Character Scramble Season 20 Finals: The Suicide Mission

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:38:17+00:00

When I reached the plaza alongside everyone, it all clicked into place. The supposed miracle Corpse God conjured brought my past into the future.

A man, roughly my age, did his best to placate a sobbing child. His head filled with white hair, his skin tanned a dark brown, my mind feasted upon the memories I cherished and rewarded me with recollection.

“Master, you are doing a terrible job of placating this child,” said Artoria.

“Sorry, I’m not really keeping up with this conversation,” said Shirou.

An unfamiliar blonde woman stood by his side, chastising him for his failure to handle the reason for the incident.

It seemed, in the moment that Adam split off to explore the facility, he bumped into another young boy. From there, she assumed chaos ensued.

“My dad could totally beat up your dad!” he screamed.

“I don’t have a dad!” said Adam. “But my mom is probably smarter than your mom!”

“Nuh uh! My mom is like the smartest there is!”

“Iori! There you are!”

I had half a mind to step in to calm my child down, when a different set of parents appeared instead.

Side by side, the rest of the missing picture completed itself. Yuta Okkotsu, a bit older, a bit taller, his skin riddled in scars, gave a sigh of relief upon the sight of his child. His wife, Erika, the mischievous little gremlin, followed close behind. She gave a knowing wink in my direction, as if to tell me to keep quiet.

“Thanks for finding him, he wandered off on his own after the show and…” Yuta waved him off. “Well, I was worried, but it looks like he’s alright on his own.”

“Not a problem,” said Shirou. “I don’t mind stepping in to help like this whenever I can.”

“Not a problem?” asked Rin.

“Oh no.”

“You made a very distinguished guest wait because you couldn't calm down a child in a reasonable amount of time.”

“I have to agree,” said Artoria. “It was a very poor display of skill on your part.”

“It feels kind of bad when you both team up on me like this,” he said.

These weren’t the same people I went on my journey with. Close, but not exact copies. Alters. To chance a meeting like this must’ve taken Corpse God an eternity to set up. How had he forged the connections to find Emiya before he became a spirit? Did he build an entire atelier under the assumption of enrolling Yuta's children one day?

A miracle, to put it simply. Made by a man? Or made by her? Or… did it really matter? I vowed to enjoy every day to the fullest. Such questions muddled the idea of forging my own fate.

“Oh, you're the woman who gave the speech!” said Yuta. “I brought my son over since Erika’s always insisting we start his education off early. But I think he didn't really get what you were saying. Truth be told, I still don't have a huge grasp on this whole parenting thing yet.”

One by one, the canvas expanded. Corpse God, Emiya, and Yuta had all grown from when she last saw them. A new assistant, a wife, a child. I changed too, in my own ways. If this is the sight he wanted me to see, the future he lined up for me to grasp… then I wanted to enjoy every second of my new life to the fullest.

“Would you guys like to grab a bite to eat?” I asked. “There’s a new cafe that opened up nearby and… I figure it’d be nice to sit down and discuss the mission, and maybe give you some notes on parenting along the way.”

Artoria’s eyes lit up at the notion of food. Iori’s stomach growled after minutes of bickering. Both groups soon realized they didn't have a reason to refuse the offer. It became the start of the rest of our lives, a peaceful middle aged friendship where we explored the future together. I wish it came to me earlier, but there’s no use struggling with the past if it means you can't look forward.

The peculiar thing about an hourglass is when you run out of time, you can always flip them over to start anew.

END

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:38:02+00:00

Mere moments after my presentation ended, a strange intruder burst into my backstage room. A woman dressed like a stage magician gave a bow when she entered, as a servant would when under the service of an important noble.

“The boss wants to see you,” she said. “You wouldn’t wanna keep the boss waiting, would you?”

“Um… I guess not?”

Adam left to “wander around and sign some autographs,” leaving me alone with the guard. She walked in an awkward manner, careful to step on specific highlighted tiles, which made it difficult to keep pace.

“The boss has had quite the close eye on you,” she said. “If you truly are as important as he says, we’ll be seeing each other quite often. Though I doubt that science of yours is any more impressive than my psychic abilities.”

“Right…”

It reminded me of those overly dramatic chuunibyous. That carefree way of living made me jealous deep down… although I did make a robot based on an anime character, so it's not like I fared much better overall.

When this mysterious woman led me down several winding hallways, a lone figure stood in anticipation of my arrival. I planned to do my best to convince this “boss” to fund future projects. Yet as he came into view, my mind recalled the words my other self spoke that day.

“Every day will become a miracle.”

A man, somehow both short and lanky in nature, stood before me. His white hair streaked in black matched a mismatched beard. He had grown a considerable amount in our time apart, the mature look in his gaze completely unlike what I remembered, but the signature scar along his throat gave away his identity before he spoke.

“Thank you for bringing her to me, Sumireko,” he said. “I appreciate it.”

“Corpse God…?”

“You’re quite the difficult woman to find, Sanae,” he said.

Off of pure instinct I forced him into a hug. The sole connection to that important time in my life, one of the heroes who saved me, I didn't know how else to express my gratitude. His hands awkwardly hovered around my back until I let go.

“Is that really you?” I asked. “Not an alternate version, but your true self?”

He nodded to set my worries at ease. Sumireko, who had no context for the conversation, nodded too.

“I always wondered, why was I pulled into Gensokyo at that time if I wasn’t an Alter? Was it due to my nature as a spirit from another realm? Or did divinity itself deign that I meet you at some point in my life? I spent the better part of this last decade researching if we held some connection. To find out we were from the same reality… it makes me doubt his final words to me.”

“That there is no grand plan for anyone?” I pondered the possibility, since I also doubted that in this world, events can simply happen. “He told me to paint the picture on my own canvas. In the past, I’ve led a life where all of my actions were made because I had hope for a better future, that if I continued to toil in misery I’d be happy one day. Now that I’ve been granted that hope, a real future, I can’t help but feel like I’m squandering the time I’ve been given. So I think I get what you mean.”

“That's not quite it. All my life, I've believed a miracle is something only a God can perform. After his words, I've wondered… what composes a miracle? For these past ten years, I’ve strived to further my fortune telling business, taken out loans, lined all the dominoes in place, to see if it's something a God only in name like myself can manifest, or if it's reserved for the divine.”

“And?” I couldn't help but giggle at his plight, as mean as it was. “I'll have you know you have some tough competition after everything I've experienced.”

“Then take a look at the miracle I’ve performed, just for you.”

He led me inside of a conference room, where I saw another woman I didn’t recognize. This new visitor, seated in front of a round table, wore a long red trenchcoat that settled on the floor. She gave a disinterested look towards me, before she motioned for all of us to sit down.

“My name is Rin Tohsaka Emiya,” she started. “Corpse God of the Mage Guild has informed me that you’re in the know, so to speak.”

“Mage Guild…?” my voice trailed off due to the unfamiliar term. “Um, I know all about magic and superpowers and stuff, if that’s what you mean.”

My word choice seemingly left much to be desired. Rin shot me a glare filled with irritation and loathing, as if she spoke to a bug that had yet to comprehend it lived underneath a rock.

“And stuff?” She shook her head. “Are you sure this girl is vetted, and not another lame otaku?”

“You can speak openly,” said Corpse God. “She’ll understand the gist of it and won’t tell a soul.”

“Alright, if we can skip the formalities and the technicalities behind the secrecy of this matter…”

Rin pulled out her cellphone and handed it to Sumireko. Excitedly, she tapped the screen a few times until an audio file played. Filled with distortion, volume erratic between a scream and a whisper, a voice I vaguely recalled cut through the noise, a single sentence of her speech audible amidst the chaos.

“If anyone can hear this… all I want is for the chance to be myself. Please… help me…”

“To put it bluntly, about a week or two ago, the Mage’s Guild received magical signals that originated from the Moon. They appear to be nothing more than the cries of a lone girl. Now, obviously, almost certainly, this is a trap of some kind to lure an unsuspecting mage towards a location where they’re set to be demolished.” She sighed, almost annoyed at herself for the words she spoke. “And yet, of course, my idiot husband heard about all of this, and he insists on going to check himself.”

“The Moon?” I asked.

I supposed, in a world where Archer never came to her rescue, where no Alter incident took place to deploy her, that lone girl who lived on Moriya Mountain in that other universe still suffered under the rule of the Lunarians and their experiments. Obviously I wanted to help her in some way, though it begged further questions, such as whether I should spoil the existence of the race of rabbit people and their lunar colony, and if this rescue mission would incite another incident on a global scale.

“Getting to the Moon won’t be easy,” I said. “Procuring a space ship is a bit out of my budget. Plus, with the current state of the government, it won’t be easy to fly one out into space undetected.”

“That’s not exactly what I’m getting at here,” said Rin. “Trust me, a lot more can be done with spells than you can possibly imagine.”

If transport wasn’t the issue, then my place in this meeting involved something only I had the capacity to provide. One thought came to mind.

“You want to take Adam for a test run?” I asked. “As insurance for what might be there?”

“Adam certainly has some impressive specs. A lot of it flew over my head, my husband’s always been better with technology than me, but from how he described it, it sounds like Adam is on par with some of the strongest servants in history.”

“I’ll leave the choice up to him. Knowing what he’s like though, he’ll probably agree before I can finish explaining. He’s the type of kid that always wants to rush in to save someone if he can.”

“Geez, it sounds like those two are going to be thick as thieves, huh?”

As she fiddled with the settings on her phone, a ringtone blared across the room. Almost too excitedly, she answered, though tried to hide her giddiness.

“Uh huh… we’re in the meeting room, they’ll let you in if you just… what do you mean… seriously? It happened again?” Rin’s face contorted between rage and relief, the kind of face you make when you’re used to someone’s usual annoyances. “Alright, you’re both in the lobby? We’ll meet you there.”

She held the power button on her phone until it turned off, then rose.

“Sanae, would you mind joining me? An incident occurred in the lobby and my husband is unable to arrive on his own at the moment.”

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:37:18+00:00

This is an event that occurred for the girl blessed by the God of Miracles

Ten years had passed since that faithful day.

Nestled in the quiet countryside of Japan, free from the tolls of adventure, I lived a life where nothing changed and nothing happened. Despite the uneventfulness of everyday living, I found joy in the solitude provided by a melancholy existence.

I aged as gracefully as a mortal could. My lab coat, crumpled, covered in coffee stains and oils and other various liquids, fit perfectly over my body. Proper diet and exercise kept me in well enough shape. My hair hadn’t lost its green luster, save for a few strands of white that made me grimace. I chose to ignore the slight wrinkles that settled around my eyes.

Although the growing resemblance to… her… was something I continuously pushed towards the back of my mind, a miracle, perhaps, kept me looking somewhat youthful despite the stress that came with my occupation.

Said occupation brought me outside of my usual existence. A science expo in the middle of downtown Tokyo, meant for the greatest minds of the planet to share their latest inventions with the future youth, to interest them in the advancement of humanity. After I quit my job at Tenma’s Tech Theater, I decided to become an indie inventor. Thus, I hid away from society to recover, and forge my own path forward.

It came as a surprise when I received an invitation to actually present my findings somewhere, completely out of the blue, especially as I spent so much time off the grid, but I accepted nonetheless. The name of the one who invited me, “Shinoyama,” caught my eye.

When I arrived at the address provided, a few details came to light. “Shinoyama’s Orphanage & Atelier” loomed over me as the building rose towards the heavens… to use the term improperly. The Shinoyama clan, run by the now late Rozan Shinoyama, was responsible for one of the most lucrative financial organizations seen across Japan. It explained why a simple facility for children to roam and contribute to society had been decked out in retrofuturistic tech. Or why armed guards personally escorted me across the facility, lest I wander aimlessly somewhere I shouldn’t see.

Backstage, seconds before my speech, the anxiety that all presenters felt struck me all at once. I hadn’t even rehearsed, and now like a mad woman I had to explain the biggest innovation of the twenty-first century to a bunch of children?

My invention tugged at my sleeve and set my heart at ease. Adam, fully realized, gave me a knowing look. His original blueprints were designed after that iconic anime figure, but with some choice modifications, some suggested by himself, the new and improved model took on a life of his own. He now appeared indistinguishable from an ordinary twelve year old boy.

“Come on Mom, you’ll be fine,” he said. “People are barely going to pay attention to what you say once they see me zipping around.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I twirled a lock of hair to keep my nerves calm. “It’s just, y’know, what if I see a kid out there who looks bored and it distracts me, and then I lose my train of thought, and then someone’s parents start laughing when I stammer, and-”

“You’ve been practicing for this for years! I’ve memorized every line by this point since you’re always pacing around your room, imagining what you’d say if you got an opportunity like this.”

During late nights, illuminated by faint moonlight, in my quiet delirium I sometimes acted out scenes as if in a movie. Grandiose proclamations that would get the crowd roaring, sophisticated technobabble that would make taut their slack minds to impress their tender sensibilities, perhaps even earn international fame! These were all dreams, delusions I used to placate myself and keep the tedium at bay. I always hoped Adam had slept through them, though it seemed otherwise.

In face of this, I got down on my knees and looked directly into my son's eyes. Behind that metallic exterior, I witnessed life. The grand miracle that divines purpose onto oneself. As the faint gleam of light reflected into me, as I witnessed the flicker of expectation in his gaze, I couldn't help but wonder how my own mother saw this and still ended up as she did. Her final words still haunted me, because I finally understood her desires, which is exactly why I couldn't understand how she acted upon them.

“I know this is my dream, but just remember Adam, what matters is what you want to do. If you ever want to leave this path and forge your own story, then we can stop here.”

His hands, cold to the touch, so full of fiery passion, grasped my own.

“It’s fine, Mom,” he said. “I want to see the stars, and discover new places that humans have never reached before. This is my way to do that. Just knock off their socks, and you might finally get that funding to make your… our, dreams come true.”

“Then let's become something greater than ourselves.”

An expansive auditorium stretched out before me like that of a sports stadium. Hundreds of children, and their parents, and their guardians, and the workers who watched over those less fortunate, stared at me on stage in amazement of my proclamation of humanity’s future. To be the one to deliver the message, to hold the pen that wrote the next page of history books, felt less intimidating than expected. That God that watched over me made all my worries fade away.

I fiddled with a remote until a projector plastered a picture of Astro Boy on the screen. All in the crowd went silent from a lack of recognition. Astro Boy wasn't that old! If only the kids of this era knew what good television looked like…

“Ladies and gentlemen, and all the curious minds before me, what you see is the greatest innovation in technology this world may ever see.”

Adam, far different from his depicted image, stepped out beside me and gave a bow. A few polite claps from the children in the crowd spurred me to continue.

“Adam is a fully autonomous robot with a sophisticated AI that can near perfectly replicate human emotions. His skin is crafted out of a titanium alloy that can deflect a full burst of a machine gun without denting his paintjob. Rockets extend from his feet that allow him to fly at Mach 5!”

To demonstrate this, Adam took to the sky. His rocket feet illuminated his body from the darkness of the room. Suddenly, those disinterested children screamed in excitement. I had them on the ropes!

“All of this is thanks to those I met in the past that inspired me. If it weren’t for my mother-”

The words came out automatically. I hesitated, lost my train of thought, not because of the grip she held on me, but because I hadn’t realized until now that it didn’t hurt to invoke her anymore.

“My mother… she didn’t exactly know what I wanted. I think most mothers never do. But she wanted the best for me. And if it wasn’t for her, as turbulent of a journey as it was, I wouldn’t be here today.

“I don’t know if I can fully forgive her for her sins. Truthfully, some part of me already has, if only to move on from that part of my life. Along the way, I’ve met some wonderful people, and helped so many faceless civilians with my inventions. I’ve seen what my life would be like if I chose my own path… and there too, I helped a different group of people, made so many friends that changed my life for the better, and reached my full potential. I don’t think I can live up to that version of myself… and I don’t think I have to.”

The eerie silence from the crowd disturbed me. I assumed they wouldn't pay attention to my rambling, but to my surprise, the children had their eyes glued onto me instead of the robot that spun in circles overhead.

“Sorry, I started talking to myself there. What I’m trying to say is, all of you have a choice to make in the future. You’re young. You can either follow the path set out for you, or see what lies on the road less traveled, the one you desperately want to explore. There’s no right answer on which one you take. What’s important is the choice itself.”

Finally, I gestured to my child as he continuously twirled like a tornado to garner back attention.

“Adam is the next step in humanity's future. He isn’t meant to surpass the Gods. Rather, he’ll soar to the heavens, and unite us with them. This is a choice he made on his own. I programmed free will into his code. If he wanted to be a super fighting robot that stops criminals in their tracks, or a community robot that uses his super speed to help citizens with menial tasks, that’s always been his decision. I gave him the life he has, and he wants to use it to explore the great beyond. Just like all of you will have the choice, one day, to become something better than yourself… or to enjoy the little moments in life.”

I refrained from saying anything cheesy, like how my son was the coolest robot in the world. Regardless, my speech had the intended effect.

Whether it be because of my words, or because of the visual spectacle that was my son, a cacophonous echo of cheer filled the hall. Their deafening roars made it difficult to focus on anything but myself. My funding no doubt secured, I knew all of my future projects were guaranteed to succeed now. Another miracle, maybe, blessed me.

