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:CONTENT WARNING!:
This is a dark narrative that explores intense themes including severe depression, PTSD, graphic violence, and psychological horror. It contains depictions of self-harm, traumatic memories, visceral description of violence, and meta-narrative techniques that intentionally break immersion.
I will be laying a Warning sign at the top of the chapter of which is the most severe ongoing Graphic violence as a heads up.
Please prioritize your emotional well-being. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
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A Note From the Author:This novel is my passion project, born from years of unwritten stories swirling in my mind. While I've poured my love and dedication into it, it is not flawless. There may be unedited sections, minor errors, or elusive details. My aspiration is to share this world with you, no matter how dark it is.
Also, i planned this to be visualized in manga or comics in the future! So stay tuned!
My Inspiration:My journey began with Touhou Project in 2018, captivated by its characters and lore. This story is my tribute to that universe and the incredible fandom that keeps it alive. It also pulls from a lifetime of other inspiring tales, so you may find crossovers and references. If I've missed a detail about a beloved character, please let me know! Comment down below, I would love to hear your thoughts on this story. Any thing is fine, I take criticism too.
Thank you for giving this story a chance. Your support means everything to keeping this dream alive!
Special thanks:
- Daito Ray
- FW Bloomington
- iam hadassah
They were my beta Readers and pointed out some problems, especially the paragraph style by Daito Ray! though it doesn't work on royal road, but you can check them on Wattpad/AO3! I can't thank them enough.
Artist:
- Christacks Arts(FB/Twitter)
He is the Awesome Artist for my Original Characters, Check him out!
-Novel cover by: Berzos Archeticusro(FB)
She's cool artist! go check her out too!
- #Mynowaaaa - Me
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. All places, people, and events are imaginary or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or real events is purely coincidental.Touhou Project is the property of Team Shanghai Alice.
All rights reserved.
Let us begin.
[Chapter 1 content]
In the lifeless desert world, there is a man with a heavy past, walking across the desert surface. His dark blue jacket swaying with the wind, there's only emptiness in his eyes, and the weight of everything coming down on him. Finally, he stood on top of a dune near pitfalls, while overlooking the barren horizon for a moment. He draws a revolver on his right side, he examines the gun, cold barrel and the fleeting history it has with him, he aims it at his right temple, contemplating his very existence—whether he should keep living, and fulfilling his atonement, on his journey that doesn't feel like one anymore..
Before he could pull the trigger, an ink-black rift opened a few feet behind him, the rift was glitching out as if forced to exist. There a woman exited panting, exhausted and wounded.
He stopped what he was doing, sensing her presence. But he did not let go of the trigger on his head, nor did he turn back to meet her gaze either. The woman stared at his action for a while before whispering her native language to herself.
"彼は...彼は本物です...彼は本当に本物です...噂は本当です.(He.. he's real.. He's really real.. The rumors are true.)" She began. "..,あなたはノアですか..?(..,Are you Noah..?)"
A voice translation was automatically activated and recognized by him. 'Japanese? putang inang yan..(Japanese? fucking bitch..)' he wondered as he clicked his tongue in frustration and spoke in his native language in his thoughts. 'Galing. Sobrang galing. Wala ka ba mata?(Brilliant. So brilliant. Are you blind?) Can't you let me die alone? Putang inang babaeng to.(This fucking woman.)'
He let out a weary sigh before asking the first question on his mind. "一体どうして私の名前を知っているのですか?(How the fuck do you know my name?)" He matched her native spoken language.
The woman flinched by his sharp words, clutched her wound as she finally spoke. "You must come, I need your he–"
"Fuck no!" He cut her off. Gritting his teeth in frustration. "How do you know my god forbid fucking name? I want an answer."
He lowered his gun at his head to his side. Then he added, "And what's your name? Before I blow your head if you don't tell me your real name and not some random made up bullshit."
The woman hesitated and shaken. 'If I provoke him here I'll be dead, for real. Escaping death is already tolling enough. I can feel his level is far beyond the rules too.'
She regained her composure and through her calm albeit wounded posture. "I am Yukari Yakumo, The manipulator of boundaries."
A paused, "I have heard your name, a rumor across the multiverse. You're the Flame Noah, correct?"
The title of his mystery echoed through the wind.
'Great, she came looking for a fixer. I fucking hate it. Just let me die, you piece of shit. I don't want any shit in my arse. I'm fucking done.' he thought as she spoke.
"I believe that's you, from what I can see and feel just by looking at you. Your name ripples across worlds through whisper and doubt almost as if you don't exist, yet you do."
She paused, catching a breath, weaker. "I scoured the history of the universes, just to find you. rumor said, you saved dying worlds, that means you're stronger because these feats became a rumor throughout a multiverse. Is that enough?" a moment of silence passed by.
