Fanfic / Gensokyo's Heart

If these two are teaming up, we might have to hide.

"It's a portal. It leads to a marvelous place, filled with fantastic creatures. Creatures that shape reality to their very will. Creatures that constantly fight and improve their tactics. Humanoid creatures. This place is called... Gensokyo."

— Sarah Kerrigan

Gensokyo's Heart is a Touhou Project and StarCraft crossover fanfic written by Antagonist Chan. The premise is that Abathur, the Evolution Master of the Swarm, comes to Gensokyo with a small army of Zerg to gather Youkai essence for use in the Swarm, but Gensokyo assimilates them, instead.

The story revolves around four focus characters (Abathur, Aya Shameimaru, Alice Margatroid (starting in chapter 11; prior to this, her role was taken by Cirno), and Reimu Hakurei) as Abathur tries to collect essence and evolve the Swarm, while the other three help him get used to Gensokyo, and the strange effects it has on Zerg biology and psychology. Like the two series that it is based on, the story has a hell of a lot more characters than that. It also likes to avoid Flanderization, making Cirno rather bright and Meiling a competent gate guard, for example.

Cancelled as of 2017.

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The fanfic, Gensokyo's Heart contains examples of the following tropes:

• Accidental Misnaming: Cirno struggles with Patchouli's name.

  Cirno: Not now, Path… Pac… Pactouli!

• Adaptational Villainy: Kerrigan is much less sympathetic in this story than she is in Heart of the Swarm.
• Aerith and Bob: Bob the Tal'Darim Warrior. Doesn't seem like an example at first, until you remember that the Protoss usually have names like Zeratul and Tassadar.
• An Ice Person: Cirno, obviously.
• A Rare Sentence: Chapter 8.

  “Yeesh, I’m kidding,” Remilia sighed, seeing the look on his face. “I’m not accusing you of anything. You just ate her hair and used it to turn that giant monster of yours into a girl.”

  “...That sounds strange when you explain it aloud,” she continued.

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: From the author's note for the second intermission:

  How does [Yukari] know about the Xel’Naga? What could she possibly have planned? Why is she so obsessed with the idea of Chen being her and Ran’s daughter?

• Bad Boss: Kerrigan seems to treat most of the Zerg well, but sees Abathur as nothing more than a tool (which is understandable, considering that he designed the Queen of Blades in canon).
• Blatant Lies: Aya's article on the 'Human Village Incident' is full of these. It claims that Reimu mindlessly attacked the Leviathan, when in reality Reimu was protecting Aya herself, that Cirno chewed Reimu out when Cirno has nothing but respect for the Miko, and that Abathur begged her for an interview when in reality it was the other way around.
• Big Damn Heroes: Kappa Leviathan comes to the rescue of Sanae, and later in the same chapter, Aya and Abathur.
  • Earlier than that, Vampire Ultralisk came to the rescue of Abathur when Flandre was attacking him.
• Big Good: Abathur is this to the Zerg that he brought with him.
• Breather Episode: While the story on its own isn't too dark, the Intermission chapters are notably more lighthearted and contain no action (the first one being a Bunbunmaru article about the events of the first arc, the second one being Abathur explaining how the Zerg work to Team Nineball, and the third being Abathur giving a status update to Kerrigan).
• Brick Joke: Chapters 1 and 8 both have Abathur saying, "Hmm?". Of course, he talks funny, so both times, the narration says (in these exact words): "For a creature with as much echo in their voice as him, the sound was very strange indeed."
• Canon Welding: Starcraft and Touhou take place in the same universe. Yukari knows about the Xel'Naga, and Abathur was born/created in 1885, the same year that Yukari created the Hakurei Barrier.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Inverted. The story starts out reasonably dramatically, but things take a Lighter and Softer turn when Abathur arrives in Gensokyo, and gets even lighter when the Human Village Incident is resolved.
• Character Catchphrase: Abathur will say, "Large scale improvement of ____ sequences," when he gathers essence that can be applied to ____.
• Cheerful Child: All of Team Nineball, with the exception of Mystia Lorelei.
• Comically Missing the Point: Subverted. When Reimu rescues Aya, Abathur initially seems more worried about the fact that nobody in Gensokyo is male than he is about Reimu actually destroying a Glaive Wurm. However, it's quickly clarified that it's the Glaive Wurm's destruction that he's more worried about, as it shows just how powerful Gensokyo's residents are.
• Creepy Good: Abathur is creepy on so many levels, but he's not nearly as villainous here as he is in canon. In fact, he's The Hero here.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Abathur's explanation for why he needs to create Kappa Leviathan.

  Reimu: Isn’t Vampire Ultralisk good enough to protect you?! She beat Flandre, for crying out loud!

  Abathur: Barely beat Flandre. Ultralisk sequences, designed to be durable, at cost of speed and attack power. And can only attack targets within small range. Saw Spellcards. Short-range attacks. Not designed to attack multiple targets.

