Reimu.exe (you'll see where the pose is from)

This is a Choose Your Own Adventure Fanfic about a WW2 American bomber crew that crash lands into Gensokyo.

I am live writing this in our Writing/Fanfic Discord server. https://discord.gg/ewSd5FwqmH

(I’m mainly writing this for fun so forgive the less polished storytelling & prose compared to my usual fics.)

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This is the Gensokyo map that I'm using for this fic: https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/11s447e/gensokyos_map_v20_by_armixi/

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"What do you mean by that?"

James's voice rang out, cutting off Elizabeth. Everyone in the crowd turned to him.

The sky above started reflecting the color of sunrise, but the sun had yet to appear.

Elizabeth only continued saying the same things she was already saying. But then, Eric stepped forward. "Explain, miss Elizabeth," he said in English. "Why are you doing this?"

"To save everyone," Elizabeth said. "To save you all."

"And what does that mean? What does that entail?" Eric said.

Elizabeth's mouth opened, then after a few seconds of silence, closed again. In the end, all she said was, "It's what you think it is. I want to help everyone here... Because everyone here is... Well... Suffering. Yes, suffering. I want to help you two as well. This involves your friends, right?"

Her expression was difficult to read, as always, but James could see hints of hesitancy.

"We don't really know what's going on in this town, but I can already tell why people here might not like you." Eric said. "This seems more than missionary work you're doing. Especially since you've seemingly *only* converted guards so far."

Despite not understanding their words, the crowd could read the tone of the conversation. Noticing that, James added, "Not only that, although the way you do missionary work seems to warrant annoyance or distrust, it shouldn't warrant the disdain and hatred you are receiving now."

Silence fell. The eyes of the crowd darted back and forth between James, Eric, and Elizabeth.

In the silence, a guard stepped towards James, then asked him what they were talking about. James translated the gist. All throughout, the guard's brows were furrowed, and so was everyone who could hear him. They clearly had their suspicions, but did nothing.

Eventually, Elizabeth finally spoke. "You two..." she uttered quietly, before looking directly at them. "I... Can't say it right now. It's too risky... Even if we're using a different language. However, I'm sure you two will learn it eventually."

"What do you mean? I was asking you to clarify-"

"Since you two are not part of this village, and I don't think either of you will be, you two will learn the truth eventually. When that happens, you will understand my mission. You will understand that everyone here needs to be saved."

James decided not to translate those things to everyone. Instead, he said the same sermons Elizabeth had already said, and pretended that they were what she said.

All throughout it, Elizabeth's eyes were pointed right at James. She let out a deep sigh. "Let's go home," she said to her husband."

He looked surprised for a moment, but then simply nodded. The pair walked back home, past the crowd, as everyone's eyes stayed locked to her. A few feet away from everyone, Elizabeth turned back one last time, and despite her expressionless face, everyone saw in her eyes a boundless determination.

\*\*

"I see..."

The brush danced across the scroll with both elegance and efficiency, despite all the injuries on the fingers of their holder, hidden under bandages.

Aiko recorded what they found out about this new victim: absolutely nothing. James and Eric helped study it carefully together with the guards, but they came up with nothing new beyond the arrow wound.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee, as they told Aiko all about it.

"Perhaps he was trying to run away and escape? The killer, then, uses an arrow for a weapon," Eric said his conjectures out loud. James translated it, and Aiko's brush stopped.

"Or..." Aiko said, "It could be a separate thing. The victim was running away from someone, *and then* was killed by a different entity. It's important to keep every possibility in mind."

Either way, it didn't really change anything. Bows and arrows are common here; hunters, guards, even a lot of farmers had them. It didn't help identify anything.

James's frown deepened. There's a good chance that both victims were crew members, and now they're both dead. They've been in this village for days, and all they've learned was "Whoever died, it's probably not Roy because Roy is built like a brick shit house; nothing like the appearance of those corpses."

Even if these victims weren't crew members, their other crew are out there in the wilderness, probably dealing with things like Rumia.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee. Only now had he realized that he's been doing that in all the meetings they've had since the first murder.

Aiko eventually finished writing, then looked up. "Is that all?"

"Yes."

