The afterlife blew up Gensokyo

Shi Bai shook the folding fan in his hand and nodded seriously.

"Speaking of which, shouldn't the duty of a gatekeeper be to protect the Dream Mansion? Taking down the Dream Mansion's floor tiles to use as weapons... Hey, hey, hey, you can't just start an attack like that without warning!"

He darted past, lightly tapping the side of the sickle with his folding fan to deflect it from its angle, Shi Bai looking slightly helpless.

"Enough with the nonsense! I've already warned you. You're the intruder now!! I need to eliminate intruders!!"

Holding the huge scythe in both hands, she swung it at her side, her words carrying a hint of anger and embarrassment.

"A place like this isn't somewhere you're qualified to...!?"

Before she could even finish her sentence, the girl was suddenly astonished to see a finger silently descend upon her scythe. When that tiny finger touched her blade, it felt as if a massive mountain was pressing down on the entire scythe… an unbearable weight!

"Alright, I'm here to visit the owners of this place. We can talk later. Remember to put the floor tiles back on."

As a casual voice rang in her ears, the girl felt as if she had been tapped on the head by a fan. By the time she realized what was happening, the black-haired man had already brushed past her and entered the Dream Pavilion.

The girl who was defeated in a second: "..."

The interior of the Dream Pavilion is significantly larger than what can be seen from the outside, but the vast space is extremely desolate, devoid of any life or signs of human habitation. It stands alone, like a long-abandoned place.

"Strange, is no one living here...?"

After spending some time thoroughly searching the entire Dream Pavilion, Shi Bai couldn't help but frown slightly.

Based on his previous search, although the Dream Mansion appeared extremely grand, it was completely empty and there was nothing particularly noteworthy inside.

"No, or rather, my thinking is flawed. As for the Dream Mansion..."

After standing still for a moment with his head slightly lowered in thought, Shi Bai walked to a large floor-to-ceiling mirror. There were many mirrors like this in the Dream Pavilion, so it wasn't hard to find one.

After staring at himself in the mirror for a moment, Shi Bai reached out his hand towards the mirror. However, when his hand touched the mirror, it was as if he had touched a rippling water, and his entire hand was directly immersed in it, as if there was another world behind the mirror.

"As expected, the real Dream Pavilion doesn't exist in the real world at all. The Dream Pavilion here in the real world is just a projection of the Dream Pavilion in the real world... A dream world? It should no longer exist..."

With a slight frown, Shi Bai stepped into the mirror.

The world behind the mirror was completely different from what he had imagined. It was a world filled with a blood-red light that seemed to come from nowhere. All the objects in this world appeared to be coated with a bright blood-red color, making them look incredibly eerie.

"So you did manage to find your way here after all."

Before Shi Bai could even properly take in this new world, a cool voice came from behind him. When he turned around, he saw a girl in a pink and blue maid outfit standing behind him.

"Where is this place? Who are you?"

Looking at the maid in front of him, Shi Bai's brows furrowed even more deeply.

"Me? My name is Mengyue, the ruler of this nameless dream world, the master of this world. This world is my world. Don't you think it's very impolite to step into someone else's world without the master's permission?"

Mengyue's face was expressionless, or rather, from the moment she appeared until now, her face had remained a poker face.

"Your world? Don't be ridiculous. You're a demon from the West, right? Or rather, a high-ranking demon?"

Shi Bai tapped his forehead with his folding fan, and for some reason, his tone suddenly turned cold.

"I suddenly think I know why I've been unable to find her all this time. It turns out it's because of you bandits. No wonder..."

"A robber? Can I take your words as a provocation?"

Although her facial expression remained unchanged, Mengyue's voice noticeably cooled down.

"This world is my world. What right do these mere humans have to speak such disrespectful words to me in my world? As a demon, I have no regard for human life."

"Is that so? Sorry, I don't care about the lives of demons either."

Shi Bai glanced around at the scenery, his face expressionless.

"Yuuka was the master of the Dream World, and the Dream World was born because of her. However, due to my actions, she voluntarily gave up the Dream World and disappeared from the world. But her essence as the core of the Dream World will not change. Therefore, based on this, with the rebirth of Yuuka, a completely new world, different from the previous Dream World, will also appear... the Nameless Dream World?"

"!!!"