'I see, so she searched the corner of the multiverse just to find a perfect man in her problem. I no longer want to partake off... You're out of your fucking mind... I am The dead end of stories! I erase my history for a reason!' he hissed at the thought. Then he began, voice without the hissing and low. "Correction. It's Nowa Beckitzer, bitch." she nodded in acknowledgement despite the cursing. He continued. "Boundary manipulator? Sounds sketchy. So what? I'm retired. Permanently. Whatever you're selling, I'm not fucking buying ANY shit. Get your ass out of here." the words sank into the atmosphere.
'He.. already denied my purpose here. I need to negotiate with him, I need to make him feel empathy for our survival.' she began. "Would you really rather let a world die just because you don't want to continue anymore?"
"I don't fucking care." He immediately replied with zero hesitation. The wind stopped dead in their tracks.
She did not give up. "I don't need you to care, my world will be attacked, he declared it, same goes for the other world you had saved if you let this person be!" a pause making sure the threat sank to him. "This person who threatens the living, he calls himself 'Zero'. Do you know him?"
The name repeats on his head yet has no recollection. "... No, should I care? Ain't no fucking way."
She ignored the tone. "I found him near my universe," she began, clutching her wound. "I confronted him... and I stopped him." Her voice dripped with dread. "Or so I thought. It was a trap. My ability did not work on him. It was as if he existed outside the rules of the universe."
Nowa's expression flickered of acknowledgement in the implications. 'Another, narrative freak running amok. Bull-fucking-shit.'
She continued. "My identity was rewritten, My boundary is my universe, yet none of it mattered in the face of him. He struck me with abilities I would normally be able to evade, but it was able to land a hit on me, it should've been impossible but he made it possible." She paused, exhausted, her breathing rigid. "I over estimated him and now, this is what I am, a wounded boundary Omniscent in my own universe, half of my essence and what defines me is gone with that encounter." She stifled a petty soft laugh at herself then coughed bleeding. "I have to flee somewhere."
Nowa's hand with the gun tightened in frustration, he's sick of listening to each word as she continued. "I've been searching for a solution as I flee, and your story matches the rumors, so I came to get yo–"
A shot rang out from his revolver, aimed by her boots, a deliberate miss. She stopped dead in her tracks as she immediately stepped back, her survival instinct kicking in, the shot left without a trace of reality, almost as if it was narratively erased.
"Stop fucking talking. Just—stop. I can't— Leave. Leave or I'll kill you." The words, raw and fractured made the barren desert feel like Ice, he turned to meet her gaze now.
'This is it. This is the end, our only hope...' A silent passing moment. 'But, I can't let my world die, not like this. There must be a transaction he might agree to.' Gathering her courage. "I can give you power.." Her plea met with the silent, she yelled. "I will give you all the wealth the universe can offer..!" Another met with silence, Nowa fist curled. "Your status I–"
"Then, if you're so insistent: revert my Narrative Fate. Resurrect two of my loved ones, erased from my story structure at twenty-one and eight years ago! And give me back my two friends I lost ten years ago!" He yelled, interrupting her.
Yukari paused. Her boundary was already working, but she was not at full power. 'This is bad… I looked into his being, his history… there isn't a single one of those he wanted that I can return. I already lost half of what I am… this offer is impossible.' She clutched her wound, gritting her teeth against the disadvantage and the impossibility, not one loved one she could find in all the multiverse.
A long silence passed. That silence was enough for him to confirm.
He let out a silent, pitying laugh, muttering, "It's impossible too, huh…" Then he spoke. "Leave. I've heard enough. It's for your own good."
'This is no use. If I leave now, my world will be… there must be a way. There must be…' She mumbled in frustration, "As if I had a choice to begin with…"
He did not catch it. "Excuse me?"
Yukari, defeated, her pride crumbling, eyes hollow and avoiding his gaze. "If I offer…" A heavy pause. 'To sink to this… the ultimate degradation for a concept such as myself.' She continued anyway. "My body… will that be sufficient?"
The Aura around him became hostile as Nowa's face darkened. "Are you fucking insulting me?"
Yukari sensed an imminent danger and quickly responded. "No, can't you see I'm desperate here? I want you.. no, i need you to save my world. My world is Zero's next target!"
He did not budge. "I. Don't. Care."
She insists. "You wanted to kill yourself, Right? then we will make your death have meaning in saving us!"
Nowa was so lost in his rage that he ignored her plea, his left fist clenched tighter and it ignited flames, not just any flame, it was a void flame. Yukari saw it, looked at it and it looked black yet the reality around the flame distorted, as if the very reality was being erased or worse written out.