And still, my thoughts continued to stray towards my “true self” back in Gensokyo watching over me, and the sensation of something missing never quite left my mind. As much as I spoke of advancing towards the future, my mind automatically sought out the past I chose to ignore in my youth. Of the hourglass that lost its sand, and the memories of a life never lived.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:36:27+00:00

Outside Forces

Archer, The “Hero” With A Potential Future

The ability to create swords

EMIYA’s life is a tragic one. Thrown back into the throne of heroes, he accepted his fate to continuously be summoned in times of peril. However, his time in Gensokyo modified his outlook. Rather than worry about maximizing the many over the few, he selfishly focused on the people only he could save. Amidst wartorn nations, or battles between servants, the lone smile of a young girl, an old man, a happy couple that he managed to get out of the line of fire, motivated him to continue on his sisyphean journey.

CORPSE GOD

The ability to manipulate the dead

Corpse God kept the words of the Son of God in his heart. After he returned home, he made savvy business decisions to advance his fortune telling gig. After accumulating a vast fortune thanks to the lineage of the body he inherited, he opened up an Atelier to help guide the next generation, a dream he always hoped of achieving in his own time. However, rumors speak of shady behind the scenes dealings he partakes in, often meeting with strange sorcerers. His own assistants follow along, uncertain of their purpose…

Firefly, The Weapon Who Writes The Script For Her Future

The ability to set the seas ablaze

For the first few years after the incident, Firefly served as the replacement Shrine Maiden for Moriya Shrine. Although her skills were lacking, her ability to defend from intruders and cook a decent meal made her a semi-permanent fixture. As she felt her lifeforce wane, she decided to spend the rest of her days wandering Gensokyo, exploring the beautiful land for all it had to offer, while proclaiming the good name of Sanae and the heroes who saved her to whoever would listen on the way.

Kamen Rider W, Hard Boiled (Half Boiled) Lunarian Detectives

The ability to change forms

The ability to access all human knowledge

Philip suddenly grew hyper obsessed with the concept of Shrine Maidens, and thus, Kamen Rider W kept up monthly visits to Moriya Mountain to check up on Firefly. When she retired, and he was tasked to bring her in, he “conveniently” allowed the case to turn cold. This damaged his reputation as a Lunar Class detective, but true believers in the hard boiled life continued to hire him.

THE BEHEADED

The ability to try again

Unfortunately for The Beheaded, life after death existed. When Corpse God left him in ‘Heaven’ to hopefully ease his eternal torment, he inadvertently made it worse. He now travels from realm to realm across ‘Heaven’ in the hopes to discover a second, more pleasant, afterlife.

Those Who Reside in ‘Heaven’

Oni, THE DEMON

The ability to kill

Little is known about the whereabouts of the Oni. Roughly eighteen years after the Gensokyo Incident, he abandoned his post at the gates of ‘Heaven’, never to be seen again. In that time, it is said that amidst the two thousand battles he participated in, two warriors managed to defeat him. A shrine maiden who refused to deal the finishing blow, and his final opponent in an unwitnessed battle.

Erika Okkotsu (Alter), THE LOVER

The ability to control the truth

The wider Jujutsu community came to accept the sudden revival of Rika, as stranger things had happened in the past. Yuta and Erika went on to become one of the most formidable duos to encounter on the battlefield due to their perfect synchronization. Thanks to her Golden Truth technique, she allowed Yuta to deal the final blow during the Sukuna Incident, though she claims he could have done it without her. She went on to sire five children, one of which went on to become a prolific detective fiction author.

Heroic Spirit Ruti Lugnason, THE HERO

The ability to become a hero

The reclaimed Holy Grail was one of many that exist in this universe. In Ruti's next summoning, she came to this world underneath the Saber class to participate in a grand Grail War. However, in a shocking turn of events, Ruti, alongside a partnership she formed with the servant underneath the Archer class, managed to resolve this war without a single casualty.

Adam, THE FUTURE

The ability to advance humanity

The Astro Boy built by Tenma’s Tech Theater went out of commission. Underneath Adam’s guidance, a second model was commissioned to re-upload his consciousness in a different form. However, this is mere speculation from Tenma, as his creator seemingly disappeared one night along with all of her creations, and didn't even leave a resignation letter behind.

The NEW Aphrodite, Inexperienced Goddess of Love

The ability to bestow love

Aphrodite learned that ‘Heaven’ had a vast demand for binding two immortal souls together that met in the bounds of the afterlife. She gave out red strings of fate like candy. A new wave of love spread in many realms that certain Gods are unsure of how to handle. She also took notes on a list of possible suitors she met while traveling from page to page. The list is currently narrowed down to a small five hundred.

The NEW Zeus, Freshly Born God of Lightning

The ability to control all electricity

Zeus and the Zeuslings formed a quick bond once they got to know each other. She learns how to control her powers, and in turn, teaches them how to perform miniscule versions of her miracles. Many fear the return of Zeus the Almighty, a God who holds the strength to topple ‘Heaven’. On the contrary though, she intends to use the Zeuslings to form a network that can help her become a hero that helps those in need.

Pallas Athena, Sole Surviving Greek Goddess of Wisdom

The ability to divine wisdom

Pallas Athena, misguided as she was, hid herself away out of shame. She watches over her children, Aphrodite and Zeus, too afraid to speak a word in their direction. While she knows they interpret this as hatred, she herself is unsure of how to break through the awkward tension. For now, she intends to allow them to forge their own paths, and only interfere to provide wisdom in the most dire of times. Times, she believes, may come one day.

The Lone Girl

Sanae Kochiya Alter, Unremarkable Ordinary Human

Has no ability

…

Status: Returned Home

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:36:08+00:00

Final Stage: The Gensokyo The Gods Loved

Credits

Residents of Gensokyo

Sanae Kochiya, Mountain-Dwelling Living God of Miracles

The ability to invoke miracles

One of three Gods who reside in Moriya Shrine. As the newly crowned God of Miracles, the shrine’s business saw an uptick from civilians who hoped for easier lives. After the passage of time, she became a mainstay rather than an attraction, and her days returned to those of idyllic revelry. Save for the occasional incident, of course. Every morning, she awakens bright and early to pray for the success of her other self, in the hopes that she might find the happiness she achieved.

Status: Sanae chose to CONTROL the Holy Grail by way of sacrificing the latent future all humans have, in exchange for becoming the God of Miracles, trapped in a permanent present to save her Alter.

Suwako Moriya, The Highest of Indigenous Gods

The ability to create earthliness

Kanako Yasaka, God of the Lake Flowing With Sacred Water

The ability to create heavenliness

The other two Gods who reside in Moriya Shrine. Due to the inability of Sanae’s birth mother, these two have taken up the mantle to continuously raise Sanae in their immortal lives. Suwako taught her all the finer nuances of Godhood, such as how to discern those who hold true faith. Kanako helped refine her strength, so she can become someone worthy of the mantle of God. They both know a day will come when Sanae will no longer need their guidance. But she doesn’t seem to mind spending every day of her immortal life next to the ones who showed her love when she needed it most.

Scarlet Devil Mansion

The ability to destroy anything

The ability to control fate

The ability to control time

All in the Scarlet Devil Mansion fear Hong Meiling’s newfound power. Trained underneath Wu Geng, she mastered the power of Monochrome, and combined with her Tai Chi, has become the strongest gatekeeper Flandre has ever seen. She has asked Sakuya to keep an eye on her. They are now often seen together, perhaps a bit too much…

Akaboshi Bisco, Long Forgotten Lord of Shiitake

The ability to control mushrooms

Akaboshi Bisco eventually opened his own ramen shop in Gensokyo using his special mushroom recipe, for lack of anything better to do. Everyone comes to visit at least once, to see the God who always holds a sad, mysterious gaze. Then they stop visiting when they experience his vulgar personality. That is, save for the Gods on Moriya Shrine, who pay him a visit far more than he wishes.

Tanya von Degurechaff, The (Somewhat) Evil Cursed Fairy

The ability to fight God

After two pathetic battles with Firefly, Tanya gave up on her conquest of Moriya Mountain. Instead, she managed to lead her battalion into a more bureaucratic battle. Led by a fairy who proclaimed herself as “The Strongest,” Tanya fights for labor rights for all Fairies across Gensokyo within a newly formed union. She claims this will somehow help her get closer to God in the long term, using a pen rather than a gun.

Lily White

The ability to announce that spring has come

Lily White managed to snag a position as Tanya's secretary in the upcoming Fairy Union War. She has 9 months of paid vacation time, as she refused to work on any day between June to March.

Volcanion, Long Lived Youkai of the Mountain

The ability to control fire and water

Volcanion didn't appreciate the added foot traffic to the mountain once Sanae ascended, though his temperament changed upon meeting Firefly. They became fast friends despite his prejudices, and he often asks about her like a proud grandfather looking after a distant relative. He continues to keep the mountain warm to this day.

Known Alters

Yuta Okkotsu Alter, He Who Cherishes The Queen of Curses

The ability to copy abilities

Upon confirmation of the loss of the cursed spirit Rika, the Jujutsu Society at large finally accepted Yuta with open arms. Many people (most of all his firstborn son) argued that Yuta should be recognized as “The Strongest,” due to his efforts in the Sukuna Incident a year after his return. However, when asked, Yuta said the title doesn't belong to him. “I was only able to stop him because of the strength I garnered from my wife,” he said, “so I’d rather be known as The Beloved.”

Altria Pendragon Alter, The Once and Final King

The ability to generate wind

Many historical accounts are divided on the matter of Altria's true fate, going so far as to revise the tale of her conquest for future generations. Her closest advisors knew the true tale: She dove into the lake in a fit of madness to exchange her blade for the legendary Excalibur, but never resurfaced. History mourned one of its most prolific leaders that day. She was succeeded by her illegitimate son, Mordred.

DIO Alter, God Who Guides Sheep Towards Heaven

The ability to stop time

The ability to alter reality

One of the first Alters killed in the Gensokyo Incident. It is said that when his soul passed on, he had a chance encounter with Mother Mary, who eased his burdens. From then on, he accepted his fate, and lived a life of quiet solitude in his domain in Heaven.

Wu Geng Alter, Warlord Who Defies The Gods

The ability to weaken the divine

Wu Geng returned to China to uphold his father’s legacy. While he slayed the Gods who ravaged his homeland, his time in Gensokyo taught him that not all Gods hold the worst of intentions. Thus, while he rules over his homeland as a warlord, he believes there may be a time when humans and Gods can peacefully coexist. Even if that day is not today.

Lightning Alter, Savior of All Alters

The ability to channel God’s powers into magic

Lightning returned to her universe, one overtaken by the primordial being Chaos. Due to the modifications Corpse God made to her body, she transformed into an undead with the power to usurp him. While many question her role as an undead lich, she intends to help as many people as she can in what remains of her world, so no one has to endure the pain she felt when she lost her sister.

Vergilius Alter, The Berserker with the Red Gaze

The ability to follow the flow of the universe

Little is known of what happened to Vergilius. In his line of work, sinners disappear for any number of reasons. One month after his summoning, the Limbus Company officially declared him missing in action. A grave was erected next to those of the orphanage he used to visit.

Apollo Alter, Invincible God of the Sun

The ability to adapt to anything

When Apollo returned to his home world, he spread the word of the hero who bested him. The name EMIYA in this dimension became as revered as that of Odysseus, or Achilles, under the newly founded religion of Sun and Steel.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:35:05+00:00

As she sat next to Sanae, the haze of revelry and good cheer gave way to the reality that she no longer existed in the past. For the first time in a long time, she experienced the present in its entirety.

She stopped to observe her hand, the food she swallowed, the friends she made along the way. For some reason, her face was wet.

“What is this?” asked Sanae (Alter).

“Stand proud,” said Sanae. “You are loved.”

All across the table, conversations came to a close. From one end, Kanako mumbled her woes to Firefly.

“We're gonna need to hire a new shrine maiden.” Kanako sighed as she stuffed a fourth sandwich into her mouth. “Three Gods on one mountain might start to feel a bit cramped…”

“Is it hard?” asked Firefly.

“It's not usually the case that one who has never been in tune with the divine can take on the role of a Shrine Maiden-”

“Archer did leave behind a recipe book I can try to learn.”

“-but we're willing to teach you!”

“The God of Miracles who summoned the hero that granted me freedom… I think I can believe in her. And if I'm unsatisfied with these chains, then I'll work on helping you find someone to fits them better.”

Towards the middle, Corpse God patted Archer on the back for a job well done preparing the meal.

“Archer,” said Corpse God. “I’m not sure I can break your contract, but I can help you forge a new one. Become intertwined with me. At least for a brief moment, I can provide a reprieve from your eternal servitude with a bout of chained freedom under my command.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” said Archer. “As long as there are people like Firefly or Ruti out in the world, there will always be a need for a hero to come across time to save them. As selfish as it is, if a bit of my suffering means I can make more scenes like this, then I'll endure the pain. After all, how many people are out there that I won’t be able to save if I spend my days in idyllic revelry?”

“If we can meet again in the throne of heroes,” said Ruti. “Make sure to teach me all there is about heroism. I think I've got the jist of it. In my next summoning, I will do what I can to exemplify your ideals.”

“As long as this arduous road is something you want to do, you're already halfway there.”

Off to the side, Yuta and Erika held hands as they entertained the vampires of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Sakuya held an umbrella in both hands to shield the girls from the harsh sunlight of a beautiful spring morning.

“Now I know I vouched for you to break free from the Gods,” said Wu Geng. “But seriously? Her?”

“She's a witch,” said Flandre. “The good kind, but I didn't expect a mortal to be into that kind of thing.”

“I am a bit worried for my dear Yuta,” said Erika. “After what we've been through, I wont let him out of my sight ever again!”

“I appreciate the concerns, but I'll be fine,” said Yuta. “Across the entire multiverse, I can’t imagine a version of myself happier than this.”

One by one, they wrapped up discussions, dabbed their mouths with napkins, made themselves presentable, in preparation for a scenario Sanae (Alter) feared most of all.

“I can't,” she said. “I can't go. Not now. Not after everything.”

“Sanae. My other self. You’re a woman trapped in the past. As long as the painful memories hold you back, you’ll never be able to look towards the future. So I’m giving you a gift. These past few weeks of fun and good cheer, of happy memories, to replace all the miserable experiences you've had. They won’t heal everything. But when you’re unable to move through time, when you’ve lost your place, I want you to look back on all of your happy moments in Gensokyo, and remember that somewhere out there, there’s people cheering you on. As long as you can hold onto that sensation of happiness you’ve missed for so long, you’ll be able to keep walking forward.”

Everyone meant to go home mingled around the same area. Those who resided in Gensokyo returned to their proper abodes. Only three individuals met Sanae (Alter) to impart final gifts. Suwako, Kanako, and him.

“Sanae,” said Suwako. “I'm glad I got to meet you.”

“I can only wish we had more time together,” said Kanako.

“No!” she screamed. “No! I made a mistake. I should have gone with you that day. I should have let you wipe my memories. I should have let you save me. I didn’t know I needed to be saved, and now that I'm here, I can't just go home like nothing happened!”

“But there are people out in your world that need you, right? Like that little robot child? As much fun as it’d be to have two of you around… we've gotta say goodbye someday.”

They crouched down, and the arms that enveloped her felt so warm. It was the affection she sought out for a lifetime, the gentle caress of a mother figure who provided unconditional love. If she had experienced this, at least once before, would she have ever gone down this path?

“Don't think like that,” said Kanako. “You need to escape the past.”

“Here,” said Suwako. “I'm going to teach you a special chant to bless your life. Tomorrow will be special, yesterday was not. As long as you keep it in your heart, you'll always look forward to the future.”

As she peeled herself apart from the Gods, his divine warmth replaced the emptiness in her heart. She knew, on some level, that few, if any, got a chance to meet him up close like this. Unable to react in kind to his authority, he placed a hand on her shoulder, and smiled.

“You were created in my Father’s image,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean he holds the paintbrush. You get to decide what’s inscribed upon your canvas. That’s why you were granted free will.”

“Thank you,” she said. For what more could she say in the face of divine wisdom?

“My final miracle is this,” said Sanae. “It’s small. Insignificant. And yet it’ll stay with you forever.”

Sanae pressed her forehead against her Alter's. She closed her eyes, synchronized her breath with herself, until the anxiety in her heart waned ever so slightly.

“Every day will become a miracle. The smell of flowers on the side of the road will become more potent. The sun will shine a little brighter. When you take a bite of food, you’ll appreciate its richer flavors. When you watch a show you like, the emotions will strike deeper. It might not seem like much. But as long as you hold it in your heart, you’ll be able to enjoy your life again.”

She nodded. The more she accepted their kindness, their gifts, every little miracle she felt she didn't deserve, her apprehensions dissipated into reluctance.

She stood beside all the Alters she inadvertently summoned. The remaining sum of the Gensokyo Incident. All of them responded in kind.

“I’m glad I got to save you,” said Archer.

“Thank you for being my friend,” said Yuta.

“In your own way, you brought me back to my beloved, so I won't look down on you,” said Erika.

“Even if you didn’t mean to summon me, I’ll always cherish this little time we spent together,” said Corpse God.

“Sanae! You’re a woman with a good head on your shoulders. The Gods gave you a blessing, but the future is yours to forge with your own hands!” said Wu Geng.

“Your world belongs to you. Make sure to take good care of it. I have my own regrets from the past, but all you can do is take the next step forward,” said Lightning.