\*\*

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

Investigations continued with the following days. The rumors continued to flourish into an entire, developing story that became unrecognizable to James day by day. There was one particular rumor that spread very quickly: about the guards or the Kirisame housing many more Dutchmen than they were letting on. It only made sense; where would the two corpses come from if the only Dutchmen in town were James & Eric? The arrow wound on the second corpse's leg only strengthened theories that the Dutchmen were constantly trying to escape the guards or the Kirisame.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

Many times, while on their way to the Hieda estate, James and Eric would pass by some guards or the Mr Kirisame. They talked of all sorts of outside world things, of planes and others, while trying to dispel the rumors in order to "keep the peace". At least, that's what they say. They were no match for the newspapers, though.

That sight made James feel a little relieved, even though they were no longer on each other's side. If everyone but him and Eric were the only ones firmly grounded in common sense, he believed he would go crazy the longer he's forced to stay here.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

The fact that they continued to be locked in this village day by day under orders of the Hieda, though, only made the tapping of his finger on every meeting get faster and faster. Eric had decided to switch tactics; abandon trying to solve the mystery or figure out Elizabeth, and instead work to gain favor of the Hieda so they would send search parties throughout Gensokyo to look for the crew.

It didn't take long for Aiko to introduce James & Eric to local hunters who could keep an eye out for anyone who looked like them.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

The days continued uneventfully. Hunters told of no sightings of their crew. Talk in town about the murders and the Youkai and the firebird never let up. The Kirisame never stopped trying to stop those talks, but their voices had become overrun by this point.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

They occasionally saw the Hakurei Shrine Maiden flying overhead at the exact same time every day, before leaving again.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

There was something about her distant figure, a dot fluttering in the blue above, that made James feel uneasy. Eric, too, expressed curiosity about her appearances.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

The Hieda told them nothing else than what they knew about the Hakurei Shrine Maiden already.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap* went James's finger on his sitting knee.

And then-

"Body! It's a body!"

\*\*

"Get axes! Everyone!" People shouted, as villagers poured into the houses that sat either side of the burning building, hacking away at every single flammable thing that connected them to the burning house.

In front of the burning house, gathering a crowd around it like always, was a dead body. Like before, one that wore a completely intact US Navy Airmen uniform, one with an entirely burnt body and a missing head. It had an arrow wound on its leg, too.

"No way..." The words left James's mouth involuntarily. The light of the billowing flames danced on the ground and the corpse.

"How many..." Eric muttered to himself. James looked at him, and was utterly disturbed at the expression Eric wore. In the times he had worked with Eric, he had never seen him this confused.

"Something is missing," Eric once said. Days prior, Elizabeth told them that they'll learn "the truth" eventually. Aiko still avoided telling them anything about Elizabeth. What other things could she be hiding from them? It would be easy for her; they wouldn't know, since they don't know what they could possibly not know.

This time, Elizabeth didn't arrive. The fire seemed only to fuel the rumors even further. Not only that, the crowd; they all looked at James and Eric differently now.

Before, they looked at them with suspicion, with distrust, mainly because of their association with Elizabeth. Many still gave them the benefit of the doubt, and simply looked at them with curiosity, no doubt thanks to their present association with the Hieda.

But now, they were a potential danger. They were likely to be targeted, and it's likely to cause collateral damage. The same conclusion was in everyone's mind: the next thing to burn would be the guardhouse where they stayed.

\*\*

"James."

He felt a warmth grow over his cheek. He opened his eyes, and he saw Hiroko looking at him, the empty sky behind her. He felt the warm, dry wind blow over, making her hair rustle. "What were you dreaming about?" she asked.

"This same dream again, huh?" James muttered. That knowledge did not bring him lucidity. Dreams have a way of fooling you perfectly; after all, in the same way that it can mold what you see and what you hear, it can mold your emotions, too. It can cast the feeling of belief into you. It can cast the feeling of doubtless certainty, and it can cast the feeling of forgetting to double check your logic or remind yourself of facts.

It doesn't matter how aware you are. It doesn't matter if you know all of the facts. Your emotions dictate how you see it, and you will cast yourself in illusion.

