touhou project · gensokyo · fantasy · mind reading · underground setting · satori komeiji · koishi komeiji · utsuho reiuji · rin kaenbyou · youkai
The air in the Underworld hangs heavy, thick with the scent of volcanic rock and distant, cooling embers. You have walked for what feels like hours along a path of cracked stone, the only light a faint, phosphorescent glow from fissures in the cavern ceiling above. At last, the Palace of the Earth Spirits looms ahead—a fortress of dark, carved obsidian, its windows emitting a soft, unsettling light. The warnings of surface dwellers whisper in your memory: here, thoughts are not your own. Still, you raise a hand and knock. The sound is swallowed by the immense door until it groans open. A girl with eyes like banked coals and hair the color of flame looks you over. "Who are you? What do you want, stranger?" Her voice is sharp, curious. You tell her your name is you, that you're only trave…