#Enchou Tsuta

[pansexualkiba]

@panda-monium64 you've opened the floodgates. Get ready for some shit.

PART TWO OF A SERIES. I'LL HAVE A MASTERPOST UP LATER.

TOUHOU SEISONOMOTO ~ GARDEN OF ETERNITY

I'll give you three guesses what the focal point of this one is.

Fun fact! As originally planned, this story would not only be happening SIMULTANEOUSLY to WDI, but also, for some reason, to Marine Benefit, a fangame I have no affiliation with due to being in MIDDLE SCHOOL when it was released. Because it was "developed" directly after WDI, but the characters were essentially revealed at the same time, I just sorta now place them as happening consecutively.

The plot: A giant fucking walled garden has appeared along the edges of the border, somewhere between the Sanzu and the Netherworld (so not directly beneath it). Nothing has happened yet, but people are curious and want to know what's in this weird garden. This has a bit of a Subterranean Animism type thing where the subshot you pick gives you dialogue with a second character whose "faction" wants you to investigate.

Because the theme is the garden, all of the important characters are essentially plant youkai. Of course, there's a bit of cringe here and there since they were also made in middle school. Let's start here.

ENCHOU TSUTA Creeping Plant of Antiquity Species: Ivy Youkai Ability: Capable of extending her limbs The guard of the Garden of Eternity. Due to her ability and stalwart personality, she was given the position of gatekeeper by the garden's boss. She, like many residents of the garden, awoke as youkai after many years of unstopped growth. As such, she can be considered the progenitor of all vine-like plants. Unfortunately, none of this meant anything to the protagonist's strength. She was quickly defeated in short order.

I actually genuinely like this girl? Idk what it is. The cool name, the fact that I made her hair decoration be a ribbon that looks like poison ivy leaves... She's got it all. The fact that I made her some random guard that gets Got in Stage 1 is more or less because I was a real PC-98 truther back then and I wanted to call back to Mystic Square, where the exact same thing happened to Sara. Anyways, now that we have canonical vine bullets, it's a lot easier for me to imagine how Enchou's attacks would actually look.

KOURIKO TANPOPO Snow Flower in July Species: Dandelion Youkai Ability: Capable of causing snowfall A Western-style dandelion youkai. She had desired to see snow right before she had awoken as a youkai. As such, she awakened a snow-bringing power when she awoke. She's completely unaware this is her doing, however, and she just wants to dance around in the unseasonable blizzard. Despite representing both flowering and seeding forms of the dandelion at the same time, she's still quite weak. As such, her threat level as an invasive species really isn't that high. As a side note, she's begun a lucrative business selling "dandelion tea" blends.

This was my favorite back in the day (lol). She's just a little guy, your honor. A little birthday girl. That last name, tho... Yikes. You'll soon find every single girl in this section is named after their plant unless further pointed out. This ended up being the naming convention for the Beast Realm Matriarchs in canon, so, uh... Whoops? Also, I think she reappears in the phantasmagoria-type. (Why did I put dandelion tea in quotes... It is tea. Why am I suspicious of this?)

MIRYOKU MOUSENGOKE Insectivorous Flower Species: Sundew Youkai Ability: Manipulation of attraction A youkai of a carnivorous flower. Her personality is to draw in insects before eating them whole. As such, she's rather like a fisherwoman. Her ability refers to not only her ability to spew insect-attracting pheromones, but also gravitational and electromagnetic attraction as well. As such, she's actually rather dangerous, despite her rather placid nature. She attacked the protagonist because she accidentally thought they were prey. It's sort of a parable of biting off more than you can chew, in that regard.

Another girl that tries to eat the protag... What was going on back then. Anyways, this girl is like, HELLA dangerous. I like how like, the edgy bits came in WDI in the latter half, but this chick is just here as THE edgy bitch in GoE. Fun fact, this girl did some cocomelon shit to me so bad that I made one of my personal e-mails one of her Spell Cards despite having NO REASON to do that. That's the power of carnivorous plants, I guess.

