Fanfic / Dolphin Rider Koishi

A completed Web Serial Novel which follows alternate versions of Touhou Project characters in a Magical Girl Warrior story. Better than it sounds, with well-expressed characters and creative reinterpretations of Canon and Fanon elements. Can be read here, with a less complete version readable on FanFiction.Net. Finally completed on 24 November 2013 after three long years.

In the coastal Japanese city of Gensouto, Ordinary High-School Student Koishi Komeiji has been living alone for the last few months (apart from her pet cat and raven) since her sister Satori vanished without a trace. Bullied and lonely, when she hears a rumour about an abandoned shrine that grants wishes, she begs for someone strong and brave to look after her. Instead a strange jewel materialises out of thin air, and she's attacked by Fish People only to be saved by a talking dolphin. The dolphin tells Koishi to squeeze the jewel, and she defeats the fishmen by transforming into the "Siren" Dolphin Rider Koishi. Back at her apartment the now-human dolphin explains that she is a youkai, and a junior member of a human-protecting organisation called the Order of the White Pearl. Koishi and the dolphin (named Sango) must find the remaining six Sirens before the White Pearl's enemies, the Children of the Black Claw, can use their powers for evil.

Along the way Koishi ends up as a sort of Warrior Therapist, recruiting Sirens and curing Monsters of the Week by forcing them to confront their psychological issues.

Spoilers are partially unmarked. Readers beware.

See Touhou Project for tropes carried over from canon, and the character sheet for character-specific tropes.

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Tropes in Dolphin Rider Koishi include:

• Actually Not a Vampire: Remilia and Flandre actually suffer from Xeroderma pigmentosum, though Remilia pretends to be a vampire as a coping mechanism (Flandre does not).
• Adaptational Villainy: Rinnosuke Morichika goes from eccentric shopkeeper to ruthless mob boss. Also Jozu, who was far more timid in the (unrelated) fic she debuted in.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Being an Urban Fantasy setting, most characters have more mundane hair colours than they did in the source material, except when they're using magic. The first sign of Koishi's magical potential is that she can catch glimpses of characters' "magic hair".
• A Day in the Limelight: While most of the Windows and PC-98 cast appear to exist in some form, the protagonist is Koishi, who has never been a playable character (in the main games, at least). Reimu only appears as a minor character, and Marisa has only been mentioned in a single line of throwaway dialogue.

• Artificial Gill: The "Rings of Breath".
• Author Appeal: The writer is rather fond of the aquatic.
  • And swimsuits. Lots and lots of swimsuits.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: This is essentially Koishi's power. Ironically, she undergoes a more literal example while Brainwashed and Crazy
• Bloody Murder/Cast from Hit Points: The latent powers of the Scarlet family.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Characters affected by the Mindcoils. These included Cirno, Tewi, Eiki, Yuyuko, and Koishi herself
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Each of the Sirens must recite a unique poem to transform.

