching her fist, and mutters, “Bastard,” over and over which is only natural since Reimu is Marisa's rival and friend, and so because of that, having seen Reimu being defeated like that—no, that is not the right term, perhaps, getting ‘removed from the battlefield’ is more fitting— was just hard to watch.

Regardless of that, currently, the Anomaly is walking up to the barrier. When he was about to cross it, I didn’t doubt that he would be able to cross the barrier. However, I at least thought that there will be some resistance when he crosses them, but contrary to my expectations, the Anomaly seem to be able to get out of it with ease, casual even, it’s as if the duplex barrier— which should be impossible to get out due to the difference in time flow— didn’t bother him in the slightest. And so I show some hint of surprise on my face. However, that surprise didn't last long as immediately after, I narrowed my eyes and made the knives I threw earlier to move again with just a thought, and with those knives were over the sky aiming at the Anomaly, I accelerated its time to make it go at a supersonic speed. This caused many sonic booms to be created.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*...

With an uncountable number of explosions of the kinetic energy of my knives hitting the place where the Anomaly is at, debris rises. And for the briefest moment, while the debris rising up blocking my vision of the Anomaly, I can sense the new curvature of space, not the Anomaly, but something else, forming and coming toward me, and so without a moment of hesitation, I began to accelerate my thought process by about a hundred times.

With my perception slowed, I can hear the howling sound of the wind coming toward me at a very fast speed even with my thought acceleration. I might not see the invisible wind, however, I can see it dispersing the very debris in the air. Seeing such, I accelerate my body in conjunction with my accelerated thought and dodge the not-so invisible wind.

Afterward, I stop the acceleration of my body and mind, however, I am ever so ready to do that again the moment the Anomaly makes another move.

As the debris began to fully disperse with the help of the invisible anomaly of the wind, the picture of the Anomaly who didn’t sustain any injury came to the forefront of my attention. And then, the Anomaly began to speak not so calmly, “Hey now, what the fuck!!? Do you think it’s okay to attack someone when they are simply walking, minding their own business? What kind of justifiable reasoning do you concocted in your head to do such a thing to me out of the blue? This is simply unacceptable behavior! This can be said to be a violation to my right to my safety! You should be ashamed of yourself for expliciting this kind of behavior!”

Having heard that remark on my ethnicity, I snarked back with, “Indeed, please forgive my shameful conduct then. However, it is equally a shame that you, too, have skillfully overlooked your esteemed reflection.”

…

Silence.

Absolute silence.

Even a longer silence.

And then Regulus exploded, “YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU!!!! Did you just mock me?! You are mocking me, aren't you?!! Aren’t you?! How dare you mock me? Who teaches you to do such things to someone who you just met? Not only have we just met, I also did you a favor and tried to correct your inexcusable behavior, no? But but but this is what you award me?!! Sure, I might not need anything, but isn’t it wrong to not give out your appreciation to someone who is doing you a favor? But yet you didn’t do that, and insulted me! ME!! Is it hard to just act civilized and have a normal conversation without throwing rude remarks? Is it hard to not say something sensitive right in front of someone's face? I believed not!!! It is not hard at all! So why did you throw insults at me? Can’t you act properly? Can’t you appreciate me for what I have done for you? I’m going out of my way to correct your behavior, you know? I can simply walk away and not correct your behavior, but I didn’t, didn't I? But what did you do to me? Insult me!!! How dare you—”

Having heard enough, I cut him off with a bit of irritation, “Would you like me to wash your mouth for you? It’s quite intolerable, I’ll say.”

Hearing such, Regulus' starts gaping his mouth like a fish on land, it is as if I’m the first ever person to insult him like that. A moment later, his expression changed, switching into one of anger, “Bitch! This is enough! Intentionally breaking my heart over and over, I will not tolerate this any further.” And so without saying anything more, he then began to undergo a motion of kicking the very ground itself toward me like a kid throwing a tantrum. With that action of his, the earth rose, coming toward me at an incredibly slow speed.

So slow…

With my thought acceleration, the world seemingly moves at slow motions, as if the world is coming to a halt. The piece of earth that might seem to move incredibly fast in others eyes, in mine however, it is practically slow to a crawl.

And as well as my thoughts being accelerated even more than the previous time, I began to accelerate my entire body, and began to step sideways. In everyone's eyes, I might as well be teleporting.

As the piece of the ground that Anomaly dug out with his feet passed by me with a fwoosh, I stopped the accelerations, and then the voice of the Anomaly rang out once more, “Tck, dodging again like that red-white, huh? Keep dodging and see where it will get you!” After saying such a threat, he then began to raise his arm up. Knowing what he is trying to do — since I had watched him doing it a couple of times when he fought against Reimu — I began to accelerate my thought time again, after doing such, before even the Anomaly can even throw his arm up, I moved to a different place altogether with my accelerated body time, effectively removing myself from harm.

And in this moment of eternity of a second, I begin to think of everything I know about the Anomaly so that I can figure out a way to incapacitate him since I have infinite time on my hands.

Hmmm… from what I know of the Anomaly, he has no time, but yet he still is able to move despite his lack of body time. I might not have tested that hypothesis, however, I knew that that is true since I can’t detect him in space and only detect a curvature of space at his location, which means that he didn’t exist in space. And since he didn’t exist in space he shouldn’t exist in time as well since both are relative from one another. And that is the weird part, from a scientific standpoint, it should not be possible to exist yet not exist… but since this is Gensokyo, the land of fantasy, there isn’t really much point thinking about how things happen or occur, and so I shouldn’t dwell too much on that. The question I should be dwelling on is, ‘where is the Anomaly?’

…

Humming to myself, I begin to think about it for a couple of minutes in this eternity of a second. That is when an idea comes to me; If I consider the fact that he had cut himself off from time, then wouldn’t it mean that ‘where’ he is shouldn't matter? Since what matters should be ‘when’ he was disconnected in time? Let's say, if he cut himself off from time around an hour prior, wouldn’t that mean that he would exist at that exact second independently from the world flow of time, essentially making him stuck in the past, and so isn’t that what matters here? The ‘when’? And so, wouldn’t that mean that if I can make him ‘present’ again from ‘when’ ever he is in the past, I then will be able to injure him?

Thinking of that, I have an idea.

Why not try to compress all the space-time in one single point? This way, I can force him to be in the present no matter ‘when’ in the past he was.

With that idea being established in my mind, I stop my acceleration of time and initiate the plan. First, to increase my focus, I hold my hand out to the general area where the Anomaly is. Afterward, I begin to compress all the time around the Anomaly general area into the present.

However…

Nothing happened.

“Huh? Where had you disappeared to!? Is it too hard to understand that I’m losing my patience? But yet you you you still try to test my patience further by disappearing from my sight!!!” Saying that the Anomaly began to look around for me. When his eyes landed on me, who sported a rather bewildered expression, he began to say, “So that is where you are! Huh? What is that look on your face? Did you finally realize the hopelessness of your action? Hahhhh? Why are you pointing your hand toward me? Are… are you doing an equivalence to pointing fingers perhaps? If so!!! Are you trying to mock me by taking that gesture of ‘pointing finger’ further and point your whole fucking arm at me?! HOW RUDE!!! THE SHEER DISRESPECT—”

As he continued to ramble on and on and on, his voices were soon being drowned out by my thoughts.

How?

Just how is this possible?

Even if he has no time now and the majority of the past, there should be, without a doubt, a time when he has one.

What does it mean when even after all his time being condensed into one, there is no time to be seen?

What does it mean to not exist in the past, present, and the future, but stand right here in front of me?

What does it mean for his existence to not exist in the world memory?

Chapter Text

(A/N: Please translate the “World” as the “Universe” from this point on. And by the way, Regulus' power now works differently for a few chapters due to some circumstances that will be revealed in this chapter. His ability will work like how it is supposed to after a few chapters though so don’t worry.)

Chapter 9: One Second of Planning Part 1

Sakuya Izayoi P.O.V

In the world, there are three layers.

The first layer is the physical layer, this layer follows the law of physics.

The mental layer comes second representing the spiritual and the collective sea of subconsciousness of all beings, this is where all your emotions lie.

Then there comes the third layer, the layer of memory. This layer dictates that everything, no matter if they are sentient or non-sentient, will have the ‘memory’ of things that have happened. These ‘memories’, that can’t be forgotten and repeated, may keep altering the probability and constructing the future. This layer is known by many as the ‘Determinism’ interpretation, where the past determines the present and the present determines the future, or so I heard from Patchouli-sama anyway.

Erasing the world's memory is impossible—no, just merely suggesting it is outrageous, and so, how is this Anomaly able to do it? To not exist in the past while standing right here in the present — not in time, but in presence — it can only mean that the ‘memory’ of him did not exist at all, and so just how did he make the world forget about his existence?

Not only is he an anomaly in regard to space and time, he is seemingly also an anomaly regarding his standing in the world… Truly, the more I learned about the Anomaly, the more the word ‘Anomaly’ fit him.

As I’m pondering that, the sound of Anomaly complaining about trivial things can be heard in the background, never stopping. In one second he talked about how insulting him is a violation of his rights, in the next, he talked about how we are standing too far apart from him as if we are trying to avoid him, therefore we are discriminating against him as an outcast, which again is a violation of his rights, and then he goes on to contradict himself and said that we are bothering him and how we should leave him alone while justifying that this is his rights.

With utmost honesty, this guy might be the most talkative guy I have ever had the displeasure of meeting.

As I’m Listening to him, I feel like his rant can go on forever, and that might be why no one is willing to interrupt him as this can buy us some time to think of a way to get rid of this stalemate that had been going on for even before I had arrived. And so I decided to use my time wisely and begin to think about a way to bypass the Anomaly invulnerability.

Of course, I also accelerate my thought time for good measure so that I can have more time in my hand to think.

…………

……

…

After some time of me thinking about his ability, I now began to doubt if his ability is really all about him freezing his own time in the past since if he really did freeze his own time, his time should be in the past of this world, but again, there isn’t, and that is what baffled me greatly.

I am now beginning to suspect that my previous speculation was wrong. But if his ability wasn’t him freezing things in the past including himself, what else can his ability be? Wait, now that I think about it, since his time, his progress, did not exist in the past of this world, is it even right to say that he froze his time?

Freezing time of oneself to not have time to move forward with them; that is what I previously thought about what the Anomaly is doing. But now, it seems more likely that he did not have any time at all to begin with based on how I had erased his past, present, and future out of this world but it doesn’t seem to do anything to him. It is an outrageous proposal since without time, how could he even get to where he is now without progressing through time?

The Anomaly has the appearance of a 20 year old guy… without time, he should be even less of a fetus in terms of development, but what is this? Where did that 20 years of his time go? That just doesn’t make sense.

Regardless of that, I need to figure out his weakness.

But I will find his weakness soon enough in this infinite time.

After all, with infinite time I can achieve anything.

…

But no matter how much I try to figure out his ability, I don’t understand.

No matter how long I think, I cannot figure out how he did what he did.

Even though I could be called the master of space-time, I cannot even fathom what his abilities entail nor what his weaknesses are as the very existence of the Anomaly violates the very law of space-time that I’m accustomed to.

The way time works for the Anomaly is just too bizarre. It just didn’t make sense. How can someone move through space without moving through time… No, the Anomaly might not even exist in time to begin with, but if that were to be the case, how can he move through space and interact with it then? His existence right now seemingly does not exist in this world's time axis or space, yet, he is here in space and seemingly goes along with the flow of time without existing in it. How does that make sense? It just seems like he still operates in space-time and not outside of it; the fact that he only seems to act outside of the laws of physics and never once outside of time or space reinforces this, yet, why when I try to erase his time in this world, there is none of his time to be seen? It’s like the Anomaly can’t decide whether to exist or not. The Anomaly also seems to carry this disconnecting yet connecting feeling that is very similar to Yukari’s gap for some inexplicable reason, which just complicates the matter. I cannot conclude anything about his ability at all. Perhaps I just simply know too little about the Anomaly to even be able to conclude anything about what he is capable of, how he is capable of that, and what is his weakness?

… Even if I have some concrete idea about what his ability entails, I also feel like I know nothing about it at the same time… Maybe I went at this wrong? From the very beginning, I had been only coming up with hypotheses… I should probably test them out too, after all, I wouldn’t get anything done at this point if I keep pondering the possibility that may or may not be true.

Thinking about it, it makes sense. I should probably test the water some more, maybe then, I might be able to glean some information and weakness out of him… who knows, maybe his ability only works when his body interacts with the solid ground or something. It is a foolish notion, but it is still something to hope for. In this battle where pure strength, destructive magics, all kinds of force, and all kinds of defense are all meaningless against the Anomaly who can probably go through the greatest of defenses like paper and may even survive the greatest of power; the only way to win is to exploit the Anomaly weakness. But the problem is that the Anomaly doesn’t have any obvious weakness…

This is not a conventional spell card battle where one only needs to fire magical bullets in the form of patterns to win. This is a battle where utility is focused instead of pure firepower. Specific magics or abilities that are able to counter the Anomaly ability, or at the very least, able to affect him, are what determine whether I win or lose in this battle.

For someone who didn’t specialize in magic such as myself, I have been thinking of using nothing but my ability all this time, which makes sense, after all, I had long determined that the Anomaly ability is related to time. I might potentially be able to counter the Anomaly with my ability, and so I place my focus on making use of my ability to its fullest.

For those who specialize in magic… Marisa is the first person who comes to mind.

Since this is no longer a spell card battle where it is intended to be a one vs one battle, I can also work with that and use that fact to my favor by working with Marisa and Keine now that I think about it.

Marisa specialized in magic so maybe Marisa has some magic that is perfectly suited for this situation. But… that is unlikely since Marisa specializes in demolition. Based on what I've seen of Marisa thus far ever since I know her, there is no doubt that she only has bombs, bigger bombs, lasers, and larger lasers.

And thinking about it, since any kind of firepower regardless of how powerful it is would be meaningless against the Anomaly from what I have seen thus far, Marisa might have to go backstage in this battle. But… she is pretty good at distracting the Anomaly so maybe she can help with that.

For Keine... I don’t know much about her capability. Though she once said something about returning the history of the human village back after the threat is neutralized, and so from that, she may be capable of hiding history and returning them.

Keine’s presumed ability is remarkable, truly fit for her status as the guardian of the human village, after all, why bother defense when you can hide things away so they can no longer be attacked.

… Wait, maybe Keine can hide Marisa and I, making us disappear just like the village history she suggested to have hidden away?

The Anomaly thus far showed that he wouldn’t be affected by anything physical, maybe it is time to test whether or not he can resist something mind related.

It is then that I look at both Marisa and Keine, who are both in the distance frozen like everything else in this infinitely ‘stretched’ one second that only I can perceive.

Perhaps it is a good idea also to bring them in this prolonged eternity of a second. It’s not like anything is stopping me, I might tire myself out faster but that is fine too, after all, I plan to not prolong this battle for too long since this is the battle of unstoppable force and immovable objects where no matter how strong I am and how durable I am, I can get shredded if I even make one mistake so it is best to not prolong it.

The more time this battle goes on, the more chances I will make mistakes.

Maybe it is a blessing that the Anomaly attack was very predictable and did not go beyond using dirt and wind, so I can dodge them very easily. But even if it is child's play to me to dodge those unstoppable forces, the fact that I will eventually get tired and make mistakes is still inevitable. In a normal situation, I might be able to replenish my stamina by simply stopping the time of the world and rest in it, but this situation is anything but normal so I don’t know how long I can keep going.

Thinking such, I reached my arms out to both Marisa and Keine, who both were in the distance, then began to manipulate the time of their bodies and thoughts to the extreme.

It is not until I finish accelerating both their body and mind that they come to sense in this world of gray.

After being pulled to the world I 'perceive’ as reality, both looked around in confusion, surprise, and contemplation. It also seems that Marisa is the only one who knows what pulled them into this abnormal silent world where wind was too slow to make even a sound.

“This is ya doing ain’t it, Sakuya?” Marisa broke the silence with a question that she knew to be right but she asked anyway for confirmation.

Knowing that it would be rude to leave her without answering her, I answered, “That is correct,” I nodded and said, “I accelerated both your mental processing speed and also your physical body.”

Impressed, Keine spoke up, “You are actually capable of manipulating time… It's hard to believe, but I’m glad to have you on my side.”

“As long as you didn’t put m’lady to harm, I wouldn’t be your enemy,” that is what I respond to Keine.

After that response, Marisa spoke up, “Hey Sakuya, does this mean that I can stack a bunch of lasers and bomb at the white hair guy like you with your knives?”

I can see in her eyes that she wants revenge against the white hair guy for what he did to Reimu, I know how she feels but I shut her desire for revenge down with my words of reason, “It’s possible to do that, yes. However, it is best to not do that as it would be a waste of resources and magical power, after all, the Anomaly is shown to have an impenetrable defense. It is best to discard firepower and use something else. For example, blinding the Anomaly would be a better use of your spiritual energy than wasting them to create a big laser that wouldn't do anything against the Anomaly except blinding him anyway.”

Hearing that, Marisa clicks her tongue and playfully remarks, “Ya got a point-ze... But really, I want to blast the annoyin’ white hair guy with the [six-fold Master Spark] or somethin’! Meh, it’s not like I have the energy to burst my spiritual reserves big enough for [Master Spark] more than 3 times now anyway…”

I nodded at Marisa and began to say with my face straight, “Glad that you concur, Marisa. Now, let's move on to the importance. I pull you both into this state so that we can have time to discuss our onward action and perhaps even execute it. I believe that conversing in the midst of battle is a bad idea, thus why I bring you two here so that our conversation will only last for only a second.”

Keine, who was silently listening, spoke up after I finished, “I see… I do have a question. How long can you keep us… like this?”

“It is a valid concern, however, it is unnecessary as I can keep it up all day.”

It is then that Marisa slid herself into the conversation and said, “We got a lot of time then,” after she said that, her face turned a little grim, “Now what-daze? Reimu got thrown to the underworld somewhere. My Master Sparks didn’t work. Keine’s spell card doesn’t seem to hurt him either. Ya [Sakuya] threw a bunch of knives yourself, so ya probably know how durable he is. At this rate, we will only be stallin’ time. Do y’all have any plan-ze?”

The playfulness of Marisa that seemed to endure even in the face of crisis was nowhere to be seen. Her sentiment is clear, subduing the Anomaly is akin to an impossible task based on our current understanding of him. It is even more so now when we don’t know how to get past the Anomaly unconventional durability, but… “If we can’t defeat him, then don’t defeat him.” That is what I said amidst the silence.

Seemingly confused at my words, Marisa and Keine looked at me uncomprehendingly.

“What do ya mean by we’re not gonna defeat him-ze? Are you suggesting we should leave him alone?”

Keine also added her input right at that moment, “He is too dangerous to be allowed to wander around without any safety measures.”

Seeing that my previous statement was highly misunderstandable, I reclassify, “You’re misunderstood. What I meant is that if we can’t defeat him conventionally, why not try to seal him or something similar?”

With a contemplative face, Marisa said, “Ah, that could work-ze. But, the thing is, I don’t know how to even seal, ya probably don’t know either, Sakuya…” And then Marisa paused and hesitantly tilted her head toward Keine.

Keine shook her head as if saying nonverbally that ‘I cannot seal things either.’

Dejected, Marisa continued, “... Keine cannot do that either. The only one here that can do it is probably Reimu who got thrown to the underworld earlier.”

After Marisa said that, like offering a solution, I spoke up, “Perhaps we can bury him deep down into the ground instead? The solution is temporary, however, it can buy us some time for Reimu to come back.”

Marisa shook her head, “No, I bury him once with my Master Spark, it will only give him the chance to use the dirt around him even more.

“Might I suggest suspending him in the air instead? Or possibly, throwing him to space?” Keine offered her idea.

Listening to her idea, Marisa perked up, “Wait wait! Stop right there Keine! Maybe that could work-ze! Some say that there is no air in space! If we throw him up there, maybe he won't be able to come back since he won't have anything to use!”

Hearing such, I mutter confusedly, “There… is no air in space?” Shooking my head, I continue, “That might work. But, how are we going to do such a thing? He can become immovable if he wishes.”

It is then that Keine interjects, “That might be true but from what I've observed of him, he needs to consciously try to make himself immovable, so most of the time, he can still be moved by momentum.”

After Keine said that, Marisa added, “We can catch him unaware and make him notice too late that he got blasted off to outer space-ze!”

Seeing that their idea is valid, I go along with that idea. But before that, I ask, “But how are we going to accomplish such a thing?”

With such words being spoken, a grueling hour of pure thinking/planning ensues in the span of 1 second that seems everlasting.

— — — — — — — — — — —

(A/N: Another additional stuff to the chapter that didn’t fit in anywhere, so I will put it here.)

Origin

Time.

Fundamentally, time is just something human-constructed.

Time is simply a unit of measurement, and without it, we wouldn’t be able to distinguish between yesterday and tomorrow, so from that context, time is just a unit that measures changes. However, from the universe's standpoint, time is an integral part of it just like space. For a space to take form, there must be time. To move in space, time must correspondingly move forward.

How exactly we view ‘time’ is by comparing our ‘clock’ — the way how we see changes — to the part of the universe that is always moving forward. By doing that, we were able to perceive the progression of events from the past to the future. So for that, everyone is congruent to ‘time’ and perceives it as a shared phenomenon. However, things can’t be said the same for an existence known as Regulus Corneas.

With his time frozen, it is only him that deviates from the rest who has to follow and share the nature of time. That means that even if his time is stopped, time continues to move on without him.

With him being left behind and only his shadow of the past remaining in the present, he continues to walk on the world in his own little world that didn’t follow with the rest, and so he looks down on others and marks himself as someone who stands above everyone else.

This view of his didn’t change even in the time when he was about to die beneath the feet of everyone in the world. In fact, this event only invokes the feeling of hatred from Regulus for the world. But disregarding his lingering animosity, his soul began to descend towards the direction of the world, or Od Laguna, anyway without his consent in order to put him through the cycle of reincarnation.

However, even the world itself didn’t have the will of its own denied Regulus Corneas' very soul. This is mostly due to Regulus having the very thing that contradicts the world, the witch factor, and thus the world denies him. And it is not until afterward when he got rejected by the world, that his witch factor of greed transferred to Natsuki Subaru, who had killed him.