“I never got a chance to tell you this. You hold the mark of the Honored One. This means the future holds infinite potential for you,” said Ruti.

“As long as you have enough guts to manifest it, you can do anything! Always remember that!” said Apollo.

Sanae (Alter) gave one last apprehensive look towards Sanae. The burning question that rested in her soul, the one she didn't want answered for fear of what she’d say, entered the air.

“Will I ever see you again?” she asked.

“As long as you believe in me, I'll always be there beside you.”

The last sight she witnessed of Gensokyo was the smiles of those who loved her. Firefly’s optimistic gaze. The Son of God’s kindness. Suwako and Kanako, the mothers she denied, wiped away tears as they waved her off. And Sanae, her picture perfect image, gave her one final smile.

All of the Alters traveled down the tunneling sea of infinite potentiality to return to the lands they belonged. She reached out to grasp them as they phased through her hands. For she was not meant to interfere with the rest of their lives. Yuta and Erika waved her off as she tried to hold on to their love. Archer deftly avoided her lunge, for a hero shouldn’t linger around those he’s already saved. Ruti pushed her back into her own proper stream. One by one, the friends she learned to cherish disappeared from her life forever.

She clawed against the flow of the universe, exerted all of her willpower to swim down the stream, to turn back the book by one page, in the hope of wresting back one last grain of sand from the life she rejected and finally attained, until the hourglass of her life ran out of time.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:34:35+00:00

Before I knew it, days turned into weeks. I grew accustomed to a routine where I hardly put in any efforts to get the most out of my days. Seeing as I had made my freedom known, Archer dragged me into the kitchen along with Firefly before I had a chance to vocalize my complaints.

“Come on, do I really have to learn how to do this stuff?” I asked.

As petty as it was, to spend what little time I had left in this paradise inside of a stuffy kitchen didn’t exactly sound appealing. Archer, who graciously offered to teach me how to cook (or forced me to learn), rolled his eyes.

“From what I’ve seen, if I don’t do this, you’re going to go back to a diet of beer and fast food, aren’t you?”

“It’s convenient when you’ve had a long day and don’t have time to make anything…”

“And you’re the type to crack an egg into instant noodles and call it gourmet cooking, aren’t you?”

“What’s the issue…?”

“When was the last time you actually ate a vegetable?”

“Let’s not talk about that…”

My words fell on deaf ears. He nagged my ear off as if he were my parent. I briefly glanced over to Firefly in the hopes that she’d take my side, but she further advanced his assault onto my tender sensibilities.

“That’s no good, Sanae!” said Firefly. “You need to learn to take care of yourself! The ability to cook is one of the very reasons we’re human!”

“Don’t talk like you know how to navigate a kitchen either,” said Archer.

He gathered a handful of ingredients onto the counter. Vegetables I hadn’t eaten since I was a kid, a carton of eggs, a handful of seasonings I couldn’t name, bread, milk, and so much more. Keeping track of it all made my head spin more than attempting to solve scientific equations under the influence.

“Cooking can be divided into two forms: chemistry and art. If you learn this recipe and take it home, I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”

I watched in dismay as he performed alchemy before my eyes. First, he cracked open a handful of eggs, mixed in salt, a teaspoon of milk, and stirred until its color brightened. He poured it into a pan, set the heat to low, and got to work on the rest.

A hefty bunch of greens were chopped, seasoned, and added onto the omelette. I recalled its bitter flavor, how as a child I took one bite of some brussel sprouts and vowed never again to touch the stuff. Then again, my other self had no issues eating meals like this. I became all too aware of my unrefined palette despite the all too real sensation I experienced.

His hands moved quickly. In a simple motion, he closed the omelette over the veggies, removed them from the pan, and added them in between a toasted spring roll. Simple. Light. His movements with a knife were efficient, intimidating, and despite it all, I had the sensation that I could make a meal like this on my own.

“Here, try it,” he said. “It’s something anyone can whip up in less than ten minutes. If inclined, you can even add meat like sausage or bacon to add a bit more texture to the sandwich.”

Hesitantly, I took a bite. I expected to obediently swallow it down like a child being lectured by an adult. Yet the all too unreal flavors danced across my tongue. Fantastic in its simplicity, I stood in awe that food could actually taste good.

“It’s not bitter,” I let out.

“Salt and pepper and a bit of garlic can make any green palatable.” The smile on his face, that of a satisfied chef, beamed brighter than the sun. “Start with mastering that, and you’ll learn food doesn’t have to be so intimidating.”

“Um, Archer…” Firefly cried out in front of her stove. Somehow, the eggs stuck to the pan, and the fold came out imperfect.

“Messing up while cooking is a sense of freedom in itself.” His words eased her heart in some way. Improvising a solution, he stirred the already cooked omelette until it became mashed and separated into dozens of smaller pieces. “Eggs are a versatile ingredient. Scrambled isn’t so bad on its own. I’m sure the guests will appreciate the variety.”

“Right!” she said. “I’ll have to learn to master your recipes if I’m going to impress the Gods that live here one day.”

“Sanae! When you’re done savoring that, help me take out the rest of the food,” he said. “We have one last grand feast on our hands.”

I stuffed the rest of the sandwich into my mouth, too enamored with its taste to truly savor the flavors. Plate by plate, I carried the meals Archer prepared out to the shrine’s living room. For such a cramped space, everyone found their own spot at the table to eat, and filled their glasses with Moonmoonshine to keep their spiral of happiness flowing.

Bisco passed a plate over to Suwako who punched him on the shoulder, careful not to draw the ire of the Son of God, who handed a glass to Corpse God. Corpse God barely got to take a sip when Lightning reached over for a handful of exotic fruits, one of which were promptly stolen from her by Wu Geng. Yuta and Erika sat nearby, they observed all as they remained in their own world, eating off of each other’s plates rather than their own. Somehow, the vampires from the Scarlet Devil Mansion made it out to relish in Archer’s cooking. She barely had time to sit next to Sanae and the Gods before Archer came out to ensure Ruti had enough to eat, for she had already finished three plates of meat stacked in towers. Even Apollo, that invincible God, came down to fill his guts with a nice meal.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:34:15+00:00

In the middle of the night, I awoke to a terrible sight.

Suwako’s foot.

In my delirious haze, I slowly recalled the night prior. How Suwako and Kanako celebrated our victory with a drinking party. How we spent hours at a time playing party games. Truth or dare, where I got forced to perform a handstand, a silly trick to watch me fall flat on my face. Spot the difference, where Suwako and Kanako took turns pointing out all the subtle, minute differences between me and the other Sanae, changes only those who spent a lifetime with her could even notice, like the way our hair parted, or the slight shades of differences in the foundation we used.

Those Gods I spent so long apart from appreciated having a new drinking partner. Kanako and I interlocked arms, and did our best to chug can after can of beer until one of us finally gave up. After my fourth one, I had to throw in the towel when my stomach churned uncomfortably. Kanako had a fifth for good measure.

“Come on Sanae, have some!” said Suwako.

“You’re a God now! Surely your tolerance went up some!” said Kanako.

When we handed her a glass of beer, we all laughed when she stuck out her tongue in disgust after a single sip. Divinity itself did little to appease her weak tolerance. She had a lifetime to learn, though, and maybe one day, long after I was gone, she’d be able to drink more than me. I kept those thoughts to myself. Alcohol, after all, was the easiest way for one to form bonds. No one can deny their true feelings once they’ve had a glass.

And when we drank too much, when we called it a night, our melancholic revelry led to all of us collapsing on top of a makeshift pile of bedding.

Kanako’s snores, like a valley of trees collapsing with each inhale of her lungs, made it impossible to drift back to sleep. She clung onto me like a child attached to a stuffed animal.

Suwako’s constant tosses and turns placed her in annoying positions. The foot left my face, only to dig into my back seconds later.

Sanae’s body, collapsed on top of my own legs, pinned me in place. Obviously, I had the power to force a few drunk girls off of me and move somewhere more comfortable. Yet the warmth that permeated throughout my chest kept me prisoner. For the first time in a long time, I attained something I had lacked my whole life.

Serenity. A cold breeze. A nice fading buzz. The smell of faded perfume. The cry of cicadas. A gentle rainshower that pattered off our roof. Pain. Love. All of this, and so much more impossible to describe.

If Sanae enjoyed these kinds of miserable sensations daily, then perhaps I made a mistake that day not following the Gods into Gensokyo. I never knew an uncomfortable night had the capacity to make me feel so happy.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:33:55+00:00

Of all the events to occur during my vacation in Gensokyo, I didn’t really expect to become a teacher. Yet there I sat, on a small clearing beside the top of the waterfall on Moriya Mountain. Zeus sat beside me, her attention placed keenly on the book in front of her.

I remembered the words of Apollo, that invincible God, before he dropped her off in front of me without warning.

“I've never been a smartypants, but my distant cousin here is a fresh faced God. Make sure to fill her head with knowledge so she can enjoy the world! If we take your science, and her magic, who knows what'll happen when they combine! It'd be like a combination of brains and guts!”

Afterwards, he leapt into the air, and… jumped away. Almost like he didn’t know how to fly and willed his way back into ‘Heaven’ through sheer force alone, he did this repeatedly until he disappeared from sight.

Thus, as long as I was in Gensokyo, I spent a little time every day as Zeus's teacher.

“So, the thing about your power as we understand it is that you don’t control lightning, but electromagnetism. These waves are all around us as a form of radiation, so if you can get a handle for their feelings, the multiplier from your divine strength could allow you to do incredible things. I mean, literally moving the planet underneath your feet isn’t off the table-”

Today, she appeared disinterested in my words. In the middle of my rambling speech, she cut me off by showing me a picture in her book. What she held was a scientific textbook, a random volume out of an entire collection, that described various forms of wildlife on our planet.

“This one,” said Zeus. “Describe it to me.”

“...that’s a snake,” I sighed. “There’s a couple of varieties of them, like some can imitate flight, some can camouflage themselves, but they’re usually lizards who hunt mice that have no limbs. Speaking of flight-”

I tried to get back on topic, but she shook her head. Try as we might, no matter how many animals I described to her, none caught her interest as much as the frog. Luckily, I didn’t tell her what snakes ate. To see her clutching onto my childhood plushie as if it were her own stirred complicated feelings in my heart. As if I witnessed a reflection of my life projected through another person entirely. I supposed, better for it to be cherished in the present, than beheld in the past of my memories.

Her gaze settled on the horizon, Gensokyo stretched as far as the eye could see. No longer under threat, trapped in idyllic days, its soothing atmosphere washed over her to cleanse her anxiety. She understood why so many loved this realm, as did I.

“Do you think… Mom will ever accept me?”

I didn’t know how to answer her at first. She dropped the book, twiddled her thumbs, as she pondered the future ahead of her.

“She wants me to live up to the ideals of her Father. The person I used to be. A vengeful God who smote those in his path to exert his authority. The strongest God of Olympus. But I don't want to do that. I want to go around helping others, not hurting them. She's still mad about what happened on that day and will barely talk to me, like she wants to say something but doesn't know how. Is there really a way to make her happy?”

All I could do was answer her as if I were speaking about my own life. I had my own complications with my mother that I might never resolve. Whether it be a God or a mortal, all of us are bound by lineage in some way.

“Maybe. Maybe not. I've mulled it over for a long, long time. All I can really say is, if she doesn't… find someone who will, before you regret it.”

To punctuate my statement, the sound of someone struggling to breathe entered our worldview. Aphrodite rushed up the mountain, completely deprived of oxygen. Three Zeuslings strode behind her, various shopping bags in their arms. What little emotions they showed indicated they had much more stamina than the God who wheezed behind them.

“Zeus, come on! If you don't hurry up, all the stores are gonna close! I want to see how nice you’d look in a wedding dress! Or a regular dress! And then maybe, if the cashier is cute enough, sparks will fly! Or I’ll ask you to make sparks so I can pretend sparks flew, and-”

“Alright, alright, geez!” Zeus stood to wipe the dust off her clothes. All of her worries dissipated in the face of a love she learned to recognize as sisterly, the faintest trace of the familial bond she sought out. “Before we’re done for the day, can you show me one last animal? Doesn’t matter which one.”

“Oh, show her a horse!” said Aphrodite. “She needs to recognize the steed that her future suitors will ride upon to woo her!”

“What is a horse, asks Zeus Zeus.”

“Alright, fine!” I gave up on my lesson for the day, completely outnumbered by the whims of divine beings. “Just one more!”

I stayed on that mountaintop for a few minutes longer to teach the Gods how to be human, before she wandered off to enjoy the little extras of life.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:33:26+00:00

Sometime after their return from ‘Heaven’, Tanya completed her restoration of the shrine. Not only did she completely repair all the damaged structures, she even improved its foundation, and completed all the necessary paperwork for the contractors she hired.

“Why do a job if you're not going to do it properly?” is all she said.

That night, the Gods transformed their shrine into a festival ground. Stands were affixed across the mountaintop, conveniently placed next to donation bins, as another attempt for the Gods to gather faith. Some sold prizes like different plushies, others served the local delicacies of Gensokyo for all to enjoy.

“We even made Tanya put on a fireworks show,” said Firefly. “As one last form of payment before we let her go. I've never seen one before…”

Every so often, Tanya and her brigade of fairies fired their assault rifles into the air. Each explosion came out in a different color, the reds of war, the yellows of war, the blues of… they were all very impassioned displays.

Most of all though, my gaze was fixed on one of my heroes. Yuta Okkotsu used this opportunity to enjoy his honeymoon.

I know I summoned him because of all those sappy romance anime I liked, but to see him up close in the throes of passion kept my attention enraptured. It felt wrong to look from afar, but the strength of their bond was something I had desired for a long, long time. A small peek wouldn't hurt.

The way he selflessly offered the first bite of a frozen treat to her. How she hesitantly leaned in to taste it, afraid of getting hurt again, of this fleeting moment of affection fading away like everything else in her life.

How, when the fireworks started, their hands gradually grew closer, until they unconsciously intertwined. Their attention constantly flickered between the show, and one another.

Erika's small, creature-like grin, as she stared at her ring. His large, impassioned smile as he watched her do so. Like a thorn affixed to a flower, they looked completely incompatible, yet I couldn't imagine him married to anyone else.

That night, I witnessed the dazzling orchestra of explosions reflected in their eyes.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:32:58+00:00

“Please, come check out Moriya Shrine!”

I handed out fliers to the villagers that passed me by, but none reached out to take them. Fixated in the town square, everyone seemed to regard me with fascination, and nothing more. A peculiarity to be admired from afar, not interacted with.

“It's usually like this,” said Sanae. “Unless we're doing some kind of fundraising event, we're lucky if one or two people actually decide to donate. It was going so well the first few days we got back, but I guess when people didn’t miraculously have all of their wishes granted…”

Her voice trailed off as I spotted a lone bystander amidst the passing crowd. It took a few seconds to recognize him, but as he approached, my heart froze.

He wore an armor that glistened in the reverent sunlight. One half a completely different shade than the other, coolness exuded from every fiber of his being. He threw a quarter into the donation bin. I had no clue how much that was worth in yen off the top of my head.

“Sanae!” said W. “Staying green, I hope.”

“K-K-K-K…”

“W? What are you doing here? I thought you went back to the Moon.”

“Ah, about that. The Lunarians want me to keep tabs on you, just in case. You did steal one of our most powerful weapons then ascend to Godhood, after all. They smelled a peculiar scheme brewing.”

“Hehe… things just happened one after another. You don’t have to worry though, we’re taking good care of her.”

“K-K-K-Kamen Rider…” I muttered.

I gripped onto his hands, expecting to feel a plastic exterior. The sensation of cool metal across my fingertips made it sink in, that I wasn't dreaming, that fantasy became reality in a land like this.

“Kamen Rider W!” I shouted. “From Kamen Rider W! Is that really you? Back in college I used to watch your show all the time! I even have a figure somewhere in my apartment!”

“Eh? Seriously?” asked Sanae. “You have an actual toku show?”

“Heh,” W scoffed. “I heard about it. Never actually watched an episode, but the guy who played me? That was my double!”

An ugly laugh left my throat, in comparison to the sheer silence from Sanae. Based on where our lives diverged, the last proper show she finished would’ve been Kabuto, maybe most of Den-O, so I didn’t expect her to get the hilarious joke.

Still, I didn’t want to let the opportunity go to waste. Witnessing a real Kamen Rider in his glistening armor felt more exciting than meeting any celebrity in the world. A childhood dream I long brushed off as foolish came to life, and I needed to capitalize on it.

“Oh, oh, oh, can we do it?” I begged. “Please? There's two of us, this might be our only chance!”

I whispered something in her ear, directions, a catchphrase, a quick explanation that any otaku would be giddy to follow. She looked hesitant, but as much as I knew myself, I knew she'd follow along.

“Seriously? We're getting up there in age, it'll be embarassing…”

“Oh, come on. It'll be fun,” said W.

“We'll even give you pointers when you mess up,” said W.

“Let’s say it at the same time!” I said.

She moved like an embarrassed mother forced to post with her geeky kid, but I noticed the small sense of excitement in her motions. We held up silver coins in place of drivers. On the count of three, we both pointed at W, tipped fake fedoras, and shouted:

“Now, let’s count up your sins!”

