Extra Stage Final Chapter: Le Blanc Et Noir

Darkness.

The emptiness of eternity.

Darkness.

The soliloquy of the night.

Darkness.

The vengeful cry of anguish.

Darkness.

The fear that stills all hearts with a cold, cold silence.

I have lived a long, long, LONG time in darkness. Longer than the universe has drawn breath. Longer than the eldest gods have slumbered in their putrid nests, waiting to consume the carcass of life of which worlds spread anew. Yet...this darkness I bear witness to is certainly something else.

That boy, that puppet, is ravaged by an ebon taint. Its malicious winds vanquish the light from his eyes, and burning the flesh with rage. Life gasps its last hollow breath, swept amidst a cataclysmic vortex churning inside his heart. Sound dies not with a yell, but with a pitiful chirp.

...And if someone like me is feeling this way, then I cannot even begin to imagine how that girl is holding up. How she even manages to find the strength to stand is beyond me. But she was warned. He told her that this was coming. She could have prevented this. This...is entirely her fault.

"Alex...?" She mutters a pitiful cry, clinging to the tiniest petals of hope.

He responds by stabbing his fingers into the ground, and burrowing his toes halfway into the soot. His body is constantly being assault with pain, drowning all other noise he attempts to make.

Shina staggers, mere seconds from collapsing onto her back and allowing herself to succumb to his rending strike. Her body is drained of color, making her appear as pale as a snowflake's silhouette. She is on the last vestiges of strength. Her sword is as heavy as a mountaintop.

He trudges forward slowly like a snake in the grass, his eyes as blood red as one of their tongues. The soil became dry and cracked, with a venomous dark violet glow wedging itself in between it all.

Nothing felt hopeful. Not anymore. It didn't feel worth it to even cry.

Shina heard her own heart pounding. Each beat was like an icicle had been pushed through her chest. Her breaths drew tiny clouds of fog, while her veins chilled to subarctic temperatures.

Digging his hands deeper into the ground, he anchored his teeth into a brutal scowl and then leapt straight forward without a second thought. He swung his right fist back and had thrust it out before she could blink. The empty air wrapped around his body, making even the void of space feel inadequate.

Right as her pupils shrank, Shina found her blade being swung up with arms as limp as noodles. She repelled his blow, but just barely. He smashed right down into the ground and charged back in, slicing up the dirt and gravel as he slashed his hand along the back of her arm.

She mustered some aura for protection, but he cut through it and drew a wound one centimeter deep, spilling blood from within. Shina swung her blade back down again, only for him to evade to the right with movements bordering on phantasm.

Ghastly afterimages haunted the way he traveled, each one showing his body contorting in pain in differing ways. Yet when he sprung in for an attack, everything was back to normal...Relatively speaking. He smashed his fist into Shina's left shoulder once, then attacked it again from above in quick succession.

She held on tight, but if one strike were to hit its mark the shoulder would be dislodged entirely. Her body fought back out of pure instinct, and swung around with all its might to keep the darkness at bay.

He kept coming in swinging, smashing against the flickering whirlwind from many angles. Shina's right ankle twisted up and made her bite deep into her lower lip, causing it to bleed. As her rotation broke down, he came in from below and plunged one fist far into her gut, making more blood spill from her mouth.

Any blood she spilled was not for him to feed. It was wasted away to nothingness, its succulence as hollow as his heart. He rapidly pummeled her body, raising her higher and higher until his feet could find even footing on the ground once more.

Shina finally gained the will to fight back, and planted her sword firmly between the two of them. He kept punching anyways, forming tiny by significant cracks within the blade. He collapsed darkness into two spherical voids and smashed them together haphazardly before his face, creating this deafening sonicboom that cracked the walls between time and space.

Shina went hurtling back to the ground, her ears slightly ruptured but still capable of hearing. But her sword had been damaged, its edge now unable to cut through even the weakest of wood. As time and space mended, she crawled to her feet and stared at the darkness.