• Combo Platter Powers: The Sirens, who unlock their own latent powers in addition to gaining Magical Girl powers. In order:
  • Koishi: Invoking Battle in the Center of the Mind and subconscious manipulation, Making a Splash
  • Siren#2 Mokou: Resurrection, Playing with Fire
  • Siren#3 Sakuya: Time Stands Still, Card Sharp
  • Siren#4 Komachi: Space Master, BFG
  • Siren#5 Youmu: Doppleganger Attack, Sword Beam
  • Siren#6 Nazrin/Shou: Powers as Programs, Power Armor
  • Siren#7 Satori: Telepathy, Shock and Awe
• Distant Finale: As a result of Koishi being in a coma for two years after the final battle.
• Epiphany Therapy: Most characters have some kind of psychological issue they must overcome before they can use their powers or be cured of a Mindcoil.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics
• Everyone Is a Super: Everyone was a super. See Heroic Sacrifice.
• Fantastic Fighting Style: Flowing Tide (a soft style used by the White Pearl), and Crashing Wave (a hard style used by the Black Claw).
• Glamour Failure: Most youkai retain some traits of their animal selves in human form, such as Sango's dorsal fin, which they must hide by conventional means. Upon death, these are the first features to fade away.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Koishi gets some glasses which block her ability to see the magic world. Later she upgrades to contacts which can be turned off at will. Nazrin's Ghost Rat Protocol grants her a visor with a Heads-Up Display
• Here There Were Dragons
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the backstory, sealing The Ravager required the human race to sacrifice its knowledge of magic, and Yukari Yakumo to sacrifice her life.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Ravager was created by the Kappa to defeat the humans in the war, and succeeded with flying colors. Then it started attacking youkai, and nearly caused the extinction of life on Earth, because it just liked killing.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Sakuya and Komachi (and possibly Koishi) were initially using their powers subconsciously, unaware that they had them.
• Humans Are Average: Humans' magic powers are generally weaker than those of youkai, but far more varied.
• Humans Are Flawed, if not Bastards: The Black Claw believe firmly in the latter, and not even everyone in the Pearl is especially keen on humans. Koishi believes in the former, with the added clause that "flawed" does not mean "evil." This is also a big reason behind Satori's Face–Heel Turn.
• If Jesus, Then Aliens: After running into so many youkai, Koishi immediately believes Remilia when she claims to be a vampire. Sango has to inform her that vampires don't exist.
• In the Name of the Moon: The Sirens tend to do this involuntarily while transformed, much to their confusion.
• Invisible to Normals: Everyone has a "magical appearance" which most people can't see.
• I Reject Your Reality: Multiple characters have this issue.
• Is It Something You Eat?: "...What's a haiku? Sounds like a nice topping to me."
• Karma Houdini: Rinnosuke literally gets away with murder, by bribing or discrediting everyone connected to any charge brought against him. He's not a Villain with Good Publicity; everyone knows he's The Don, they just can't do anything about it. until he outlives his usefulness and is shot
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Curing the victim of a Mindcoil leaves them with only a general recollection of their actions, erasing any information on magic. Seeing the Sirens fight the rebellious youkai in the zoo jogs their memory, though, as we see with Cirno and Yuyuko. The White Pearl can also create this effect on purpose.
• Light-Haired Swimmer: Koishi and Sango are the characters who spend the most time in water, and both have silver hair at all times.
• Magical Girl Warrior: Every Siren.
• The Masquerade: Maintained in order to prevent humans from destroying themselves through magical warfare. Became in danger of being broken due to the zoo incident, and completely destroyed in the finale.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Tidal Teardrops.
• Monster of the Week: Humans who have been brainwashed by the Black Claw, and given "Black Keys" (not that kind) which let them transform into a One-Winged Angel.
• Mooks: The fishmen who explode into fish when killed.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Stopping time is quite useful when gambling.
  • Sakuya's also apparently been using to Jump Scare Youmu at her dojo. It eventually lost its effect.
• Near-Death Experience: Can partially awaken a person's latent magic powers. Koishi had one of these in her backstory, with the side effects of closing her third eye (causing her powers to mutate) and turning her hair silver. Apparently, this is how she and Yukari were able to meet in the Boundary.
  • She has another one when she shields Satori from Leviathan's attack after their fight. And just like last time, she meets Yukari again, although she has since forgotten their first encounter.
• Next Episode Preview/Omake: Faithfully recreated from its Magical Girl anime inspirations.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Several of the cast.
• Original Character: Sango Tororetsu and Jozu Manou, dolphin and shark youkai respectively, both of whom debuted in non-AU fic by the same author (though Jozu's personality is quite different).
• Phantom Zone: Watery ones are used by magic-users for duels.
• Playboy Bunny: Koishi and her allies are forced to dress up like this to infiltrate a casino.
• Pot Hole: Freqently used to link to pictures, background music or trope pages.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: To the color it had in canon; and even if this trope isn't currently in effect, odds are the girl(s) in question will still have artificial highlights.
• Precision F-Strike: When Komachi frees Ran from Mamizou's seal
• Rank Inflation: Nitori has a confusing set of power ranks for magic-users which includes "B", "S+" and "XS+++".
• The Reveal: A few pretty big ones: The Masked Woman being Satori, Iku being Leviathan, Aptera needing magical power from either humans or youkai...
• Rousseau Was Right: Koishi believes that humans aren't monsters, but rather that circumstances beyond their control sometimes drive them to do terrible things. The story goes to great lengths to illustrate that idea, and the finale, which has humans and youkai living peacefully again, further drives her point home.
• Sadistic Choice: The blade Aptera was created by Yukari to destroy the Ravager, but requires an entire race's worth of magic to use. Draining either the magic of all humans or all youkai would seemingly lead to disaster in either case. Koishi works out how to Take a Third Option.
• Single-Issue Psychology: Played straight by most characters, though Sakuya has at least two unrelated issues.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Ultimately leans towards idealistic. See Rousseau Was Right above.
• Soul Jar: Teardrops can act like them, as in the case of Shou.
• Superpowerful Genetics: All humans have latent magic powers which can be guessed from their heritage.
• Take a Third Option: When someone is Mindcoiled, normally the choice is to leave them Brainwashed and Crazy or kill them. Koishi instead chooses to engage in a Battle in the Center of the Mind to destroy the Mindcoil. Though Nitori believes that attempting this on the wrong person could get Koishi killed.
  • Powering Aptera without draining an entire race of magic... by using the Masquerade instead.
• There Are No Therapists: Iku, the school nurse, sort of acts as one, but there are no actual therapists in story. All things considered, you probably wouldn't want her as a therapist, anyway.
• The Unmasqued World: The result of using the masquerade to power Aptera.
• Un-Paused: When Ran visits the Komeiji house to warn of Mamizou's attack on the zoo, Sango, thinking her to be malicious, runs up to attack her, leading Ran to put a stasis field around her so she can talk to Koishi peacefully. Once she leaves, she gets rid of the field, causing Sango to hit nothing and run face-first into a wall.
• Utility Magic: Exists, but isn't used much.
  "Koishi-san, let me get this straight. You humans have invented a system that lets you cut spare keys to any door. No fuss, no pizazz, no evidence. You’re telling me that you’d rather I had to go through a lockpicking charm every time I wanted to get in here after hours? Jeez, and you say that I’m crazy."
• Villainous Breakdown: Pretty much all of the Mindcoil victims when they're about to be defeated. The Ravager as well, once the Sirens start doing to real damage to it.
• Virtual Soundtrack: Used for Transformation Sequences or battles, and Rinnosuke's trial.
• Walking the Earth/And the Adventure Continues: During the finale, Koishi and Sango decide to travel the world and do good while their friends take care of things in Gensokyo.
• Water Is Air: "And of course, all of this fire was being lit underwater. Sometimes Koishi wished magic could at least make the tiniest bit of sense."

• We Need a Distraction: During the fight between Nazrin, Mamizou, and Komachi, Nazrin was the distraction
• Weirdness Censor: See Heroic Sacrifice.
  "And what's life like in the real world? Well, imagine everyone you ever knew had some sort of superpower or magical ability. Everyone in your class is some sort of magical girl, and they all look like it as well - crazy hair, weird eye colours, and in your case an extra eye on top of the two you've already got. But again, no-one realises it, so all of that magic just goes to waste."
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Rinnosuke

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