With him not having anywhere to go, he floats endlessly in a place that exists not in the world, but between it.

With his consciousness not being cleansed by the Corridor of Memories, Regulus remains as himself as he curses the world to burn in the void without end.

In that void that does not align with any world, the formless soul of Regulus floats on endlessly for an undetermined amount of time, and during those times that are long overdone, Regulus who has been expressing his desire (complaints) for eon finally undergoes a qualitative change in one moment of infinite as one of the fundamental and interconnected aspects of one of the countless worlds that have Regulus in between gives him an ability.

An ability is something that is uncommonly manifest in people given that their desire is strong enough. For example; Sakuya, with her pure desire to be ‘on time’ for her mistress, developed an ability to manipulate time, Reimu, due to her desire to ‘float’ through life without worry, developed an ability to float, and it is the same case for the young Kosuzu, her pure desire to decipher books, give her the ability to do just that.

Ability connected to people's desire, and so Regulus developed an ‘ability’ that derived from his sheer greedy desire of wanting to stay in his own little world where he had everything.

And perhaps due to the witch factor, which had previously been shaping Regulus' soul for hundreds of years for its commendation, had disappeared, the ‘ability’ that developed in Regulus' soul after, like to fill in that commendation, developed into a similar ability to that of Regulus' own Authority of Greed.

And so, Regulus' time once again freezes, and afterward, his strong desire quickly anchors his soul to the forgotten land, dragging him into it, making him become a ghost, an existence that can be described as the soul of dead human whose desire bound themself to the physical world too strongly.

With him descending into the world with his time already being frozen, it prevented his presence from adding to the memory layer of the world, and only Regulus' action can be projected outward.

Normally, when Regulus freezes his time, his clock — his progression — would be frozen and disconnected from the universe’s progression, which when that happened, his ‘time’ still exists somewhere, after all, he merely halted them.

However, this time on the other hand is different. This time his ‘clock’ simply not only disconnected but there is none to exist since when he arrived into the world, his ‘memory’ — his record of progress — never actually being built up.

To make it easier to understand, let's imagine time — the order and progression of events in the whole universe — as a straight-flowing river, past to future. Freezing your time — your clock — means leaving that river so that you’ll not continue flowing forward, however, even if you had left the river, the water trail you made in the past still remains. But, what if you walk away from the river you just came out of and walk to another river but not jump into it? Of course, that would mean that there wouldn’t be any trail of you in that new river.

Without any metaphor, it means that Regulus' presence is not in the new river of time — since he did not jump into it yet — and the only trace of his presence is in the previous river of time that he was in before. So essentially, Regulus coincidentally became an existence that is outside of the world flow of time and exists in another, which subsequently made him become a bridge that connected the two dimensions.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: One Second of Planning Part 2

Sakuya Izayoi P.O.V

After an extensive planning session that ends in the span of 1 second, Marisa, Keine, and I finally finish constructing a concrete plan that might allow us to win against the Anomaly who is, in the very sense of a word, invincible. I cannot foresee the future so I don’t know if this plan will work but I will put my all into it so it will succeed. Perhaps the only one who can foresee the future regarding whether or not this plan will succeed is my mistress.

May my mistress look after me…

In any case, I need to prepare for the upcoming plan too. The plan is not complicated.

First, Marisa, Keine, and I will go back to the location where we were previously before the time acceleration so that the Anomaly wouldn’t suspect a thing. Strike when the least suspected is the main component of this plan. For that reason, I will have to continue to throw my knives like before as if nothing changes. The more I do such, the more he thinks that I couldn’t do anything to him, and the more he thinks that, when I truly strike, he would be unprepared and will get caught off guard by anything unexpected that I do. The second part of the plan starts when the Anomaly gets distracted. When he gets distracted I will—.

“Are ya ready, Sakuya? You are spacing out again-ze.” The voice that cut me from my train of thought is Marisa who is preparing and adjusting her equipment so that everything will go as planned. It seems, my time spent reviewing the plan got cut short and the time to execute the plan is starting. It's a pity, but since I already memorize my part of the plan, it’s not like I need to spend any more time looking over them anyway.

As everyone got into their location, I stopped the acceleration of time, causing everything that was previously frozen in my perception to start to move again. As things start to move like normal, the mouth of the Anomaly that had been frozen previously also suddenly becomes noisy again…

“— as you should have realized by now, you are ruining my day. Seriously, if you hadn’t realized that fact, you are either a selfish individual who only cares about yourself or an egotistical person who looks down on others, including mine, to consolidate your own importance. Both possibilities are equally disgusting. To have such a mindset just shows how disgusting you are. Selfishly ignore others for your own need and have the gall to look down on others to emphasize your importance; both are equally violating people's rights, and in turn, violating mine! My most precious temple [body] and my innermost sanctuary [mind] are both things that shouldn’t be violated by anyone, but but but both were being violated by you fucker!!! Does no one teach you that you should treat others mental and physical wellbeing with care, respect, and extreme mindfulness!? Now there is also the matter of how you treat me—”

… His mouth never shut up it seemed. But no matter, I grab the knives from under my skirt and throw them at Regulus who is still talking about more nonsense that I don’t have the mind to listen to. As the knives hit Regulus, it ceases to exist by its tip and falls to the ground.

Regulus looks at me with annoyance for a second and says, “Now, why did you attack me again? How many times have you attacked me? How many times have I told you to not attack me? Are you by chance ignoring me? My words? Don’t you realize that that is a violation of my right to speak? I believe everyone has the right to be listened to. Why don’t you—” As he goes on to rant about my previous action, I simply ignored him like many times before as he speaks.

Now this is troublesome. The fact that the knives cease to be by its tip when it hits the Anomaly suggests that he is currently in the state of being ‘immovable’. In this state, the Anomaly just cannot be moved from his location no matter how much outside forces were applied. With him being in this state, we wouldn’t be able to get Regulus to space so I need to get him out of this state somehow.

Perhaps, provoking him might work?

He has quite a big head on his shoulder so insulting his character might effectively urge him to come after me physically perhaps? Which in turn, would drive him to remove his immovable state?

Let's test that, shall we?

And so I directly cut Regulus off and went straight for a personal attack, “Talking, is that all you can do? I am honestly astonished at how a person can be this shallow,” I shake my head dramatically and continue, ”Undoubtedly, the only thing going for you is that mouth of yours. After all, that seems to be the only thing you do. Since that is your only trait, you are shallow. You are so shallow in fact that I can describe you in one word, “Annoying”. Sorry to say this but… That’s right, you are the closest thing to a one-dimensional character. Truly, there is no one as lacking as you.”

“…”

“Ah, may I ask why you stopped talking all of a sudden? From what I had seen of you so far, you should go on a tangent right about now, no? Now you are losing the only real thing that defines you. Are you trying to erase your existence, perhaps? If so, I congratulate you for succeedin—No wait, you succeeded a long time ago.” With such words being spoken that even make Mairsa flinch from the harshness even though it isn’t even being directed at her, Regulus began to shake, clenched his fist, and his face now began to be dyed in the color of red, indicating his anger.

It is more than effective, it seems…

“You you you YOU! You clearly insulted my character and my personality just now!! You clearly are, there is no doubt about it!!! How dare you! How dare you, how dare you, how dare YOOUUU!!? How am I shallow?! Just what part of me is shallow, huh!!? You think my character is shallow??! That is a lie and you know it! I am my own person with a century's worth of experience! So I am no doubt not lacking!! What's “one-dimensional” supposed to mean anyway? Why does it sound so mocking?! Huh? Is that laughter I heard? You blond over there, why are you laughing? Stop mocking me you shit!!!” As he speaks, he is progressively getting angrier. As his anger got near its peak, Regulus began to stomp the ground a couple of times and then heavily stomped his foot toward me, walking toward me, seemingly very pissed and showing a clear intention of murdering me.

It is then when Regulus is being blinded by his anger, I make a move. I jumped backward and threw my knives. This time, I did not throw my knives at the Anomaly's annoying face, this time, I aimed my knives at the ground beneath his very foot while accelerating it fast enough to break a couple of sound barriers. (A/N: Mach 2)

“!”

When the knife reached the ground by its blunt end at a speed faster than the speed of sound, creating a not-so-small crater right underneath Regulus' foot, Regulus’ foothold disappeared, causing him to stumble into the crater. As he screams, I accelerate my thought time to make his fall slow down to the point where he doesn’t seem to move in my perception.

I am now in the third phase of the plan to launch the Anomaly to outer space.

As my perceptions fasten and the world slows down, I also accelerate both Marisa and Keine's thoughts and body time to the extreme. After adapting to the disorientation that follows, they both begin to fly into the crater I previously made — 30 meters in depth and 4 meters in width. Even though clouds of dust still linger in the air, they squeeze themselves into the small crater anyway and positioned themselves right underneath Regulus' falling body that had been slowed to a crawl.

With them being in the right position, they utter the words that give power,

“Magicannon "Final Master Spark"!”

“Emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun.”

A power that is equivalent to three master sparks was being unleashed from Marisa's mini-Hakkero. Immediately after it is unleashed, the gigantic laser freezes, or, it seems to be freezing but in fact, it moves very slowly to the point where it stands still even though it is light in property.

On Keine’s side, the light that is supposed to adequately imitate the light of the rising sun is not what it unleashes. The light that is supposed to release to all directions creating the picture of the rising sun from afar is now being controlled, and squeezed into one direction, in one long burst instead, without any fanfare. After the concentrated light of something that embodied the rising sun had been released, just like the Final Master Spark that Marisa previously unleashed, it slowed down to the point where it might as well be frozen.

With this being set up right beneath Regulus, after I stop the acceleration of the body and thought, the Anomaly will no doubt get launched upward to beyond the sky, that, I’m sure of. This plan, as described by Keine, imitates “Apollo 11” and how they got to the moon. With all the energy being put into the propellant, there might even be excess energy, which may launch the Anomaly further, but that is fine too, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

With preparation being done, I stop the acceleration of time. With that, a loud explosion ensues, launching Regulus beyond the sky even before he can even utter a word or scream.

It is not even 2 seconds later that I am unable to see the Anomaly from where I’m standing.

He is truly gone for good from this world.

— — — — — — — — — — —

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

What is this!? Why is this? Where am I even?!

In one moment I’m falling, in the next, a bright light envelops mine satisfied self, bringing me to a place far above the cloud. As I’m flying, I can see that the color blue is diminishing. However, that sight did not last long as about two seconds later, my sight shattered. No, not exactly my sight, but the thing in front of my eyes just shattered, leaving me with a new sight that is different from the one I had before.

It seems after my body passed a certain point, my body came in contact with something, which resulted in my body passing through it without any resistance due to my “Authority”.

After I passed through whatever I just passed through, unbeknown to me, I made a hole in the border of fantasy and reality, the things I unknowingly go across, but soon after, however, like nothing happened, the border itself reformed without leaving any imperfection[1].

In a place where many distant lights shine on me from afar in this black void that can no longer be called a sky, I don’t know where I am, but…

Fuuccckkkk I’m still flying!! Also, flying? What is this sense of familiarity? … Oh fuck, those fucker really now begin to scarily remind me of that red hair knight who did the same thing to me! But even if they remind me of that unhonorable knight, I will not let this stand! I don’t care who they remind me of. I don’t care if they are Gods. They violate my rights so they deserve to die! What do they think life is to be so easily thrown around like toys, especially mine? Also, to not even ask if I wanted this or not, those fucker violate my right of “being free from what I do not want”. In the first place, I ‘want’ nothing! For that reason, I need to get back!! Isn’t it common sense that I, the victim, want justice to be served to those who harm my well-being?

With that being my rights, I stopped myself from flying any further by simply willing myself to. What I, myself, did not realize is that I did not simply “willed myself to stop,” what I did was negate all kinds of force and inertia that is acting on me, causing my body to stop in space. Since I am no longer bound by any kind of limitation, I can naturally do this kind of thing. And with me not being constrained by space and physics, after my body stopped flying any further, I willed myself to move backward, which again, what I actually did is adjusted my very own inertia and momentum so that I can move backward. Anything that falls under my “Authority,” I can manipulate them, and so with my body being under my “Authority” control, I can manipulate the speed and the direction of where my body is going and etc[2].

As I’m falling back to earth, seemingly without acceleration, I reach a velocity that I wished to be at in an instant. Not being restricted by the law of momentum, in a laid-back position, I fall down to, hopefully, the location I was previously at.

In truth, I can go faster than this, faster than the speed that got me here in the first place. But, why would I want to go faster? I want to make those shit who sent me here taste the feeling of victory for a little while. It will be more satisfying to defeat someone who thought they'd won. The more they are so assured of their victory, the moment they taste defeat, that defeat will run deep. This is not out of me being a sadist, it is my right to get back at those who tormented me.

I don’t know if I will get back to the same location I was at before. But I have my confidence that I will get back without going off course since I did not change my body position or even tilt my body one bit, so retracing the path I took before by repelling myself backward would definitely make me be where those fuckers are.

It took me a couple of minutes before the sky changed again right before my eyes, this time, however, I can see that I made a hole in the sky. But that hole did not last long as it fixed itself back together a second later, making me really doubt if there is a ‘hole’ in the sky in the first place.

After more seconds had passed, I got to the ground. But since I had no way of knowing how close I was to the ground, I was too late to make the ground solid enough for me to land properly. It is already hard enough to use my “Authority” on things other than myself as much as I hate to admit, and so it is practically impossible for me, unless I really tried, to imbue my “Authority” onto things that I wasn’t able to react to. The result of me not freezing the ground is me falling through the ground…

Falling through the ground?

Falling?

Ground?

My eyes dilated and a memory intrudes my very thoughts.

Things started to become unfocused and a scene started to play out in my mind.

Is that me?

The scene that played out in my mind is a scene where I fall through the very ground, crumbling away at the very bottom of the hole I created in the end.

With that scene playing out in my mind, I unconsciously slow myself down.

It feels like I’m reliving that very moment; so much so that I find it hard to even concentrate on anything happening around me. I cannot focus on anything, even on my thoughts. My thoughts are seemingly focused elsewhere, and that is the memory of the past that I rather forget.

The only thing I know is the fact that I’m falling and what surrounds me is dirt, which apparently submerged me into the sensation of the past even more due to similarities.

With that sensation, there also comes the want of getting out of this situation. No, saying that I ‘want’ that just seems wrong, it is more like my ‘right’ to do such things.

Since it is within my right to not stay in a situation that makes me feel uncomfortable like this, I plan to do the only natural thing here and that is stopping myself from falling further so that I can jump back up to escape this situation.

But before I could do so, another memory intruded my thoughts.

*splat*

Body crumbles. Bone fractured. Lungs ruptured. Heart nearly burst after hitting the ribs. The brain violently hit the skull and back. Tooth came out. Face being smashed to the point of unrecognition. Eyes nearly burst upon impact. Stomach tore. Intestine bleeds and ruptures. Waste came out. Blood vessels burst. Organ failure. Liver… Spleen… Kidneys…..

My mind went blank.

What was that? What was that, what was that, what was that?!

The sensation of organs being crushed, body being destroyed, and the pain of slowly dying all while trying desperately to stay alive; I can feel it all so vividly.

It is at this point that I realized, that is the memory of how I died.

It is the memory of how I stopped myself from falling further to not die but die in the end because of it. The sensation I felt that time is still vividly clear in my memory even now. For me, who hadn’t experienced pain once for over a century and just seemingly experienced it for the first time after a long time, of course, I wouldn’t forget about them. The pain of that time, that became ever more prominent due to the amount of time I hadn’t felt pain before, will be forever engraved into me as the worst thing that I ever feel. In fact, those sensations and pain, even if it’s just imaginary, surface to the very of my consciousness at this very moment even though I wasn’t sustaining any bodily injury.

With those thoughts came, it makes me wonder… What will happen to me if I stop my fall again now? Will the same thing happen to me?

Rationally, I believe that nothing will happen. But there is still that uncertainty. If it happened to me once, why do I believe that it wouldn’t happen to me again? That uncertainty gave way to a feeling that is clawing away at my heart.

Is this fear I'm feeling?

No, that’s not it. There is no way that that is true.

Then, is this the feeling of me being… scared?

No, a perfect existence such as mine can’t stoop that low.

Is this the feeling of being indignant to those who put me in that situation and also violate my right to my physical and emotional well-being?

Yes, that must be it. Those rights violators really had done it this time to make me feel an emotion that I had never felt before. This feeling that is gripping at my heart right now must be the feeling that is beyond the mere feeling of anger. Yes it can’t be anything else. That memory too. It might just appear to purely remind me of the fact that I need to cleanse all the violations that have been done against my person. That’s right! There is nothing else that can explain this unfamiliar feeling and that vivid imagery! Just what other explanation that can explain what I just experienced? For that reason, I need to stop my fall and go back!

I just need to do that.

That is not particularly out of ‘need’, it is more like ‘just revenge’. Yes, but in any case, to be able to deliver my justice, I need to stop my fall.

It is as simple as that.

That is the only way to cleanse off my humiliation.

It is not hard either as it only needs some conscious thought.

But… why? Why can't I do it? What kind of stupidity is this?

Nothing will happen, I’m sure.

My body wouldn’t become a piece of meat that lost its human form like last time, I’m sure.

I wouldn’t die like last time, I’m sure.

But what is this?

I just can’t do it.

A perfect existence such as myself can do anything yet, I couldn’t help but be hesitant.

What stops me from doing that, really?

It definitely is not because of me. Is this the work of an outside force?

Is it fate for me to die again in the hole I create?

Am I going to go through to the other side?

Will I die this time? I don’t want to die again. No, it isn’t that I don’t want to die. It is my right to live.

To live, I just need to stop my fall and go back up before I reach the other side of the world. There must be an end somewhere so I need to do it before then.

But… Why can’t I do it?

Why wouldn’t I do it?

What stops me?

Nothing is stopping me.

So why? Why can't I do it?

There is something stopping me.

Just what is it?

It was not until much later that I looked back at this and realized…

The only thing that stops me is myself.

But it is too late now as I reach the other side.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11: Between The Line

A Couple of Minutes Prior

Sakuya Izayoi P.O.V

After seeing the Anomaly off, Marisa, Keine, and I are all tense, readying for the unexpected, such as the possibility of the Anomaly coming back. The plan that we just executed was not foolproof, it just has a high possibility of it working, and so for that, we are not relaxed just yet.

...

After about 30 seconds had passed, there was still no sign of Regulus coming back. At this point, we all collectively let out a sigh of relief. Speed of light can travel pretty far even if it is just 30 seconds, so I am confident that he is gone for good. Things can go wrong at any moment, but I’m glad nothing went wrong.

The first one to speak is Marisa, “It’s finally over, I can’t wait to get home and relax-ze! If he can even survive being launched to outer space at the speed of light, I dunno how we gonna defeat him now.”

I thought so too. Good thing he is defeated in the end. Though I have to say that it is kind of ironic for the Anomaly, who can endure everything, to have his very downfall originate from the very fact that he can endure everything. It is exactly because he is very steady and can go along with momentums that caused the plan of sending him to space to be successful. Though if he wasn’t that steady, he would have died before reaching space…

Regardless, since I believe we had defeated Regulus, I responded to Marisa's comment about 'going home’ that, “Yes, since everything is over, I will also need to get to my mistress as fast as possible, my duty as a head maid is yet to end.”

Astonished, Marisa said, “Damn, after that fight? Why not just relax for once-ze? Duty that and work that, you seriously have no life. Ah, if you're gonna go back to your gigantic mansion anyway, can ya bring me with ya? I’m gonna ‘borrow’ some books, ya see?

Hearing that, I responded back with an instant, “No.”

“Damn, what with that immediate reply? Can’t you think about it more? Pretty please? You have a lot of books, right-ze? So wouldn’t it be a waste to leave it to bite the dust?”

“No,” I emphasized and continued, “You have to ask our resident bookworm if you want to ‘borrow’ the books, Marisa. Also, there is no way dust could have formed on the books, I have made sure of that.”

After that retort of mine, Marisa said, “The dust thing is a figure of speech, figure of speech! And…” Marisa smirked and continued, “Fine-daze. I will come over sometime myself.”

“By “come over,” you mean “intrude”, correct?”

“Details, details. Don’t scratch on the details-ze!”

It is then that Keine joins the conversation, “Since we are done here, I will take my leave now. The children must have been so worried. I must also apologize for not helping much in that fight against that… murderer.”

“The fact that you help is enough… unlike a certain someone.” As I said that, I took a glance to my left, to the single crow that was resting on an unknown object (camera) on a tree nearby. Even if this place can be described as barren, there are still some occasional trees laid about.

“Ah, I got caught. You sure are sharp.” Like my words being some sort of queue, the crow exploded, scattering many black feathers into the air, blocking my view. After the black feathers all fall, what is there instead of a crow is a single girl with black hair, she also has a pair of black wings behind her back indicating that she is a Tengu. It is then that she introduced herself, “I’m Aya Shameimaru, I’m here on the stead of Bunbunmaru Newspaper and all of Gensokyo!”

With her introduction, Marisa began to make an expression like she just ate something sour and said, “Ergh, it's that annoying Tengu.”

“I will let that remark slide, but…” With such words being spoken, in an instant, she appears in front of Marisa with a pen and a small notebook in hand as she enthusiastically said, “You have to tell me about your first-hand account of the encounter you have with Regulus Corneas, the Sin Archbishop of Greed!”

“Eh? How do you even remember his name… and what with that title anyway? Greed? Seems fit-ze.”

With Marisa asking such, Aya responds back almost immediately, “The wind is my ears. The wind brings me the things it heard. And since it is my duty to spread the things I heard, of course, I would have a good memory. I also agreed with that last part… Now, may I ask about your experience against him? How do you fare against him? I saw that the Shrine Maiden got defeated. This is the first time I have seen her lost after the creation of the spell card rules… Regardless, how do you feel about him when you talk to him? And what about—.”

It is then that my knife goes flying at the Tengu, but she dodges it and continues with her ‘interview’, “— his goal? What do you think his motives are to be here? What is your thought on his action thus far, as well as his true goal, whatever you thought it was? Do you think he desires to conquer Gensokyo? A good reporter must hear out others' perspectives and thoughts.”

Annoying.

