Part of Spooktember >>/gensokyo/16356

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Meekness is no flaw. Capitulation is not defeat... if you know what you’re doing. I know what I’m doing. I’m Kiketsu. When your guard is down, their guard is down, and that’s when you strike.

... I’m going over this in my head to remind myself how impressive I am, and how important my job is. It’s me who has to do it! It’s Yachie-sama’s plan, and I won’t let her down!

Ahem...

“Did we take a wrong turn?” the human... well, half-human that I chose speaks up.

We can’t take wrong turns. There’s no other turning to take. This is the Sanzu River. Without a guide, traveling over it is dicey...

... We were supposed to meet Yachie-sama, and she’d take us to the Beast World.

“Otter spirit?” the girl refers to me. If I was in a proper body, I know it’d shiver.

「We’re fine!」 I lie, speaking through her mind. 「Uhh... H-How about I take over for a second?」 Maybe if I’m in control I can... figure things out...

“‘Take over’?” she asks, cocking her head to one side. “What do you m—”

I possess her.

She’s so strong... Are all half-phantoms like this?

This is definitely enough to take down that crafting god...! Yachie-sama’s always got a plan!

... I don’t know how to handle this... “body” thing well.

I look down at this “human” through her eyes. She’s got a sword here. Two swords here.

I draw the shorter one (the longer one was already out). I swing both ahead, trying to figure out her sensations.

I’ve felt everything she’s felt since she accepted to join up with me, but feeling her physical sensations and living through her sure are different...

「Wh-What’s going on!? What are you doing?」

I smile, to relax her.

“Not to worry, Youmu—I know the way so I’ll take us there soon!”

I don’t know the way. I don’t think I ever could.

The sky is blood red. There’s been a fog everywhere for a while.

The dead river underneath us isn’t moving. It doesn’t ever move, right?

Wh... Where do we gooo...? Hm? What’s that under the wat—

“WAGH!?” I cry out. A sea serpent—a leviathan—something like Yachie-sama!? B-But... i-i-... i-i-it’s huge!

「Otter spirit, what are you doing? Fight!」

“Hy-HyAhh... Nn—”

I make a battle cry, and drop her swords. They slipped out of my hands.

「Otter spirit!?」

The serpent swallows her blades as it breaches the water. When it breaches it brings a wave. I bring her arms up, and brace for it. Wow... this got really bad really fast.

「Are you serious!? No!」

Youmu curses me out. I deserve that. I give her body back to her as the wave totally overtakes us. Then, both of us go dark.


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When we come to, we’re...

“Where is this?”

Yeah... where... Where are we?

Youmu is on her butt, arms spread out because it looks like she crashed here. She lifts her head. We can smell sulfur.

“... Hell? We somehow made it?”

... I didn’t tell her ‘cause that was the plan, but... we weren’t supposed to get to Hell.

She looks around.

This place looks like a dump... We dried out from the river’s water because a dark sun is hanging in a mauve sky—it’s almost... black. This is... a shack, it looks like we crashed into, made of some wet wood. It’s been abandoned, I think. It looks almost like a point for a sentry, overlooking the Sanzu. Is there a city... or something nearby—Where is this? A desolate beach, with some kind of barrier of thorns separating it from the mainland...

And it’s quiet... Feels like a place for an ambush.

“If it’s Hell, I have to find the Yama,” Youmu says, and she picks herself up. She sure is strong... “I lost the Roukanken and Hakurouken... It’s regrettable, but I know where they are. We should be able to retrieve them, somehow.” Optimistic... cool.

「I’m sorry,」I tell her.

“I’ll need your help for now, in case this... isn’t Hell,” she replies. I think it might be a Hell.

We got dumped into some “otherworld”, didn’t we?

Youmu moves across the beach, her shoes crunching on the sand.

She glances up at the Sun.

“... The Sun?” she queries. 「What about it? 」”Was that how...?”