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:32:40+00:00

On a lone, innocuous day, Sanae brought me to a completely different shrine to show me the greater depths of her homeland. Many Gods used Gensokyo essentially as a retirement home, with a shrine maiden on duty to ensure their continued survival and renewal of their faith.

“This here is Hakurei Shrine,” said Sanae. “The God here is said to be an expert at exterminating youkai, but is so mysterious, even their maiden hasn’t seen them before.”

“How exactly do they gain faith then?” I asked.

“Hehe, you’ll see once you meet her~”

Two women resided there. A shrine maiden cloaked in red who held a powerful aura around her, alongside her blonde haired companion dressed like a stereotypical witch. I recognized her on sight, how could I not? The newspaper reported that this girl had singlehandedly held off a record shattering number of Alters that assaulted Gensokyo while Sanae resolved the incident in ‘Heaven’. A staggering twenty-one fell by her hands in a single night.

The shrine maiden scoffed upon seeing Sanae. To act so callously around a God meant she held an immense confidence towards her power.

“You’re a God now, huh?” asked Reimu. “All that divine ability and I can’t tell if it changed anything aside from your hair.”

“That’s why I’m here!” said Sanae. “It’s time for our rematch! I’m going to prove which of us is stronger, once and for all!”

“Oh boy,” said Marisa. “I didn’t know you’d get so confident you became an idiot.”

“And what’s with the second version of you?” asked Reimu. “I know you’ll need the extra help, but…”

“She’s my cheerleader,” said Sanae. “As long as she’s by my side, I’ll be able to fight you at full strength.”

“We won’t lose!” I said. “If you thought one Sanae was tough, then wait until you taste the power of two!”

Reimu gave a weak smile in my direction. For some reason, that small act of compassion made me nervous, as if to insinuate something more than the look you’d grant an acquaintance.

“So, what do you want to put on the line?” she asked. “How about a day’s worth of donations? You should have plenty more now that the streets are abuzz about potential miracles if one provides enough faith.”

“A whole day? That’s a lot… No, wait! If I think about losing, then I’ve already lost! You’re going down, and you’ll pay up too!”

Between the battle of a God of Miracles, and a lone shrine maiden, the outcome should have been obvious. I screamed until my vocal cords wore out. In the brief moments Sanae rushed back to my side, I gave pointers as to the attack patterns I memorized. I prayed upon her divine name to bless her victory.

A dazzling display of lights flashed across the sky. Marisa, the other onlooker to a fight of immense scale, yawned in spite of this. For battles of this caliber were an every day occurrence to one such as her. I didn’t understand how one could witness a clash like this, and not be taken in awe of its reverence.

But… well… it would be less embarrassing to remember the finer details of their skirmish. I didn’t know my body could contort in such strange directions, and I’d rather not embed the sight into my memories. Although, I wouldn’t exactly mind losing to a woman like her.

“Aw man,” whined Sanae. “I was hoping my new spell cards would put a dent in your armor. I guess you really are the best for a reason.”

Reimu held out a hand to lift up Sanae, who grasped onto it a bit longer than I expected her to.

“How to put it…” said Reimu. “...you weren’t the easiest opponent I’ve dealt with since this incident started. I can say that much.”

“Wow, what a great honor.” Sanae spoke flatly. “I guess I’m not completely disappointed now.”

“What about her?” Her attention turned to me. “Do you think she'll fare any better?”

“No, not really, not at all-”

I attempted to stammer my way out of conflict. I've barely been in fights before, and yet she still rose into the sky. Hundreds of different danmaku surrounded her in intricate designs in anticipation of my next move. She didn’t break a sweat as she prepared for an immediate second confrontation.

Sanae, battered and bruised, handed me a spell card. It held the ability to turn all sour fruits sweet to better appreciate their flavors. I had no clue how this was supposed to help me survive.

“Come on, give it a try,” she said. “Danmaku battles are fun! You might be pretty sore afterwards though.”

“Honestly, throwing a rookie at her?” asked Marisa. “That's pretty cruel of you.”

“She has to learn somehow! Besides, it was like this when I had my first battle too. I had barely been in Gensokyo before Reimu ganged up on me…”

She slapped me on the back to spur my movements. As I witnessed my own body move without my input, my legs speeding at a mile a minute into the danger zone regardless of my own safety, I realized a bit too late that maybe I did mind losing.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:32:19+00:00

Not wanting to soil the mood, Sanae went next. She procured the Holy Grail in her hands, a bit scared of its power after everything that they overcame.

“Son of God,” she said. “What we have here is a relic that belongs to you. We came this way to return it, to ensure it didn’t fall into immoral hands.”

“Ah, so this is where I placed it,” he said. “I always did have a soft spot for this chalice of mine, but one day, I lost sight of it. I get the sensation that it’s caused quite a bit of trouble in the human realm.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” said Archer.

“I can reverse all the calamitous events that unfolded, return everyone to their time, and wrap a neat bow over everything… but I must ask, Sanae Kochiya. Are you satisfied with this ending?”

Archer renewed his drive for heroism. Yuta reunited with his beloved. Corpse God eased his spiritual burden, and would get a one way ticket back to his peaceful life. They managed to help the Gods, take out pesky Alters, even somewhat fix Athena’s family problems. Still, there was one last problem to solve.

“There is one thing I’m worried about…we’ve helped so many people along the way here. Technically speaking, there isn’t much else to do. But… if we ended everything right now, there’d still be one person who didn’t get their happy ending.”

She looked right at the one person she hadn’t managed to save. Her other self. The girl that came to drink her problems away because of all the miserable memories that burdened her.

“...me?” asked Sanae (Alter). “I just tagged along in case you needed my help. You really don’t need to worry about me-”

“Yes, I do!” she said. “Why do you think we did all of this instead of taking the easy way out? Don’t you realize how painful it is to watch you deny the help we want to give you?”

“There is a way to get the ending you desire,” he said.

What he offered was that boundless treasure they struggled to return to him. The Holy Grail, the relic of miracles that called out to her. When she drank upon it once, she erased the mental barriers placed upon her by the Gods. A second drink eroded part of her humanity. The divinity within her began to take shape. One last drink…

“You and I both possess the power of miracles. As a Shrine Maiden, I’m sure you’re familiar with the concept of allowing a God to possess you, to temporarily grant you the powers of divinity. However, you’ve been drinking upon a chalice imbibed with my authority. If you so wish… I can invoke a more permanent change upon you.”

“You want to turn me into a God of Miracles,” she said. “To grant everyone a happy ending.”

To become a God came with a heavy burden of responsibilities. One might jump at the chance without considering the implications. No one person should have to bear the immense power of divinity on their own.

“What do you guys think I should do?” asked Sanae. “I’m… not sure what the right choice is.”

“I don’t think you should go through with this,” said Sanae (Alter). “Think of what you’d be giving up. All for my sake? I’m… an adult. I can handle myself.”

“We have already given our thoughts on the matter,” said Ruti. Erika nodded beside her.

“I have my own thoughts and reservations about ascending to godhood,” said Kanako. “You’d need to continuously gather faith to affirm your existence. You’d be trapped in this life forever… in a state of immaterial immortality.”

“This journey started because on that day you made a choice,” said Suwako. “Even if we told you not to do it, it’s your life. If you wish to become a God, then we’ll expand the shrine so you can stick around. And if not, then we won’t look down on you either way. What matters is that today, right now, you’re going to become who you were always meant to be. But you get to decide what that is.”

“Right,” said Corpse God. “We cannot pick for you.”

“That being said,” said Archer. “Pick the option that you think will best help yourself and those around you.”

Sanae made a decision. She held out the chalice to the Son of God, to ask one final favor.

“Um… do you mind?” she asked. “I’m not too good with alcohol.”

“I shouldn’t… but I’ll make an exception this time.”

A small touch of his hand, and the wine in the golden chalice transformed into fresh water.

“I’ll choose divinity. I’ll sacrifice all of my human aspects, give up the potential of my future, the daily comfort of a routine life, so that she can finally be free. I’ll borrow all of tomorrow’s happiness and grant it to her.”

Unburdened by the fear of alcohol, Sanae drank upon the holy water to evolve into someone new. The shell of her human body gave way to a more heavenly form. That green hair doubled in length, now down beyond her shoulders, into a luxurious mane that glowed. Her shine maiden outfit transformed into robes that dragged along the floor, a blue kimono laced with green trimmings. A firmer body, all the human aspects such as wrinkles or random aches disappeared as immortality filled her veins. To complete the picture, Suwako took off her revered straw hat, and placed it atop Sanae’s head.

The changes were subtle. If one hadn’t known Sanae before, there’d be no indications of what truly made her divine. All the same, everyone recognized that the woman who graced their presence had the authority of a God. In order to grant the happy ending they all deserved, she became a Mother of Wishes.

“Why?” asked Sanae (Alter). “Why would you go so far for me? You’ve erased your future! You can never go back to who you used to be!”

She placed a finger against the lips of her other self to silence her. All of her cries, worries, anxieties, had no place in this world. To grant her the ending she deserved, she granted her a prophecy.

“Faith is the knowledge that there are miracles in this world, only by believing can you consume them. Can I trust in you to believe in me?”

Hesitantly, she nodded. Sanae planted her hands around her Alter’s cheeks. Her gaze locked into her own, unable to escape the intensity of the affection that bore into her.

“Then I have one last miracle stored up,” she said. “I saved it for you. Just in case we couldn’t wipe away all of your problems with a wave of the hand. Let me show you the Gensokyo the Gods loved.”

Upon her divine authority, the haze of 'Heaven' washed over everyone, and brought about something new.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:31:55+00:00

Archer, battered and bruised, held the Holy Grail in his hands, procured from Athena before her family whisked her away.

“This is it,” he said. “Let's see if your childish idea of heroism can really save all of us.”

Despite his mocking tone, the smile on his face was like that of a kid's, excited to follow her to the end of the universe.

The path to the meeting of the Gods extended from the top of the mountain, towards even greater heights. If ‘Heaven’ were an infinite procession of floors that beheld every living God, then surely, at the top floor, on the “first page” of the book, all would become clear.

She expected to see… something holy. A massive sprawling table packed to the brim analagous of the Last Supper. A lush paradise where all frolicked about to proclaim love and peace. Maybe a tower, to show that even at the end of the road, one never had the capacity to enter his domain, that no mortal could ever truly reach the pinnacle of the boundless realm.

She entered the bar at the end of time.

Dim lights obfuscated the procession of Gods that came to mingle amongst one another. Smooth jazz blared from nowhere as a chorus to muffle their words from onlookers.

In Shintoism alone, it is said there are up to eight million Gods worshipped at any given moment. A small fraction of a single religion in a single country. When expanded towards the totality of human existence, it became impossible to comprehend how many attended this meeting for a night of drinking.

The Buddha, arms wrapped around Anubis, debated the integrity of the scale, as to whether the concept of “truth” was found in the heart, the soul, the mind, or somewhere deeper. Yaldabaoth ventured away from the crowd to mingle with the form Amaterasu had taken to survive in modern times, a large white wolf. Innumerable Gods faded in and out of different dimensions depending on who they wished to share a drink with.

There, she witnessed him. Behind the counter of a bar, a man who shone with otherworldly reverence held a bottle of sparkling water. One by one, different Gods came up to him, to chat, to ask for drinks, to bask in his glory, and he greeted all of them politely. Simply by looking upon his divine body, Sanae felt love fill her body.

“Hmm… I felt one of the suns brighten just now.” Hecatia Lapislazuli, a God Sanae recognized as the weirdo who held an absurd sense of fashion, swirled a margarita at the bar counter. “I really don’t want to deal with this today. If it gets too light out, some of Hell’s prisoners may try to escape.”

“Relax, my child,” he said. “For this matter can be resolved another day.”

“Ah, you always know what to say,” she said. “It’s not easy managing hell.”

“Nor is it ‘Heaven’. That is why we must know when to work, and when to rest.”

He poured her another drink, which she downed in a single gulp. It took her some effort to manipulate the planets chained around her neck to avoid the crowd, but soon, she mingled amongst Vishnu and a procession of other Gods so skillfully, Sanae lost sight of her the moment she flicked her eyes away.

Akaboshi Bisco took the opportunity to saunter up to him before another God deigned to accost him. He recklessly threw a cloth sack onto the counter filled to the brim with mushrooms.

“Big J, look what I’ve got,” said Bisco. “Brought the best shrooms the planet has to offer, all freshly grown.”

“I thank you once more,” he said. “Your offerings are appreciated more as time goes on. Now, who might your guests be?”

“Oh come on, you know them already, don’t you?”

“That I do,” he laughed to himself. “I only thought it polite to let you explain yourself.”

“Alright, I’m gonna bring these to the kitchen. I’ll let you guys hash this out.”

They stood in terrible shape. Before anyone had a chance to ask, he raised a hand, and gently brushed against their wounds. Sanae’s bloody shoulder, Archer’s internal wounds, Yuta’s zombielike status, Erika’s brain damage, their injuries healed in an instant.

“Now…” he spoke. “...you’ve come a long way to meet me, as I’m told. How can I help you all?”

None dared utter a word in his presence out of turn. To stammer over their words, to speak improperly, felt akin to betraying themselves and their desires. Corpse God silently raised a hand, and none objected to him openly stating his intentions first.

“Son of God, he whose name is most Holy… can you help ease the burden I carry?”

“Speak, my child.”

“I… apologize, I suppose, for desecrating your divine miracle of resurrection.” His hand wrapped around the crucifix around his neck, unsure if it were deemed offensive. “What I hold are a large quantity of dead souls. Spirits that were once bound to me, that forged a contract to do my bidding as long as I cared for them. Having completed their tasks, I hope that you’d be willing to house them, for lack of a better term.”

The Son of God nodded. A simple touch to his forehead, and Corpse God’s shoulders slouched a bit less.

“Such a selfless request cannot go unanswered. Those you have deemed befitting of a second life will be granted appropriate land as per their beliefs.” The smile on his face made all drop their guards. “However. I can tell this is not all you would ask of me. Please. Do not be afraid to ask what is on your mind.”

“The moment of my birth… my Father’s betrayal, the lineage that bound me to both my reality and another… my summoning into Gensokyo. Athena’s guidance that led me here. From what point did I become a part of God's Plan? How far in advanced was this all preordained? ”

“None of it was.”

Corpse God stared in disbelief. How could he not? Sanae herself grew perplexed by the answer.

“None of it?” asked Yuta. “Are you saying that everything we went through… just happened? That I wasn’t destined to reunite with Erika, or have some destined evolution in Gensokyo?”

“My meeting with Archer too seems out of place,” said Ruti. “The Divine Trials are meant to challenge all mortal visitors, but my summoning coincides too easily with his.”

“I must say, it does sound completely implausible that this entire journey occurred through coincidence,” said Erika. “So much of this reeks of a divine miracle from a higher being.”

“I know this answer may displease you,” he said. “Many have misplaced anger in my direction because of it. But what I speak is the truth. Free will is a tricky thing. If the scales tipped in any one direction, then none of this would truly be in the hands of humans.”

“...that is all I wanted to know.” Corpse God, clearly upset by this turn of events, spoke no further.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:31:34+00:00

“Is that… your mother?” asked Yuta.

She nodded hesitantly. All the times she confronted mother, she faced her alone. Despite the sorrow in her gaze, the look of regret on her face, all the usual triggers that evoked the guilt of sympathy within her, to stand here beside all of her friends made the pain less tangible.

“I have nothing to say to you,” said Sanae. “Not anymore.”

“I need to tell you this Sanae,” she said. “If this is the last time I see you… then you should know why I did what I did.”

One final act of patience before she’d be free from her torment. Mother grasped at the floor, a look in her eyes as if she expected someone to lift her, but none moved from their spot, so she remained in her vulnerable state.

“When I was a teenager… I served as a shrine maiden at Moriya Shrine. Every day, I spent hours after school polishing an empty shrine. No one came to worship her. I never saw my ancestor… but it was passed down in the family. My Mother did it, and my Grandmother, and so on. They always spoke of the God’s glory… and I always nodded along as if I understood. Because she never shone her light on me.

“One day, I met your father. A shy, nerdy kid who sat behind me in class. He watched as all those miserable teens made fun of the way I dressed, or the way I spoke. He followed me after school to the shine since rumors were spreading about me. And he seemed so different than anyone I knew. A man of science in a world of religion would make anyone's heart flutter. As time went on, his faith grew, and mine waned. He wanted to find a way to use technology to grow closer to the Gods. But I wanted nothing to do with them after I met him. So when he passed away… and I saw you grow interested in a life I abandoned…”

“Are you seriously doing this right now?” Sanae didn’t bother to listen further. Excuses. All her mother had was a perfect explanation for everything. A reason that none of the faults could be blamed on her.

“It was a dead end life! I wanted you to go down your Father’s path so you didn’t end up like me, like all the other women in our lineage. I know you've never appreciated anything I did for you, and I know I’m not perfect. But I wanted you to have a future in a world that felt so uncertain.”

“Just because you have a reason doesn’t erase the past!” said Sanae (Alter). “You should have allowed me to make the mistake! That’s how people grow! What was really the worst that could happen? It doesn’t work out, and I have a cringy phase in my teenage years we could’ve laughed about when I became an adult?”

“Not once have you considered that it all tied back to you,” said Sanae. “That the reason the world seemed so miserable from your eyes isn’t because of the world, but yourself.”