• Dead Fic: Apparently, seeing as it hasn't been updated in August.
• Deadpan Snarker: Reimu snarks a lot. A couple of Abathur's snarkier moments are also described by the narration as him deadpanning.
• Flanderization: Averted, for the most part. Cirno's a pretty bright kid (although she's still a kid) and Meiling is good at her job and only takes one afternoon nap.
  • Also discussed- Cirno's got a reputation as an idiot because nobody ever remembers that she's a kid, and Meiling's reputation as a decent gate guard went down the drain after the Scarlet Mist Incident.
• Foreshadowing: Abathur mentions that he can use hair to gather essence. Guess what his primary means of gathering essence ends up being?
  • Matt Horner says that the Tal'Darim managed to steal a powerful Siege Breaker tank. The villain of the fourth arc is a Tal'Darim warrior named Bob with a Siege Breaker.
• Genki Girl: Aya's genkiness is pretty extreme here.
• Girl of the Week: Every arc focuses on a different aspect of Gensokyo, and Abathur befriends just about everyone who isn't associated with the Mysterious Woman. Because it changes focuses a lot, characters tend to get left behind.
  • Lampshaded in chapter 21:
    Akyuu: He seems to be touring Gensokyo, trying to meet everyone.
    Akyuu: He leaves a lot of people behind in the dust.
• Head Pet: Cirno climbs on top of Koakuma's head during chapter 8.
• Intrepid Reporter: Aya researches for the Bunbunmaru by going out and helping resolve the Human Village Incident.
• Heel–Face Turn: Bob the Tal'Darim Warrior ends up practicing Shintoism instead, and ends up living at the Hakurei Shrine.
  • Abathur himself counts, too, as he switches from being The Evil Genius to being The Hero very early on.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Reimu might be this. The story's not long enough to tell, yet.
• Living Ship: Abathur's miniature Leviathan. Kerrigan's full-sized one also counts.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Downplayed; Aya responds to Reimu slamming her into the Leviathan with teasing about how much she got bruised.
  • Downplayed again when a Hydralisk shoots a spine into Reimu's thigh. She outright says that it's excruciating, but mostly just gets even angrier than she already was.
• Manipulative Bastard: Ayumu Manson. She has a habit of tricking people into thinking that she's weak before hitting them with a barrage of danmaku when their guard is down. Suffice to say, nobody likes her.
• Meaningful Name: Ayumu Manson. She's a zombie. She's also a serial killer who leaves song lyrics at the scenes of her crimes.
• Nice Guy: Alexei's pretty damn personable when you get to know him.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Satori Hydralisk is described as a "Satori Sniper Cowgirl" at one point.
  • Hell, all the Youkai Zerg are examples. A vampire/Ultralisk? A kappa/Leviathan? A bunch of Zerglings mixed with moon rabbits?
• Only Sane Man: Mystia Lorelei is this to Team Nineball.
  • Reisen Udongein Inaba also counts.
    Reisen: "Why doesn't anything make sense anymore?!"
  • Recent chapters show that Ran is, too.
• Overly Long Gag: Tengu Mutalisk saluting every time she speaks. The narration itself seems to get annoyed at her tendency to do this.
• Properly Paranoid: Abathur is terrified of the Kappa Zerus Generator because it's identical to a Terran Nuclear Silo. Reimu points out to Nitori that his paranoia makes sense, considering that he comes from a sector of space where all nuclear stuff is designed to kill someone.
• Recap Episode: Chapter five, the first intermission, covers the events of the first arc. It also contains an interview between Aya and Abathur.
  • To a lesser extent, Chapter Nine, the second intermission, has Abathur recap the events of Starcraft (with the exception of Brood War), as well as the backstory of the Starcraft universe (such as the Xel'Naga life cycle) and the events leading up to his arrival in Gensokyo. He explains this all to Team Nineball (and Chen), as well as Keine and Vampire Ultralisk who hear the latter end of the story.
  • Chapter 13, the third Intermission, upholds the tradition by having Abathur give Kerrigan a status report on how things in Gensokyo are going.
• Running Gag: People pointing out Abathur's strange speech, only for him to deny that he speaks any way but normally.
  • Lampshaded in chapter 12.
    Matt Horner: "He also seems to have… some sort of speech defect. He skips over a lot of words. He seemed oddly defensive when I pointed it out."
• Shout-Out: Chapter 5, the first intermission, is called, "Interview with the Evolution Master."
  • Ayumu Manson's first name is a shout out to Is This A Zombie?. Her last name is a reference to Charles Manson.
  • Ayumu also uses the spell card Romero Sign "Character Death".
  • Chapter 15 is called Protoss Up The Night.
• Slasher Smile: Rumia displays one in Chapter 9. Abathur quickly answers her question so that he doesn't keep looking at it.

• The Nicknamer: Aya calls Abathur "Abby."

  Aya: So, Abby, what exactly are you?
  Abathur: Evol- Abby?
  Aya: It’s a nickname! Get used to it! Anyways, what are you?

• The Stoic: Patchouli Knowledge, whenever she's not trolling someone or having an asthma attack.
• Third-Person Person: Kappa Leviathan.
• Took a Level in Badass: Abathur managed to make an Ultralisk even cooler by mixing in the DNA of Flandre Scarlet.
• Verbal Tic: Marisa, just like in canon, adds 'ze' to the ends of many of her sentences (and, in one case, "Da Ze").
• Villainous Friendship: Kerrigan and Stukov's relationship is a Type II.
• Zerg Rush: Being a fanfic of the Trope Namer, of course the Zerg pulled this in their attack against the Tal'Darim. When Kerrigan realized that Tal'Darim reinforcements were arriving, she took all the Zerg she had and invaded their base.

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