「What’s the matter?」

A chill run up her left arm, bringing up the hairs along it. She grabs the limb and slouches.

“Are we alone, here...?” she asks. I tell her that I don’t think so. She shivers, and I feel her cold body growing colder. “... Are there... maybe... ghosts...?” she asks.

... Isn’t she a ghost? Well, a phantom—but that’s kind of dead in a way too, isn’t it?

But I can’t really give her much confidence. The other otter spirits aren’t anywhere nearby, let alone any other Kiketsu members or even other Great Families. It’s just me and her, and whoever else is here. We’re... definitely going to have to play it safe. I’m going to have to remember what the Kiketsu Family taught me damn well, now more than ever.

And I got us into this mess... If I don’t get us out, Yachie-sama’s gonna eat me, I bet.

Youmu walks ahead, and there’s still no way off the beach. The wall of thorns is huge and black and it’s hard to see over. It feels like the beach goes forever, and the thorns too, until we spot a structure built into the brambles. Kind of... looks like a gate. Then again, can’t we fly over everything? That gate is creepy... It’s another ramshackle-looking thing made of wet, black wood, and looking closer... it’s the entrance to some kind of tunnel? Youmu walks toward it.

「Can’t we fly over this?」 I ask.

“S-Something might see us...” she whispers. Well... yeah, I guess so, and without her swords she’s more of a sitting duck.

「Let’s play it safe, then. Yeah, walk through the tunnel. I can feel for ghosts, so I’ll tell you if I notice any.」

I can’t do that, but I don’t wanna stay on the beach right now. It’s really making me nervous, and we can’t just cross the River either, that’s how we got here. We’re gonna need a guide. Seriously...

Youmu walks into the tunnel, and the light dims.

Her shoulders are hunched and her breath is thin. The tunnel smells moldy. A few electric lights are just barely illuminating the inside. That’s a little surprising... I guess there are structures, so wherever we are isn’t exactly primitive? They’re small lights, and the wires are all exposed, hooked up between the walls and ceiling. Youmu’s footfalls are a little... moist. And, now that we’re in here, we can’t see the end of the tunnel huh...

But Youmu keeps going.

We were chatting a little when we started, but even I stopped commenting once we were far enough along that we couldn’t see where we came from either.

It’s just her footsteps, and that odor.

Y’know... it’s weird to find a place that doesn’t man the Sanzu River, somehow... It’s an easy way for intruders to get in, or prisoners or slaves to escape depending on the place.

... Uh.

Wait. Does she hear that?

... Should I mention it?

I’m not sure I’m hearing it right, and I don’t wanna needlessly scare her.

I focus on her sensations.

Maybe I’ll notice something with her superior body?

N-No... It’s just my imagination, th—?

!

“!!”

Youmu stops.

Yeah. I feel that.

Something’s rubbing her butt.

I’ve never felt that before... I think that Youmu hasn’t either.

Her eyebrows go wild, and sweat feels like it’s frozen on her body.

That’s a hand: there’s a hand rubbing her.

It takes a little squeeze of her right cheek, then presses a knuckle down the middle—her crack,

It pinches through her skirt and bloomers, and tugs lightly.

Youmu doesn’t know what to do. I don’t either.

The molester behind us gets a bit more eager... or maybe, optimistically, “curious”? It rubs her bottom in circles. Kneads it. She feels heat down her neck, and we hear a grunt.

“S-Sssoo—” a voice starts and stops. “This isss... Ohhh...” It’s gravely. It’s smoky. It’s big. Neither of us noticed how tall the tunnel was until now. “Hmmmm...” it rumbles. “Hold onnnh...”

She hears something rummaging behind us, and then we smell something new. I don’t know it, she doesn’t know it.

It’s almost sweaty, but it’s mostly... it’s a “warm” kind of smell.

“Hup,” we hear, and something thumps down on her head. Her spirit sinks.

That’s...