After one annoying person is gone, another comes. I don’t want to deal with this, so sorry Marisa, but I will have to leave that Tengu to you. Starting another fight is more bothersome than simply giving her what she wants. Aya is known for her persistence to get information out of people for her newspaper, for that reason, giving her the things she wants would make her less annoying. But… If she came after me, however, that would be a different story.

In any case, It is then that I turned my head toward Keine, who can’t decide whether to leave or not, and said, “As you can see, at least you did something unlike that Tengu.”

Keine, being in a predicament where if she agreed, she would be rude toward Aya, and if she disagreed, she wouldn’t have anything to defend Aya; she decided to just say, “I… I see.”

“Hey, I heard you, you know?” Aya suddenly appeared before me, startling me a little, which might have caused me to pull out some of my knives in reflex, but I calmed down with Aya's next words, “Calm down, calm down. I’m not here to fight, I’m here to classify that I am not doing ‘nothing’ when you guys are fighting and that I’m doing my job as a reporter. Don't underestimate the importance of a Reporter either! Without them, no one would know what befall Gensokyo at any given time.”

“I see…” I absentmindedly said.

“At least act like you pay attention!” Aya chided .

“Ah, I apologize, it seems I got too used to ignoring Regulus' speeches.”

“Where is the sincerity? … But fair enough,” Aya shrugged and continued, “It is shameful to say this as a reporter but, this is my first time dozing off while gathering information as well. This is good practice.”

“I see.” Saying that I took out my watch and said, “It also seems that I took too much time on this matter, I should go back to my mistress now.”

Keine also spoke up, “I also need to go back to the human village. Many might be still panicking right now about the ‘youkai’ attack.”

“Wait, at least before you two go, may I interview you?”

““No.”” Both Keine and I refused. We both have somewhere to go so it is natural that we both refuse Aya's interview as it will waste both of our time on something that can definitely wait.

“Hey wait a second! At least think about it!” Now Aya is about to chase after us.

She will not leave us alone, isn’t she?

As Keine and I were about to leave for two different destinations, and as I was about to throw my knives at Aya again, something, something that I thought to have gone for good, flash passed by us without making a sound, smacking and shredding through the very ground next to us.

At that moment, I, and perhaps everyone here, slowly moved their head toward the place where that thing just passed by us. It is not until I realize what’s before me that my eyes widen. There seems to be a human-shaped hole in the ground. The overall shape looks like Regulus, the hole even got his hair shape right.

Aya is the first one to respond to such an event, “Ayayaya? Scoop! This will add more to my story!” It is then that she flaps her wings and just goes into the hole that Regulus created. Since Aya is significantly smaller than Regulus, she was able to go through Regulus’s shaped hole on the ground with ease.

Whistle, Marisa said, “I’m damn, he actually came back.”

“It caught me by surprise as well,” I sigh and continue, “It seems my time to get back to my mistress was extended.”

“If you're gonna go fight that dude, I’m not going with ya-ze. I just dried myself out with that final Master Spark earlier, so I wouldn’t be much of help anymore.”

It is also then that Keine spoke up, “I have to pass also. Even if I can still fight, the situation in the human village is not good. It is a shame to leave that Murderer go, but I cannot leave the human village as it is…”

Marisa who is too tired to go on and Keine who have a duty to uphold, both are unable to go on, leaving me alone who can go, and thus, I decided, “I will go after the Anomaly then. You may do what you must.”

“I wish for your endeavor then. Now, it is time for me to leave.” With that being said by Keine, the empty plane that had nothing earlier except for some occasional tree now seems to have a human village in its place. It is a phenomenon that is unexplainable by human standards. Afterward, Keine flies toward the settlement that just appears out of nowhere.

After she took her leave, Marisa said, “That is incredible… but,” She turned her head toward me and said, “Your monstrous stamina is more impressive! Are you really going after that guy? You really are not tired, huh? ”

“As a maid, it is natural for me to have the stamina to clean an entire mansion in one session.” I said matter of factly.

Sweatdropped, Marisa said, “I think that is just you. Not every maid can do that, you know?”

“What do you mean, Marisa? If a maid wasn’t capable of doing everything, they can’t be called a ‘maid.”

“You really adopt the “Maid can do anything” mantra, huh? Maids are not omnipotent, ya know?”

Ignoring Marisa, I began to fly toward the human-shaped hole that was previously made by the Anomaly. It goes quite deep…

Behind me, Marisa spoke up again, “Anyways, since I can’t help ya anymore, Ima at least get you some reinforcement-ze.”

Thinking that it's a good idea to get more help, I said, “It would be appreciated if you do that Marisa.”

Marisa nodded once and got on her bloom, afterward, she started to fly toward the direction of her house. Hmm… I know that she had a neighbor, I met her once after all, maybe her ‘reinforcement’ is that neighbor of hers. That person ‘who has no worries’, perhaps, it is time for her to worry about some things. Regardless…

I look into Regulus’s shaped hole on the ground that has a depth that I cannot see the end of, and afterward, I jump into the hole that Regulus created, following Aya.

— — — — — — — — — — —

A Couple of Minutes Before Regulus Falls to the Underworld (Old Hell)

Reimu Hakurei P.O.V

Why am I in hell?

That is a question that sinners usually ask when they die and get sent to hell, but I’m not dead, so why am I here? Even if where I’m at is the old hell where the sinners were no longer tortured, I still want to go home…

After I got sent here by that white hair guy, Yukari stopped by with that portable gap of hers, broke my fall, and just left me with some remark that I don’t understand, like what the hell do you mean by “This still isn't the right time,” huh!? And what with, “Take care, Reimu”? Don’t dump work on me you hag! I will get her back for this. I didn’t even get any explanation!

… Anyway, it seems I’m in old hell. Where I landed after that white hair guy threw me to the underworld is some district in the old capital, or so I was told by the Youkai I came across here anyway.

I never came to this place before so I don’t know anything about it, however, based on how many oni I have seen thus far of this place, this place, the ancient city, seems to be a place where oni, Youkai, gathered.

The fairies are also still present here even though this place was once hell, which just doubles the annoyance.

Sigh, I can’t believe that after this, I still need to get back to that white hair troublemaker. Why can’t I relax for once?

Not being in a good mood, I beat up every Youkai I meet in this old capital of hell and force them to answer me a few things, like where the exits are. Though, this place sure is neat. It is very tropical. Maybe I will visit this old hell in winter, but… this is summer damn it.

As I complained, I beat up Youkai that got in my way every now and then. And with me beating up Youkai left and right near the occasional oni partying on the street, this makes it so that I would get challenged by them all of sudden in every street of this old capital, which makes things even more annoying.

This place is full of Youkai that want to pick a fight with me, it seems.

And since this is annoying, I express that out clearly, “Annoying! Get out of my way!” That is what I yell in the streets of the former capital.

After I yell that, someone responds, but the person who responds to my demand isn’t any of the Youkai I’m fighting.

“You sure are more rowdy than many rowdy bunch here.” Who said that is a giant of a woman with a red horn protruding out of her forehead, that has a yellow star engraving on its side. She wore a shirt that seemed easy to move in and a skirt that was semi-transparent. And on her hand, there is a huge dish that holds high-quality sake inside. She is huge, bigger than any oni I have come across thus far.

Seeing another oni in front of me, I ask, “Are you here to block my way like the others?” My voice came out a bit annoyed, which couldn’t be helped really, I don’t have a good day today.

“Calm down, what got your panties in a twist, huh?” Saying that, the Oni took a good gulp of the high-quality sake in her hand and continued, “What is a human doing in a place like this anyway?”

I frowned, “I don’t even want to be here. I want to leave, actually.”

Seemingly confused, the Oni responded, “What? Why are you here causing a ruckus then?”

It might be true that my word of wanting to leave and my action of beating everyone here instead of leaving contradicted itself greatly, but I do have a good reason for this, and that is, “I don’t know where the exit is so I ‘ask’ for directions.”

“… You mean ‘force’, right? I like your gut!” The Oni loudly exclaimed and continued, “This place is where the strong rule, the weak have no place here. If you ‘ask’ them nicely, you probably won't get what you’re asking for.”

“No wonder why the Youkai in here don't answer me until I beat them up.”

“Ah…hahahaha, this place needs more people like you. So, you are asking for the exit of this place, right? Shouldn’t you know where the hole that you came from is?”

“I know, but the guy who sent me here buried the hole (in spite) after I came here...” I grumble.

(A/N: Remember when Regulus stomped the ground after he threw Reimu down? He was stomping on Reimu's grave.)

”... Huh?” Like having just heard something unbelievable, the Oni gawks, “Wait, wait, are you suggesting that there is another hole that leads you to here?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“No way, right?” The Oni chuckled, but she stopped after seeing that I wasn’t joking, “Wait, seriously? There is actually a mad lad somewhere that dug another hole all the way to here. The cave should be right there, right…?”

“Believe it or not, the hole didn’t take long to make, the hole was dug alongside me falling here actually.” I tried to explain.

“Still, it is hard to belie…? No, wait a second… Hole? Falling to hell after… and it is quick?” I could see the oni mind racing even from here, and also see her doubt bubbling into the surface, but after a bit, that doubt suddenly disappeared and what replaced it was understanding(?), “Ah, I see now,” Something seemingly clicked inside the Oni as she gave me condolences(?), “So like, err, well shit… I hope you make a living here in what’s once hell, I guess. I dunno why Yama sent you here, but it is quite cozy here unlike the actual hell. It must be tough being buried and the next thing you know you are here without knowing where… Man, tough day for ya, wanna drink?”

It took me a couple of seconds before I realized what the Oni was thinking and so I retorted, “I’m not dead and I did not just undergo a burial ceremony like you are thinking! … Are you drunk?”

“Ah, hahaha, what? Really? And of course, I am drunk. I am always drunk. But really though… The story of you being dead and appearing here for some reason is more believable than someone digging another hole all the way to here. You should know how far this is from the ground, right?” Saying such, the Oni took another sip of her sake and continued, “But really though… no one actually appears here when they die anymore, so I will believe your story for now. Ah, since you are already here, why not have a drinking contest and a strength contest with me while you are at it?”

“I don’t have time for that.”

“… Sounds like an excuse, if you ask me.” The Oni's shoulders dropped in disappointment.

But whether the Oni was disappointed or not, I don’t care, “Whatever you say, there is somewhere I need to go. Anyway, can you move aside?”

“I like that you are honest, but I still don’t like that you are running away from a fight...”

“Why would you care if you like me or not?” I deadpanned.

The Oni shrugs, “Fair enough, but I wouldn’t get out of the way unless you prove yourself first.”

“Sigh, really? You really don’t give me another option except to fight, huh… Fine, I will fight you so that I can get it over with.” Saying such, I get out my sealing needles.

“Ah… hahaha,” The Oni laughed at my words, not out of mockery, but out of acknowledgement. After that laugh, the Oni took another gulp of her sake and said, “Oni likes strength. Seeing someone strong in front of us, we couldn’t help but be itching to fight. So even if you decline, I will pick a fight with you anyway since you seem strong. Let's do it then!! Let’s play that game humans play! Oni's Voice "Annihilating Roar"!” With that roar, a spell card was declared.

Finally, someone who follows the spell card rules. But really? I don’t want to fight anyone, Danmaku or not… Sigh, it couldn’t be helped, I guess.

As I’m thinking that, danmaku were coming at me in waves that were generated every time the Oni roared. Many danmaku bullets still flew out even when the Oni wasn’t roaring, though.

Anyway, with me dodging the danmaku with some grazing me by, the Oni started to run toward me at a breakneck speed, breaking the very ground in the process with her pure strength. She is physically stronger than anyone I have met thus far, except for maybe that white hair guy, so just who is she? She is not a regular Oni, that I’m sure of. What surprises me most is not the strength of her, however, what surprises me most is the fact that she didn’t spill even a single drop of sake that is being contained in that dish of hers as she’s running toward me.

After a bit of running, the Oni yells, ““Feat of Strength "Wind Blowing Down from Mt. Ooe"!” Afterward violent pockets of wind just came out of nowhere. The pocket of wind that this Oni throws is like the pocket of air that the white hair guy liked to throw earlier today, the only thing that is different between the two is that the Oni pocket of wind is actually perceivable, not aimed for the kill, and were much slower (still fast though). As I thought that, many big pockets of wind that were twice my size were approaching me.

With me floating and dodging, soon enough, I dodged them all till the effect of the spell card was over. With me keep dodging, the Oni grew frustrated, “Quit dodging! Show me what you got!” As she said such, she rushed toward me, planning to get more physical with me. She is quite a brute, I see.

And of course, after hearing what the Oni wants, I respond back in kind with, “Holy Relic "Yin-Yang Kishin Orb"!” With that, as the Oni had wished, a giant Yin-Yang Orb that’s triple my size was being shot out toward her.

“Ahahahaha! This is it! I will keep my ground so come at me with all you got!” With my Yin-Yang Orb being shot out, the Oni just tanks my Yin-Yang orb?? You're supposed to dodge it, you know? Wait wait, is that a *crack* I heard? Just how strong is she?!

As she is tanking my Yin-Yang Orb, I did not sit quietly either as I pulled out my sealing needles and threw them at the Oni. But the needles did not even pierce the Oni's skin.

… Wasn’t sealing needles supposed to be super effective against Youkai? It also has a divine connection too…

“You have that backbone in ya, human! Come on, come on! I will knock you out in three steps! “Big Four Arcanum "Knock Out In Three Steps"!” With that declaration of a spell card, I jump backward and the Oni stomps toward me. With each stomp the Oni makes, it creates invisible rings that shoot out danmaku, and also threatens to destroy the surrounding building.

I don’t know how the Oni did it but it is a great display of strength, however, at the end of the day, I was able to dodge them all. With me dodging them, the Oni got more interested in me even more.

“Impressive for a human. Tell me your name, I will surely remember it and so remember mine! My name is Hoshiguma Yuugi! Some called me the “Unexplainable Phenomena”!” Yuugi proudly exclaimed.

Contrary to Yuugi energy, I introduced myself unenthusiastically, “I am Reimu Hakurei, the Shrine Maiden of the Hakurei Shrine.”

“... I see, so you are that Shrine Maiden who maintains the border! No wonder why you are strong. Let’s see if you can handle this!” With that yell, the Oni, no, Yuugi rushed at me. Once Yuugi got to around 2 meters away from me, she started to throw punches(?), “Ora ora ora ora ora ora!!!”

I mean, anything can be counted as attacks, but, punches? Really? First one I ever saw someone get this physical to this extent. Anyway, with Yuugi throwing punches, I follow her by swinging out my Gohei. Like in a fighting game, we keep exchanging blows. Well… until there is suddenly a loud sound and a hole was formed in the ceiling far above. The sound is quite loud and noticeable even in this huge section of the underground.

With that, my attention got shifted to the thing that caused the hole, same as Yuugi, really.

It is then that Yuugi said, “Oh, I think I remember hearing something similar a while back when I’m drinking, though I was drunk at that time so I thought I was hearing things.”

“... I would find it unbelievable if you are sober, and that is me last time! … Wait!”

The reason for my yell is that I saw the white hair guy, who threw me to this place, falling through the hole he created with his body. I don’t know why he got here or how he got here, but I will not look a gift horse in the mouth.

It is then that I start to fly toward the white hair guy that ruined my day today, and behind me, I could hear Yuugi shouting, “Hey, what about our fight?” But of course, I ignore her as I have something more important to do here than fighting her, which is to eliminate that white hair guy who ruined my day.

— — — — — — — — — — —

In an Unknown Location

Yukari Yakumo P.O.V

In a place beyond the reach of many, two figures are talking in a room that is dimly lit.

“Lady Yukari, what you are doing now is very risky. Why are you playing a dangerous game here with that man?” The one who spoke was Ran, my Shikigami.

Hearing Ran's inquiry, I said vaguely, “The risk is worth taking. The opportunity like this didn’t come too often, Ran.”

“Saying such vague things, it would be very much appreciated if you tell me instead why you let him massacre the humans even though you have a chance to intervene.” Said Ran, a bit angry. Ran is quite a kind Youkai so it is expected that she will be somewhat angry at me, who let a massacre happen.

“Ran, do you think I’m the type to let humans die without any reason? You should know by now that I always move for the benefit of Gensokyo.” I paused and playfully said, “... And instead of asking me why, you should try to think of it yourself, Ran. Perhaps start with figuring out the effect that my action will cause.”

Even though her mood isn’t good, Ran nodded and said, “Very well, Lady Yukari.”

Shikigami, to put it simply, cannot go against the master command and cannot do anything that was beyond the command that was being given to them. For that reason, they can be compared to a computer.

And so with Ran being a Shikigami, she did what I had asked without any complaint, “With you not intervening, humans will start to fear Regulus. This will only create an imbalance in Gensokyo, leading to its collapse.”

Gensokyo, a land where a fragile balance was maintained. A place where humans are in a constant state of fear of Youkai and Youkai need the fear of humans to not disappear, if this balance of fear were to tip, Gensokyo would collapse.

“Regulus is an external factor, someone who is outside of the balance that had been set long since the creation of Gensokyo. If someone who is outside the balance like him makes the human fear him instead of the Youkai, the Youkai existence might be threatened and the balance might be broken.”

Upon hearing Ran answer, I float and put both of my palms against my chin and said playfully, “What you said is right, but you should know by now that I will not do anything that will threaten Gensokyo's existence, so why do you think I allow it to happen if it will threaten Gensokyo?”

“I believe that you have something to counterbalance what Regulus' presence may bring to Gensokyo.” That is what Ran replied in an instant.

“That belief is not incorrect.”

After I said such, Ran expected me to say something more, and so she stood there in silence, but after realizing that I will not say anything more, she let out a sigh and said, “Lady Yukari. As your Shikigami, I trust your judgment but, it is still best that you not play riddles with me and tell me what your plans are instead. I couldn’t help but be worried, lady Yukari...”

“Ran, there is nothing to worry about, why do you think I am so lax about this? You should know, right?”

“Because you strongly believe that things will work out...”

“Your intellect did not deteriorate, I see, such a benefit of being a Shikigami.”

“Is that a praise?”

“Is it not? Remind me who warranted punishment after a failure in judgment last time, at least this time is an improvement.”

“Please don’t remind me of that, Lady Yukari! That will not happen again, I promise.”

“You better be, that happening even appears in the news… about me being an ‘animal abuser’ if I remember correctly. My, how absurd that is.”

“...”

“Anyway, we are slightly off topic just now,” I paused and my expression now turned serious, “Ran, no matter what happens next, you have to trust me. I know what I’m doing, so don’t panic. And… you are worrying about the balance, right? It will not be broken, I will say that. I can guarantee you that if he starts to threaten Gensokyo in any way, I will stop him myself.”

In Gensokyo, I can be considered as an overseer. Someone who overlooks everything that is happening in Gensokyo. There are only a few things that can go unnoticed by me, Regulus' arrival to Gensokyo is not one of them.

In truth, I had been observing Regulus from the very beginning. With only a peek into the Boundary of Immigration and Emigration, I was the first one to be able to detect Regulus entering Gensokyo.

Even if Regulus is not there in terms of existence and is only there as a presence that can be seen but can’t be interacted with, I can still be able to detect him using my boundary manipulation to look at the very concept of "someone being there”.

And after observing Regulus, I had found something interesting about his existence. Regulus' existence right now is that of a ‘border’ that exists between two things. The reason for that is that he exists in Gensokyo, yet not entirely, and he exists in 'not Gensokyo,' yet not entirely either, and since he was somewhat disconnected from both but also connected to both, he becomes something akin to a ‘borders’, something that exists to ‘separates’ and ‘connects’ the two. In truth, Regulus wouldn’t have become a border if he put himself on an already established connection instead of making the new connection himself.

Regulus acts just like my ‘gap’ actually. What my ‘gap’ is, is simply just a tear in the fabric of reality that opens up to the ‘space’ between two places. My gap acts as a ‘separation’ between two places and also a ‘connection’ between the two. For that reason, virtually, what you can really see of my gaps is just the inside of it, which is the boundary between ‘here’ and ‘there’. Regulus also has that kind of virtual presence, what you can really see of him is just him being in a space that separates and connects to both 'Gensokyo' and ‘not Gensokyo’.

And since Regulus can be classified as a ‘border’, he might as well be in the palm of my hand as I am capable of manipulating any kind of boundary. Playing around with existence is one of my personally made taboos, along with messing around with the boundary of ‘then’ and ‘now’, but I will make this as an exception if he goes out of line.

After having thought of such, I told Ran, “For what I’m planning, I will let you find out yourself. Don’t you think it will be more interesting that way?” After saying such, I did not wait for Ran to respond and simply turned my back toward her and walked to my chamber.

Chapter Text

Extra Chapter: He Who Rejected Changes

Third Person P.O.V

Ever since he could remember, he always wakes up to an undesirable hunger.

*Growl*

No matter how much he wants to close his eyes and go back to sleep in a bed that can barely be called a bed, he cannot as his stomach continues to protest until he is forced to open his eyes.

‘Why do I have to go through this?’ That is what he thought as his eyes' color of gold were being shined upon by the morning sun. In a room that seemed to have too many cracks and holes to count, Regulus, who wore dirty cloth, seemed to be lying down on his bed thinking about why his life is like this.

‘What a miserable life this is.’ That is what Regulus thought without even taking a second to think if there is anyone else in the world that has it worse off than him. In truth, however, Regulus was better off than most as he at least has a loving family, but Regulus himself can’t notice that. Perhaps that is due to his nature, or the environment that shaped him that way causes him to not notice that fact, but regardless of reason, it has always been an undisputed fact that he always got doted on by his parents. However, the only thing Regulus derived from those acts of love is ‘pity’ and the belief of being entitled to things that are given to him.

Being in poverty, the foods that Regulus thought that he was ‘entitled’ to are always too little, does not come so frequently, and always comes at the time when his hunger is almost unbearable.

One day, he might be lucky and get scraps of food, and the next he got one loaf of bread. Whenever he got the food that he deserved, his stomach would still be left unsatisfied.

The feeling of being entitled to things only builds up hatred within Regulus as he believes that everyone just denies him what he is entitled to.

With him not getting enough basic necessities to his satisfaction, with him not having a good roof above him or a single decent cloth that wasn't dirty, he thought that no one really cared about him, and thus he developed hatred.

