THUNDERBOLT

I remember the day the world ended.

It began just like any other day, the currents of the atmosphere streaming past me as I went about my daily ritual of monitoring the skies. Even today, I can remember it perfectly, a hint of an approaching thunderstorm to the east, the sun still clear overhead, shining in the cold morning air, with a scattering of clouds that would likely grow larger as the storm drew nearer.

And then without warning, an absence in the currents. Startled out of my reverie, I turned my attention toward it, trying to discern the cause.

I needn't have bothered.

Even from miles away, it was visible. Or rather, I should say 'he' was visible. A more colossal figure than anything the skies had ever borne witness too, and perhaps never will again, the draconic lord of the heavens, Ryuujin himself, was descending to earth. The atmosphere parting before him, his mere presence made the skies tremble, countless weather patterns dispelled in an instant.

I knew then at the beginning that I was, for better or for worse, standing on the precipice of history, a turning point for the entire Eastern Wonderland. Nothing that could warrant the Lord of the Skies' personal appearance would ever hold any less importance. As much as some part of me wished to pursue him, to perhaps bear witness to his destination and his goal, I knew my duty.

Turning on my heel, I flew, intent on alerting the rulers of Bhava-Agra.

Regrettably, I did not make it in time.

Any doubts I may have had about the purpose of Ryuujin's reappearance after decades vanished with the first strike of what is now known as Armageddon Day.

In all of my life before or since that moment, I have never felt anything like the horror that boiled up from the earth in response to his descent. It felt like the entire sky shook with the force, terrible, arcane power reaching through every fiber of existence and tearing at the walls of the world. Struggling through winds and currents which I could no longer make sense of, I fought through the hurricane, at the mercy of the elements for the first time in my life since my childhood. As the war behind me reached a crescendo, finally, my curiosity got the better of me.

I risked a look back, and in the moments before the chaos seared the sight from my eyes, sending me plummeting from the sky in agony, I saw Hell.

The colossal, sinuous might of the Lord, clashing with some...thing, tiny in comparison, whose power was so twisted and wrong that it seemed as though the world itself was corroding around it, being annihilated by the mere presence of the creature. But there was more to this being than simply blunt destruction. There was another power at work as well, masked by the destructive might, that seemed to warp the very foundations of causality.

...but that was all I had time to see, before another clash sent shockwaves of power tearing through the world, a flash of light that blinded me, hurling me from the sky in pain.

When I awoke, I was lying in a bed in the Hinanawi palace, with some of their finest doctors hovering around the edges of the room. It was the eldest daughter, Tenshi, who explained what had happened. She had found me lying unconscious on the outskirts of the Celestials' citadel, drawn by the storms raging outside, and had brought me back here. When I struggled free, demanding that I be allowed to make my report, she told me that her father and the other Celestials were well aware of the monumental battle that had unfolded, and were already discussing it in private. When she told me what had happened, with Ryuujin leaving at the conclusion of the battle, severely wounded, vanishing once more, perhaps for the last time, and that the grand judge of Hell herself had come to speak to her father, I knew I could not remain here. My responsibilities as Envoy were not simply to the Celestials after all, but to my own lord, the dragon that ruled over the waters of the earth.

And if even half of the reports of the ravaged world below were true, then I feared for my lord.

It was only on my journey to the Dragon Palace that I discovered something else.

That final glimpse into the clash between Ryuujin and the nightmare on earth had scarred me. The eldest daughter had warned me that despite their best efforts, their doctors had been unable to fully restore my sight. They spoke of a bizarre, arcane influence that caused my eyes to resist even their most powerful healing arts, leaving my eyes extremely sensitive to light. I would never be able to see the world through unshielded eyes ever again.

I thought of that strange phenomenon, and I remembered the terrible power lurking beneath the destructive force of the creature, and I shuddered, redoubling my pace.

It was as I feared.

The Dragon Palace deep beneath the waves was cold and empty, with my lord of the water...gone. Vanished, in much the same way as the lord of the heavens. All that remained were his scattered vassals, like myself, alarmed and confused.

And so, I took charge. Marshalling what remained of us, I began fortifying and repairing the Palace, restoring what damage had been wrought by the chaos, which had reached even this far removed place. Opening the vaults, I sought the most powerful relics of the treasury that I could find. This world was no longer a 'wonderland', and unless we were prepared, we would be destroyed ourselves.

Then word reached me that the eldest daughter of the Hinanawi had been seen descending, equipped with the sword of Hisou...and believed to be heading on a direct route to the Maelstrom, the seething, raging red storm that marked the epicenter of the destruction.

Cursing her foolhardiness, and myself for not having expected her to do so after hearing what the surface was like now, I equipped myself as best I could, and with a handful of our best warriors, we set out to intercept her.

The Dragon Palace would need allies if we were to survive outside our lord's protection, and for all her failings, Tenshi Hinanawi was the one member of the Celestial royalty who I deemed truly trustworthy, perhaps even a friend. We would need her influence in the coming days...and right now, I suspected she needed us to save her life.

And I was right, though not in the way I expected at all. Tenshi had never made it to the Maelstrom, having been intercepted already by the enigmatic Seija Kijin, and if I and my warriors had not arrived when we did, chances are good she would have died there, immolated by her own rampaging weapon. Badly wounding two of my cohorts, Seija escaped, leaving us to retreat with the wounded heir to Hinanawi.

When the rest of her clan proved to be as unreliable as I had expected, and Tenshi herself swore to go back to the surface herself, alone if necessary, to do the job for which the Celestials existed in the first place, I  knew that this was where I needed to be. Contacting our allies in the kappa survivors, who were by extension, also vassals of our vanished lord, I had their finest minds enhance and upgrade the divine armor of the palace, transforming it into a weapon that would endure the worst that this strange new world could throw at me. Their only price was that I find and restore our lord...or failing that, determine once and for all the fate that had befallen him.

Leaving the restoration of the Palace in the hands of trusted subordinates, I clad myself in the armor I still wear today. Enhanced far beyond the original smiths could ever have dreamed, it is the wrath of the heavens, given form in my hands. Though my sight is still weak, the kappa have provided me with lenses to screen out the worst of the effects, and my own sense of the atmosphere will let me compensate when my eyes have failed me.

I will fight alongside Tenshi, and I will find the truth of this so-called Armageddon Day.

To you who stand in my way, stand aside or be thunderstruck.

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Drawing and design by me.

Colors by as always.

Canon lore support and beta-ing done by and

To all you people who were waiting for Iku, here you go!

...try not to spam all dat THUNDERBOLT SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODO!

Or the THUNDERBOLT COLLIDER!

Or use the shades like K' too much.

And if you got all of the above references, you win at life.

Aside from that, official note, due to ambiguity about the Dragon Palace with regards to the setting in Touhou (DAMMIT ZUN) we're going on the theory in that it's the same palace from the famous Urashima Tarou story with Otohime, and as such is in the seas of the Outside World. Iku's role as an Envoy is therefore envoy to Gensokyo on the whole, not just envoy to the Celestials. Or something like that. Either way, in the event that more info is released and we can actually nail down something concrete, this bit is subject to change. Other than that, THE KY KISKE PARALLELS INTENSIFYYYYYYYYYYYY

Enjoy, all!