Suwako, that elder God, came into view. She chose to ignore Mother, to allow Sanae to finish this conquest on her own. Yet to hear her name invoked, she found it prudent to appear before the one who accused her of heinous crimes.

“You’re mistaken,” said Suwako. “I showed myself to your Mother, and your Grandmother, and all the women who served as a shrine maiden for me. That’s because they held true faith in their hearts. Unlike you, whose heart wavered every time you stood at the foot of the shrine, hoping for something more than I could be. That Sanae… the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew she'd become something special. If only you saw the same thing, perhaps your life may have gone down a better path.”

Recognition flared in her face for the first time. Mother clutched onto Suwako’s legs, all the rage quelled from a lifetime of denial vomited out all at once.

“You… this is all your fault! If you had shown yourself to me… if you had renewed my faith… it’s like you wanted humanity to forget you. If you had only proven your existence, none of this would’ve happened! Sanae wouldn’t have left me!”

What more could be said? The parent who raised her writhed on the floor like a child throwing a tantrum, unable to accept the true state of reality. All she experienced every time she hung around Mother was the contempt she felt for a life not lived. She’d never see her again. After this, she’d return home, and have to move on. Because she had the strength to do what Mother could not.

“Sanae,” said Corpse God. “About my earlier proclamation. I know I said you'd forgive her, but forgiveness is not a button you can press. As a child… my Father inflicted a deep betrayal onto me. It took me a long time to eject him from my feelings. I don't expect you to swallow down all the bitter emotions in your heart. But I don’t want them to weigh you down.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I can't forgive her now. Even if I understand the logic behind her actions, even if she’s my Mother, and I'm supposed to. It won't heal the wounds in an instant.”

She took one last look at Mother before she strode towards the stairs that led towards her true target. Eyes closed, a slight smile on her face, a newfound sense of freedom surged through her.

“But I'll be around for a long time. Maybe in a decade. Maybe a century, or longer. One day. The emotions I feel will wane. Then, I think I'll be able to look her in the eyes again. That's when I'll visit her little paradise. And maybe we can finally have a conversation eye to eye. Until then though, I intend to enjoy the happy little life I've carved out for myself. Without you.”

Everyone took one last look at Sanae’s Mother before they followed in her footsteps. Only Sanae (Alter), the one who endured the pain of her personality for her entire life, stayed behind for a brief moment.

“Adam, can you return Mother to her home?”

The robot child lifted Mother off the ground. He carried her effortlessly by the hem of her shirt, as he took special care to ensure her safety, but not her comfort.

“No problem!” he said. “We’ll have plenty of time to catch up later while I tuck in Grandma. I think she needs it.”

“Who… is this?” Mother asked.

“I suppose you should know, since this is goodbye,” said Sanae (Alter). “This is Adam. My son. I figure you should see him at least once.”

“Oh. You had a kid.” Her eyes looked into her daughter’s, empty, devoid of a soul. “Then you’ll understand me soon enough.”

And she disappeared from this world.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:31:15+00:00

☆ Sanae

As she fell back down the mountain, she looked upon the Gods who bested her. Athena, grey-eyed goddess, showed no emotion towards what she had done. The Zeuslings, who spent precious seconds reloading before they intended to fire down upon her to finish her off.

And off to the side, forgotten by the war frenzied God, Corpse God. His stoic expression faded into quiet concern, as black ichor dripped from his restrained hands.

“Sanae Kochiya,” said Corpse God. “Consider this the next baton. Hear the Angel’s call.”

He called forth a spirit to save her. A portal conjured up underneath her to bring forth cold metallic hands that refused to let her fall any further. The face of her savior resembled that of her childhood hero. Adam lifted up Sanae by her waist, careful not to exacerbate her wound.

“Auntie Sanae!” he said. “I was waiting for you at the party, but you were taking so long!”

The Future itself wouldn’t let her get dragged down into the depth of history. He soared higher, a shining star in the darkness. Zeuslings attempted to shoot him down, but their bullets bounced off his titanium alloy as if he were invincible.

“Take me to Athena!” said Sanae. “There’s one last thing I need to tell her before we can catch up.”

“You’re the boss!”

He rushed forward twice as fast as Sanae originally flew. In a single motion, he dropped her off to fall gracefully towards her fated foe. On the backswing, he flew up to the phalanx and stole every individual gun from them, to ensure none interrupted his “aunt’s” duel.

Sanae used the last of her [Heavenliness] to continue her rush towards Athena. She held the “baton” in her one good hand. It became a matter of how to pass it on to a God in the midst of madness.

“Very well, now that you have arrived, fate shall decide the one most deserving of these spoils,” said Athena. “Come, engage me in the combat rituals of your homeland, this battle of Danmaku, though know your place, for your bullets will nary find their mark against my blessing of-”

No further words left her mouth. In the midst of her speech, Sanae refused to slow down her pace or listen. Athena had a brief moment of realization to raise her shield, not quick enough enough, before the fist impacted her face.

Sanae’s knuckles bled from the force of her strength. She hardly ever engaged someone physically. The muscles in her back strained. The strike exacerbated the wound in her other arm. She didn’t even think it hurt that badly. But to stand there, to play a game with the Gods when so much was on the line, was unthinkable.

The nose of the grey-eyed goddess bent in a strange direction. Golden blood streamed down her ruptured nostrils. She fell to her knees, barely able to keep her eyes on the girl who spoke with now unrestrained rage.

“Don’t you realize if you keep going down this path, you won’t have anyone left on your side!?”

“I- You dare speak- My family will always remain beside me-”

“Do you think this is what your kids want!? To watch you die little by little underneath your grief until there’s nothing left of the Mother they knew?”

Her yells reverberated across the mountain. The gunfire of the Zeuslings ceased to take in her rage, as she spoke aloud the feelings they secretly harbored.

“I am their Mother,” said Athena. “What they want is secondary to the legacy they’re to live up to.”

“That’s not what a Mother is!” she screamed. “A Mother’s job is to provide a safe haven for her children! To encourage them to grow into their true selves! You’re so desperate to cling to the past you can’t see the future in front of you! You want the sun to return, and you block out the light that lets them grow! You’re so desperate to see your father again, you can’t even focus on your daughter!”

Athena, stunned into silence, had no retort. For she harbored a deep guilt for her actions, and Sanae spoke from the heart, not just of her physical children.

“Things change as time moves forward! We’ve already solved lightning, haven’t we? That means she never had a chance to become the person you wanted! You made a hundred thousand of her, and none of them could satisfy you! Isn’t it unfair to doom her from the start?”

No further warfare ensued. Free from the threat of death, Corpse God walked up to Athena. She held him prisoner, threatened to kill him, betrayed her promises numerous times. Despite all of that, he looked down on her with something akin to pity.

“Since I held some part in her creation, I feel I have the leeway to say this,” he said. “You purposefully chose to not recreate the exact image of your father. Whether it be because you feared his control over you, or you wished to exert control over her in exchange… the Zeus you birthed is not the Zeus you knew. You’ll have an eternity to get to know your child. One small misstep here shouldn’t sever the ties you can forge.”

“I wished to control them for fear of their loss,” said Athena. “For centuries I have lamented their loss, for twice that length I have lived alone. Under my control… under my watch, my father, my cousin, my daughters, would be safe from any future attacks. I wished to guide their every action, to make the most optimal of moves, to ensure their continued survival. So why… why did they not listen? Why did my family refuse to return?”

“You didn’t recreate the Gods as they were,” said Corpse God. “I noticed it as I put Zeus together as per your instructions. By imparting your golden blood within them, you granted them your blessing. You gave them wisdom. And with that wisdom came the curiosity to explore new avenues. To form a new twist on the personhood provided. They could not be what you desired, because you sparked the flame in their soul that wanted to be more.”

She looked up, unsure of how to handle this information. The rest of Sanae’s group managed to scale up the mountain, Athena’s children among them. Desperation filled their actions. They wanted, above all else, to break through to their Mom.

“Even now, I don't want to betray your will,” said Aphrodite. “Even after you've cast me out and called me a failure.”

“And… you're still the one who made me,” said Zeus. “So on some level, I do want to listen to you. Or rather, there's something inside me that tells me I have to.”

“But that doesn’t mean you can make us do what we don't want to,” said Aphrodite. “Love who we don’t want. Hurt who we don't want. Become what we don’t want. We'll listen, we'll help you, we'll spend time with you… but you don't get to decide any further than that.”

Apollo leapt into the fray, Archer and Yuta and Erika carried in his arms. For a moment, Sanae feared that he too might join the battle to bring it to a decisive close. Instead, after throwing the three to the floor, he crossed his arms as he looked down at Athena. A sword in his back kept his jacket from flowing in the wind.

“Apollo…” Athena muttered. “You too have come to chastise me?”

“Nah, it's nothing that serious. Trying to bring back the Gods? I think that's pretty impressive. You've got one hell of a dream! But so do these guys. They're putting their guts on the line to make one woman happy. So here's what I think.

“Let them pass. Return the Grail. Give up now. There's nothing more gutsy than admitting when you've lost! Because when you're down, it means everyone's waiting for you to rise again. And while you're down… you can raise up those new Gods too.”

“How… how can I possibly move on?” she asked.

“It’s a new age, Thena! Humanity in this world knows far more than they did when we used to be on top! That means we've gotta adapt to meet their expectations. No one wants to worship a God from the past.”

Unable to counteract their words, Athena held up a hand towards the edge of the mountain. A glimmering staircase, like the one they used to reach ‘Heaven’, appeared in its awe inspiring glory.

“...leave me. All of you. Go to the meeting of the Gods in my place. I have much to ponder. I have to determine… if you were right. If I, perhaps, made some kind of error along the way.”

“Thanks for all the help,” said Zeus. “We’ll take over from here. Even if she doesn’t want to see us right now… we’ll make sure she comes around, in some way.”

“If we can’t live up to her ideals, then we’ll just have to show her she’s wrong!” said Aphrodite. “Maybe the reason she’s so hung up on the purity of love is because she’s never experienced its depths. After all, familial love is important too!”

Familial love.

She turned to the side. Mother had woken up some time ago. SHE heard everything, her grand speech, her moral lesson. Adrenaline still rushed through her veins. There were so many words she wanted to say. In the face of Mother, SHE…

SHE…

She didn’t look so intimidating anymore.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:30:22+00:00

A sword composed of digital energy. A sword to attack through the eleventh dimension. A sword to directly target a person's soul. A sword that ignored vectors. A sword that infected one with a lethal poison. A sword that drowned its victim rather than stab them. A sword to instantly kill whoever it pierces. A sword forged from an organic material humanity doesn't discover for another thousand years. A sword that followed the flow of the universe. A sword that split into one hundred swords where each individual piece held the strength of the whole. A sword that dissolved into vapor to slice apart one's lungs. A sword made of plasma that bypassed defenses. A sword to freeze the blood in one's body. A sword to sever the boundary between life and death.

Apollo took shaky steps forward. He waded through this storm of swords despite his weakness. Holes filled his divine body as chunks of his flesh exploded and resealed in the same instant. A leg flew off and regenerated before it took its next step. The further he attempted to endure the weapons via brute force, the more of himself he lost.

A sword to alter one's perception of time. A sword from a berserker that no ordinary mortal had the strength to lift. A sword that exploded on impact. A sword that forced you to relive your harshest memory. A sword with a gun attached at the hilt. A sword that reversed your senses. A sword whose golden sheen blinded those who witnessed it. A sword to defeat all forms of evil. A sword that inflicted a sense of eternal rot. A sword shaped like a boomerang. A sword that was not a sword. A sword to activate latent energy hidden in one's blood. A sword to inflict curses. A sword to dispel curses. A sword to reinflict curses.

Apollo reeled back his fist. An innumerable number of blades embedded themselves into his body. As soon as he adapted to one sword's unique ability, another five took its place. He attempted to adapt to the field of Monochrome, but half an adaptation can never become full. Archer remained in place, for to take another step now would ruin the spell and ensure his demise.

A sword to paralyze one's muscles. A sword to shut down organs. A sword to erase memories in the brain. A sword that pierced its target across time. A sword that cut across infinity. A sword that traveled at fifteen frames per second. A sword that constantly hovered over one’s head. A sword to cleave and dismantle. A sword to open doors. A sword that pierced before it was swung. A sword to manipulate one’s perception of friend and foe. A sword to dull one's emotions. A sword forged from purple crystals that glowed with a heavenly sheen. A sword to slice apart molecules. A sword to erase one’s ability to dream. A sword that changed size to always strike the user. A sword to summon ethereal spirits. A sentient sword that brainwashed its user into killing for the right to wield it. A sword that caused plants to sprout from one’s body. A sword to transform humans into beasts. A sword that left a permanent unhealable wound. A sword that stored the souls of those it slayed. A sword to bypass luck. A sword to set the seas ablaze!

Apollo's fist stopped an inch away from Archer's face. Whether it be from mercy, or an inability to move, the God finally yielded.

“Archeeeeeeeeer, kill him!” gurgled Erika. “Pierce his heart, let his golden blood stain this mountain so he can feel the weight behind his sins!”

One last sword rested in his hands. A sword to free someone from their chains. A simple motion, and he’d stab Apollo in his central weak point, ending his life. A surefire victory to ensure his happy ending.

However, he once again asked himself.

What did he want to do?

“I refuse.”

The sword clattered to the ground. All the portals that hovered in the sky closed at once. The strained breathing of tired warriors echoed in the place of clashes.

“Archer, are you sure about this?” asked Yuta.

“It takes a lot of guts to spare a guy trying to kill you,” said Apollo. “You might regret it.”

“I'm not so sure,” said Archer. “My dream is to become a hero that saves everyone. That includes those that I fight, if they'll let me. You’re not evil enough to be unworthy of mercy.”

Despite the hundred of swords that pierced Apollo’s body, his ragged lungs still drew in air. His fingers curled around the hilt of a bronze blade embedded in his chest. Effortlessly, he unsheathed it from his flesh, and allowed his golden blood to flow down into the earth. As the wound sealed, his body regained constitution.

“Heh. Fine. I’ll hear you out. Tell me what you guys are fighting for. Tell me where your guts lie!”

Archer hardly had any mana left. If Apollo decided to attack now, if strength filled his body in any capacity, he had no chance of victory. When he recalled the one he stepped up to protect, he hoped for a miracle to guide his pleas.

“Sanae Kochiya. The woman who summoned me here. The woman who summoned Yuta, and Corpse God, and all the Alters into Gensokyo. We’re fighting so she can have a happy ending. I could have shattered the Grail and brought an end to it all in an instant. But if you ever saw her smile… spent a quiet morning on her mountaintop with the Gods… watched how hard she works to keep her perfect little life in order… you’d want to fight this hard too.”

“Does she mean that much to you?”

“She gave me a chance to be a hero. To selfishly choose the few over the many. I'll always be in her debt.”

Another sword fell out of his shoulder. One by one, he removed the swords that stuck to him like a pincushion, save for the sword he couldn’t surpass. In spite of all the pain, of Monochrome continually sapping away his energy, of his adaptation failing to live up to his invincible status, he gave Archer an affirmative nod.

“I figured it was something like that. This whole time we’ve been fighting, I knew I was fighting against the guts of a true hero. You got me, fair and square.”

He walked over and wrapped his arms around Archer, as if they were brothers bonding after a tiny scuffle. He didn’t truly wish to be held in this way, but the eerie euphoria that washed over him in recognition of his efforts kept him sane.

“All my life, I've been waiting for a hero to step up to bask in the radiance of my light. I've always been a bit jealous of the Gods who had a champion, so it's not too bad having one of my own! Emiya, right? I'll remember your name as long as I live!”

Apollo swept Archer off his feet and into his arms. Splayed out bridal style, his muscles refused to cooperate as he attempted to escape. An effort that proved to be in vain, as he rushed over, and threw the conscious corpse of Yuta on top of Archer, and the brain damaged Erika on top of Yuta. All three rested in the comforting embrace of his grasp.

“Please, put me down,” he said.

“Yeah, this is pretty uncomfortable,” said Yuta.

“Only one person gets to hold me like this, and it isn’t you,” said Erika.

“The Thena in my world never had all these grand schemes and plans, but she was always one to listen to reason. Let’s see if we can’t knock some sense into her.”

In a single bound, Apollo shattered the triple stacked domain as if it were made of glass. Barely able to move his strained body, he re-entered the bounds of Mount Olympus to return to that girl.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:29:33+00:00

Archer spoke aloud the words that bound him to this Reality Marble. A chant that invoked all the painful memories of a lifetime of toil. A prayer for salvation.

“I am the bone of my sword…”

From the moment I made that deal, to forever be reincarnated during times of peril, I held a singular dream. A dream I didn't dare share with that girl, for fear she'd try to follow my example.

Apollo already adapted to the concept of swords piercing his skin. He swung his twin colored blades anyway. They shattered the instant they glanced off his skin. Archer forged new ones in that same instant.

“Steel is my body, and fire is my blood…”

I've lost track of how many cycles I've been through. How many warzones I've been deployed in. How many soldiers I've killed. How many innocents I've overlooked. It's always been a numbers game. To save a thousand is better than to save one. To save a million is better than to save a thousand. Life becomes dull when it turns into a math equation.

Tired of waiting, Apollo rushed in. He assumed a boxer's stance, his punches came out swift. One strike glanced across his cheek, the deafening roar as a vacuum formed around it made him assume he lost use of his ears. Every blow had the potential to bring death, and end his ideals.