Along with that hatred for others, there comes hatred for himself and the low self-worth that follows after what he thought others view him as, someone who is pitiful, someone who is lacking.

He hated himself for being low, for being so pitiable, and so when he got the power to prevent himself from ever needing anything again, the power to stop time for himself and only himself, the power that liberated himself from the feeling of being ‘pitiful’ and ‘worthless’, he use it to hide away from his past that is laughable.

With the power to stop his time, disconnect him from the flow of it, there comes the freedom of no longer needing anything, no longer being restrained by anything, no longer relying on anything for his continuation such as food and water, and no longer needing things like shelter.

The point of shelter is to protect oneself from rain, cold, and the deadly rays of the sun. But with his body condition being stopped, his body is now optimal for every situation as his body is being stopped in the state of equilibrium.

He doesn’t need sleep as his body stopped in a state where he was fully awake, unchanging. And with his body not changing, his health also wasn’t in his concern.

He no longer needs to be provided for and so he no longer requires a family. And since he no longer needs them, he gets rid of them as he believes that they will only tie him down. Same as friendship. Friendship is all about give and take, and since he doesn't need anything, he doesn't need friendship either. He also doesn't ‘need’ wives. The only reason he gathers beautiful women to be his wives is so that he could liberate them from the chain called “love” that prevents them from gaining independence, or so he convinces himself.

With his Authority of Greed, he basically has accomplished everything in life by not needing anything to live.

That power that caused him to become the embodiment of ‘perfect’ and ‘satisfaction', that is what he depends on to escape his past, the poor and pitiful him of the past that he'd rather forget that was barely able to receive the most basic of necessities that cannot satisfy him.

He latches himself onto that power and builds his ego around his ‘Authority of Greed’, something that makes him ‘the most satisfied being in the world’. Since his entire image was built upon his ‘Authority of Greed’, he lashed out at those who went against that image, after all, that image is all he has. And since his ego was built upon the image of being ‘perfect’, someone who doesn’t need anything to live, a perfect human who everyone could ever hope to reach, he feels that he already got all the respect in the world. But… that is just his conscious thoughts.

In his unconscious mind, however, Regulus is, in fact, wanting to show off, to seek people's recognition, validation of people to build his fragile ego to prove that he is not lacking and that he is perfect. Regulus is just like a kid, who viewed themself as stupid, wanting to complete their education to prove their intellect; Regulus seeks validation to build his ego of ‘being perfect’ to prove that he isn’t ‘pitiful lacking existence’.

He denies everything that he perceived as an attack against his ego, by destroying and killing, to continue to be able to live in that lie, in that bubble of comfort, in his own world that he created that he himself didn’t notice.

Regulus never changes. His heart and his mind were stopped a century ago, therefore he is still that same kid that killed his entire village because they ‘pity’ him. He never grew, he never improved, he never realized his sins, and still thinks that he is rid of all wrongdoing even if it presents to his face as he rejects everything, rejects all changes, isolates himself in a world where there is only himself, where there is no outside interference that’s able to change him.

Even after he died, he still has not once changed. His entire image was built upon the image of ‘being perfect’, for that reason, if he accepts changes, it means he acknowledges his flaws. Acknowledging something that he rejected, something that he denies for years, decades, centuries, that can’t simply be done, and thus he denies changes.

Even now, as he is falling to what was once hell, he’s still oblivious to the fact that he never acted upon his promise of going ‘serious’, ‘not holding back anymore’, and ‘stop being too merciful’ that was in his mind previously; he kept talking and talking, without changing anything in the end. Even if he thinks of ‘change’ he wouldn’t act upon them and go on like normal without changing, for his heart and mind were ‘stopped’ a long time ago.

It might be true that ‘change’ happens before it happens, as it first happened when ‘we thought about change’, making it the starting line; for Regulus, however, acting upon his thought of ‘change’ is the last obstacle that he could never hope to overcome, he is simply long gone in the spiral of chasing his own shadow. The shadow that’s called, ‘the most satisfied being in existence’ that he himself created.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12: Float Away From Everything Not

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

Just now, I was unable to act and unable to decide to do anything. I don’t know what drove me to commit such a simple mistake. The mistake I committed was so simple that it doesn’t make sense. How can a divine being such as myself commit a mistake? Wait no… wait a second!!

… Now that I think about it more, it is indeed impossible for me to commit such an embarrassing mistake! There can’t be something influencing my thoughts, can there? As a divine being, the most perfect of beings, being influenced by something external is unthinkable! But… That possibility is more plausible than me committing such an embarrassing mistake. It’s definitely not my fault, so there must be someone who caused me to act strangely previously! That’s obviously right! Why hadn’t I thought of such an obvious answer to my weird, unexplainable, and embarrassing action just now? Why did I even feel embarrassed just now, even if it’s just a little? The most satisfied being, such as myself, can't make such a mistake or be embarrassed about anything! After all, I am satisfied! That’s right!! Being embarrassed means regretting something I did, and someone such as myself never regrets anything! To say that I’m embarrassed is a lie; it is not my character! So someone must have done something to me!! How dare they invade my innermost sanctuary? How dare they cause me to be unable to reach a satisfying conclusion and unable to act satisfyingly?! To influence my thoughts to such an extent, who dared do that to me!? The one who just caused me to commit such an embarrassing act should be the one embarrassed! They should be conscious of what they did to me!!!

As I was screaming that in my mind, I got through to the other side. With me falling through, I thought that I got through to the other side of the world. But regardless, I am confident that I can simply go back to those rights violators, why can’t I? I am perfect, therefore I am capable of doing anything, even suggesting that I can’t do something is an absurdity that I can’t stand.

After I get through the earth and reach the place beneath the ground, I shift my position a bit to look at where I’m at. After doing such, I can see many Kararagi-style buildings laid about and a big palace in the distance. Even though I find it weird that there are structures underground, I don’t have the mind to care about it. After all, I still have some business with the pieces of shit above. I cannot let them live after what they have done.

I also suspect that one of them is influencing my mind previously, so I got even more business with them. For that, I planned to stop myself mid-air to get back to those who put me in this situation. But… before I could put that plan into action, I got hit by something from the side. But even though I got hit, it didn’t do anything to me except make me annoyed.

This again! Who is hitting me?! … Now, I feel as though I have experienced that before. Regardless of that, wasn’t it rude to attack someone? It is like attacking a pedestrian out of the blue when they did nothing, that is obviously wrong! For that, how dare whoever it was to attack me!?

After I threw a string of curses in my mind, I began to stop myself mid-air and levitated down to the ground. Afterward, I began to look for the culprit who just assaulted me. As I looked around, I found the assaulter. Upon seeing who had done such an attack against me, my eyes turned into dots out of pure anger, “Why you you you!!! Why are you still alive? How are you still alive!? You should have died!! You should have, I had made sure of that! So why are you still alive? How did you survive? This is a violation of my rights!”

“Yeah yeah, ‘right’ this, ‘right’ that, isn't all of that just a roundabout way of saying ‘you hurt my feelings’?”

“Hurt my feelings?” I parroted, then afterward, I shouted, “To insinuate that a perfect existence such as myself has my feelings hurt because of you, are you out of your mind? My heart is unbreakable! To even suggest that my heart got broken by the likes of you, you are lowering me as a person. I am not as weak as you suggested myself to be, and therefore, you are violating my rights as a person!” My voice trembles as I direct my rage at the girl in front of me. But it seemed that those words hadn’t reached the girl at all.

“... Anyway, can't we just get this over with? I’m losing my patience.”

“How impatient! And you just stole my line! It’s supposed to be me who is losing patience!! … Still, it is quite unsettling that I agreed with you on something for once. I, too, don’t want to talk to you anymore! So let’s get this over with! I will kill you so I won't need to talk to you ever again?!”

“Errr, I think that is my line, I should be the one who gets tired talking to you, not you! Anyway, I will seal you now!”

After saying such things that clearly violate my rights further, she starts to throw papers again.

“Seal? Like that pathetic witch of whatever? Don’t make me laugh, something like that obviously is not going to affect me. Did you feel like you couldn’t defeat me with that meager strength of yours that you finally decided to seal me instead?”

“So sealing doesn’t work? I will have to try something diff—.”

*Crash*

Before she can even finish saying whatever she wants to say, a resounding clash resonates throughout the surrounding area. What comes along that is the sound of a woman I don’t know. Looking in that direction, I can see a face that I wasn’t familiar with. Though she doesn’t seem to look at me… How dare she! To not look at me means she thinks that I am insignificant and not worth looking at.

As I was grumbling to myself, the woman spoke to Reimu, “What was your idea that caused you to run here? Our fight still ain’t over!”

“—Geez, give me a break!” That is what Reimu said with an obvious frown, “I don’t have time to fight you.”

“What are you even saying? There is always time for a good fight!” Saying such, she finally noticed me.

“So you finally noticed me, huh? How dare you not notice me for that long? Are you blind? Or did you simply not care about me?! I’ll assume that you’re not blind as you see me just fine, evident by how you noticed me just now. That means that you hadn’t cared about me up until now to not notice me, which I’ll say to be a violation of my rights. Wouldn’t you agree that if someone is standing right there, you should acknowledge their existence?”

“What the hell were you even yapping about, just say it straight to me and shorten it to three sentences or less!”

“What a particular choice of words, ‘yapping? Did you just insinuate that I am annoying and stupid-sounding? And for you to try to put limits on how much I can speak, isn’t that basically you violating my right to speak?!—”

*gulp* *gulp*

“—Just now, you drank as I was talking, didn’t you? Don’t you think this is a bad time to drink? Drinking as I’m speaking, you really tick me off! Wasn’t that basically just showing that you’re disinterested in what I’m saying?”

“There is never a bad time to drink.” It was then that the woman began to evaluate my physique up and down, and said, “You didn’t look much.” After she said that, she looked at Reimu and continued, “Why did you come to fight this guy instead of me?”

“Didn’t look much, you said!!? If I heard you correctly, which my ears have never deceived me before, you are calling me lacking, aren't you?! Why do you think I’m lacking? What part of my character suggests that? Are you sure that you hadn’t projected yourself on my image? If you ask me, you are the one who is lacking, not me! Are you so inferior that you try to lower me as a person to feel important? And hadn’t we just met? So to say that I’m lacking without even getting a chance to know me is—.”

As I was talking, the unknown girl with a horn cut me off mid-sentence, “Reimu, who is this insanely annoying guy?”

“His name is Regulus Corn-ear or something. I’m not sure though since he talked so much that even his introduction got over my head. And, it’s not like I want to fight this guy, he just keeps making a reason for me to fight him.”

At this point, my anger that had been building up until now had erupted to a new peak, "Did you just call me ‘annoying’? Why does every single one of the accursed… things I meet in this place keep insinuating that I’m ‘annoying’? It’s not me that is ‘annoying’. How dare you even say that? It's you, a socially unacceptable freak who doesn't care about the rights of others! Shutting me off again and again, calling me names I didn’t recall introducing myself as, and constantly degrading me as a person! I think I've said this many times before, but I will say it again: how dare you?! Don’t you know that a name defines a person? For you to forget a part of my name, doesn’t that mean you are belittling my very person, suggesting that my person isn’t worth remembering? To say that I’m low like that, how high you are! You think that you are significant, you think that you are worth more than me, saying that my person is worth less than you? I can’t, I can't, can't tolerate yoouuu! And to say that I keep finding a reason to fight you, isn’t that actually the opposite? Wasn’t it all you that kept making a reason for me to fight you? Take some responsibility; don’t just say that it’s all my fault! If you hadn’t interacted with me from the start, all of this wouldn’t have happened! ......” As I keep talking, the two girls in front of me seem to have a conversation over my speech.

“He’s still going.” Astonished, the horned girl spoke.

“Yeah… With a personality like this, combined with his troublesome ability, it makes a recipe for utter disaster.”

“So you say that he is strong?” The horned girl scrutinized me as I talked. After some time, she continued, “He didn’t look much to me… Is he those types that focus too much on spiritual power and completely abandon their physical aspect?”

At this point, I began to notice that the girls were not even listening to me.

“... You can say that, but it is his ability that makes him annoying. He is capable of making things, even himself, incapable of change. Like, if you throw a rock at him, the rock wouldn’t do anything to him since he can’t deviate from his normal, healthy state. And if he throws a rock at you, that rock would go straight through you since the rock is impervious to anything that is not itself. In short, he is very troublesome, sigh.” Reimu sighs while messaging her brows.

I had long stopped speaking, and now my eyes couldn’t help but twitch as I listened to what they were saying. I want to see just what is so important that they have to ignore my words.

The red-horned woman nodded to Reimu's words, “Indestructible, I see.” After she muttered that, she turned her head toward me and said, “Hey you! Fight me!”

Now that they had finished whatever they were talking about, they began to pay attention to me because they wanted something from me.

Having witnessed such behavior, my face twitched again. Afterward, I look at the horned girl with scorn, “Don’t you find it unacceptable to treat someone as some sort of convenience? I find it degrading that you ignore me and my words until you want something from me. Why should I comply with your one-sided request to ‘fight me’? You see, I hate fighting. I don’t appreciate meaningless conflict, so for you to force my hand into something I dislike, don’t you think you’re overstepping your bounds? Forcing yourself onto me is something I dislike!”

I finished what I wanted to say without any interruption. However, earlier when I’m speaking, I swear that I heard someone faintly say, “bullshit.” But since the sound was so fleeting, I figured that it was just my imagination. After all, the content of my words is not nonsense as it’s both valuable and insightful, so surely I misheard.

And upon noticing that I had finished talking, the horned girl said, “Who would listen to that, really? If you are going to speak, go straight to the point and not just ramble on about something for a dozen seconds. Sooo, what did you say again? Are you in for the fight or not?”

“Did you not listen to me? Didn’t my words clearly allude to my unwillingness earlier? ”

“I see… Why not just tell me straight from the beginning then?” Saying that, she takes another sip of her sake. “I don’t like that kind of roundabout way of speaking. On that note, I also don’t like your cowardness.”

“What?! Cowardice? Just what part of my character suggested that? What action of mine reflects such a thing? Clearly, my perfect self doesn't have such a flaw. In fact, there is no way I’m a coward. To be a coward means that I’m fearful of something, especially danger. Since no one can ever touch me, why should I fear anything? Being as satisfied as I am, to be scared of anything would mean that I’m unsatisfied with my strength, which is not true. No one stands a chance against me! Even as humble as I am, I have to confess that I am invincible!”

“Humble? Invincible? Huh? Huh??!” Reimu mumbled with clear confusion in her eyes as she progressively got angrier. That confusion probably stems from her not being able to understand the profoundness of my words, and that anger was probably directed at herself for not being able to understand, a perfect reaction I was hoping for.

Her reaction aside, that horned girl reaction made me want to kill her as she looked at me like I was full of myself. What highlighted that even more was the words that came out of her mouth next, “Invincible? Why do you say that? I don’t know what ability you have to be so confident, but that is a big word for someone so thin and sickly.” Her reaction is one of ignorance. She doesn't know much about me, and so her thoughts on me are entirely dependent on my thin and sickly white figure, who never seems to work out their entire life.

I find that incredibly insulting and so I shouted, "Thin arm? Sickly? Did you just judge how strong I am based on my appearance? How stupid are you? You clearly don't understand! Don’t understand at all! I have gone beyond the superficial and have grasped true strength that transcends mere muscle power. You are so shallow that it’s not even funny! For you to look at my surface-level strength only and immediately assume that I’m weak because of it is unacceptable! It’s unacceptable, you hear?! Is this assumption based on your ignorance? If so then I have no choice but to demonstrate my power! How cruel are you to force me to kill you!"

Immediately after I said that, I swung my arm horizontally. Of course, since the red-white is also there, I didn’t spare her and included her in my attack radius.

With me having swung my arm horizontally, the surrounding building in this district got cut in half.

But even though the building got sliced, the things that I wanted to slice up the most didn’t get sliced along with it. At the very second my attack was launched, that red-white bitch does what she does best, annoy me by grabbing the horned girl, pulling her aside, and dodging it.

As I’m thinking about what I just witnessed, the red-white sigh, “My duty is to exterminate youkai, why did I protect you again?”

A bead of sweat rolled down the horned girl's forehead as she said, “Who would have thought that him swinging his arm meant an attack… Anyway, thanks for that save.”

“Yeah. For his attack, his attack might be unexpected at first time, but once you get the gist of it, it becomes predictable.”

“If that is all he is then it’s easier than the Danmaku game or whatever! I like this straightforwardness!!”

The horned girl laughed after that statement, which I found insulting, and so I commented, “What is so laughable about me? From your conversation just now, which is very rude by the way since you ignored me, you say that my attack is simple? I found that very belittling since you’re basically undermining my ability!!”

With me saying that, the horned girl responded with, “You’re seriously annoying! Is everything an insult to you?! Be a man and don’t pick at every little thing like a child!”

“Child? You are degrading me again ain’t you? Are you saying that I’m immature and imperfect? Don’t dismiss me like that! Don’t think of me as a child either! If I were to be honest, I am probably much older than you could ever imagine! I have lived satisfyingly for over a century, so don’t belittle m—.”

I soon got interrupted by the red-white as she shouted, “Shut up! You talked too much. It’s started to become intolerable!”

— — — — — — — — — — —

Reimu Hakurei P.O.V

I had kept silent for a while now, but I just can’t handle this guy anymore. He keeps talking and talking and talking; he is even worse than Aya, for God's sake, which says something about how annoying this guy is.

At first, I'm willing to stay silent since it's better not to agitate him and just stay quiet, allowing myself more time to think. But as he goes on minutes upon minutes upon minutes, he really, really, really gets on my nerves. He might have already gotten on my nerves the first time I met him in front of the human village some time ago, which feels like 5 months ago, but this guy really brings me to a new level of annoyance I've never felt before in my life.

To spare me from more annoyance, I just voice out my displeasure. Even though I had yet to come up with a good plan against this annoying guy, I didn't care anymore and decided to go along with the flow—'float' along with the flow, if you will. No matter what, I’ll flow along the most favorable path for me anyway, so why bother getting so worked up over this? Even though I have yet to learn what the key to solving his invincibility is, I have faith that I’ll win eventually if I go along with the flow.

With that thought, I said, “You really are getting on my nerves! My duty here is to exterminate a troublesome ‘youkai’ like you so let’s get this over with!”

With my statement, Regulus speaks, “Huh? Where did you get that confidence? Didn’t I tell you? That I’m invincible!? And why do you keep labeling me as a ‘Youkai’?! You’re disrespecting me, just refer to me by my name, and not by the word ‘youkai,’ whatever it is! And why not just listen to me and do what I told you to for once? Just die!” With him finished talking, he swung his arm again with the intent to kill. After he did so, the space broke apart, and an unstoppable force was unleashed.

However, the unstoppable force bent and swayed to the side for me, missing me completely. My 'Fantasy Nature’—The ability I was once told by Marisa to be ‘unbeatable’—had activated once again.

“Huh?” Regulus is confused at such a sight.

When Regulus was distracted, Yuugi used that time to dash forward to try to punch him.

At that moment, in my mind, I couldn’t help but think, “You muscle idiot.”' And seeing Yuugi dash forward, I began to follow her.

Like most oni, Yuugi probably hates non-straightforward and seemingly cowardly—someone who wants to avoid fights—people, so, for a while now, she likely wanted to punch Regulus, who exhibits both characteristics. Did she not listen to me about his ability, or did she just want to find out for herself? Regardless, her boldness could end up getting her killed sooner or later, so I guess I have to prevent that.

Soon enough, Yuugi reaches Regulus's location and throws her punch without Regulus ever reacting to it. As I had foreseen, the arm that Yuugi used suddenly spurted blood as if the force of her punch had reflected back on her. The small tip of her fist also disappeared. The injured arm can probably be salvaged, but it is likely not usable now. Despite her receiving such an injury, her other arm still holds onto her sake without dropping a single drop.

Before she threw her punch, I kind of wanted to stop her from punching him since I knew that it would backfire, but she had already thrown the punch at him when I thought of it, so I can’t do anything about it. At least now, Yuugi knows how troublesome Regulus is after throwing that punch. Hopefully that experience will also stop her from being too reckless.

But like to betray that thought, Yuugi laughed, “Ahahahahahahaha, I’m excited! Certainly, I am! You’re strong! You don't seem to be strong, but you are! Hahaha, you get my blood pumping!”

… She seems to be excited? What is this, is she a masochist?

When Regulus notices what’s going on and is about to rant about it, evident by how he’s about to open his mouth again, I interrupt him by shooting out “Divine Spirit "Fantasy Seal".”

With that thought, bullets of pure energy that ignore the law of physics were let loose, but like the previous time before, it didn’t do anything except distract Regulus from Yuugi.

With his eyes off Yuugi, Yuugi jumps away. While in the air, she kicked a violent force of wind toward Regulus before she landed a dozen of meters away. Of course, while doing so, she didn’t spill a single drop of her sake.

After the attacks, Regulus' heart seems to remain unmoved as it doesn't affect him. His gaze, however, changed to that out of pure anger—the same expression he wore every time he got his right violated.

“Tsk, now you’re just trying to annoy me! Be quiet like you had always been and die!” Afterward, he breathed. I can’t see that he breathed, but the effect of the wind howling and rushing toward me just told me that he did. I didn’t flinch at such an attack. In fact, the attack is not even worth mentioning as with just a single blink from me, I teleported to avoid that completely.

Seeing that his own attack missed, Regulus once again moved his leg to kick the ground, to remove a chunk of dirt toward me. Going with the flow, the dirt seemed to dodge me from my perspective, completely missing me as if on purpose.

Regulus just kept throwing the same attack, hoping that it would hit me. At this rate, soon enough, I won't even need to put my mind to it to dodge his attack.

Then, I noticed something: while Regulus was attacking me, Yuugi was nowhere to be seen. After I realized that, the ground beneath Regulus' feet caved in, causing him to fall with a comical “Wah, huh?!”

It wasn't until Regulus fell into the sinkhole that Yuugi emerged as if she were the one responsible. Did she dig the ground with her bare hands and punch her way out right beneath Regulus? Before doing so, she seemed to set aside her dish of sake…

Regardless, after Yuugi emerged from the decent-sized hole and landed on the ground next to it, she crouched down and extended two of her arms as though ready to punch the ground. Moments later, she did just that, pulling a chunk of the earth out, scooping it out with her hands, holding it above her. She then jumped and threw the chunk into the hole she had created earlier, closing the hole. That happened in 3 seconds. But… all that action was all for naught as Regulus jumped out like nothing happened with a very very angry expression a second later.

