A/N: (Note/Disclaimer) All recognizable objects and characters belong to their respective owners. Mainly Team Shanghai Alice for Touhou Project or, as per usual, my own characters belonging to me.

Note 2:

("Common Language [Japanese in this case]/Speech")

(‘Foreign Languages’)

(" Thoughts (In their own native tongue)" )

(Attacks/Weapon names)

(Other/Foreign/ Speech & Text/Written, Titles)

(Actions/POV)

(Titles / Flashback/Time/Dates/Place)

(Narration & Everything else)

(“Demonic Speech”)

(‘Demonic Thoughts’)

A Retired Officer’s Shop In The Eastern Wonderland Chapter 17

Netherworld: Hakugyokurou: Final Path

May 8th, 2004: 1600

Third Person

“Desmond, you got here right on time -ze” Marisa said with a smile as she saw him step off of the motorcycle. He just waved at the three before looking at the girl infront of him.

“Hello, I am Desmond Howard, a police officer. I hope that it is going fine this evening.” Desmond states while sitting on Mel, making sure to sit perpendicular to the usual way. He addressed the trouble maker that looked around the same age as the girls behind him.

“I am Youmu Konpaku.” She said, her hand still resting on the handle of the katana strapped to her back. Desmond actually hadn’t had a chance to fight with a sword in a long while. It was usually shoot everything with the guns that he had.

“Nice to meet you Konpaku-san. But I will be the one facing you today.” Desmond said while leaving the pistol type on the side of the holster. The other three looked at him strangely, they knew he never fought in a spell card battle.

“And how do you expect me to accept?” She asked. Desmond smiled at the comment and brought his hand up to the receiver. A quick call of transport and held a European longsword in his hands, though it was also in the theme of the rest of his stuff.

“Why a spell card battle showcasing our swordsmanship.” Desmond states before unsheathing the blade, hooking the scabbard to his belt. He flourished the blade before holding the blade infront of him, flat facing either of them.

“Hmm…” Youmu hummed while looking at him and the three behind him. All of them were in various poses of being ready to absolutely crush her.

“I want you to keep in mind, at least when fighting myself you would have a fair fight… Reimu is the main exterminator for a reason, Marisa would just fire off a laser to force you away, and Sakuya could literally walk past if she really wanted to.” Desmond remarked, each of the girls nodding at his assessment.

“Yeah, the main reason why the spell cards were made was to give humans a fighting chance against youkai… and youkai a chance against us,” Marisa said with a laugh as she just hops on her broom, already halfway to bolting and just flying into the air and to the source of this incident.

“Enough waiting. Desmond, you handle her then.” Reimu just grumbles while flying off, not even waiting for the rest of the conversation to unfold. Sakuya just looked at him for a second before nodding, leaving him behind after giving him notice.

“Fine… I will fight you… it has been a while since I had a proper talk with someone who uses a sword.” Youmu could only grumble a little at the three ignoring her. It was not that hard a choice though, she would have accepted eventually… though it was what the girls knew would happen no matter the outcome.

“Regular spell card rules are a little altered due to being a sword fight, only three spell cards available to us, once one is knocked out or the opponent concedes to the prettier technique is one chosen as the winner,” Desmond states while readying himself, the flat of his blade resting on his left forearm.

“I agree.” Youmu readies her blade, crouching low and sharpening her gaze onto him. In the dark path lit by blue flames as cherry blossoms bloom and fall to the ground, the two fighters focused on one another, one staring right at the other with the other closing their eyes.

“HERE!” They both yelled out while slashing, arks of danmaku grey and blue flew towards one another, they both quickly dodged away from the enemy’s attack counter clockwise, rolling along with it.

In synchronicity, this dance of swords had the partners weave a circle as danmaku filled the center, slowly spiraling in and out. Desmond was the first to step into the air, changing the original battlefield to be far freer, breaking the cycle.

“Hungry King Sword "Ten Kings' Retribution on the Preta"” She yelled out, the spell card in question appeared in its physical card form, rotating on its center axis before glowing and disappearing, the magic of contract already taking into effect. She slashed diagonally, sending off a huge wave of danmaku for him to dodge. Running all the while and lengthening the ark.