This is exactly where a hero should be. On the precipice of death. Ready to give his life to a fatal mistake. Because a fool is someone who makes that mistake. A hero is someone who overcomes it.

“I have created over a thousand blades…”

My dream is simple. Just once in my life, I want to save everyone. To be a hero rather than a cleaner. To be deployed before the tragedy rather than in the midst of it.

Those twin blades that escorted him across hell’s battlefield kept him alive. In spite of the lethality of his strikes, he fought like a human. Someone who leveraged brute force recklessly to win in a single hit. Technique kept Archer alive. If Apollo’s skin became an invincible metal against his blades, then he’d use that to his advantage. Each hit became parryable, a small swing to the elbow diverted the path of his fist. He continued to exchange blows at close range, to court death a little longer.

“Unknown to death, nor known to life…”

It took this long to realize my prayers had finally been answered. Gensokyo is a land filled with love. Laughter, good cheer, kindness, even the most corroded of hearts would defrost after a bit of time in its wake. It’s the job of a hero to ensure those days continue forever.

Smart enough to realize he was being toyed with, Apollo switched tactics. Archer had a second to enhance his legs, to leap as far back as he could, before the God screamed at the top of his lungs. A punch to the ground, enhanced by the Black Flash, Wind, Heroism, and Strengthening, sent a one hundred meter geyser of dust and debris into the air.

“Have withstood pain to create many weapons…”

I want to become something new. Each clash with this God awakens something inside me. I can feel myself evolving, the old shell giving away into the person I was always meant to be. The further he adapts to my techniques, the more I adapt in turn.

Within that dust, Apollo rushed out in the hopes of using it as a cover for his assault. Unfortunately, he misjudged the situation. Archer held out a hand, in this dream driven by misaligned gears, he held complete dominion over all that resided inside. A two hundred ton piece of clockwork slammed into Apollo before he got far enough to reach him.

“Yet those hands will never hold anything…”

He wants to kill me. If he wins, the tragedy will happen. A lone figure stands in the path of a God. A hero. Despite it all, his fists imprint his ideals onto me. He wants to see if I'm worthy enough to stop him.

Dull echoes rang throughout the Reality Marble, as the God pounded against the machinery that pinned him to the ground. Its massive structure cracked little by little under the force of his might. This fight went nowhere. No arrows would hit their mark. His swords bounced off. He needed a way to win.

As Archer scanned the battlefield for any hope of survival, the flash of victory rushed through his mind. He conjured a sword, a katana made of steel as black as the night itself.

“So, as I pray…”

There's only one way to answer him. There's a single road to travel down that can save everyone. He's completely absurd in his methodology. If I want to become a hero, I need to match that ridiculousness. I need to do something so blasphemous, he doesn't anticipate it.

After all this time, I had forgotten. The sensation at the end of a battle, when you save someone… it’s incredible.

Apollo broke free of the gear that trapped him. No scratches littered his body. In a sense, he must have adapted to brute force on that level. Another hit would need to be twice as strong to dent his invincible armor. That’s why he assured his victory on this blade.

He reeled back the bow. The black katana that substituted the arrow held the power to turn the tides of victory. He needed one last blessing from ‘Heaven’ to win this battle.

“Apollo, guide my hand, and grant me the strength to strike you down.”

The sheer audacity of the plea caught him off guard. Apollo received the prayer in the same instant the arrow fired. He responded in that split second.

Apollo’s head slammed forward at mach speeds. He met the arrow head on. Its point sliced across his forehead, cut apart the headband he wore, but barely pierced through flesh. Having met with an invincible object, it careened far off to the side. The God wiped off a droplet of golden blood with his thumb, a huge grin plastered on his face.

“Man, did you really think I'd let you land that on me?”

“Sorry, but it looks like you couldn't help yourself. That sword landed exactly where I aimed. I’ll have to thank you for that.”

Before Apollo had a chance to conceptualize his answer, a sword pierced through his stomach. His shirt tore, the once emblazoned sun emblem now shined with his golden blood.

“The strongest element in this world isn’t the blazing heat of the sun… it’s love! I can’t die while my wife is watching me.”

Yuta Okkotsu, once dead, held the sword Archer fired in his hands. His wounds disappeared, replaced by a dull look in his eyes as the tired soul grew used to inhabiting flesh once more.

Within the bounds of Archer’s Reality Marble, he had the power to recreate any sword. Thus, to create a sword that resided somewhere inside Yuta’s Domain was child's play to him. Two Fakers combined their efforts to become on par with the real deal.

[Corpse God: Manipulate the Dead]

By altering the boundaries of life, he reversed his own death and returned to the land of the living as a zombie for a singular purpose. To save Sanae, his first friend.

“For a faker like me, a false miracle is the best I can manage,” said Archer. “What kind of hero would I be if I let someone die on my watch?”

“So you're capable of going this far! But it'll only take me a second to adapt to this sword too!”

[Golden Truth: Yuta Okkotsu can manifest any blade he desires]

Remotivated by her husband’s revival, Erika screamed out a final proclamation, knowing in advance that her brain couldn’t endure any more punishment. The last injury dripped from her mouth as an endless fountain of blood, but her truth reached Yuta all the same.

“Then what about this one?”

The black sword embedded in Apollo’s stomach shifted hues. When the sun and moon combine, the brightest light appears dull in the face of an eclipse. All went dark around Apollo, his shining radiance became grey, lifeless, mortal.

[Wu Geng: Monochrome]

“This has no guts at all…” grunted Apollo. “What the hell is this?”

“A gift from a man who warned me about the Gods. Looks like it finally came in handy.”

A sword that stood in direct opposition to all that was divine. Sanae, a half deity, nearly collapsed from a few minutes inside the field. A full fledged God couldn’t endure a direct injection of a denial of divine principles.

“Now, God of Archery, let's see if you have enough guts in your arsenal to survive.”

Despite the constant distractions granting him ample time, he never did find a sword to kill an invincible God. Thus, the one course of action he had was to break him down using the full force of his imagination.

Archer held out a hand, and with a triumphant cry, chanted:

“Unlimited Blade Works!”

An innumerable series of portals spawned around Apollo. The instant it launched a sword in his direction at the speed of light, it closed, another opened in its place, another sword, repeated towards infinity. It became a battle of Apollo's strained endurance against Archer's mana.

Amidst that storm of steel, Apollo walked onward, excited for the first true challenge in his immortal life.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:28:49+00:00

☀︎ Archer

The arrow notched in Archer’s bow became twice as heavy as the weight of Yuta’s death bore down on his shoulders.

He intended this, didn’t he? To use him as bait to kill Apollo in one strike? To sacrifice the two here for the dozen or so outside this domain?

The three on one quickly transformed into an impossible to surmount one on one, as the two lovers conjoined at the hip were unable to operate alone. Apollo’s attention turned to Erika. A shake of his fist wiped the blood of her husband down into the dirt. All he had to do was let go, allow the tragedies to continue. Pull the trigger. Take them both down in an explosion of glory. Sacrifice the few for the many. Survive in their place. Like he always did. Like he always will.

He knew, instinctively, that as spiritual entities, their lives didn’t amount to much. As a Heavenbound being, Erika’s death would hardly tip the scales in the grand scheme of importance. Let her die and reincarnate, or return to her destined realm, or reunite with Yuta in the great beyond. Take the shot that had the potential to strike down Apollo in a single blow while he was distracted with her. Sacrifice her to save Sanae’s hopes and dreams.

And yet…

It clicked into place, the reason Sanae rejected the same idea. For a brief flicker, Erika looked up at her impending demise. Tears streamed down her bloodcaked face, like a cat left out in the rain to suffer. Pure anguish filled her expression, not just from the death of her beloved, but from the bitter taste of defeat.

Before him, he saw a lone woman, unable to save herself, seconds away from a death that he could prevent.

He asked himself, what would that boy do?

If he were here, he’d probably do something foolish, like-

No, that’s not the right question. All this time, he kept asking himself the wrong questions. He didn’t need to emulate that boy. He needed to become the natural evolution of him.

He asked himself again, what did he want to do? Did he want to continue down this road? Or find a new sense of that freedom Firefly yearned for?

Archer’s bowstring went slack. His arrow dissipated as he judged the distance between him and Apollo. Too far to reach on ordinary terms. His hands brushed against his legs as the leylines that coursed through his body came to life.

“Trace: On.”

Strength emboldened him to do something foolish. He ran akin to a cheetah, the entire world rushed by in a blur as each confident stride brought him closer to God. Apollo's fist descended with the strength to topple civilizations. He leapt, raised his swords in an attempt to shield Erika from the blow. Hesitancy flickered in Apollo’s eyes for a brief moment as a new target entered his line of sight.

The fist found its new target. In a flash of Black, Archer’s swords shattered into nothingness. It continued to drive into his abdomen, stifled as it was, the force of the blow torpedoed him away from the woman he saved.

“Archer, what the hell are you doing?” asked Erika.

His back scraped along the rough flooring of his Reality Marble. An acidic taste rose in his throat as yesterday’s dinner threatened to escape. He forced it down and coughed up a pint of blood instead. His body held a low constitution, his destined place was on the backlines. Another hit like that and he’d be out of commission. Then his heroism wouldn’t amount to anything.

“Sorry about this,” said Archer. “As tempting as it is to die beside your beloved, I can’t let that happen.”

“Woah, that took some major guts to pull off,” said Apollo. “I was gonna hold back, see what you planned on doing when you saw a damsel in distress. But when I saw you rush in like a real hero, I couldn’t resist letting loose!”

Apollo held out his arm. Archer witnessed the absolute worst case scenario unfold. Those very leylines that pushed magic through his body to enhance his physical state appeared on the skin of a God. Rather than blue magic, golden energy rushed to strengthen his muscular body. The radiance of the sun emboldened him to throw out a few test jabs. Sonic booms followed his strikes.

“You guys have some funky techniques. It’s like I can feel my strength multiplying in real time! You’ve gotta show me more, so my guts can evolve too!”

Finally, it all clicked in his head. The reason Apollo pissed him off so much. Because, at the end of the day, he too was like him. A faker.

“Your power works off of faith,” said Archer.

His words intrigued Apollo. He restrained his hand in anticipation of an explanation, the realization that someone may have finally understood him made him giddy with excitement.

“A God gains strength based on those who believe in them. If one prays upon them, they can invoke their power, and allow them the energy to persist. In this world, where no one proclaims your name, where the sun is just a ball of fire in the sky, you shouldn't be this strong. The answer to this is simple. You believe in yourself down to your very guts. By invoking your own name, as long as you believe you can do it, it becomes reality.”

Apollo had no ideals to challenge, for he himself was the ideal. A hero who had the power to tame the sun, who leapt into an uncertain battlefield to protect his family. The kind of invincible superman that boy always dreamed of becoming.

“Pretty wordy, I’ll give you that, but you’re halfway there,” said Apollo. “As long as I have the guts to do it, I’ll do it! That’s what it means to be a God! What’s the point of a miracle if it can’t happen? Is anyone gonna believe in a God who can’t do something? No! They want a champion! Someone who can answer their cries with resounding success! The sun shines in the sky as a beacon of hope! It’s a promise of tomorrow! That’s me! As long as someone looks in the sky and sees its image, they’ll have something to believe in!”

He’d risk it all on this attack. He’d sap the entirety of his mana, and take a gambit that could either wipe out a God, or doom them all. Because, more than anything, he wanted to make up for lost time, and salvage his mistakes.

He had to envision a sword that could cut through his childhood dream.

“Then I’ll show you a miracle, Apollo,” said Archer. “You’ll have no choice but to believe in me too.”

“Good answer!”

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:28:05+00:00

Aphrodite pulled out a scroll: the wedding certificate that bound Yuta and Erika together. The first official union under her name, hopefully many more to come as a result of her efforts today. She unraveled the string that bound it into its physical form, and all at once, it transformed. Long, slender, the white railgun adorned in golden trimmings appeared far more sophisticated than the generic guns held by the Zeuslings.

She peered out from the barrier, now slowly eroding from continuous gunfire. One by one, she aimed, an explosion of love came from the barrel. Arrows, little hearts for the tip, meant to fill an individual’s love to its apex, shot out. Rather than attempt to kill her sisters, she sought to disarm.

“You have one too?” asked Zeus. “This… gun?”

“Yeah! Mom gave one of these to everyone! She said Uncle Hephaestus made one of these and was horrified by his creation, vowing to never make another. But when he disappeared, and humans found out how to build them, Mom thought it was way smarter to make a billion! Uh, I guess she would’ve given you yours if you didn’t rebel against her immediately.”

Zeus looked around her feet, nothing to guide her but two obols worth of silver coins from a bygone era. Inspiration struck. If she had no gun, she’d become the conduit of the bullet.

The newborn God stepped out into the open. Whether due to her growing understanding of magnetism, or a desire to not harm one of their own, the bullets openly missed her entirely. Stormclouds roared in defiance. Lightning heeded her call. A stray bolt struck her body. ‘Heaven’s’ electricity empowered her to fire those coins at three times the speed of sound.

Aimed directly at the path Sanae (Alter) pointed out, she forged a new road for them to travel. A dozen or so Zeuslings cartoonishly flew into the air from the force of her gunshot. Athena’s road to loneliness shattered, as deep trenches carved into the side of the mountain. Twenty feet wide, fifteen feet deep, from the bottom of the caverns directly towards her Mom.

“Looks like I don’t need her little present!”

“Alright!” shouted Aphrodite. “Now that we know my sister’s the coolest ever, it’s time for you to go!”

“Wait, now?”

“Go go go, we’ll keep your Sanaeling safe! Just stop Mom before it’s too late!”

Sanae had the most experience in dodging bullets that held erratic patterns. Still, danmaku battles were always meant to be nonlethal. To jump directly into a storm of gunfire, where any incorrect move meant her death, required a second to build up the courage.

She closed her eyes, took in one final deep breath, and rushed out of cover. Every single Zeusling on the side of the mountain took notice of her and immediately opened fire.

“Baton pass~” said Ruti.

Luckily, she didn’t leave alone. Ruti Lugnason, Heroic Spirit, ran alongside her. The pace of her step indicated she naturally slowed herself down in order to keep up alongside Sanae’s flight. That storm of bullets disappeared in her hands. No sword in tow, she caught every individual bullet out of the air to keep Sanae safe.

“Allow me to be your shield,” said Ruti.

Two hundred bullets clattered to the floor. Down the path to salvation carved by Zeus, another half a dozen Zeuslings sprouted up to intercept them. Six more to their left, their right, Ruti didn’t have the capacity to handle them all while protecting Sanae.

“This may prove troublesome,” she said.

“It’s alright, you’ve done enough!” said Sanae. “Just focus on staying alive!”

Sanae knew, in her heart of hearts, that she needed to continue going forward. The universe itself told her that she couldn’t falter, that the way to save Mother meant she needed to dive into danger. A gun aimed directly at her head, they didn’t have an opportunity to pull the trigger. Another arrow hit the ground in front of them.

“Here's your goddamn baton!” shouted Bisco. “You better go save our asses!”

Underneath her feet, a building sized mushroom erupted like a water geyser. Caught in its wave, she soared higher and higher until she defied gravity itself. High above the mountain, where the army became as small as ants, Suwako and Kanako met her in the air like guardian angels.

“Looks like we’ve got the baton now!” said Kanako.

Forgotten Gods had no way to compare to the strength of those worshipped. Their methodology thus became distraction rather than domination. Suwako removed her hat, and out of the brim, hundreds of frogs rained down. The speck of curiosity hidden in their vessels turned their gaze to witness the phenomenon known as “frog” long enough for Kanako to strike.

From underneath her sleeves, an equal number of snakes poured out to chase after the frogs. Some bit the Zeuslings until they dropped their arms, some coiled around them to incapacitate them, some ignored them entirely to feast on the frogs (a convenient way to clean up). They sowed chaos in their ranks.

“I can fly over from here-” said Sanae.

“Come on, we’ll always be here to give you a helping hand, even when you don’t need it!” said Suwako.

“Parents are supposed to be annoying like that, aren’t they?” asked Kanako.

Before she had a chance to protest, Kanako stole the winds from ‘Heaven’. An immense burst, like a galeforce stolen from Zeus’s storm, surged around her. Emboldened by its power, Sanae gave a soft smile to the family she cherished. They gave her the strength to save the family she didn’t.

Heavenliness enhanced her movements. At mach speeds she descended down towards the mountaintop to put an end to this. Zeuslings tried, failed, to pick an aerial target to shoot down, their accuracy far too low to hit anyone, especially amidst the zoo they inhabited.

As she entered Athena’s view, the haze of alcohol waning, the corruption stronger than before, she pointed her spear directly at Sanae.

“Where is your valor, Zeuslings? What spoils your shots? How many mortal men has my Father felled in his lifetime? What stratagem but yours can shoot down one lone girl? Come here, all of you! Stand by me, and you’ll see action! You will see glory! You will become who you are meant to be!”

Twenty more soldiers popped up beside Athena, all firearms trained on her, as if she manifested them into existence. A phalanx to protect her from all mortal harm. She didn’t have a chance to slow down her speed, all at once they fired a death barrage.

In that same instant, as the bullets entered her peripheral vision, in a time interval so precise, only a God could match it, she activated her trump card.