I had already foreseen him getting berserk, so I flew over to the floating Regulus and attacked him mid-air with my Yin-Yang Orb that fused with my ability. It might be true that I have no idea where to even start to damage him. But when I think about it when Regulus was ranting earlier, I realized: I just have to ‘float’ through it all.

The Yin-Yang Orb that I throw out is not a normal Yin-Yang Orb that I had thrown countless times before as I had applied my ability to 'float' to my Yin-Yang Orb. Similar to what I did to myself with 'Fantasy Nature,’ I made my Yin-Yang Orb to 'float' away from everything, but instead of it floating away from absolutely everything like ‘Fantasy Nature,’ I only made it float away from everything except Regulus.

I realized that, if I can't hit Regulus due to his ability preventing any changes, I just have to 'float' past all of that bullshit to strike him where even his ability is unable to stop me from deviating him from his normal state. Without spell card rules limiting me, I can ‘float’ through Sakuya frozen time no matter how messed up she makes the time get, so I think I could do the same with Regulus and ‘float’ through whatever twisted law of physics that prevents me from harming him. My ability to ‘float’ allows me to float through pretty much everything, including troublesome things.

But, it failed. The Yin-Yang Orb I shot out broke apart and did not ‘float’ through Regulus' body like I hoped. Since it failed, now I have to endure the onslaught of Regulus' speech…

“If you're going to attack me, at least put more effort into it. Actually, scratch that. Don't put effort in anything and just lie there dead! You pathetic bunch is nothing but annoying. Keep swarming me like a group of flies—why bother? If nothing is going to happen, just stay put and do nothing! Why can't you mind your own business? What's the point of attacking me? Do you even know what 'civil' means? It seems like you don't, considering your lack of basic manners. I can't believe how barbaric you guys are, really. Attacking someone out of the blue, calling them by the wrong name, insulting them, and not letting them talk—you're just terrible. What's worse is that you haven't even learned your lesson despite me spelling out what you've done wrong. I even doubt if you're listening to me. I go out of my way to educate you, and this is the thanks I get? I've probably mentioned this before, so isn't it cruel of you to make me repeat myself? I don't really want this, you know? In fact, I don't want anything. If this is what I'm going to receive, why bother teaching you manners? But since I do it anyway, why not treat me a little better? I'm human too, aren't I? So stop treating me like a punching bag! I don't understand how you could mistake me for such a thing, but it's just the difference between a satisfied being like myself and unsatisfied beings like you. Regardless of class, what you did to me is unforgivable. I've said this countless times, but I'll repeat it because it seems you don't understand: give up and die. Die for my sake. For the world's sake. For someone like you two who doesn't care about other people, you're better off dead. It would probably make the world a better place, don't you think?”

Tsk, just how long will I have to listen to this guy talking until I beat him? This whole entire battle is irritating. So irritating! Doesn’t he ever stop talking? Does this guy never learn how to shut up or something?

What I did not realize even now is that as long as I still have irritation in my heart, I can never harm Regulus. The way my ability works is that the more I can detach myself from all distractions, the more potent my ability becomes. In that regard, you can say that Regulus is my worst match-up; his words anger and irritate me, his voice distracts me, and his every action just makes me angry. All of these factors make me distracted. This, in turn, lowers the effectiveness of my ability, which is why the Yin-Yang Orb I shot out earlier has failed to have any effect on Regulus since it didn’t float through everything like I had hoped.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13: Disorder and the Forgotten

Yuugi Hoshiguma P.O.V

Man, at first, I thought this white-haired dude was a fool due to how highly he speaks of himself. But man, this… I love his strength!

I don’t think I ever face someone, who is also not my fellow Devas, who could make me bleed. But despite his strength, I really dislike this guy's childishness and roundabout way of speaking. He seems to take everything as a personal offense. Maybe even when I complimented his strength, he would twist my words into insults. This guy probably is the first person I didn’t like, despite him being this strong.

Really though, this guy's strength surprised me. I don’t expect someone who acts like a child to possess this kind of strength. His body seems like your average human doesn’t help me with that impression. But, I shouldn’t judge, after all, Suika existed. Suika's ability to pack a huge punch despite having a small body is impressive. It’s as impressive as her ability to hold her liquor, which can be comparable to mine. She is my friend alright.

On the topic of liquor, I would have invited this Regulus guy to a drink if he wasn’t so stuck up. I had never seen someone so high up in the cloud before. In fact, he is still talking. While he’s talking, I just go over to where I put my sake—which still hadn’t spilled a single drop by the way—grab it, and drink it standing up.

Haah~.

Taking a good sip of sake is always great, especially when I need to think about something.

Reimu mentioned that Regulus can make himself unable to change. That makes him practically invincible, which sounds like a challenge to me. I said before that this fight is straightforward due to how simple Regulus is, but now I changed my mind after hitting him once; it doesn’t seem simple at all! Because of that, I need to actually think about how to hit this guy for real, which is something I’m not good at.

Wait, now that I think about it, why do I even fight him again? *Hick*

Ah, right. Since the Shrine Maiden is so down-to-earth to fight him, I got interested in what is so special about him. I don’t even know what business they have with each other, but I decided to join in the fun anyway. Based on how Regulus didn’t use the Danmaku, it probably means that Regulus didn’t listen to the Shrine Maiden or something and had a fight. Since they are not using spell cards, this might be my chance to fight someone without anything to restrict me like the Spell Card Rules. The Shrine Maiden also doesn’t seem to mind, so I will join the fight just for the heck of it. This is so exciting!

I don’t know how I’m gonna even win, but that is the fun in it. My blood is pumping. Since I’m going to fight for real this time, I should probably put my precious dish of sake aside, but keeping it on my person is the best protection it can get, so I’ll hold it while fighting him. It probably means that I can only fight with my injured hand though, but that is fine.

Hmm, let’s go with the plan of grabbing him and throwing him around. He can’t take damage, so throwing him around, or perhaps even throwing him up past the cloud, would count as a win for me.

I remember a story about a guy named Jo-something beating an immortal being by sending him out to space, so I can do something similar to this ‘invincible’ guy. Damn, even just thinking about doing that makes me excited! I’ll just not think anymore and do it.

With that thought, I grin and dash toward the still-speaking Regulus with my precious dish in my non-injured hand. Each step I took shook the ground, and in almost an instant, I got to Regulus without him ever reacting.

Despite being strong, he is slow.

When I got into a grabbing distance, I grabbed Regulus by the head with my injured hand not caring if it was injured or not, and began to swing him around in a circle to build momentum, ready to throw him somewhere far. But when I was about to throw him, the guy stopped. He freezes mid-air, and I, too, am frozen.

I don’t really know how to react to that, but I didn’t really have time to as a second later I got thrown to the side, passing through several buildings. The experiences didn’t hurt me; I didn’t feel anything.

Ah, right. This guy possesses the ability to freeze himself and anything that comes into contact with him. What am I even thinking? I think I’m still a little bit tipsy from all the drinking I had last night until the dawn of today…… Actually, even now I’m still drinking.

Anyway, where am I now? Sometime after being thrown past several booze and buildings, I regained control of my body again. Really, I don’t like that experience at all. It’s like my body is outside of my control and is entirely in the control of that guy. That guy could probably stop the function of my body indefinitely if he wanted to, but he didn’t for some reason. Regardless, I have to go back. Even though I don’t know how to actually hurt him, what I think is that; if there is something unexplainable protecting him from harm, I’ll just have to punch him with something equally as unexplainable.

As I’m about to get up from the rubble, I see a strange child in green looking at me from a little distance away, her eyes gleaming with interest. But soon, I forgot about her. Afterward, I look in the direction where I think Regulus is. Subsequently, I see the line of buildings I knock over. He really sent me flying far. There are probably around ten bars and buildings that I destroyed. Hopefully, I won't have to pay for all the damages. Let's worry about that later…

I began to flex my legs as if I were ready to jump with it. With my sake still tightly held in my hand without ever dropping despite all the previous events, I leaped up high. With a single light jump, I managed to jump over a dozen buildings, reaching where Regulus was.

Seeing me come back, Regulus seems to be annoyed, “Tsk, you come back! You came back like that Red-Hair knight! If you could—”

He doesn’t even get the chance to talk as Reimu attacks him. Reimu doesn’t seem to be having it. Since I met her, she has always kept a default expression of annoyance… Ah, so this guy is what got her panties in such a twist. I can’t blame her really, Regulus is so childish that I even doubt if he is really as old as he seems. But as it turned out, he was said to have lived over a century. I don’t believe that of course. I refuse to acknowledge that someone that old could be this stuck up.

Putting my disbelief elsewhere, Reimu's attacks have no effect on Regulus. After her attack landed with no impact on him, Regulus reached his hand out to the floor, grabbed a chunk of the stone ground like it was a snowball, and threw it at Reimu. Such a simple attack didn't land on Reimu of course. Afterward, she continued to attack him, further fueling his anger, eventually leading him to kick at the ground toward Reimu like a kid throwing a tantrum.

In the timeframe when Regulus is being bombarded by Reimu, I dash forward fearlessly to the front of Regulus, disregarding the rain of bullets thrown by Reimu. Even now, I still maintain my oni pride and refrain from fighting dishonestly like attacking someone from behind.

Anyway, when I got in front of Regulus, I threw my punch.

Some might say that I’m an idiot.

Some might say that I’m stupid.

But what else am I gonna do? Stand in the back and think of a way to hit this guy? Keep my distance?

Why would I do that to reinforce this guy's supposed invincibility?

Why should I do that to inflate his ego even more?

I rather do none of those and just go straight for a punch. I will do that and make him question even his own invincibility! That is a way of ‘devious rebellion,’ disorder—unexplainable!

I scream and throw my fist toward Regulus at a speed no one could react to. My fist flew through the air so fast that it sparked flames.

Once it hit Regulus, he couldn’t even scream as his head knocked back and his entire body moved along with it at almost the speed of sound. Regulus got sent flying at 686 meters per second (the length of 7.5 football fields) and probably arrived at the destination my punch directed himself to in two seconds. Haha, he probably couldn’t react to that!

After that punch, a shockwave was also produced, which blew several of the nearby buildings away. If my mere scream can flatten trees, a single punch from me could blow away a dozen of booze. But the power of my previous punch did not have such a force, after all, my precious dish of sake is still on my other hand. I can’t risk it being broken, you know? The dish is one of a kind, so I have to hold back.

That aside, I need to go after Regulus. That punch wouldn’t be enough to beat him. Now that I think about chasing after him, in what direction I punched him anyway? It’s that way… wasn’t it? Well, shit. Isn’t that the direction of the Palace of the Earth Spirits? The place where a bunch of stuck-up people live?

As I was thinking that, I got punched from my side. The one who punched me was Reimu who sported a… very angry expression?

“What is your idea?! Didn’t I tell you that he seems to be impervious to any kind of attack regardless of how powerful? All you did was throw him far, giving me more work to do since I have to chase after him now! You should just stay put! Anyway, bye.” After saying that, she floated over to where I sent Regulus to.

Maybe my idea is stupid after all.

But regardless of what she said, I followed her anyway. It’s just more interesting that way.

— — — — — — — — — — —

Koishi Komeiji P.O.V

“Ahh, I saw something interesting~. I saw something interesting today~!” I’m currently walking along the stone path while skipping on my steps.

“I saw that as I’m about to visit my sister too, how lucky I am!” Radiating with joy, I unconsciously walk along the path that someone had once built.

“I need to tell my sister about that! I’ll tell her all about it. She would probably find it interesting too!” Without needing to think, my destination was set to the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

I walked past many oni and youkai, all of whom didn’t notice me. I'm just a pebble on the street; no one took notice. Even if someone did, they will soon forget.

As I’m walking, I hummed a tune, indicating how happy I was to find something fun to share with my sister.

“That big sis Oni is interesting. I even talked to her for a minute or two and asked her what happened and everything! I can tell my sister all about that too so she can praise me,” I said out loud.

Afterward, I began to hum some more, but soon, I stopped. My legs, too, have stopped. I was no longer walking nor humming as my attention was taken over by a cute cat in the distance.

“Hmm, how cute. I want to pet it.” However, I didn’t get a chance to since when I’m about to go along with the motion of petting the cat, I can feel the vibration on the ground.

“Wah, wah, an earthquake?” Despite voicing out my surprise, my face did not change from its cheerful expression, leaving quite a strange dissonant to an onlooker if there is one.

After a few seconds of just looking at where the shaking originated from, I snapped my head back to the cat. Noticing that it had been scared away, I no longer pursued petting the cat as it felt like a bother. Instead, I began to walk in the direction of the Palace of the Earth Spirits once more.

“Now I have something more to talk about with my sister! The shaking. Maybe that is an earthquake? But this is underground. Maybe this place is falling down soon! Falling down~” I continue walking, but this motion of walking is more like an autopilot as I did not give it an input. And soon after I started walking, suddenly there was an unidentified object flying past me followed by the loud sound of an unpleasant boom.

That is when I stopped walking again, and said, “So many things happened in such a short amount of time. What is that?” I looked in the direction where the flying object went for a moment. Even if I can’t see it anymore due to how fast it’s going, I know that it’s going in the direction of the palace. “Ah? It’s going in the direction of my sister's house! I got to follow it!”

At this point, I began to fly up in the air. The rest of the control is up to my subconscious mind. Then, everything went silent, not even a thought could be heard. As I flew to the destination, halfway through, I could see someone flying in that direction too.

Seeing someone flying to the same place, I addressed her, “Oh, a Shrine Maiden? Are you going to the Palace too?”

Having heard my question, it’s then that the Shrine Maiden finally noticed me, “Eh? When are you there? Who are you?”

Without thinking, I respond, “I’m here from the beginning. You just didn’t notice me… Ah, I’m Koishi Komeiji by the way.” Saying that cheerfully, the Shrine Maiden looked at me suspiciously.

“Are you here to stop me from going to the palace?”

“Now why did you even think that? Actually, I don’t want to know. For your question, I’m not here to stop you. I’m here for my sister!”

With me saying that, the Shrine Maiden lowered her guard, but not completely as she said, “You’re going to the palace too, right? So is your sister there?”

I nodded rapidly unconsciously along with her question and said, “My sister owns the palace. Cool right?” Immediately after I said that, I got grabbed by the neck collar, ”Huh?” After I got my collar grabbed, I got pulled by the Shrine Maiden to the palace as she increased her speed even more. “wahwahwahwah?”

“Now this will be a lot easier. That mansion seems large, and that guy got thrown inside it out of all places, so I need someone to guide me through.” That is the remark I heard from the Shrine Maiden as I got pulled along helplessly.

(A/N: For those who don’t know. As the result of shutting her third eye, Koishi removed her ability to read a conscious mind and also her ability to think consciously, making her practically braindead with no ability to think and making her only able to act unconsciously. Because of that, Koishi can make others unable to perceive her. If they do perceive her, they will soon forget about her once she leaves their sight.)

— — — — — — — — — — —

(A/N: The omake is not canon to the story. It is not canon, I repeat! I wrote this because I got tired of Regulus' personality and wanted to write something opposite.)

Omake: uɹnʇɹǝʌo (overturn)

Condition: If Regulus meets Seija.

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

It is a normal day in Gensokyo, the birds are chirping and youkai are all hiding themself, except for a select few, waiting for the darkness that’ll befall at night. On this seemingly normal day, at least in Gensokyo standard, I, the most satisfying existence, is taking a stroll in the Youkai Forest near Youkai Mountain. This is not out of my ‘wants’ of course, instead, this is my right so I can be wherever. Freedom of movement of a person should not be restricted by anything.
Such calm, such peace. How much I want it to be like this forever. After all, it is not a lie that I hate fighting.

As I was minding my business around the foot of the Youkai Mountain, no one interrupted me. I heard that Tengu hates trespassers who come into this area, but since I did not trespass anything, I don’t have to worry about Tengu attacking me since I did nothing wrong, merely exercising my very right to be here. Unbeknown to me, however, Tengu doesn't come after me because I am me.

What I myself did not acknowledge was my bad reputation which made many tilt their heads wondering why I hadn’t gotten kicked out of Gensokyo yet. No Tengu wants to mess with me and just leave me be; that reputation is that of being extremely annoying, and hotheaded. I myself fumed at how people associated my satisfying self with, of course, which didn’t help my reputation. I did try to retaliate, but… something happened and that is something that I don’t want to talk about.

Regardless of how others see me and how I see myself, on this fateful day, things that people describe me as will be completely rendered invalid. Such a thing… is a violation of my rights… but even I, a perfect existence, cannot foresee what is coming.

As I walked, seemingly in a good mood, I suddenly came across a strange girl. The girl wears a dress of sorts, with the lower part of the dress decorated by many arrows pointing down. It’s weird, to say the least, and if I were to be honest with my opinion, that dress belongs in the circus. Regardless of my thoughts on the matter, the girl began to fly toward me with an expression of interest on her face.

?!

Her action of wanting to come close surprised me. Since everyone wants to be a dick to me and try to avoid me without any good reason whatsoever, this behavior ends up surprising to me as this is the complete opposite of what I used to.

Once the weird girl came close, she opened her mouth and said, “What? Why are you here in a place like this? Eh? Aren’t you that Regulus Corneas guy everyone is talking about?”

“Yeah? Do you have a problem with that? Did you believe in those rumors and what people said about me? To be honest, it’s quite unsettling that many people believe the propaganda that’s going around about me. After all, it’s not like any of those people, who try to stay away from me, ever try to interact with me. Don’t you hate it when people believe what they hear instead of believing what they see? It’s unreal, disgraceful! I thought it was common sense to not judge something by its cover. I’ll teach them someday to not do that, but they all did not listen to me when I made an hour-long speech about that the other day in front of the village. Those unacceptable behaviors of believing in anything without evidence need to be changed, don't you think?” My speech was not being interrupted. Unlike most people I had met in this land, this girl acted the opposite of them, and listened to me attentively.

“Yeah, that is why I want to overturn society! Wouldn’t you think that things would be better if everything ended up the opposite? For example, flipping how people form beliefs, so instead of believing in what they hear from others, they would base their beliefs on what they see. Don’t you think that is better? Ensuring the rights of others who suffered injustice, and not us criminals who would suffer worse if people were to form opinions of us based on what they see? It would be wonderful if other people had that right instead of us, right? If you think so too, wanna join me?”

“Criminal? Don’t lump me into that category you brat! And are you saying that it would be better off for me if people trust what they hear instead of judging me from what they see of me personally? Are you suggesting that I’m worse than what people painted me to be?! And now, why would I ever join that stupid group where the goal didn’t benefit me at all. Of course, it’s not like I have anything to be benefited by, after all, I am perfect. I am entirely wantless, so there is no reason for me to join you as your group wouldn’t give me anything. But even though I will not join you, I will not stop you either, so do whatever you please.”

“Now that is a shame. But…Even though I don’t have the right to ask more from you than I already have, I really wanted you to join me. I really wanted that. I have been pretty much unsatisfied at how my group barely has any members, so maybe it would make me a little bit more satisfied if you join me.” After saying that, she then mumbled, “Though even then, I will be left unsatisfied so I need to find more members.”

This girl! It’s like she is mocking me! The personality she shows are completely opposite of my satisfying self. Having noticed that, I’m a bit irked. “Hey hey, are you mocking me? What with that personality of yours that seems to be the opposite of me. Are you playing with me? And also, didn’t I say that, I don’t want to join you? Are you trying to force me into whatever group you’re creating? By trying to force me, you are violating my right to my freedom! Don’t think I’ll let you get away from trying to do that to me. But I will give you a little bit of my mercy as this is a beautiful day. If you’re willing to decapitate your arm off for me, I’ll let you go. Simple, right? Now, do it, and I will consider letting you go.”

The girl sigh then said, “Of course, you would reject me. I’m low so no one would accept me... Since you don’t want to join me. Since you don’t understand me! I’ll let you understand! I will overturn that personality of yours!”

After the girl said that, around her, countless arrows appeared. They just materialize like magic. Soon, those arrows began to turn. They slowly turn upside down. And as the arrow began to flip, I heard a voice. It’s the voice of a woman I know well and hate.

“This will get rid of my boredom. The boundary between able and unable. Fufufu.”

After I hear that voice, I suddenly feel sluggish. This feeling! My eyes dilated, I reflectively put one of my hands on my chest to check on my heart. My heart is beating?!

Once I realized that, the arrow overturned, and my mind began to be affected. My personality began to shift in a weird direction. I began to feel nauseous. I can see my world spinning, flipping. I don’t know what is going on. Everything about me is turning! Everything about me is flipping into something opposite!! Argh!

Childish to maturity, selfish to selfless, arrogance to humility, self-center to other-directed, talkative to uncommunicative, greedy to charity, self-proclaimed not greedy to self-proclaimed greedy, ignorance of others' values except one own to aware of others values except one own, prideful to humble, etc etc.

Everything about me got turned over, flipped, turned into something opposite, turning into something completely different. Then, I am no longer myself.

That is when Seija left me with a remark, “I’ll come back tomorrow. Hope you join me by then!”

After everything was over, when everything of me was already overturned, my authority came back.

(A/N: Seija personality is the opposite of whoever is nearby, so she is essentially reverse Regulus in this Omake.)

— — — — — — — — — — —

sɐǝuɹoɔ snlnƃǝɹ P.O.V

What… what had happened to me… doesn’t matter! Why do I care about myself when I should care about others more?! That girl who did something to me is running away, and why else would she run away other than trying to go after other people's rights? People's rights should be protected, even if I die trying, I would not even let a single violation of other rights go on in front of my eyes. But even then, I would never be satisfied with only that. The world is far and wide, even if I try to save one person, in the end, that amount is just dust compared to people of the whole world. But even so, I will be glad that I saved them from being violated. That girl who did this to me, I would forgive her, but if she goes on to do things like this to others, I wouldn’t forgive her! It might be too greedy to say this but, if I could help it, I don’t want even one person to get violated! Person rights are important! No matter what I think, I cannot let that girl run away earlier as that is a violation of others' rights if I let her continue existing!!!