He just stood there, his body lacking even the motion of breathing. His aura was out of control. It was gushing out all over the place, like someone had overworked a furnace, and it was now suffering a catastrophic meltdown. He wasn't used to this kind of power, and if it didn't kill her first, then he would most certainly kill himself in the process.

"How...could it come to this...?"

Shina propped herself up on twigs and needles at this point, and couldn't even raise her blade more than halfway up with both her hands as its support. Her eyes were about to shut, forever embracing the darkness. Her heart was squandering the last of its breaths worrying for someone who was far, far gone.

Everytime she blinked, a drawn out memory played before her. She saw herself sitting at home on a warm couch with her little sister nestled to her hip, fast asleep with a smile. Their mother was watching over them from behind, gently wondering if they were hungry, or needed a blanket.

Shina said they were fine, and then rubbed the top of her sister's head, which made her giggle.

...It felt so real...

"...Maybe...maybe it is...?" It was wistful wondering. No. These events were not a dream, but a reminder of what she was about to lose.

The glistening blue light that punctured the sky above cruelly teased her like a dangling piece of fruit. She was so close, and yet the darkness ensured that it'd remain just that: Close.

But she wanted to keep him too. As she clung to those hopeful memories of yore, she imagined him in there too. He was sitting on the arm of the couch, acting like an aloof older brother would. He'd tease young Kairi by tickling the side of her cheek as she slept, and she'd quietly tell him to stop, which'd make both Shina and him laugh.

The darkness quit stewing in its disgusting filth and set its eyes upon her once more. She clung her blade tightly and tried to raise it...But for what reason?

There was no victory to be had. She couldn't cut through the darkness. But she couldn't lose to the darkness either.

Her biggest hope all seemed to lie in closing her eyes, and praying that what she dreamt could potentially be real. The darkness was silent as it lunged straight through the air at her like a rabid beast, its fist raised to beat the last ember of life from her body.

Her heart raced, her eyes flooded with tears. She clung to that memory harder and harder, and its warmth seemed comforting at first...But it became twisted with blood, and he had crushed her little sister's head in his grasp before reaching for her own neck with his other hand...

"STOOOOOOOOOOOP!"

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"STOOOOOOOOOOP!"

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…. !

s...s...shi...na?

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Ghh...GRRRRRUUUULLLLRRRKKK...!

It was like being born into this world for the first time. He could feel the light penetrating his eyes, and bringing him incredible discomfort. He was so fragile, that he didn't have the strength to open them all the way. And like in birth, he was greeted by a woman's tears. But they were not shed in happiness, nor in pain.

His body felt cold and he couldn't tell why until he looked down. First he saw blood leaking from the upper left corner of his chest and followed it down diagonally. It went from his shoulder close to his right hip...And buried deep inside that wound was a sword. Her sword. It could be no other sword.

"...Oh." He dryly quibbled in his mind.

He was drawn to the source of the cries, the one called Shina Aurora. She was weeping tears that were no longer possible to make. Her hands clasped weakly around the handle of her blade, struggling to help her stand upright.

She was blubbering an apology to her sister and mother repeatedly...And there was a genuine sense of moroseness to her voice. But if she was mourning for her own losses, then that could only mean she thought she was the one who was dying.

...And it was at that very moment that Alex realized how badly he had been duped.

If the "real" Shina was any indication, then there'd be no confliction on this matter. She'd have killed him and be done with it. But she was so conflicted that ultimately, she couldn't believe that she'd lose control for even a second and bring about this result.

And neither could he, really. Hell, he didn't even understand how he got to be in this position. A sword was through his body, rending most of his vital organs. He couldn't feel anything except emotions, which right now included self-loathing.

His arms were sagging, each drenched with her blood, but he'd never know of this fact. He shouldn't be able to breath let alone speak, and yet his voice sprung from his mouth in a gargly slur, "Shina..."

Her heart nearly sprang from her chest as she swung her head up and stared at him with a gasp.