Seeing the figure suddenly appear in front of her, having covered dozens of meters in an instant, Mengyue's eyes widened. But before she could react, a hand as strong as an iron clamp reached out and grabbed her neck, lifting her off the ground.

"This is actually a dream world after your rebirth, isn't it? Where did you hide Yuuka? If you tell me obediently, I might reluctantly let you stay... Did you escape?"

Silently watching the other person's figure transform into a streak of blood-red light and reappear hundreds of meters away in the corridor, Shi Bai's face remained expressionless.

"Don't look down on me, you rude human!!"

Quite embarrassed, Mengyue covered her neck with her hand and coughed violently a few times. A rare look of embarrassment and annoyance finally appeared on her usually poker face.

"This world is my world, and in the world I control, you have absolutely no chance of defeating me. I originally wanted to resolve this peacefully, but since you chose to attack first, then don't blame me for being impolite!!"

"Oh, then feel free to be so polite."

Looking up at the ceiling shrouded in a thick crimson hue, Shi Bai put the black folding fan back into his storage ring and spoke coldly.

"I gave you a chance, but you didn't cherish it. But it doesn't matter anymore, it's the same as searching again after I kill you..."

"Wait a moment!!"

Just then, accompanied by a slightly hurried voice, a girl wearing a light pink dress with angel wings on her back, who looked extremely similar to Mengyue, appeared from the void and blocked Mengyue's way in the shortest amount of time.

"boom--!!!"

With a deafening roar, everything around Shi Bai, centered on his location, seemed to be swept by an invisible whirlwind of sharp blades, causing the surrounding walls and buildings to crumble inch by inch.

Suddenly spitting out a mouthful of blood in mid-air, the figure of the girl with angelic wings who had just appeared was unconsciously sent flying backward along with Mengyue. After crashing through several walls, they were buried in the ruins.

In front of the Dream Pavilion in the real world, Ellie, holding a floor tile in her hand, stared at the Dream Pavilion crumbling into dust inch by inch in front of her, completely dumbfounded.

"What... happened inside...?"

..................................................................

"........."

His gaze swept over the ruins over there, and Shi Bai turned his head to look ahead with an indifferent expression.

After he destroyed the Dream Mansion, the entire world was revealed to him.

—This is a place completely filled with evil energy.

The ground was predominantly black, while the sky was almost entirely filled with an eerie purple. In front of the now-ruined Dream Pavilion was a vast lake filled with boundless blood, the whole scene exuding an unusually strange atmosphere.

Although he had almost forgotten most of the characters from the old Touhou Project and those unpopular characters over the long years, there were still a few key points that Shiro remembered—for example, Yuuka was the master of the Dream Mansion.

However, whether in the projection of the Dream Pavilion in reality or in this real Dream Pavilion, he could not find Youxiang's figure. So naturally, he would not give a kind look to the demon who claimed this was her world.

"You seem to be much stronger than her."

Shi Bai squinted at the girl with angel wings on her back who was helping Meng Yue up from the ruins, and raised an eyebrow.

"A demon with angel wings?"

“We are twins, I am Mengyue’s older sister Huanyue.”

Wiping away the trace of blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, Huan Yue, whose face was slightly pale, looked solemn.

"I apologize to you on behalf of my sister for what happened before."

"It's all wrong..."

"Mengyue, be good!!"

Upon hearing her younger sister's defiant words, Huan Yue immediately interrupted her coldly.

"........."

"No matter what you sisters are saying, I'll say it again: where is Youxiang?"

Shi Bai's gaze swept over Meng Yue's tightly clenched fist before he spoke coldly.

"I'm sorry, we don't know who you're referring to. Could you please provide some clues?"

Still standing in front of her younger sister, Huan Yue answered cautiously.

"...Green hair, very powerful."

After a moment of silence, Shi Bai turned his head, because he found that he couldn't find any more adjectives for the time being.

"Green hair..."

For some reason, Huan Yue suddenly felt a chill run down her spine when she heard those two adjectives.

"If that's all there is to it, I do know of a powerful being. I wonder if she is the person you are looking for."

"where is it?"

"At the very bottom of the Lake of Blood, there is a very peculiar world, a world of flowers, where an exceptionally powerful being resides."

Pointing to the lake of blood before her, Huan Yue's face turned inexplicably pale, as if recalling some terrible past events.