I tried to follow that girl earlier who did this to me. But already, the girl has gone so far that I can barely see her. At this rate, she will be gone from my sight! I can never be satisfied if this keeps going! I want to chase after that girl. That is my ‘want’, my desire! Thinking that, I continued chasing that girl earlier. But… no matter how long I run, I can’t find her anymore. I chased that girl, who I don’t know the name of, for so long that dusk came. Since it was evening when the girl appeared, it has not even been an hour. Given how long I chase after her, I give up. It’s so much of a pain to chase after her. I am not the type of guy who would be so determined to punish someone, so I’ll just rest here and give up.

On this night of serenity, I take a good breath of fresh air after what I considered to be a long chase. I want to breathe, even if I don’t have to, I still feel like I need to. For me who is being a slave to my own desire, it is very ironic that my very existence doesn't need anything. It’s like the world is trying to highlight the desire-filled part of my character by making me not need anything biologically. With the air coming fully into my small lungs, I can die happy now.

I want to go back to the village… even if they wouldn’t accept me, I don’t care. Look at me, pity me, and talk behind my back for all I care. I want to eat. Even if I don’t need to eat, my desire that can never be satisfied says otherwise. I want to eat food. If I can get even a single spoonful of something, I will take that and leave, even if I cannot be satisfied with only that. I truly believe that if a day comes when I can wish for anything in the world, it still wouldn’t be able to satisfy the most unsatisfying being—me.

As I’m walking alone in the Youkai Forest, I can hear the rustle of leaves. Upon hearing that, I shouted, “Who is there?!” I am not a talkative person, so I go straight to the point.

“Look what I see here, A huma—heh? Y-you are that bully!”

This girl sounds familiar… Oh, it’s that girl who I met when I first came here! I remember that she tried to eat the pitiful me. Well, it couldn’t be helped. To be honest, that is expected, I am low, after all. I deserve to be beaten and eaten, others, however, that is a different story. Others are satisfied unlike the unsatisfied me, for that reason, nothing should take that satisfaction away from them, after all, they deserve better, they deserve to be left untainted by the world.

Since I can’t afford to have others be eaten by this girl, I swipe my arm horizontally, trying to kill her. But of course, it didn’t work. Rumia is the youkai of darkness. Her body is made out of pure darkness as she is a darkness-given form.

“Did you forget that you can’t attack me~? Your actions haven't changed at all since the last time I met you. But eh? I thought you were more talkative than this! You have barely talked to me at all since I met you this time, what gives ~?”

She asked playfully like the pain I inflicted on her previously was nothing. Like the previous time I met her, none of my attacks worked. Even when she was torn into pieces, she still acted like nothing happened. Why does nothing work? Would anything work? What is the point of attacking if my attack is not gonna do anything? Should I give up? I want to give up and just go home. Wait, I don’t have a house to speak of! But that makes sense as I don’t have the right to have a shelter. Even if I do have a house, I would let others have it instead of me as they have the right to have it unlike my unsatisfied self. Regardless, why do I even bother staying here attacking something that can’t even be hurt by my attack? It’s a given that nothing's gonna go in my favor, so I should just give up and admit that I’ve lost. As someone as unsatisfied as me, nothing going as planned is a given. I should just dig a hole and go in it. There is no fitting place for my pitiful self other than being in the dirt. Yeah, that’s it.

“Hey? Why did you suddenly make an expression like you just went through all 5 stages of grief~? You are starting to freak me out.”

Yeah, I’m a freak, I’m the most pitiful person on the planet. Why does she even bother talking to me anyway? I don’t have any right to talk to anyone better than me. I kind of want someone to talk to, but it’s better if they’re not. I’m not that sociable, so it would be awkward for all parties involved if they wanted to talk to me... Talking about interacting, I should probably say something to this girl. But what should I say? Argh, you know what? I’ll just say what I think.

“Please don’t talk to me. I don’t have the right to talk to anyone, so… yeah, I’ll just go.”

With short and simple words coming out of my mouth, I turned around. I do not bother talking to the girl any longer.

“Is that so~? Well, I don’t know what is wrong with you, but that is not my problem. I can’t eat you anyway~.”

Good thing that she doesn’t pursue my pitiful slow self. At least now I don’t have to be bothered by anyone. Someone as worthless as me doesn’t deserve to be talked to by anyone. Now that I wasn’t being bothered by that girl, should I go chase after that weird girl who violated me and possibly disappeared to go violate someone else?

Hmm, let’s not. I would fail anyway so why bother? I’m the most unsatisfied person on this planet, so no matter what I do, it will probably all end in failure. Let’s just go laze around. For someone as imperfect as myself, being inflicted by sloth is fitting. Yeah, I’ll go with that. My plan for today is to find a place to laze around like a sloth.

Now the only problem is to find a place that is fitting for my pitiful self to sleep on. Hmm, maybe that pitiful shrine where the equally pitiful Shrine Maiden lived would be a perfect place for me to crash.

Chapter Text

Valentine Special: Regulus Corneas Love Life.

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

What is it with today that I keep seeing people giving out chocolate to women? And why do they seem happy about it?? Wasn’t the act of giving out something to others generously is basically pitying them? Pitying is the form of humiliation so those women instead of being happy, they should be bitter about it instead.

That is what I had been musing on at the village center. People are still throwing glances at me once or twice, but maybe because they don’t want to offend me or something, they just stop paying attention to me and continue on with their day.

The villagers sure seem to be getting used to me well after a year, and that is all contributing to that accursed woman! If it wasn’t for that bitch and that bitch with red and the bitch with house for a hat, I wouldn’t even be stuck in here! I want to complain more but that accursed woman probably is looking at me through that abominable ability of hers that is absolutely abhorrent! Well, that accursed woman wouldn’t be her if she didn’t degrade my existence like that, I guess.

As I was contemplating my life choices, a woman I know so well and hate walked up to me. It was the bitch with the hat. “So this is where you’ve been.” She said that in a very fake courteous tone, or that is what I think anyway.

“Huh? What's wrong with me being here? I should be able to be anywhere I want, no? Don’t tell me that you are going to steal this right of mine away from me too? Sad to say that I will not allow you to—.”

Annoyed, the woman named Keine said, “Not that, keep your rights. I’m just checking on you since you still are a danger to the village.”

“Tch, cutting me off like always, I see. Are you really a teacher? I think I told you many times to not cut me off mid sentence, no? But you didn’t do that and still do it anyway time and time again; so much so that I seriously began to doubt whether or not you’re a teacher, as I believed that teachers wouldn’t show such rude behavior, no? Regardless of that, what with the women and men being such a whore today.” Saying that, I pointed at the crowd of men and women exchanging something I would call a gift while having red faces; which I have to say that those flushed cheeks and red lips are very disgusting to watch as that is the sign of a sexual response.

Seeing such a scene with my very eyes, I want to hurl and say ‘go get a room already’. But even if I want to say such a thing that I’ve thought of saying, it is yet another form of decency that I absolutely abhor. Ewww, sexual intercourse sure is disgusting. That is why I’m superior to them as I don’t need such disgusting things to be one with my wives and be satisfied with them. I can simply give my ‘heart’ to them and share a heartbeat with them, doesn’t that sound more romantic?

And having heard my previous short rant, Keine just sighs at it and says, “That is something called ‘love’. Today is Valentine's Day so it is expected that there will be a lot of confession today. So stop throwing such disgusted expressions at them, you are ruining the mood.”

Hearing she said such, I began to say, “What do you mean by ‘ruining the mood’, love is something that cannot be ruined by such a thing, if it were to be ruined by such a thing, it is not love. The idea of love being shaken by something like that is beyond laughable.”

“... Well you’re not wrong. But since everyone has their own interpretation of love, you might be wrong about that as maybe in someone's perspective, something like that might actually ruin their moment. Though color me surprised, you know what love is? How?”

Did this bitch just think that I was still single? What bases did she use? (A/N: Personality) And why is it so surprising that I know what love is? Of course I know what love is. Love is something that is perfect and without any imperfection nor flaw, that is why love is so unshakable. And because I know exactly that, I was always keeping my wives from making any sort of expression as the idea of true love is the fact that the feeling of love will never change throughout from the moment their love first bloom to when their love die with them, so it is only natural that I didn’t let them change their expression as by showing their expressions, they are changing from how they once were and that can be taken as a sign of their love being shaken as their feeling had change.

See? I know what love is! And so, I began to point that out to her with a bit of indignation, “Of course I know what love is! How dare you even slightly suggest that I’m just a lowly unmarried man?!” Shouting that, I gathered quite a few contempt stares from many ‘unmarried men’ around me, but I ignored that and continued, “Do you really think that lowly of me? What gives you the idea that someone as close to perfection as me didn’t have wives, and don’t even know what love is, huh?! I’ll let you know that I was a proud husband of over 150 women!” With that shout, I attracted even more attention to myself, and what followed after that was many whispers that seemed to be talking about me.

Those shits!! They probably are jealous of me so they couldn’t help but talk behind my back! So disgusting, I wish I could kill them right here and now! But that accursed woman told me not to, or else… Tch, when did my life as a perfec— no, a being that is a step away from being perfect have gone so wrong?

Anyway, because of that, I have no other choice than to choose a more peaceful option, thus I choose to do what I usually do to these lowlifes, and decided to berate them until the morning turn dawn and then blast them with danmaku later, but when I turn around and just begin to shouts: “What are you—?!” I didn’t get to continue as the villagers — like a group of flocking birds — dispersed themself, like they didn't want to hear my usual rants, leaving my ‘satisfying self’ and the bitch with house for a hat alone.

Those fucker, I swear that they hate my lecture or something! How can they hate such an enlightening session? I think I heard somewhere that the yama (the god of death and reincarnation) does the same, but those villagers also seem to be trying to avoid her too, so it wasn’t just about them hating me.

While that was happening, Keine, who is too resigned to do anything to my behavior at this point, just began to comment on what I said about having 150 women earlier in an unhidden surprised tone, “Well, that is quite a number. Perhap, you mistook those girls for your lover?”

Hearing such blasphemy, my head immediately snapped back toward her and I rejected the notions she seems to be suggesting, “Who do you think I am? I wouldn’t be mistaken about something like that. We have ceremonies done, I protected them, I gave my hearts to them, and they projected their love by being obedient and not being dishonest or disrespectful to me.”

“I will take your words at face value then… I really feel bad for your wives having you as their husband though.”

“What are you insinuating, huh? Do you seriously think I’m a bad husband or something?! I’m not a bad husband at all, so don’t feel bad for my wives, feel bad for me instead as I have to deal with their disrespect everyday— actually you know what? I don’t need your pity, so don’t feel bad for me either.”

Keine stared blankly at me after I said that, and after a few moments of silence, she deadpannedly said to me, “… Exactly, I feel bad for your wives.”

Urk, this woman. But before I could say something to retort, Keine spoke up once more, “Well, I have something to do, so I will leave the conversation at that. So follow the rules and don’t cause trouble, if you do… well, you know what will happen to you when that happens.” With that remark, she just went up and left.

Tch, that bitch doesn't have to remind me like that. I don’t plan to break those rules anyway. I don’t want to taste that ‘punishment’ that accursed woman gave to me a year ago again. I swear, I still remember when that accursed woman made me ‘not myself’. I’m not scared of her, of course, it's just that going through all that is quite unpleasant so I would rather not experience that again. I considered her as someone of the same authority as Pandora-sama, or should I say the bitch who wore a tablecloth, and I will treat her like I treated Pandora-sama, which basically consists of me trying to kill her and her sending me away. Thinking of it, that accursed woman is very similar to Pandora-sama except for the lack of vanity…

Anyway, after that bitch with the hat is nowhere in sight, I simply walk in the opposite direction and enjoy my peaceful life. While doing so, I just contemplated many things, like the relationship between me and that bitch with the hat, which could not be called great or bad. She still did not forgive me of course, though she started to treat me like a problem child. I really, really, really wish to kill her for that.

After that, my mind started to wander off, and eventually, I started to think about how much I want a wife, possibly wives, right now. It is perfect timing actually, as today is… Valentine's day, or that is what I heard from the bitch with the hat anyway. I hadn't been thinking much about wives until today actually as they are quite unnecessary for me now.

But thinking about living a life without companions is a bit sad, so I might as well let fate guide me toward my lovely wives again. It’s not like there is anything written in the rule manual, that I was given a long time ago that said something about I can’t have a wife, so that is good I guess. If I still can’t find a perfect woman for me to become my wife, then I will have to give that brat scarlet a visit as that bitch is probably the culprit behind me being unable to find a wife as she probably manipulated my fate to cause such a scenario.

But that visit will not happen as once I was thinking about that, I found a perfect woman for me. The woman I saw had brown hair without a single grain of dust or dirt on her hair, a delicate hand that wasn’t being ruined by doing labors, and a beautiful face with cute noses and colorful eyes.

Perfect. Love is truly all about face.

And so, I began to approach her amidst this valentine day. And like normal, the villagers keep their eyes on me in vigilant. I am quite infamous after all so it’s not like I didn’t see this coming. But seeing such a scene, it invokes a bad memory within me from a year ago. But I pretend not to care as I continue to walk toward the wife candidate. As I’m closer to her, she began to notice me and became rather scared from recognizing me. *sigh* I need to train her to not show such expressions.

Once I was in front of her, I began to give her my best first impression as the first impressions are always something to be remembered in any relationship, and so I began with my introduction, “I am the former Sin Archbishop of the Witch’s Cult, representing greed, Regulus Corneas. I’m here to take you as my wife”

After I said that, she seemed to be taken aback at what I just said. And seeing that my future wife didn’t respond, I repeat, “I will take you as my bride. I believe that first impressions are important and so I decided to confess my love to you face to face as that is the best way to confess your love to someone, don’t you think so? As by doing so face to face, it will make both parties feel more comfortable with each other's presence and make the confession even more special. It will also give both parties the chance to see their eyes and smile, which can boost the building of trust between each other faster. Of course, I didn’t exclude the possibility of you being shy. After all, there are people out there who are emotional and are sensitive individuals, and so to be considerate to those people, I decided to take the lead in the conversation.”

“...” The girl still didn’t know how to respond after that and was still wearing an expression of bewilderment. The villager who heard me say all those things also didn’t even know how to react to me.

My newly assigned wife still did not speak, and so I continue to get my point clearly across, “There is also the difference in personality that needs to be considered as well, and so I decided to introduce myself to you before anything else. And as I had already introduced myself, wouldn’t you mind introducing yourself to me to start off a beautiful relationship? I believe that not knowing the name of the bride is quite… distasteful, you see?”

After I said that, my future wife finally got out of her stupor and replied to my sudden confession, “Um, Ah…? I-I, I don’t… I don’t want to be your bride. I-I already have someone I like.” That is what she said after a bit of stumbling on her words.

“I see.” Hearing that my perfect confession had been rejected so quickly and brutally, my face began to darken, “Well, it’s not like I too need a whore like you, bitch! Violating my right like that, you didn’t deserve to be my wife anyway!” That is when I began to move my arm up vertically to cut this bitch in half, screw the rule. But before I could, however, a gap in space opened up in front of my attack trajectory, making my attack fully go inside, effectively nullifying my attack of unstoppable force.

Seeing that phenomenon, I clicked my tongue, “Tch, accursed bitch.” With me addressing her, another gap opened up and what came out of it was a woman who wore a purple dress, indicating her high authority.

“Fufufu, how vulgar. You sure have the neck to cause trouble.” That is what she said while hiding her face behind a fan.

Annoyed, I said, “What do you mean ‘have the neck to cause trouble’? What trouble do I cause, huh? I didn’t cause any trouble so don’t call me that! And did you really watch me all this time?”

“Of course I have been watching you all this time; I have my eyes everywhere on someone important and dangerous just in case something happens, you know? And really now? ‘I didn’t cause any trouble’? I will tell you that the only thing that keeps you from being ‘exiled’ after every trouble you cause is the fact that you are too of a useful piece to lose.” What did this bitch say?

“What ‘useful piece’ are you spilling? I’m not someone's piece or someone's pawn! And what is this about you surveilling people all the time? Now that is just a violation to mine and their right to their privacy! Don’t you have any respect for those people you spy on?!”

Hearing my shout, the accursed woman just closed her fan and pointed at me, “You might think that but you are useful for my upcoming ‘plans’ and most burdensome tasks. And don’t say that about my surveillance; my surveillance has a proper warrant and probable cause, so I have the very right to do that. The evidence of me having a good reason to monitor you is the fact that you are about to break the rule just now.” Saying that, the accursed woman, Yukari, began to point her fan at the bitch I was about to kill; and then completely made her forget what happened today. She also does that to all the surrounding villagers.

Seeing that, I simply grumbled to myself and said, “Tch fine, whatever. Say whatever you want… Yukari-sama. I still believed that I didn’t do anything wrong, so just leave me alone now.” Saying that, I simply walked away, but the voice of that woman rang out again.

“Fufufu, where has that attitude of yours from a year ago gone to? Regardless, are you sure that you hadn’t broken any rule? Since you were about to use lethal force against a resident of the human village just now.”

“What? I didn’t do it hadn’t I, so—.”

But before I could justify my action, that bitch just cut me off and said, “You will not get out of this one also.” Saying that, she reached her hand out to me to manipulate my boundary of something, I’m not sure. And that is when I lost the majority of my rights again by the accursed bitch with a method I don’t want to think nor talk about, and in the end, nobody knew that I had been greatly violated on this year valentine day except for me and the accursed woman.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14: When the Conversation Becomes Impossible

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

One moment, I was attacking Reimu and the next, I flew backward to a big palace-like place. Huh? What happened? Did I get hit by something? If so, what was it?! I can’t see what hit me. I can’t even react to whatever got me flying here. Really, who attacked me?! And why? I just want to get rid of that Shrine Maiden, so why did I get attacked by someone other than that Shrine Maiden? They don’t have the right to butt in somebody else's business, but yet I got sent flying by them! How many times are people gonna send me flying? Is this the fifth time that happened to me? I didn’t bother to count but the number of times I got sent flying probably exceeds the number of my fingers on one hand!

Really though, how dare whoever that is to send me flying? That is definitely a violation of my rights. My right to my physical well-being!! I need to deliver my justice to whoever did that to me! But before that, I need to know who did that to me. Was it that horned girl? That weak-as-heck girl that I sent flying through a dozen buildings? Was she the one who did that?! Since I don’t know for sure, I’ll put that in the back of my mind for now, but I’m definitely not forgetting that humiliation any time soon!

After I thought about that, I began to look around me. Again, what’s around me is the inner wall of a palace. I assume this palace is the palace I first saw when I came down here. I never thought I would end up here since my original plan was to go up to the surface. But that plan was ruined by the Shrine Maiden whom I thought was dead.

Sigh, why do I have to deal with these troubles? I don’t like any of these yet why do people keep pushing me to these troubles? Can’t they just leave me alone? Like that horned girl. I don’t even know her name and yet she grabs my head. How disrespectful! Didn’t she know that I am Regulus Corneas, the Sin Archbishop of Greed? The undisputed, the most satisfying, the most perfect existence? To grab my head like that, does she not know what the word ‘respect’ means? How barbaric!

I stomped the ground a couple of times to indicate my frustration at the whole situation. Seriously! And now I’m in this freaking palace! If someone were to tell me an hour ago that I would go on a tour around this country, I wouldn’t believe it. I think I have gone through three landmarks already! Can’t I just get a break already? This is seriously annoying! Those pests, they should just disappear. After I get back to them, I will definitely finish them! All I need is one hit. If at least one of my attacks reaches them, they would be dead! No matter how long they dodge, they will definitely not be able to dodge my attack forever.

With my determination to kill those who ruined my day today set, I turned myself around to look at the holes I created when I entered this place. On the wall, and on the numerous walls behind the first one, there are holes in the shape of me beautifully decorated.

I just have to walk through these walls to go back to where I came from. But of course, it wasn’t that easy. Of course, it wouldn’t be that simple! In this freaking land, something would always block me from doing what I wanted!

“Regulus Corneas, will you quiet down? To come near my living quarters and be so loud this early, please at least show your consideration.” That was the voice I heard as I’m about to walk through the holes I came from.

Turning around to the sound of that voice, I see a sleepy-looking little girl with pink hair staring at me. Her stare makes it seem as if she can see through everything.

This girl stare is creeping me out, and what with that floating eyeball connected by some sort of string? Disregarding her appearance and whatever that eyeball thing is, how did she know my name? Did I introduce myself to her? No, I did not! So how dare she call me by my name? She should have at least listened to my introduction, but no, she straight up called me by my name when I never introduced that to her! How impolite of her! And she has to appear when I’m about to leave. I wouldn’t mind if she is not rude, but she has to try to order me around. I can’t just ignore that, you know?

And seriously, why can’t I leave in peace without encountering rude people? I can’t leave this place knowing rude people who violated my rights didn’t go unpunished, you know? So this girl is practically blocking me from leaving! How troublesome! I should just kill her and leave. I think that I was at least justified to do that much as this girl violated my right to my free movement and freedom of my choice. I should be able to do whatever I wanted to do without anyone telling me to stop. It’s insane how people try to restrict others from their rights. Restricting themselves is fine as that doesn’t violate the rights of others, but trying to restrict others is terrible, I’ll say. So, this girl is unacceptable for trying to order me to quiet down. Her order is quite ridiculous, to be honest. One of the most important rights I possess is my freedom of speech. I should be able to speak, so for her to try to take that away from me, it’s unforgivable.

After I rant that in my mind for just a couple of dozen seconds, the pink-haired girl suddenly wore a grimace of disgust and pain?

Did she just look at me in disgust? What gives? I didn’t even talk to her, so did she just get disgusted by my look? If not then what else did she get disgusted by? And what with that pain look on her face? Is she mocking me? Did she think that I was a pain? What part of me is a pain to you, huh? Honestly, I don’t even know if it's possible for someone to feel that someone else is a pain even when they haven't uttered a single word.

“Hey now, how did you know my name? I don’t think I ever intr—.” I did not get the chance to finish however as the girl interrupted me.

“I’m afraid I have heard enough.” She said that while massaging her brow.

— — — — — — — — — — —

Satori Komeiji P.O.V

Yesterday was a long day. I did taxes all day yesterday until late night, and finally got my deserved nap around 1 AM. Being the lord of the underground is tough. But instead of me getting to rest till 9, getting a full 8 hours of sleep, I was getting a rude awakening at 7 when I heard the never-receding tide of voices. It’s like listening to the constant ringing of a dozen fire alarms, so I wake up.