He cocked a tiny smile as she looked up at his terrible state and slowly broke down crying some more. She repeatedly badgered him with pleas of "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry" until he felt like that was the only thing he'd ever remember again.

But it was him who silenced her with a simple, quiet, "No...I'm the one who should be sorry..."

"Wh-What...?"

"I was d-deceived...by Yukari...She made me believe...that you had stabbed me...And said terrible things to me..."

Shina sniffled and whimpered, "But I-I did stab you...It was my rapier...T-That hurt you in the first place..."

Alex stared blankly into space as he muttered "O-Oh...?"

"But I couldn't stop it...! I tried, I tried and I tried but I couldn't break free...A-And then...and then he made me..."

"I-It doesn't matter...Shina...I-I was the one...who thought you had betrayed me...But in the end...I was the one who betrayed you..."

"No...! No don't say that! You never betrayed me Alex!" She tearfully raised her head and lashed angrily at him with all her might, "You never could Alex! I-I know you..."

She squeezed her eyes shut and slammed her face down atop her sword. Then came more apologies, each more bitter than the last.

In the listless still of night, Alex raised his head just a little higher and felt nothing...Nothing, but regret.

"...I never deserved your trust to begin with..."

"...Huh?" She meekly peeked her eyes up from the dry puddle of tears she made.

"...Nor your love, nor your companionship...None of that...I-I...Never even deserved to be born..."

She sniffled once, then closed her eyes and scornfully bit her teeth, "Don't listen to her..."

"Don't listen to her! Whatever she said about you, its not true!"

"Shina, please...please listen to me..." Alex tried to reach his hand out to her, but it limped back down to his hip.

"Whether its true or not...You need to know...You need to know what she said..."

"No." She staunchly refused his request, and yelled at him in fervent denial, "I don't care what she decided you are! I chose to love you! ...I-Isn't that enough?"

Alex closed his eyes and whispered, "...You're right...How could I be so foolish...?"

She snickered a little and admitted, "Cause...that's...w-who you are..."

With a little forced optimism peppered into her words, she smiled at him and said, "A-And it doesn't matter that this happened! W-We'll still cross the finish line together a-and..."

Alex hung his head and closed his eyes, silencing her almost immediately. Her head sunk back down onto her blade, and she punched down onto the center of it while begging of him, "D-Don't say it...P-Please..."

"...Shina, there's a blade through my chest...And I can barely speak..."

"No...No...!"

"...Even if I had enough strength to move, it'd take too much time to mend these wounds with elemental energy..."

"No! I don't care! SHUT! UP!"

"...You have to let me die Shina."

She starts pounding away feverishly at his chest until her knuckles are dark red with his blood. All the while she's screaming at him, "You're a liar! You're a horrible, horrible LIAR!"

"Shina..."

"Don't run away from living you said...We'll be together forever you said...! You're giving up on yourself! On US!"

"...Shina, please be realistic..."

"Y-You wanna take that tone with me?! You...you've traveled through time before...! You can still..."

"...I don't have any control over that..." He said, feeling hopeful for just a moment, "And...I get the feeling that this time...there's nowhere for me to run to..."

"That's bullshit..." She could be heard murmuring disdainfully towards the Gaia Temporis before she continued to bitterly beat against Alex's chest.

"Then...then I'll carry you to where the Cosmos Drive is! T-There has to be a way to heal you there..."

"You'll never make it if you have to carry me along with...sustaining yourself..."

"..." Her fingers curled up and clung to the tops of his shoulders, while her head rested softly on its side atop her blade as she sniffled, "...Y-You're not being fair Alex..."

"...I know. I'm not very good at this 'love' thing...Am I?"

"...I don't want to decide between you or my family...Cause you are my family...You...And the child we're gonna have together..."

"..." Alex gulped quietly, his eyelids sinking shut as he felt just a glimmer of life in his arms.

"...Your family is worth more than me. They always were. And its not just them...you're fighting for your entire race, right? ...I-I don't know how many they number, but surely its not so thin that it'd be worth struggling to let me live...Right?"