A cold sweat ran down on her. 'His power is affecting the reality around it, this shouldn't be allowed in the story. But this is perfect for Zero, He's a system wipe against an imposed rewrite. However, it's currently aimed at me. I must lead this ability towards the betterment, I need him to point it at the real enemy. Just this once. I need to gamble something.'
Nowa gave a final speech. "Leave. Or everyone won't remember you exist." Yukari stepped back instinctively, as she was about to leave, something made her stay.
Nowa let out a weary sigh. "You signed up for it." Nowa's left hand with the flames raised slightly in front of him.
The black flame rushed forward with impossible speed, another deliberate miss that did not harm her, she stepped to the side.
Nowa swiped it to the side further erasing the side of the land completely, what once a desert with a small uphill, now erased, a null, the reality can't make it out the unwritten settings.
The dread of his power was secondary now as through her sheer determination, Yukari finally fired back an intricate flickering kunai and orbs barrage pattern that filled the screen, she unleashed all her remaining power at him. But as the wave of kunai closed in on Nowa, he just increased the Black Flames output making a makeshift shield that once the kunai and projectiles made contact, it just disappeared. All gone, wave after wave.
As the last wave of orbs hit his Black Flame of no return, a glitching boundary rift opened, a train burst out barreling down to his side at Nowa, colliding with him and taking him on the head of the train. His facial features made a familiar predatory smile. Then in a single motion he swung both his arms to compress the conductor as it metallically groaned, then imploded from his strength, a wreckage as debris flew.
Then he stepped on the crushed head train with a heavy stomp that derailed the train, erratically moving forward and seamlessly jumped onto the rooftop. He then ran on the cabin roof with great speed. Yukari stepped back as she gritted her teeth despite the pain, and unleashed a batch of wave Kunai, this time with lasers, he didn't bother making a Black Flame this time, as he zigzagged with great speed dodging all waves of pattern. Then suddenly he disappeared the moment he passed a wall of Kunai's.
Yukari lost track of him, frantically looked around. But it was too late the reality seemed off underneath her, then a fist shot out from that bleak reality where he emerged out off, not imbued with the Black Flame connected at her stomach. She grunted, and Nowa sent her flying in the sky, with a force not enough to kill her, sand blown apart as the hit landed.
'Please... run away... I don't want to use my power on you...' He stood in place, allowing her to escape.
Disorientated, she stabilized herself in the air, hovering. 'Spell card rules are pointless with these beings... Then..' She swung what's left of her power, a forced rift open to close in on Nowa's boundary of life, an instant near death subjugation. His form flickered. Finally she won.. Or so she thought, as the flickering crashed out like a glass breaking apart. There, Nowa, facing upward at Yukari, his grin completely taking a shape of something unhinged.
'Please run far away from me!' He pleaded in his thoughts.
"HAHAHAHA!" He laughed maniacally, his Black Flame burst forth on his fist. With the intent to not hold back on killing her now. "FINALLY, A WORTHY OF MY DEATH!" He leapt in the sky towards her, the sand which where he was standing on, blown away from the seer force alone. "TILL OBLIVION DO US PART!"
A dread sliced through her gut. 'This is bad!' She entered her glitching rift to hide. There it was silent, the border of everything, her breathing was rapid, slowly calming herself. Until that is a Black Flame pierced through, removing all the boundary between him and her.
'H-How?!' Her face paled at the sight. No one should be able to do this, yet he alone broke all of it.
"NEITHER HEAVEN AND HELL WILL SAVE YOU AGAINST ME!"
'You stopped here! What are you doing! Are you hoping to wait it out?! You fucking stupid! Run! I won't go full force, but if I catch you... it's your fault!'
Yukari felt the fear, once again. First at Zero, now to him. "Stop!" she yelled and was ignored by him as he was still closing the distance. She entered another glitching rift. He did not stop, the chase was on, as his flame pierced once more tearing apart reality and erasing them, allowing his passage. When they enter, they are in a reality that breaks all known physics. Gravity is increased, reality is tearing itself apart, the only one Yukari would still bypass with her boundary and remain alive. Yet none of these affected Nowa, as his flame intensified, seemingly removing all rules. He was still chasing.
'What kind of beings am I up against?! Zero alters everything. He removes everything...' she thought, as she entered another rift, back to the Desert world, where she once found Nowa. Behind her trailing an after image of Nowa speeding his way towards her. 'I'm outclassed, this is frustrating. Why, why has my luck led me here...'
Suddenly a black liquid tendrils latched onto her stomach and she glanced back. Nowa shot out from within his sleeves of his other hand holding the revolver, a type of Magic she has no record of. She tried to get it off, but it was too hard. Her hand could only grip it as she was swung into the sand, crashing down with a crater that sent sand flying.