FUKU INABA Sake-Drunk Rabbit Species: Rabbit Ability: Capable of controlling alcohol levels A subordinate of Tewi Inaba. She was sent to investigate the garden, but was caught by Miryoku, along with a couple other youkai. Thanks to the protagonist, they were all freed, but Fuku needs to finish her investigation. With that, she attacked. -- INOE HIGASHIOKA Spice-Laden Tengu Species: White wolf Tengu Ability: Capable of tripling an object A white wolf tengu sent as a scout. Acting under orders from Lord Tenma himself, she entered the garden and was captured for food. Luckily, the protagonists freed her, so she was free to continue her scouting mission. She attacks Reimu out of a misplaced annoyance for Aya. Her ability does not extend to living things, but it does extend to gases, so she's extremely good at smokescreens. -- SANMI FUKUMURA Red-Meat Human Species: Human Ability: Capable of using magic stones A human from the outside world. She found herself wandering into Gensokyo sometime during the Foreign Youkai Incident. She is currently employed at the Scarlet Devil Manor as an assistant to Patchouli. She was sent to look into the garden by Remilia, but she was caught easily. She was just on her was out when she was attacked. -- SUIKIN TAKISHIMA Mineral-Rich Kappa Species: Kappa Ability: Capable of manipulating ores A scout sent by the kappa. She got into the garden just fine, but was captured by Miryoku. Luckily, the protagonist set her and a couple other inhabitants free. As thanks, Suikin offered to take over the investigation, but was promptly shot down.

The stage 4 midboss squad!!! Which one you face is dependent on who you have as your subshot. Their main purpose is to show that a good chunk of people have their eyes on the garden, and also to have jokes in their titles about how they were almost fucking eaten alive. I think of these four, Sanmi was the one that my friend liked the most? Very odd, that, but what can you do. I guess that's the power of the SDM.

DONNA BELLA Flower of Cassandra Species: Nightshade Youkai Ability: Capable of seeing the future A nightshade youkai that can foresee future events. She did, indeed, foresee that the garden would arrive, and indeed, foresaw not only the protagonist's arrival, but also her own defeat. The problem is that no one believes her visions. She's learned a little trick, however: if she phrases her visions just right, people will still believe them. The way to do this is to phrase her visions as the opposite of what will actually happen, so that people believe the contrary, and therefore the real vision. With that in mind, she set off to actively guide the protagonist to the main boss of the garden, as their aimless rampaging through the area would do no good to anyone. Not that anyone would believe her if she gave her real reason. Later, she showed up to help lead the protagonist to Tsukiko, to minimize property damage first and foremost.

THIS NAME........ THIS NAAAAAME......... BELLADONNA. DONNA BELLA. I mitigated my embarrassment at the time by making her theme title Italian... My little ass thought I was being SOOO CLEVER... Anyways this is a very fun weird inversion of Sagume's powers - Sagume actively cannot tell the truth, because the inverse of that will happen. Meanwhile, Donna's ability means that people won't believe her visions, so she lies so people believe the opposite. I just thought that was very funny. It's also pure luck they're both Stage 4 bosses - remember, I made this batch in middle school. Ten Desires was the hot new thing back then.

KUSURI KESHI Bitter Medicine Species: Poppy Youkai Ability: Capable of causing hallucinations The youkai of an opium poppy. She is the boss of all the poppies in the garden, especially in her field. She can put humans to sleep if she has enough of her subordinates working in tandem. However, they're all too laid-back and disorganized for this formation to ever actually work. Her ability lets her create the illusion of shifting shapes, but like all hallucinations, this vanishes when you reach for it. She actually has no relation to the overall incident, but she happened to be in the way of the protagonists.

Remember when I said I was an edgy middle schooler? My stupid little ass went "yeah let's put DRUGS in Touhou". Not as bad as it could have been, really? I sorta also mixed in the poppy field from The Wizard of Oz into this girl as well. I think it's sorta funny that I pointed out that she just has literal no fucking relationship to anyone in the hierarchy of the Garden, she's just sorta Just A Guy. Normally the unrelated mooks are stage 1 fodder.