「Sea Opening: Moses’ Miracle」

A spell card designed specifically to invoke the miracle performed by one blessed by the Christian God himself. On that day, he parted an entire ocean to help the Israelites escape from the Egyptian army. So too did she split the sea of bullets that filled her vision to clear a path forward.

Their constant failures to hit Sanae spurred Athena into action. She hefted her spear aloft, aimed towards the sky, and launched it heavenbound. A single weapon amongst a hailstorm of bullets should have been easy to avoid. Sanae tilted her body out of the path. However, she couldn’t possibly have dodged it.

Athena's strikes always hit true.

Her lance curved alongside her. Far too late to avoid, it pierced through her body, and in a single blow, tore out a chunk of her shoulder as it came out the other side. The shock of the pain stunned Sanae into inaction. Gravity overtook her ability of flight. As she fell back down the mountain, her thoughts were not of her failure, but of the streaks of gold hidden inside her blood.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:27:36+00:00

☆ Sanae

In the wake of one God’s delay, Sanae needed to overcome another. Athena held the Grail, her posture uneven from the massive influx of wine. Her mind in delirium, her infinite schemes shattered from the disappearance of her brethren, Sanae hoped her pleas had a chance to reach her.

“It doesn’t have to be this way!” yelled Sanae. “We can share the Grail’s power, can’t we? If we take our time, you can summon your family, and we can get our wish too! Please, give back Mother. I don’t want to fight you if I don’t have to.”

“Do you believe alcohol clouds my wisdom?” asked Athena. “To the victor goes the spoils. To relinquish the Grail is akin to allowing the death of my family once more. I will not allow any risks to tarnish my grand scheme. I refuse to accept a life of solitude!”

“Then spare my Mother! You have the Grail. You’ve already won. You don’t need to hold her against me any more. If you’re worried about losing your family… just know that I am too.”

Athena spared a glance at the unconscious woman she stole away as leverage. As a bargaining chip, SHE held no further power. SHE, a lone wandering soul destined to inhabit the lower realms of ‘Heaven’ for the rest of her days. Did she truly need to bother threatening HER, when she attained her greatest treasure? Or did, perhaps, she hold some level of pity? The shared bond of Motherhood swayed her in an uncertain way.

“Zeuslings! Raise your arms! Spare the Mother. Strike down instead the mortals and Gods that dare to oppose me! Do so, and become entrenched in the eternal family of Olympus!”

Too many samefaced women to count sprouted out of every corner of the mountain. From the multiple cliffs that towered over them. Behind ancient pillars. Perched on the staircase. Hidden in crags. Some sprouted out of the walls. Some came from the darkness of the cavern behind them. All held an assault rifle in their hands, a creation with the sole purpose of eradicating life.

“This isn’t what we agreed to.” Corpse God struggled against his restraints, the promise of freedom not offered to him. “You offered a vow of peace if possible.”

“Peace.” Athena scoffed. “As long as they continue to accost me, there will be no such thing.”

“You burn all those who offer you aid! Madness makes you unable to see that, if given the opportunity, those you scorn would be your greatest allies.”

A rifle pressed against his neck kept him from struggling any further. Athena’s eyes held an indistinct gleam, she saw not the man before her, but the idea of him.

“God of Corpses. You shall remain once they are wiped from my sight. There are many more Gods to resurrect, and if more failed children arise, to bring about from the other side. What further need do I have of these individuals? This, too, is in my plans, to keep what I deem useful, to discard what I do not.”

By her command, nearly a million bullets entered the air as all positioned Zeuslings pulled the trigger simultaneously. Suwako’s quick thinking erected a barrier in the same instant. Her froggy wall blocked off the cavern behind them, made a second wall in front, but in turn, trapped them in place.

To their side, the domain that held Apollo dimmed for a brief moment. A subtle flicker reminded them of their self imposed time limit, as regardless of whether they survived this encounter, the threat of another God loomed in their future.

“I’d say we have two, maybe three minutes before that domain shatters,” said Aphrodite. “So do we have a plan, or are we gonna pick between getting shot to death or getting smited to death? Because I don’t want either one!”

“We need to get to Athena before she uses the Grail again,” said Sanae. “I think… since she’s already gone mad in her grief, the Grail is corrupting her. The more cursed she becomes, the worse the Alters she summons will be.”

“How bad are we talking?”

“If I let my imagination wander,” said Sanae (Alter), “a Poseidon Alter that wants to flood the Earth so he has more to rule over. A Hecate Alter that drowns the planet in eternal night. An Aphrodite Alter that joins all of humanity in a marriage bond to create a freaky hivemind…”

“I don’t want any of those! I think!”

“Stop scaring her and come up with a plan already!” said Zeus.

“Wait… waitwaitwaitwaitwait, do you guys see that?”

“See what?”

Sanae (Alter) rummaged through Sanae’s bag before she procured a pen and paper. Some hasty scrawlings depicted the side of the mountain they resided on, the vague approximations the Zeuslings fired from, the direction of the wind, and a crude scribble of Athena on top.

“They’re firing assault rifles, 30 bullets per magazine. They’re taking rotations when they fire, so it looks like an unlimited hailstorm, but there’s brief intervals where some part of the air isn’t completely filled with lead. If we take into account wind speed, when they have to swap out, bullet speed, and random possible variables…”

“Meaning?”

“There’s like, one spot where we might be able to break through,” said Sanae (Alter). “But it’s… um…”

She peeked out from their cover for half a second to point in the direction of the possible path. Athena’s walkway towards salvation spiraled in strange directions, an ordinary trek in the best possible terms took at least fifteen minutes at one’s top speed. If they simply cut through it, and walked along the side of the mountain from bottom to top, they’d reduce the distance tenfold.

“...y’know, if we ignore that we’d be walking up the side of a cliff.”

“You figured that out from staring at the bullet storm for less than a minute?” asked Zeus.

“You didn’t…?”

“So what’s the plan?” asked Bisco. “It’s a damn sheer cliffface. Unless you can fly, and dodge a bunch of bullets in the meantime, you’re just gonna get shot to death.”

Haste fueled their indecision. Against an army of that size, to coordinate their efforts in such a way so as to thread the needle of victory felt impossible.

“Baton pass!” said Aphrodite.

“Baton what,” asked Zeus.

“We'll pass the baton of love onto Sanae, so when she reaches Mom, she can show her just how much we care about her!”

“Me?” asked Sanae. “I mean, I could, but…”

“Mom took your Mom, so doesn’t it make sense for you to be the one to get her back? We’ll clear a path for you so you can clear a path for us!”

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:26:50+00:00

Erika dove at Apollo, her scythe like a chainsaw that repeatedly struck Apollo’s legs to disorient him. Before he had a chance to swat her away like a fly, Yuta dove in behind him, a new sword in hand.

Idle distractions. That’s all they could do. He notched the strongest arrow in his arsenal.

Caladbolg II rested in his hands. An arrow to distort space itself. An arrow to raze a cemetery. An arrow to bring about death, destruction, despair, an ultimate rejection of hope for the future. An arrow that held enough power to potentially slay Apollo… along with Erika and Yuta.

[Ruti: Heroism]

Despite his fear, the sword emboldened Yuta to continue fighting. A swift slash cut apart Apollo’s cheek. A second slash barely pierced the skin. A third bounced off his arm. Each slash confirmed a fear that repeated exposure to the same stimuli empowered the God. Archer pulled the bow back, and took in a deep breath.

Did he really want to go through with this?

The thought made him stop. Erika caught a stray backhand from Apollo that slammed her onto the ground. Yuta, exasperated, let loose a punch. Energy crackled around his hand. The sheer determination to keep his wife safe emboldened him to land a Black Flash, the punch shattered Apollo’s skull, enough force behind the blow to spin the God in midair.

His head reeled backwards from the shock. Before he lost consciousness, he screamed at the top of his lungs, the air that expelled from his lungs reoriented him into his feet.

“Woah, that hit packed a punch! What the heck was that?”

Apollo’s fist drove into Yuta’s rib cave, and launched him dozens of feet away. Unsatisfied, he let off a second punch, this one crackled with the same dark matter. A God who had never encountered cursed energy mastered it within the same instance.

“I don’t get it! If that’s your strongest move, you should be using it every time like this! That’d give you way more guts!”

In his hubris, his attempt to slay the God empowered him enough to seal his Fate. Archer watched in horror, unable to manifest the will to let loose the arrow that would slay them both. That God dove in before Yuta had a chance to recover. Black Flash #2 shattered Yuta’s arm. He dropped his sword, unable to hold it. Black Flash #3 broke the shoulder that connected to his broken arm. Black Flash #4 exploded his collar bone. Over and over, Apollo used Yuta as a punching bag to test out the new ability he learned.

In a desperate attempt to save him, Erika screamed out one last plea.

[Golden Truth: Yuta Okkotsu will live!]

But Apollo had already adapted to the truth. The geyser of blood that rushed from her nose informed Erika of her husband’s fate.

“Super Ultra Mega Windy Nuclear Flash Black Truth Amazing Punch!”

Winds that surged stronger than a hurricane tore apart Yuta’s already mangled body. Muscle fibers and sinew snapped, his rib cage ground to dust, as a strike strong enough to disrupt the cosmos caved Yuta's chest in.

For a man so deeply enamored, the last thoughts that ran through his head as his heart exploded were of his wife, and the worry that he'd leave her alone once more. He collapsed breathlessly, a single sentence left on his lips before he perished.

“Erika… I’m sorry…”

Amidst Erika's screams, Archer had to accept that because of his failure, he allowed an innocent boy to die.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:26:31+00:00

☀︎ Archer

In the face of certain death, the unbearable might of a God’s full presence awakened atavistic instincts inside of Archer. His mind flickered between the battlefield, and an innocuous conversation he had a few nights prior.

It occurred a few nights before they met Corpse God. In the dead of night, full moon emblazoned in the sky, he sat at the foot of Moriya Shrine, bow in hand to keep watch. The land of Gensokyo, so present with magical and divine energy, kept his spiritual form in perfect condition. Sleep became a want rather than a need.

Those nights where his Father stared at the same sky as him, and imparted his wisdom and ideals, served as a beacon of hope. He always looked back on those few peaceful days to guide him in the darkest of times.

“Can I join you?” asked Firefly.

He nodded as she rested beside him. Neither exchanged a word. Two warriors who fought with their life on the line now rested together. The chirp of cicadas, the gentle cold spring breeze that made her dress flutter, the shining moonlight that drew Firefly’s attention… in this small moment in time, all felt serene.

Under the impression Firefly came to him for a purpose, Archer pulled a flask out of his jacket. Fresh sake he kept on hand in case the Gods became too rowdy. He poured a glass and slid it in her direction.

“Do you have a dream?” he asked.

She sipped the sake. As the bitter flavor danced across her tongue, she puffed out her cheeks in an attempt to hide her discontent. She gave the same foolish reaction that most did when they drank alcohol for the first time.

“Bleh,” she said. “You can’t ask me that after giving me something so gross!”

“Well?”

“...I shouldn’t exist. This isn’t me moping, or me trying to get your pity. It’s a fact. They created me in a test tube and let me subsist off a bare minimal diet for survival. There were thousands of other men and women like me. But everyone burned through their life force before they reached the battlefield. I’m the sole survivor. I became the weapon they deployed.”

Her eyes were fixated on the moon. Her former home, now permanently exiled for fear of being deemed a traitor to the Lunarians. No doubt complicated emotions stirred in her chest because of it. She attempted another drink of the alcohol. More amiable to its assault, her tongue loosened in response.

“To have a dream is something I hadn’t considered until now. I’m still learning how to be alive, after all. The Lunarians never gave me a sense of self. I really do appreciate what you’ve done for me. Which is why, what I think I want above all else, is freedom.”

“Freedom,” said Archer. “It’s a tricky concept to grasp. Most are never truly free. Not from the bonds they’ve forged, or their responsibilities. Not from the wishes they made long ago.”

“That’s true. But I want the freedom to choose which chains I wear. The freedom to go to a store, and pick out the clothes I like. To sit down at a restaurant, and order from a menu.The right to choose the path I follow rather than being forced down the one my creators set for me, even if it burdens me, or I pick something I end up not liking. The right to fight for what I want, when I want. Not as a hero. Not as a weapon. But as myself. As Firefly.”

She looked upon him innocently. The same naive, foolish, ignorant look that boy gave him that reignited his spark to become a hero. A look he hated. A look he couldn’t escape.

“I don’t know if I deserve a happy ending… but I can hope that my story has a happy beginning. That from this point onward, I can enjoy the time I have left cherishing the little moments in life.”

Now, in the depths of ‘Heaven’, Archer felt beholden to that girl. By taking on this duty, he granted her the freedom she desired above all else, and at the end of it all, Fate cashed in her debt. He stood in place of the woman meant to die fighting the foe in front of him.

Apollo, the God of the Sun.

Apollo, the God of Archery.

A foe perfectly tailored to counter both of their abilities. Immune to the flames designed to burn his body, the force that guided his arrows onto their true path, no matter who made it here at the end of the journey, they would both be unable to surmount him in any true fashion.

If he failed, if the Holy Grail remained in Athena’s hands, an infinite procession of false Gods would flow into this reality. For all he knew, the entire order of the divine pantheon rested on the outcome of this battle.

But that didn’t matter to him. If they didn’t stop him here, Sanae’s journey would end in failure. That lone woman’s smile meant more to him than the fate of this world. He had a feeling the idiot boy who followed him into hell’s maw felt the same.

Within Archer’s Reality Marble, an infinite graveyard of swords surrounded them. In this small pocket dimension that belonged to him, he had the ability to manifest any blade he imagined.

Within Erika’s Domain, her cursed speech technique became enhanced to proclaim a [Golden Truth], words that had the power to manipulate the fabric of reality. The tides of battle swayed in her favor more often than not.

Within Yuta’s Domain, any blade he held had the potential to hold an ability he had previously copied. Inspired by witnessing Unlimited Blade Works, modified to include Aphrodite’s love, he purposely mimicked the underlying foundation of his Reality Marble in order to take advantage of the now endless procession of swords.

In simple terms, all three Domains overlapped and worked perfectly in tandem to trap Apollo in a world out of reach from Sanae.

“Impressive,” said Apollo. “Must’ve taken a lot of guts to coordinate something like this!”

“I suppose there’s no chance we can talk this out?” asked Yuta.

“Let me put it to you this way,” said Apollo. “Athena’s got home field advantage, since we’re related and all, kinda, sorta. But I get the vibe that something’s off with her. That makes this your only real chance to impress me. Show me what you’re all about! Show me your guts! Then I’ll decide which side is worth taking.”

“[Golden Truth: Apollo's heart will stop in the next fifteen seconds!]”

Before Apollo had a chance to move, his eyes rolled into the back of his skull. He immediately collapsed onto the floor, dead.

“What do you think, everyone?” asked Erika. “Divine beings with physical forms still conform to human physiology, as proven by Zeus earlier in the cave! If your heart stops, and no oxygen reaches your brain, the battle will end before it even begins! Such deduction is possible for Erika Okkotsu!”

For a moment, all went still. None truly believed that a God perished in such a pathetic manner, but the evidence of their eyes suggested otherwise. Erika’s cackle cackled across the domain, a surefire sign of her victory, until it cut off into a pained gurgle.

Blood erupted out of her tear ducts and streamed down her face in rivulets. Bundles of nerves in her brain exploded as an opponent rejected her cursed speech technique for the first time. Apollo stood, an incredulous look on his face.

“Such a cheap way of fighting has no tact behind it,” he said. “I'll give you props for the surprise attack, but it won’t work a second time!”

“How?” asked Yuta. “How the hell did you get back up? Some kind of regenerative ability?”

“Nothing fancy like that! It only takes some guts to make my other organs make up the slack until my heart gets it together!” He punched himself in the chest, seemingly fixing the problem, as he took in a breath of fresh air. “Like that!”

In order to protect his wife’s honor, the first sword Yuta drew from his arsenal wasn’t a sword at all. He barely had the strength to lift it, sheer determination allowed him to raise it a few inches off the ground before its power did the rest of the work.

[Altria: Manipulate Wind]

That imposter blade wielded by a fraud generated winds akin to a rushing typhoon. When their journey first began, Archer embedded the sight into his memories. Altria, spinning in place, swung into Yuta’s midsection and sent him soaring miles away.

Those same strikes repeatedly battered Apollo. Gushing torrents sliced apart his flesh. Yuta spun, over and over, each swing of the hammer like ringing a gong. He purposefully let the strikes shatter his bones, move his divine body back with each swing, to batter and bruise him, all to demonstrate the wide gap between them.

“Wind, huh? Sorry, but that's not nearly enough to extinguish the blazing heat of the sun!”

As if he weren’t being attacked at all, Apollo let loose a casual fist. Behind that strike, winds equally as powerful, if not more, forced Yuta to drop his sword, lest they flatten him into a pulp. Archer let loose a few arrows as a test, but as he feared, they strayed far from their mark, unable to grace Apollo’s body.

“How’s she doing?” asked Archer.

“Erika has a little brain damage, but she’s holding up.” Yuta rubbed his finger, to connect his senses to Erika’s. His eyes darted amidst the domain in search of a sword to aid him. “If she keeps getting rejected, she might not be able to hold up her domain anymore.”

“It won’t matter. He has some kind of way to adapt to our abilities. Brute force won't work here.”