"...No, but..." Shina slid her hands down along his chest and asked, "...What am I supposed to do without you?"

"...The same thing you've always done...Live, Shina Aurora. Live...without me..."

"...I'm scared to let go Alex..." She said, riddled with shivers.

"I know..." Alex placed his hands up on her shoulders, and she felt just a little bit warmer for it.

"But you have to." He then whispered.

She gently closed her eyes and remarked, "I-I'll...stay here with you until you draw your last breath..."

"..." Alex closed his eyes too and slowly nodded his head.

"...I wish you got to meet my family..."

"Well, I did meet your mother...Twice, in fact."

"...O-Oh right, time travel..."

"But man...I'll get to miss the look on her face when she finds out we fell in love...W-What a shame..."

"...You would've gotten along with my little sister..."

"It'd...feel a little weird that we'd be the same age..."

"Heh...Hehehe, yeah...Imagine if she ended up getting a crush on you?"

"Or one of my clones...Good grief that'd be weird..."

"...You never got to tell me about them, ya know?"

"...I actually only just found out that my clone made his own clone just a little while ago..."

"What? A clone of a clone? Who..."

"Yukari told me."

"Ah..."

"...Alex?"

"No, don't even consider it...Yukari...was my enemy. She'll never target you again once I'm gone..."

"...Its not right though...She did this to you and..."

"I...feel she'll get hers eventually...But...you can't let vengeance consume you like it did me..."

"...Shina?"

"Yeah...?"

"...If...you still have a child after this...What will you name it?"

"...I don't know."

"...Yeah, neither do I...But."

"But?"

"...You got me thinking."

"Uh-huh?"

"...I think...it may be possible for you to find my clone on the same Earth your city's on..."

"H-Huh?! W-What makes you think that?!"

"...Just a gut feeling."

"...A gut feeling."

"...But its a strong one...Shina. I think...you should seek him out...And have him be the child's father."

"...I-I can't do that to him...I don't even know him..."

"...I do. He's a goofball, and he talks too much...But...His heart's always in the right place. He's...a way better man than I'd care to admit."

"...Okay...I-I'll give it a shot."

"...Shina."

"What Alex?"

"...Thank you for giving me this time..."

"..."

"...And...I'm sorry..."

"...Huh?"

A powerful gale, stronger than anything Shina's ever experienced, forced her off the ground in an instant. The winds came from Alex's palms, which had been on her shoulders the entire time. Her sword was expunged from his body as she tried desperately to grab onto the handle.

She swung her left hand out as he quietly smiled her way with an expression that looked serene, and yelled to him as she was carried far, far away into the distance, "ALEX!"

Alex couldn't hear nor see her for very long. His eyes began to shut, and his body, now free to bleed by the gallonload, plummeted to the ground to be nestled amongst the gentle flowers. By the time those winds would stop carrying her away, there'd be no point in her turning back around.

"...Mercy is my last gift to you, my love...You don't need to have my lifeless body be your last memory of me. I've already...hurt you enough as is..."

With the last bit of strength his muscles could muster, he laid his hands behind his head, drenching them in the slowly growing pool of blood. He then crossed his legs and could slowly feel his energy dwindling. But what warmed his heart was no longer an inferno of rage. It was just a quiet ember of warmth.

"...Heh..." He looked up to the sky, and the depths of space glowed faintly with white.

"...Sorry mom...Sorry dad...Maybe...I'll get to see what its like up there...some...other time..."

He closed his eyes, and he slipped away...

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tick

tock

...No.

tick tock

No. This can't be possible.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

You dreadfully avaricious child. How dare you not let this end. You will stop what you are doing right this INSTANT!

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock...

...Fine. Continue this tiresome charade. You WILL reap what you sow eventually. Just you wait and see...

...His eyes awaken to a dreadful sensation: Life anew.