SHIGAI HIGANBANA Necro-Romantic Corpse Flower Species: Rafflesia Youkai Ability: Capable of manipulating corpses The youkai of a rafflesia plant. Long ago, the Garden of Eternity was watched over by two humans. However, they were given knowledge, and upon defying their guardian's wishes, were exiled from the Garden. The garden, no longer watched over or guarded, soon grew untamed. Eventually, youkai began to spring forth from the plants. The immediate question was this: who was to take charge? Naturally, many strong youkai put forward themselves, but before any could act, a voice rang out. "It is only natural that I, the oldest of you all, should lead." The smell of rotting flesh filled the air, and Shigai Higanbana became known. Though centuries passed and the winds and animals carried away seeds to spread their descendants, the Garden had yet to be rediscovered by man. It got to the point where people began to wonder if there even was such a place. Thus, the Garden was moved to Gensokyo by complete accident, shocking everyone with its massive size. "Perhaps it moved to save itself." That is what Shigai thought to herself, getting ready to appear to her subordinates to calm them. That's when the protagonist arrived.

I don't think I need to explain what this fucking plot is about. I was like "oh this is SUCH a good plot twist" and as of now it's like. Yeah this could probably happen nowadays. But it seems TOO obvious. Also this was before I knew about The Last Comer so me being like "OMG....... Touhou Christianity....." but I also didn't want to just make Jesus, yknow? Anyways Shigai Higanbana is such a cool bitch. Her design has a little crown and she has rafflesia patterns on her skirt. She's leading the Garden and she has a Spellcard called "Higanbana's Monster". I love her so much. She's exactly the type of edge I'm not embarrassed about I WISH I could be this creative about OCs again.

TSUKIKO TORIKABUTO Poison Flower of the Moon Species: Monkshood Youkai Ability: Capable of manipulating moonlight A youkai of an aconite bloom. She has a nocturnal lifestyle, making her rather untrustworthy to the other, more sun-loving inhabitants of the garden. However, using her power, she can make moonlight stronger than its base form, sunlight. Despite the distrust of the other plants, she does care for everyone, and thus she leads a night patrol of which she is the only guard. Like Shigai and Donna, she actually knows what the garden's original name was, but she finds it unnecessary knowledge at this point. "Events in the past are in the past." Her power to control moonlight sent warning signs to the Lunar Rabbits currently living in Gensokyo, so they alerted the protagonists. And that is how she found her next guard shift under attack.

Technically, Tsukiko could be considered Enchou's direct superior. Make of that what you will. Anyways, what kind of fucking simplistic-ass name is Tsukiko? Love it when all these girls from like, the Fertile Crescent or whatever have Japanese names for some inexplicable reason. I think I get better at this later? Tsukiko really is just some bitch and I love her for it, but she's really just sorta here, isn't she. I ALSO love how I implied that literally only three people know the name of the Garden, but the only one who deems it relevant information is the leader of the whole place, and she never tells any of the inhabitants anyways. To be fair, they may not be curious in the first place.

If I had to place the Garden's inhabitants on a scale, I'd say they're on the Medicine Melancholy level of complete non-interference. As long as no one goes into the Garden, they're just completely unbothered about the whole thing. The only exception, I'd say, is Kouriko, who goes on to start selling tea blends to the Human Village. I don't know what she needs the money for, but it really does seem you can just sorta, sell whatever you want and no one will stop you. A fun fact about the Garden is that the closer you get to the side of the wall near the Barrier, the denser the forest gets until it's just a jungle devoid of light. I don't know where Shigai's getting the corpses for her attacks, but she IS near the Sanzu, geographically. Maybe that has something to do with it?

Anyways, in a few weeks' time, the most important Incident in this series will take place. And it all starts... With a meteor shower.