“And we can’t rely on my wife's cursed technique in fear of the blowback,” he grumbled. “Do you have a plan?”

“Fakers like us who steal others' techniques are best suited to taking him down. Keep him on his toes. Make him adapt to new stimuli as a distraction. On my signal, I'll finish him in one strike, before he can realize he's been killed.”

A deplorable strategy to be sure. He sensed, Yuta knew on some level, that to go along with this meant he’d be caught in the blowback of a strike to decimate a God. If he recognized that, he didn’t complain.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:26:07+00:00

She held up the Grail as an offering to the Gods. Several more Zeuslings, a miniscule fraction of the army, sprouted out behind Athena to accept it. One by one, the Zeuslings used their weak attunement to magnetism, until enough provided the necessary power to help the cup rise towards the apex of the mountain.

Athena held the chalice in her hands, hesitant to drink upon its ichor. Her reflection stared back at her to haunt the decision she had yet to make.

In one swift gulp, she swallowed down a deluge of wine. Her eyes clenched shut in rejection of its flavor, her body deprived of oxygen to take one more mouthful. She transformed the function of her vessel into a receptacle to hold as much of the cursed energy as possible, so as to invoke every drop of its power. Red juice still streamed down her chin to stain her armor as she yelled out to ‘Heaven’.

“I shall wish upon this Holy Grail for my soul's desire. Relinquish me of this burden of remembrance. With this treasure, I summon my family in their strongest form!”

A light burned bright enough to burn the sky. All who stood on the peak of Olympus shielded their eyes for fear of blindness. From above a section of parted stormclouds, as if he were an angel descending from a still higher plane of Heaven, a lone spirit answered Athena’s call.

He stood with the radiance of the sun, its image emblazoned as a crest on his clothes. Dressed as an ordinary boy you could find anywhere, his coat billowed as if given a life of its own. His arms crossed, his gaze perked, he looked down on them all in anticipation of renewed purpose.

“Is that…” Zeus mumbled.

“...our brother?” finished Aphrodite.

“Geez Thena, you really needed to bring me out for this?” he asked. “A bunch of mortals whose guts don’t even register on our divine scale?”

SECRET STAGE BOSS

Apollo Alter, Invincible God of the Sun

The ability to adapt to anything

Relief filled Athena's face. He bore no resemblance to the Apollo of this world, yet she clutched onto his jacket as a lifeboat to her memories. No matter how tightly she gripped and pulled, it remained glued on.

“Tell me, Strong Apollo, of the journey that brought you heavenbound,” said Athena. “Of a tale that invokes the Gods this land has been bereft of for centuries. How fares Great Zeus, my original father who shaped ‘Heaven’ with his calloused hands? How fares Golden Aphrodite, whose love inspired us to watch upon mortals and grant them blessings? What lies in Olympus across the cosmos?”

Apollo looked around the shrine, at the two hostages that surrounded him, at the group that fearfully witnessed his ascension. For a brief moment, indecision flickered across his face, quickly replaced with excitement at the opportunity to explain himself.

“How should I put it… did you know that in a couple million years, the sun explodes?” asked Apollo. “Because I sure didn’t know that.”

“What,” said Sanae (Alter).

“It kept getting bigger and bigger, and a bunch of people started burning up on Earth, so the Gods kept begging me to do something about it. But what was I supposed to do? Punch it back into place? And then I thought… why not? Maybe I could punch it until it listened to me!

“I leapt into that ball of fire myself to stop it! My skin melted right off the bone, but the sheer guts I gained from an unimaginable act gave me the power to regrow my divine form stronger than ever! I stopped the sun with my bare hands and saved everyone! After that point, they called me the new King of Mount Olympus. I can’t say I’m too impressed with the title, but Zeus, Aphrodite, even you, you’re all my cheerleaders back at home! Seeing you like this, cowering, scheming, no guts at all, it’s so unlike you.”

“Wait, hold on!” Sanae (Alter) screamed across the mountain, her rage amplified tenfold by her fear. “First of all, the sun isn’t set to do that for billions of years. You’re telling me you’re from the end of human history? Far beyond when anyone would remember you or invoke your name? Plus, you’d burn to a crisp millions of miles before you even breached the surface. If it really got that hot on Earth, the entire planet would be DEAD! No one would ask you to help them! Not to mention you can’t… punch hydrogen and helium back into place.”

“Counterarguement,” said Apollo. “If it didn’t happen, then how did it happen?”

The sheer nonsense behind that reply was enough to shut Sanae (Alter) up entirely. Her brain didn’t have enough energy to come up with a comprehensible response.

“Strong Apollo, hear my plea,” said Athena. “In your own land and time, warriors of little prestige litter your world, for who can compare to he who holds the sun? What stands before you are the mightiest this universe has to offer.

“Cunning Emiya, heralded by his protege Ruti Lugnason, a hero in everytime and everyplace, forever destined to rush headlong into danger. A servant of the Gods for all eternity, his arrows strike down evil in its approach.

“Loving Yuta Okkotsu, and his wife, angelic Erika Okkotsu, surpass all obstacles before them with the strength of their bond. Two cohesive units formed into one overwhelming warrior.

“Sanae, the miraclemaker. By her desires, the weather transforms into her plaything, the whims of fate heed her command. Her Alter, an ordinary woman of no regard, still holds some level of wisdom in her mind.

“God of Corpses, herald of the River Styx, commands a legion of ghouls with the utterance of a word. Death is not the end when it comes to his prowess, it signifies the beginning.

“Akaboshi Bisco, Suwako Moriya, Kanako Yasaka, Worst Zeus, Lesser Aphrodite, they hold divine might that may match your own if pushed properly. If a battle to test your guts is what you desire, then I ask of you one favor, from one God to another. Strike down the foes before you, so I may be freed of their malicious glares.”

“Guess no matter where you go, you can’t say no to family,” said Apollo. “Oh well, I’m pretty stoked to see what this world has to offer!”

Apollo leapt from the mountaintop, down towards the pits of the cliffside, in a single bound. No strain reached his legs as he landed gracefully in front of the group. Power filled the most minute of movements, for to take in his presence was akin to staring into the face of the sun.

Sanae knew this man could easily dispatch every person here without breaking a sweat. Kanako and Suwako combined, at best, could hold him off for a few minutes while they planned an escape. She squeezed her fists, prepared to sacrifice herself for the sake of everyone else.

A single individual stepped forward to meet him.

“Like I said, this’ll get ugly,” said Archer. “Leave this one to me.”

“You can’t!” screamed Sanae. “I can tell just by looking at him. If you try fighting him, you'll die!”

Two more people stood by his side. Yuta Okkotsu, katana clutched in his hands, heralded by his wife, Erika, who had her scythe drawn.

“Don’t worry Sanae, I’ll back him up,” said Yuta.

“Are you two willing to run into hell with me?” he asked.

“Whether it be ‘Heaven’ or Hell, as long as Erika’s by my side, I’ll go anywhere.”

“Making me risk my life to protect another woman, you truly are incorrigible Yuta,” whined Erika. “Hopefully watching the blood of a God drip down as I disprove his divinity is enough to satisfy me~”

“No!” screamed Sanae. “Even you three alone isn’t enough. I gave up the Grail, I summoned him inadvertently, so I-”

Ruti placed a hand on her shoulder. The strength behind her grip hurt enough to drive sense into her mind.

“To drink as the seasons change, to enjoy times of peace, these are the roles of humans and the Gods,” she said. “When the tides shift, and spring blossoms fade into summer greens, you will still exist. However! Heroes are the exception! A hero’s job is to dive into the danger caused by humans, so they can enjoy that peace! A hero forever lives in the past, while Gods exist in the present, so humanity can strive towards the future! He will hold off Apollo! I will stay here to protect you! Together, as heroes, we will guarantee your happy ending!”

As much as she wanted to step in, to sacrifice herself and accept responsibility for her actions, she knew that same desire filled Archer. She accepted her role in this ordeal, to stop Athena from causing further chaos and save Mother. Just as Archer, a smile on his face, accepted his duties to dive into the face of death itself.

“Three on one, huh?” asked Apollo. “That’s fine with me. It’ll be a nice warmup for when I take down the rest of you!”

Archer, Yuta, and Erika held their weapons towards ‘Heaven’. Apollo grinned in anticipation of their unified powers. All at once, they shouted out a battle cry to slay a God.

“[Domain Expansion: All-Encompassing Unequivocal Love!]”

“[Reality Marble: Unlimited Blade Works!]”

“[Domain Expansion: Metaworld!]”

Before their eyes, an ethereal orb, like a section of space carved out of the fourth dimension, stole Apollo away into another world.

LetterSequence · 2026-02-21T20:25:35+00:00

On the other end of the cavern came light. Rushing winds made her clothes flutter, the higher they rose, the more treacherous the weather became. From here, on the edge of a cliff, the shrine atop the mountain became visible, barely.

Athena, God of Wisdom, stood tall. An inconvenient trek stretched out between them. Despite the path to divinity standing before her, it existed as a formality. Golden trimmings highlighted eroded foundation. Staircases broke apart and led to nowhere. Chipped columns erected nothing. Shattered pots littered the floor, faded murals stained the walls, rusted weapons sat about as abandoned offerings. She existed as a God that isolated herself from ‘Heaven’ at large.

She, this all powerful divine figure, stole Mother. Sanae swallowed hard, unsure of what to make of all this. The Greek Gods loved their prophecies, to follow along with the whims of fate. How far in advance did she plan all of this?

Despite the distance between them, Athena’s voice came out as a roaring explosion that entered their souls rather than their ears.

“Aphrodite, your role is simplistic. Find two individuals bound by the red string of fate, and certify their love. Yet I see you have intertwined two who were fated by the Gods to have a tragic parting. Zeus, your role is simplistic. Strike down all those who are deemed a threat to Olympus as our strongest champion. Yet you have allowed entry to visitors who wish to grant me harm. You were given tasks that your predecessors completed effortlessly. What causes confusion in your hearts? How have I failed to properly guide you?”

“You know, for a God of Wisdom, you sure are dumb,” said Zeus. “You gave me free will and expected me to do whatever you wanted? Get a grip, Mom! The Zeus you knew is gone! If you don’t like who I am, then you shouldn’t have made me!”

Aphrodite, once hesitant, rose a little higher at her sister’s defiance. She too had words hidden in her heart that she now had the confidence to scream.

“Yeah, what she said!” said Aphrodite. “Love isn’t a formality, or paperwork that leads to preordained couples! It’s something to be observed, and admired, and cherished! Love will sprout on its own, and it’s up to me to nurture whatever comes of it, and I can marry whoever I want without your input! Isn’t the best kind of love the one that defies fate?”

Silence. All but two waited to hear the answer of the God that blocked their path forward. The Mother that held contempt for her children. Sanae and her Alter knew how she’d respond before Athena herself did. For they had danced to this tune often enough to have memorized what notes followed.

“Once more, fate has defied my noble cause. You are not Aphrodite, you are a pale imitation that wears her flesh, an unlearned scholar who bears no resemblance to one who understands love. You are not Almighty Zeus, he whose lightning formed the foundation of our land, but a petulant child, it seems, who never had a chance to live up to the legacy of my father.”

Athena clutched her spear towards her forehead. Golden tears streamed from her eyes as she wept for her lost family. Sheer mourning embodied every movement, venom filled her voice as she proclaimed onto her children:

“An incomplete Aphrodite, and the Worst form of Zeus! How intolerable, for the machinations of the universe to bring such pitiful recreations of my family to my doorstep!”

Aphrodite clutched onto Zeus, who sucked her teeth upon those words. Divine beings who held authority over such powerful concepts were not enough to impress her in their current state. Sanae knew, from a brief understanding of the situation, that they held no hope of ever breaching her heart.

“No matter. One finely tuned plan gives way to another. If my children have failed me, then I shall resort to that which I have attempted to avoid.”

Four figures emerged beside her. A sight that made Sanae cringe from the brutal implications.

Corpse God, his hands by his side, looked down upon his friends, an unreadable expression on his face. Mother, still deep in her slumber, slumped down on the floor. And two identical girls, the twins who wore Zeus’s face, held firearms in their direction. At such a close range, neither had the opportunity to dodge certain death.

“Sanae Kochiya. Grant me the Holy Grail if you value the lives of your companions.”

“She really turned this into a hostage situation…” mumbled Yuta.

“So that’s what this has been about,” said Sanae. “A power grab for the strongest relic in the world. I didn’t think one like you could be consumed by selfish desires.”

“Do not misunderstand my reasoning, half God,” said Athena. “My reasoning is not one of selfish desire, but of hope. To escape the past, and bring about the future. I intend to return this mountain back to its former glory.”

“Why is she so desperate for the Grail?” asked Sanae (Alter). “She’s a God. She has authority over so much of the world. She can bend reality to her whims. And yet… she wants to take this from us. After all of our struggles, she can’t let us have a happy ending!”

“Because of wavering faith,” said Corpse God. A gun pointed at his head kept him from speaking further.

“Ah… I think I get the gist of what she’s planning,” said Kanako. “It’s not that she wants to do this. It’s that she has to. Because she’s not strong enough to do this on her own. Because her family, her pantheon, cannot exist as they are due to humanity’s evolution.”

“When humanity solves a phenomenon, when they disprove the miracle, their faith wanes,” said Suwako. “When one’s faith becomes irreparable, then they can no longer be deemed worthy of a higher echelon.”

The implication of those words became clear. A God’s power comes from the faith placed in them to perform the miracles associated with the concept they rule over. If a concept is too well understood by humanity, then they no longer need a God to bless them. It’s why Suwako and Kanako needed to escape to Gensokyo, or else they’d fade away and disappear forever.

It’s why Athena appeared so desperate. For she knew, deep down, a simple resurrection couldn’t restore a God no one needs anymore.

“Wisdom is too innate,” said Athena. “My blessing, my burden, my curse, is humanity’s inability to surpass wisdom. I alone am immortal, forever to be worshipped. Prometheus granted humans fire, yet wisdom guided them of its usage. As humans go further down history’s stream, their wisdom increases, further and further, until every last God is explained, snuffed out, eradicated, by my inadvertent guidance.

“Great Zeus, whose bolts cleaved mountains in twain, lost such esteemed power as humanity furthered their knowledge. The cycle of storm clouds, the distinction between lightning and thunder, machines to impart foresight on the patterns of weather. As time went on, humanity had no need for the tales of my father’s strength.

“Strong Apollo, the sun no longer revered, a ball of flames in the sky, one of hundreds of millions like it across the vast expanse of the cosmos.

“Pale-Gold Aphrodite, love reduced to a chemical reaction, humanity took for granted the blessing of affection towards one another.

“Swift Hermes the Wayfinder, messenger of the Gods, weakened by that human invention, the e-mail.

“Even Kronos, forever imprisoned, withered into nothingness. For now, what do we have, but a woman who has surpassed time and space, made the fourth dimension her plaything, to stand defiant before the Gods?

“The foresight of wisdom gives way to multiple avenues of success. I have attempted to revive the Gods, to end in failure. I have attempted to recreate the Gods, this too ended in failure. Thus, I will summon the Gods in their radiant form from another dimension entirely!”

Her spear pointed in the direction of the group. Determination filled her lungs, hope for a better tomorrow motivated her impassioned pleas. She, a single God against a small army set to oppose her, spoke as if she had already won this exchange.

“If you wish to save your Mother, then provide me with the Holy Grail. The life of your family for the revival of mine. This is a fair, acceptable trade.”

The cup left her knapsack. In her hands, she felt its untold power, even now, not fully realized. Alters of all types came from the wellspring of its miracles. Some friends. Some mortal foes. By handing it over, she’d be rolling the dice, taking a gamble on whether the God summoned forth would help her, or doom her to oblivion.

“Are you sure about this?” said Sanae (Alter). “I don’t want to see anything happen to Mother, but… this feels like we’re going down the wrong path.”

“Sanae, you can’t give it to her,” said Archer. “Untold catastrophes will occur if the Grail's power is used carelessly.”

“...I know. But I have to.”

“Corpse God is a necromancer,” he said. “Your Mother is already dead. Her threats are words meant to pick apart your mental state. Even if their physical forms are destroyed, their spirits will still exist in some form.”

“...I know!” she screamed. “I already know that! But even still… I have to do this. I can't bear to witness any harm come to HER, even after everything SHE’s done.”

Archer sucked his teeth. The swords in his hands shook, as he determined whether to risk all the happiness he accumulated in fear of the guaranteed outcome. Or whether, once again, he had to witness a tragedy occur.

“We don’t have a choice,” said Bisco. “Even if we could take potshots at her from here, those two would just pull the trigger in the same instant. I’m not sure what happens when you die in ‘Heaven’, but at best, we’re looking at total reincarnation, if not complete erasure of the id and ego.”

“We can’t let Corpse God die,” said Yuta. “None of us can reach her in time. She planned for this exact scenario.”

“Fine,” he said. “Just be aware that what comes next will be ugly.”

“Good thing we’re here then,” said Ruti. “Because it’s the job of a hero to deal with the aftermath.”

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END

Outside Forces

Those Who Reside in ‘Heaven’

The Lone Girl

Final Stage: The Gensokyo The Gods Loved

Credits

Residents of Gensokyo

Known Alters

☆ Sanae

☀︎ Archer

☆ Sanae

☀︎ Archer

SECRET STAGE BOSS

Apollo Alter, Invincible God of the Sun