After I wake up and get up from my bed, my head is throbbing. Argh, this feeling is the same feeling I have when I sleep in a place where there are a lot of humans. The same feeling that I get when I wake up after having slept through an onslaught of thoughts rushing to my head.

At first, I thought that surges of thought had come from at least five people. But as it turned out, the thought I heard that caused me to wake up from my slumber was from a single man, which was beyond surprise. I had never met someone who thinks that much before!

When I confronted him outside of my living quarter about him being here, I got assaulted by his thoughts.

The human brain allows for a near-instantaneous formation of sentences without the limitation of vocalizing them out with mouth and tongue. For that, I received this guy's thoughts with the length of the paragraph in just a couple of dozen seconds, making my head hurt. This is not too bad though since being in a crowd of people is a lot worse than this, but it's bad enough that I can confidently say if I were thrown into a room with five people, those five people wouldn't be thinking as much as this guy. This guy must have refined his thinking to hold such speed for decades!

I couldn’t help but massage my brow at such an assault. My body is shaken a little in fear. This guy’s thoughts are very unpleasant. His thought is probably comparable to the vengeful spirit in terms of how unpleasant it is to read. His thoughts are so disgusting that even my face unconsciously scrunches up in disgust. Vengeful spirits are filled with negative thoughts of wanting to harm others, and Regulus' thoughts are filled with his selfish greed that would harm others if his thoughts were to come to fruition.

From what I have gleaned from his conscious thought, he doesn’t seem to be aware of his own greed as those probably being locked away in his very subconscious. I find him to be a potentially interesting case for both Persecutory Delusional Disorder and Grandiose Delusional Disorder in psychology, I’m not sure though. Hmm, I should put this guy as one of the villains in my hit psychological novel.

After having listened to Regulus' thoughts for long enough, and after he finally had enough of thinking and began to talk, I interrupted him since I heard enough from his delusion.

“I’m afraid I have heard enough.” But Regulus doesn’t seem to take that so well as I found myself in front of another barrage of rants, both from his thoughts and his mouth.

‘Have heard enough? Have you heard enough?! What have you heard enough?! I don’t even think that I spoke more than 20 words, so how was that enough? If she found that enough, is she mentally retarded that she can’t process more than 20 words? Is she dumb, or is she just messing with me. In this case, I’ll just assume that it’s the latter: she is messing with me! With it being the latter instead of the former, I can fully use my right as a perfect being and spell out her flaws. I will let her know her mistake and her imperfection!’ “Now what did you mean by ‘having heard enough?’ Are you messing with me!? I talked less than 20 words and you said that you ‘have heard enough’? Don’t play with me! How was that enough? Tell me how—”

At this critical juncture where Regulus is speaking, I interrupt him once again as I really have heard enough. “Spare me the details. I already foresee what you’re going to say next.”

After having said that, I read what Regulus was thinking, ‘Foresee what I’m going to say next? Is she saying that I am predictable?! I found that incredibly insulting.’

That thought ended short as I interrupted him, “I did not find you predictable in the slightest.”

Having heard me speak out of the blue, Regulus thought, ‘What? Did she just predict what I’m thinking? Didn’t that just prove my point of her seeing me as someone predictable? I can’t handle such insults! I am not as predictable as this girl made myself to be. By saying that I’m predictable, it means that I’m simple. To even suggest that someone is simple, it's an insult to their character! Making that a violation of my right!’

Sigh, no matter what I say, this guy's always interpreted them as some sort of insult against his very person. Indeed, he probably has a Persecutory Delusional Disorder or something. I’ll say that this is troublesome, with him finding fault in everything I said and twisting it so that it victimizes himself, the conversation would never flow and my headache would get worse.

I can’t speak with humans for too long as their thoughts are just overwhelming sometimes and makes me nauseous. For that, I really really want this guy to leave. But from reading his thoughts, making him leave is practically impossible. I cannot even walk away from him as he probably will think that I didn’t find him worth talking to or something and lash out. To be honest, his mindset is the most dangerous I’ve seen yet in someone.

Regulus practically thinks that everything is harming him in some way, and with him thinking that, his mind immediately thinks of murder as a solution. So, getting such a guy out, or getting myself out without him trying to kill me, is gonna be a very hard thing to achieve. But as someone who has a side job as a detective, solving my way through something is something I’m used to. I’m also used to thinking under exhaustion, which is not something I wanted to get used to in the slightest…

Ah, I read Regulus’ thoughts just now, and he started to have the thought of killing me… I need to say something quick, but what should I say? If I say something about it, Regulus would act immediately to kill me for sure as he doesn't want to be seen as a simpleton. If I didn’t say anything about it, he would go on with his intention. Such an unreasonable guy. Even though I only knew this guy for only a couple of minutes, he made me afraid and hate him already.

Regardless, since both of my options would result in the same result, mainly, him acting his thought of killing me out, I will just taunt him to make his conscious thought easier to read. “Perchance, the next thing you’re going to say is, ‘You are making a fool of me! You are violating my right to freedom from harassment!’?”

“You are making a fool of—what?!” Regulus wore an expression of shock, but afterward, that changed to anger. “You you!! How did you know?! What did you—?! How did you do that?!” Regulus stumbled on his word. Afterward, he thought, ‘She is definitely mocking me! She is definitely having fun making me look like a fool!’ Upon thinking that, he basically says that out loud, “Is it fun for you to lower someone else by making them look like a fool? Am I that simple for you to rea—.”

“Your heart has already spoken, so you don’t have to say anymore. Mm-hmm, yes, what you’re thinking next is, ‘I’m going to get rid of this right violator who interrupted me thrice!’ Right?”

At this point, Regulus was shaking, and his thoughts turned chaotic, causing me to winch a little. ‘What was that? How did she read what I’m going to say next? It doesn’t make sense! Am I that simple, or was it something else entirely? I don’t get it! Just how did she know what I was going to say? She even spells out the things I’m going to say next for me. Was that her way of mocking me? I can’t even let a word out and she predicted it perfectly! Since I had barely spoken out about what I was going to say, is this even called a conversation?! I hate this! I need to put this point across!!’ “What was that? Just how did you guess what I’m going to say ne—.”

With me, all conversation is impossible. This conversation too, I had already heard once. No need to repeat it, and thus I said, “No, I did not predict what you’re going to say, I just heard it.”

‘Heard it? Heard what? What was it to be heard? I didn’t say anything and yet she said that she heard it?! What did she hear?!’

“Ah yes, you’re thinking, ‘What did she hear,’ right?”

‘Did… Did she hear my thoughts? My very inner sanctuary? No way that is true! There is no way! Everything about me is uninvadable! Both my mind and body cannot be bypassed as I am perfect. As a perfect being nothing can harm me or affect my mind! I’m impervious to anything, but yet this girl suggested that she can read my mind? But reading my thoughts or not! This girl is violating my right to speak by cutting me over and over again! Doesn't she find it rude to cut people off?! I have to point that out to her or else I wouldn’t be able to rest!’ “Did you just suggest that you hear my thoug—.”

“Oh, I’m sorry then. I can already hear what you’re thinking, so it’s faster to—oh? … I see… Hmm-hmm, I see, you wanted me to stop reading your mind? I must confess that it’s impossible. As long as my third eye is open, your thoughts will be heard by me. … Ah, saying that I had intruded on your mind is a bit… I mean, it’s right, but it’s also wrong. I did not penetrate your mind to see what you were thinking, I merely heard them. … ‘What’s the difference’ you’re thinking? Not much, really.”

Saying that much, Regulus stares at me with a death glare. There is no need for him to talk, and thus he is angry. From what I read from his thoughts, he likes talking very much, so my existence probably is a bane for him.

What he is thinking is, ‘I didn’t even get to talk! This is unacceptable! This girl is the worst! Not only did she read my mind without my permission, she also kept interrupting me! She also didn’t allow me to talk! Annoying, annoying, annoying! The most annoying person I ever met! At least hear me out! At least hear me talk! The conversation is impossible if it's one-sided, you know? I didn’t even get to ask what her name is! If she didn’t let me talk, I'd never know… Wait, she probably is reading my thoughts even now! This is getting uncomfortable! Freaky! Disgusting!’

Having heard Regulus' string of insults in his mind, I remain silent and unmoved. Those insults mean nothing to me. The hate of one person is nothing to the mountain of hate from thousands.

I cut Regulus' thought off by saying, “I apologized, it seems that I hadn’t introduced myself yet. I am Satori Komeiji. I’m the master of this palace. And, it’s not nice to insult someone in front of their face. But, it seems that you and I are not dissimilar as you are hated as well.”

My third eye is staring unblinkingly at Regulus. He is thinking, ‘Hated? You are wrong! Why did she think that I was hated? There is nothing about me that is hated. I’m perfect, the embodiment of perfection, they are just jealous! Jealous of me, that’s why they seem so hating. But that is just how it seems, they did not hate me. They’re just staying there in awe of my radiance. But, I must confess that there are some who hate me, but that is on them, not me! They are hating on me not because of my satisfying self, but because of their disgusting heart! You are reading my mind, ain’t you? I know you are reading my mind at this very moment! So apologize to me! You are invading my inner sanctuary. It’s a place that should not be invaded, yet you did! I don’t care if you can’t help it or not, you still have to apologize! I don’t even need to talk, now am I? But just let me talk, you intrusive bitch! Actually, you know what?! You are violating my rights! More of my right than any other I had met in 3 minutes! You will get punished for this!’

Having sensed such an ominous thought, I sigh, this guy is so angry that he doesn’t even bother to talk now, and only thinks rapidly with his mind. But that is fine as I have seen through Regulus' heart. “Fighting is inevitable, indeed. I might not be good at fighting as I did paperwork all day, but I will show you why Satori is the race that even the vengeful spirits fear.”

There is nothing to hide. I see it! Regulus is thinking of attacking me by moving his arm horizontally, thinking of cutting everything in front of him. Having read that intention, I duck, making Regulus’ attack completely miss me.

After it was completely apparent that I had dodged it, Regulus began to think of his next action. He is thinking of sending a shockwave at me through breathing! Having seen through that one too, I began to fly and step aside the incoming shockwave by reading what direction Regulus intended to release that shockwave.

“Now I wonder, what is it that you fear?” I said that to bring the thought of Regulus fear to the surface. For some reason, I cannot read his mind deeper than his surface thought, not even a little bit. That means that I cannot find his biggest fear and trauma, unless he reflects upon them. Though in the first place, I cannot go too deep into people's minds, so that doesn’t really change how I do things.

‘Now why would I fear anything? I fear nothing! Was she lowering me as a person with that question? But if I do have fear, it’s probably that red-hair knight. Wait, no, I did not fear him. Why would I fear someone weaker than I am? That bad excuse of a knight only defeats me because I go easy on him. If I meet him next time, I won’t commit the same mistake of letting my heart be destroyed by those fucker! Ah, right, this girl can read minds! But why does that matter? I have nothing to fear, I will proudly exclaim that!’ “Now what are you on about? I did not fear anything as I am perfec—.”

“I see, so your biggest fear is the red-haired knight you didn’t bother remembering the name of. I find it interesting that even in your mind, you are trying to convince yourself that you are fearless. Sadly, I have to say that you can’t hide your biggest fear from my third eye.”

Regulus is a bit disgruntled as he thinks, ‘I fear?? I fear that red-haired knight?! She is lying! She is trying to psychologically harm me by spreading lies! I did not fear that knight! She should know that! Right, you!! YOU should know that I did not fear him! Look at my thoughts again, and see my recollection of that knight! Point me out just what part of me is afraid of him!’ “That is a lie, and I know it! There is no one that can understand my mind more than myself! Don’t intrude into my thoughts and act like you know it all! You know wha—?!”

He didn’t get to finish again as I said, “I see, so you sent that ‘Red-hair knight’ to the moon, but he came back. He also throws you down to the earth, causing your death. You are not a human, but a ghost… you didn’t even notice that. You see? I’ll know everything about you soon enough, even things you don’t know yourself. There is nothing to hide here. Now tell me more! What is it that you don’t want to experience again!”

‘Argh, she cut me off again! Regardless of that, she sees what that knight put me through! But so what?! Those are things that I didn’t fear, so what was even her point?! What is it that I don’t want to experience again? Now why would I think that? She can read my mind, but so what? This is my mind, so no one can read things I don’t want to get out. I just don’t have to think about what I don’t want to experience again. In fact, I don’t want anything, so things like that don't exist. I don’t have such experience! Not at all. I might not want to experience myself being thrown down through earth again, but that is not something I don’t want to experience again. Actually, thinking that makes me seem like a masochist! So yeah, I don’t want to experience that again like any normal human does. But that is nothing! That magician might recreate that experience, but it does nothing to me. I will tell this girl who can read minds that the thing she asked me for did not exist! … And, even if she can read my mind, I will not let that stop me from having a normal conversation!’ “You told me what I’d gone through because of that knight, but that is not something I fear, so what? And who gives you permission to see through those? So how dare you intrude?! That is a violation—.”

“I see, the experience you don’t want to experience again is when you’re falling down through the earth. You might try to deny it, but I see your true sel—.” I did not get to finish my words as Regulus attacked me again. Before he does so, he is thinking about what kind of attack he’s gonna throw out and in what direction it’s going to throw out, so I easily dodge that.

“Hmm, I found out about your past trauma. I’ll let you experience that again with this ‘Recollection’. Now open your eyes and relive this trauma that you deny, Recollection "Master Spark".”

With Regulus thinking about a certain magician, I was able to duplicate what she used to send Regulus digging through the earth. The output of my ‘Master Spark’ might be a lot lower, but having something is better than nothing.

With that being unleashed toward Regulus, Regulus found it so shocking that he didn’t freeze the air and everything around him. How did I know that he could do that? From him thinking about it of course. Because he did not do that, he was knocked back through the other side of the hallway and past the wall at the end. The sad thing is that he didn’t knock back through the hole he came in, and instead flew through the hallway, pushing him further into the palace. This is a hallway, and I did not appear from behind him when I first met him, so that is the result.

After I knocked him back to the other part of the palace, I planned to chase after him. But before I could do so, from the holes that Regulus first created when he came here, a person in red came in. On one of her hands was… eh?

“Koishi?”

Chapter Text

Ever in motion, 'she' drifts with nature's sway;
Imitating the leaf in the river that floats away.
Lost in the miniature garden, ‘he’ stands still;
Immovable like a mountain before nature's will.

Chapter 15: The History of Regulus

Reimu Hakurei P.O.V

After going through the numerous holes Regulus created on the wall of the palace, I found a girl in pink who seemed to be looking at the girl I caught earlier.

I’ll assume that Koishi, who is still on my hand, is the sister of this pink girl since they are look-alike, which is great! One of the reasons I brought Koishi here is so that I could appease the master of the palace as I’ll be intruding for a little while. I don’t want the master of this palace to be hostile to me because I’m forcing myself into her house or something. I already have a lot of trouble on my plate already, so I don’t want to have more. Anyways, where is that Regulus anyway? I didn’t see him anywhere. He should be here.

After thinking about those things, the pink-haired girl spoke, “I appreciate that you have some consideration. Regulus is over there past the wall on your right.”

Eh? This pink-haired girl just talks out of nowhere? But great, I got the information I wanted without even asking for it. So Regulus is over there, heh? Now the matter of his location is dealt with. The only thing I have to find out is how to bypass that defense.

“You can’t as far as I know. Even Regulus himself thinks that nobody can.”

The pink-haired girl said something again, who was she talking to anyway? I don’t think there is anyone but me and Koishi. Koishi didn't say anything either, and she was still being grabbed by the shirt by me. I should probably release her from my hold now. Wait, thinking that makes me sound like a kidnapper.

“I’m talking to you, Shrine Maiden. And yes, I would like it if you could give me my sister.”

Wah? She is talking to me? But I didn’t say anything though. … But yes, I have always thought of doing that. But how did she know that I planned to do that? With me breaking into her house with her sister in my hand, it would be more likely for her to think of me as some sort of kidnapper asking for ransom. That’s why I asked her, “How did you know?”

“I heard your intention from the beginning. I can hear your thoughts, that’s why.”

Ah, so she can read my thoughts? Great, now I don’t have to talk, which is convenient. It has been quite troublesome to spell the information about Regulus out to others, so with her able to read my mind, I don’t have to say anything and she would understand. And… Koishi is still in my hand. She is oddly obedient, regardless, I’ll stop holding on to her now.

…

Huh? Wait a second.

Whom did I say I was going to release again? Wasn’t there only this pink-haired girl and me?

???

Meh, whatever. That is probably nothing. I should really go back to the more important thing, which is the fight I’m having with Regulus. I want to finish this fight already. Like, seriously. Just how long have I fought with Regulus? Half an hour? No matter how long it was, it felt like forever!

After thinking that, I look at the direction the pink-haired girl directed me toward quite some time ago. What I notice immediately is the broken wall at the other side of the hallway. When I was about to float over there, Regulus came back from the other side. Regulus did not do anything extravagant to destroy the wall to get back to this hallway, he merely walked through them, seemingly not caring if it existed or not.

After spotting me, his expression twisted hideously, which caused him to walk closer to me. “As persistent as always. Can’t you just leave me alone? I don’t think it’s right for you to follow me everywhere I go. Hmm, what do those types of people call again? Ah right, stalker! You have been consistently stalking me obsessively and aggressively! Wasn’t that basically harassment?!”

“Yeah, yeah, your logic doesn’t apply here. I'm basically a law enforcement officer here, so would you consider those people chasing a criminal as a stalker?”

“Bad action did not go away with justification, you know?! And, now you are talking back to me? Who teaches you that? Who teaches you to do such an obnoxious thing? You should just stand there and listen to me without rebuke! By rebuking me, you are basically saying that my opinion is invalid and wrong! Don’t try to convince me that I’m wrong with your argument! You are violating my right to my—.”

I cut him there, “So what you’re saying is that you can’t handle being wrong? Grow up and shut up!”

Regulus was taken aback at my words, and then, he ranted about it like a child, “Now what are you trying to insinuate? You’re just saying that I’m wrong because you can’t accept the truth of my words! You’re just trying to turn my argument null by saying that I’m wrong! And I have the right to speak my mind without the fear of getting interrupted! Seriously, you interrupted me so goddamn much that every time I opened my mouth to speak now, I began to anticipate your interruption. I shouldn’t have anticipated such a thing! So, I will kill you! I will send you to hell!!” After screaming like a madman, he throws his arm up, creating a vertical invisible blade of wind.

Since I can intuitively see that coming, I can dodged it easily like it was nothing at all. After I dodged that and heard Regulus said for the umpteen times that he has the ‘right to speak,’ I retorted back, “Annoying, and I beg to differ! You have the right to just stand there and remain silent!”

Saying that, however, I did not go ahead and attack him again. Even though I was quite irked by this guy's speech to the point of being unable to stand his presence, I did not move. I merely waited for the incoming barrage of words from Regulus' mouth. At this point, I give up on attacking. Trying to attack him now wouldn’t do much for me. But even if I gave up on attacking him, it doesn’t mean that I’ve completely given up yet. I’ll still try to think of a way to make Regulus pay for what he has done. I will not back down unless I beat the crap out of him, that is my duty as a Shrine Maiden. I'm just going to focus entirely on thinking instead of fighting for now.

How does Regulus react to my words previously? Not well, obviously, as he began to make another speech. “Dodged?! You dodged it again?! And I have the ‘right to remain silent’?? Quite clever of you to hide a restriction behind a ‘right’. Why should I want to remain silent when you are assaulting me with your words? Don’t you think I should have the right to speak, instead of the right to remain silent? Are you saying that I should just take the insult obediently without talking back to such assaul—?”

“I don’t want to listen to you preaching! Why do you talk so much anyway? Don’t you want to kill me? Are you trying to make me feel hopeless or something?” Honestly, I’m quite tired of this whole situation. I hope that after this, I will get some donations in my shrine for all the work I do.

Anyhow, after I said that, Regulus’ mouth twitched and began to form an unpleasant smirk. “Now why did you say that? You see, I’m not a sadist. I did not enjoy others suffering in the slightest. Seeing others suffer is disgusting, if I were to enjoy them, it would be unbecoming of me. I’m satisfied and don’t need anything, so why would I have such a desire to make you feel hopeless? To be honest, now that you have accused me of such a thing, you are violating my very character!”

With such words being uttered, I squint my eyes. I don’t buy that in the slightest. He is definitely enjoying it! Really, his actions and his words are very misaligned. But it's not like I’m complaining. With him showing off and wasting time, I’m getting more time to think of a way to defeat him.

“Shrine Maiden.” A voice called me. It’s the voice of the pink-haired girl. “Regulus is thinking that he will quit showing off soon and kill you for real.”

Ah, right, she can read people's minds. Wait, did she just suggest that she can read Regulus' mind too? Now that I realized that, earlier, she also said that Regulus himself didn’t think that it was possible to break through to him, didn’t she? Now that is neat! This girl whom I didn’t even know the name of might be able to read Regulus' mind and give me some clues. Even if Regulus didn’t think that it’s possible, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible!

Having heard that thought of mine, the girl that I don’t know the name of spoke, “He hadn’t thought of anything that would be considered as clues just yet. And I apologize, I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Satori Komeiji, the mistress of this palace.”

Nice to meet you, that is what I wanted to say. But I don’t really see the point of doing so since she can read my mind. So ‘your’ name is Satori, huh? Cool, and earlier you suggested that you can only read what Regulus is thinking right? So you can only read his surface thoughts? You can’t like… hmm, see his memories, looking deep into his mind, or anything like that?

Satori nodded at the question. “I can’t look deep into his mind.”

I see. Now that is a shame. It would be easier if you could invade his mind or something, but at least this is something. Does that mean that if I could get Regulus to think about his vulnerability or anything that could lead up to the answer, then she could read that, right?

“Yes, from what I had gleaned out of him, he had been defeated before, so the answer to his defeat should be in his mind.”

What?! He had been defeated before? Great! That is the biggest piece of good news I heard all day! But… who beat him though? I don’t think anyone from the outside can fight him and win, after all, even with the force of Marisa, Sakuya, Keine, that Oni, and me, we still can’t win. Was his weakness so obvious to the outsiders? I don’t think guns would do the job. That thought led me to doubt my own ability a bit, but Satori's next words lessen that self-doubt. “He… doesn’t seem to belong in the outside world. He seems to be from a world different from anything both you and me know.”