“Right then, Let me whiteness your skill!.” Desmond grinned as he dodged the volleys, she just kept running and slashing as he weaved through bullets while slashing out his own danmaku, not yet using his spell card to interrupt hers.

She finally stopped, taking a second to breathe as the limiter was put in place once more, stopping any further of the special attack. Desmond smiled while his own spell card manifested itself.

“Peace Keeper’s Training “Slashes Of Disarmament”” Desmond quickly retaliated, giving her now quarter as he slashes. A quick four slashes were quickly put out, each one attacking the limbs of the opponent. Quickly, danmaku manifest infront of them, turning into sharp lines without a discernible end.

“Quite the satisfying technique, efficient and cutthroat.” She says as she weaving through the blades. Her smile was also growing in response to the exciting sword battle that is going on between them.

“Though not as pretty as yours most definitely.” Desmond remarks with a few words of his own, he had already heard that males were usually in a harder spot in spell card battles due to not being nearly colorful enough.

“Though it was a close competition… though I want to ask. Is this your first Danmaku Battle?” She asked as they lulled back into swinging at one another, both of them getting a feel for who the other was… she was feeling a bit of hesitance in the last spell card, almost as if it was the first time even trying it on another individual.

“Yep… but it is only getting harder from here now that our introduction is done… Let’s get to know each other.” Despite it being a battle, it was extremely different from the ones that he is used to. He was after all a cop, so he usually wanted it to be quick. It was nothing like these battles of beauty. To which he was quite enjoying.

“Right!” Youmu said as they drew close to one another, going through a few slashes and deflections without any fancy bullets flying to get another probe at their styles, up close and personal fit Youmu quite well, while one could tell that Desmond was not as refined in close-quarter combat with weapons… but was still holding up well due to reach.

“Hell God Sword "Sudden Divine Severing of Karmic Wind"” She said, revealing her second card to him, quickly she flew back as purple circles fled from her blade as it arced through the air. As she finished an entire revolution, the spheres exploded, releasing danmaku of red and purple into the air. It switched around and fired off counter-clockwise before doing the repeating the process.

“Quite the hellish sight,” Desmond comments while weaving through the balls, noticing that Youmu would move significantly forward while going to her left, diagonally cutting through before returning to the origin point of her danmaku spheres. Then once again repeating to the other side.

“Now… Show me what you have in store. Desmond!” She said while the final danmaku fell away, leaving the air clear for his own card to be revealed. He smiles while pointing the sword straight up once more before standing at the ready.

“Alrighty then, you asked for it. Sword Saint’s Teachings “The Rain Of Many Swords”” Desmond said while slashing down once, instead of danmaku coming off of the slash, it was instead a signal as many swords manifested as danmaku. All of different origin as they weaved a pattern into the air. Silvers, golds, blacks, and blues were all present in these blades.

“I coincide with this one.” Youmu states with a nod, it was far more cohesive than her own, instead of a random assortment in the middle of what was supposed to be a clean pattern had it win. As much as either of them did not want to admit their losses, danmaku battles needed a layer of honesty, and the rules enforced it… even if it was only silent acknowledgment of their loss.

“Alright then… it comes down to our closing cards… Let’s let this duel be finished with a bang.” Desmond said with a grin as she prepared her card. The final card of the battle manifested itself with a certain sense of silence. She drew her wakizashi.

“Heaven God Sword "Three Kons, Seven Hakus"” She said, as she pulled back her first and second sword before swinging multiple times in a moment. Seven sets of Danmaku appeared along with the slashes, showcasing a rainbow as they all converged and left each other. As they left one another, 6 spheres in sets of three flew towards him.

“Quite swift you are.” She moved forward and to her right, once more repeating the action, though it was far faster than a regular human eyes’ could perceive, though it was not much of an issue for Desmond’s enhanced perception, sight, and reaction speed. It was only after the danmaku left the imminent vicinity did she swing again.

“Quite the colorful display, quite hard to match up against.” He said with a smile, he was already taking a liking to her as a person. As she repeated the process, going from center, to right, to the center, to left, and back to center, he quickly got the message that she was repeating for him.

“That was a good one… it will be hard to top.” Desmond said as she finally finished up the card, the physical card slowly faded from view. Desmond’s own card slowly started to show itself to the world… Though a majority of his did not involve swords, this last one was a card that he spent quite a bit of time on.