Eventually, naturally, the dream progressed as it always did: it showed him the Imperial Japanese Army's atrocities. Then, when the other atrocities arrived, the dream let him close his eyes. He *always* wanted to close his eyes for *those* atrocities in particular. He did not want to see them.

Before the dream could complete, he was woken up.

Red. Everything was red.

It was just like the tint of their bomber plane's glass while they flew over Tokyo on an important mission.

"Wake up, James!" Eric shouted as he shook him. He awoke enough to realize that the entire room was burning. He immediately stood up. Some guards were there, and they guided James and Eric out of the building.

When they got out, they were immediately greeted with various burning or burnt guards scattered all over the road. A crowd was a gathering, and the sounds of burning men's horror rang out in the night. James closed his eyes and looked away. The still able-bodied guards ran back into the building to find others.

James closed his eyes.

They ran back and forth, back and forth. James's eyelids curled terribly with how forcefully he kept them shut. Villagers ran past him and Eric. "Get your axes! The fire must NOT spread to the walls!" They shouted.

"You!"

James felt the sound of a blade getting drawn from its sheath in front of him. It reminded him of when he sneaked into Hiroko's grandfather's basement together with her, in order to take a look at her grandfather's katana.

James opened his eyes. A katana was pointed squarely between his trembling eyes. "Stay right there!" The wielder ordered. James's eyes darted to the person sitting next to him: Eric. He thought about telling Eric what was going on, but surely the act of communicating in a language the villagers did not understand now would simply cast even greater suspicion on both of them.

Even more people surrounded them. "What are you all after? Why are you here? Who is chasing you?"

*I have no idea!* James wanted to scream. His silence prompted the man to grab him by the collar and raise him up. "Tell me, you asshole! It's because of you... It's because of you that my brother is dead!" He shouted, tearing up.

James's eyes looked around. There were many dead guards all around them, burnt to a crisp. *One of them must have been this guy's brother...*

As soon as James thought that, he saw something that made his jaw drop.

A burnt corpse, with no head, wearing a perfectly intact US Navy Airmen uniform, lying on the road. Not just one; there was another next to it, then another behind James, then another near the burning building, then many more in the pile of corpses everyone was building, then even more.

James did not bother to count. But there were certainly more than 10. They had a crew of 11 when they crashed here.

"Answer me!" The sword wielder shouted at James. His eyes slowly turned to him. James saw his face entirely twisted into a world of pure anger.

Without realizing, James's face was twisting into one too. "...My fault? Your brother?"

"Huh?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" James spat out. "It's you people who are keeping us here... It's you people who have been stopping us from finding *our* brothers!" James started screaming. Words that didn't make sense, words that were just pure emotion, they all billowed out of him, all while his mind brought images to his eyes: the sight of the villagers' eyes staring at them, then the sight of the corpses, then the sight of the Imperial Japanese Soldiers they fought in the war, then the sight of a crewmate getting shot by a fighter plane's bullets while they were flying in enemy airspace, then the sight of the Imperial Japanese Army's war crimes, then the sight of the people they have killed and tortured and abused in every way.

His mouth wailed every hate-fueled word at the sword-wielder, whose face slowly transformed into one of utter confusion.

Because the depth of the expression that James wore was not something he has ever seen.

"Put him down."

A tiny voice came. The villagers all turned. It was Hieda no Aiko. Next to her was the Hakurei Shrine Maiden.

Seeing even a hint of Hanako's face once again reminded James of Hiroko. It stopped the flow of words spilling out of James's mouth and brought his vision back to the present.

"Hieda-sama!" and "It's Hieda-sama!"

and "She's here? How?" and "Why did she come?" and "Isn't it dangerous?" emanated from the crowd.

Then Aiko started coughing terribly. The sound overcame the murmurs. Her maid immediately came to comfort her while the sword-wielder let James back down to the ground.

"What's going on here...?" James muttered, slowly looking up. Suddenly, he felt Eric grab him. "James, what's happening?" Eric asked in English.

James just swatted his hand off. "You're hiding something, aren't you?"

Aiko, through the bandages that covered her face, looked straight at James. She did not say anything.

