Ichrin saga- part 1

As the castle shuddered under the barrage unleashed by the catapults the defenders were making a last stand in its uttermost structure, the throne room. “Do not let them enter this place, Defend your king with your lives!”

Outside the throne room dozens of armored warriors gathered in front of the giant door guarding the only entrance into the great room. A man cloaked in shining golden armor and a cape made out of the skin of a giant grizzly bear strode forward of the group and roared into the throne “Surrender your rule now or I will have your head!”

“I would gladly die before I see my kingdom in the hands of swine!”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way” the golden figure laughed to himself as he motioned for two giants of men 9 feet tall, each carrying a massive hammer to stand on each side of the doorway.

The door exploded and a shower of wood, iron and the men who tried unsuccessfully to hold the door showered on top of the remaining defenders who were immediately engaged by the torrent of invaders as the great room was filled with the cries of battle

The king, now alone as the few guards left to him were being slaughtered by the oncoming invaders stood defiantly as his golden challenger strode to face him. Although the king was clad in finely engraved steel and carrying and equally fine sword, compared to this opponent he was but a mouse groveling in the shadow of a lion and faced with this he finally broke

“WAIT, wait, stop….you can take my land I surrender my rule”

“The time for that has past, didn’t I say I would take your head”

“NO STOP YOU CA*gack*” the king coughed as he was pinned to the back of his seat of power with a dagger and with a single stroke of his axe the golden man decapitated the former king

The gold champion now grabbed the head of the fallen emperor and shouted to his men “NOW ALL WILL KNOW THE NAME OF SALAD”
Salad? What the heck kind of name is salad.

The disgruntled writer crumpled the piece of paper and tossed it into a rather large pile of similarly crumpled paper (the wastebasket was long since being visible). “Crap that was the last of my paper too”. With a sigh he got up from his desk and walked over to his dresser

He looked into the mirror to find a young clean-shaven face that looked in it's late teens staring at him “My god what time is it, I really have to stop doing this so late at night” mumbled as he tied fumbled with his messy black hair that swung just above his shoulders

He sighed again and walked over to the window and pried it open "GHAAAAAA! IT BURNS!" the dark home was purge into sunlight as it's owner stumbled blindly around the small one room cottage, bumping into random furniture until some of his vision returned and managed to find his way to the kitchen area

" Crap, midday already.....have no choice then but to use my secret weapon" he fumbled through the cabinets, tossing out empty bottles of sake until he found what he was looking for "ah, here it is, my secret weapon........hmm seems likes I need to get some more" the nearly empty bottle red read in large red letters

INSTANT WAKE-ME-UP/ RAT POISON

“Ugh, I hate this crap, aw well..........cheers” he raised the bottle to his mouth and guzzled down the last of the liquid and immediately bolted out the front door into the outside and proceeded to vomit on the ground

“*cough* one drink of this and you’ll feel good as new she says, never said anything about it tasting like a boiled gallbladder off of a dead possum killed by a flesh-eating-virus........at least it’s a nice day out” he dusted himself off as he admired the cloudless blue sky and the green hillside where his house was built into overlooking the small town in the basin of the valley.

A few minutes later he was fully dressed in his usual attire of a short green robe and black shirt and pants and with a straight black staff with golden caps adorning each end strapped to his back strolled down to the village

“Good morning, pleasant day isn’t it?” an young cute looking woman minding the local shop said “find any youkai lately?”

“Hehe no, not lately” like anything ever comes hear except the occasional stupid and nearly harmless fairy.........well that is why I took on this job after all he thought to himself “only hear to pick up the usual for myself”

"Ok anything else?"

“No that's it thank you”

“You welcome Ichrin” the girl handed the pack of supplies to Ichrin ,the protector of this little village nestled in solitude by the valley located in a land called Gensokyo, a land sealed away from the rest of the world since Meiji 17 or 1884 A.D. to keep the youkai or magical creatures that feed on humans from spreading.

Though many humans were caught inside Gensokyo when it was sealed trapping them with the youkai and forcing the land into long and bloody war, but with time a tenitive peace was formed to keep the two sides from annihilating each other, and so the land slowly healed and with each generation of humans and youkai more was forgotten about those times until they were only heard of in legends and tales used to scare children at night

"Ahhh, just another uneventful day, ha-ha just as I like it" Ichrin chuckled at himself as he strolled back to his house, but something in the wind made him stop "what is that smell…… is something burning?"

He turned his head back to the village to see smoke rising from several of the buildings and the villagers running for cover as a huge black winged shadow hovered overhead holding a human in its massive claws

“STOP NO SOMEONE HELP ME I AHHHHHHHHHHH” the beast threw the man into the air and engulfed him whole in a spray of blood as the other villagers looked on in terror, and with a ungodly sounding shriek the shadow disappeared into the clouds

Like waking up from a daze the people of the village slowly came out of hiding to witness the carnage left behind by attack that lasted only a few seconds but left a third of the buildings inflames and the rest splattered with blood, and their protector was nowhere to be seen

Ichrin was huddled against the door of his cottage shaking and panting heavily what……..the hell………was that! He opened the door a crack to see outside was that even a youkai, I thought all of those like that died out long ago

He slammed the door shut once he saw the coast was clear “Damit! It’s all my fault for trying to protect this village in the first place!” Ichrin pounded his fist into the floor “It was stupid of me to try and protect anything…..you reap what you sow” he quietly said as he reached for his staff and sat their for several minutes studying the engravings of a fox resting below a tree etched into the shaft

“Sigh….well theirs nothing left for me here” Ichrin got up and started packing a few of his necessary items into a bag “time to scat, I could stay at that town north of here”

“Your still wanted their from the incident at the bar”

“He-he, yea they probably haven’t dug the place up yet, well there is south of here”

“You already hit their, 3 times”

"Yea, wait a sec............Yukari" Ichrin slowly turned his head to find a woman in a pink and purple dress with a poofy pink hat and attached thin red ribbon sitting on her long blond hair sitting on his desk swinging her legs and going through his discarded papers

"Hahaha salad, working late again?"

Ichrin angrily snatched the paper from Yukari's hands and said "it’s considered rude for guests to show up uninvited, especially you"

"Ooooh so angry, so where are you going Ichy?"

"I don’t know, but I have to get out of here fast before a mob shows up……….and don’t call me Ichy"

"Again? You have a bad habit of attracting those" a coy smile came across her face as she floated off the desk hovered towards Ichrin’s staff “funny that you still have this old thing when it-“

"Yea you don’t need to bring that up" Ichrin grabbed his staff away from Yukari "you have a habit in butting in other peoples business, you know what hit the village?" only to receive a giggle and a sly look from Yukari "sheash, your no help Sukima"

Yukari blushed at the name “that’s not nice Ichy!”

“Ha-ha, never changed in the bit I see” she turned her back to Ichrin with a disgruntled huff “but now that leaves me with the problem of having nowhere to go

A smirk formed on Yukari’s face “you know its dangerous out their……especially around Scarlet Mansion where the devils sleep”

“Hmmm, Scarlet Mansion………thanks” words whispered only to the empty house as Ichrin set off into the wilderness.