There is… a world outside of the world outside of Gensokyo?? Somehow I had never thought of that. But… Why was I surprised at such news? It should be obvious that if there is Gensokyo—a separate world—the possibility of another world like Gensokyo existing is not zero. I do wonder though, how did Regulus get here?

Satori looked at me, a bit troubled. What? Was his arrival to Gensokyo a bit complicated or something?

“No, I just don’t know the answer to that question. Even if I can read minds, I’m not omniscient. But from what I had read of his thoughts when I prompted him to recall his biggest trauma, unless he has some kind of ability to heal himself from the near destruction of his entire body, he should be dead.”

“What?” My voice was unconsciously leaked out. The new information I heard was quite something. So he can either have a super strong regenerative power or is dead? I sure hope it’s the latter. I don’t want to deal with someone who is ‘invincible’ to most attacks and also has a very strong regenerative power on top of that.

“Yes, that is why I choose to believe that he is dead.”

Having heard that comment, I planned to ask her about the information regarding how he died, but… “Hey now, how long are you two going to ignore me?” Saying that, Regulus let out a sigh, “I haven't bothered counting how many times you've done that, but it is obviously more than a dozen already! Can you stop doing that? Since I’m here too, you two should at least show me some consideration by including me in your conversation! Leaving me out like that, you are lowering me as a person! No one should feel that way.”

With Regulus expressing his frustration, a voice of an unknown girl rang out, “Yep, I feel the same way. I feel like I’ve been completely forgotten!” With that unfamiliar voice, the gazes of Regulus and I turned toward the source of the voice.

But… I cannot see the girl that could’ve let out that voice at all. But despite that, Regulus spoke, “Who? Why are you coming into the conversation? This shouldn’t be in your business, but yet you join in like it is. And show yourself! Don’t you think it’s rude to join in a conversation without showing up?”

“I’m here, I’m here! Even though I’m here, you didn’t see me... It’s your fault for not seeing me, so don’t blame me!” With that voice rang out again, I finally noticed her. It’s a girl in green.

She looks quite similar to Satori… But, I didn’t find her familiar at all. But for some reason, I associate her with ‘Satori sister’ right away. When did she get there? Who is she? As questions like that swirled in my mind, Regulus spoke. “You are saying that it’s my fault? Now why did you say that? I am perfect, so for me to be the one at fault is unimaginable! If I were to be honest, it’s your fault that I didn’t see you! Since there is no problem with my eyes, it’s definitely YOU that is the problem. For you to suggest that I’m at fault, how prideful you are! Don’t always blame others and look at yourself for once! And who even are you? You should at least introduce yourself. That is the most basic courtesy you could show, after all.”

“... You finished? What did you say again? I didn’t really listen.” Said Koishi as her attention was mostly on the Regulus-shaped hole on the wall. She doesn’t have the attention span to listen to Regulus' long speech, it seems.

Seemingly losing it, Regulus began to deliver another long speech filled with condemnation. “Damn you!!! You don't seem to know basic courtesy! Since you don’t know, I will squeeze that information into that tiny brain of yours! …” Even children weren't spared from his long lecture, it seems. As Regulus is doing that, Satori and I are having an entirely separate conversation.

With me having asked stuff like, ‘Who is that girl?’ in my mind, Satori answered. “She is my sister, Koishi…” Satori said that while showing a hint of sadness in her expression. “You had met her before, but you forgot. And words of advice: Don’t look away from her, or you will forget about her again.”

Those words of advice make her sound ominous. And eh? I had met her before? Hmm, but no matter how much I think, I can’t remember her at all. Did I meet her when I was a child or something? Probably not, but if I did not, why did I forget? I’m sure I won’t forget a girl with such a unique outfit. Was that her ability?

“You are quite sharp. That is right. Koishi is capable of ‘taking actions unconsciously’. Once, she was able to read others' minds like me. But since she doesn't want to be hated for having that kind of ability, she decided to close her mind. As a result, she disappears from the ‘conscious’ part of human cognition and exists independently on the ‘unconscious’ side. That is why you forgot about her.”

… I see. So she has that kind of ability. There might be a possibility that Satori is lying about that, but it doesn’t seem to be a lie as Koishi, the name Satori mentioned just now, does have a presence that makes it very hard for me to notice her. From what I also noticed earlier, she had also gone unnoticed by Regulus. Does that mean that her ability worked on Regulus too?

Satori nodded her head after having heard my question. “It seems so. As long as things don't directly affect him, he doesn’t seem to be impervious to it. Koishi's ability just makes her existence reside in the unconscious part of the human mind, so her ability is really just affecting herself and not people around her.”

I’m not so well versed in mind-related stuff, but wouldn’t Regulus not forget Koishi? Isn't her ability considered as ‘affecting him’?

“No… Hmm, it’s hard to explain… So, the reason people forget about her is because with her only existing in the unconscious, people's memories of her would have no choice but to reside in the near-forgotten memories that are stored in the unconscious, rather than the easily recalled memories that are stored in the conscious. I hope that answers your question.”

I see, so it isn’t a matter of influencing another mind to forget her existence; it's a matter of her memories being sent to the only part of the brain that can perceive her—the unconscious—and not the conscious since she only exists in the unconscious. … So that is why Regulus might forget about her too. No, he will definitely forget her. That is quite an info dump, but it’s quite useful information. Wait, if I take my eyes off Koishi, wouldn’t I just forget about all of that?

That worry didn’t take root, though, as Satori cleared my worry with: “No, you will not forget about that. Koishi's ability only works on herself, remember? Since you got that information from me, you won't forget it. It would be a different story if you get that information from Koishi herself though… For example, the name ‘Koishi’. She told you herself, didn’t she? That’s why you forgot that. And… Yes, like you just thought, Regulus will most likely forget about her.”

So, Regulus is affected by such an ability... Regulus' conscious mind cannot pretend that Koishi exists consciously when she doesn't. If that is the case… I might have found a way to distract him a little while. From what I know, Regulus will always try to kill you if his favorability of you gets to a certain point. With Koishi's ability practically able to make people's favorability of her turn to zero every time people look away from her, when they look back at her, it would seem like it’s their first meeting.

Koishi's existence is similar to that of a tiny rock on the side of the road, once you take your eyes off, you will not be able to see it again. Even if you see that rock again, you wouldn’t be entirely sure if it is the same rock, treating it as your first time seeing it. So, if you put Koishi in front of him and lure Regulus' gaze out of her every now and then, in theory, that should create a loop where Regulus wouldn’t attack and his favorability of Koishi would keep decreasing and resetting. That would buy me a lot of time, wouldn’t it?

Thinking of such a plan, Satori acknowledged that it could work with a nod. And so with that, without further ado, I shouted, “Hey Regulus, why don’t you look at me!” With me calling Regulus, he stopped his heated one-sided conversation he had with Koishi, and turned his head toward me. Of course, while all that was happening, my eyes were glued on Koishi the whole time as I didn't want to forget about her… Well, except for her ability and her name…

“Don’t you think that ordering someone to look at something is rude? People have the right to look at whatever they want to look at, you know? So for you to order me to look at your annoying face is a violation of my right! And why did you even—.”

I cut him off right then and there, pointed my finger toward Koishi, and shouted, “There is something over there!” With me having shouted that, Regulus' eyes unconsciously followed where my fingers were pointing at.

“Eh? Why is attention suddenly on me?” Still smiling, Koishi looked back and forth between me and Regulus.

Upon seeing Koishi, Regulus spoke, “Eh? Who is this weird brat? I don’t know who you are and why you are here, but don’t you think it’s rude to be near someone who is having a conversation?” With those words coming out of Regulus' mouth, it’s now fully certain: Regulus forgot about Koishi... Or at least, the memory of her got sent to the back of Regulus' mind instead of the front. Regulus continued, “If someone is having a conversation, don’t you think you should walk away from them? You surely don’t want to overhear others’ conversation as that is rude. So for you to be here, listening to my conversation when you are entirely unrelated, you’re violating my right to my privacy! At least, you should announce yours—.”

“You talk too much, Mister. And, I did announce myself earlier… you just forget about it!”

“Now what are you on about? This is our first meeting, isn't it? My memory has never deceived me before, so I’m definitely right! Unless I had met you a very long time ago, I would definitely remember you! I have my confidence that even after a century, I would still remember someone as rude as yo—!”

The moment Regulus called Koishi ‘rude,’ Koishi instantly responded, “You are the rude one, mister! You forget about me and blame me for not remembering, you are such a bully!”

“You, YOU! Don’t you have any self-control? Don’t just say things when I’m still talkin—.”

Before Regulus could even finish his sentence, Koishi spoke up again, “But you said that I’m rude, so I have to clear that out and say that I’m not.”

Regulus grumbled at her words and was boiling with rage. I feel like he is going to kill Koishi if she keeps her impulsive behavior going. But that wouldn’t come in like a minute (probably) so I’ll use this time to talk to Satori.

“Sooo, how did he die?” I asked Satori about the thing I wanted to know.

She closed her eyes for a second, and said, “His death is very gruesome… When he thought about it quite some time ago, I could read what Regulus felt at the moment of his death.” She paused for a few seconds, and continued, “He died by suffocation and having his entire body crushed into meat paste. He couldn't even scream before he drowned.”

… From the description alone, I kind of understand why just now she was a bit pale. But, that death, he kind of deserved it. The story of his death didn’t move me. I’m composed all the way through. My emotion didn’t stir even a little. That is because I had ‘floated’ away from such emotions with my ability.

Satori looked at me for a second, but she continued, “Regulus got killed by two knights. One called ‘Sword Saint’, and another called…. L-l-lolimancer[1].” She blushed a little at the end.

Despite not reacting to Regulus' death, upon hearing such a title, my composure cracked a little. Eh? W-what? What kind of title is ‘Lolimancer’? An image of a dude whipping a little girl comes to mind. I shook my head violently. S-surely, it wasn’t like that. A-anyway… What happened? How did they kill him?

When Satori’s blush subsided, she continued, “... I know how they defeated him, but I don't think it would apply now. Even if it's no longer useful as a clue to defeat him, would you still want to hear it?”

What? Was his weakness no longer applied to him or something? And what kind of question is that? Whether it applies or not, just tell me. Maybe it could have some use.

“If you say so… When I lured him to think of his defeat, he mentioned something along the lines of ‘my heart was destroyed by them’ in his thoughts. With my ability, I was able to understand what he meant by his ‘heart,’ and it seems that his weakness lies in his heart.” I nodded, and she continued, “This ‘heart’ he mentions is his ability. He is capable of putting his heart inside others, allowing the heart in his chest to no longer need to beat. When his heart stopped beating, his body time also stopped, making him unchangeable. Those two knights defeated him by stopping the hearts he put inside others—I’m not sure how they did it though since Regulus didn’t think about that. With Regulus' heart being the only one left, Regulus began to have heart failure every time he tried to use his ability for more than 5 seconds, which led to his death.”

That is… a lot to take in. Hmm, mind if I ask how you got that much information? I swear that I had only left him for like 2 minutes before I caught up to him. It’s oddly scary that you can get all of that information in that short time frame.

Satori grabbed her third eye that had been hanging by her chest and pulled it closer to her face. “... My ability to read minds can see through everything a person is thinking. No matter how vague their thoughts are, even just by them mentioning ‘that,’ I would be able to ‘read’ what ‘that’ is… But, in the end, I can only see through what a person is currently thinking. So in that sense, we are quite lucky that Regulus' own defeat left quite a strong impression on him. It’s because of that that I was able to get that information directly from his surface thoughts that keep mentioning ‘that’ event when I prompt him.”

I see… so if I think about ‘that,’ ‘that,’ and ‘that.’ You will know what I’m thinking about even though I didn’t think in detail about ‘that’? That is an amazing investigative ability.

“... hmm hmm, you are thinking about ‘that’ as in ‘wanting to beat Regulus,’ and ‘that’ as in ‘wanting to go home,’ and ‘that’ as in ‘rice cracker will be my lunch today,’ right.”

Yeah yeah, anyway, I think we are slightly going off-topic. So you told me about his ability, but why does that weakness no longer apply? And… if it’s just freezing his body time, he should’ve been beaten by Sakuya… Something is not right.

“That is where my speculation comes in.” Satori turns her head toward Regulus, who is making a long speech in front of Koishi and is ready to kill her at any moment. Then, she continued, “I think that the form Regulus is in right now is that of a ghost. An existence without a physical heart. Without the limitation of his heart, he might as well not have a weakness. That is why I said that the information is no longer useful. And about his ability to ‘freeze his body time’?... Hmm, you remember how I mention that Regulus is not from this world? I speculate that the reason Sakuya was not able to beat him was because Regulus time did not exist in this world in the first place.”

After she said that, a loud crash sound resonated throughout the entire palace, startling both her and me. The sound is so loud that it silences the entire place. With that sound, everyone's attention is drawn toward the source.

The one who caused it is, “I finally got here! I had put my sake aside, so I’ll get serious from here on out! Regulus! Come face me! Come fight me!! I’m one of the Four Devas of the Mountain, Hoshiguma Yuugi!!!” After that remark, the physically strongest Devas made a move.

— — — — — — — — — — —

(A/N: The omake is not canon to the story.)

Omake: uɹnʇɹǝʌo (overturn) Part 2

sɐǝuɹoɔ snlnƃǝɹ P.O.V

After I escaped from that blond-haired girl, I began to move my unsatisfying body toward the shrine. I drag my pitiful body across the earth, and as I’m doing so, many youkai attack me. Of course, not all of them attacked me as some that knew me ran away. It’s only those nonintellectual youkai that attack me.

As they attacked me, I wish that some of them actually hit me. But that wish was never realized as my [Greed] stopped all of them from affecting me. [Greed] gives me a ‘perfect’ body that makes most things unable to affect me. It’s an isolating ability that makes most things unable to interfere with my life. Even things like sleep or food weren’t in my concern as [Greed] stopped me from needing them. Even something as simple as breathing, I don’t need them.

I honestly don’t like [Greed]. I wish I never had it. It’s an ability that is more like a curse to me. That is because [Greed] gave me this unsatisfying body, a body that makes me stop feeling ‘alive’. [Greed] prevents all external desire. Since desires are synonymous with being alive, [Greed] practically prevents me from feeling ‘alive’. With [Greed], I will never need anything. I won't feel the need for necessities or things like my own wishes. Consequently, there will be no happiness for me, and neither will there be sadness. Not needing anything is the same as not having anything. Without wishes and desires, I am not truly alive. I wish to feel alive again, and so I don’t like this ability. I didn’t want to feel unsatisfied, and so I wished for it to disappear. I wished to be satisfied, to feel the pleasure of living, and so I wished the youkai attacks actually hit me. At least then, I would feel that my [Greed] stopped working.

Before I got [Greed], I wanted every little thing to feel alive, but after I got [Greed], I stopped feeling ‘alive’ and stopped wanting every little thing. That is the thing I hated the most about my [Greed]. Even though I don’t need things like food and sleep, I still want to savor them. Appreciate them, treasure them. I don’t want to lose such pleasure, and so I don’t want to live like this. That is why, I don’t have the right to live as I was never ‘alive’ in the first place. That’s why I am the most unsatisfying being in the world.

As I’m thinking about such things, I got to the long staircase that led up to the shrine. The staircase is so long that I honestly don’t want to walk up it.

Hmm, maybe I should give up on going to the shrine… I’m someone who gave up easily. I can never understand how some people are so determined to do something. If it’s hard, why not just try to find an easier way to do it?

Like now, I don't want to go up the stairs. Since I don’t want to go up, I can just… hmm, hang around at the bottom and wait till someone comes along? If I stay there long enough, maybe someone will take pity on me and take me upstairs? I would rather do that instead of walking up the stairs for a dozen minutes.

Yeah, let's do that; sitting at the first step of the staircase, waiting for someone to pick me up the stairs. It’s less tiring that way. But… It’s not like I can feel tired in the first place. It’s just a matter of me not wanting to do it because I’m lazy.

…

…

…

I have been waiting at the bottom of the stairs for a couple of hours now, and there is not a single humanoid person coming around. There are a bunch of youkai though. Really, just how deserted is the shrine? From the look of it, that pitiful Shrine Maiden probably doesn't have many visitors. Truly pitiful… Just like me. I might have found my comrade!

As I continued waiting, soon enough, like the hour of my waiting had bare its fruit, a certain Shrine Maiden showed up finally. “What are you doing here? You are scaring off my visitors!” It’s then that my head got hitted by a yin-yang orb. But it bounced off as it literally got rejected from my body.

I wanted to say ‘what’s the big deal?’ But since it was ‘me’ that the Shrine Maiden hit, I stopped my tongue. And perhaps she thinks it's weird that I didn't say anything for a couple seconds now, she comments, “Weird, normally, you would go on a rant right about now.” She squinted her eyes. Afterward, a slight sense of happiness appeared on her face, “Are you an imposter, perhaps?”

Hey, now! Why did she arrive at such a conclusion?! And why is she so happy at the prospect of me being an imposter?! Did she think that dealing with an imposter is better than dealing with the real me… Actually… maybe she is right, it would be good if my pitiful self were to be replaced by someone else.

“Hmm, you still didn’t say anything… Are you an imposter after all???” Saying that, the Shrine Maiden floats down from where she is. Once she got to the ground, she studied me closely. After a bit, she said, “Hey… um, ahem… You are obstructing my business! Get out of here, you are not ‘allowed’ here! That’s right, I’m violating your rights right now.”

I didn’t say anything and just looked at her weirdly.

Just what is she trying to get at? You want me to get out of here? I didn’t particularly mind as I’m low and is just a nuisance to others, but obstruct business? What business? Her shrine? It doesn’t seem to be very successful if that is the case…

Thinking of that, as if Reimu’s intuition told her of my thoughts, she hit my head with her Gohei, a bit angry, “I can tell that you are thinking about my shrine's lack of visitors. And… You really are an imposter! Regulus would say something like ‘you are violating my right to freedom’ or something like that after what I said earlier. But… What I said earlier is not a test either, so get out! With you sitting here with that appearance, my shrine wouldn’t be getting any visitors!”

… Based on how I’ve been hanging out around here for a couple of hours without seeing a single soul, I kind of doubt if my existence really makes her shrine not have any visitors today. But… if Reimu really said that it’s my fault, then it’s probably my fault. For someone who is as pitiful as I am, It’s a matter of course that people would want to attack me or run away from me. So for me to stand here, the number of shrine visitors would definitely decrease. I probably have the opposite effect of ‘Maneki Neko’ just by being here.

Thinking that much, I respond to the Shrine Maiden, “I… I previously planned to laze around at your shrine, but since you don’t want me, I’ll be leaving.”

Saying that politely, quietly, and straight to the point, Reimu wore a weird-out expression, “Really, with that face, it’s kind of weird that you are that polite.” And then, as if that weird-out expression was a lie, her face now shows a hint of anger. “And my shrine is not a place to ‘laze around’! It’s a sacred place of worship!!”

With her shouting that, from above, a voice of a girl commented, “But didn’t you always ‘laze around’ in the shrine-ze?” The one who let out that voice is Marisa, the resident magician and thief of the magic forest. And with her saying that, she swoops down from her bloom. After landing on the ground, Marisa continued, “Anyway, I came to ‘laze around’ like usual in your shrine, Reimu.”

A bit irked at that, Reimu exclaimed, “As I said earlier, my shrine is not a place to ‘laze around’!!!”

“Well, I’m gonna make it that way. … And, why are you here, Regulus.” Marisa said the first half in a playful tone, but in the latter half, she changed her tone to that of a cold one.

It seems that she still doesn’t forgive me for what happened a long time ago. It’s not like I blame her. I don’t really understand why I do that myself. It’s like the me of that time wasn’t the me of today. Something wasn’t adding up, but I didn’t bother thinking about that. It’s tiring and I don’t want to…

As my thoughts wander, Reimu speaks up, “Marisa, I don’t think he is Regulus… He’s probably a doppelganger youkai or something. It’s beyond me why he decided to pose as him, though.”

Having heard that, Marisa scrutinized me like what Reimu had done previously. After a few seconds, like she didn't find what she was looking for, she stopped and began to say, “... Yeah, he is not Regulus. He didn’t make those funny faces like the real Regulus when someone near him breathed.”

Nodding, Reimu responded to her with, “Yeah, he didn’t make his usual response when I tested him earlier, so it’s definitely not him. … And Marisa, don’t think I didn’t notice when you changed your topic earlier! What do you mean by ‘I’m gonna make it that way,’ huh?! My shrine is not a place to ‘laze around’, and I will not let that change!”

“Well, Reimu. If things become the norm, like me going to laze around at your shrine, it would make your shrine become a place to 'laze around’-ze! It’s like how youkai keep visiting your shrine, which caused your shrine to be known as a place where youkai gather!”

“What did you say!?!! When did my shrine become known as that?!! Is that why my shrine has barely had visitors recently?! Who spread that information? Give me a name!!!”

“... Dude, It has been forever since your shrine had a visitor, not just recently.”

With those words, Reimu tightened her hold on her gohei. “Do you want me to beat you up too, Marisa?! Now tell me who spread that rumor!”

“I won't tell you that till you beat me in the Danmaku game-ze!

As Reimu and Marisa are having an intense conversation, I observe them silently from afar.

To have greed—desires for visitors—and friends, I envy you, Reimu. I wish I had those things too. In the end, you are not as pitiful as I thought. At least, you are more satisfied than me. How nice it would be if my [Greed] didn’t stop me from having basic desires. I wish this unsatisfied body of mine could be hungry so that I can be fulfilled when I eat something. I wish I had a body that feels the want for luxury so that I could feel the greed for monetary gain. I wish I could have my own happiness…

As I think about it and look at Reimu and Marisa who are lost in their own little world, completely forgetting about my silent self, I turned my head around, as well as my body.

As an unsatisfied and pitiful existence such as myself, I shouldn’t entangle myself into the life of someone who is already satisfied. I don’t have the right to stay near them. I do not belong in their world, as I have already isolated myself in my own little world where I don’t need anything.

I’m truly the most unsatisfied being in the world.