"Gah!" She whimpered as she could only look at Nowa who landed on top of her, the grin seared through her memory of this man.
'You idiot... You didn't even try going far away... I'm sorry...' His fist with the Void Flame, the oblivion. Raised up to punch her while she's pinned down.
'I am about to die! Everything is useless! Then—' she gathered her courage.
Nowa fist blurred down for the finality.
She yelled. "I will help you with your completion!"
That made Nowa pause and his grin faltered just before the imbued fist could collide with her, 'Com..pletion..?' his flames flickered before it extinguishes.
A glimmer of hope, her breathing rapid, she continued. "In Gensokyo, there are many possibilities! It's a sanctuary place of forgotten legends, people, mythical creatures and gods. I let you wander there to find your completion. But if you don't find it, I won't promise anything that will happen and blame you, but don't let my world die just yet.. Please..." the wind continues its flow once more.
'A... completion... of what? What am I missing..' A flashback of his past, his adoptive mother, his adopted daughter, his friends, their laughter, their victory in a grim dark universe, their shared moments of happiness, before all of it burned to ashes. There was a long pause at that moment. He let out a weary sigh of resignation. "So stubborn.. fine. I'll listen." He got off from her, the black liquid freed her and receded back into his sleeves and stepped back.
She shakily stood up, dusting out the sand on her dress and regained her composure while talking at the same motion. "Okay, but first I must let you know that my world doesn't know it yet besides Ran, my shikigami."
He ignored some parts. "Okay? So?"
She continued. "I want you to be there while I remain on the border to see where Zero is, and I'll let you know."
Nowa raised his hand slightly to a gesturing stop. "If you are troubled with him, why not send me there immediately? You are to be able to traverse with ease, it would be a damn easy solution."
She coughs, then shakes her head. "No, it's not that easy, if that's the case I would have sent you by now, but I couldn't find him after I fled. I don't know where he is, my border manipulation can't detect him again. He wrote my border so that he could not be found."
She looked at him straight. "That's why you must be there first and protect my people. Will you?"
Nowa looked at her, then at his palm. "I'm not sure, you saw it for yourself, that I can erase everything... whether i want it or not, there's no going back once erased, unless.."
She repeats. "Unless?"
He continued. "It's nothing, I won't bother. Unless you proved what you said about my completion. Is there anything else?"
She nods. "Yes, your ability. I need you to restrain your powers when you're with–"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it." He interrupts. "Don't erase important characters, I've been doing that for damn long since I have this ability."
She looks for any deception, specially his manic breakdown, but she finds none. She exhaled in relief for now. "Good." She coughed again with blood this time. He looked slightly concerned and he took a step closer at her, then looked at her wounds, as she's covering them all this time with her hand. He let out a sigh.
"First, you need to take care of yourself. I'll heal you just this once." He raised his palm and hovered over her. Yukari was uneasy but she stood still.
The Air shifted as if waiting for command of Nowa's word, "Unwrite this wound." His hand paled for a brief moment when giving this command and the world shifted, then her wound unwound itself back to mint condition.
She gasped in awe, checking herself as she saw no trace of wounds, and more importantly, she can feel her power is no longer forced. "How..?"
Nowa lowered his hand. "Don't ask. Besides, you made yourself look somewhat pathetic earlier, so I'll pretend it was nothing. I'll take your word about the possibility of completion." A pause. "But, if I don't find it within three days I'm leaving, whether you like it or not."
She flinched and swallowed hard. "But, that's impossi–"
He raised his hand gesturing stop. "There's no more than that. That's our deal. Got it?"
Yukari bit her lips. 'That.. that won't do. It's impossible, I can't..' she exhaled. "F-Fine.. but until then help us during that time."
He nodded and holstered his revolver finally. "Now what? Are we going to stand around or what?"
Yukari nodded. "Very well." She weaves her hand and a rift opens beside them, one that isn't forced to exist anymore. This is her portal now: eyes peering from the edges, ribbons trailing along the seams like elegant sutures holding reality together. She entered halfway as she turned to look behind her. "Let's go. We shouldn't waste time here, Zero is out there, untraceable."
Nowa stared at the rift for a bit, a concept of going along with them makes him want to not go. But part of him wants to know this completion as he let out a heavy sigh. "...Got it." And steps into the rift. His shattered world was forced into another's mayhem, One. Last. Time.
CHARACTERS IMAGE LINK:
Nowa Beckitzer - The FlameNoah - art by Christacks Arts(FB/Twitter) - https://img.wattpad.com/cb7f413f34464a9736b1af559152fafead6eb59f/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6d49326b533443796a76416961513d3d2d313539363637393933352e313838333265376230303261306334653234323530363138393938382e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280
Yukari Yakumo - https://pin.it/JHBhEc9ci