"We don't know exactly when that world came into being in our world. After we discovered its existence, I wanted to enter it to investigate, but as soon as I entered, I encountered the master of that world... Your Excellency?"

"……nothing."

Shi Bai's lips twitched uncontrollably, and he waved his hand, signaling the other person to continue.

(...So you really needed to hide it so well? This isn't some kind of hide-and-seek game...)

"...Since that day, Mengyue and I have known that there is a being in our world that we absolutely cannot provoke. However, in most cases, we coexist peacefully. Sometimes, this being chooses to go out. The most recent time she went out was about two hundred years ago. But after she returned about ten years ago, she ordered us to build the Dream Pavilion and all this..."

"...went out more than two hundred years ago, and came back a dozen years ago?"

Feeling a bit of a headache, Shi Bai reached out and pressed his forehead, interrupting Huan Yue's words.

"Uh...that's right."

After a moment of stunned silence, Huan Yue nodded.

"At the time, we didn't know why she wanted us to build the Dream Pavilion, and even specifically wanted to project its image onto the outside world, but we obediently did as she requested. It's just that the Dream Pavilion is now..."

"Okay, stop talking, my stomach hurts."

With one hand clutching his chest, Shi Bai reached out to stop the other person from continuing, and then tossed a small box over.

"All the Senzu Beans inside are yours, as an apology."

After saying this, the person walked directly towards the Lake of Blood and then plunged into the water.

Phantom Moon/Dream Moon: "???"

P.S.: Good morning.

Sunflower field? The fragrance of wind? Searching again.

It was all just a fleeting dream, a solitary figure amidst a startled glimpse, a mere passing moment like a fleeting dream, a dream in which some encounters occurred.

As the saying goes, all things are vanity; as the saying goes, the sea of ​​suffering is endless; as the saying goes, one should enjoy life to the fullest when one is successful, for true intoxication is a rare and peaceful state of mind.

If all that happened in my past life was just an illusion, then what is the point of talking about anything in this life? Perhaps from the very beginning, all these so-called emotions were just wishful thinking on my part.

The past is a heartbreaking poem, I am infatuated with you but you do not know. In the heart of that seemingly cynical man, which is as deep as the boundless sea, is there really a place for me?

To be honest, I don't know.

But during those long years, he never took the initiative to look for me. That's an obvious fact. I've heard that love can make people blind, and I was that blind fool.

The last time I woke up from my slumber, I searched for him for a long time in the world, but to no avail. It wasn't until he took the initiative to come looking for me that we had that unexpected encounter.

I don't blame him for that.

Just like the story of the Little Prince that he once told me while sitting next to me, no matter how many journeys he took and how many planets he visited, at the end of the story, the Little Prince eventually returned to his own planet to find his flower.

He is my little prince, and I am the flower of the little prince.

When I first met him, he was a peculiar being who had entered my world for some reason, and at the same time, he was an exceptionally lonely being, like the Little Prince. Seeing that he finally had other people by his side, I felt somewhat gratified in that respect.

My wish before I fell asleep came true, and the first thing I saw when I woke up was him. In that respect, what more could I ask for?

From then until the years they spent alone together, it felt as if they had returned to that unforgettable time when they were alone in that world where there was nothing, with just the flower and the person.

In the final stretch of my life, he was there for me through it all. I looked up at the brilliant stars overhead, the dazzling fireworks illuminating the silent night, the cool summer breeze rustling the leaves, and the air filled with the rich fragrance of grass and flowers…

On that night, vibrant summer flowers quietly bloomed.

I originally thought that I would leave a place in his heart after that, but the final result did not seem to change much. If he really cared about me, then he would not have never taken the initiative to look for me in all those years that followed.

I had hoped that when I opened my eyes again, I would see him sitting quietly beside me, smiling gently at me as I woke up. But when I awoke from the darkness with this expectation, the moonlight above me was like water, pouring over half the bed, and autumn insects were chirping. I stared blankly at the white walls, my shadow lonely and helpless.

—He didn't come looking for me, or rather, at that time, he never even made that promise.

That morning, the snow was white and the whole mountain seemed to be fast asleep. The red plum blossoms were in full bloom, as brilliant as the morning glow settling in the valley. I walked alone through the dense cedar forest, where sunlight peeked through the green shade.