“Let’s finish this. Hero’s Burden “Well Wishes Of The Universe”” Desmond said as he slashed out his sword several times. When he reached the seventh slash, the spaces where his sword cut through turned into different colors. Colored danmaku slowly converged to the colored slashes as they raced towards her, instead of flying in all directions, they all aimed at her and followed her as the slashes slowly grew.

“Quite hard to dodge this…” She said as they slowly grew until they were as tall as her, they suddenly dispersed into a bunch of danmaku, all of them converging on her instead as they flowed from behind.

Several more times he repeated, not at all waiting for her to recover as the spaces left free shrank until she needed minute movements to graze past them. As they slowly faded away like a dream.

“That is it… lets land before we come to a consensus on who won,” Desmond said, he already knew that the incident would be finishing soon as the petals flew towards the spot where the girls went.

___(TOUHOU PROJECT)___

Netherworld: Hakugyokurou: Final Path

May 8th, 2004: 2000

“Yo, Desmond, we are back -ze!” Marisa yelled out to him as the pair that was left behind drank some hot cacao. They both just stared at the four individuals that arrived at the steps.

“You are a mess,” Desmond said while observing the group, out of all of them Marisa had several carbon spots from explosives… something that he already expected from her when she manufactured explosives often.

“Well, we won anyway.” She said as she walked over with broom in hand. Sakuya steps gracefully without a hair out of place. Reimu was also clean, almost as if nothing touched her at all. The final one was also covered in carbon marks from explosives going off… something that Marisa was the cause of.

“I want to go home,” Reimu grumbled out, she was already sick and tired of the cold, and once spring has finally arrived to take it away, she would be happy. While the sights were great… it was still a horrible thing to be cold all of the time since the shrine barely held against the winter winds.

“Indeed, Remila-sama is waiting for my return,” Sakuya said, though, to Desmond, he already knew that Remila knows the exact time that Sakuya would return… but that left the main person who cooked for them away from home for a while, so they must be quite famished.

“How fun…” The latest girl, who Desmond figured was Yuyuko, remarked airily, she was still floating above the ground, as expected from a dead apparition. She slowly floated over, reminding desmond that it would usually be the challenger that would dodge a majority of the danmaku as the spell card progressed, only the challenger would use their spell card to interrupt the danmaku of the other.

“You were about to kill us all!” Reimu said, to the trouble maker’s amusement. Her short pink hair swayed in the wind as spirits slowly but surely bobbed around her. In hiding her mouth was an ornate black folding fan with depictions of cherry blossoms falling gracefully. Though that did nothing to hide the amusement that was already in her eyes.

“Oh yeah, you two had a danmaku battle -ze!” Marisa exclaimed after thinking a while, not even paying attention to the failed homicide. Reimu and Sakuya turned back to him, they had forgotten bout him holding her back and letting them battle the mistress of the netherworld.

“Ho… Who did win between you.” Yuyuko said with a tightening of her eyes as she looked at the pair sitting on a checkered pattern blanket… though it was her sights were far more concentrated on the picnic basket that Desmond put out, he patted the blanket, inviting everyone on it as he poured himself another cup of the chocolate beverage.

“After a little while of talking, Desmond was declared the winner of our bout, Yuyuko-sama.” Youmu was already preparing an insulated bento from the actual basket, thorough how he transported it with the motorcycle being as fast it is was a mystery to her… he did not transport it with that strange device of his.

“It must have been quite the sight.” She said, already sitting down and waiting for Youmu to open and feed her the bento, already thinking more about food than the actual battle to the outside observer. Though to Desmond, she was far more interested in how the outcome came about, but would rather witness it first hand instead of having it be explained to her.

“Join us you three, they can wait a tad longer, besides, you all must be cold,” Desmond said while pouring all the newcomers drinks. He could already feel that there was more to Yuyuko than what the younger girls could tell, one did not become the ruler of a place for no reason after all… especially when that place was the nether world.

Number Of Words: ~2600 Words

Date Completed: 5/12/2021

On another note, since I am posting it on Royal Road, I will wait until all chapters I posted are in before I respond to them in chapter.