His body sprang up and let out a harrowing gasp. He lurched over and gave himself a quick pat over. There was two things off...The wound in his chest wasn't just gone, it was like it had never even existed to begin with. And all the blood that spilled? It was back inside of him, rushing without a hint of abnormality.

This wasn't like the other times where death had been reverted. He hadn't leapt to another timeline, or another body...This was the same body he died in. His own time had simply been reversed, healing him from this pain he endured without consequence.

Yet...he still remembered everything that happened. And it left him furious.

Reaching deep into his pocket to rip the Gaia Temporis out, Alex clenched it in a suffocating grip before his face and bitterly grit his teeth as he at first asked it softly, "What the HELL did you do?!"

Of course, like the bratty child it was, it hushed up without an answer.

"How many times...How many ways will you force me to live before you're satisfied?!" Alex screamed at the top of his lungs, but of course...Why would the stone answer? I mean...its not like he lets you stay with him, right?

Oh that's right, little child.

You've never given him a choice in the matter.

Thus when you don't give him an answer, it should come as no surprise that his grip becomes tighter around your cage, and his voice gets even louder, "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME DAMN IT?!"

No response. So at that point, he didn't bother just slamming the thing back into his pants and bitterly gritting his teeth. He then looked around, wanting to double-check something...

"...Everything's the same as we left it...I didn't wind up going back in time..." In his grief and disappointment he ended up looking towards the blue light where the Cosmos Drive's meant to be.

"And Shina didn't come back here either..." With his lips slanting into an energyless frown, he reached up towards that blue light and thought about the passage of time. Though his own time had been reverted, it didn't mean that time hadn't passed since he "died". It could've been a minute, an hour, even a day or a month...Or more dreadfully, a year. Any further than that, and he'd have gone mad at the thought.

He squeezed his hand tight and sharply turned away, muttering to himself with a hint of melancholy, "No..."

"...It'd be too cruel for her to see my face again," He tucks his hands into his pockets and walks away from the light, "Especially with a target painted squarely on my back."

…

"I know you're watching...Yukari," He says while looking dead ahead with a straight-faced scowl, "I don't know why this dumb stone keeps me alive...But as long as I'm still in this game...Then you and I are going to keep playing."

He narrows his eyes with a burning glare and gives me his ultimatum, "I'm done playing around. You toyed with the love of my life and made her cry. You tried to pit us against each other and nearly succeeded in getting us both killed! ...I'll take my share of the blame for falling for your stupid trick..."

He then thrust his finger straight out and exclaimed, "But the payback you'll receive will be a thousand times worse than the pain she had to suffer!"

He swung his arm down and summoned a wreath of hellfire around his body, darker the hottest sun, "And I'm not going to start or stop with you Yukari. I'll stamp out all the evils of this universe one by one, including 'God'! Then nothing'll get in the way of Shina and I's life together!"

"...So you and the Lunarians better prepare yourselves...The Phoenix of Destruction is coming BACK to Gensokyo."

…You're welcome to try, Alex Whiter.

Clash of the Elements Part 4 EX Final? Story...

THE END.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay on the final chapter. I got sick on the day I was planning to write it and just got better today.

Really though, I'd like to apologize for a lot of delays throughout this entire story. This whole Part should've been done with all the way back in March at the LEAST, and I plan to talk about that at a later time.

For now though, yes, there's still one more story to go...And let me just give a warning now that its not going to be an easy one to write. It'll be an intense emotional rollercoaster, especially for fans of Touhou. I can only ask that if you do decide to go forward, that you see it through to the very end.

But for the time being, there'll be a two week break between stories. I know, I know, I just complained about delays, but this is something I really need to prepare for all the way and I feel you as the fans could use the break as well.

Oh, and the next story will focus primarily on Alex Whiter. If you're wondering where this leaves Shina...Don't worry, I DO plan to address that sooner than you think.

Until then though, I hope you continue enjoying, cause next time...

Clash of the Elements Part 4 EX True Ending:

THE FALL OF FANTASY

...Will begin abruptly, and never stop until its over.