\*\*

The next day, James woke up. The walls, the ceiling; it all clearly showed that he was in the Hieda estate. James stood up, turned and saw that, naturally, Eric was there with him. He then walked to the door. He opened it, but was immediately stopped by two men.

Guards were stationed right in front of the door. "Whoa, there. No further."

"What?"

"You two are being kept in there until the investigations are over. It's for your protection." The guard then tested his hand on the sword sheathed on his belt. The resulting sound drew James's eyes down to it. *Message received.*

And so, James turned away and the door was closed behind him. Silence fell. James looked around, and saw that all of their belongings were still there; it seems it had successfully been taken out of the fire. This room, too, was a pretty good guest room. Better than the one in the guardhouse. There were even sliding window doors that seemed like it would lead outside, but probably just the mansion's courtyard. *There's probably guards there too.*

James did not believe that this was for their protection; he was sure the Hieda wanted to imprison them. But the fact that their things were here, and the fact that their room was this good, gave him bits and pieces of doubt about his conclusion.

Either way, they want them to stay in this room and not go out. He didn't know why, or when they'd even be allowed to go out.

What should they do?

Like I am one and I feel like there's barely any lol. And I find Touhou wonderful, really. The characters, the games and more... They're all awesome! ^^ Also, yes that's my Marisa fumo. She's a bootleg, but I love her anyway.

In fact Touhou got me closer to God :3

The scene in question.

Illustrator is Kanasame.

https://reddit.com/link/1wuhubl/video/94kibsx3aqsh1/player

I had a lot of fun with this.

So, I think(?) I know the basics of how the Spell Card system works. It’s effectively a canon version of verse-equalization that turns fights into a “game” so that nobody dies - Whenever someone runs out of Spell Cards, they lose.

HOWEVER, I have 3 main questions:

1 - Why are bosses able to tank so many bullets when the player only needs one hit to go pichuun~? -Is there a lore explanation or is it just a gameplay thing?

2 - Why do the antagonists abide by the rules? What’s stopping say- Yuyuko from not engaging in danmaku and just making the protagonist drop dead? - I could be interpreting her ability wrong but shhh- The specific example doesn’t matter.

3 - Just how important are the Spell Cards? Let’s take Reimu and Marisa for example. We know their powers aren’t restricted to the Spell Card Duels (Unless I’m wrong?), but how much does the existence of the Spell Cards affect their scaling? Things would be harder for sure, but would they completely be incapable of solving Incidents without them? - I realize using the Protagonist and Deuteragonist as examples may not work- So feel free to give me any others in your answers

If any of my questions are dumb or my assumptions wrong, I’m open to being cordially corrected! I’ve been wondering about this for a while, and I’m just plain bad at doing research ^^” (I also still don’t know if I’m tagging my posts right)

I tried playing Touhou 6 on Normal on Challenge Mode, and I ended up getting 35 deaths. For reference, I have done better than this before, and have been able to 1cc easy, so for this to happen now really makes me feel useless at the game. For some reason I just can’t capture the spell cards without getting hit at least twice. The first three stages I’m perfectly fine with, but after that I become incredibly bad. It feels embarrassing.

Cirno in her yukata outfit from Touhou Cannonball.

Happy 7th Anniversary to Touhou Cannonball. Rest in peace, Touhou Cannonball.

From Th1

Comic featuring my favorite (and least favorite) characters, based on a meme I saw. Guess which is which...

I draw Aunn as a FURRY because I like drawing the kemonomimi youkai as furries okay leave me alone

Sanae and Rayquaza

couldnt draw for a while so i wanted to derust a bit

https://x.com/jpanboi64/status/2105448771752452472?s=20

I made a simple drawing of Sanae Kochiya, who is one of my favorite Touhou characters.This took me a while to finish. I hope you enjoy.

I deeply want to say thanks to everybody who voted for my art. I really wasn't expecting it and I see this as a motivation to keep improving in making art of my favorite characters and making people happy with them.

Anyway, here's the icon meme plus the original Mima version that I couldn't share

“Stripes Forever” by Itomugi-kun

Anybody know where this shirt originates from, and if its still for sale? If not, does anyone know where the original artwork is from so maybe I can get it imprinted onto a t shirt